Dogs and Daffodils | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: Please join me in welcoming Author Michele Rhem, who presents us with her poignant memoirs of the Rabbit Patch, where her diaries weave tales of a simpler, expressive life lost to many, but gathered together in her most familiar environs - the Rabbit Patch.

    I saw when the light came to the world this morning. Just now, the sun is rising behind the woods . For a few brief moments, the winter trees, make the light look like stained glass. A cardinal cried out in a morning song like a joyful proclamation, just as the shine broke through. I love morning.

    I am at the rabbit patch, this week-end. Cash, Christopher Robin and Moon Shine are still sleeping, while I sit at the "morning table" and plot my day. It is a good thing that I enjoy housekeeping, as the old house is full of it. I like to take my time going about chores or else they become "work". Cash starts barking if he sees me dashing about in a hurry, because he knows that company is coming! He is always right about that and I find it so funny. The cats run for cover, at the prospect of strangers. They know that Cash is never wrong, about that order of events. Cash does not bark, when I am cooking, nor rushing to get ready for my job-only when I am hurriedly, putting things in order, does he carry on, so. It really tickles me that he quickly put it all together.

    I love animals-the whole lot of them, but I especially love dogs, and especially boxers. Ironically, the first dog that ever nipped me was a boxer. The next was a chihuahua. Jo Dee has a chihuahua, named "Georgia". Jo Dee says every one has a chihuahua story-and she may be right.

    My children bought Cash for me, almost three years ago. My boxer, Gage, of fourteen years passed in June, of that year. Gage, was my friend and guardian. He served me well. He layed in the yard, while I mowed the sprawling rabbit patch, in terrible heat. He would move from one area to another, keeping his eye on me. Gage was a loyal dog. He was also well mannered and I use to brag that he could accompany me anywhere. He really could have gone to church, or the dentist or to get my taxes done. When Gage died, I missed him with my whole heart. He was my friend, after all. I knew I wanted another dog, at some point, but I wanted a boxer-and they are pricey dogs. My friends consider me extremely practical, and I am by nature, so they were amused that I had to have a boxer and only that breed would do.

    My children bought Cash for me in July. I have never seen a cuter puppy. We decided on the name "Cash" as Johnny Cash had just passed. I was mourning Gage and felt ashamed that maybe I would never love this puppy as deeply as he deserved. One day I realised that a fourteen year affair, took fourteen years. My bond with Gage started with days, that turned in to what it was, because of time. Some how, this freed me to love again.

    Today, as I move from room to room cleaning, Cash, Christopher Robin and Moon Shine will move along with me. As long as I behave calmly, all will go well-otherwise, Cash will spread false rumors. I am not expecting guests today.

    The light has brightened as I wrote this. I have "charted my course" of duties and planned Sunday Dinner. The day seems mild enough to put the windows up-and I might dry the sheets on the line -to catch the scent of the daffodils, that bloomed in February.

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