08.31.08
The first bark and a new forum on the same weekend!
Today Chester is more comfortable in the house, but he is also more confident and he is acting very aggressive towards the cat. We have tried to introduce them safely, but he lunges at her and she hisses and runs. He instantly overcame his fear of the stairs when he followed her up to the bedroom and then into the basement. We have not allowed him off the leash in her presence since he came into the house. Jack Russells, his breed, have been known to kill cats unless they are raised with them. Daniel seems to be taking this all in stride, but I am concerned that one or both of them will end up at the Vets for suturing. We’ll see.
At noon today we took the old poetry forum offline and set up the new forum with the database from the old forum. Daniel started this while I drove to the tax office to pay the annual school tax bill. I was gone longer than I had intended because I fell into a conversation with the tax collector about dogs and koi. She also has a pond. When I returned home, I distinctly heard the muffled sound of a dog’s bark. As I walked through the back door, there was Chester, “baby” in mouth, barking. Then I understood the muffled bark. Chester dropped his baby and barked his little heart out. Daniel told me that Chester watched me drive away from the back of the sofa through the living room window and remained there until I returned. His bark is less shrill than that of my previous dog, but it is a Jack Russell just the same.
After my return, Daniel and I worked on the installation of the new forum and checked each function and option as we fine tuned the operation of the software. I had anticipated this transition would take the better part of a day, but to my surprise and delight I was able to notify the forum members at 4:19 PM that the new forum was up and running. Not including Daniel and myself, all but two of the forum members logged on to check it out. So far so good, but I’m sure a few bugs will creep up over the next few days.
This has been an eventful weekend. Between the forum and the introduction of Chester, we haven’t had a moment to simply breathe. Tomorrow Daniel plans to do nothing, and I can’t fault him for that. He has worked tirelessly over the past week to test the forum software for every conceivable problem, and he has helped me to select the most useful and beneficial packets to allow the members greater freedom and more options when posting their work. I could not have created this poetry forum without his dedication and support, and I am very proud of what we have created together.
O.P.W.