Wonky

This week was wonky on every level. Mabel felt amazing by Sunday night but needed a few more symptom-free days before safely returning to daycare. The replacement part that Cammie and Mark tried to put on Felix to repair our piston filler was wrong. The manufacturer sent us the incorrect part.

Fortunately, the amazingness that is my team happily agreed to fill pouches this week manually, something I did for years, out of icing tubes. While squeezing product repeatedly into pouches isn’t prone to machine malfunctioning drama. It’s tedious hard work, and much less productive. 

And, while Miss Mabel was on hiatus from daycare, I used the time to find a nice park to explore, work on her home alone time, and play lots of fetch/chasing water/training games. 

My sweet girl wasn’t perfect. Mabel humped Cammie all the way the down the stairs when she dog-sat. And Mabel was in non-stop play mode from the time she woke up until bedtime from Sunday night through Thursday morning (clearly, I wasn’t as productive this week as I’d liked). Still, given the massive disruption in the routine Mabel’s known for threeish months, she handled the change like a champ.

We still have a ways to go for Mabel to be settled in with me. Whenever I think we’re in a rhythm, something wonky happens and alters the plan. But I know Mabel knows she’s loved. I see so many more moments of joy and ease on her face than the occasional startle at the sight of a maintenance hole cover or paw-licking stress response to the AT&T truck beeping sounds, so I trust the bonding and building her confidence process.

Mabel returned to daycare yesterday, was elated to be there, and peacefully and deeply slept last night while I joined the fantastic Sarah Lauch on her podcast Unmuzzled  And Cammie and Mark fixed the piston filler! I’ll test it again Monday, but I hope for a smooth, productive week next week. 

I’m wishing you ease and progress as well. We all need calm and rest to be better equipped to handle a dog who stepped on a bee (thanks to baking soda and my wonderful neighbor Jen, Mabel’s fine) or significant human relationship changes (our dogs aren’t the only ones we love, are they?).

Let’s see the quiet moments for what they are, giant gifts. Let’s give ourselves at least a moment to revel in them. Let’s say thanks when life isn’t wonky, even briefly.