I read there were rats in downtown Kelowna and gave it no further thought.  Then the other day I was looking out the kitchen window and I saw a really ugly-looking squirrel.  As I peered more closely I could see it wasn’t a squirrel but a rat the same size as an adult squirrel, but with a skinny, long tail.

All summer Louie kept going into one corner of the gardening shed, and we kept telling him to stop it because “there’s nothing there.”  And as usual with a dachshund, they don’t waste their time or energy on something that’s not real.   That must be where the rat’s nest is.

I remember all the hours Mojo spent staring at the Impala, and so we knew for sure the car was redolent with mice as she certainly never wasted her time.  I wonder what happened when that nice man who bought it arrived in Bellingham with a car full of Canadian mice?

Just now I saw bird feathers scattered about the living room, so I assumed the cats had brought in and killed a bird.  I was merrily wrapping Christmas gifts when suddenly Louie went after a fast-moving object which I assumed must be a mouse.

However I soon saw it was the bird, so I guess it was 9/10ths dead, lying somewhere unseen by me or the dog, and had a brief moment of consciousness which was immediately dashed by the dog.

Needless to say it’s not a home that “neat freaks” would enjoy.  As I type Wrecks is sprawled on the dining room table beside me, purring away.

Here’s something I find fascinating, but I don’t miss the fruitcake business at all.  In fact, I have a lot of gifts already bought and wrapped, and feel completely calm about Christmas.  Remember this time in past years?  I’d be weeping as I packaged fruitcakes well into the night.

And I must say, I’m very excited about Christmas this year because both couples will be here!  Haruka arrives any minute to start her life in Canada, so now both daughters-in-law are here.  One in the basement, and one a five-minute drive away.  I feel pretty lucky about all of that.

Mom’s still very incapacitated with low back pain so I go to Osoyoos every Friday and return Saturdays.  I love the South Okanagan.  I’m amazed at how beautiful the mountains are down there, and I can’t believe I grew up in such a lovely place.

And otherwise I continue to slug it out in my Write your Novel course through UBC.  I’ve learned so much, and realize most of my previous attempts at writing were very bad.  The techniques and craft of writing fiction are very straightforward once you know them, but if you don’t, you’re just writing a pile of crap that no one wants to read.

I hear Louie barking himself into a furor at the neighbour’s, so that’s always very invigorating to the neighbourhood.  People have told me they can hear him half a kilometre away.  What a dog!