Yesterday was pretty good, except for a couple of things late in the day.

Yesterday was pretty good, except for a couple of things late in the day. One of which was going to visit a family friend whose husband just died from cancer. My mom went to the funeral yesterday. Because of all the ice, and his difficulty walking, my dad couldn't go to either, so I went with my mom last night.

Aside from the general not happy nature of these sorts of things, there were a couple of specific things that impacted my awareness. One was that there was someone there who had known both my mom and my uncle (yes, that uncle) and asked about him. Even though I mostly walked away, there were parts that I heard and it did nothing to lessen my displeasure at my mother's involvement. Nor did it reassure me about her insight into herself. I really, really hope this doesn't come back to bite us on the butt.

The other thing was the pets. They have a cat and a dog. The cat tends to hide, then appear, rub up against people briefly, and walk away. However, he/she deposited their self in one of the chairs meant for guests, right by the table full of pictures, and just curled up and watched.

The dog, whose name is Strudel, looks like a charcoal colored mop ate a larger relative of a lhasa apso. He was walking around looking completely dejected. He only perked up when the daughter gave him a treat (he likes baby carrots - go figure). Eventually, he sat down by the family and just occasionally barked or growled to guard them whenever people came in and out. The daughter said the dog knew before anyone else did that his person had died, and had been sad ever since, with his little tail down.

I think the cat was not happy, too, but this is one of those cats that would never give you the satisfaction, etc. I felt super badly for the dog, though. I feel badly for the people, but I expected that. The dog just made me really sad.