What’s your favorite animal? Cats. So free and independent.
What pets have you had in your lifetime? Two cats (current) and a puppy for 3 days.
Is there any specific pet that you’ve wanted but never had? Why? I’ve always wanted a bulldog. But I’ve never felt I had a lifestyle that was good for having a dog.
Are you allergic to any animals? I am sometimes bothered by cat dander, but I love my two felines too much to give them up over a little sneezing.
Do you have any ‘pet’ pet peeves (your pets or others’)? I hate it when people get a dog because they think they are supposed to, and then they ignore the poor thing. Dogs outside at all hours of the day and night, barking at everything that moves. Such a pain.
What makes you homesick? Not being at home, I guess.
Where is “home” for you? Is it where you are living now, or somewhere else (i.e., Mom & Dad’s house, particular state/city)? Currently central Illinois. Recently South Carolina, and before that Oregon. Eventually someplace with good spiritual energy.
What makes it home for you? People? Things? My home is where my Sweetie is, so anywhere can do.
Where is the furthest you’ve been from home, miles-wise? 5000. I did a two-week tour of the Alps on motorcycle in 1994. Awesome.
What are your plans for this weekend? The spring rains have started, so we’ll most likely stay home and dry, bake a chocolate cake and make a pot of spaghetti
Something new. Finally. I discovered a site called fridayFive. The concept is simple… they ask five questions and you answer. So here goes.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Anywhere I can go with my Sweetie-Pie. =) With her by my side everyplace is a vacation.
Where do you consider to be the biggest hell-hole on earth? What makes a hell-hole?
What would be your dream vacation? Time spent at home with no place to go, no one bothering us, and no time limits.
If you could go on a road-trip with anyone, who would it be and why? My Sweetie-Pie. We have moved across country three times in 5 years and are very good together in a confined space.
What are your plans for this weekend? Cooking, cooking and more cooking. Zuppa tuscana soup Saturday, and jumbalaya Sunday.
You like flexible structure. You use your deep insight and logic to solve problems. You enjoy experiencing many new things. You have at least one area of expertice that allows you to demonstrate your creativity.
test yourself at geekykid.net
Today I am filled with sadness. You see I gave away the very first puppy I had ever owned yesterday. He was wonderful, beautiful and filled with love. He was perfect in ever way possible and I gave him away.
My wife and I have talked about getting a puppy for a couple of years. There was always some reason why we put it off. We had just moved, or we were going to be moving, or we didn’t have a fence and so on. We now live on an acre of ground with a portion fenced - perfect for a dog. We settled on a West Highland White Terrier as our breed of choice. Westies, as they are known, are all white small to medium sized dogs.
We picked up our Westie on Friday evening at a breeder about 2 hours from our home. She had two puppies left, both male. We had really wanted a female but our delaying the decision had cost us that opportunity. I tend to put things off again and again. Michele gets frustrated with this and we sometimes end up doing something impulsively to offset how we both feel. She’s upset that we didn’t do this in the first place and I’m upset that I can’t be more flexible. We picked one of the two males and signed the papers. He was all ours.
We hadn’t gone a mile from their house when he began to throw up all over Michele. We had a towel with us but it only partially caught his vomit. Poor Michele had dog blorp on one of her favorite new dresses. After we cleaned up as best we could we continued on towards home. A few minutes later he puked again. Joy. This time we were better prepared and he didn’t get it all over, although I did get puppy puke on me trying to shake the towel out by the side of the road. Happy, happy, happy.
We stopped for gas and after we got rolling again, you guessed it, more puppy chunks. Well isn’t this just real special?
Finally at home turned him loose in our house and began a 60-hour marathon. First to go were our two cats, Abby and Nekko. They are both house cats and as such properly spoiled. Once they discovered a smelly little intruder in their domain they promptly disappeared as only house cats can do. We expected this and weren’t too upset. We were still working on names for the little guy when we went to bed at midnight.
Of course he came to bed with us. At 5 am Saturday he announced his presence by pissing in the bed. And then playfully biting any digit he could find. I guess it was time to get up. We played around with him until it was time to visit the pet store and buy some supplies. Off in the Vomit Comet, formerly known as the Lexus, again. This time with two towels we managed to get to the store without soiling our clothes. Of course with only 5 hours sleep and no shower, soiled clothes might have gone unnoticed. Once in the store we secured a harness and lead for the little guy and put him on the floor. Where upon he puked. I couldn’t wait to give this dog some food, all this vomit on no ammunition was impressive, what would he do fully loaded?
Since he was a Scottish breed we decided on Archibald McTavish as a name. Archie for short. Although we would soon decided that Spunky was a better handle for this incredible bundle of energy and attitude that had invaded our house and our hearts.
Back that the house Michele took a nap and I played goalie for a couple of hours. Finally he crashed and took a nap. Both cats ventured out at this point and discovered his sleeping form in their space. Much hissing and spitting accompanied their return to hiding. When he was awake he went full speed, biting, tearing, pissing and shitting his way through the house. No amount of disciplined seemed to matter to him. He was fearless in all things and not the least bit cowed by us at all. I spent some time reading the information on the Westie web site again. Funny how all those phrases about “demanding”, “won’t be ignored”, “as likely to train his owners as the other way around” took on a whole new meaning now.
Michele had much the same experience as I when I took my much-needed nap. By early evening we were exhausted and starting to question our decision to bring a dog this forceful into our lives. We are rather laid back people and for more accustomed to the demands of cat ownership than puppies. We wondered if we could return him.
One point in our favor this day was that we managed to completely exhaust him. He slept for 5 whole hours Saturday night. At 5 am he woke me up by biting my nose and I promptly took him outside. He peed out there and I praised him and brought him back inside. Then he shit on the carpet. Bad dog. Back outside. Michele made us breakfast and afterwards I decided to lie down and get some more sleep. I slept for a couple of hours and when I got up Michele was wiped out. Her words were that this was the most aggressive puppy/dog she had ever been around. She has had puppies and dogs before but not for the past 20 years. She had forgotten just how demanding they could be. We talked it all over and decided that our live style wasn’t suited for this breed, and maybe not for any breed of puppy.
We called the breeder and asked to return him. She wasn’t having any part of it. All sales are final, she said. She suggested we should sell him ourselves. That could take days and we were already at our wits end. Lock him in the back yard she said, he’d be okay. Neither of us would ever do that to a puppy. Maybe we are too soft but ignoring him like that seemed the height of cruel. It was Sunday and the paper was closed, no way to place and ad before Monday. Michele napped and I watched Spunky. He was playing, full force, for an hour or two and than napping for an hour or so, in rotation. Big mistake.
At 10 we tried to go to bed. Spunky wasn’t having any of it. So I stayed up with him until he crashed, about 11:30. He slept until 1 and then had to go. After a few minutes outside watching him piss and getting eaten alive by some huge mosquitoes myself, we went in. He did another hour of whirling dervish playing before sleeping again at 2 or so. At 4:30 he peed the bed again and then woke me up. While we were stripping the bed he shit on the carpet.
We were exhausted, frustrated, sad, and confused. In the 60 hours between Friday evening at 7 PM and Monday morning at 7 AM we had gone from educated, intelligent, caring people to zombies wondering if the pound was the answer for our little Spunky. As a last ditch try to do the right thing I looked online for other Westie breeders in the Mid-west - maybe we could give him to someone that would find a proper home for the guy. Imagine our astonishment to find a breeder barely 30 minutes away.
We called and this angel of a woman agreed to take him on. The drive to her home was heart wrenching. Were we doing the right thing? Wouldn’t this situation get better? How could we keep him? How could we not keep him? She was a lovely person with half a dozen Westies in her home. This was not a puppy mill. She said that she might get three or four hundred for the little guy, and paid us one-fifty. We hadn’t expected any money at all.
Driving away was extremely hard to do, we were crying and bawling and trying to comfort each other most of journey home. Our hearts broken, our spirits crushed we had admitted defeat at the paws of an 8 week old male Westie. In our heads we thought we had done the best thing for the dog. In our hearts we were despondent.
Over the next few days we each dealt with Spunky’s going in our own ways. We welcomed the return of normal interactions with our two cats. We shared the story with friends and learned that they too had struggled with dogs that weren’t suited for their home or lifestyle. The hurt began to lesson but the emptiness was still there.
It has been almost 4 months since Spunky entered our lives and forever touched us. I still get a lump in my throat when I look at the spot on the floor, by my desk, where he slept that Saturday afternoon. He had gone to sleep in the living room and I went to our office to use the computer. I looked up and he wasn’t in the living room anymore. Then I looked down and he was asleep right by my feet. It melted my heart then, and I still hurt for him now.
We are talking about dogs again, maybe a dachshund, or miniature pinscher, something small and friendly to enter our hearts.
In looking back we did a couple of things we shouldn’t have. First we settled for a gender we didn’t want. We had always wanted a female and we took a male because he was all that was left. Second we both had uneasy feelings about the breeder when we go there. At the time we thought it is apprehension about the dog, now we now it was our instincts about the breeder and her set up. The puppies were kept in a cage off the ground. The trouble we had trying to bathroom train him resulted from his having lived in a cage his whole life. We feel that she was running a puppy mill. In the future we will visit the breeder long before selecting a dog. We want to feel good about the atmosphere she will be born in, and where she will spend her first 8 weeks. Third we acted hastily when picking Spunky. Even though getting a puppy had been the topic of discussion for weeks, the actual decision happened only hours before getting the dog.
We did hear once from the family that eventually got Spunky. They sounded like great people and we are thankful that our sacrifice gave Spunky a good home.
I love Spunky and I will always miss his furry little self.
We are planning a trip to Tampa for Christmas. Michele lived there for a number of years and hasn’t been back since she left over 5 years ago. He brother is moving back there and we think we can talk her mom in to flying down there to join us. The trick with this trip isn’t the distance or cost. It’s the flying. As much as I hate to admit it OBL and his band of terrorists have altered the way I look at travel. Our fears about flying are minimal and yet they are there. Added to that is the knowledge that even safe flights are going to be very stressful thanks to the increased security measures. Our world has truly changed forever. How very sad.
I have a web counter on the main page of my site. It tracks visits to the site and I get a weekly report telling how many people came by. There has been a steady increase in the number over the past year. Two weeks ago I had 18 visits. This past week is was 27. Wow. This is amazing to me. I like that people are reading my thoughts, and perhaps coming back to read more. It is also sobering in a way. If I go a few days without adding something to the site I feel like people will stop coming. A two-edged sword as it were.
To all of you who are, dare I say it, regulars, I thank you.
Speaking of the web counter, I just switched to a new service. The old one just went from free to costing a nominal annual fee. The new counter is a little more ostentatious than I would prefer, but not too bad.
My brother and his wife had their first child together last spring. Her name is Riley. Her maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Riley so this was a family nod. To add to that tie Riley was born on the same day as her grandmother, March 13th. To say that the arrival of their first grandchild unhinged my parents would be an understatement. Who knew they were this nuts about grandchildren. It has been a joy to watch them enjoy their granddaughter.
It has also been hard to watch. I am extremely fortunate that I found and married my perfect partner. Michele is my friend, my very best friend, and my lover, and my companion, and my hero. We are wonderful together. We both knew before we walked down the aisle that children would not play a part in our life together. This is not an easy position to realize on our society. We have both struggled with strong feelings of quilt and inadequacy as a result. When my brother and his wife presented my parents with a grandchild I was very jealous. It has been very painful to watch the attention and focus be lavished on them. For a long time as the oldest son I had a favored position, at least from my perspective. Now in a flash it was gone. I have struggled greatly with feelings of jealously and hurt.
Before Riley was born the doctors discovered an enlargement of one of her kidneys. Her mom had dozens of ultrasounds as they tried to determine what this meant. At birth she was happy, healthy and outwardly perfect. Riley’s parents were told to bring her back at six months for a series of tests, including a CAT scan to further investigate this enlargement.
Everyone’s worst fears were realized when the word was neuroblastoma. This childhood cancer can be deadly. The early discovery and localized appearance of the tumor were in her favor. Within two days she was admitted to the hospital. More tests resulted in surgery being scheduled.
To further set the stage you must know that 28 years ago my sister died from leukemia at age 11. She would have been Riley’s aunt. My family has never faced or overcome the scars left by Amy’s death. I have fought and struggled for years to understand and cope with the emotional baggage left by that event. The prospect that little Riley’s may die from cancer as well sent me into a tailspin.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 the terrorist attack on NYC and DC happened and the world became a very scary place. The enormity of this global horror hadn’t begun to sink in when I had to set all of that aside and go to be with my family at my brother’s side during Riley’s surgery on Wednesday.
Her procedure lasted for more than 5 hours. In the end the were able to remove all of the tumor. Riley is recovering nicely and should be allowed home in a few days. There will be one more procedure to collect bone marrow but that can’t happen until the airlines and air freight carriers are working again as the sample must go to Boston of all places.
In the span of 6 days the entire world stopped making sense. On Friday everything was fine. That evening Riley was diagnosed as maybe having a malignant monster inside her. On Tuesday a monster reached out and altered our reality forever, and ripped our sense of freedom from us. On Wednesday a brave little girl underwent life saving surgery with barely a whimper of protest.
We live in a terrible and tragic world, which also contains great good and heroism. A week ago I had priorities in my life. I knew what I needed to accomplish. Today none of those has any importance to me. How can I be at all concerned about work deadlines or gas prices when in 24 hours time I watched in horror as thousands lost their lives on live television and waited while a few dedicated people performed a miracle on one small girl? I feel adrift in a sea of emotions and images. I can barely concentrate long enough to brush my teeth and yet I find myself doing familiar things with ease.
I don’t know what any of this means. I know there are lessons here for me to learn. I learned a long time ago that life was fleeting and ephemeral. I have been rudely reminded of that this week.
I say to you dear reader, I love you. I care that you are here in this life. You make a difference, you are vital to this world. Treasure who you are and what you bring to the lives around you. Stop and tell those you love how you feel. Share the only thing that is truly yours to give - your love.
I love all of you.
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” ? Yamamoto Isoroku, Admiral Japanese Imperial Navy upon learning the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred before the formal declaration of war was made in Washington DC.
We had a pool installed in our back yard last month. Everything is done except for restringing the fence. We are fortunate enough to live in the county where our original 42" chain link is high enough. I’ve called a couple of places to get estimates and finally connected with one company. We set an appointment for noon. This was about 9:00 am the same day.
I rearranged my schedule so I could be at home at noon. Its 20 or 25 minutes each way, so if I want to eat anything I wind up being out of the office a minimum of 90 minutes. That’s 90 minutes I cannot get paid for. As an independent consultant time is literally money. This year’s rate is $80/hour. So the extra 30 minutes tacked on to my lunch “Costs” me $40. Not a lot in terms of my annual income. And I’m not really too upset about that.
What chaps my ass though, is the rudeness of the company representative to show up 35 minutes early and not even be there when I arrived. Normally on a Tuesday my wife wouldn’t have been home at that time, but we were fortunate that she was home this day. I just don’t understand the thinking that says its okay to make an appointment and then not honor it. I don’t really care if you are early. I made decisions, plans and expended some effort to meet the agreed upon time. You did not. You therefore are rude.
The icing on this particular cake is that the person representing the company tried to argue with my wife about whether we lived inside or outside the city limits. WE have tax papers and permits from the county clearly stating we live in the county and not the city. But this idiot knows more than the county or us.
I am going to enjoy calling them up and iterating the reasons why they aren’t going to get one dime of my money on this project.