Didn’t I just say, “Luke’s driven off….”? Imagine my surprise when I woke up last Saturday to find him back.  He was sleeping in his truck as the house was locked.  Nicky’s deigned to go to Vancouver the last week of each month for his job, so I had the place locked up.

I said, “What’re you doing here?” and he explained with all the rain and flooding the oil rigs weren’t running and so he wasn’t working.  I just pray to God the rain stops and the oil rigs start working as you have no idea the kind of filth that kid makes in this house.

First of all, he decided to do a mechanical project on Nicky’s dreck 1992 Honda Civic.  However he didn’t use the empty garage, which has a cement floor and all.  No, far better to take my car out of the carport and use it.

Yesterday morning I was out there with a product called Duke that busts grease off concrete.  It took a while but the carport’s back to normal.  I can’t say the same for the rest of the house which is a wreck.

And can you see the irony in it all?  This was the week I was to be mercifully alone, as Nicky was gone for his job.  But no, I have to be chaperoned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

So my days are ruined by dirt and the nights are ruined by relentless cat fights outside my bedroom window.  Why they fight there is a mystery.  But there’s an orange tabby that looks a lot like Mango hanging around, and my cats hate him.

This morning at 4:00 AM I was in a beautiful, deep sleep, enjoying a lovely dream.  Suddenly there was a baby crying in the dream, which made no sense whatsoever, and soon enough I was awake, realizing I was listening to another cat fight.

Then I had to lay there pretending to be asleep, as of course Louie jumps on my head if he thinks it’s time to get up.  I can’t count the number of days I’ve gotten up at 4:00 or 4:30 for the day with this damned dog.  Of course most people wouldn’t be sleeping with him in the first place, but that’s another story entirely.

The only saving grace in having either kid in the house is that I make them dogsit so I can get to the gym.  I hate leaving the puppy alone, so if one or the other will hang out with Louie I like it.

However imagine my shock last Friday when I got home and the dog was like a dishrag.  Nicky said he’d been in the garage with him for a while, so I wondered if he’d been poisoned.  I knew something was wrong with Louie when I held him to my nose and he didn’t bite it.

When I set him down he didn’t move, and just swayed from side to side.  I said to Nicky I’d better get him to the vet.  The vet said the dog likely had a tummy ache, and that’s all.  He said puppies act like they’re dying when they have a stomach ache.  Thank God that’s all it was.  Because as we all know, Louie’s currently #1 in this old woman’s heart.