Pepper and I were puttering around the yard late one afternoon when we found the lifeless body of a juvenile red tailed hawk at the base of a pine tree. High above, in that very tree, was the nest. I was…
Pepper and Poems
One recent Saturday morning when I was out of town our lawn service came by. My husband let Pepper out while one of the men trimmed things up with a weed eater. She went berserk, my husband reported, attacking the…
It was my gift, not hers, wrapped in a pretty blue box and ribbon with lots of white tissue paper. Pepper found it on the dining room table and dismantled it while I was upstairs. I found most of the…
Pepper and I made an emergency visit to the vet the other day after she sniffed out part of a dark chocolate bar hiding in my husband’s briefcase and made short work of it. The vet initially gave her a…
It was the end of a long day. My husband and I had hosted a small function for our daughters’ school and had subsequently collapsed in front of the TV to decompress (“Men in Blazers”). I came into the kitchen…
The other day, Herb “re-screened” the wood floors in my kitchen. This involves chemicals and equipment. When he finished, Herb reminded me to stay off the floor for 5 days except in sock feet. That was a little longer than…
Pepper came home from puppy playtime the other day with a wet sticky spot on her leg and a small limp. “She’ll be fine,” said the kind and capable young woman who dropped her off. “I’m not sure what she…
At the back of our yard grows a great thorny hedge, as dense as the thicket that grew up around Sleeping Beauty’s castle those hundred years she slept. In the winter and early spring, when the branches are bare, you…
When Pepper and I stepped outside one recent morning, we were greeted by a strong, unmistakable odor. l considered a hasty retreat, but Pep likes company when she is accomplishing morning tasks. She tried to track the intriguing scent for…