The Ruby Rose Report: Taking Care of the Humans

 

When humans gather without pets, something we, the wiser of the species, know should be kept to a minimum, because very little good comes of it, they discuss how hard it is to watch over us and keep us from doing something foolish to hurt ourselves.

I have news for them, we pets, who must care for our humans, are much harder. 

We both suffer the same hubris: We think we can do anything. For dogs it is running loose thinking we will find our way home, challenging a much larger dog, usually named Tyson, or thinking we can eat anything we want, from grass to rocks.

Men usually need watching when they think they can do something themselves instead of hiring a professional. There is a lot we have to do in these instances. We have to keep them from getting so frustrated they have a stroke, that they don’t use words not fit for HBO or burn down the house. When they get into the danger zone we have to nose our way into their work to make them stop. They are usually too oblivious to realize we are doing it for their benefit. Sometimes being a caretaker for a human is exhausting 

Surprisingly, lately, my mom is the one I have to watch. Spring has finally arrived and Mommy is ready to work in her gardens.

She waits through the long, cold lonely winter for the chance to help the flowers shake off the cold and ice. But last year the arthritis in her knees and back stopped her from working. Despite this, she was determined to work in the gardens this week.

“It will just be a little weeding and spreading mulch,” she promised.#

I barked at her to stop as she began to bend over and pull up weeds. She seemed to be doing great.

And then came a thing called rigor mortis.

Her body had enough.

She made it to a chair, and brought me, in my stroller nearby so I could watch my dad put down long swarths of weed block and cover it with mulch. It was tiring watching him. 

When he was done, and it was  time to mow, he told us to go inside, which I was happy to do, and Mommy was reluctant, upset she could not do more

I am trying to get her to recognize it is time for her to take a supervisory position and let our daddy landscaper do everything but she is determined to try again, like a dog who eats grass, throws up on the comforter, and then eats grass again.

It is going to be a long summer trying to keep someone who uses a walker from doing the gardening she loves.

But if anyone can make her want to stay in a chair and snuggle with a dog it is me,