After a week of peroxide ear rinses and other home remedies, the nameless dog's ear is much better. Now, she still won't come to me but greets everyone else with enthusiasm. It is easy to understand why she hasn't bonded with me, given the procedures that cured her but must have scared her to no end. So, even if I was tempted to keep this dog, it is time to find her a new home. I started calling her Spreckles, not that it makes any difference.
As I was telling Ricky, a local acquaintance, when I came home all of my other dogs would run to greet me. "Oh, finally she's home. I'm so happy to see you!" they would say in their leaps and licking. This dog says, "Oh, crap, she's home let me go hide under the porch!" and is reluctant to come out, even when I'm feeding her.
I believe it's possible to train any animal, with time and consistency, but an animal that doesn't bond with you is a whole other story. Anyone who met my Coco would know that I stand behind that statement. When I got Coco, he was so aggressive and distrusting that he was described as Kudjo, the dog from the Steven King novel-then movie.
After a couple of years, he was an entirely different animal, though he never got completely normal he did become a good dog. It was particularly satisfying when I brought him to stay at a friends while I was traveling and she actually thought that she had never met him before. The main difference between these two dogs is that Coco and I were bonded before I ever started training him or did any minor medical procedures, and he wanted to be with me. This dog, well, she thinks she's been dog napped not rescued.
The thing of it is that even though I understand her behavior, it still hurts me that she is so frightened of me. In the fable of the lion with a thorn in his paw, he loves his rescuer but I guess that all changes when someone puts bubbles in your sore ear. At any rate, I think it is ridiculous of me to be bothered about this but I am. It appears that rescuing isn't all it's cracked up to be. I wonder...is it possible to trade an animal in for one that is more compatible?
Monday, August 27, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Sneakers
A friend of mine dropped a dog off for me to check out. I was thinking that I was going to take a look at it, he was thinking that he was going to leave it here for three days...so, I have a dog, of sorts.
This dog is probably about three years old and is calm and housebroken. She doesn't go into the trash at all but will pinch food off of the counter when given the opportunity. She is afraid to be touched-at all, so I have not been able to brush her or bathe her. This is enough for me to abandon the project.
Supposedly her name is Sneakers, but that is a surprise to her because when I call her name I get no reaction at all. I have taken to calling her Pickles because it is the only thing that she will not eat.
She has one blue eye and one brown eye, and as much as I hate to admit it, it freaks me out a little. She is chocolate brown and has some speckling which could turn out to be white if she ever gets a bath.
It is amazing how much I can waffle on taking this dog to the pound. The truth is that I don't want her. She is good with the cat, but the fact that she won't let me touch her is unacceptable. How can you train a dog you can't touch? I will have to figure out how to get a leash on her so I can turn her in. That will be a new experience for me...turning in an animal...
I've had a lot of new experiences these last couple of years, this is not one that I am looking forward to....
This dog is probably about three years old and is calm and housebroken. She doesn't go into the trash at all but will pinch food off of the counter when given the opportunity. She is afraid to be touched-at all, so I have not been able to brush her or bathe her. This is enough for me to abandon the project.
Supposedly her name is Sneakers, but that is a surprise to her because when I call her name I get no reaction at all. I have taken to calling her Pickles because it is the only thing that she will not eat.
She has one blue eye and one brown eye, and as much as I hate to admit it, it freaks me out a little. She is chocolate brown and has some speckling which could turn out to be white if she ever gets a bath.
It is amazing how much I can waffle on taking this dog to the pound. The truth is that I don't want her. She is good with the cat, but the fact that she won't let me touch her is unacceptable. How can you train a dog you can't touch? I will have to figure out how to get a leash on her so I can turn her in. That will be a new experience for me...turning in an animal...
I've had a lot of new experiences these last couple of years, this is not one that I am looking forward to....
Monday, August 13, 2012
Where'd This Week Go?
Time is so fluid, one moment it rushes like an overflowing river and without any warning what-so-ever it seems to still like a placid lake. I don't know any placid lakes, I'm not sure that I ever did, but these past couple of weeks have gone by as if I were busy-which I am not.
I have been doing a lot of writing, and liking what I've written. The bear has made some reappearances, and I am happily looking out for him while keeping my trash indoors. I did some online research and discovered that my bear isn't dangerous as long as I never feed him, that's easy...just as I'm getting used to this whole bear idea along came...the snakes. Yes, you read that right, snakes, plural.
At some point during the Waldo Canyon Fire, which was just a couple of miles away and mercifully progressing further away, I noticed the wood among the leaves on the far side of the house. The wood was not so much piled as collected there after each of the storms knocked them off my trees and my neighbors. One of the disadvantages of living at the end of a street, or just my street in particular, is that the wind carries all of the debris right to the top of my driveway.
As a last resort, I began pitching them over the fence and wishing I had a fireplace...or wishing that I'd assemble the fire pit Aunt Joan/Jean gave me that last Christmas...or figuring that I'd deal with it eventually. As the heat and smoke persisted, and the news ran updates minute by minute for days on end, there was no avoiding it, the wood had to go!
The next day laborer to knock on my door, as they do around here, looking for work was hired. He stacked and tied the branches to be carted away and then went out to turn the leaves and spread them around the yard to avoid spontaneous combustion. He came to the door carrying a young snake which he had accidentally whacked and wanted to know if I wanted to try to save it. He was very sorry. I did not scream but I surely wanted to.
As it turns out, these too are harmless-which is a very good thing because he saw several of them darting away when he happened upon the other. I also learned that the snakes are excellent for keeping field mice and such out of your house and that they mean that my ground is very healthy...okay, I guess...though I don't know why it would matter because I am never going out in that yard again.
I have been doing a lot of writing, and liking what I've written. The bear has made some reappearances, and I am happily looking out for him while keeping my trash indoors. I did some online research and discovered that my bear isn't dangerous as long as I never feed him, that's easy...just as I'm getting used to this whole bear idea along came...the snakes. Yes, you read that right, snakes, plural.
At some point during the Waldo Canyon Fire, which was just a couple of miles away and mercifully progressing further away, I noticed the wood among the leaves on the far side of the house. The wood was not so much piled as collected there after each of the storms knocked them off my trees and my neighbors. One of the disadvantages of living at the end of a street, or just my street in particular, is that the wind carries all of the debris right to the top of my driveway.
As a last resort, I began pitching them over the fence and wishing I had a fireplace...or wishing that I'd assemble the fire pit Aunt Joan/Jean gave me that last Christmas...or figuring that I'd deal with it eventually. As the heat and smoke persisted, and the news ran updates minute by minute for days on end, there was no avoiding it, the wood had to go!
The next day laborer to knock on my door, as they do around here, looking for work was hired. He stacked and tied the branches to be carted away and then went out to turn the leaves and spread them around the yard to avoid spontaneous combustion. He came to the door carrying a young snake which he had accidentally whacked and wanted to know if I wanted to try to save it. He was very sorry. I did not scream but I surely wanted to.
As it turns out, these too are harmless-which is a very good thing because he saw several of them darting away when he happened upon the other. I also learned that the snakes are excellent for keeping field mice and such out of your house and that they mean that my ground is very healthy...okay, I guess...though I don't know why it would matter because I am never going out in that yard again.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
In a MInute
You always know that your whole life can change in a minute. Minutes we hope for, like winning the lottery, meeting the right person or finding the right...minutes we dread, like a terrible car accident, the death of a loved one or the dreaded diagnosis. We don't know when these moments are coming, we are aware of their possibility but for the most part our lives are spent between these moments.
Most of our lives are unremarkable selections of what to wear or what to have for dinner, perhaps who to date or what we want to do with our lives but even those seem to evolve over time until your choices come together into a lifestyle and in the end, your life. Sometimes, we can trace a change to a particular decision but often we don't exactly know when we became so committed to the life that we are living.
Today, a small black bear walked out from behind my van...right to the end of the driveway and in that moment, I realized, that my life was changed. This person that has lived her entire life just outside the two largest cities in the United States was now living among the bears and the deer.
As intentional as my move to Colorado was, and as beautiful as I think it is here, I never thought for one moment about living with such large wildlife. To think that I was so impressed by a friendly squirrel last year...a double rainbow last month...and now a young bear in my driveway. It is a staggering thought.
A certain part of me has always wanted to live in such a place, but another part of me cannot believe the transitions that have brought me to this moment. I didn't think of my new home as being as rural as this event portrays it. I won't change it, if I wanted to I doubt that I could actually pull it off anyway. I have committed myself to enjoying this life, as different as it is from the rest of my life, it is a good life just the same...but a bear in the yard? That gives me pause.
I have been building my life here slowly, because that is my speed since everything happened. Each minute that brought these huge changes was not necessarily more than a situation to be dealt with, the best I could. I didn't handle them all well, by a long shot but I have accepted this truth and still I know that my life will change in a minute, though when that minute arrives is a total mystery to me.
Will it be the moment I've been waiting for? Will it be a moment that I did not see coming? Like a bear napping by the creek, that thrilled me or like that same bear popping out from behind the van that made me aware of my vulnerability? Certainly. I hope it is something much more satisfying like meeting the love of my life as well as the successful resolution of legal matters that I decline to discuss. Between these two ideas are a hundred more, each more abstract or fantastical but if a bear can and, in fact, did appear from behind the van in my driveway, is it any more fantastic to think that in a minute I could publish any part of my writing from the last thirty years? Or become a non-smoker which I have been pursuing just as long. Or establish a home business that allows me to work when I can, and which I crave? Or become the artist that I have always dreamed of? Which is more realistic? Which is probable, or does that even matter?
This house on the corner, with a creek at the back has all these possibilities and more, but for the first time in my life, I think I might take up target practice...it's a new idea that could change my life, in a minute...
Most of our lives are unremarkable selections of what to wear or what to have for dinner, perhaps who to date or what we want to do with our lives but even those seem to evolve over time until your choices come together into a lifestyle and in the end, your life. Sometimes, we can trace a change to a particular decision but often we don't exactly know when we became so committed to the life that we are living.
Today, a small black bear walked out from behind my van...right to the end of the driveway and in that moment, I realized, that my life was changed. This person that has lived her entire life just outside the two largest cities in the United States was now living among the bears and the deer.
As intentional as my move to Colorado was, and as beautiful as I think it is here, I never thought for one moment about living with such large wildlife. To think that I was so impressed by a friendly squirrel last year...a double rainbow last month...and now a young bear in my driveway. It is a staggering thought.
A certain part of me has always wanted to live in such a place, but another part of me cannot believe the transitions that have brought me to this moment. I didn't think of my new home as being as rural as this event portrays it. I won't change it, if I wanted to I doubt that I could actually pull it off anyway. I have committed myself to enjoying this life, as different as it is from the rest of my life, it is a good life just the same...but a bear in the yard? That gives me pause.
I have been building my life here slowly, because that is my speed since everything happened. Each minute that brought these huge changes was not necessarily more than a situation to be dealt with, the best I could. I didn't handle them all well, by a long shot but I have accepted this truth and still I know that my life will change in a minute, though when that minute arrives is a total mystery to me.
Will it be the moment I've been waiting for? Will it be a moment that I did not see coming? Like a bear napping by the creek, that thrilled me or like that same bear popping out from behind the van that made me aware of my vulnerability? Certainly. I hope it is something much more satisfying like meeting the love of my life as well as the successful resolution of legal matters that I decline to discuss. Between these two ideas are a hundred more, each more abstract or fantastical but if a bear can and, in fact, did appear from behind the van in my driveway, is it any more fantastic to think that in a minute I could publish any part of my writing from the last thirty years? Or become a non-smoker which I have been pursuing just as long. Or establish a home business that allows me to work when I can, and which I crave? Or become the artist that I have always dreamed of? Which is more realistic? Which is probable, or does that even matter?
This house on the corner, with a creek at the back has all these possibilities and more, but for the first time in my life, I think I might take up target practice...it's a new idea that could change my life, in a minute...
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