As many of you know, I'm a dog foster. Several years ago I reached out to Dogs XL Rescue who I had adopted Alby from, to see what it would take to volunteer as a foster. All rescues are desperate for volunteers and so they called me back almost immediately. Right now Dogs XL Rescue is looking for people to become fosters. This is your chance to save a life by becoming a foster. Without fosters, rescues can't pull dogs from shelters because they have no where to go.
The screening process for new fosters is very simple, a phone call with a foster coordinator to talk about your lifestyle, where you live, and how many pets already live in your home kicks everything off. A call by the rescue to your vet to ensure all your resident pets are up to date on vaccinations and monthly preventatives (heartworm and flea/tick) followed by a home visit and you're up and running as a dog foster.
Dogs XL Rescue works incredibly hard to ensure that all of its dogs not only are adopted by the right family, but that they're matched up well with their foster before they get adopted. For example, if you have a cat, your foster dog will be cat friendly. Do you have small children? Your foster dog will be appropriate for small children. I live in a tiny townhouse without a fenced yard so all my fosters need to get along well not only with Alby, my only resident pet, but they also need to do well on daily walks. My townhouse also backs to a playground that is very active and kids ranging from toddler to teen race by my deck on their way to the swings and jungle gym. Therefore, my foster needs to be pretty kid friendly even though there are no kids in my house.
Our fosters live in all kinds of homes - apartments, townhouses, small and large single family homes, farms, on the water, in the city and in the suburbs. Some of our fosters have fenced yards and some don't. Some of our fosters don't have their own dog, they just love fostering. And some of our fosters have several dogs and cats and human babies. Some of our fosters work full time and some are retired. Some work from home and some head off to the office each day. In other words, there are very few restrictions to becoming a foster.
My number one rule for fostering has always been that it has to be okay with Alby. We had one dog that kept picking at Alby until he couldn't take it anymore. I called the rescue and we made arrangements for that guy to go somewhere else. The rescue can't always turn on a dime, but they are incredibly responsive and work hard to place dogs where they will do well.
The optimal situation for all of our dogs is that they be in a foster home until they are adopted. Unfortunately though because we're always short on fosters that sometimes means that we have to put dogs in to boarding. Our boarding partners are wonderful, Tecla's K-9 Academy and Dogtopia, and our dogs can be very happy there for short periods of time. Some dogs require a dog savvy owner though and it takes a little longer to find just the right person to adopt them and if there's no foster, they can end up in boarding for a longer time. While it's still better than a shelter situation, it's not great. Like I said, a foster home and eventually a permanent home are best.
We're a rescue so while we get awesome dogs, some of them do have special needs. Some dogs just aren't appropriate for a home with small children, or they can't be with cats or in rare cases they need to be an only dog. Remember, we don't like all people and some dogs don't like other dogs. We work incredibly hard to match the right dog with the right home. We're looking to make a lifetime commitment for that dog so that when they're adopted they're going to the home they'll be in for the rest of their lives.
Dogs XL Rescue pays for all food, preventatives and veterinary care while the dogs are being fostered. They supply the foster with a crate as well. There are also dog trainers who volunteer with the rescue to answer any questions around behavior and provide extra support to fosters who are new to rescue. In addition, when you're heading out on vacation, the rescue will arrange for a temp foster while you're out of town if your foster dog hasn't been adopted yet.
On average Dogs XL dogs are adopted within 2 weeks of arriving at the rescue. Some, like our puppies, are adopted almost as soon as we greet them for the first time, and some of our older dogs can be with the rescue a little longer.
Nothing is more rewarding than watching your foster dog head off with their new family. Yes, you love them and yes, you'll miss them, but knowing that they're one of the luckiest dogs on earth is a very happy feeling. So many dogs never make it out of the shelter. Dogs who get picked up by a rescue have hit the jackpot. The likelihood of them living an awesome life for the rest of their days is now very high.
If you've ever thought you'd get too attached and just couldn't give the dog up, I would say that at the end of the day the rewards of having saved a life and given so much joy not just to the dog, but to the family that adopted that dog as well, make it a lot easier to say good bye. Do some of our dogs end up getting adopted by their fosters? Yes. Have I considered adopting some of my fosters? Absolutely. Then I get an email from the adopters talking about how much they love their new dog, and how well the dog is fitting in to their family and that just makes me over the moon happy. Then I get an email from the rescue asking me if I'm ready to take on a new foster and I start looking forward to helping save the next life.
If you are a dog lover and have ever thought you wanted to make a difference, I would encourage you to click on the links I've embedded throughout this post for Dogs XL Rescue and consider volunteering as a Dog Foster. We'd love to have you and we and the dogs really need you in our life.
Friday, June 9, 2017
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Horrific, Awful, Nightmarish....
Updated 6/8 below
It was misting last Tuesday morning when I headed out for my morning walk with Alby. Another grey day to add to the many we've already had in May. I checked email on my work phone when I got back to see a message indicating that a coworker had died unexpectedly. The opening paragraph about his final days set off my radar that maybe he had died in some sort of freak accident, but there were no details. I don't want to use his real name in order to protect his family so I'll call him Ward since I don't know anyone with that name.
Ward had been arrested for possessing child pornography, his mug shot and arrest details appeared in his local paper and a few days later he took his own life.
Never in a million years would I have had any inkling he'd do something like this. Ward and I were not close. His office was down the hall from mine and we spoke some times about sports like soccer, or just in general office banter if we happened to land in the same meeting. Ward was a nice looking man, clean cut, smart and hard working. All week everyone in the office has been in a bit of a shock. How do we reconcile the man we knew with what he did?
Yesterday I binge watched "The Keepers" on Netflix. Once I started I couldn't turn it off. Unlike the movie "Spotlight" which came out in 2015, "The Keepers" goes in to more detail regarding the abuse that was suffered by the young women at Archbishop Keough. When I was finished watching I had a need to know more, see if there were any updates, and find out if Brother Bob had been identified. I started reading Tom Nugent's articles on Inside Baltimore. Nugent is a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and he's written extensively on the Sister Cathy murder.
I may have read too much. If the young women at Archbishop Keough were living in a nightmare, the kids at the Catholic Middle School in Locust Point were living in hell on earth. I won't share the details, you can go ahead and read Nugent's articles on your own. When I was done I felt like throwing up.
I'm not Catholic, I'm not even a religious person, but I'm furious with an institution where so many of my friends and relatives claim a membership. Just like I was furious for the Penn State cover up a few years back. What kind of a world are we living in where young, innocent victims are sacrificed so readily? Over the years I've read the stories of the lifelong trauma victims of abuse suffer. Some of them are able to live fairly normal lives as adults and confront what happened to them, refusing to let the abuser have anymore power. Some though turn to alcohol, drugs and even suicide. They feel guilty for something that was never their fault, that was done to them, that they never asked for. They were just kids doing kid stuff when someone started them on this hellish journey.
"The Keepers" provides details that one of the abuser Priests had kept records of his victims, including photographs of half naked young girls. I wonder if Ward realized when he was buying his online child porn the nightmare that the kids in the photograph were living in? I'm not saying Ward looked at the Priest's pictures, but he did look at someone's.
When my Mom sent my brother off to nursery school in 1980 she told him that no one was ever allowed to touch him, ever, without his permission. At Show & Tell on the first day the kids were asked if anyone had anything they wanted to share. My brother stood up, "No one can touch your penis without your permission." We get a family laugh out of it, but what my Mother did was uber important. She also told him that if anyone tried to do that he needed to tell her immediately, no matter what. I don't think parents prior to that had any idea they should be sending their kids off to school with that warning.
When I was coaching soccer about 12 years ago, several parents always hung around to help out. Good. Never leave your kid unattended with an adult for long periods of time. If a parent was late picking a kid up after practice I never offered the kid a ride home. Instead, we'd sit waiting by the parking lot in plain sight until the parent finally showed. The kids all had cell phones by then too so they always called the late parent to find out where they were. Don't be the parent who picks their kid up late from practice. As a matter of fact, don't be the parent who picks your kid up late ever from anywhere. Especially in the evening when places are closing up and your kid might be all alone and easy prey.
I hope one day the Catholic Church, Penn State and other institutions who have protected themselves over their victims, come to realize and openly acknowledge the harm they've done. I hope that the survivors and their families find the peace they are seeking.
UPDATE 6/8
For anyone interested in gaining additional understanding on what's happening with the investigation in to the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, I suggest joining the Facebook group page, The Keepers Official Group - Justice for Catherine Cesnik and Joyce Malecki. On the sex abuse scandals of the Catholic Church, Alex Gibney's 2012 HBO documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is very well done. Finally, Richard Sipe who is referenced in the movie Spotlight, and appears in The Keepers, also has his own web page discussing much of his research and linking to others who have been trying to get the church to do what's right.
It was misting last Tuesday morning when I headed out for my morning walk with Alby. Another grey day to add to the many we've already had in May. I checked email on my work phone when I got back to see a message indicating that a coworker had died unexpectedly. The opening paragraph about his final days set off my radar that maybe he had died in some sort of freak accident, but there were no details. I don't want to use his real name in order to protect his family so I'll call him Ward since I don't know anyone with that name.
Ward had been arrested for possessing child pornography, his mug shot and arrest details appeared in his local paper and a few days later he took his own life.
Never in a million years would I have had any inkling he'd do something like this. Ward and I were not close. His office was down the hall from mine and we spoke some times about sports like soccer, or just in general office banter if we happened to land in the same meeting. Ward was a nice looking man, clean cut, smart and hard working. All week everyone in the office has been in a bit of a shock. How do we reconcile the man we knew with what he did?
Yesterday I binge watched "The Keepers" on Netflix. Once I started I couldn't turn it off. Unlike the movie "Spotlight" which came out in 2015, "The Keepers" goes in to more detail regarding the abuse that was suffered by the young women at Archbishop Keough. When I was finished watching I had a need to know more, see if there were any updates, and find out if Brother Bob had been identified. I started reading Tom Nugent's articles on Inside Baltimore. Nugent is a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and he's written extensively on the Sister Cathy murder.
I may have read too much. If the young women at Archbishop Keough were living in a nightmare, the kids at the Catholic Middle School in Locust Point were living in hell on earth. I won't share the details, you can go ahead and read Nugent's articles on your own. When I was done I felt like throwing up.
I'm not Catholic, I'm not even a religious person, but I'm furious with an institution where so many of my friends and relatives claim a membership. Just like I was furious for the Penn State cover up a few years back. What kind of a world are we living in where young, innocent victims are sacrificed so readily? Over the years I've read the stories of the lifelong trauma victims of abuse suffer. Some of them are able to live fairly normal lives as adults and confront what happened to them, refusing to let the abuser have anymore power. Some though turn to alcohol, drugs and even suicide. They feel guilty for something that was never their fault, that was done to them, that they never asked for. They were just kids doing kid stuff when someone started them on this hellish journey.
"The Keepers" provides details that one of the abuser Priests had kept records of his victims, including photographs of half naked young girls. I wonder if Ward realized when he was buying his online child porn the nightmare that the kids in the photograph were living in? I'm not saying Ward looked at the Priest's pictures, but he did look at someone's.
When my Mom sent my brother off to nursery school in 1980 she told him that no one was ever allowed to touch him, ever, without his permission. At Show & Tell on the first day the kids were asked if anyone had anything they wanted to share. My brother stood up, "No one can touch your penis without your permission." We get a family laugh out of it, but what my Mother did was uber important. She also told him that if anyone tried to do that he needed to tell her immediately, no matter what. I don't think parents prior to that had any idea they should be sending their kids off to school with that warning.
When I was coaching soccer about 12 years ago, several parents always hung around to help out. Good. Never leave your kid unattended with an adult for long periods of time. If a parent was late picking a kid up after practice I never offered the kid a ride home. Instead, we'd sit waiting by the parking lot in plain sight until the parent finally showed. The kids all had cell phones by then too so they always called the late parent to find out where they were. Don't be the parent who picks their kid up late from practice. As a matter of fact, don't be the parent who picks your kid up late ever from anywhere. Especially in the evening when places are closing up and your kid might be all alone and easy prey.
I hope one day the Catholic Church, Penn State and other institutions who have protected themselves over their victims, come to realize and openly acknowledge the harm they've done. I hope that the survivors and their families find the peace they are seeking.
UPDATE 6/8
For anyone interested in gaining additional understanding on what's happening with the investigation in to the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, I suggest joining the Facebook group page, The Keepers Official Group - Justice for Catherine Cesnik and Joyce Malecki. On the sex abuse scandals of the Catholic Church, Alex Gibney's 2012 HBO documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is very well done. Finally, Richard Sipe who is referenced in the movie Spotlight, and appears in The Keepers, also has his own web page discussing much of his research and linking to others who have been trying to get the church to do what's right.
Monday, May 29, 2017
Somber Thoughts on Memorial Day
Since last November like many people, I've been processing through a lot of what our country is about and what we stand for and searching for truth. What is true about what I believe and what is not? Today is the day that we remember and honor, with broken hearts, those who died in service to our country. From the Revolutionary War to today's War on Terror, we have sacrificed the human treasure in our country for what we aver is a higher ideal - the fight for and the preservation of freedom.
This sacrifice means there are babies who will never know their fathers, children who will grow up without a mother or a father, and parents who will ache with the loss of their sons and daughters for the remainder of their own lives. This sacrifice means thousands of men and women won't be there to raise their children or care for their elderly parents. This sacrifice means that the men and women who gave up their lives will no longer contribute to our greater society. They won't cure cancer, they won't come up with a solution to climate change, they won't solve the next economic crisis, they won't teach in our schools or police our streets or run for elected office. Many of them have been cut down too young to have had a chance to leave a mark in this world other than the sacrifice of their life in a war.
In the last Harry Potter book, Dumbledore tells Harry,
"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living and, above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present."
The older I get the more I feel the loss of this treasure and the toll it takes on all of us. Not just the sudden loss of a life, but the fact that we're honoring men and women who died because of a failure on the part of the living. War is the worst of human nature and we are way too eager to engage in it. We're not just asking for the sacrifice of your life, we're asking you to take lives as well. We're asking you to take part in something that kills the human soul. Perhaps we have no choice but to go to war, but we should never forget the totality of the cost to one and all.
The United States has been at war for nearly my entire lifetime. I was born in 1965 and a quick query on the internet reveals that we've lost more than 66,000 US Soldiers since then. The bulk of those deaths occurred in Vietnam, but the numbers for Iraq and Afghanistan are each already in the thousands. We no longer see the black bags lined up on the tarmac awaiting the last ride home with the bodies of our lost treasure resting silently inside. The American public doesn't actually like war and we don't like the consequences of war and so our government hides from us the awful truth and instead glorifies the battle and the pageantry and our weaponry. We see the soldier standing with the weapon heading in to battle, not lying torn to shreds on the ground, limbs missing and covered in blood in the aftermath.
It's not just soldiers who give up their lives in war, but civilians as well and yet we rarely if ever acknowledge their sacrifice as anything other than acceptable losses. The numbers of civilian casualties may number equally or higher to the number of soldiers lost, but their number also includes children from infants to teenagers. They will never grow up to become educated adults, have children of their own or provide solutions to finding peace in our time. They are the world's lost treasure. In recent years the United States has bombed a hospital in Afghanistan, slaughtered a wedding party in Yemen and killed an 8 year old girl in a drone strike.
We also ask for the sacrifice of the planet we live on. We have allowed poisonous chemicals like Agent Orange to rain down on our soldiers, on the local populace and on the land they occupy impacting generations to come, not to mention what we do to the wildlife. Soldiers bond with domestic animals (both dogs and cats) while they're serving their country and some try to bring them home and some leave those animals to fend for themselves once they're gone.
Nothing and no one is safe in the theater of war. Yet we sing songs about going off to war to kick some butt as if at the end we'll all just come back to the bar for a cold one and have a laugh. War is death. There is nothing to celebrate about war except when it ends and we can begin to pick up the pieces of our lives.
So on this Memorial Day we should gather and quietly honor those who have been lost to war, and we should remember not just the soldier, but all of the losses embodied therein and wonder what our future might have been if only.....Then we should demand to know why some wars are still being fought these many years later and how much more earthly treasure we can stand to lose.
This sacrifice means there are babies who will never know their fathers, children who will grow up without a mother or a father, and parents who will ache with the loss of their sons and daughters for the remainder of their own lives. This sacrifice means thousands of men and women won't be there to raise their children or care for their elderly parents. This sacrifice means that the men and women who gave up their lives will no longer contribute to our greater society. They won't cure cancer, they won't come up with a solution to climate change, they won't solve the next economic crisis, they won't teach in our schools or police our streets or run for elected office. Many of them have been cut down too young to have had a chance to leave a mark in this world other than the sacrifice of their life in a war.
In the last Harry Potter book, Dumbledore tells Harry,
"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living and, above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present."
The older I get the more I feel the loss of this treasure and the toll it takes on all of us. Not just the sudden loss of a life, but the fact that we're honoring men and women who died because of a failure on the part of the living. War is the worst of human nature and we are way too eager to engage in it. We're not just asking for the sacrifice of your life, we're asking you to take lives as well. We're asking you to take part in something that kills the human soul. Perhaps we have no choice but to go to war, but we should never forget the totality of the cost to one and all.
The United States has been at war for nearly my entire lifetime. I was born in 1965 and a quick query on the internet reveals that we've lost more than 66,000 US Soldiers since then. The bulk of those deaths occurred in Vietnam, but the numbers for Iraq and Afghanistan are each already in the thousands. We no longer see the black bags lined up on the tarmac awaiting the last ride home with the bodies of our lost treasure resting silently inside. The American public doesn't actually like war and we don't like the consequences of war and so our government hides from us the awful truth and instead glorifies the battle and the pageantry and our weaponry. We see the soldier standing with the weapon heading in to battle, not lying torn to shreds on the ground, limbs missing and covered in blood in the aftermath.
It's not just soldiers who give up their lives in war, but civilians as well and yet we rarely if ever acknowledge their sacrifice as anything other than acceptable losses. The numbers of civilian casualties may number equally or higher to the number of soldiers lost, but their number also includes children from infants to teenagers. They will never grow up to become educated adults, have children of their own or provide solutions to finding peace in our time. They are the world's lost treasure. In recent years the United States has bombed a hospital in Afghanistan, slaughtered a wedding party in Yemen and killed an 8 year old girl in a drone strike.
We also ask for the sacrifice of the planet we live on. We have allowed poisonous chemicals like Agent Orange to rain down on our soldiers, on the local populace and on the land they occupy impacting generations to come, not to mention what we do to the wildlife. Soldiers bond with domestic animals (both dogs and cats) while they're serving their country and some try to bring them home and some leave those animals to fend for themselves once they're gone.
Nothing and no one is safe in the theater of war. Yet we sing songs about going off to war to kick some butt as if at the end we'll all just come back to the bar for a cold one and have a laugh. War is death. There is nothing to celebrate about war except when it ends and we can begin to pick up the pieces of our lives.
So on this Memorial Day we should gather and quietly honor those who have been lost to war, and we should remember not just the soldier, but all of the losses embodied therein and wonder what our future might have been if only.....Then we should demand to know why some wars are still being fought these many years later and how much more earthly treasure we can stand to lose.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Weekend Rambling Thoughts
It's Saturday morning and my sister and her family will be hopping in their mini-van shortly with both their dogs and heading south to Maryland. I should be finishing up laundry and making beds to get ready for them, but I'm not. I'm engaging in what my sister and I refer to as 'self-sabotage'. You may remember it from your college days when you were working on a term paper. You can find all kinds of things to do and become thoroughly engrossed in but that. I recall someone asking how long it takes to write a term paper and the answer was, how long have I got?
I really need to walk my dog and then get on my bike for an hour. I have a trip coming up in June where I'll be on a bike a lot and I'm not sure my legs or my behind are up for the job. I managed to self-sabotage my plans for daily bike riding over the past few months with excuses like it's too cold, or it's too wet when in reality I just couldn't focus on the task at hand. Although, it was pouring buckets on Thursday morning and it was chilly so I'm going to say not going was legit.
Part of my problem is my laptop and all the social applications I just can't get enough of. I keep saying I'm going to break myself of my Facebook and Twitter habits but I can't. They're a total time suck. I also bought myself an Apple TV for the living room and my bedroom and I love surfing all my options. I love a good binge watch.
Also, much to my dismay, my heat pump/air conditioner decided this was a good time to say goodbye to the world. I worked from home yesterday while the new system was installed, but it meant I couldn't get to the laundry! Very convenient excuse. My laundry area in my basement has been on my 'to do' list for a while and so last weekend I had started to get it organized. When I first start I actually make more of a mess before the actual clean up starts. I need to create piles to figure out what needs to be trashed, recycled, given away, etc.,. Anyway of course the indoor unit is right there by the laundry area. I had to make sure the guys had room to work which meant moving some trash bags and stacking stuff on top of the washer and dryer, and then just staying out of their way.
Anyway, here I am writing a blog post when I haven't had the need to write about anything in a long time and suddenly this morning, with laundry looming and all the other things I need to get done, I'm blogging. Of course!! That's how self-sabotage works.
I have a lot of things I want to write about but one of them is just too taxing (Trump). I don't know about a lot of you, but I'm exhausted trying to keep up with the shenanigans of the current administration. I really need this long weekend of rest to think about nothing and just enjoy family.
My Dad turns 80 on Sunday and we're all gathering at my parents' house for a milestone celebration. Both my parents are doing really well and it will be a fun celebration. Hopefully we won't talk politics, not because we disagree but because it's just too depressing.
On Monday I'll be in a good frame of mind for the Memorial Day holiday. One thing that might help my motivation before then though is for the sun to come out. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this gloomy weather to last a lifetime.
I think I just heard the buzzer on the dryer so I'll sign off and wish everyone a very nice holiday weekend.
I really need to walk my dog and then get on my bike for an hour. I have a trip coming up in June where I'll be on a bike a lot and I'm not sure my legs or my behind are up for the job. I managed to self-sabotage my plans for daily bike riding over the past few months with excuses like it's too cold, or it's too wet when in reality I just couldn't focus on the task at hand. Although, it was pouring buckets on Thursday morning and it was chilly so I'm going to say not going was legit.
Part of my problem is my laptop and all the social applications I just can't get enough of. I keep saying I'm going to break myself of my Facebook and Twitter habits but I can't. They're a total time suck. I also bought myself an Apple TV for the living room and my bedroom and I love surfing all my options. I love a good binge watch.
Also, much to my dismay, my heat pump/air conditioner decided this was a good time to say goodbye to the world. I worked from home yesterday while the new system was installed, but it meant I couldn't get to the laundry! Very convenient excuse. My laundry area in my basement has been on my 'to do' list for a while and so last weekend I had started to get it organized. When I first start I actually make more of a mess before the actual clean up starts. I need to create piles to figure out what needs to be trashed, recycled, given away, etc.,. Anyway of course the indoor unit is right there by the laundry area. I had to make sure the guys had room to work which meant moving some trash bags and stacking stuff on top of the washer and dryer, and then just staying out of their way.
Anyway, here I am writing a blog post when I haven't had the need to write about anything in a long time and suddenly this morning, with laundry looming and all the other things I need to get done, I'm blogging. Of course!! That's how self-sabotage works.
I have a lot of things I want to write about but one of them is just too taxing (Trump). I don't know about a lot of you, but I'm exhausted trying to keep up with the shenanigans of the current administration. I really need this long weekend of rest to think about nothing and just enjoy family.
My Dad turns 80 on Sunday and we're all gathering at my parents' house for a milestone celebration. Both my parents are doing really well and it will be a fun celebration. Hopefully we won't talk politics, not because we disagree but because it's just too depressing.
On Monday I'll be in a good frame of mind for the Memorial Day holiday. One thing that might help my motivation before then though is for the sun to come out. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this gloomy weather to last a lifetime.
I think I just heard the buzzer on the dryer so I'll sign off and wish everyone a very nice holiday weekend.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Love Is All Around
A little more than two years ago the rescue I volunteer with gave me a foster dog that had been rescued from a homeless situation. A woman was living in her car with two dogs and was having a very hard time of it. Izzy, the dog that came to me, had serious mange that was very expensive to treat and I believe her car mate did as well. I'm not sure who convinced the woman to turn the dogs over to a rescue, but she did, they were treated for their health issues, and both found wonderful new homes where they're thriving. When the woman was back on her feet again she inquired about getting her dogs back. Unfortunately, that's not how it works.
At the time I thought that giving up those two dogs was a great sacrifice but that the dogs would be better for it. Or would they? She certainly wouldn't. I know what the loss of a dog feels like after they've lived a long and full life with you, and I can't imagine the heartbreak of giving them up while they're alive because you can't care for them. Also, the attachment between dogs and their humans is two ways - we love them and they love us back. Who hasn't seen the pictures of dogs dumped at a shelter, head bowed and staring in to the corner, crying and wondering what is happening and not knowing where their beloved human has gone? Or the story of a dog chasing after a car that's just dumped it on a highway? My own dog follows me around the house when we're home together and wants to be in the same room as me. He can be off leash in safe spaces because he and I are a pack and he stays with me - I jokingly say we're a bonded pair. He loves me and I love him.
When I'm near kids who are interacting with my dogs I always make sure to share with them that dogs love. "Did you know that dogs feel love the same way that people do?" I'll ask the kids. They start to ask questions as they pet the dog, "Do you think your dog loves me?" and my response is "Yes, I think he does. Look at his tail wagging." Especially when I have a foster and the kids want to know why I'm not keeping the newest resident of our neighborhood, "Doesn't he love you?" and I say, "Well yes, I think he does, but he knows that we're working very hard to find him a family of his very own and he'll love them too."
Which brings me back to my original question, should homeless people give up their pets? There are plenty of people living on the streets alongside their pets and in a harsh world where there's little hope and little joy in every day existence, perhaps these pets make a real and positive difference. At least that's what Glenn Greenwald and his husband David Miranda believe. I listened to Glenn on DemocracyNow! talk about creating an animal shelter in Rio de Janeiro that will hire homeless people who love dogs to work there and I read his article about it in the online newspaper he founded, The Intercept. The people they hire will live and work at the shelter with their own pets while working to find homes for the many homeless dogs living in that city. They're hoping this shelter will become a model that can be replicated in cities around the world. I hope they're right. This morning I went to their GoFundMe page and made a $100 donation in support of this effort.
We're living in an incredibly chaotic world right now. Within all this insanity here is an opportunity for something real that can make a difference in many lives, both human and animal. I believe that like the song says, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Click on the links I've embedded throughout this post to hear and read about all of this first hand. We're one week away from remembering those who sacrificed their lives for war, and what better way to remember them but by building up the people and animals for whom they made that sacrifice.
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| Izzy |
At the time I thought that giving up those two dogs was a great sacrifice but that the dogs would be better for it. Or would they? She certainly wouldn't. I know what the loss of a dog feels like after they've lived a long and full life with you, and I can't imagine the heartbreak of giving them up while they're alive because you can't care for them. Also, the attachment between dogs and their humans is two ways - we love them and they love us back. Who hasn't seen the pictures of dogs dumped at a shelter, head bowed and staring in to the corner, crying and wondering what is happening and not knowing where their beloved human has gone? Or the story of a dog chasing after a car that's just dumped it on a highway? My own dog follows me around the house when we're home together and wants to be in the same room as me. He can be off leash in safe spaces because he and I are a pack and he stays with me - I jokingly say we're a bonded pair. He loves me and I love him.
When I'm near kids who are interacting with my dogs I always make sure to share with them that dogs love. "Did you know that dogs feel love the same way that people do?" I'll ask the kids. They start to ask questions as they pet the dog, "Do you think your dog loves me?" and my response is "Yes, I think he does. Look at his tail wagging." Especially when I have a foster and the kids want to know why I'm not keeping the newest resident of our neighborhood, "Doesn't he love you?" and I say, "Well yes, I think he does, but he knows that we're working very hard to find him a family of his very own and he'll love them too."
Which brings me back to my original question, should homeless people give up their pets? There are plenty of people living on the streets alongside their pets and in a harsh world where there's little hope and little joy in every day existence, perhaps these pets make a real and positive difference. At least that's what Glenn Greenwald and his husband David Miranda believe. I listened to Glenn on DemocracyNow! talk about creating an animal shelter in Rio de Janeiro that will hire homeless people who love dogs to work there and I read his article about it in the online newspaper he founded, The Intercept. The people they hire will live and work at the shelter with their own pets while working to find homes for the many homeless dogs living in that city. They're hoping this shelter will become a model that can be replicated in cities around the world. I hope they're right. This morning I went to their GoFundMe page and made a $100 donation in support of this effort.
We're living in an incredibly chaotic world right now. Within all this insanity here is an opportunity for something real that can make a difference in many lives, both human and animal. I believe that like the song says, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Click on the links I've embedded throughout this post to hear and read about all of this first hand. We're one week away from remembering those who sacrificed their lives for war, and what better way to remember them but by building up the people and animals for whom they made that sacrifice.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
My Teeth
You may have noticed that I'm not a daily or even weekly blogger. I decided when I started this blog that I wouldn't force it. If I didn't have anything to say or ruminate about that I'd just not blog until I did. This has worked out really well. Except I've had a lot of things I wanted to talk about and share on my blog over the past few weeks only my teeth had other ideas!!
I don't know about you, but I hate the dentist. I didn't use to hate the dentist. Growing up I had great teeth. Never a cavity, no braces, and a lot of compliments on how beautiful my teeth were. Then around age eighteen I got a cavity. The dentist I'd grown up with had retired and we got a new one. He was a pretty good dentist but I said to him "I never got a cavity with the old dentist." He didn't really know how to reply.
Around age 21 I had my wisdom teeth pulled. This seemed like just a right of passage. A lot of my friends were going through this and I didn't think twice about it. One day my Mom informed me that our general dentist didn't participate in the network any longer. I would never be able to afford the additional costs of a non-participating dentist. So I basically stopped going to the dentist for a few years instead of trying to find someone new.
In my late thirties it suddenly dawned on me to grow up and go to the dentist. A friend, a dental surgeon, recommended one. The new dentist told me that I had a few cavities and that one of my teeth needed a root canal. Turned out the root canal tooth was cracked and needed to be extracted. I lay in the Endodontist chair with tears streaming down the sides of my face contemplating the financial cost.
You see, that same year I had decided to go back to college and finish my bachelor's degree. I had refinanced my house to have enough money to pay for the first year of school and I was saving money to pay for the second year. However, my heating and air conditioning system had died and that was a $5,000 price tag. My bathtub tried to take a trip to my kitchen and that had been a $2,500 price tag. My car decided it needed a $600 repair, and my dog decided she needed a $600 surgery. This might not seem like a lot to many, but at the time it was the difference between me finishing school or not. Luckily I have parents who stepped in and wanted to help with these large bills and my Mom shared some money she had inherited from her father with my siblings and I that kept me afloat. Teeth were not included in this financial scheme. Even with the financial help from my Mom I barely had two pennies to pinch together when all was said and done.
I won't share the oral surgeon's name who pulled my tooth out, but it hurt when he did it and it hurt a lot. He practically stood on my chest to wrench the tooth out of my mouth. The nurse held my hand while I crushed her fingers. Even a few weeks later small slivers of tooth were coming up through my gums.
The general dentist then proceeded to do a lousy job with a filling in one of my molars that caused a lot of pain and discomfort. I still had a lot of great teeth but he seemed to want to grind them down and put crowns on them. He also was odd with his method of billing. I felt that he kept trying to bill me more than a participating dentist should be billing me. I walked away and learned to work around my bad filling and again, stayed away from the dentist.
Then a few weeks ago I ended up with a tooth ache that brought me to my knees. I've never been in so much pain. Good friends recommended a general dentist and I took what I figured was the tooth with the bad filling thinking that time had run out on the work around. I was wrong. The tooth causing all the pain was right next to it. A referral to the Endodontist ended the same way it had previously, a cracked tooth that needed to be extracted.
Now, let me tell you that this experience was a complete 180 from the previous one. My general dentist was awesome. The Endodontist was so nice. She worked really hard to get me a same day appointment with the oral surgeon knowing how much pain I was in. The oral surgeon was also really great. I never felt a thing and he pulled the tooth out in one piece. I've never been so grateful.
Since then my new dentist has worked on one filling and I've had a root canal performed on another tooth that while cracked, has a chance at being saved. It's a short tooth though so I scored a Periodontist who is going to perform a 'crown lengthening'. This means that some gum and some bone need to be removed in order for the crown to fit properly. I had a consultation with the Periodontist and he seems like he's pretty nice too. So far on this go around, all of the dentists I've seen are super nice, and really go out of their way to make sure you're comfortable and that they do a good job on your teeth. Most important, they listen when I'm talking.
I've got a lot to look forward to this year with regards to my teeth - for the two teeth that were extracted I need to talk to someone about implants and I have the original bad filling still to be taken care of. Remember I went back to college? Well thanks to that activity I was able to advance in my job and can actually afford my dental work. My company offers Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) too so I've put money in there to pay for the out of pocket expenses that aren't covered by my dental plan.
I shouldn't have stopped going to the dentist. Maybe I could have avoided the second extraction and the problem filling might have been taken care of. I should have searched for a new dentist when the guy I didn't like turned out to be so crappy. In fact, I should have searched for a new dentist when my old dentist stopped participating. Well, I can't change any of that. I can make sure that I have great doctors all around going forward.
How does this tie in to my theme about choice? Well, choose to do the smart things in life, they're not that hard if you put a little effort in to them and maybe it will make things easier down the road. Choose to shop around for doctors you want to see, don't just stop going to the doctor due to a bad experience. There are other doctors to choose from. At least I never gave up on brushing and flossing!!
I don't know about you, but I hate the dentist. I didn't use to hate the dentist. Growing up I had great teeth. Never a cavity, no braces, and a lot of compliments on how beautiful my teeth were. Then around age eighteen I got a cavity. The dentist I'd grown up with had retired and we got a new one. He was a pretty good dentist but I said to him "I never got a cavity with the old dentist." He didn't really know how to reply.
Around age 21 I had my wisdom teeth pulled. This seemed like just a right of passage. A lot of my friends were going through this and I didn't think twice about it. One day my Mom informed me that our general dentist didn't participate in the network any longer. I would never be able to afford the additional costs of a non-participating dentist. So I basically stopped going to the dentist for a few years instead of trying to find someone new.
In my late thirties it suddenly dawned on me to grow up and go to the dentist. A friend, a dental surgeon, recommended one. The new dentist told me that I had a few cavities and that one of my teeth needed a root canal. Turned out the root canal tooth was cracked and needed to be extracted. I lay in the Endodontist chair with tears streaming down the sides of my face contemplating the financial cost.
You see, that same year I had decided to go back to college and finish my bachelor's degree. I had refinanced my house to have enough money to pay for the first year of school and I was saving money to pay for the second year. However, my heating and air conditioning system had died and that was a $5,000 price tag. My bathtub tried to take a trip to my kitchen and that had been a $2,500 price tag. My car decided it needed a $600 repair, and my dog decided she needed a $600 surgery. This might not seem like a lot to many, but at the time it was the difference between me finishing school or not. Luckily I have parents who stepped in and wanted to help with these large bills and my Mom shared some money she had inherited from her father with my siblings and I that kept me afloat. Teeth were not included in this financial scheme. Even with the financial help from my Mom I barely had two pennies to pinch together when all was said and done.
I won't share the oral surgeon's name who pulled my tooth out, but it hurt when he did it and it hurt a lot. He practically stood on my chest to wrench the tooth out of my mouth. The nurse held my hand while I crushed her fingers. Even a few weeks later small slivers of tooth were coming up through my gums.
The general dentist then proceeded to do a lousy job with a filling in one of my molars that caused a lot of pain and discomfort. I still had a lot of great teeth but he seemed to want to grind them down and put crowns on them. He also was odd with his method of billing. I felt that he kept trying to bill me more than a participating dentist should be billing me. I walked away and learned to work around my bad filling and again, stayed away from the dentist.
Then a few weeks ago I ended up with a tooth ache that brought me to my knees. I've never been in so much pain. Good friends recommended a general dentist and I took what I figured was the tooth with the bad filling thinking that time had run out on the work around. I was wrong. The tooth causing all the pain was right next to it. A referral to the Endodontist ended the same way it had previously, a cracked tooth that needed to be extracted.
Now, let me tell you that this experience was a complete 180 from the previous one. My general dentist was awesome. The Endodontist was so nice. She worked really hard to get me a same day appointment with the oral surgeon knowing how much pain I was in. The oral surgeon was also really great. I never felt a thing and he pulled the tooth out in one piece. I've never been so grateful.
Since then my new dentist has worked on one filling and I've had a root canal performed on another tooth that while cracked, has a chance at being saved. It's a short tooth though so I scored a Periodontist who is going to perform a 'crown lengthening'. This means that some gum and some bone need to be removed in order for the crown to fit properly. I had a consultation with the Periodontist and he seems like he's pretty nice too. So far on this go around, all of the dentists I've seen are super nice, and really go out of their way to make sure you're comfortable and that they do a good job on your teeth. Most important, they listen when I'm talking.
I've got a lot to look forward to this year with regards to my teeth - for the two teeth that were extracted I need to talk to someone about implants and I have the original bad filling still to be taken care of. Remember I went back to college? Well thanks to that activity I was able to advance in my job and can actually afford my dental work. My company offers Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) too so I've put money in there to pay for the out of pocket expenses that aren't covered by my dental plan.
I shouldn't have stopped going to the dentist. Maybe I could have avoided the second extraction and the problem filling might have been taken care of. I should have searched for a new dentist when the guy I didn't like turned out to be so crappy. In fact, I should have searched for a new dentist when my old dentist stopped participating. Well, I can't change any of that. I can make sure that I have great doctors all around going forward.
How does this tie in to my theme about choice? Well, choose to do the smart things in life, they're not that hard if you put a little effort in to them and maybe it will make things easier down the road. Choose to shop around for doctors you want to see, don't just stop going to the doctor due to a bad experience. There are other doctors to choose from. At least I never gave up on brushing and flossing!!
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Shark in the Diving Well!!
A post from a friend on Facebook prompted me to write and warn everyone that there's a shark in the diving well at the pool in Burn Brae. When I was a kid on the Columbia swim team back in the 70s we practiced a few days a week at the 50 meter pool in Burn Brae during the summer months. There was a huge, deep, dark diving well we had to swim past and every single one of us scooted by as fast as we could due to the shark. We never saw the shark of course, we just knew it was there. Well, turns out the Turf Valley pool also has a shark in it's diving well according to my friend. Smaller diving wells like the ones on most pools in Columbia do not have sharks, thankfully. At least, I never received any reports on them if they do. Swimming quickly past the diving well remains the safest option for not being chomped by the shark.
Also, at night if you're asked to take out the trash or walk the dog you should note that there are poisonous snakes in your driveway just waiting to get you. So, hop around a bit to avoid them and get yourself back inside the house as quickly as you can. My sister confirmed for me that yes, she was also avoiding snakes in the driveway.
When you're a kid there are all kinds of things lurking in the shadows waiting to get you. I don't know how to warn toddlers, but I do recall when I was very little a tiger lived in my closet. Luckily my Mom was prepared and all you had to do was say "Go Away Tiger!" and you were safe. Dodged a bullet there with an educated Mom.
Even as you get older things with large arms are waiting under your bed to grab you by the ankles should you need to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. In this instance use the same defense that you used for avoiding the snakes in your driveway. A lot of hopping around and finally leaping in to your bed seems to do the trick.
Our house also had a ghost or two in the basement. Light is the best way to scatter the ghosts. Of course, leaving the basement is tricky depending on where the light switch is. As soon as the light goes out, get yourself out quickly to avoid all ghost encounters.
I don't know how many of you know this, but driving in the car you can carry a very long (at least 50 yards), very sharp knife or sword and use it to cut down all trees along the road as you ride along and the trees will remain standing. It's a huge mystery about how this one works, but a lot of kids have reported this to be true.
Having grown safely in to adulthood after avoiding all these hazards I'm sure there are things I've totally forgotten about but definitely deserve a mention. Feel free to include those in comments.
Finally, remember, here in the USA everyone has remained safe, but those daring kids down under have taken the Shark in the diving well to a new level. Probably don't share this story with anyone under the age of 18 or you'll never get them into a pool again: Shark in the Pool.
Also, at night if you're asked to take out the trash or walk the dog you should note that there are poisonous snakes in your driveway just waiting to get you. So, hop around a bit to avoid them and get yourself back inside the house as quickly as you can. My sister confirmed for me that yes, she was also avoiding snakes in the driveway.
When you're a kid there are all kinds of things lurking in the shadows waiting to get you. I don't know how to warn toddlers, but I do recall when I was very little a tiger lived in my closet. Luckily my Mom was prepared and all you had to do was say "Go Away Tiger!" and you were safe. Dodged a bullet there with an educated Mom.
Even as you get older things with large arms are waiting under your bed to grab you by the ankles should you need to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. In this instance use the same defense that you used for avoiding the snakes in your driveway. A lot of hopping around and finally leaping in to your bed seems to do the trick.
Our house also had a ghost or two in the basement. Light is the best way to scatter the ghosts. Of course, leaving the basement is tricky depending on where the light switch is. As soon as the light goes out, get yourself out quickly to avoid all ghost encounters.
I don't know how many of you know this, but driving in the car you can carry a very long (at least 50 yards), very sharp knife or sword and use it to cut down all trees along the road as you ride along and the trees will remain standing. It's a huge mystery about how this one works, but a lot of kids have reported this to be true.
Having grown safely in to adulthood after avoiding all these hazards I'm sure there are things I've totally forgotten about but definitely deserve a mention. Feel free to include those in comments.
Finally, remember, here in the USA everyone has remained safe, but those daring kids down under have taken the Shark in the diving well to a new level. Probably don't share this story with anyone under the age of 18 or you'll never get them into a pool again: Shark in the Pool.
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