(no subject)

It's a lovely damp morning. I need to pay the bills, and then I'm off to take this dog for a walk. At some point today I'll go climbing with a friend; at some point I'll spend half an hour doing the "I can walk out the door and it's not the end of the world, dog" drill; at some point I'd like to get some writing done. The usual sorts of things.

Lack of sleep has been doing terrible things to my emotional stability lately, but I'm starting to get that under control again. And it's odd, really, how much sense it makes when people say dogs are training wheels for kids. Kept up for several nights straight by wailing? Oh yeah. Needing to arrange a schedule around being able to have someone watching the nervous, helpless creature in my care? Ayup. Fretting wildly over every hiccup and cough and sneeze and fuss, and then slowly realizing that, honestly, most of it's no big deal? Mmhmm.

But the interesting part is watching how I've been going from loving this dog, and wanting to protect her, while being absolutely driven up the wall by her, to...liking the dog. Not that the love's getting less, but the protective "I must care for this defenseless sweetheart who is so confused by the world!" instinct is settling down into something a lot more like companionship. She's got a personality beyond clinginess. I enjoy being in her company.

She's still driving me mad with the neediness, but I'm starting to think I may actually be able to cope with that. I hope.

Anyway. We'll go walk to the park in a bit. It's lovely and damp and foggy outside, and if we go soon we won't get caught in the rain.