Things I love about my dog

Here are some of the things I love about my dog, which are so wonderfully characteristic of the MAS (Miniature Australian Shepherd, aka Miniature American Shepherd) breed.   Today we spent two hours visiting as Therapy Dog team at St. Francis Children's Hospital .  And alas, she was not the star today. Willis the Newfie, and Heidi the Yorkie, in her Hello Kitty outfit were.

 But over and over I heard, "oh my gosh she is just so quiet and calm, is she always like this".......and tomorrow at the agility trial, or in agility class I will hear...."oh my gosh, she's so excited (and sometimes they say hyper), is she always like this".....and it's what I love...the ability to turn on the drive when needed, and to turn it off and be a soft soft dog also when needed.....

But then there is the 'other' Hope.   The Hope that we see in class and saw recently at her second agility trial.  This was a 'Teacup' Trial, for dogs 17 inches and smaller.   She was in 9 classes and placed in 8.  She won 4.  We were not perfect by any means, but she gained fans as the weekend went on, because of her absolute love of the sport, and her talent.

Here she is in action:

And with some of her ribbons from the two weekends.....

But at the end of the day.......she is love, and laughter, and she is Hope

It's been a year????

So my intention when I started the blog (how many bloggers have said or written this I wonder??), was to write something daily or if not daily, weekly...something, anything.......and to let my pictures do the talking if needed.

Somehow it's been almost a year....it's not that I don't think of things to write, or take pictures that would make a good story.   I do think that part of my procrastination (besides that being my middle name) has to do with the world of Facebook, where it is easy for me to write a little something and post a picture or two.

Today I started a Facebook post and thought, hm, that makes a better blog entry than FB post, and here I am.   And here it is:

The oddities of life....I know some people who have lived in the same house for 30 or more years.....I lived in too many places to count between the time I was born and age 3 because we were traveling with a vibroseis crew. Then once we 'settled' in Tulsa, I lived in 4 houses before age 14, then to the lake, then on to college. Once I left home for college til now I've lived in 36 places (no kidding), with 9 since 2007...sigh.....but the odd part is that I am now only a few blocks away from the 2 places that we first lived here after leaving the crew. I started kindergarten living on 50th street, and now live 4 houses from 50th street, a half mile away.....and the majority of my life has been lived within a square mile radius....and within a half mile of the river......

I don't know if any of this has anything to do with the fact that one of my favorite songs growing up was "Don't Fence Me In"...."Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above, ....don't fence me in"

I  wonder if all that early moving experience acclimated me to the idea of changing addresses frequently.  All I know is that I seem to have moved way more than most of the people I know, especially as an adult.  There are some things in my life that have stood the test of time.  I still go to the church that we started attending when I was 4.

There is also the fact that I have repetitive dreams, and for years they have been about trying to find a place to live.  Sometimes it's a new apartment, sometimes a home, sometimes it's returning to an old home, sometimes it's just a hotel room, but they all have similarities in the search.

I supposed it's also not surprising that another of my childhood favorite songs was, "All I Want Is A Room Somewhere".   Now don't get me wrong as an only child until I was a teenager, I always had 'my own room'.

And it's not about searching for a spiritual home.  As I am fond of saying to people who come to sell their religion at my front door, "I have a church (and thank goodness spiritual, they aren't always the same thing) home as well.

Or if I'm just trying to find the  place that is, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.....

Saturday Morning Wrestling, starring Miss Halle B Berry Black Cat (age 7, weight 12 lbs), and Miss Rockin R Hope Floats (Mini Aussie, age 1.5 years, weight 16 lbs).

So last month, I wrote about coincidences.....today I was sitting here, not really focused on anything, and going back and forth from Facebook to a game I'm playing, when up popped my blog on my screen, with the last post that I'd written.....

No I didn't 'click' on my blog, and it isn't bookmarked in a way such that I can accidentally 'click' on it.....it seems to be just another gentle reminder of where I need to be focused....

Today have been taking more pictures again, of the hummers at my feeder, and of Saturday morning wrestling (it is a combination of Friday night fights, and Saturday morning cartoons.   I will include the illustrations......complete with the blur of motion.....

Not sure if having a cat as an alpha dog is a good thing for any of us......

Mysteries

I have believed for a long time that my dad is now a beautiful male cardinal.  One often visits at the most unexpected times, and in the most unexpected ways.   My dad loved taking pictures of cardinals, so it seems likely that would be how he might visit.

Today I was getting ready to comment on a friends Facebook post.  She had recently returned from an amazing trip and was afraid that she'd lost the SD card with the pictures from the trip.  She finished the post by talking about how happy she was to have found the card, and that it was the 'little things' that led to happiness.

I started to write that I grew up with a photographer father, and that now I enjoy taking pictures myself, so to me it wouldn't be a 'little thing'.  As I was writing,  I realized that I could hear a cardinal chirping loudly.  I looked out my picture window and there he was flitting from tomato cage ring to ring and hovering as well.

I thought how wonderful, (and typical) that this happened when I was thinking of him and photography, and how typical that I didn't have my camera nearby, and if he was trying to tell me something.

I then looked to my mantle where I have a candle burning in honor of a much loved baby who is transitioning from this world to the next, and had the strongest feeling that he was saying....little wolf will be with me, he will be all right, and is surrounded by love.

And then the bird was gone.  It is difficult for a bird to be calmly flying and flitting on my front porch, as I have roll up blinds mostly rolled down, to protect the porch and house from the strong east sun that we get, since there is nothing blocking it.

How amazing to me to have the visit today as I was writing about my father, and also thinking about little wolf......although, some of you who may read this will think, truly she's off her rocker (I just love these old sayings, may start posting one a week), and others will know precisely what I am talking about.

My mother used to say, there is no meaning in such things, they are merely coincidences, and said it more as she entered the last years of her life.  I used to reply, maybe so, but by believing that there is meaning in them, it makes my world so much more interesting, and such moments precious.

Thanks dad, for dropping in....



Post Script:   I decided that I wanted a picture of the mantle to go with the story, snapped one and then realized what was there.   Everything on my mantle is just as it was,  no arranging done.  It includes the large framed 'print' of the cardinal, a wooden cardinal, which is actually placed on top of my Spirit Song music folder, the candle, and a clock made from a slab of stone that my dad found on one of his many working trips, and which he had made into a clock for me for the last birthday that we shared with him on this earth.

Hope

I've written before about Hope and her little cat friends that visit her in the backyard.  One cat seems to belong to my back fence neighbor, and is her most frequent playmate.

Last summer there were 2 feral kittens that joined in the fun.  One in particular hung out with the neighbor's cat.   Somehow all of the kittens (there were 4) have disappeared.   I can only hope that they found homes, or were 'rescued'.

The apparent father of the kittens, is the first cat that I saw after closing on my home.  He is such a wonderful character of a tom cat, and I refer to him as "Poppa".   He will let me get fairly close, but is not at all wanting to be friends.

He doesn't seem to dislike anyone, except the neighbors cat, for lack of his real name, 'Fluffy'.  Fluffy appears to be neutered, so am not sure why Poppa doesn't like him.

The other night Halle was pawing at the windows which she does when any foreign cat (she has no cat friends!) is in the yard.  Hope starting whining to go out, so I let her.   She immediately went into full blown protection mode, barking fiercely at something at the back fence.  I wasn't too sure what it was, figured it was a creature of some kind, maybe a river rat or a possum.

The next day Poppa walked by our front porch, and Hope rushed the front door barking hysterically in the same way she had outside the night before.   Fluffy will also hang out around our front porch and when he does, Hope whines to go out and visit.

The fact that she is discriminating between these two cats is just amazing and funny at the same time to me.

My theory is that she knows that Poppa is mean to her BFF Fluffy (or BFF #2 with Halle, #1), and so she's taking up for Fluffy.

Isn't friendship wonderful?

And the answer is......

   










Halle is THRILLED!

Is Miss Hope a Canine Good Citizen??

So after starting the blog with the intent to keep it up, and after getting "Hope" and thinking I would have so much fodder for the blog, I find that I have done a miserable job of posting.

Hope is finishing her first dog obedience class (Beginners) and has done quite well.   Tomorrow they are having an AKC Canine Good Citizen test, which was originally supposed to be next Saturday after her test for her class which is this coming Monday.  But there was a scheduling conflict, and now her CGC test is tomorrow.

I'm glad, actually, because it will be a good pretest for her 'real' test on Monday.  The CGC is a preliminary step for becoming certified as a therapy dog.  She will need to complete one more obedience class (Novice 1) and if she does that and has passed the CGC, she can get a little vest and start making visits.

There are many opportunities in Ttown for therapy dogs.  They have a new program using them to provide support to children who are testifying in court, plus there are the more typical visits to hospitals, and nursing homes.

I was particularly touched to read that there were 14 therapy dogs walking through the crowd at a memorial vigil after a recent mass murder in California.

One of the funnier things about Hope, is that she has little kitty friends who visit her.  There are now 3 of them.  Two are feral siblings, who were born last summer, and one is a cat that seems to belong to the neighbor behind me.

Two of them actively play with her, the silver long haired (neighbor's) tabby, and the grey tabby.   The brown tabby is a little more shy, but she has decided that it is OK to hang out, and let me take her picture from close range today.

However, Halle is not amused at the trespassers, and alienators of Hope's affections.

 Hope just wonders where and when it was made clear that her herding skills were to be honed by practicing the herding of cats.......