Wordless Wednesday

Today, I'm missing some of the people we have lost this year. I'm missing some of the friends that we have lost this year. Today, I would like just 5 more minutes with both of them.

Bailey. The dog who rescued me.

Free: To Good Home

People never cease to amaze me.

I have way too much time on my hands that most days I pillage craigslist. I do this for a variety of reasons. It gives me something to do at work. I can make fun of the amount of money people want for things that they are trying to sell, when it all reality they should be paying someone to come take it away.

However, after looking for somewhere new to live, I have spent a lot more time pillaging the free category looking for boxes. I've found a lot more.

I'm a dog person. There hasn't been any significant period of time in my life that I haven't had a dog. Months was even stretching it, and since I got my first inside dog at 16, there hasn't been a time when I haven't had a dog.

As much as a pain in the butt that it is to find a place that we can afford and that accepts pets, I can't imagine not taking them with me. I can't imagine those little furry pain in the butts not going with us. Yet, any given day there are a number of "free" dogs to be had on craigslist.

I understand that there are circumstances that are beyond your control when you have to get rid of a pet. But in my opinion those are few and far between. You don't just get a pet to get rid of it when life gets tough.

You don't get pregnant and then when the teenage years hit or you lose your job decide to give your child away? What's the difference?

No, I'm not crazy. But in reality that's how it works. Pets are easily thrown to the curb and replaced for another pet, or for something else that's less trouble.

I have seen a ton of different excuses. They are moving overseas, moving to an apartment that doesn't take pets; kids are allergic; they are allergic. But probably the one that pisses me off the worst - time. They don't have time for Fido, so they are giving him away.

That's why I have small inside dogs that are relatively low maintenance. Yes, they have to go to the groomers for a haircut every 4-6 weeks, but for the most part they are self sufficient.

Even when I was busy with homework and school, I knew that I was neglecting them. So I made sure, when I had that realization to spend time playing with and loving them on purpose. I cleared everything off my to do list for 20 minutes and gave them some attention. But you know what the funny thing is, I got more out of that time than they did. But when I picked those dogs out, I made sure that my lifestyle and theirs worked well together. I made sure that I didn't get a dog that needed lots of space and to take long walks. Because I knew that when it was 20 degrees outside, I didn't want to do more than shove the dog out the door for their potty break.

When we adopted Bailey, it wasn't supposed to be permanent. But he was older and he didn't want that kind of life either. All those years of abuse and neglect showed too well on him, so he was a good fit. We ended up keeping him longer than we anticipated, and if not for animal controls policy, we wouldn't have taken him in to begin with. But I couldn't let the dog be put to sleep simply because of his age.

Amazingly so I am against these people treating their pets like they are a surrogate child. They aren't. But they are still an important part of many people's lives. When a doctor will suggest that you get a dog or a cat for an Alzheimer's patient, then obviously you know that there is something special about that animal. That there is something there worth treating with dignity and respect.

Isn't that what living is all about anyway? Respect and Dignity.


~It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being. ~Henry David Thoreau



~Personally, I would not give a fig for any man's religion whose horse, cat and dog do not feel its benefits. Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility. ~S. Parkes Cadman



~Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him? ~Pierre Troubetzkoy



~The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.  ~Mark Twain

~Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made [man] is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one... that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. ~Mark Twain



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Life Trucks On

Well, I would love to have something funny, mildly hilarious, or even slightly thought provoking for you today.  But instead my brain is swimming around with carbohydrates. 

Thanks homework for sabotaging my life, and apparently this blog post too.

How about a few updates then?  It's better than something crazy that I might come up with instead.

-John's grandfather is trucking along.  After more testing he has cancer on a lung as well as his liver.  He has began chemo treatments and seems to be handling them well.  He will continue those for a few weeks before he has more scans and tests to see how the cancer is reacting.

-Bailey.  The boxer that we rescued.  He is still living with us.  A part of us wants to keep him, and a part of us wants to see him go to a home that doesn't have another little mean dog like Blaze.  They get along fine, when no one is looking.  If Blaze catches you looking those kisses that she was just giving him turns into snarls and growls. 

-I still haven't heard anything on my application yet.  They have had it since Monday, surely they have read it and realize how wonderful I am, and they want me to join their campus.  Plus, they could sure use the money.

-I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, mostly for the days off work.  I'm tired of homework and work.  I just have a case of the blah's.  I would wish for excitement, but it usually isn't the kind that I want.  So we will keep the blah's, thankyouverymuch!

-I'm still not finished with Christmas shopping.  However, I am finishing off my grandfather's gifts this weekend.  Amazingly so I only have 6 people left, and a couple of "extras" in case someone else should pop up that I'm not prepared for.  So, it's not quite as bad as it seems.  Plus, based on circumstances that my niece and nephew are currently facing, I would like to do a little more for them than I have done.

-Debbie and her husband are getting a divorce.  I'm sad for them, and their children.  I'm also thankful that I'm married to a good man, and that after almost 11 years we still have a good, solid relationship.  I'm sad that one or both, depends on who you talk to, had done childish things to "hurt" the other person.  They are forgetting that there are two children whose lives will be forever changed and impacted by the decisions that they make, and by how "adult" like their parents act.

-I've been cooking new recipes again.  I have been taking pictures of the final results.  But not step by step pictures.  Mostly because some of this cooking is taking place at night, and I don't want the pictures coming out "yellow" because I'm not using natural light.  Although twice this week, I took the pictures outside before it got dark. 

-Well, now that I'm not thinking about carbohydrates and the retarded presentation that I have to work on this afternoon, I think I'll go fix my lunch and hope that this afternoon is interruption light, because I have to do my homework and my husbands.

-I'm going to be participating in some other blogs "theme days" for a while.  I'm just so overwhelmed with work and school, that without a little guidance, you will be lucky to get monthly posts.  Look for the first one tomorrow!

~Life is not the way it's supposed to be.  It's the way it is.  The way you cope with it is what makes a difference.  ~Edna Ellison

Dogs VS. Humans

Human nature never ceases to amaze me. Never. The older I get the harder it is to not give up all faith in human beings as being even semi-decent.

Several days ago I met someone. He is shedding a unique light on the people in the community where I live, and a unique light on my own life.

But first, a little background info. (Think of this as a commercial after the opening credits.)

I have always been notorious for dragging home every sick and abandoned creature. I have taken home cats, dogs, baby rabbits, even people. As a child, I can recall countless times that I was threatened with bodily harm with saving animals from an uncertain death. Especially when those rescued bunnies were accidently freed from their homes and ran free in my mothers house. It's a miracle that I was ever allowed to have a pet. It's a miracle that my mother didn't kill me, it also makes me understand why some mothers eat their children at birth.

The older that I have gotten, the more practical I have become. I go into the adoption center at Petsmart everytime I'm there, and my heart breaks for each of the dogs in the cages, waiting, hoping, to find their permanent family. I would go in each and every day and take them all home with me, if I could. I just quit picking up strays, it breaks your heart to let them go. I try to feed them and water them, and let them wander on. I often call animal control and try to get them saved from being ran over.

Apparently my husband is just starting this adopting stray animals phase.

We were coming home for the grocery store a few evenings ago, when he saw two dogs. One of which was a female, probably a year old. She was full of energy, and puppiness. You know that phase, doesn't listen, acts like a teenager. Chews on everything. But there was this other guy. Who, to my naked eye, appears to be a full blood, or really close full blood boxer. He was older, you could tell by the gray around his eyes and muzzle. And the minute I saw him through the pickup window, I knew he was in bad shape. I have never, in my entire life, even on animal planet, seen a dog that skinny. Yet, that sweet, and happy. You could see each vertebra in his back, as well as the "spaces" between, where his spinal cord is. You could see each rib, protruding through skin, that it was amazing, it hadn't torn the skin and was poking through. Did you know that dogs have a point on the top of there head? They do. Because you could see the top of his skull. Bad shape is an understatement. So we did, what any "decent" human being would do. We picked them up, and took them home.

I have two dogs at home. Both miniature schnauzers, Prancer, is tiny, and sweet, and he weighs around 20 pounds. Blaze, the female, is not so tiny, and not so sweet. She has an attitude, and a slight weight problem. She weighs about as much as a mack truck, well, ok, maybe not QUITE that much, but about 35 pounds. According to wikipedia a typical male boxer should weigh 65-99 pounds. He might, just might, tip the scales at 25-30 pounds. He has stepped on my barefoot twice with all of his weight, and Blaze weighs more then he does.

We called animal control, because we knew that with two dogs already, we really couldn't keep him.

Animal control said that they would hold him for 3 days in hopes of the owner claiming him. Then, because he has no teeth, is old, and the poor shape he was in, he would be put to sleep, because "no one in their right mind would want to mess with him." I told the person answering the phone that when they got old and had poor teeth, that he needed to be put to sleep too. Called him several names, that I won't repeat here.

So please take good care of your teeth, because apparently when you, as a person, get to be "too" much trouble, you can be put to sleep. Who knew!?!?!

Wait. That's not right. It's OK for people to be old and a burden, but not a dog?What is wrong with this world that there isn't someone out there with a big enough heart, who doesn't mind going a little out of there way, to save another soul.

Yeah, and here is where you are going to tell me that it's a dog, to get over it.

And here is where I'm going to pleasantly tell you where to shove that idea.

He has a heart, a soul, he feels hurt, cold, warmth, love, pain, fear, a good back scratching, the effects of a kind word, the effects of cruelty. Don't you feel those too? So what does that make you? Better than him?

This dog, has yet to bark, growl or do anything, but love us, and shown us both, as well as our other dogs affection. He has done nothing, but asked for some dignaty, and maybe a little decency in return.

Isn't that all we ask as a person? For some kindness, compassion, love. How is he any different?

What is so wrong with people that they can't stop and save someone in need? They sure want someone to come "save" them, when they need it.

So what is so special about this dog?

Absolutely nothing. Yet, at the same time absolutely everything. He knows no stranger, his tail is constantly wagging, and he is always hoping for a scratch on the neck right behind his ears. Because you see, he can't sit down and scratch there like a normal dog, because his hip bones dig into the ground and cause him, what I can only imagine, as intense pain.

Yet, in the few short days that he has been here, he has reminded me that there is more to life than school and work. He has reminded me that while those things are important, there are other things, that are equally, if not more important. Perhaps, it wasn't coincidence that he crossed our paths. Perhaps, he was sent here, at a time, when I was doubting my own capabilities. Perhaps, he is reminding me, of the person that I want to be. The one that doesn't have anything to do with a college education.

Too bad there aren't more people in the world like him. Can you imagine the kind of world we would live in? I can only imagine that it's what heaven will be like.


I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive. ~Gilda Radner

I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and they do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying. ~George Bird Evans

I talk to him when I'm lonesome like; and I'm sure he understands. When he looks at me so attentively, and gently licks my hands; then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes, but I never say naught thereat. For the good Lord knows I can buy more clothes, but never a friend like that. ~W. Dayton Wedgefarth

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs. ~Mme. de Staël

The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's. ~Mark Twain

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience. ~Woodrow Wilson

You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Pets

I love animals. My mom can tell you horror stories of me adopting animals from the surrounding 12 counties and dragging them home. Of course my mom, being the meanie that she was forced me to get rid of them. It probably didn't help that I brough home an average of 1-2 a week.

I don't resucue animals near as often as an adult as I did when I was a kid. I have to be practical, which bites. But I can't afford to feed every stray critter in the county. It just breaks my heart to see a stray dog running around with it's ribs sticking out. I just want to pick them up and take them home and love on them.

I'm not too sure how my babies would feel about that. I have two babies, or as some people call them pets. But these two aren't just pets they are a part of our family. They are missed when we are away, they are spoiled, they get birthday and Christmas presents and treats. These are my babies.

This was in my email, and I wanted to share it with you.

A PET'S TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.

9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.

10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." ~Mark Twain

"Ever consider what dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul -- chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!" ~Anne Tyler

"I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult." ~Rita Rudner