… I was in Madagascar and snapped this shot of my host brother Masoandro (“Sun”) and host sister Diamondra (“Diamond”) on the balcony of our house.

It’s wild how time passes and the spaces you inhabit change.

We spent so much time on that little balcony overlooking Manjakandriana, the town where I did my initial Peace Corps training.

We prepared food. We talked. We looked out on the town. We kept each other company. We chitchatted with passing neighbors. We smoked cigarettes.

We looked at the stars. We checked to see if the little corner store was still open for a last-minute ingredient. We washed dishes. We greeted each other as we returned up the path to the house.

We listened to music. We watched a little tabby cat warm itself near the stove, a cat that looked like my own at home and always made me feel a little less far away.

Time can feel so long and so short, even at the same time.

That’s how I feel about this memory.

I can close my eyes and be in the cold morning air of Manjakandriana. And at the same time there have been 17 summers, 17 Christmases, and 17 birthdays separating my current life from the life I lived in Madagascar.

A few weeks ago, Max, Macy and I were on a walk around the condo when Max got startled by something in the grass. It looked like a chipmunk and not the living kind because it wasn’t moving.

I went a little closer and it blinked and moved a bit. It was a little baby bunny, stranded in the grass under the hot and humid sun. She was barely responsive.

I rushed the dogs home, turned a Chewy box into a carrier, and dashed back to scoop up the baby bunny.

She was in bad shape. Her head was tilted and she had trouble moving. Probably heat stroke. I gave her some water and went to sleep.

The next morning she was moving around a bit, but really uncoordinated and lob-sided.

She was basically unable to use one side of her body. But that didn’t stop her from trying to move around and peer out of the box.

Most of the day though, she just barrel rolled. I mixed some kitten formula and heavy cream and got her to take some.

At night however, I started to think we had to find a way to humanely let her go. I couldn’t find mom’s nest and even then the bunny wouldn’t survive out there wobbling on her own.

The third day though I woke to scratching sounds and her moving around on all fours! Her head was still tilted but she seemed more alert.

I got some alfalfa from the shelter and she ate it up.

She even seemed to push me off as I tried to feed her. “Dude, I know how to eat alfalfa!”

The wife of a volunteer friend at the shelter volunteers (herself) at a wildlife rehabilitator that takes in bunnies (a rare thing it seems).

So I connected with them while I was at the shelter and after talking for a bit and finding out they would be open late, I left the shelter and rushed her up to them. They have meds that can help with neurological damage if given early so hopefully I got her there in time.

I named her Sol ☀️ 🙂

I wonder how they know if they got it clean? 🤔

You may have noticed, you’ve arrived at DogsandSnow.com instead of MGrabowski.com. After years of blogging on MGrabowski.com, I realized nearly all my posts fit into two categories: dogs or snow.

Turns out, I’m the only person with enough interest in those two topics to reserve the domain name DogsandSnow.com 🙂 Sweet!

You can still visit MGrabowski.com, but it will forward you to DogsandSnow.com automatically.

Feel to come directly to DogsandSnow.com in the future!

Have a good one!

 

I know I’m biased but the more I think about it, the more I think people don’t realize how much they dislike the summer.

Here’s some reasons we all probably don’t like the summer as much as we think:

• Sweating
• Mosquitoes
• Other bugs
• Sun block
• Sunburns
• Beach sand (gets everywhere, burns your feet)
• Hot cars
• Crowded places
• Sitting on hot objects
• Air conditioning that’s too cold, outsides that are too hot

I feel like the planet is saying, “Hey, you stupid humans! Go indoors or die!” Yet, still, we go nuts for it every year.

T-7 months. 🙂

🙂

Couple watching sunset behind my home. Doing it right.

I survived.

Stubborn tree. Won’t drop its leaves.

Log with its winter coat on.

Yesterday, a cashier at my grocery store wasn’t aware of how to apply a pretty substantial seasonal coupon. At first, it was easy to see that the customer was a little surprised and upset since the cashier had missed applying the coupon on her daughter’s order just ahead of hers.

She could have gotten frustrated and unloaded on the cashier. Instead, she said they would go to the service desk and figure out the daughter’s order. Then, politely, she helped the cashier apply it to her order.

As she did this, she engaged the cashier in conversation and asked her how long she had worked there: 30 days. The customer didn’t ask this as a way of insulting her, but instead, as a way of understanding and emphasizing with her.

By the end of the transaction, both the cashier and the customer were clearly relaxed and in a good mood.

It was nice to be a bystander, watching this example of grace and understanding.

“First, seek to understand.” I think Covey wrote that.

Today, as a father walked out of my coffee shop with his son, the father told the son to return a goodbye to a family friend who had just seen them leave. The boy muttered goodbye while walking out.

“That’s not how you do that,” the father said. “You say it to their face.”

He then marched his son across the cafe to the woman who had already turned her back at the counter. Shyly, the boy had to get her attention and say goodbye.

“Can you believe he said goodbye and didn’t look you in the eye?” the dad asked.

I love when people pass on good habits.