Wine-n-Chat: Magic, Marathons, & Merlot

Wine-n-Chat is participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. Today is letter M.

Adopting Shadow from the shelter has been a wonderful experience, mostly. (If you haven’t heard about our darling girl, click here to read more.) I say “mostly” because we’ve had a few incidents. The first one happened on Easter Sunday. My oldest son was walking our old dog Sammy out front (he’s really old and barely moves). He wasn’t paying attention when he opened the door to bring Sammy in, and Shadow was on the loose. We were all here—and all five kids chased her til they caught her. We learned right away that she will bolt or flee if given the chance and we aren’t taking any chances.

Lucky for us, our back yard is fenced. Shadow LOVES it out back—especially when the kids are there to play with her. While I’m getting the kids ready for school, I let her outback to stretch, do her business and such, and my husband feeds our older dog a special wet food to administer his medicine. This way Shadow doesn’t smell that food and want some of it too—which wouldn’t be good as she doesn’t need to trip out on medicine she doesn’t need. We have done this everyday this week without issues. Until Thursday morning, like magic, Shadow pulled a Houdini.

We have a gate that latches…it is part of our chain link fence—and we also took an extra precaution to lock it with a bike lock so that the younger kids or even the neighborhood kids wouldn’t forget and leave it open. So like every other morning this week, I let her outback Thursday morning, with no conceivable idea that she would find a way out. I was in the middle of helping my youngest child when my younger daughter says, “MOM!! Shadow got through the gate!!”

CRAP!!! Dressed in a t-shirt, sweats, hair all awry, I grabbed her lead and flew through the front door faster than lightning. No slippers, socks or shoes on my feet—in 30 degree weather, without a jacket. I paid no attention to what I was stepping on—frost covered grass, pee, doo-doo, worms, rocks, glass in the street, you get the idea. Nope I had one mission: Get my dog back!!!

Shadow seen the little Pekinese dog across the street and she wanted to play. That is dangerous I tell you, our street is not one to cross without a good measure of caution. As soon as Shadow seen me coming, she bolted again. She knew I was coming to put her back on her lead, and she would have none of it. She started running. Now I didn’t want to “chase” her because that will only make her run more, but she runs so fast she gets out of eye sight quick! So I thundered down the sidewalk trying to call her back, waking every neighbor within a 5 block radius. My oldest son and husband soon join me in my efforts, and it seems we may have stirred the neighborhood—just a little bit—as my Marathon run got underway.

Thankfully, a friendly neighbor came to our rescue, although I would have loved it even more if he had shown up 2 miles sooner. I was still in hot pursuit trying to catch up with Shadow—huffing and puffing and wondering which gold medal awaited me, when I noticed this neighbor doing the drill sergeant stance. You know the one…with his legs should width apart, hand on his hips and he didn’t move. Shadow, heading his direction, slowed down on approaching him…started walking and then SAT at his feet!! WTF??????? He leaned over, and calmly grabbed her by the collar. I was still running toward them, as I witnessed this man’s super powers. I drew in a few lungfuls of air, well aware of the fact my toes were very dirty and solidly frozen, I looked a mess and was probably a sight he’ll want to burn from his memory soon and managed to squeeze out a “Thank you so much”.

I took Shadow home and she was well aware, I was not amused with her behavior. No hugs and kisses after that freaking trick. No treats either. She got a time out in her spot and I went to go try to work on the fence. (The amazing thing is she obeys when I say “stay” inside the house).

I learned something valuable, which is walk don’t run. Calmness gets her out of that playful, “I’m going to bolt” mood. She ended up getting out again before I could get to Lowes to buy the brackets I needed for the gate. The second time I calmly walked over to where she was and she sat and let me connect her lead. Lesson learned and the gate is now fixed. Hallelujah!! Although no one has brought me a gold medal yet. Damn. Oh well, at least Shadow will have to take up acrobatics if she wants out of that fence again!!

After the Houdini Act and the Marathon across our neighborhood, I decided I would break open a bottle of Merlot later that afternoon—you know—to sort of take the edge off!! I had a bottle of Burlwood Cellars Merlot, 2010 and savored several glasses before serving it with our pot roast, potatoes, and corn. The label mentions that this Merlot has flavors of blueberry and black cherry and subtle notes of vanilla and toasted oak. I definitely picked up on the blueberry and black cherry. It complemented my dinner well! As always, there is no such thing as a half empty bottle around here and I am happy to report it was very good to the very last drop!!

Have you had any good wines lately?