#and the worry about vet visits post my great vet's sad passing

[wild-at-mind]

There’s a lot I don’t miss about keeping gerbils. But oh my god, when you hold them and kiss one of their lil ears and it feels like a flower petal. I keep thinking about it I’m gonna cry. :’0

[shepherdnerd]

I haven’t been sharing much online lately because May was a really sad month for my family. We had to say goodbye to our 10 year old golden retriever, Hockley, who was Tristan’s best friend. Hockley seemed to be in excellent health and was quite active and youthful for his age up until the beginning of May when he suddenly collapsed on a walk with my mom. We rushed him to the emergency vet and they discovered a heart tumor. The vet cardiologist put him on some medication that soon had him bouncing around like his old self again, and we were grateful to have a couple more weeks with Hockley at home before his heart failed. His last couple weeks were busy with all his many friends and family and neighbours visiting him and showering him with his favourite things. We all miss him so much.

On dogblr we’ve had such a terrible time recently losing so many beloved dogs. My heart goes out to all of you and it has been a sort of comfort to see everyone supporting each other through everything. I’m grateful for this community where everyone is so understanding.

Now that I’ve had some time to process everything I think I will try to come back on Tumblr and Instagram more, but first I want to make this post to remember Hockley. I don’t post about him a lot because when we got him in 2012, he pretty quickly chose to be my mom’s dog and he followed he everywhere and was very sad if he had to go anywhere without her. This worked out fine because my mom stays at home anyway so the two of them were constant companions. Hockley was a pretty perfect family dog who loved everybody. Even when he was sick, he thought it was exciting that he kept getting to go to the vet and get attention from all the staff there. Hockley and Tristan both don’t like spending time with other dogs very much, but as Tristan grew up, the two of them became very good friends. I loved that the two of them could have intense play fights and I never had to worry about any issues between them, as they communicated so well. Hockley was also incredibly patient with children and spent the last years providing emotional support for our neighbour’s kids who were struggling while being out of school during COVID. It was truly amazing that even more than the professionals who tried to help the kids, Hockley could cheer and calm them by patiently sitting with them them or letting them show off his large repertoire of tricks. He knew how to roll over, play dead, retrieve almost anything you wanted, do beautiful heeling, and he could even do a handstand on the wall. Taking him to training class when he was younger introduced me to some amazing trainers who helped me begin my dog training career. However, he was one of those great family dogs who doesn’t really need much training as he spent his time mostly lying at my mom’s feet and enjoying bits of steak and cheese when she was cooking. He loved to go to the grocery store down the street with her and he would help her by carrying a cucumber or a bar of cheese in his mouth all the way home, which always got so much attention from people passing by. The only time Hockley caused trouble was when we took him to visit my grandparents and he would get so excited to ride in the car and see them. We are very grateful that we were able to take him to say goodbye to them and all the friends he made before the end. He was the most sweet and loving dog and our home is empty without him. 

[acrossthemar]

Corona Diaries

2/14 - Fly to Arizona for Grand Canyon and Arielle Bach Party. People in airport are wearing masks. I make a comment to my mom about it, not understanding why people are wearing masks or wondering if they are sick.

3/2 - Patient Zero tests positive for COVID19 in New Rochelle. 

3/8 - Our Boss at Schoology tells us we can work from home if we feel more comfortable. We think she’s just being lazy and wants to work from home herself.

3/6 - Comedy show in NYC. Kristin doesn’t feel well and we worry she should stay home incase she has COVID19. We go to the comedy show. The comedian makes jokes about COVID19, we laugh.

3/8 - Eric’s School closes School for the following week. I make a comment to him that that’s overkill and a “private school privilege”. All other schools will eventually close of course. 

3/11 - Mom flies to Madrid.

3/12 - National Pandemic Announced & Trump Announces Travel Ban between US/Europe. Cuomo declares State of Emergency in New York.

3/13 - Mom flies home from Madrid to NY after Mara books back up flight for Mom from Madrid to London. Mom spent $1400 to spend not even a full day in Madrid, goes back to the airport with thousands of panicked Americans, gets off stand by and comes home. Mara comes over to greet mom and give her some food, flowers, and company. 

3/14 - Mara works remotely indefinitely, office shuts down until at least April 7th. Mara and Eric do the NYT crossword, hike the Masters trails with Winnie, and Mara and Eric go to Japanese Restaurant with Susan, Jeff, and Matt. Restaurants will soon close. Earlier in the day Mara goes to Larchmont to check in on mom, goes for a walk with mom and Winnie, and meets up with Kristin, Kevin, and Zoey at Central School. 

3/15 - Mara goes to Larchmont and goes to Manor park with Shanni, Maddy, Liana, and Nicole and Nicole’s dog Remy. 

3/16 - Mara works from home. Luckily Peloton bike was delivered last week just before the store closures began. At this point all Spin Studios and Gyms shut down. Mara and Eric cook butternut squash risotto and parmesan asparagus. De Blasio announces that NYC Public Schools are closed. Meals will be served at food centers.

3/17 - Eric and Mara are watching Sex Education. Mara Eric and Susan go on trail hike with Winnie.  

3/18 - Mara Hallie Eric Winnie trail walk with Winnie. Mara Zoom date with high school friends. 

3/19 - Zoom date with MK, Jana, Jason. 

3/20 - Mom comes over for trail walk with Winnie and we cook the Shrimp Pasta dish with brussel sprouts.

3/21 - Peloton bike, talked to Elise on the phone, walked to tennis courts to play tennis with Eric’s family. The Masters courts are shut down due to Corona. Dinner at Eric’s family’s house. We sat at the dining room table to spread out. Mara played Ping Pong with Matt.

3/22 - Mara ran 3 miles, used Peloton, went to Larchmont to work on Obama NYT puzzle with mom.

3/23 - Monday, Peloton, worked from home, played SET with Eric, cooked a big salad. 

3/24 - Run, work, tennis with Jodi, visited mom, Video session with Aubrey, Elise, Kelly

3/25 - Peloton, work from home, went on walk to store, no one was there and everyone in masks. Order in sushi. Video date with MHS friends. We started a CS team fitness challenge today since no one is moving since only home! 

3/26 - Didn’t sleep because reading too much news and it’s so sad. US now has more cases than any other country (82k), NY has 37k cases, and the news is really grim. Had my virtual performance review and got a 3% raise, went on a 7 mile run but tripped on a rock and got hurt, played tennis with Jodi, then went to my mom’s and cooked dinner. I feel scared every time I go to my mom’s house in fear that I’m bringing the virus into her home. A lot of my mom’s coworkers have tested positive for COVID-19. Deccico’s is doing a great job with their grocery store (limiting number of people in store, making people wait outside 6 feet apart, mandated gloves, sanitizing shopping carts, glass wall at check out. Stop and shop is not doing much and so people haven’t been going. Trader Joes NYC closed because too many employees tested positive. Everyone is panicked and at this point it is hard to imagine life going back to normal. Even if legally it goes back to normal, everyone is absolutely terrified of other humans. Everything about this is unprecedented and unimaginable. Trump is a moron. It hurts to think about how much better handled this might have been with Obama. The 2020 Presidential Election is essentially at a standstill, no one going to primary elections, very curious what will happen, will we even be able to vote in November? Bernie and Biden left, Biden in the lead, but Biden is hardly speaking up about Covid-19. It’s been fulfilling to work at Schoology during this time as we are making a real difference in virtual learning and our school districts are eternally grateful. Side note––Amazon is hardly even running! They’ve cut down on their hours and employees, and the average wait on PRIME is 30 days!!! I am going to sleep at my mom’s tonight.

3/27 - Ended up sleeping at my mom’s on Thursday night. Took a work meeting from my mom’s then went back home. First dropped off my right AirPod at a FedEx drop off but you had to touch the box. Tried to do a Peloton class at home but Winnie got into my medicine bag and we found her with an empty laxative and ambien pill container. We took her to emergency vet and had them induce vomiting. We were terrified we killed her. Turns out she didn’t eat any pills and we ended up finding all of the pills when we got back from vet. Poor Winnie. Silly $300 at vet. Pet insurance is dumb because it has such a high deductible. I then went on a walk with Winnie because it was 64 degrees out. Eric and I cooked a fancy meatloaf for dinner and finished Sex Education.  I made a lovely cocktail. 

3/28 - Weekends don’t feel all that different from weekdays. Trump is discussing a mandatory quarantine on all New York residents since there are now 45,000 confirmed cases (many more unconfirmed). Reading the news is scary and I have been trying to limit it at night because it gives me insomnia and anxiety. Most of my friends aren’t seeing their parents at all. It’s gross out today. I did a few Peloton classes and started Little Fires Everywhere. It was a book turned into a movie but because movies are closed they released it as a TV series on Hulu. Just stepped out of the house for the first time today to take Winnie on a short walk. My team at Schoology is doing a fitness challenge to get some steps in because it’s HARD to find reasons to move! We were going to go to the Shear’s for dinner tonight but Susan had a headache this morning so to be safe we aren’t going. This is the crazy world we are currently living in. I’ve been mostly only wearing sports bras not real bras. We have not been able to locate lysol wipes in weeks. Note to self, I’d like to add some photos here because this really is all so unprecedented and it’s hard to put into words the craziness. 

3/29 - Working out every day but gaining weight. Watched Little Fires Everywhere - LOVE it. Gross day out. Peloton inside. Zoom Call with Kristin, Oliver, Parker, Mom. Went on a walk around the apartment. Weekends are worse than week days because no work to do. 

3/30 - Work is crazy because Schoology crashed since too many people on the platform. Did lots of Peloton Spin. Amanda moved her wedding to 2021. We are very worried about ours. I haven’t been sleeping. Went to visit mom with Winnie in afternoon for a walk. Passed neighbor Kelly but we couldn’t let her pet Winnie because not supposed to have other people pet your dog. We had a meeting with the Rabbi for our wedding. She is hopeful for July because she can’t stand the thought of not being able to send her kids to sleep-away camp haha. Started this dumb show Tiger King, everyone is watching it. About a man who keeps tigers in his house.

3/31 - Schoology crashed again. Too many users. Work has been busy but fulfilling though because we are so important right now, been nice to connect with my clients. It’s been hard working full days though I take breaks to work out and to do chores so I’m a bit all over the place. Went to the post office today to return a dress for my mom because I won’t let her go, all stood 6 feet apart and I feel scared to breathe in public now. It’s so bad in NY and the Daily Podcast is scaring me. 

4/1 - Work has been stressful because of the Schoology outages because everyone is doing school on Schoology now. Went to Deccico’s at lunch to do a big grocery shopping (we are trying to limit grocery store to once max twice per week since it’s unsafe to go). I wore a t-shirt as a bandana to cover my mouth, tried to keep sunglasses on, and wore a glove on my right hand (left hand was for my phone to see the shopping list). The line was wrapped around the entire corner and I ended up waiting 45 minutes. You have to be really careful to stand at least 6 feet behind the person in front of you. It was a bit overwhelming because we had such a long shopping list (also doing groceries for my mom), and they were out of a lot. I couldn’t find bread, orange juice, turkey, etc. Also have not seen lysol wipes in weeks. Unfortunately. I ended up being gone for an hour and a half and couldn’t even finish the shopping. Went to Stop & Shop after to finish the list. No one is going to Stop & Shop because they aren’t doing as good of a job with cleanliness protocol so it’s far less crowded. Under isolation I am 1) becoming a chef with Eric, we are cooking so much! 2) working out a lot and incorporating more floor workouts and strength training 3) drinking almost daily… 4) eating A LOT!!!!! Getting fit + gaining weight at the same time. Today was Greg Lesser’s birthday, so we had socially distant drinks on our lawn, I have a funny picture of all of us sitting that I’ll post above. During the happy hour, Caitlin Casey wanted to use our bathroom so she stepped inside, we deliberated if it was okay. I was too close to the door when she opened it and she alarmingly stepped back, no one gets that close anymore. Winnie turned 9 months today. A few other notes: our Election Primary has been moved to end of June. I will have to likely cancel my bachelorette party. Schoology already closed our office through April 30, with optional WFH through May 31st. I interviewed Hong Kong American School tonight, as they’ve been remote for months. They almost went back to school but when folks came back to China they brought COVID19 with them so now they are back to isolation. 

4/6 - We decided to stop going over to Eric’s family’s house because it’s making us anxious and there are four of them and Eric’s mom is still going to the hospital. I got an actual mask and have started wearing it to the store and I feel a lot more safe. It was a beautiful day today, 62 and sunny. I went to my mom’s house and worked from her patio. Then I went on a distanced walk with Winnie and Shanni and then Winnie and Caroline. I’m getting used to working fully remote, I can’t even imagine commuting in at this point.

4/7 - Here are a few things I’m grateful for during this time. Eric, a supportive and loving partner. We get along so well and find a great balance between hanging out together and being independent, so we haven’t been sick of each other at all. Our spacious apartment and easy access to green space and outdoors and running paths. Winnie, truly the love of our life, she is just a saint and we can’t imagine life without her. And the fact that we have a “home gym” ie Peloton, exercise mat, and weights. These four things make this experience far more manageable. And of course the fact that we are both still employed and that our families are still healthy.

4/11 - Went on a walk with friends in LeatherStocking Trail in Larchmont. Was a bit crowded and narrow which wasn’t good. We ran into a random boy from our high school who immediately picked up Winnie. (We aren’t letting people pet Winnie due to Corona but I didn’t act quick enough to stop it). Anyway, turns out his brother who he LIVES with has Corona. Which means he probably has it too. And he was out on a walk not social distancing and PET MY DOG!!! I was absolutely livid. 

4/15 - Cuomo requires all people wear masks in public in NYC. Cuomo says likely that there will be no large gatherings through the summer. Very sad about the wedding. Colleges are making online learning plans for the fall just incase.

4/28 - Silver lining of quarantine: I get to hear Eric’s work, not just his teaching but his deanship how eloquently and professionally he handles parent conversations, managing faculty that’s older than he is, and student situations. He is currently leading a parent forum book discussion on the book White Fragility on race and whiteness

[2019dclmed]

Departure Day

Departure Day -Thursday, May 23, 2019

With my 16 year old cat, Kealy, having gotten sick many times throughout the day prior (even though she was already on antibiotics), I had another night of lacking sleep due to worry. 

I went to sleep around 11:30pm, couldn’t get to sleep, took something at 12:30am, and set my alarm for 6am - in case I needed to see the vet at 7am. Of course I awoke on my own promptly at 5:30am. Miraculously all seemed fine with Kealy (after checking the recordings on my Blink camera from overnight). So I set a new alarm for 7:15am. 

I was slow to get up & get in the shower since I didn’t need to leave until 10:30am. So I cleaned up the living room & kitchen, did the final prep & pack of the backpack.

I also made a couple of last minute swaps due to the (sad) decline in forecasted temps.

Grabbed some snuggles in my recliner with the kitty (watching the Rapunzel animated series to get in the mood), & pulled out by 10:35am. I stopped at a grocery near Kara’s to grab last minute gas, Wheat Thins, & caffeine pills in Indy. 

Our themed-luggage tags. We tend to make these for “big” trips!

This is Kara. I slept well, as I often do, and having finished nearly all packing the night before had a quiet, easy morning. I had even finished emptying my work inbox the night before so other than a few last small to do items, I got to just tidy up around the house, say goodbye to my plants and wait for Gayle.

We left by 12:05pm for lunch at Panera. Our flight was scheduled for 3:30pm. 

First it was delayed about ten minutes. Then delayed more. Then the news came: Ground Stop. Due to East Coast storms impacting Philadelphia, everything was stopped from even heading in that direction. 

We started talking about rebooking, as it seemed we’d miss our connection in PHL. However, the plane started boarding and figured we’d deal with it at PHL - at least we’d be closer to Barcelona and at an American Airlines hub. 

I ended up sobbing all the way to PHL. 

Huge Sidenote: Most people, including myself, would read all this and figure, “What’s the big deal? So you take a different flight? Maybe your luggage is late?” For me, this was 14 months of planning falling apart and we hadn’t even left our home airport yet. It was hours of work and planning for this flight, to find an option that would allow me to sleep (as I’m a terrible international/eastbound flier) and in a budget I could afford. 

That’s right folks, I mention that almighty dollar, as for some a trip like this can be a stretch. I have a great professional job, but I also chose a profession and position that can be lacking financial rewards. A “big trip” like this is something I need to plan years in advance, which I didn’t have this time, and wasn’t strong enough to tell Kara no. And putting it off just one year woudn’t work since I have to lead a study abroad next May. So this had been a YEAR of scrimping and saving, living somewhat like a “poor college student”, only to completely lose our business class seats. (Yes, I realize as I type this many are rolling their eyes, but in this moment my reality was crushed.)

We landed at PHL at 7:12pm; our connecting flight left at 7:10pm! We were sent to stand in line at a nearby customer service gate, while having learned from the past, I simultaneously called AA. I put in for a call-back as we waited in the line. The Customer Service desk tells us since we’re international, we have to “go over there” to get help - from C31 to A17! 

During the trek I didn't hear or feel my phone go off - twice! - of AA calling me back. We initially couldn’t find the international help desk tucked in a set-back cove past A17, but finally got ourselves into that line. I finally noticed the 3rd call-back attempt and after many minutes was told there were ZERO options for anything arriving before… SUNDAY! (Our cruise was leaving Saturday!) Another meltdown, now from anger, had set-in. The phone agent told us to stay in the line we were standing in, that the in-person agent might have more options. What? How?

Finally at the front of the line at 8:30pm we were offered two Economy (not our booked business) seats leaving in 30 minutes to…Paris with a 5 hour layover to Barcelona (BCN). (Trying to rebook us was so challenging, this flight would be via Air France, which is the SkyTeam-Delta, not OneWorld-American network.) It’s a testament to how desperate we were that we jumped at that option, with virtually no questions asked. 

When we arrived at the gate to get our seats, they were already boarding! To get any seats together, we were in the very last row- 35 G&H (which gave me deja vu for the very first time I went to Europe). I was able to shoot off a quick email to Barcelona Chocolate Tours, letting them know we couldn’t make our noon tour, as we wouldn’t be landing until nearly 6pm and respectfully requested a refund. We had a suitable Economy dinner and took ALL the drugs we packed to try to get even a little sleep. I think I maybe slept through 2.5-2.75 Harry Potter 1 movies.

This is Kara. Gayle did a good job recapping this crazy set of events.  I’ll add in here that we posted a photo to Facebook to commemorate the crazy turn of events as a last notification to our friends and family of what our status was. This specific photo is very important later in the story.

Breakfast on the plane was yogurt & figs - gross. So I had my packed protein bar. Deplaning we certainly asked for help knowing where to go next. As we suspected, there was no luggage when we got to Paris (CDG). Went to Baggage Service and was told to wait until we got to BCN to put in a luggage inquiry. What?! This makes no sense, especially for how long all this might take. Kara called AA and was again told to wait until BCN.

The small bit of “raging idealist” in me thought our luggage should be waiting for us in BCN. That AA knew we were going to BCN via our original ticket and the Air France ticket showed the same. So throw them on whatever the next BCN flight is. Period. 

After enduring the long layover at CDG (in a new beautiful Air France, but packed terminal), I put my headphones on to BCN because 1) Chatty Kathy was next to me, 2) Kara and I were 2 rows apart, 3) the aisle dude commandeered the armrest, and 4) Kara & I were both in middle seats.

Arrive at BCN - no luggage. We wait in line at the American luggage desk only to be told to go to the next bay to stand in line for Air France, as apparently it’s the final airlines responsibility to deal with the luggage. So yes, there I am again having a meltdown. Why? We’re told to put in an incident report, which requested our entire cruise port itinerary and that our bags haven’t left PHL! At this time I also got email offering us a chocolate tour for Sunday, but at this late time no refund would be given. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Meltdown Sidenote: Again, many might question the freak out. Here was a much bigger issue. They were now giving us indication they had no idea when or if we might get our bags and we were about to embark on a 7 night cruise with nothing but the literal clothes on our back and whatever snacks & tech we had in our small carry-ons! We knew our same PHL-BCN flight was leaving that night at 7:10pm with an arrival at 9am Saturday morning and basically begged to get our bags on that flight! As it was currently only about noon PHL time, we knew they had plenty of time, but all we were told was they would put in the inquiry (via tele-text?!) and PHL would have to act on it in time. If our bags didn’t arrive on that flight, we’d have only a couple of hours to try to go to unfamiliar stores and buy everything we’d need for PJs, toiletries, dinner clothes, port adventures clothes, and much more. 

From Kara - this is where that photo we posted on Facebook came into play.  Some might call my family intense. Nearly all the time I call them loving and incredibly supportive. We use an app called GroupMe and we also use Google Location Services to keep track of one another.  Gayle and I had difficulty getting on wi-fi at CDG so while my family knew we’d made it there okay because my phone had connected and updated my location, I didn’t really share an update.  When we got to BCN and were dealing with the aforementioned request being sent by tele-text, I noticed in the GroupMe app that my aunt mentioned that she’d let a cousin in Phoenix who works for American Airlines know about our plight.  My cousin found our record using the photo we’d posted with our boarding pass and, thankfully, our luggage was on the same record as we had actually booked this as one reservation which is not our norm.  

Before leaving BCN we somehow had the wherewithal to request the luggage be held at BCN if it arrived, as we didn’t trust and couldn’t take a risk of passing it or a delay in delivery to the hotel &/or ship. We’d determined no matter what we’d return to the airport seeking our luggage Saturday morning, as it was the only real strategy we could take control of. 

We finally got to our hotel, AC Hotel Marriott Diagonal D’Illa,  around 7:30-8pm and just like in all telling TV shows & films - yes, it was raining. It was fatefully connected to a mall. We ended up with basic chicken sandwiches (and by this I mean crustless white bread with shredded chicken) and water for dinner. I did pick up a piece of chocolate cake, more out of habit than want. 

That I couldn’t even bring myself to visit the Disney Store tells you how despondent I was. 

Our hotel room was like a “camp version” of a hotel room - just the bare basics. We showered (using every amenity kit we could from the hotel), put our same clothes back on, and borrowed electrical adapters to charge our phones. 

By absolute fate we had initially posted a photo of ourselves with our boarding passes on Facebook. I thought I’d covered our confirmation number, but apparently not. Via the “Monroe Family Network” (Kara’s family), her Aunt Idris sent our confirmation number to a distant cousin who happens to work for… American Airlines Customer Service! Through Idris we were told Cousin Kimberley spoke with a supervisor at PHL who had located our bags and would “do their best” to put them on our requested evening flight to arrive at 9am Saturday morning. Another follow-up re-affirmed. 

Friday night we also logged onto the Air France baggage site as instructed. The only thing it showed was “luggage found - awaiting confirmation”. At some point I decided trying to apply my social media knowledge (as I’m also a known blogger for a popular TV series). I sent the AA Twitter account a Direct Message with our confirmation number begging them to put our bags on the PHL-BCN 7:10pm-9am flight. Around 10:30pm we got a positive response that yes this would happen! 

Between this & Kara’s cousin’s messages, there were more hesitant and slight tears (of relief?), as we feared getting our hopes up.

Continuing to pile on, there was loud party music raging outside our room from somewhere we couldn’t see. So Kara looked for some brainless TV. With my experience in Europe I assured her if she looked long enough she’s probably find NCIS &/or Big Bang Theory. Sure enough Gibbs & the team gave us a slight calm in the midst of our storm. We tried to go to sleep by 11pm (which was only 5pm back home).  

I woke up just past 2am. On the AA app it showed our confirmation number to check-in for our PHL-BCN flight - yay! But for a Saturday departure/Sunday arrival - NO! I figured this was our bags and was again defeated. I freaked-out internally while Kara slept. But the AA website showed our bags were loaded onto the requested flight at 3:20pm? Huh? So I took more drugs to get back to sleep.

This is Kara. There isn’t much I can add to this day other than a little more about my, as my niece Ashley said in a Facebook post commenting later on in the week, “creepy” family. Yes, sometimes we are remarkably creepy in how we keep up with each other.  But, when push comes to shove, having a team of people in your immediate circle who are always in your corner is reassuring. I’d been checking in with them each time we got a network connection and giving them updates. I got to “meet” my cousin’s wife Kimberley for the first time through this situation and look forward to meeting her in person someday. The family was also watching my Google Location icon pop up all over the world all through the trip.  It truly is a good thing to know you’ve got people and they’ve got you too.

Disclaimer: Gayle is a travel agent with Authorized Disney Travel Planner agency - Off to Neverland Travel. Contact me today for a no-obligation quote!

Next up: Embarkation Day! Would the luggage actually arrive?

[vickisventures]

Steve and Dennis after helping park an RV on Monday.

Pets Make the World Go Around

I realized last night that we have officially been full-timers for 13 weeks!  So far, no regrets.  Even coming back from a real house last weekend to our much smaller RV, wasn’t difficult.  I guess that means we are doing ok!  I’m working on a list of positives and negatives regarding this lifestyle…that blog post will come soon.  Work is still going well.  Yesterday, the office was so quiet and boring I decided to do our laundry while I was at work.  Nice perk! I think the phone literally rang 3 times and no one came in needing anything.  Probably because it was too cold out!  Not sure if working Tuesdays and Wednesdays is a good thing or bad thing. We rarely have arrivals or departures on those days so crazy it is not.  So is that a negative or a positive?

Aspen has figured out that he can get out of his “corral” that he sleeps in at night.  But, in his defense, he has had diarrhea and has needed out so that he won’t soil his sleeping area.  Problem is, instead of picking the laminate flooring, he has been using the carpeted area!  We didn’t get much sleep last night because of him.  We are hoping it’s just something he ate and it’ll work its course.  Think we’ll give it one more day/night and if he’s not better, then we’ll take him to the vet.  He acts like he feels ok so, hoping for no vet visit/bill.  I’ve always thought that when Aspen passes, that we’d get a dog immediately because I will miss him so and it’ll be so quiet.  Last night as I lay awake waiting for him to need us again, I was rethinking it.  I love my dog, no doubt about that; but he has caused a lot of worry, stress, fear, frustration, and money over the last 14 years.  The weeks of training (potty and manners), the need to kennel him or find a dog sitter when we went on vacations, the “walks” (by Steve mostly) taken when it’s snowing, raining, cold, dark…all of that is part of being a dog owner.  Honestly, I don’t regret it, but do I want to do it for another 14+ years?  Do I want to deal with moving a pet to a foreign country? I’m not sure.  I wouldn’t trade Aspen in for a billion dollars, but life is a bit different now.  I sure would miss a dog’s unconditional love, funny antics, and excitement over the smallest things.  Tough decision…glad I don’t have to make it now.

If you saw my Facebook post, you’ll know that we have had more winter-like weather.  Had probably 2 inches of snow on Monday.  Yesterday was just plain miserable.  Windy and cold…today is windy and cold too but we missed the snow they predicted.  I did look at the 10-day forecast and seems once we reach June 1, we are looking at solid 70’s.  Yay!  We have a Memorial Day party here at the park (on, yes, Memorial Day).  I don’t think we’ll be eating outside.  Good thing we have a club house that is big enough to house the attendees.  Only the lucky ones cooking the burgers will know that the weather isn’t great.  They also have something called “Duck Races” on Saturday.  I have no idea what that is all about, but we may go to find out. All I know is that the lady who said Bunko was too loud, said she won’t go to the Duck Races because they are too noisy.  

My school year would be ending tomorrow if I were still teaching.  It’s weird to think that if I had stuck it out for the whole year, I’d be cleaning out my room right now and saying my goodbyes.  I feel a little sad when I see pictures on Facebook of Seniors that will be graduating on Saturday and know I missed that; but I still feel I am where I’m supposed to be at this point in time, snow and all.  

[carasueachterberg]

This is a long-overdue post to catch you up on Daisy’s Diary of a Rescue.

Truly, I did not imagine I would still be writing this Diary almost six months later. But maybe that’s the piece of rescue that is hardest – they are all good dogs, but some require a little more of us than others.

Sometimes you rescue a dog from a shelter, imagining it’s shiny new future now that it is ‘out’, but then that future is nothing like you imagined. For whatever reason, some dogs struggle to find a forever family.

In our rescue we call them long-term dogs. I’ve also heard them called hard-to-adopt dogs.

When they first arrive, we are excited and motivated, but when the foster situation drags on (and on), you begin to wonder….will she ever be adopted?

I don’t know.

But I do know she deserves to be.

Daisy B is a sweetheart. She has a huge heart swollen with unused love ready to pour it out on her future ‘mommy’. That much I’m certain of—when the right person comes along and takes a chance on this precious pup, that person will be overwhelmed by the loyalty and love that Daisy will offer.

Yes, Daisy is still paralyzingly afraid of men. But she doesn’t bite or snarl at them like many dogs who are afraid of men will do. She simply runs away from them and if there is no avoiding them, she freezes in terror.

And the amazing thing is that over time, she comes to like men who do not threaten her, men who let her come to them on her terms.

Yes, she is still learning that the insides of buildings are safe, but that fear is waning as she has gotten very comfy inside our house and she has begun visiting others.

And yes, she needs to be the only dog in her home…for now. She is still defensive towards other dogs, obviously having had some not so great experiences. But when she sees another dog, she does not bark or growl, she wags her tail and gets excited, so I know that she wants to have doggie friends, but for now she will require her adoptive family to be focused on her alone.

She’ll need someone patient and someone willing to listen to her. But the rewards, oh the rewards, they will be great.

Because this is a great dog.

It’s killing me that she will be spending so much time in boarding over the next few months as I will be away working on our new house in Virginia and also traveling to shelters in the south again.

If you have been watching Daisy and feeling a pull to adopt or foster her, now is the time to step up. She can be adopted with a lengthy trial adoption period, or even a foster-to-adopt situation. She has had a portion of her adoption fee sponsored, and another generous person has donated funds to pay for initial training with her new adopter.

So, I know you feel it’s a risk, everything in life is, but I’m here to tell you that Daisy is not a risk, she is a sure thing. All she needs is a chance.

What follows are the entries for her diary for the last two months in their entirety as they have been posted on Facebook:

Diary of a Rescue Day 84:

Daisy is a different dog outside- here she is meeting my friend Allison. She met my friend Pam this morning and was just as happy to meet her. I’ve never seen such a drastic difference in a dog’s behavior outside versus inside. Who wants to adopt this silly love bug? #adoptabledog Daisy B #yournextbestfriend

Diary of a Rescue Day 87 :

We’ve discovered that Daisy loves children! These two kiddos stopped by (with almost all of the Rescue Road Trip Team!) on Sunday and Daisy was beside herself with joy. She sniffed and licked them endlessly like they were puppies!

#areyoumymother? #adoptabledog Daisy B available thru ophrescue.org 

Diary of a Rescue Day 88:

Daisy had a fun day today. She, Flannery, and I drove to my friend Gina’s house and went for a walk in her busy neighborhood.

With Flannery in the lead, Daisy was a different dog than the last time we walked with Gina. She trotted along, more interested in all the good smells than worrying about the people we passed- she hardly even noticed a man with a leaf blower!

When we came home, her favorite friend Tanis stopped by and that just made her day!

#opttoadopt Daisy B from ophrescue.org #heartdog

Diary of a Rescue Day 92:

This is a long overdue update but our world is busier than usual. Daisy’s days are much the same, divided between time in the kitchen and long stretches outside in the playyard.

She is always overjoyed to see me- leaping and twirling and I have to wait for her to settle and sit to put on the leash. She acts more like a ‘regular’ dog every day and I’m working on her leash manners.

She’s had quite a few visitors and usually greets them happily but hesitantly at first before devolving into the zoomies and tearing around the yard to show off.

I took her to the vet on Friday because the nails on her dew claws confounded me and I couldn’t figure out where the quick was, plus they were too thick for my clippers and were beginning to curl back on themselves. (Full confession- clipping nails scares me so I’m generally much too conservative and rely on long walks on the roads to keep nails under control).

It turned out that she actually had two nails (intertwined) on one foot and three on the other! The vet got them trimmed but said Daisy really should have those hind dewclaws removed at some point. When dewclaws are as floppy and barely connected as hers are, they are normally removed as a puppy when the dog is spayed, but we all know that Daisy did not have a pampered puppyhood.

I worried how she would be at the vet, but she did great and the staff loved her and thought she was beautiful (she is).

I’ve started Daisy on a homeopathic tincture for anxiety and I’m hopeful it will help, but really she isn’t anxious when it’s just the two of us and I think when she gets a real family, she’ll be fine too. She just won’t be a dog that loves to go to the pet store or playground with you (although we’re going to try those places in the next few weeks).

I’ll try to do better with updates this week but it is a busy time in our house full of dogs (10!).

#areyoumymother? #opttoadopt Daisy B

Diary of a Rescue Day 94:

Pictures of Daisy

#ready #areyoumymother? #adoptthisdog

Diary of a Rescue Day 97:

Daisy is very happy spending her days in the yard, but now that company is leaving and Nick is headed out of the country again, I’m hoping to get her back to a regular schedule (time inside, crate time, walks) and also take her on some outings to see how she is in public places. Her confidence has grown so much that I think she might be fine if she has Flannery along.

Can’t say whether the homeopathic drops are helping but they sure aren’t hurting.

Daisy loves her toys and kind of plays fetch (though she is easily distracted). Mostly she loves attention- butt scratches and snuggles. She is so ready for her forever home, but we will keep trying to expand her world.

#readywhenyouare #opttoadopt Operation Paws For Homes

Diary of a Rescue Day 98:

Just had to post this picture I got of Daisy tonight. She is such a pretty dog.

I took her for a walk yesterday in a busy neighborhood without Flannery chaperoning and she was amazing. We passed a man with his dog and she didn’t even miss a beat, even when he talked to us (told me I had a ‘gorgeous dog’). We ran into another guy that Gina knows well and we stopped while she gave him a hug and I shook his hand and Daisy did not panic, just waited quietly. I really feel like we’ve turned some kind of corner in terms of her confidence.

I walked her this morning and pretty much forget to worry about her, like she was a ‘regular dog’. We went about three miles with no panic attacks, no issues.

I’m seriously considering introducing her to our dogs once Nick is back from his work trip in a week. At the very least, we are going to go check out the dog park, since she now loves to go for rides in the car and jumps right in. I need a house to visit. I think her biggest hurdle will be going indoors. We may try the pet store or home depot, and take Flannery along for that. Anybody local who would like a Daisy visit, let me know!

#thisgirlisonherway #progress

Diary of a Rescue: Day one hundred and something:

We’re in our fifth month with Daisy and this finally happened.

Diary of a Rescue Day 124:

I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve given you an update. It has been a really hard couple of weeks here.

Daisy has been unfazed by the emotional turmoil, as far as I can tell. She’s had long days alone in the side yard but is happy outside. She pulled some of the lattice off the side of the small porch out there to create her own little shelter (rejecting the puppy house that Nick removed the side from to allow her access). Now she reminds me of the troll under the bridge (the nice one). Sometimes when I go outside I have to stand and call to her and wait for her to crawl out. At which point, she inevitably gets the zoomies, thrilled beyond reason by my visit and oblivious to my sadness.

A few early evenings Nick and I have sat outside with her, quietly watching the bluebirds who have moved into the birdhouse on the fence (for the first time since we put it up). Daisy is always happy for our company and has grown to be very affectionate with Nick. As long as he is seated in the Adirondack chair or on the steps, she covers him with kisses and insists on pets. If he gets up, she follows him, sometimes showing off with her zoomies but shying from his touch. It’s progress and makes me believe that she will be able to be adopted into a home with a man in it, as long as he is patient and waits for her to accept him.

I am praying hard for her to find an adopter. We will be away a lot this summer and this will mean that Daisy spends a lot of time in a boarding facility. She is ready to find her home and has an enormous heart that has years worth of love stockpiled inside waiting to unleash it on her person.

If you know someone looking for their next best friend, please suggest Daisy. She loves children and women but would do best as a solo dog. She seems pretty oblivious to cats, walks great on a leash/harness in all kinds of environments, and is crate-trained and working on basic commands (she’s an ace at ‘sit’).

#adoptabledog #opttoadopt #yournextbestfriend.

Diary of a Rescue Day 135:

Daisy has come so far and now we just have to wait for the right person to come along and choose her. I never know what makes a person choose a dog- I guess it’s a bit like falling in love- totally unpredictable.

Daisy is more than ready and as you can see in this video has tons of love to give. She deserves a happy life.

Today I will drop her at a boarding facility for the week while I am gone in Tennessee visiting the shelters. She did fine last time but it was a different facility. I’m supposed to take her bed but her bed is actually a ‘nest’ of bits of blankets she shredded a few months ago. Not sure what they’ll make of that so I’m going to take the blanket I use to cover her crate when the kids are up late with the lights on and one of my t-shirts for comfort. I’m guessing she’ll shred both.

I know she’ll be safe and it sounds like a really nice kennel (indoor/outdoor), but I’ll worry nonetheless. It will be a long week for her and I just hope we get our same happy Daisy back at the end of it.

#opttoadopt Daisy B Operation Paws For Homes

Diary of a Rescue Day 143:

Daisy is sooooooooo happy to be ‘home’ after a week in boarding. The facility was spotless and the staff very attentive but it still feels like (and smells like) a shelter.

Daisy had an indoor/outdoor run in one of the quiet buildings. Those are the ones where the kennels don’t face each other so the dogs know other dogs are there but can’t see them. This immaculate facility had 200 kennels. I requested that Daisy not be handled by men and was told there are no men on staff.

She doesn’t seem any worse for wear. Gosh this pretty girl is ready to be adopted. I just wish it would happen.

#pickme #DaisyB Operation Paws For Homes

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to know more about my blogs and books, visit CaraWrites.com or subscribe to my occasional e-newsletter.

If you’d like to know more about the book, Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs, visit AnotherGoodDog.org, where you can find more pictures of the dogs from the book (and some of their happily-ever-after stories), information on fostering, and what you can do right now to help shelter animals! You can also purchase a signed copy or several other items whose profits benefit shelter dogs!

If you’d like to know how you can volunteer, foster, adopt or donate with OPH, click here. And if you’d like more pictures and videos of my foster dogs past and present, be sure to join the Another Good Dog Facebook group.

I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to comment here on the blog, email carasueachterberg@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram.

 Best,

 Cara

Released August 2018 from Pegasus Books and available now

Diary of a Rescue: Month Six Sometimes foster dogs don't leave #opttoadopt #dogrescue #fostertoadopt This is a long-overdue post to catch you up on Daisy’s Diary of a Rescue. Truly, I did not imagine I would still be writing this Diary almost six months later.

[sherrygorugh]

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco by Michael

There are few jobs in the coffee industry as romantic or mysterious as roaster. Traditionally, the tradecraft of the making-coffee-darker arts has been a closely guarded secret, passed on from roaster to roaster in old fashioned apprenticeships. Other than a couple of good books, there’s not many resources available to aspiring novice roasters. Joe Marrocco is helping to change that. The longtime Cafe Imports educator recently moved on to work with Mill City Roasters, but the year-long video project Roasting Concepts is now free to view on YouTube. We caught up with “Roaster Joe” over email in the midst of his busy travel schedule to learn the thought behind the project, and how young roasters can develop their skills. 

Over the last seven months Cafe Imports have been releasing a series of videos called “Roasting Concepts.” What inspired the project?

This is a project that I worked on with Cafe Imports over several years. I know that the videos seem very simple and short, but they took a long time to conceptualize, carve out time for and put together. The idea was born out of teaching people roasting at the Cafe Imports headquarters in Minneapolis.

I would spend essentially four to five days between prep and execution teaching 8-12 people how to roast in a two-day class. My desire was that I wanted to teach as many people as I possibly could, and get the information to them in a way that was effective, easily digested, meaningful, and low cost to them. This would require something more than asking 12 people at a time to come and visit us. I simply didn’t have the time to invest in spending four to five days away from my desk on a regular basis as well. I mean, my main job there was sales. So, I decided it would be best to spend time with people in their own homes, offices, wherever, and through the magic of technology. I then began to develop the curriculum that would achieve all of those goals, and lean on Andy Reiland, the director of marketing at Cafe Imports, to add the visual aids to pull everything together. That alone was an incredible process of collaboration.

Coffee roaster is one job without very defined career paths. How did you become “Roaster Joe”?

I knew, fairly soon after becoming a barista, that roasting is where I would spend some quality years of my life. I was not satisfied, from a craft and culinary perspective, only knowing extraction. I wanted to control more than that in the process, or at least understand that control.

I was offered a job at Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company in Saint Louis as a roaster and I loved it. Well, kind of. I loved the art and science of it. I did not love the monotony of roasting day in and day out. I would kind of deal with that part of the job as a payment forward to get me to those opportunities to dig into and unlock a profile on a new coffee, or sample roast a bunch of new arrivals, or better yet, teach a group that was coming through about the roasting process. Teaching is where I thrive. Kaldi’s was quick to recognize this and made me an educator with perks of being able to roast as I wished after only about a year and a half beside the machines.

Upon leaving Kaldi’s in 2011, I jumped into Cafe Imports with an exploratory hunger. I mean, they have HUNDREDS of different coffees. So, I began roasting these coffees and trying to figure out how to best highlight them. I began, and very controversially at the time, posting my profiles and taste notes on their website. Although I had already been “roasterjoe” for a while, this is where people outside of my normal circles began to care a bit more about my style and ramblings. Cafe Imports also supported me and encouraged me in this area and allowed me to do a lot more work with the (then called) Roasters Guild.

Beyond this, I think that one key thing that helped me the most in my journey was, once I was at Cafe Imports I was able to spend quality time with a huge number of roasters on their equipment with coffee that I knew, and simply roast a bunch of different styles on all of these machines. The cross-referencing that your mind does through taste and smell is incredibly powerful. I was able to see how roasters were implementing different strategies to achieve the results they wanted. I saw how a roaster on one machine would have a strategy that opposed a roaster’s on another machine, but their results were the same, or vice versa. I began to connect a lot more dots and learn about the deeper science of roasting in general, and not the exact craft of roasting on one particular machine. This was revolutionary and has been something that I have made my mind up to continually share with as many roasters as I can, open source, or as free as possible.

You’ve worked with a wide variety of different coffee roasters through out your career. What is it about Mill City that made you willing to throw in with this company?

I have been doing collaborative work with Mill City, really since they started about five years ago. The belief that roasting coffee should not be an exclusive job, more people can and should be doing it and doing it well, information on how to cook green coffee should not be a huge secret as it is actually fairly simple to do it fairly well, and the ability that their equipment has at empowering entrepreneurs who are otherwise kind of on the fringes of society are all things we agree on, full force. I have aligned goals with Mill City’s goals. I want to help people who are brave enough to venture out into business on their own become successful. The idea of putting my full-time devotion toward these ends was impossible to say no too.

Along with this, the machines are LEGIT. As a roaster nerd, I have this personal list of things like, “I wish this machine didn’t simply have a damper, but that I could control the airflow by using a dial to control the fan speed,” along with so many more. Over the years, Steve Green and Nick Green of Mill City Roasters have heard all of these wishes from us roasters and have worked tirelessly at implementing the controls and information read-outs that matter to roasters, and actually matter to coffee. Sure, they have vetted these and thrown out ideas that don’t truly matter. This makes things even better! The machines are incredibly interactive, intuitive, repeatable, and honestly, FUN to roast on. We have people come through all of the time who have roasted on other equipment and feel sad leaving at the end of the day because the machines are just so fun. Helping my roaster friends have fun in their day to day job, which for me began to get so boring, is worth taking on this new job all by itself.

Do you still get to roast coffee with your new role? If so, what coffee have you been enjoying roasting recently?

HA! Yes. Indeed I do. I have been spending a lot of time getting into some of the other systems within the company, so I have not gotten to devote a lot of time to this yet, but I have full access to our green coffee and roasting equipment at any and all times. Most of the time I spend roasting is spent with other people either during a class, or a demo, or simply talking shop. I was recently able to take a trip through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and teach four two day courses. I was able to roast on a lot of interesting equipment on this trip and it just continued to drive home how special our machines are.

I have been enjoying a natural Ethiopia that we picked up from Cafe Imports. But, if I am honest, I find the most joy in whatever is in the drum at the time I am roasting it. I know that sounds cheesy and made up, but it is absolutely true.

What advice would you give to an aspiring roaster? (Besides watching “Roasting Concepts”!)

Every roaster is different in their own goals and aspirations. Being successful in roasting is not about producing the perfect roast, the perfect coffee, the ultimate machine. If you chase that myth, you will only find disappointment and form firm ideals around how one “should” roast coffee. Being successful in roasting is about you. This is why it is very hard for me to define. It is about fulfillment, contentment, respect, equity in something, and so many other things. I know that for myself, it is that sense that I am making the world a better place, I am supporting my family, I am helping people around the world support their families, I am creating something of beauty that matters, and I am heard as a professional. In roasting, there are a lot of roadblocks to many people in achieving these goals. For those folks who cannot achieve this through the traditional methods of simply getting a job at a great company as a roaster, I recommend working toward creating your own thing. Carve out your success, and work toward including others in that space who have experienced your same struggle.

Ok, that may be a bit more philosophical than you were hoping for. Here are some practical things as well.

– Roast a bunch and fail a bunch. Burn a bunch of coffee. – Taste everything you roast. – Taste other people’s roasts. – Try to get on a number of different machines. – Try a bunch of different strategies. – Stop freaking out about dark roasts, and realize that a roast level is not a moral issue. – Don’t believe everything you hear just because a powerful voice says it. – Don’t disregard everything you hear, because there is likely a nugget of truth in just about everything, or that individual would not believe it. – Try to find something beyond yourself to work for in your pursuit for success, in order to make your success actually valuable and not simply ego. – Collaborate with people who you strongly disagree with. – Stop being as worried about long-term success and try to focus in on the short-term successes every day. If you do the small things well, they snowball to big things. – Focus your attention on, in other words, be mindful and intentional, when eating. Every taste experience you have is a learning opportunity. – Try to sleep well, eat well, move often, drink moderately, and stay healthy. Nothing is more important to your success than your health. – Remember, the best roasters on earth are likely the people who you will never see on video or in a magazine. The best of us are too busy ROASTING for all of that.

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco was first posted by Michael on The Coffee Compass, The Coffee Compass - Your Guide for Craft Coffee

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco published first on https://linlincoffeeequipment.tumblr.com/

[oddolddogs-blog]

Hippo’s Best Last Day

Well, it’s happened. Something that I made has gone (kinda) viral.

As someone with very few, very specific talents, I never really anticipated that anything that I created or did would be exposed to 1.5+ million people. But it has happened. So, I suppose I should probably say something. And strap in boys and girls, because I’m about to say a lot.

I won’t talk about myself much. Let’s just keep it simple- just an introduction for those of you who may just be joining us. My name is Sophiane Nacer. Many of you have already sent me friend requests. I probably won’t accept, just because most of things I post are either also posted to the rescue’s official Facebook (because they’re pictures of the dogs), or they’re about how my life-size Severus Snape from Amazon just arrived or how, according to a Buzzfeed post, I am a Chinstrap penguin. Anyways, I digress. I founded Cayleb’s Kindred Senior Dog Rescue five years ago, when I was 14 years old. A childhood filled with feral cats and other animal oddities culminated when I rescued Cayleb, who I had for a month until he passed suddenly from advanced liver cancer. Realizing just how many senior dogs were being overlooked and euthanized in local shelters, we decided to continue to rescue dogs like Cayleb- his kindred spirits, you could say (see what we did there?). So I drafted my unsuspecting mother and my extremely dog-and-everything-else allergic father into the strange, wonderful world of old dog rescue.

It’s been five years of mostly just my mom and me tackling the insurmountable task of not only rescuing senior dogs from euthanasia, but convincing people that senior dogs deserved to be rescued from euthanasia. The first few years were difficult. We were frequently accused of “wasting time and resources” on these “lost causes”. These accusations didn’t just come from uneducated members of the public, but from fellow rescuers. Luckily, in the past year or so we’ve seen a definite change for the better. We have more support than ever, and more people (fosters and adopters) looking to share their lives with amazing old dogs, no matter how long (or short) that time may be.

Hippo was one of those amazing dogs.

Hippo was brought to Adams County Animal Shelter- the same shelter we got Cayleb from five years back- as a stray. Anyone who looked at him could see that he was severely neglected. His face was misshapen and ulcerated from what appeared to be aggressive tumors. His skin was infected and raw. His nails were unkempt and curling into the pads of his paws. Whoever had Hippo before didn’t deserve him and he certainly didn’t deserve to suffer through what they put him through. So I offered to take him. I was under no illusions as to his condition. Just looking at his intake photo it was clear that medical intervention would be of no help to him. The kindest thing would be to make sure that he passed easily and peacefully. And if that could be accomplished in a home, where he would be loved, then I was more than willing to do that for him. Of course, I didn’t really know if he would want that. The rescue coordinator, a friend of mine, didn’t know either. He was suffering so much, and had been for so long, that nobody would blame him if he didn’t want to be touched. If he didn’t want to move. If he didn’t want to interact. If that was the case, I wouldn’t force him to get into another car and go to yet another place. But I would’ve stayed there for his passing and hoped that he knew he was loved.

Of course, like all of our dogs, Hippo exceeded all my expectations.

When I met him, he was gently wagging his tail from behind the chain link of his kennel. He happily walked out into the play yard, even though he would bump into things as he went because of the tumors growing over his eyes. When we were out there, he peed on everything like a typical boy (though a lot more than any dog without nearly complete kidney failure would’ve ever been able to muster). He trotted around and sniffed all the smells. He came up to us and asked to be pet. He tried to climb into the shelter vet’s lap. He had a lot of life left in him, but his body was failing him, and there’s nothing worse than watching a dog who wants to continue to live and love and romp be dragged down by their own shut-down body. But I decided that if today really was to be his last, we were going to make it a really, really great one. The best one. Filled with only the best things.

Best thing #1: drive with the windows down. I rarely let any of our dogs stick their heads out the window, due to a perfectly justified fear of them rocketing out of the car at the next sharp turn. But for Hippo, well, how could I say no? Hippo stuck his head out and his little Shar-Pei ears twitched in the most adorable way only really happy little Shar-Pei ears can. After five days in the shelter for a legally-required stray hold (during which nobody came to retrieve him), he basked in the feeling of a warm breeze on his face.

Best thing #2: we stopped at Starbuck for a puppuccino. They gave us an extra puppuccino after hearing his story. He devoured them both with an unparalleled gusto. Picture a pre-teen girl drinking the first pumpkin-spice frapp of the season, and you’d still be failing to grasp the sheer enthusiasm.

Best thing #3: go to the park. It was beautiful weather (thank you, global warming, for giving us such a nice day in October). We found a spot underneath a still-leafed tree, sat down on the grass, and opened a can of tripe. For those who may not know, tripe is one of the strongest-smelling (read: worst-smelling) things on earth, but I have not met a single dog that can resist it. Hippo certainly couldn’t. That entire 13.2oz can was finished in less than a minute, though a fair amount was smeared all over my hands (Hippo was unable to eat on his own due to the painful and disfiguring nature of his facial tumors) and the grass around us. If you ever walk your dog in Wash Park in the next few months and find them inexplicably drawn to a patch of grass in the North side of the park, it’s because the pungent smell of tripe is clinging to the blades with a death grip.

Best thing #4: drink from the lake. This is something I never let our dogs do, as I shudder to think about the havoc the bacteria would wreak on their delicate systems. But for Hippo, long-term consequences weren’t really a consideration. So he got the go-ahead. In five years of this, I have never seen a dog drink as much water in one go as that dog drank. As impressive as it was, it was also sad to know just how damaged his internal system must’ve been for him to be drinking that much and peeing completely unconcentrated urine in equal volume. But we didn’t focus on that. Instead, we focused on not ending up in the lake itself- Hippo was quite perturbed when the water had the gall to lap at his toes and I was not particularly looking to wade any time soon.

Best thing #5: make some friends. At first, I didn’t try to introduce Hippo to any other dogs. I was worried that if they happened to bump into his face, or another sore spot, he might react. But when an over-excited, wiggly, off-leash Golden Retriever rushed over to us, Hippo was so happy. His tail began to wag faster than I had ever seen it. He let his face be sniffed, and sniffed right back. After that, I tried to find other friendly dogs to introduce him to. It was difficult. People who began to make their way over to us with the clear intention of letting their dog visit would quickly turn the other way when they got close enough to see Hippo’s condition. I can’t imagine what they thought- that I was a monster who was abusing my dog, that he was infected with a horribly contagious disease, etc. And I could somewhat understand- after all, it is our job to make sure our dogs are kept safe and away from horrible people and horrible diseases. But it also broke my heart because every time Hippo knew a dog was coming (either by seeing them enter into his limited field of vision or by hearing the clinking of their tags), his little tail would start wagging. And when he heard them leaving, it would stop. Luckily, we met a wonderful woman and her older Golden Retriever. Both her and her dog stopped to say hello to Hippo, and the two of us talked about him while the dogs happily visited. When she heard that it was Hippo’s last day, she went over to him and pet him and told him how glad she was to have met him. If you are reading this, wonderful woman (or her awesome dog, in which case wow- good job learning to read, awesome dog) I want you to know how much it meant to me (and Hippo, of course) that you stopped and said hello.

Best thing #6: cuddle. We sat in the grass for a while, just watching and smelling and hearing all the things going on around us. With his tummy full and his initial exploration done, Hippo and I got to know each other. He was an extremely soulful dog- the type of dog that would approach you gently, quietly, with everything he had. The type of dog that had eerily human eyes. The type of dog who stands right in front of you with his head bowed, just waiting for a kiss or ear scratch. Just for a moment, when he allowed me to rub his ears and under his chin, trusting me entirely despite how close I came to his painful sores, I started to cycle through that unavoidable thought process. ‘Maybe,’ I thought ‘I could take him to CSU’s Teaching Hospital. Maybe they would know of some miracle cure. Maybe I could raise enough money to do all the fancy new procedures that exist in the hopes that one would fix all his ailments and give him the time he deserved.’  But that wouldn’t have been fair. I think oftentimes we become so overcome with love and the feeling that “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my dog” that we forget dogs live in the moment. They don’t think “well, if I go through this painful, exhausting treatment for a few months I’ll have an extra year”. All they know is that, in that moment, they’re painful and tired. And after three hours in the park, Hippo was both. He began to slow his trot to a stumble. He began to paw at his face, breaking open two of his sores despite my best efforts to prevent it. He became less interested in the things around him.

So we headed home, with his head out the window once more.

Best thing #7: eat a roasted chicken. Dr. Erica Rambus, the veterinarian who generously does all of our in-home euthanasia, brought a chicken for him. We spread a blanket out on the floor of the living room and sat down with him, overcoming our delicate vegan sensitivities to tear off pieces for him to munch on as he drifted off to sleep. I laid down beside him, rubbing his tiny little ears and kissing his wrinkly cheek as he began to snore louder and louder. And then he was gone.

Hippo’s passing was very peaceful, filled with lots of gentle kisses, whispered words of affection, and lots of tears.

He’s home again now, this time in a wooden, flower-engraved urn next to the ashes of my own two hospice dogs Annie and Gremlin (whose ashes are mixed in with his best friend, Soze the old albino rat). He’s right next to the head of my bed, where I wish he could’ve slept- he would’ve been quite the snorer, but after five years of sleeping through the assorted noises old dogs emit during sleep that would’ve been just fine.

With all that I loved him, I can’t help but feel angry. I try to refrain from judging the former families of the dogs we get- after all, you can never really know the circumstances that led to an old dog being a stray. But in Hippo’s case, I don’t think there is an excuse good enough to justify his state. The video I took doesn’t show the magnitude of Hippo’s sores, overcoming his face so much that he could no longer see out of one eye or eat without assistance. How his nose was all but destroyed. How there’s blood on the inside of my rear window where he rested his head. How his folds of skin were raw and infected. How his nails hadn’t been trimmed in ages- if ever. What makes me even angrier is that, through all of that, Hippo was an amazing dog. It is unimaginable to me how someone could let any dog suffer, much less a dog who must’ve still loved them despite their total neglect.

But it doesn’t do to dwell on that anger. What we should dwell on is how loved, spoiled, and happy Hippo was on his last day. He left this world having felt grass under his paws, the wind in his face, and a smorgasbord of goodies filling his tummy. And as much as I wish I could’ve known him for much, much longer, I feel so overwhelmingly lucky that I met him. And I’m so glad that you all have met him to- even if it is after he passed.

His circumstance is one of the worst we’ve seen, but his story one of the best we’ve ever been a part of.

So thank you- so, so much- to all of you who have cried over his video. Who have donated to our cause so we can continue to help dogs like Hippo. Who have shared his story with your friends so they too can see how special old dogs like Hippo are. 

One day, there will be a dog that you too can give a best last day to. And when that happens, remember this: you literally cannot go wrong with a puppuccino in the park.

[carasueachterberg]

It’s the pitties that break my heart. There are so many. I don’t know if it’s that they have such expressive faces or if they know their odds, but as we pass row after row of them, their sadness seeps right through the kennel fence into my soul.

On this Rescue Road Trip, we’ve had the opportunity to walk many pitbulls, to hug them, to cuddle them, to play with them off leash, even. At Newberry County Shelter, I led Kimbo (or mostly Kimbo led me) into the playyard. I threw a ball for him and he dodged after it, but then left it where it lay to come back again and again in search of my touch, so I spent most of my time ‘exercising’ him by holding him in a hug.

Hazel was so frightened I had to coax her out of the building and once outside, she wouldn’t go any further than the pile of gravel just outside the door, so we sat down in the sunshine and chatted for about fifteen minutes until Katrina, the rescue coordinator came looking for us. I could have sat there all day looking into Hazel’s sad eyes.

Talking to Katrina, and then Leslie, the shelter director at Newberry, I asked about their LRR (Live Release Rate) and got fudgy answers. I know they don’t want to euthanize these animals, but I also know that their job is impossibly hard. The public doesn’t want to know that animals die here. It takes a superhuman effort to find rescue and adoptions and answers to the problem of so many unwanted animals, especially so many pits.

When I asked about the odds for a bully breed at Newberry, Leslie said they work really hard to save them, but “it’s not fair for them to live their lives here. That’s not a life.” She’s right, I know, but I also don’t accept that answer. There has to be another option.

At Greenwood shelter the next morning, there were lots of beautiful dogs and much fewer pitbulls than we saw at the three shelters we’d already visited, despite the fact that Greenwood was the largest shelter we’d visited. They had many lab mixes, hounds, shepherds, even small dogs. Greenwood is where my Frankie came from, along with his five sisters, all purebred American Staffordshire Terriers (according to the DNA analysis of one of them). I know there are LOTS of pitties around Greenwood.

Chris, the new shelter director, told me that they euthanize for kennel space, behavior issues, and length of stay. If the pitbulls who come into Greenwood are anything like the pitbulls we’d been walking and loving at Lenoir and Newberry, I doubted they were behavior issues, but I was certain ‘length of stay’ would have been their crime and likely accounted for the low numbers we saw there.

Chris did mention that while they can house a hundred dogs, they weren’t completely full because a rescue from New Jersey (St. Hubert’s) had been there the day before and taken eighteen dogs. I asked Tammy, the rescue coordinator if any of those dogs were pitbulls, and she leveled her eyes at me and shook her head. Tammy has been with Greenwood since before the new shelter with the large staff. I know her history of fighting for these dogs, so I know the strength of her heart.

After Greenwood, we visited another new shelter, Abbeville. Abbeville’s history is a hard one. You can read some of it in these articles from 2010, 2016 and 2018. Their building is almost ready and they have a brand new director who has been there a month. Jessica is soft-spoken, young, and pretty, but she didn’t hesitate to answer my questions about how big the challenge will be here. She came from Anderson County PAWS, a leader in the no-kill movement for this area of the country. Jessica is well-trained but her greatest challenge here will be to educate a public whose current shelter is reminiscent of the classic American ‘pound.’ The county of Abbeville pays the City of Abbeville to house their dogs in their ‘shelter’. (NOTE: nowhere we traveled in or around Abbeville appeared to be a ‘city.’)

After getting a tour of the building in the final stages of construction and helping to assemble dog beds and cat condos, we went to the city shelter to meet the county dogs. We followed Jessica’s Animal Control truck down a long narrow road that required passing vehicles to negotiate which one would pull off the road to allow the other to pass.

The Abbeville City Shelter is a tiny cement building surrounded by a tall, chainlink fence with barbed wire at the top. It sits just off the road in a tiny clearing with no other signs of life in sight. If you were looking for a set for a thriller movie, it would make a good one.

The building’s only heat comes from a single heater, similar to the kind you find on restaurant porches, hanging from the ceiling in the center of the building. The concrete building is dark and worn and, to be honest, more than a little scary. I wouldn’t want to spend a night out there, especially knowing that thousands of dogs have died there over the years. There are fourteen kennels. One row for city dogs and one for the county dogs. The dogs themselves, beyond being dirty, looked pretty healthy. They were very happy to see us.

We met a volunteer, a thin teenage girl with a lovely southern accent who called the shelter director, Bryson (who was also impossibly young), ‘ma’am,’ and was there to walk the dogs in exchange for service hours. I worried for Bryson working out here all alone, handling the animal control calls and caring for the dogs. Bryson is clearly dedicated to the dogs, but her training is in 4-H, having shown cows for a decade. There are few medical protocols and no supplies beyond dog food and Dawn dish soap, plus a few skinny nylon slip leads that cut your hand when a dog pulls. I asked Bryson what would happen to the remaining ‘city’ dogs when the county dogs moved to their new shelter, and she shrugged, “They haven’t said yet.”

Our team pulled out the county dogs for attention and walks. One of our team members fell in love with a ten-month-old brown and white puppy and we made arrangements to move him to Anderson to be vetted so we could bring him home with us on Saturday to go into foster care with OPH. I spent time with Freckles, one of two dogs who had landed at Abbeville for the second time in two weeks after being picked up by Animal Control with his sister, Baby. Baby had a suspiciously-shaped belly and I asked if she was pregnant. Jessica doesn’t know, but we agreed she had ‘the look’ and it was certainly possible. Clearly, she’s had puppies before.

Baby reminded me of Edith Wharton, and I asked Jessica to let me know if her owner surrenders her. She thought it was likely that he would, when he arrives to get her and discovers that he’ll have to pay $250 for the second violation to get his dogs back. Pregnant or not, I’d love for OPH to be able to bring her and Freckles north. They were beautiful, friendly dogs who deserve better.

And they weren’t pits. Bottomline, that’s their best chance.

The judgment of pitbulls that pervades our culture is infuriating. The way our media ramps it up, always reporting the pitbull incidents and never mentioning that it’s the chihuahuas who continue to claim the spot at the top of the dog-bite list. (and yes, I know that a chihuahua bite is different than a pitbull bite, but the point is, ‘pitbulls’ are not statistically a vicious breed. They aren’t even a breed, but that’s for another post)

This is clearly breed racism. And like human racism, it is complicated and messy and wrong on every level. But unlike human racism, pitbull racism is not part of history. Pitbulls used to be known as the nanny-dog because of how great they are with children. They were labeled ‘America’s Dog’ and a pitbull named Stubby was the most decorated war dog in the US history.

I don’t know when the tide turned, but it’s time to turn it back. Of all the dogs I met this week, the ones who I’m carrying home with me in my heart are the pitbulls. Many I met will die in the shelter where I saw them. It doesn’t matter that they were sweet and playful and so very happy to see every visitor. It doesn’t matter that they are bastions of love and loyalty, who will offer devotion on a level most humans don’t deserve. They will die there simply because of a word—pitbull. A word that literally means nothing—there is no such thing as a pitbull.

There are only dogs. Beautiful, funny, friendly, strong, happy, deserving dogs.

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to know more about my blogs and books, visit CaraWrites.com or subscribe to my occasional e-newsletter.

If you’d like to know more about the book, Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs, visit AnotherGoodDog.org, where you can find more pictures of the dogs from the book (and some of their happily-ever-after stories), information on fostering, the schedule of signings, and what you can do right now to help shelter animals! You can also purchase a signed copy or several other items whose profits benefit shelter dogs!

If you’d like to know how you can volunteer, foster, adopt or donate with OPH, click here. And if you’d like more pictures and videos of my foster dogs past and present, be sure to join the Another Good Dog Facebook group.

I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to comment here on the blog, email carasueachterberg@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram.

 Best,

Cara

Released August 2018 from Pegasus Books and available now

  It's the Pitties That Break My Heart #pitbull #breedracism #anothergooddog It’s the pitties that break my heart. There are so many. I don’t know if it’s that they have such expressive faces or if they know their odds, but as we pass row after row of them, their sadness seeps right through the kennel fence into my soul.