Misty on Nostr: Maverick's been with me for a year now. https://m.primal.net/LUmX.png (Before and ...
Maverick's been with me for a year now.
(Before and after homeless photos.)
His stomach gets out of whack within 12 hours of situations where he feels full-defense mode is necessary. After that recovers, he's very sleepy and/or clingy for about 36 hours until he "snaps out" of it and feels better.
It's taken me a good long while to catch on to some of these patterns.
He eats food from his dish almost every time, quickly, before we go for walks. Only recently did I realize why.
In the past, he would get booted out of someone's home, and there would be no guarantee of being let back in (and therefore no guarantee of food), so he eats quickly just in case it will be a long while before he gets to eat again.
Like me, he over-prepares, overthinks, and experiences physiological reactions when he believes either ourselves or our sleeping space is genuinely and imminently under threat.
This morning, I had to calm his stomach with medication, special "tummy trouble" food, and a timeout blanket.
Had I not intervened last year, he would have starved or frozen. At that time, he had already had several near misses with the cars on our road. He's one of the smartest dogs I've had in my lifetime, but he's also had some of the most medical issues.
Like me, he loves to wander/travel, but was more tired than he realized. I, too, was more tired of being on the road than I realized when I first moved in. Living inside this last year has been an adjustment for both of us.
Last night, I realized there were several times during the previous 12 months when I could have gotten too far into my own thinking, given the circumstances, if I didn't feel responsible for caring for him.
Caring for him has caused me to feel less lonely, safer, and annoyed, just enough to stay focused on my work before I'm interrupted again.
Naps, cuddles, and resting with him more than make up for any annoyance or trouble he's previously caused.
Having him has prevented me from ending my lease (more than once) and immediately going back to van living full-time.
His medical issues require payment.
That requires me to have an income large enough to cover those expenses, which requires me to work/build a business almost full-time, most of the time.
Doing that is easiest if I live in the apartment and not on the road again, at least for now.
I've never been sure what the complete plan with him is, but we're a "bonded pair," so to speak.
I still don't know if I'm just meant to have him for a time until he's meant to go to his "real family" or if he's meant to be here for the long haul. I go back and forth with this.
He wouldn't do well in the non-kill shelter (and they're still full), I don't think. He has too many medical issues. He'd have fun for a short time but then fall into depression and die of heartbreak. At the other shelters, they just put the #dogs down now if you surrender them. There's no space, and the stray dog crisis is, for the most part, out of control here.
He's stuck with me unless Allah "takes" him from me in some manner. And I love him.
A husband is going to have to understand this.
Or maybe Maverick is in my life because I won't get to have a husband between now and the time Maverick passes away, and Maverick is, in some way, a companion for me to keep steadily moving in the right direction with living arrangements and meeting the income requirements until I'm not required to work any longer.
Only Allah knows.
What I do know is that is enough deep thinking for me today.
We're off for a walk, then back to #proofreading and #Zettlekasten notes.
(Before and after homeless photos.)
His stomach gets out of whack within 12 hours of situations where he feels full-defense mode is necessary. After that recovers, he's very sleepy and/or clingy for about 36 hours until he "snaps out" of it and feels better.
It's taken me a good long while to catch on to some of these patterns.
He eats food from his dish almost every time, quickly, before we go for walks. Only recently did I realize why.
In the past, he would get booted out of someone's home, and there would be no guarantee of being let back in (and therefore no guarantee of food), so he eats quickly just in case it will be a long while before he gets to eat again.
Like me, he over-prepares, overthinks, and experiences physiological reactions when he believes either ourselves or our sleeping space is genuinely and imminently under threat.
This morning, I had to calm his stomach with medication, special "tummy trouble" food, and a timeout blanket.
Had I not intervened last year, he would have starved or frozen. At that time, he had already had several near misses with the cars on our road. He's one of the smartest dogs I've had in my lifetime, but he's also had some of the most medical issues.
Like me, he loves to wander/travel, but was more tired than he realized. I, too, was more tired of being on the road than I realized when I first moved in. Living inside this last year has been an adjustment for both of us.
Last night, I realized there were several times during the previous 12 months when I could have gotten too far into my own thinking, given the circumstances, if I didn't feel responsible for caring for him.
Caring for him has caused me to feel less lonely, safer, and annoyed, just enough to stay focused on my work before I'm interrupted again.
Naps, cuddles, and resting with him more than make up for any annoyance or trouble he's previously caused.
Having him has prevented me from ending my lease (more than once) and immediately going back to van living full-time.
His medical issues require payment.
That requires me to have an income large enough to cover those expenses, which requires me to work/build a business almost full-time, most of the time.
Doing that is easiest if I live in the apartment and not on the road again, at least for now.
I've never been sure what the complete plan with him is, but we're a "bonded pair," so to speak.
I still don't know if I'm just meant to have him for a time until he's meant to go to his "real family" or if he's meant to be here for the long haul. I go back and forth with this.
He wouldn't do well in the non-kill shelter (and they're still full), I don't think. He has too many medical issues. He'd have fun for a short time but then fall into depression and die of heartbreak. At the other shelters, they just put the #dogs down now if you surrender them. There's no space, and the stray dog crisis is, for the most part, out of control here.
He's stuck with me unless Allah "takes" him from me in some manner. And I love him.
A husband is going to have to understand this.
Or maybe Maverick is in my life because I won't get to have a husband between now and the time Maverick passes away, and Maverick is, in some way, a companion for me to keep steadily moving in the right direction with living arrangements and meeting the income requirements until I'm not required to work any longer.
Only Allah knows.
What I do know is that is enough deep thinking for me today.
We're off for a walk, then back to #proofreading and #Zettlekasten notes.