Shaggy Dogs Meet Liminal Space

 By Brother Luke

       It's 6:45 am and I am shepherding (!) my canine pack of three out the front door of Emmaus House, our guest house where we monks now temporarily reside, toward one of our antique Honda Elements (2006 version). And it's raining, the gravel driveway is a slushy mess, and my three want to do their business BEFORE we get into the car and head up New Skete Lane to the monastery for 7:15 am matins.  So we get a little wetter before we manage to scramble into the car. Fortunately, the Elements are perfect for this kind of adventure, roomy in the back for the dogs and easy to clean. Of course, they'd rather be in the front seat, but you know about that if you have dogs.

Blue Honda Element - aka the dog car

       My pack of three at this time is still Fuller and Iris, the 5-year-olds, and Victoria, Tori for short, my 5-month-old puppy. The adult dogs are doing well with the shift in routines from monastery to Emmaus House, but the puppy is just trying to figure out life. Getting a stable routine in place for Tori has been a challenge, to say the least. Tori, like Iris (though not related) are both long coats, so they bring a little more, debris shall we say, to the equation than tight-coated Fuller. In addition, the room I occupy at Emmaus House has wall-to-wall carpeting, so cleaning up after the dogs' debris, fur, and accidents is more problematic. But this is just a small part of our new life in liminal space.

Fuller and Tori in my room at the guesthouse

Iris in my bedroom at the guesthouse

       We realized in 2021 that the need to attend to the wear and tear on our aging residence could no longer be deferred. So, this fall we finally began the renovation process. Some growing mold issues in the cloister prompted us to decide that we needed to begin the renovation in the bedroom area. That meant that most of the monks have moved down to Emmaus House while the work is ongoing. A couple of brothers who found suitable spaces next to the refectory were able to stay in the main monks' monastery and avoided the move to Emmaus House. Even so, it was a shift for everyone. However, the move to Emmaus House brought additional logistical issues.

       For me, I needed to move my bedroom and my office spaces. At first we tried to set up my computers in Emmaus House, but the connectivity was not good enough to handle the work I needed to do on the MAC and the PC, so I had to find an office space in the monastery. The small conference room in our entrance hallway is now my interim office space for music and library work and mentor conferences.

       But what about the dogs? Those brothers at Emmaus House who have dogs can keep them in their rooms if they choose to. For me, my adult dogs would do fine in my room, but not the puppy. She is cute and playful, but not really house-broken. Running back and forth between the monastery and Emmaus House to monitor the puppy was not practical, so I decided to take my dogs with me up to the monastery every day. Sometimes I can have them with me in my new office, but at other times I need them to spend time in their crates in the "mud room." That is not always ideal because electrical work connected to the renovation requires work to be done in the mud room, where the main circuit breaker panels are located. So it is a juggling act.

Fuller and Iris enjoying bully sticks in my temporary office

Tori relaxing in my temporary office

       I tried having a conference with a brother in my temporary office with my dogs present. The distraction was way too tempting. Been there, done that, but no more! Even when it's just me and the dogs, the toys I have may not always suffice, so I have a supply of bully sticks. They each get one, and that keeps the peace for a while, until Fuller decides he wants to help Tori finish hers! He now knows that is not acceptable.

       The renovation work is both inside and outside. So walking the dogs requires a new vigilance for me. I take my dogs into the woods for most of their walks, and this keeps them away from the work areas. However, on the return from the woods I need to capture Tori before she decides to explore the latest developments and let her new best friend Walt, the project on-site manager, know that she is still around! So we have our games. One, I try to catch her while she is pestering Iris before we exit the woods. Or, two, we try to come out of the woods next to the puppy kennel. Tori will not be able to resist the temptation to explore the kennel, and she will run into the outside walkway, which is now enclosed with winterizing plastic wrap. It's open only at one end, so once we’re in I can catch her. Last, if she is thirsty and goes to get a drink from the water dish by the monastery entrance, I have another chance to get her. Not always easy to outsmart her!

       Life in the liminal space between the beginning and the end of the renovation project will soon take on a new character for me. Tori goes to training around January 21^st, and Iris is due to have puppies the week following. So it will be just Fuller and me. I love my trio, but a few weeks with just one dog in this liminal space, I must admit, will be a welcome respite. But not for too long. I need their antics to keep me grounded. And they are good at that!