Meet Dexter the English Bull Dog.
He is my new friend.
And his owner is too.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
A Sad, Snowy Morning
I haven’t ever had to put a dog down before. All dogs are unique and Hank stood out in the kennel because of his shy nature, brillant golden eyes, and sudden decision to dart out of his house for attention. When I first met him he stayed in his house the entire time I was in the yard. The first time I fed him he cautiously came out of his house for enough time to grab his dish with his teeth and quickly return to the refuge of his spool. This went on for a week or so and at times I would glance over his way and find him tentatively watching me feed and water the other dogs. As soon as I came near, though, he retreated inside. After two weeks of such behavior and other moves of bravery like coming out to sniff my hand for a moment, or laying outside while I was on the other side of the kennel he decided that I was O.K. The next time I came over to feed him he darted out and danced around me like he had never even been shy. From that day forward Hank and I were buds. I had proved myself trustworthy. Hank was always shy at the mountain and for some reason clients gravitate toward our shy dogs- who really want nothing to do with them. When a pesky client would not leave him alone I could walk over and Hank would come bounding up for a hug, relieved to have someone familiar around. I did not think I would become as attached as I did to any of these dogs. When we had to put him down I cried a lot. I expected to experience the death of a dog at some point while working with a hundred or so, but you never are prepared. The loss made me sad. It is obvious, but I haven’t felt such a genuine sadness like that in a while. It seems like any loss moves me into a place where I can connect with other losses I’ve experienced in my life. That night after he died the dogs howled as usual. But I knew as I lay in my bed that there was one less dog out there participating in the nightly ritual. I teared up at the thought and continued to cry as I fell asleep. I felt heavy the next day and so did the others. The event weighed on us and the work on the mountain seemed tedious and slow. We all walked noticeably slower and spoke with more reserve. We intentionally brought up Hank’s brothers, Mickey and Willie. They bear a striking resemblance to Hank and looking at them brought us some sort of peace. The day after he died we awoke to a snow covered desert. Snow is magical and the covering brought us a smile and sense of peace concerning the events of the night before. It has been a few days now and we are not as sad, but Hank's house is still empty. It will be for awhile. In time another dog will move in, but probably not until after I leave. To Hank...
Sunday, February 18, 2007
A God Walking Business
I was writing an email to my friend and telling her about my brillant job idea for this spring, a god walking business. I had to laugh as I typed the mistake, what kind of freudian slip was that? Do I think I can walk God, or actually the Gods, as "god walking" implies more than one god? No, no I don't. But my fingers moved faster than my brain and what I actually meant was to type DOG walking business. I thought it was pretty funny.
Thank You
I love people. I love my alone time too. And I love that I have both. Everyday I am reminded of how blessed I am to have the people in my life I do. I am blessed by the way they challenge me, by the way they remind me of our humanity, our shared struggles, and our shared joys. I am blessed by being able to engage in hard conversations and even more difficult decisions. I am thankful that I get to share peoples tears as well as my own. I am blessed in sharing moments of joy and "glory" with others. For those Mars Hillers you know what I mean when I say glory. I cherish, as Martin Buber coined, those "I-thou" moments when we see the other and in seeing, truely seeing and experiencing the other, we see God. All this to say thank you for letting me be in your life, for sharing with me, for letting me be my crazy self, and loving me well.
The Great Glove Fire of '07 and other important events
Farley
Taking puppies for a walk-notice Spade the straggler-she's the runt of the litter but as cute as ever
Spike My Man
It has been quite an adventure the last couple days...For starters, two nights ago we nearly escaped disaster as we survived what we have aptly named "The Great Glove Fire of '07." After a relaxing evening out on the town I awoke at about 12:30 to a thick thick smelly smoke in my room. Knowing that this was most likely coming from the woodstove I nearly fell off my bunk to make sure the house was not burning down. As I made it to the living room I quickly noticed the problem. The clothesline of gloves we had hung near the wood stove had settled and the gloves were burning! Right in the middle one glove was pure red, smoldering embers. Unlike the woodsmoke smell, the chemically treated fabric made this smoke smell horribly of who knows what kind of toxic polymers. I quickly tried to get the glove down and at least throw it in the fire, but in the process managed to fling some of the embers a couple feet away on the carpet. Fortunately the burning glove just made a nice hole in the carpet, rather than setting the whole place on fire. Hearing my coughing and frantic running around opening doors and windows my roomate kyle woke up and began helping me in my firefighting. Luckily it was only slightly below freezing so purging the room of smoke did not result in extreme cold. After successfully putting out the fire and ensuring nothing else was going up in flames, I grabbed my sleeping bag and decided to spend the night under the stars. There was no way I was going to sleep in what I percieved as remants of a toxic smoke. The stars were absolutley amazing and the dogs howling woke me up the next morning. Half asleep when this whole endeavor happened, I didn't realize that it was not just one glove that burned but more like five or six. We are short on right handed gloves as it is, and this unfortunate event even furthered our one handed predicament. Today I think I am going to buy a fire extinguisher and maybe a new pair of gloves. Last night I closed the door to the woodstove and left my door open just to get more of the toxic smell out, so it was kind of like sleeping outside. We learned our lesson.
In other exciting news I was informed that I could bring home another beautiful dog, Spike. I of course would like to take about 5 dogs home with me, but with the offer of Spike I think he's the one. He is a big black dog with piercing blue eyes, lots of love, and just the right amount of energy! You can look at him above. So if anyone knows of a house with a yard that is looking for a cool girl to live with and one giant dog let me know.
Other News that Makes Me Smile-in no particular order
1. My friend Christine has an amazing English Bull Dog named Dexter, and I love him.
2. I found a stellar place to practice yoga.
3. The Puppies are growing like crazy and are as expected, exceedingly adorable.
4. We harness broke some more pups=fun and good work out.
5. Three of my good friends are in this neck of the woods this weekend.
6. One of my best friends is engaged!
7. Another one of my best friends had a successful surgery.
8. I like beer, now. Bend will do that to you I guess.
9. I recently recieved a new electric toothbrush as a gift.
10. It is sunny.
11. My mom came to visit which was a blast!
12. I am sitting in a cafe catching up with people I love.
13. There are about 40 calves on our road that were JUST born. Whenever I run by I try to go close enough so I can pet them, but as you can imagine cows are not the most affectionate animals...
14. I have Amazing friends and am blessed by their love everyday.
15. I am doing well and loving the days and little things.
16. We are celebrating b-days tonight on the town.
17. Day light savings is coming about a month earlier this year.
18. I have acouple pregnant friends.
Taking puppies for a walk-notice Spade the straggler-she's the runt of the litter but as cute as ever
Spike My Man
It has been quite an adventure the last couple days...For starters, two nights ago we nearly escaped disaster as we survived what we have aptly named "The Great Glove Fire of '07." After a relaxing evening out on the town I awoke at about 12:30 to a thick thick smelly smoke in my room. Knowing that this was most likely coming from the woodstove I nearly fell off my bunk to make sure the house was not burning down. As I made it to the living room I quickly noticed the problem. The clothesline of gloves we had hung near the wood stove had settled and the gloves were burning! Right in the middle one glove was pure red, smoldering embers. Unlike the woodsmoke smell, the chemically treated fabric made this smoke smell horribly of who knows what kind of toxic polymers. I quickly tried to get the glove down and at least throw it in the fire, but in the process managed to fling some of the embers a couple feet away on the carpet. Fortunately the burning glove just made a nice hole in the carpet, rather than setting the whole place on fire. Hearing my coughing and frantic running around opening doors and windows my roomate kyle woke up and began helping me in my firefighting. Luckily it was only slightly below freezing so purging the room of smoke did not result in extreme cold. After successfully putting out the fire and ensuring nothing else was going up in flames, I grabbed my sleeping bag and decided to spend the night under the stars. There was no way I was going to sleep in what I percieved as remants of a toxic smoke. The stars were absolutley amazing and the dogs howling woke me up the next morning. Half asleep when this whole endeavor happened, I didn't realize that it was not just one glove that burned but more like five or six. We are short on right handed gloves as it is, and this unfortunate event even furthered our one handed predicament. Today I think I am going to buy a fire extinguisher and maybe a new pair of gloves. Last night I closed the door to the woodstove and left my door open just to get more of the toxic smell out, so it was kind of like sleeping outside. We learned our lesson.
In other exciting news I was informed that I could bring home another beautiful dog, Spike. I of course would like to take about 5 dogs home with me, but with the offer of Spike I think he's the one. He is a big black dog with piercing blue eyes, lots of love, and just the right amount of energy! You can look at him above. So if anyone knows of a house with a yard that is looking for a cool girl to live with and one giant dog let me know.
Other News that Makes Me Smile-in no particular order
1. My friend Christine has an amazing English Bull Dog named Dexter, and I love him.
2. I found a stellar place to practice yoga.
3. The Puppies are growing like crazy and are as expected, exceedingly adorable.
4. We harness broke some more pups=fun and good work out.
5. Three of my good friends are in this neck of the woods this weekend.
6. One of my best friends is engaged!
7. Another one of my best friends had a successful surgery.
8. I like beer, now. Bend will do that to you I guess.
9. I recently recieved a new electric toothbrush as a gift.
10. It is sunny.
11. My mom came to visit which was a blast!
12. I am sitting in a cafe catching up with people I love.
13. There are about 40 calves on our road that were JUST born. Whenever I run by I try to go close enough so I can pet them, but as you can imagine cows are not the most affectionate animals...
14. I have Amazing friends and am blessed by their love everyday.
15. I am doing well and loving the days and little things.
16. We are celebrating b-days tonight on the town.
17. Day light savings is coming about a month earlier this year.
18. I have acouple pregnant friends.
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