Scenes in the life of Riley

riley has not been feeling very well lately. i'm wondering if he picked up a bug up north--certainly he rolled in all kinds of things, drank muddy creek water, and ate god knows what. this lethargy isn't like him.

monday morning was dark and rainy. never a fan of rain, especially when there's thunder, he didn't want his breakfast. he just hid under the dining room table and wouldn't even look at me when i called him. i should have known better--should have taken his food away again--but after a while he came out and ate, though he kept stopping to look around and seemed quite unlike his normal enthusiastic self. i thought it was just nervousness from the weather, but i was wrong.

a half-hour or so later, he puked all over the hallway floor. when he's sick, there's nobody more pathetic, nobody who wants to cuddle up more than he does. he loves pillows and blankets anyway, but when he's sick he's a lot like me--he just wants to huddle under the eiderdown and not be disturbed. (he arranged the pillows and blankets himself in this picture.)

i came home at noon to check on him, and he seemed better, so i let them out of the kitchen. i left the door to the front porch open, because boscoe likes to sleep on the couches out there. and when i came home after work, riley was downright perky. zoomed out the back door, raced around. or maybe he was just fleeing the mess he had left behind... i went in the house to find that he had crapped all over the front porch.

no dinner for either one of them, just in case it was actually boscoe. i had to wash the floor twice.


still, despite his occasional illnesses and his usual standoffish ways, every now and then he'll sneak over and let us know that he really likes us after all. doug took this picture up north, while we were driving up the gunflint. riley likes to look out the front window when he's in the car, and since it was a long drive, i guess he got tired and needed somewhere to rest his little chin.

i guess i'll keep him.