You may have heard of the pet food recall prompted by kidney failure in some dogs. As of this writing, the agent of the kidney failure in the food has not been identified. However, Elwood eats only dry food. It is the “wet” foods, puches and cans, that are effected.

Well we’ve had just about everything this week:warm weatherheavy rain with thunder and lightningwinter mixand a snowstormIt must be St. Patrick’s Day in western New York!

A friend dropped by. Elwood ran to the door. Oh my goodness! my friend exclaimed. Elwood must have needed to go out. The carpet is now wet all down the hall. That’s funny, I said. He didn’t pester me to go out which he normally would do. Being a good friend, she went into the kitchen to get some paper towels and discovered the trail of liquid led to the water bowl. How odd. Then she looked at Elwood, still clutching his kong in his mouth which was still dripping water onto the carpet. No accident at all. The kong is designed in graduated rings with both top and bottom open. Some people hide treats inside especially peanut butter. Who would give a dog peanut butter I don’t know. I can’t stand the stuff. So now I know … Elwood has the makings of a practical joker.

I buy breakfast sausage links. They’re precooked and frozen. When I want sausage with my soft boiled egg in the morning, I take the package out of the freezer. The links are all lined up, five to a row and two rows in a package. With a knife, I break off how many sausages I want to microwave. This time, however, when I pressed down on the knife, one frozen sausage flew off the kitchen counter and landed in Elwood’s water bowl. Now both dogs and people know the rules about food: ...

When I untied Elwood this morning in preparation for going out, he began dashing wildly about, up and down the hall. Up onto the braille printer, hitting the form feed button. Back down the hall and back, knocking over the floor lamp. Another turn and more paper spewed forth. Finally, the leash was attached and he made it out in the knick of time. Upon his return to the apartment, he continued to be excited. fortunately, none of his restlessness was destructive. He simply had trouble settling down to go to his place so I could start preparing his breakfast. Once he was fed, he was his gentle self. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t poop at dinnertime or bedtime. You’re raring to go the next morning in more ways than one.

It continues to be very cold here, single digits at best with wind chills -20. Elwood shivers a lot. I keep trying different gloves for ones that will keep my hands warm and ones that will let me buckle the harness without taking them off. These do not tend to be the same gloves. We were able to get out and go for lunch. Elwood was excited to get some work in and behaved well at the restaurant. His guide work was very good, too. After dinner–Elwood’s, that is–the power went out. I hadn’t had supper. Elwood didn’t understand why I wasn’t putting the lights back on. My apartment dropped 2 degrees in 20 minutes. The power was out for about a half an hour. The radio on the a.m. band in this area was out, too. Philadelphia was coming in loud and clear which wasn’t helpful at all. I understand the local fm station was on, but I couldn’t pick it out from the rest. Elwood is starting to get the hang of curling up under the table. The other day I called him but he didn’t come. I called several times with corrections. Still no Elwood but much noise. I went to see what he was up to. He had gotten tangled in the speaker wires and was stuck. We straightened that out and he happily came with me.

It continues to snow here and be very, very cold–single digits on the radio this morning. The lack of sidewalk shoveling also continues. In areas there is salt so there is slush. The salt really bothers Elwood, getting into his pads. Today we needed to run an errand. Elwood is getting the hang of this snow ting and walking where the snow has been trodden down, pretending that there is a sidewalk. I would think making downtown walkable in bad weather would enhance the downtown area but no one else puts this idea into action. I have also discovered a trick of Elwood’s and I am trying to put a stop to it. When I come in, I had been unharnessing him and letting him dash off while I got my coat and boots off. No longer. He is required to wait until I get undressed before his harness comes off. Then he is sent to his place because … Elwood has been dashing into the kitchen and jumping up onto the counter while I was at the door and couldn’t see him.

It’s very cold today in Jamestown and is supposed to get into the single digits tonight. As a result, the snow is still here and it keeps flurrying. Elwood was excited to go somewhere this morning. He puts it into low gear, that is, he pulls very hard but isn’t going particularly fast as if he is down shifting. He did fairly well turning at the corner of Main and 3rd though he had trouble finding the up ramp. We just went over the curb on the Main Street side. Not his fault. There’s snow covering the curb. A woman driving down Main Street stopped to tell me he was holding his left foot up. She thought it might be cold. I think it may have had some salt in between his pads. The walk around the bank and the street were very gritty. Eric was shoveling when I got to church. Their curb has been very clear. I put the gentle leader on. Elwood stayed down for most of the service, even during anointing for healing. Very impressive. He also settled down nicely for Bible study without it on. Maybe he’s getting this church thing a little. Our walk home went well. He’s starting to figure out where the curbs ought to be on the return trip at 4th and 3rd. He was still proceeding in low gear.

More snow on the way tomorrow. Today we took it easy so far as sallying forth. Yesterday I went to the mailbox. We walked past City hall. I thought that might be clear. It isn’t always. Unfortunately, USPS doesn’t think its patrons will be using the boxes on 2nd street. They were not clear of snow though you could open them. Obviously the public continues to mail letters. I’m finally getting back into netflix so I had an envelope to mail. Crossing Prendergast at 2nd is not clear so I went up to 3rd thinking that would be better. It’s another rounded curb. I thought I had it right. I thought Elwood’s hesitation was about the large puddle. Maybe it was. Labs will jump in the lake but get their feet wet in a puddle! You’ve got to be kidding. Then the traffic was all wrong. Getting onto the sidewalk was all wrong. The sidewalk wasn’t as clear but then we weren’t up against the building. The street crossing at Spring had a lot more traffic than usual, more trucks. The sidewalk wasn’t at all what is in front of our building and we didn’t get to Pine Street. Oh, we crossed 3rd instead of Prendergast. No problem. We’ll just take the long way home. It wasn’t until I was standing at Spring that I realized the traffic flow was wrong for 4th Street. They are each one way streets–in different directions. We were at 5th. Oh yeah! That street we crossed wasn’t at City Hall. It was 4th St. across from the Jackson Center. No problem. Well, I don’t know … somehow we lost the sidewalk. There was this railing. We went inland. We came back out. Elwood thought we should continue but the street felt very close. Perhaps it was the street. Anyway, traffic moves along at a good clip on 5th and there were a lot of trucks. We’ll go back to Spring. Happily Spring was fairly clear but as we approached 4th, I remembered the sidewalk there is a little goofy. It’s goofy at 3rd, too. We’ll go down to Main. We crossed Pine. I heard someone calling my name. A long lost friend came up. She had seen me on Prendergast–remember Prendergast. She didn’t think that was right so she had been driving around with all the one way streets, looking for a place to park, to check in with me. Not the first time someone has done this. We got to catch up. it was really fine and she reminded me where I was so we could go home. Elwood and she were very appropriate which made the visit even more enjoyable.

No, not that spring! It’s 20 something outside, snow-covered and probably more snow on the way. The lake isn’t frozen and has to get another 10 degrees colder in order to freeze. The spring I’m talking abut is the one that causes Elwood to jump up. He was especially springy at church on Saturday. I didn’t think about his gentle leader. This week was much springier than last so it will become pro forma to have him wear it. The gentle leaders are worn much tighter. I think it has something to do with pressure points. It’s supposed to calm the dog. Calm in church would be good. Sunday we went out. I stood at the curb. Elwood did his thing off the curb. All was going well until Elwood bounced on long leash. There was a pole and me and him and then I was down. Despite the snow, sidewalks are hard. Elwood was a bit surprised but not upset. I got up. We got ourselves back together again. So far, we haven’t had a repeat which is very good. I transferred the big bag of food into the new plastic container with locking lid. Elwood couldn’t resist an open bag of dog food so I’m pleased the new container holds it all. I can lift a full container, too, so can put it up where he can’t figure out how to open it. I don’t know if he can figure it out but I don’t want to know.