Freedom

It’s official. Winter has now officially last too long. The zippers my coats have all failed at once. I have several winter coats; one for really, really cold, one older coat for cold but not that cold, a newer that does approximate the same job as the older jacket only in slightly nicer way, a heavy windbreaker and a fifty year old red wool coat. This is not counting two rain coats, one old, one new and a dress coat. I miss living in a warm climate.

Of the coats I wear, ask how many have functioning zippers? Of the coats I wear on a daily bases? The windbreaker will still zip. It’s February, it’s not really wind breaker season. The nice, heavy coats that actually provided protection from the cold? 2 for 2. The zipper on the new coat barely made it through the fall and now the zipper on the older version of it decided to break. I really like the fifty year old wool, but it’s fifty years old, it’s zipper, I should add, still works.

I was getting ready to leave work Tuesday and I was just about to leave my office and head outside when my coat wouldn’t zip and I was like Look, I am out the door. I do not want to stand around and play with this. Zip or else. And then it did zip and then unzipped, backwards.

This was not working for me. I needed to hurry so I could get to the park before Drama showed up. Drama is either there or she isn’t but if she is there, she never leaves. I’ve learned to leave when they arrive. The last time we were there at the same time, Drama did a drive by snarl at Dogger – who was on a leash at the time. It sucks being at the park with a leashed dog. I think it kind of defeats the whole “Off Leash Dog Park” idea, the good thing is that if there aren’t any small dogs in the small dog park, Dogger can go there and do her thing. By herself. Which is not fun.

When we started to go there it was only maybe, seven dogs total and I knew everyone and Dogger got along with everyone and it was really nice. Now? There are too many dogs, Dogger gets along with dogs who want to get along, I don’t know anyone anymore and it just isn’t like it was, a nice place with a handful of dogs. The park is a victim of its own success. Also, Dogger has gotten cranky over the years and she’s not as laid back as she used to be. Back when we started going, a dog could hump her over and over and she would be cool with it, now? A dog humps her one time and she throws down with it on the first go-round. She has really become a lot less submissive over time. I practically don’t even trust her around other dogs! We were at the park the other night and a dog wondered up to Dogger and everything was cool, but I still grabbed her none-the-less because I didn’t know the other dog.

Doggers temper started to get worse over the last year or so and I think it may have been a symptom of the Addison’s. I would think that too much adrenalin would make you testy, but apparently too little also gives you a short fuse – she does all fight no flight. I’m hoping that once she gets stabilized that she will be less aggressive and will go back to how she was, the park princess.

I want Dogger and I both enjoy the park. Dogger really likes being off leash and being free to do her thing but when she is, I’m not.