A Pair of Peacocks

About once a month I hit the big Antique Mall in Round Rock at lunch and enjoy a relaxing stroll through the premises. I often leave with some small find - usually a book - and you may recall that last year I found a beautiful oak bedstead that took some finagling to get home. (It was well worth the trouble and I've never regretted adopting it.)

Today I was at loose ends, so I headed to the mall to see what was new. I mean old. For once I had walked most of the building and had not found anything to tempt me.Even the booth that has the great collection of Texas county history books did not cause me to battle with my conscience. I was feeling rather proud of myself.

And then I turned a corner and looked up. I knew I was sunk, even though I initially walked away and continued my prowl, telling myself I was absolutely not going to bring another piece of glass into my house. Lord knows I have enough old glass in the china closets.

But...I went back for a second look. The price was ridiculously low. I walked away again....but walked back and caved in.

When I was a little girl, we would go visit my great Aunt O regularly. She was my Grandmother Wilcoxen's sister and I always considered her the more glamorous of the five sisters. She had fascinating things in her house and I could entertain myself as the adults visited, wandering around the house and carefully touching the snowglobe with the American flag or watching the big ceiling fan or inspecting the items on the buffet in the dining room. Aunt O had a piano, too. And on that piano for many years sat a pair of creamy white peacocks with gold accents. This photo of my Grandpa Wilcoxen sitting on the piano bench includes a glimpse of those white peacocks. (That's Aunt O sitting on the right.)

The subject of those white peacocks came up when I was traveling to the last family reunion with Cousin Glynda. I believe she told me that when they were cleaning out Aunt O's house after her death that the peacocks were unearthed in a box of assorted knick-knacks stored in the garage, but I don't remember what they did with them. I had not thought of those peacocks in years and I had a twinge of regret that I had not been there to put in a bid for them.

Today when I looked up and saw the pair of white peacocks sitting on the top shelf at the mall, I just could not resist, even though I have no place in mind for them. (I can't put them on the piano like I would like to do. The heathen cats would reduce them to white and gold fragments in no time.)

I remarked to the lady at the checkout desk that I had no idea why I was buying these, except they reminded me of my Aunt O. She responded that a lot of what they sold were purchased for similar reasons. Good memories.

They will eventually find their place. And every time I see them, I will see them with the eyes of a little girl wandering through Aunt O's house.

LSW

Retroactive Guilt

I've had some mighty happy little dogs here lately. They really enjoyed having Mom home more or less continually last week. They enjoyed getting an early morning walk and a late evening walk every day. They enjoyed sprawling on the couch or the bed and taking an odd nap here and there. They enjoyed the fact that with a little rest, Mom was less grumpy and more tolerant of the heathen cats.

Even when I went back to work this week, their good moods continued. A night or two ago when we had settled in bed, Mojo began to dance around the bed, flirting with me and sneaking in for quick, slurpy kisses before dodging away. This evening I caught the two of them having a big play. They took up positions on either side of the wall that separates the living room from the study and ran back and forth, each of them trying to catch the other one off guard so they could sneak up on the other's rear. It was pretty funny to watch them racing up and down the wall and peeking around the corner to see if the other one was there.

It wasn't so long ago, you may recall, that Mojo had a hospital stay that I feel sure was brought on by stress. He was edgy and nervous for weeks before then and to see him happy, playful and relaxed is a great relief to me.

I was reminded of how far he has bounced back when I got an email this week from the place where they boarded twice, a week apart, back in May. The facility takes photos of their little charges during their stay. In the past these photos have shown my babies to be relatively peaceful and calmly co-existing with the other furry guests. This time, however, I could immediately see the telltale signs that said all was not well.

Classic Mojo panic. Curled tongue and wide, glassy eyes.

Again, heavy panting and bright eyes.

Coco only looks like this when she's

upset or really hot.

Coco worries about her little brother.

I haven't decided if he's wary, mad or playing here.
At least his tongue isn't hanging out, so maybe he was having fun.

Is my Mommy in there?

Bless their little hearts. They just don't like being away from their Mom and they aren't that crazy about being around other dogs after their unfortunate incident with the German Shepherd last year. Nothing like a little bit of retroactive guilt as I looked through the online photo album and saw their little unhappy faces.

But one photo made me laugh out loud.

LSW