TheBanyanTree: [External] Re: a real life adventure involving dogs

[Teague, Julie Anna]

Have I mentioned lately that you restore my faith in humanity every single day?  Love you to the moon and back, Pammie.

Julie

-----Original Message-----
From: TheBanyanTree <thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com> On Behalf Of Pam James
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2019 8:41 AM
To: A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own *original* writings. <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
Subject: Re: TheBanyanTree: [External] Re: a real life adventure involving dogs

I am finding in my more mature age, as I find out more about myself, that I am a champion for underdog dogs, and kids!!  I don't know if this is something new, or something that has been there all along, just tamped down and hidden while I was busy growing up, and divorcing husbands, and raising kids!

My last husband and I had two Danes.  When we split, he took the puppy and I kept the 4 year old.  We lived together and I left her whenever and somewhere along the line, we seriously bonded.  And when she died, I was devastated!!  I finally, and truly GOT IT!!  Before that, while I had owned some part of some dogs, I hadn't had that bond, and when they died, I was removed from the sadness.  But with Annie, I was THERE.  And I felt it in my bones.  It was such an eye-opening moment!!  So then I got Axel, my first rescue.  And he came with a whole barrel of issues and I loved that dog from my soul!!  We went about everywhere together!  And if I couldn't take him - he hated other dogs! - I wouldn't go!!  He would sit in my car motionless, and focus on the door I went into, waiting for me to come back out!!  I'd leave the car unlocked and the A/C on in the summer, but I'd take him with me because he hated to be left alone!

We had three amazing years together, and then he too died on me...  I lost a part of myself when I lost him, but I had a hole to fill and I knew that there was another dog out there needing a mom, so I immediately got my next rescue!  Bo is a major pain in my ass!!  Totally undisciplined (only partly my fault!), out of control hyper, he's on meds and still chews stuff - going long periods in between until I let down my guard and leave something unattended!!!  He is not graceful and he has no respect for anybody's personal space!!  But this dog... <sigh>  because he can be so hard to love, I love him more!!  We rescued another Dane - she's deaf! - but she's company for him.  He can't go with  me because he will NOT sit still and nothing is safe in my car, so!  They aren't necessarily close, but they coexist and that's the most I can hope for at this point!!

And the children...  Because of my own childhood, I made sure my kids didn't have the same experiences.  Their parents divorced when they were very young, but they never heard an argument regarding their custody or who had who when!  We shared and adjusted according to what was best for the kids!!  So yes, okay, I admit it!  I take a lot of pride in knowing that!
And now they are grown up and moving on with own lives - both productive members of society taking their own roads to their futures!  (Neither appears to have any intentions of gifting me with grandchildren, but those are their choices and I can't question them.  I wouldn't ever have tolerated anybody questioning mine!!!)

And so I have taken to champion children thru our County's Guardian ad Litem program.  A friend suggested it and I said 'yes'!  And I have never looked back!  As it turns out, I"m kind of good at this!  I am not perfect at this, but I feel like it's a real calling!  I've got seven cases and thirteen kids right now who need a loud-mouthed old broad to speak for them in court and protect them from crazy and/or addicted and/or negligent parents!!!  I have a very low tolerance for bullshit, and I am more than happy to call them on it.  Thank goodness those nice social workers balance us out!!

Anyway.... this started with dogs and the crazy love we have for the creatures... but then it turned into all about ME!!  :-)

p.s... for those wondering about Clifford, the little rat dog that I
inherited:  my neighbor's daughter and son-in-law basically took him out of my arms when they found out that he hadn't gone to the home he was supposed to go to before I inherited him!  They had fallen in love with his picture and they had in-laws who had lost a little puppy and a father who was dying and little children who loved him and they were beside themselves to forgive any of his flaws so that they could take him home... and so they did!!  He is happily spoiled and surrounded by many who love him.  And nobody to step on him!!


On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 4:28 PM Teague, Julie Anna <jateague at indiana.edu>
wrote:

> Hahahahaaa.  I get your subtext.  I, too, was a cat-only person for 57 
> years of my life.  I love cats.  I understand cats, as much as anyone 
> CAN understand cats.  But life is funny that way.  Sometimes I make decisions
> that make no sense to my head, but total sense to my heart.   After my
> beloved Skittles passed away, and even though I've had a lifetime of 
> sweet cats, I felt like no other cat could ever replace her.  She was 
> the cat of all cats.  I cried for weeks after she passed.  And even 
> though I missed having a fur baby, I couldn't look at other cats, not 
> even many months later.  It hurt my heart. Then my mom started looking 
> for a small dog, and I started helping her look.  Not for me, you 
> understand, because I'm a cat person. I knew a dog would complicate my 
> life.  I knew I didn't have any experience with house breaking or 
> training a dog.  I knew they barked and slobbered and needed a hundred times more attention than the average cat.
> And then I met Tansy and my heart sproinge  d and I brought her home.  
> She is all of the above--an ill-trained (my fault), attention-seeking 
> (again, probably my fault), pain in the tuckus (I'm not taking all the 
> blame here), but the universe knew I needed this dog in my life.  I 
> love her beyond reason.  I work from home more, just so I can be home 
> with my dog.  I have given up any possibility of having a lunch hour, 
> except when the husband pitches in ever so occasionally.  I've passed 
> on dinner invitations because I'd been away from my dog all day and 
> knew she missed me. I have less time and  less money, but I have so 
> much more love.  I  still don't know if I'm gung-ho a dog person, 
> although I have much more understanding of dogs and why people love 
> them.  I'd say I like all other dogs more, now, than I ever did.  But 
> I flat out love my dog.  Love her. Can't imagine my life without her.
>
> And poor Perkins, he is a pretty good little dog most of the time.  He 
> had a really bad day on Sunday, for sure.  He's had other really bad 
> days.  He was six months old when my mom got him from his foster home 
> where he'd been kenneled for way too much of the time, because she had 
> too many foster animals and Perkins had special needs.  We don't know 
> what happened to him when he was younger, but it couldn't have been 
> good.  He is so fearful of so many things, especially men (how could I 
> not understand THAT), small children, joggers, cyclists, and coming 
> through doors.  But he's ever so slowly coming around.  He loves my 
> mom, he loves me as a second mom, and he loves Tansy most of all.  As 
> obnoxious as he can be, I feel for him and try to be kind and calm 
> with him to help him through his fears a bit more each time he's here.  
> I even talked to my mom about yelling at him.  She tends to get shrill 
> sometimes, and I reminded her that I'd read that dogs aren't not 
> obeying because they don't  HEAR you.  They hear you loud and clear.  
> And it turns out that Perkins comes better now that I've convinced her 
> to keep a calm, quiet voice with him.
>
> Anyway, that's how this cat person ended up with a dog.  Don't know 
> yet if I'd ever have another one, but I am one hundred percent nuts 
> about THIS dog.
>
> Julie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TheBanyanTree <thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com> On 
> Behalf Of tobie at shpilchas.net
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2019 12:46 PM
> To: A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own
> *original* writings. <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
> Cc: thebanyantree at remsset.com
> Subject: [External] Re: TheBanyanTree: a real life adventure involving 
> dogs
>
> This message was sent from a non-IU address. Please exercise caution 
> when clicking links or opening attachments from external sources.
> -------
>
> I like cats
>
> > On Aug 13, 2019, at 6:49 AM, Teague, Julie Anna 
> > <jateague at indiana.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > A good friend of mine who blogs daily issued a blog challenge for 
> > August
> to write on "Action and Adventure".  Rather bad timing for me in that 
> the first half of my year, and especially July, was chock-a-block full 
> of travel and adventures, and in August I really wanted to stay home, 
> piddle around the house, work in the garden, go to the farmer's 
> market.  I craved a little domesticity.  So spending time with the 
> dogs is pretty much all I've done so far in August, outside of the 
> daily job, which is cranking up in preparation for the 48K university students about to descend upon us.
> Fortunately, there is never a dull moment with mygoofy canines.  I 
> have one single, tiny, four and a half pound Yorkie named Tansy, but I 
> often keep Perkins, my mom's rescued, half-priced, slightly 
> emotionally damaged Parti Yorkie. My mom can't resist a half price 
> sale. (A Parti Yorkie is basically a white Yorkie with strange fluffy, 
> knotty hair.) I brought Perkins home with me last weekend. My f!
>  olk
> > s would
> > come on Sunday, spend the night, and take Perkins home with them 
> > Monday
> morning.  Most of the week was fine (no, really, it was FINE) except 
> for Tansy's nearly-choking-to-death incident with the leashes. (I'm 
> realizing I'm several story sharings behind in this venue.) So, the 
> choking incident and then Perkins was almost attacked by a mother deer 
> because he kept approaching and barking and she was protecting her 
> baby.  Mother deer was moving aggressively towards him, ready to kick 
> some ass as I yanked him in the other direction.  Even though I live 
> in town in Bloomington, a few blocks from the city center, we have 
> many, many deer in the neighborhood, most of them having produced 
> fawns this Spring. We'd all lived through those adventures, but then there was Sunday.
> >
> > Sunday morning at 6:15 to be exact.  There I was lying in bed with 
> > the
> two dogs, trying desperately for a few more minutes of sleep.  Husband 
> was in Florida where he loves to go but I do not.  I'm sure he was 
> experiencing some really good sleep, though, which made me a little 
> jealous. Perkins looked out the bedroom window at that wee hour and 
> saw a large rabbit in the back yard.  He leapt off the bed and ran to 
> the door.  I let him out, because he probably had to pee anyway, and 
> he was never going to catch the rabbit.  I'd recently blocked a rabbit 
> hole under the fence with a rock to keep rabbits out (not effective), 
> so the rabbit ran to that spot to escape, hit the rock instead, 
> bounced off, and ran across the yard the other way, with Perkins in hot pursuit.
> >
> > Well, something snapped in Perkins' acorn-sized Yorkie brain.  He'd 
> > seen
> rabbits before when we were out on the leash, but he'd never gotten 
> very close.  It's as if he finally got the scent, and he went insane.  
> He hunted and barked and howled and ran under all the plants in my 
> gardens for 45 minutes, getting mud-covered in the process.  I finally 
> got hold of him to try to calm him down, and I gave him a sink bath to 
> clean him up.  But he was still insane, scratching at the doors and 
> windows, whining and barking to be let back out. An hour of that 
> passed and I was about to pull my hair out, so I let him out again.  
> The rabbit was long gone, but  he repeated the insanity for maybe 
> another half an hour, until I once again chased him down and repeated 
> the sink bath.  I felt sorry for the neighbors with all the barking, and Perkins has a particularly shrill bark. It goes directly
> to the center of the inner ear like a sharp knife.   This time I took both
> dogs out for a walk aft!
>  er
> > his bath
> > , thinking he'd get his mind off of the rabbit.  There usually 
> > aren't
> rabbits in the park, so we walked there.  It is normal for Perkins to 
> pee
> 45 times on every walk.  Not this time.  Not once.  He just ran around 
> the park like a dog possessed, sniffing for rabbits.  I was agog at 
> his powers of concentration, since I'd never seen an inkling of 
> concentrated effort in him before.
> >
> > I took him home, listened to more shrill barking, piteous whining, 
> > and
> incessant scratching at the doors and windows.  I tried distracting 
> him with treats.  I gave him a time out in the front bedroom where 
> it's quiet and darkish.  I tried holding him.  He was not to be 
> soothed.  He couldn't let it go.  After the third hunt around the 
> yard-yes, I let him out again because I knew he had to pee and poop at 
> some point-and the third sink bath, and the third round of barking and 
> howling at the door, I finally locked him in the front bedroom again 
> for a bit.  He hadn't even stopped for food or water this whole time.  
> I'm telling you, the dog was off the deep end.  Finally, finally, SIX 
> HOURS after this all began, I got him calm enough to lie on the bed 
> with Tansy and me. Tansy hadn't been able to get her morning nap 
> because of all of this, and she was so tired she could hardly keep her 
> eyes open.  She'd been growling at Perkins from her perch on the sofa while Perkins ran around !
>  los
> > ing his
> > shit for six hours.  But, we got on the bed, Tansy collapsed and 
> > closed
> her little eyes, and Perkins propped his chin on my leg so that he 
> could still see out the window (even though I'd closed the blinds). As 
> his eyes drooped he let out one last shrill bark, and Tansy's eyes 
> popped back open and locked with mine.  We were completely sympatico.  We were both over
> this barking maniac.   At last Perkins could fight it no longer and fell
> asleep for five or ten minutes. This seemed to reboot his pea brain 
> and he was very normal after that.  When I say reboot, it was 
> literally as if I'd unplugged him and plugged him back in. Sheesh.  By 
> the time Perkins' people came for him, I was pretty much a basket case.
> >
> > And this, in a nutshell, was Sunday.
> >
> >
> > Julie Anna Teague
> >
> >
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> "Out of sight; out of mind."   old proverb
>
> "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."  Old proverb
>
> "Nothing to see here, folks! Keep moving!"   Anonymous to Anonymouses
>
>
> Tobie Shapiro
> mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net <mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net>
>
>
>
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