Blowing Her Coat

by | Mar 17, 2024

Roxie is ‘blowing her coat,’ a term I was unfamiliar with during my tenure with Charlie, Nemo, and Leda.

Thanks to Google and experience, I’ve learned it’s a seasonal shedding process some dog breeds undertake in the spring and fall. ‘Oodles and Greyhounds don’t do it. Chows and Pugs do.

Roxie, the Chug, is blowing her coat. Not merely hairs. It’s coming out in tufts.

What my mother would find fascinating is that her daughter now vacuums daily.

What I find fascinating is that it’s not Roxie’s top coat she’s shedding, but her undercoat.

Roxie is mostly caramel colored, with white fur on her chest, belly, and the underside of her curled tail. But the fur I see sticking up in white tufts above the caramel is her undercoat.

It makes me wonder what of my undercoat needs to be shed. What about me that is unseen to others needs to go?

In the physical realm, there is what I heard described on a podcast as my ‘broke-ass panties.’ This was from a style consultant. When a client countered that no one ever saw them, she parried, “You see you! …Where did you suddenly decide that your opinion wasn’t enough, that your own regard wasn’t sufficient?”

So there’s that.

I’ve already ditched five pairs and have told my frugal self (the one that speaks in my mother’s voice, “those are still perfectly usable”) that another five or seven need to go.

But what about the metaphysical world? What broke-ass beliefs need to go?

For Noteworthy, my friend Katie sent me a card. She knew about the holiday before I had drawn up some guidelines (which I’ll modify next year, so you can include someone who already knows you appreciate them).

Katie’s card proclaimed in shiny gold bold script, “You are totally badass.”

‘Badass’ is not a term I’ve ever used to describe myself.

When I emailed Katie about it, she replied, “…when I was scanning all the greeting cards, they were nice but just kinda basic… until that one SCREAMED at me to send you!! Because you are BRAVE and therefore totally badass!!”

‘Not a badass’ is an undercoat I’m shedding.

“I’m totally badass.”

Say that ten times to the mirror!

.

PS: I just did. Ten times, ten different ways. It felt so goooood!


Chewing the Cud of Good

abstract closeup of little flowers in a vacant field

Thankful for walks in the yellow morning sun with Roxie.

little flowers in a vacant field

 

 

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