#jokes aside please stay safe and healthy this upcoming year

[vwentibard]

to all my followers, thank you for another year of support. i know half of you are bots and the other half are either inactive or insane - that's not important right now. what matters is that we made it through another year together. i love you all. mwah.

[lonely-bored-writer]

Casper High Ch. 7

Sam Winchester was always good at reading people, even when he was a little kid. Walking into a room, he could assess and categorize people and situations. Regardless of how bad that might sound, it has helped him survive the multitude of schools he went to over the years and it even saved his life a few times. Even if the trait didn't help find the monster, it did help with spotting when or hiding information. It came to help him more times than he could count.

Then there was Danny Fenton. He can't seem to read the other teen, no matter how hard he tried. He'd figure something out, just to have the smaller kid do something that completely threw off his assumptions, always sending him back to square one. The more he got to know him, the more confusing things got. It didn't bother him, he oddly liked the challenge, but this was something he wouldn't have expected. Sam resolutely didn't want this to be Danny's life, the too constant to be healthy changing, because the ramifications of such a fact could be harrowing and dangerous. And he was a hunter.

The youngest Winchester found himself working methodically with his older brother to patch up his friend. The two of them worked in sync, Dean doing the sewing, taping, and wound care while Sam mostly kept the area clean and gathered any soiled items such as gauze and tape from his brother's space. As they worked, Sam was able to block his emotions for the moment, focusing solely on helping his friend, and making sure Danny would be okay.

After quite some time, the patch job was finished. Sam's eyes glanced over his brother's stern stance before landing on Danny. Danny. The teen sat in one of Sam's shirts, too large for the smaller boy, but the only option for the moment seeing as Dean's wouldn't be much better. He was shrunk in on himself, shoulders hunched up to his ears, body folding in as to take up the least amount of space, and his eyes were glued to the ground. Now, without the distraction of patching up Danny's horrifically wounded back, Sam's mind could now race with all the possible things that could have happened to Danny. How did this seemingly okay teen end up with such harsh injuries? His eyes raked over the bruises visible along Danny's arms, places that were hidden with the teen's original jacket, the random collection of small scrapes on elbows and even on his shoulders, and the hint of fading bruising that the two brothers saw on the Danny's ribs gave Sam a sinking feeling in his stomach that this was deeper than he thought at first glance.

"Explain." Dean's voice broke the silence, voice gruff and to the point, the tension growing even more. Danny somehow shrunk back into himself even more, trying to hide from the stares of the Winchesters. Sam could hear Danny swallow in the still silence.

What could have happened? Did Danny get attacked? Was he in danger? Who could have done this in such a small sleepy town, where everyone knew everything?

It wasn't like Sam saw the other teen with many people, aside from himself and Dean; the smaller boy didn't seem to have friends, if anything he was excluded and bullied, the butt of the school's jokes. His mind flipped through memories to try and pinpoint the one person that could have done this. It clearly wasn't Danny's best friends, they were in other states- not that Sam could even imagine the two of them doing it, they obviously loved their best friend way too much to even do so. That leaves only really two people who could...

Then the pieces slowly fell into place. Sam's blood running cold with the realization; it was the only thing that made any sense. Small interactions that he originally ignored now coming into place; the small winces, the limping, chronic lateness, the excuses of his parents needing him for experiments yet being absent whenever they weren't 'conducting' one. His stomach drop at the full realization.

"Your parents." Sam uttered before he could stop himself, and wished he could take it back, seeing Danny tense immediately. The black haired head snapped up fast, wide eyes meeting his. Sam could very clearly read the emotions in those glassy eyes. Surprise, fear, pain. His heart stopped at the realization that he hit the nail on the head.

"Your parents did this?" Dean growled, anger dripping from his words. Sam watched Danny's panicked gaze falling on Dean. Danny's mouth flopped open and closed like a fish out of water as he tried to figure out what to say. "Don't. Lie." Dean growled, angry at the situation, but not at the struggling teen in front of him. Sam watched as all the resolve seemed to leave Danny at once, his body going limp as a deep sigh left him.

"I... yeah." He spoke, eyes falling back to the carpeted floor, the resolve, the fight going out of the teen. Sam felt his heart stop, while he knew he was right, it was different to have Danny confirm it. "I just...It's just... Don't tell anyone. Please." Danny begged, eyes flying back up to meet the brothers. Once again Sam could read the emotions in those blue eyes as clear as day.

"Danny, they are hurting you." Sam spoke, disbelief clear in his voice. He knows the challenges of having complicated family, he really does, but everything has a limit. If the people who were supposed to love was inflicting this much pain on you, it needs to stop. "It's bad, you can't stay there!"

"This is my last year here, guys please." Danny spoke, eyes burrowing into Sam's. "I only have one semester to go through, then I graduate and it's over. Just please... Don't tell anyone." Sam stared back in disbelief, he couldn't imagine leaving Danny alone to whatever his parents might do in the upcoming days.

"Danny-" Sam started, before his words were cut short by a glance from his brother. Sam might know what he wants, but he trusts Dean to know how to handle this better than he would. He might not admit it, but he knows that he'll more likely give into his anger then logically think this through seeing as he was much closer to the issue than Dean was.

"Plus," Danny cut in hurriedly, "I met some people- they are a pair of friends that live together in a house, and they are willing to take me in. My parents would absolutely freak out if they even offered to take custody of me. Charles and Pandora have been wanting to at least have one of them gain custody of me when I was fourteen, and have been willing to fight my parents for it. Trust me guys, I have some people in my corner." Since Danny wasn't exactly lying- just stretching the truth, neither Winchester sensed that the kid wasn't telling the full truth. Clockwork and Pandora were basically his parents at this point, the two Ancients of Time and Hope, respectively, staking their claim over him as his ghostly parents. And they were a damn sight better than Jack and Maddie, but that was another matter altogether.

Pandora offered rooms in her Grecian kingdom of a lair and Clockwork offered a room in his Clocktower. Hell, even Frostbite offered him a place within his tribe to stay. Now it was just a waiting game until he could get the hell out of dodge and into the Ghost Zone. "Seriously, please don't do anything. I'm just fine right now."

"Fine." Dean spoke, making sure to make eye contact with Danny. "But if you need somewhere to go, your first choice better be getting your ass here. And you'd better let us as long as we're in town." The reminder of leaving hit Sam hard. He forgot for a split second that their stay here was never guaranteed.

"Yeah okay... I promise." Danny responded with a nod, eyes flipping between the brothers before he offered a small smile. "Thanks for the help."

"Danny-" Sam was once more interrupted but this time from a loud ringtone cutting through the tension. Sam watched Danny jump before frantically scrambling to answer his phone.

"Hey mom... That was today? No sorry, I forgot..." Danny's eyebrows furrowed, but Sam couldn't help the heaviness he felt as Danny spoke, just knowing that Danny would be facing his parents when he got home. "No no, I can head back home... Yeah we got most of it done... Okay yea, I'll be home soon... Love you, bye." Danny sighed once he hung up and turned to the brothers.

"Promise that you will." Dean spoke, eyes trained on the nervous teen.

"I forgot I promised I'll help my dad clean out the Lab closet." Danny answered, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, the Winchester brothers catching it and sharing a saddened look. "I promised you guys, and I'll hold up to it." Danny said, gathering his things. Sam watched in shock as the teen just packed up as if nothing had happened.

"You better. We won't stay quiet if you don't." Dean threatened. Danny nodded vigorously in response, still pale at the thought of someone finding out.

"I'll see you at school Sam?" Danny offered, a nervous, shaky smile on his lips. Sam held back his feelings, offering his own smile, if only to comfort his friend.

"Yeah, Danny..." Sam paused, before added. "Stay safe." Danny grinned and nodded, tossing a 'bye!' to Dean before rushing out the door. Sam sighed, taking a seat on his bed.

"You okay?" Dean asked, settling next to his little brother, bumping their shoulders together.

"This is bullshit." Sam growled, shaking his head. "He's in danger and we're just letting him go back there. He says that his parents have him help with 'experiments!' We're supposed to save people Dean!" Dean froze before forcefully relaxing; he hadn't thought of the implications of having scientists for parents, much less Danny supposedly having to help his parents in their work. The elder Winchester brother hated thinking about what he allowed Danny to go back to- possibly being tested on his actual joke of parents, who just so happened to be the absolute craziest, most utterly inept people in town. Having immoral and frankly awful scientists who couldn't do the smallest of things right for parents only meant worse treatment for Danny, no matter how much the kid excused them.

"We can't save everyone, I'm not saying we don't try our damned best, but it is statistically impossible to save everyone." Dean said, glancing towards the door, already world weary with his much longer experience with hunting than his younger brother had. "Especially those that don't want to be saved. It's not our place to try if he doesn't want us to. Sometimes helping will just hurt a person more."

"I know..." Sam said, the anger and worry bubbling inside him. It had been so long since he felt this helpless, it felt like he was letting his friend walk towards his death sentence "It's just... Fuck." Sam dropped his head into his hands, mind racing to try and figure out how to word his thoughts and feelings.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened with Danny the other day?" Dean asked, eyebrow raised at his little brother. Sam sighed, turning to look at his brother. He knew Dean wasn't stupid- he knew that Dean was going to bring this up sooner or later.

"Yeah." Sam confirmed, shaking his head. "I just... I don't know how to explain it."

"How bout this." Dean turned facing his brother. "Just say the first thing that comes to mind."

"Dean, I don't think that'll help." Sam said, raising his own brow.

"Come on, humor me." Dean lightly shoved his brother's side. Sam shook his head, but he couldn't help but smile.

"Okay, okay. Fine." Sam paused, taking a breath before blurting out the first thing that came to mind when he thought about Danny. "I like him." Sam felt his face heat up, dropping his gaze to his hands.

"Like... Like like?" Dean asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah..." Sam shrugged, turning to look at his brother to try and figure out what the older was thinking, nervous fingers twisting each other together.

"Does he know?" Dean asked.

"No..." Sam sighed. "I don't even know if he's gay." Sam spoke the words before he realized what he was saying.

"Are you?"

"No... I don't know." Sam swallowed, he hadn't thought of his own sexuality; this was all so new to him. "Danny's the first guy I've liked... If I was though, would that be a problem?" Sam added as an afterthought.

"Dude!" Dean spoke, looking shocked, as if he was insulted that Sam thought that he would even care about romantic or sexual orientation. He shoved his brother again, before continuing. "I don't care who you're into, besides Danny's a cool kid... But you know how you feel right?"

"Yeah, I know Dean." Sam sighed, before giving his brother a small smile. "Thanks."

"Okay, enough of the chick-flick moment." Dean shook his head, quickly ruffling Sam's hair before grabbing the long forgotten food he brought back. "Let's eat." Sam laughed, shaking his head while following his brother to the kitchen area.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

[deztinywarriors]

The Linked Charms - Episode 5 (Multi Liverpool players)

[carasueachterberg]

I think all of us could use a happy story right now, so I’ve decided to create another Diary of a Rescue to follow the story of Mama Mia and the Broadway Babes. The last time I did this, about a year ago, I had the same intention but instead the story took a tragic turn right off the bat.

Daisy B, the mama dog featured in that story finally found her forever family the same week that Mama Mia arrived, so that seems like a sort of cosmic seal of approval to try again.

So far, so good.

Below are the dairy entries from our first week with this little family. If you’d like to see them in real time, you can follow along on my writer Facebook page. I also post extra pictures and videos in the Another Good Dog facebook group. Here’s hoping this story proves a heartwarming distraction to all that is going on in this world.

Diary of a Rescue Day One:

I’ve waited to start a new diary hoping my original diary dog Daisy would be adopted. Paws crossed it will happen soon. Today I’m starting a new diary for a last minute rescue of a mama dog and her ten 1-week old puppies.

I got a call last night from our puppy coordinator- this mama and pups is in a NC shelter that will be closing. If they aren’t out by Saturday, they will be destroyed along with, I’m assuming, all the other dogs that don’t get rescue. (I don’t say ‘euthanize’ because that’s not what it is when you kill adoptable, healthy dogs).

Of course I said yes, I want them. So, today I met an amazing pilot, Kay Cross, who has flown rescue for over 500 dogs. She arrived at Winchester airport and brought the mama and pups.

In the coming weeks, I’ll tell you more about them, their journey, and the current situation for too many dogs caught in the wrong place at the decidedly wrong time.

Tomorrow we will work on names, figure how many boys and girls we have, and tell you more about this precious lucky family. Tonight we’re letting them settle in- finally safe. Life gets better for these eleven souls now.

Proud of my rescue family and thrilled to have met another rescue hero today.

#togetherwerescue #anothergooddog

Diary of a Rescue Day Two:

After being warned that this mama dog was very protective of her pups, it turns out she’s like some of my other teenage mama dogs – she’s ready to leave them at the drop of a hat if it means a walk or a snuggle or some treats.

She got up at 3:30am for a potty break. When I put her away, I forgot to put on the ‘gate topper’ (a contraption Nick built to keep fence jumpers in the puppy room – she proved she needed it earlier in the evening when she climbed the fence to join me watching Pitbulls & Paroles). When I got up at 7am, mama dog was loose in the hallway and had inspected the shoe cubbies, my bin of sweet potatoes, and overturned a basket of my son’s hats/glasses, but not done too much damage. We will re-think our set up today so she doesn’t hurt herself climbing the fence.

All ten puppies look healthy and happy, but I’ve been leaving them mostly alone, only moving them to clean their bedding. Later today we will weigh them and put on whelping collars so I can track their weights.

Mama seems young and her paperwork says she is only one. She was wearing a pink collar with rabies and microchip tags- I don’t know if that means she was surrendered by someone who cared about her enough to chip and vaccinate her or if she was wearing an old collar the shelter or transporter had lying around. So many questions I have about this sweet pup but I’ve done this enough to know her history will likely always be a mystery but that’s okay because her future will be so much better.

We also have to come up with a name for mama and a theme for the litter. Ideas welcome!

#choosetorescue #opttoadopt #fosteringsaveslives

Diary of a Rescue Day Three:

I’ve decided what to name this mama and pups! There were lots of great suggestions from many people. I especially liked the idea of naming them after toilet paper/paper towel companies (Puffs, Cottonelle, Mr. Whiffle, Brawny), but decided against it because I’m hopeful (possibly erroneously) that this pandemic will have subsided by the time these puppies are ready to go home in about seven weeks.

More so, this is a hard time and I don’t want the puppies names to be a reminder or make light of a situation that is likely to have devastating consequences for too many.

So…(drum roll please)…this litter will be the Broadway Babes. Momma dog will be, of course, Mama Mia (she looks like a Mia to me). I’m still figuring out which shows to use – there are so many! Please add your favorites to the comments.

My musical theater major daughter will be home (finally!) tomorrow, so she will likely have plenty of suggestions too. This weekend my son’s high school show should have been in tech rehearsals for Cinderella which would have opened next weekend. (Ian is the lighting director.) So, there will definitely be a Cinderella!

I weighed the puppies yesterday and gave each one a different colored whelping collar. They are feisty puppies who squalled and wrestled and pooped and peed on me as I handled them. Mia watched and occasionally licked a puppy, but mostly seemed unconcerned by their concern.

They each weigh between 1lb 1oz and 1lb 10oz and there are seven females and three males. I know they look brown in the pictures and video, but they are all shades of brown from caramel to dark chocolate, and one of them is a brindle colored pup.

Because watching the puppies is such a calming and comforting thing, I’ve been trying to post plenty of LIVE videos on Another Good Dog™ (my foster dog group) and with Ian’s help, I’m hoping to set up a Live Stream through our Who Will Let the Dogs Out Youtube channel.

There is so much to be uncertain about right now, but one thing I do know is that we will get through this and in the meantime, we must be a comfort to each other.

Please stay safe and sane.

#happinessisawarmpuppy #choosetorescue

Diary of a Rescue Day Four:

Mama Mia really wants out of that puppy room. She spends a good portion of her day whining to get out and also jumping at the gate. The first day or so, I thought it meant she had to go potty and took her out practically every thirty minutes. Now I realize that sometimes she does need to go potty, but most times she’s just bored and lonely. She whines the worst if she can hear us talking.

She is an absolute love bug. No doubt she will make some family a wonderful pet, but for now she still has mothering duties. She is a good mom, if not a truly involved mom.

Definitely no helicopter parenting going on here. She climbs in and out of the whelping box as needed, but most of her time is spent sitting at the gate or lying in her dog bed. Unlike other mama dogs I’ve had, she never builds ‘nests’ of the towels or rearranges her puppies. She’s a just-the-basics housekeeper, so I have to change the towels and pads under the puppies quite often.

All of her meh-ness aside, the puppies are growing and fat and healthy, so she is getting the job done. Lucky for her, she’ll never have to do this job again. She’ll likely wean these puppies at about 5-6 weeks and a month after that will be spayed in preparation for her real life. Too many female dogs in the south have litters every year, sometimes more than once. When I see their struggle up close like this, it just breaks my heart.

I can hear some of the excuses voiced when I’ve encountered dog owners who refuse to spay/neuter or contain their pets, mostly in the south. They shrug shoulders and wonder why they should go to all that trouble for ‘just a dog’ or they say this is what they were born to do. I don’t know if they really believe those things or if they neglect their animal out of apathy, ignorance, or poverty.

I wish the world were different, but I remind myself often that not too long ago, situations like Mama Mia’s were commonplace everywhere in this country and now they are rare in vast parts of our nation. I believe we will someday solve this crisis. I believe it will happen in my lifetime. I’ve seen lots of sad situations when I travel south to write about shelter dogs, but I’ve also seen some incredible miracles happening in the most unexpected places.

#WeCanFixThis #Spayandnueter Who Will Let the Dogs Out?

Diary of a Rescue Day Five: two weeks old!

My how time flies (joke)…the puppies are a wonderful distraction. Tonight we will give them their official names and in the morning they (and Mia) will have their first deworming.

Be safe and be sane.

#choosetorescue

Diary of a Rescue Day Six:

The puppies received their first deworming. They are strong little pups who decidedly didn’t appreciate having anything forced down their throats. They squalled and I am sticky with dewormer. (Mia watched from a safe distance and happily gobbled her dewormer.) This is the dewormer that most puppies love – the only one that actually tastes good, so I know the upcoming dewormings will be even more challenging.

Between now and when they are adopted, I will deworm the puppies nine more times. including a dewormer that is administered six days in a row, so actually it feels more like I deworm the puppies 15 times. Doing the math on that one, it means I will be force-feeding dewormer 150 times in the next six weeks. Ugh. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Along with the deworming, they all got their first nail trim. It’s taken me about three days to get to all 90 toenails. Thankfully, this bunch does not have dewclaws! It’s easiest to do when they are sleepy, but that drowsy state only lasts for about one foot and then the rest is a wrestling match. If I don’t get those little daggers clipped, they will snag on the towels, not to mention the discomfort to Mia as they nurse. I use a baby nail trimmer and will trim nails every two weeks from here on out.

The other monumental accomplishment was finally naming this bunch! I hashed out the ideas with two of my kids who are both theater buffs and we tried to pick unique names or names that had significance for us. Here is the color key to who is who:

Purple collar (girl) Cinderella (in honor of our high school’s spring show that is indefinitely postponed)

Brown collar (girl) Pippin (a role Addie has always coveted, she played Fastrada in our school’s production. Because Pippin is such a different kind of character/show, we gave the name to the brindle puppy)

Green collar (girl) Kiss me Kate (an excuse to gather puppy kisses)

Yellow collar (girl) Hello Dolly (and excuse to sing to her)

Orange collar (girl) Thoroughly Modern Millie (another favorite role of Addie’s)

Red collar (girl) Elphaba (a unanimous favorite in this household and on Facebook)

White collar (girl) Calamity Jane (because not only do I like Annie Get Your Gun, but I just like saying the word ‘calamity’)

Light blue collar (boy) Evan Hanson (because)

Bright blue collar (boy) Usnavi (Lin Manuel Miranda’s role in In the Heights – Ian’s favorite, plus, c’mon, won’t it be fun to have a puppy named Usnavi?)

Black collar (boy) Mr. Mistopheles (because we have to name at least one puppy after a cat. In fact, I’m seriously considering naming an entire litter after the characters in Cats next time!)

Now you’ll know who’s who in the weeks to come (or at least until they outgrow or destroy their whelping collars!).

Stay safe and sane. Hold the ones you love close, even at a social distance.

#rescuedismyfavoritebreed #opttoadopt #BroadwayBabes

Diary of a Rescue Day 7:

Mia is so over this mom thing. She spends her days darting in and out the box but mostly waiting at the gate for me. The puppies are fat and healthy so I know she’s doing her job but gosh, is she ready to be over it.

The puppies grow cuter every day but they are still basically little lumps. I don’t know when they will cross that line between lumps and puppies but I think we’re getting closer.

I am trying to appreciate this easy time because soon enough they will be a serious amount of work.

Hug your fur babies- they were once this tiny. Do any of you have pictures of your dogs when they were two weeks old? I might have pictures of a few of your pups….

#choosetorescue

Thanks for reading!

Cara

If you’d like regular updates of all my foster dogs past and present, plus occasional dog care/training tips from OPH training, be sure to join the Facebook group, Another Good Dog.

For information on me, my writing, and books, visit CaraWrites.com. I have a new book, One Hundred Dogs and Counting: One  Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues, coming out in July. If it sounds like something you’d like to read, I’d be beyond grateful if you’d consider preordering it. Preorders contribute to the success of the book, not only giving me and my publisher some peace of mind but hopefully attracting media attention.

And if you’d like to know where all these dogs come from and how you can help solve the crisis of too many unwanted dogs in our shelters, visit WhoWillLetTheDogsOut.org.

Our family fosters through the all-breed rescue, Operation Paws for Homes, a network of foster homes in Virginia, Maryland, D.C., and south-central PA.

If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs . It’s available anywhere books are sold.

I love to hear from readers and dog-hearted people! Email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.

Diary of a Rescue Week One #animalrescue #fosteringsaveslives #puppiesoverpandemic I think all of us could use a happy story right now, so I’ve decided to create another Diary of a Rescue to follow the story of Mama Mia and the Broadway Babes.