Tag Archives: Love

A Wonderful Gift

Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, , ,

I had a wonderful 4th of July holiday last week for numerous reasons. Not the least of which was my brother had this piece of art commissioned as a surprise gift for me. There was no occasion, my brother is just thoughtful and awesome! The work is of my dog Duncan, who I still miss immensely and will always be a part of me even though he has been gone for some years now.

The drawing was done from one of my favorite photos of Duncan. You can see the bond we shared reflected in his eyes.

The piece now resides in my office at work so I can enjoy it there. The portrait was done by a family member in my brother’s extended family. Thanks Chris Whitaker! I would recommend Chris if you are interested in something similar of one of your own furry or feathered family members. He has an Etsy Shop called WHITSwhiskers.

Hope your days are blessed with such thoughtful and talented family as well.

It Takes a Village

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

One of my first impressions of Nash, besides the fear, was the smell. Nash had such a doggie odor that after working with him I would smell the same way. I had to hang my coat out in the hall at work rather than near my desk. I noticed nobody wanted to pet him much because it involved washing your hands every time you touched him. So, on his second evening with us I decided to give him a bath. You can imagine how that went. Nash literally thought I was trying to kill him. I felt so bad for him fighting for his life that I almost gave up, but I didn’t want him to think he could get his way by throwing a fit in the future. So, I sang him stupid songs and washed away. His struggles became less after a while. Luckily, he didn’t have too much fur at this point, so it went pretty fast. He really enjoyed the towel drying at the end.  Needless to say, the bathroom and I were both covered in water and I was exhausted and sore.

I took Nash for a walk the first day after work and it went about how you would expect. He couldn’t walk in a straight line and kept tangling me in the leash. Every so often he grabbed the end of the choke chain in his mouth and tried to get free. And he was furiously trying to eat all the snow he could like he thought he would never have water again. All in all, it could have gone a lot worse. We made it a little over a mile. It did nothing to calm him down though.

During the first days when I would take Nash out of his crate and try to pet him he would constantly jump, lunge, and try to kiss. I mean he didn’t ever stop trying. After the bath incident he actually laid still for several minutes as long as I kept petting him. It was a fight to get the choker and leash on and off of him every time I needed to take him out. And getting him back in the crate involved forcibly putting him in, which sometimes involved wounds (scratches) to the person involved. I knew he would take more work than any other dog I had fostered but that he would also be the most rewarding.

After a couple of weeks with us Nash was still neurotic and needy. I thought he loved everyone but that was not the case. He wanted to chase off the furnace repair man, didn’t like a friend of ours who came over (a large man) and attacked my brother’s dog when he came to spend the weekend. On the other hand, he liked my daughter when she came home from college for the weekend and liked my sister-in-law the two times he met her. And on the day my brother’s dog, Dakota, came I got him out on leash when I came home, and he was fine with Dakota. They never had another problem. Nash has met a number of visitors to our house since then and after he warms up to them he is fine

As time goes by I am sure he was abused. We still can’t pick him up without him going into self preservation mode. Sometimes I just pick him up anyway and let him put his mouth on me since there are things I have to do. Like put him in a crate to ride in the car or give shots. Oh, and anytime your foot comes into contact with him which can be often since he follows so close he runs into your feet, he squeals like you are trying to hurt him. He also has the strong food drive that you sometimes see in dogs that went without for a long time. He will try to take food from any of our seven dogs. And if we are eating you better believe we keep an eye on our food.

Nash, or Nashville as we like to call him, has been with us for a couple of months now. He has come a long way since the early days although he still has a way to go. His frantic kissing and attention seeking are down to about the first 15 minutes after I come home. Of course, he is willing to sit on my lap for the entire evening if I will let him. And you need to be careful or he will jump on your lap anytime. On two occasions this resulted in me wearing an entire cup of coffee. These days Nash runs in his crate eagerly and turns around with his head sticking out waiting for the biscuit he knows is coming. And a couple weekends ago I took him on a three mile walk at a nearby state park where we passed other walkers with dogs and some bicyclists. He circled the leash around me a few times but was otherwise well behaved. By evening when we are relaxing if I tell Nash to get down, he will go lay quietly on a cushion in the corner. Of course, anytime I make eye contact with him he comes running to see what I want, and I have to tell him to go lay down again. But he has come so far.

Nash is ready for a home with the “right person” who will have the patience and understanding to continue working with him. If someone with the right skills doesn’t come along in the near future, we will keep working with him until he is ready for a home. I say “we” because it is a family affair. Everyone in our family has a hand in Nash’s transition and so it will need to be with his new family.

I wrote this tale about Nashville’s escapades in 2009 when he came into Rescue. He was adopted by a wonderful family with two children later that summer and they adored him. I remember sobbing uncontrollably as I drove away from leaving him with his new family. Even though it was a great match, I had invested so much of myself in him that I loved him dearly. The family did comment that he hoarded cans of food in his crate. He must have somehow thought that he would need this food to survive if times ever got tough again. I don’t know how he planned to open them. Nashville was one of those dogs that as a coping mechanism, I always considered to be mine and that another family was just taking care of him for me. Thanks Sara, for his initial transport to us. It takes a village…

My Valentines

Dogs & Other Animals,

May you be so blessed as to have Valentines as wonderful as these!I am never alone and I am always loved.

I have a companion for every activity. Baxter the lab-rott mix is always ready for some frisbeeing or hiking. Cassius the greyhound is ready to play with toys, or for snuggling, your choice. Zeke on the bottom right is up for running, hiking, and anything that involves spending time with me. The two sheltie girls always accompany me on nursing home visits. Shelby with the bandanna also hikes with me and helps me teach a class at the vocational school. Shelby is my right hand pup. I can count on her to do a good job no matter what it is.

With these pups as part of my family, how could I not say…Life is good!

True Love

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, Thoughts On Life, ,

Some of you might wonder why I would want to keep a dog like Zekie when we foster so many “nice” dogs. Not dogs like Zeke who do things like stress chew their bowls until, as one person put it, the bowl looks like it was mangled in an airplane crash. Well this photo right here sums it up. True love. (Or for you Princess Bride fans To Blave) No one loves you like an intense, crazy dog. And hey look, there’s a lampshade on my head, so life is a party with Zekie!

Let’s be honest, my life isn’t complete unless I have a crazy dog, or so I’ve been told. I have to agree with that assessment. Anybody can handle life with a calm, normal dog. And I’m always up for a challenge. Normalcy is boring. I prefer a dog smart enough to watch tv and figure out how to open the kitchen doors to counter surf.

Or like my heart dog Duncan. Smart enough to learn how to use the latches on the crates so he can let the foster dogs out and eat all their food.

May you be fortunate enough to have such a dog. And survive it.

The Boy Who Loves Me

Dogs & Other Animals,

In the Wild Blue Yonder

Thoughts On Life, ,

To you my friend. I’ll hold you in my heart until we meet again in the wild blue yonder.

I miss finishing each other’s sentences with the exact right thing. I miss laughing with you until I double over. I miss the way that you encouraged me to do things.

With you I learned that I could:

  • Do a 180 degree turn around in a pickup truck to get to that ice cream stand we just drove by
  • Carry an abandoned kitten that we found for half a mile to get home
  • Hike up an actual mountain in the state of Maine carrying a backpack
  • Put up a tent in the dark
  • Survive getting divorced and become a better person in the end

You also taught me that no matter what happens there is some good to be found. And that when times are rough, they will be good again.

You made my life better by being the bright spot that you were to so many. I miss you but a little bit of you goes wherever I go.

A Little Bit of Crazy

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

Why do some dogs take a piece of our hearts?

Such as Zeke, a leash aggressive, separation anxiety ridden, jumping, abandoned, mixed breed of uncertain lineage. There is no logic to it that I can see. More and more I find myself saying, “Duncan used to do that”, about something Zeke has done.

Duncan

Duncan was the love of my life. Of course for his first few years I referred to him as the sheltie from hell. He got into trouble frequently, often because of something he chewed up. The corners of the coffee table, the pull handle off the lawn mower, handles from a bicycle, drywall in the garage. He also charged at bicycles on walks, and had endless energy. But as the years went by and we worked together on all these issues, we developed the deepest of relationships. He even earned the title of TDIA (Therapy Dog International Active) for completing over 50 visits to nursing homes and care facilities. He attained this because it made me happy.

And now Zeke does some of the random things that Duncan used to do. He charges bicycles, he pulls me up hills on walks when I’m tired. He likes hanging out with daddy but lives for when I come home. Just like Duncan.

I do realize he’s not Duncan. But I do love Zeke dearly too. Perhaps, as time goes by and our relationship grows, I will be gifted with another Lifetime Dog.

Zekie, My Pit Bull!?

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

This is Zeke, aka Zekie. He is my pit bull. You don’t think he looks like a pit bull? Well, he’s not exactly a pit bull.

You see, I really wanted to get a pit bull. My plan was to get one and train it to use for my therapy dog work. I wanted to help improve their image and also show that they were a member of our family of dogs and cats. I hadn’t quite convinced everyone in the family to proceed with this idea but I was wearing them down.

Then along came Zekie. He was transported from a local shelter to our house for fostering and was supposed to be a sheltie. Not only is he not a pit bull, he’s not a sheltie either.

Just what is he? He’s my type of dog, that’s what. He has separation anxiety. He has no fangs left, having broken the last two off on his crate since he’s been here. That was on Prozac twice a day. I’m weaning him off of that since it doesn’t help much and he’s not going anywhere. He is leash reactive, barking and lunging at other walkers. I have purchased an Easy Walk harness to see how that goes. He jumps up, mauling us when we return home. Still working on this.

Despite these behaviors, Zeke is my type of dog. He is loving and thinks he is a lap dog. Ironically, he loves everyone who comes in our house. It’s only people he meets while out walking that bring out his nasty side. He is fairly obedient. He loves to give kisses. He is grateful for any and all attention.

So although Zekie is not actually a pit bull, he came into my life and I love him so he is here to stay. The pit bull will have to wait until another time in the future. I foresee Zeke keeping me busy for the next couple of years. You will just have to humor me as I refer to my pit bull Zeke!

Zekie!

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

Just a quick update on foster boy Zeke. He is a happy pup.

He still has separation anxiety but it is manageable on the Prozac. If you don’t mind a dog with sizable amounts of drool in his crate when you come home. The crate is now more or less where it was when we left. Mondays are always the worst after I go back to work for the week. It’s a good thing I don’t wear expensive clothes (although this is part of the reason why) because Zeke jumps and paws at me for a while when I return. Dogs are far superior to nice clothes any day!

But the rest of the time he is a joy. He becomes a 43 lb. lap pup for about 10 minutes every day. We both enjoy this. On Sunday last week, he got to go to grandma’s for a visit along with Baxter and Cassius. The girls, Nikki and Shelby, stayed home because they were having a turn to go away the next evening to visit at the nursing home. Zeke was well behaved and listened. We had our 10 minutes of lap time there because I suspect he was feeling insecure.

Yesterday, hubby and I took Baxter, Cassius, Shelby, and Zeke for a walk on the Hike and Bike Trail and there were no incidents with other hikers. Of course this may have been because it was 15 degrees and snowy, so there were no other hikers! 😉 Hey, you seek progress where you can find it.

And last but not least Zeke has wormed his way into my heart enough that I call him Zekie!

Foster Dog, Day 2

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

Foster dog Zeke, Day 2. Today we ran errands. I didn’t want to leave Zeke home while we were having work done on our house, lest he become afraid or slip out the door. So he got to go along with me. He traveled like a champ. 

So far he does pretty much everything like a champ. He can sit, lay down, shake, and wait for your permission before going through a doorway. He goes in a crate on command. He is calm and well mannered. Has no house training accidents. He apparently lived with cat/s before because he had no reaction to ours. 


Zeke was turned in to an area pound, along with another dog, by his owner because there was a change in living circumstances. That is all I know except that he is up to date on shots, heartworm negative, and neutered. 


I am guessing that someone, somewhere is heartbroken to have to give up their dogs. Dogs don’t get like this by accident, a lot of training was involved. When you tell Zeke to sit, his back side hits the ground  immediately. To honor this person, I will do my best to make sure that Zeke ends up in a loving home where he receives the best of care. That is what I would pray for my own dogs. And Zeke deserves no less.