Panda dog?

Miss Congeniality is becoming oddly mellow in her old age.  We have the computer tuned to the Atlanta Zoo pandacam and she's often to be found glued to the screen, watching Lun Lun and the twins doing exciting stuff like sleep and slooooowly turn over.  [I'm glued myself, of course].  Could Missy be wondering if those pups are going to develop a full mask and start howling? She's an open face herself but gives a great panda imitation when sleepy.  Is she sneaking bamboo in her diet, maybe?

Birds!

So here I am minding my own business eating a clandestine muffin and sending humom subliminal messages about taking me out for a walk (=drooling on her feet) when a noise like rusty hinges mating with a recently stabbed cat emanate from the yard. Humom and her sister dash to the window, to be effortlessly shouldered aside by a graceful Malamute. Outside shuffling along is a group of four ugly birds. Three are temptingly plump but otherwise quite nondescript except for the rakish feather crests on their tiny heads. Humom squeals, "peacocks!!"  Huh.  Little does she know that her delight will soon turn to projectiles lobbed at the noisemakers as they wake her up by thunking onto the roof and screeching at all hours of day and night. 

Do I make peacock tartare?  I do not.  I keep to the high road and ignore the stringy old things. If I go off the expensive kibble, how else will humom be motivated to keep the nose to the grindstone?  Let her find SOME purpose in life ... 

--- Missy out

Approaching Wailuku

miles and miles, acres and acres
of sugar cane
tossing in waves on the wind
and sailing across
the big white cruise ships
like Honolulu condos
with smokestacks
plowing through waves
of sugar cane

wonder what the kings espied
from the alanui ke alii
or Iao Valley
sailing across the taro loi
approaching Wailuku?

Attack

of the grooming scissors!

My humom has been chasing after me with a big pair of scissors, creating nasty bald spots on my britches.  What is a Mallie without her lovely fluffy britches??  It hasn't been easy, staying one paw ahead.  The race continues.

These is method to humom's madness.  She is chasing down clumps of nasty, sticky gooey gluey sap from the Norfolk pine in our yard.  How does this get all over my posterior, you ask?  Classic MRM maneuver!  We dig until roots are exposed, and continue digging until some bark is removed.  Some globs of sap unavoidably appear.  When the Mallie settles herself comfortably in the crater, sap transfer occurs.  Humom's reaction on stroking the Mallie and getting her fingers permanently stuck in a disgusting, smelly,  filthy substance is pretty priceless. 

She's tried putting up some rocks as a barrier, filling in my holes, putting down mulch and smelly stuff.  Not that I've stopped my devious ways.  We'll just have to see who's faster ...

--- Missy out

Glow Dog

So humom and I were listening to "Fresh Air" and a lady came on to talk about her book, Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts.  Humom said it sounded depressing.  Incredulous! This I must hear.  So we heard all about scattershot mutant mice and medicinal goats, and I was sadly disabused (isn't that a great word? doesn't mean what you think though) of my notion of F's cat. But wait! Science has something great for us Malamutes!

The cat lady, Emily Ants, starting talking about Glow Fish. These are not fish = food, but rather fish that hupeople keep around the house to tease cats and us dog people.  These Glow Fish are combined in some unthinkable way with other beings to glow in bright colors!

Well, finally science has come up with something the discerning Mallie and MRMer can use.  Hand over a couple of these Glowy Fish and let's see if we can gain the capacity to glow in the dark!

-- no morning or night jogger need ever worry about his/her pulse rate again
-- every school production of The Hound of the Baskervilles will have them screaming in the aisles
-- when you need to go out at night and go and breathe gently into humom or hudad's sleeping face, you're guaranteed to get RESULTS!
-- need to cross a dark road? not in a big hurry? no problemo
-- looking for that special surprise for the mailman? Just go to the window and smile
-- night mushing! arooooooooooooooo

Being of the stealth Mallie variety myself, I look forward to disappearing, as I do regularly, just to tone up humom's system, y'know, and then, when she's yelled herself hoarse, looked for me everywhere and is about to cry, appear exactly behind her, pulsing with a gentle glow, halo firmly in place.  Ah, science.  --- Missy out

Polipoli

A student told my class her mother believed dinosaurs survived in the mountains.
She must live upcountry.
Descending the coils of Polipoli
Slowly lowering like a stage dea-ex-machina
Not disembodied but out of character, enthoused
Stepping, if one can, from cloud to cloud
In the silence that has always been and always will be, oddly moist,
Constantly shifting, just out of sight
In the distance just a hint of something enormously huge, enormously dark
Perhaps spewing lava? on the horizon
Gradually appearing in the mist
Apparitions
Enormous skeletons of seamonsters
Filigree naked bird-fish, delicate but evocative of flashing muscle
Floating upright, adrift on land --
Or is it land? this fairytale place
Could be another dimension entirely
Were it not for the stones under my feet

Ugly

When I first came to Maui I thought it was ugly. I mean really. "Welcome to our beautiful island. Enjoy the view of the power plant as you enter the city. What you are choking on is burning cane... " The Barbieland perfection of Wailea, the Texas Hill Country aridity of the badlands not in cane or corn -- where was Hawaii? Then I drove upcountry. Blue-blooming trees shading tiny ponies; cattle grazing among prickly pear cacti; a lavender farm with cafe for tourists. Two oceans, islands and that floaty feeling. Everywhere lava rock. At the top of the volcano, observatories to stare at the stars.