Short and Tall: Truebloodhound

I'm leaving for a long weekend and won't be back till after Tuesday, so I leave you with this week's edition of Short & Tall, just a bit early.

Introducing Paxton

He was at a shelter, and not the no-kill kind, where he wasn't getting along very well when somebody suggested that he might do well at a foster home. His foster mom was positive that Andy would be the perfect human for him.

When Paxton gets excited he drags his legs behind like he's paralyzed. That's what he's doing in the bottom picture. He has some small dog issues, but they are mild and we can deal with them. We are so happy to be Paxton's new forever family.

IF: Drift

Illustration Friday is a page that gives a prompt every Friday and then gives you a whole week to come up with an illustration. I thought it might be good practice and also a lot of fun to participate. This week the prompt was "drift". (Clicking enbiggens, as always.)

***

In totally unrelated news, Andy has adopted Paxton, a seven-year-old chihuahua/terrier mix that is very well behaved and really needed a home. Yesterday was his gotcha day. Andy has promised me some pictures soon. Paxton better get training 'cause he gets to go backpacking with us!

Manic Monday: Pop

Short & Tall: First Edition

I made this yesterday morning but I didn't have the heart to post it then.

Happy Father's Day

Best wishes and sincere admiration go out to all the fathers out there... especially mine.
Thanks for everything Dad. From encouraging me to excel academically, teaching me how to cook, and introducing me to science fiction, to comforting me over the death of my dog. You are the best.

Happy Father's Day.

In Memory of Maxy

Warning: This is a long and possibly tear-inducing post.

Maxy was run over by a car today and died. He was a loving and loyal member of our family and will be greatly missed. This is his story.

When Andy and I married and bought a house here in Alamosa, Jasmine was about four years old. Jasmine and I wanted a puppy very much but Andy was worried, and rightfully so, about the extra responsibility of dog ownership. Becoming a small business owner, husband, and step-dad in one step was enough to ask of anybody. So, it was a few years before he could be persuaded to think about dog ownership, and even then he was of the opinion that a grown dog would be easier for us than a puppy.

Maxy was about a year old when we got him. He'd been taken away from his mother too early and had some issues to begin with, but added to them was the fact that in his whole life he'd only ever known two grown women, one elderly and one middle-aged. He was not a family dog but the woman who had him was a former employee of an animal shelter and she was sick with cancer. She wanted him to have a good permanent home. After meeting this obviously terrified little guy I was dubious about the whole thing and wanted to sleep on it. Andy wanted to bring him home though, so we did.

Maxy spent that whole first day in his crate. The door was open but he was too scared to come out. I had to reach in and pick him up to take him outside and then he'd pee all over me in fear. By the next day he'd decided he could trust me but everybody else in the house was suspect. He followed me everywhere. He was scared of everything. A car ride caused quaking fits of terror.

After he got used to us he calmed down a little, though he never exactly warmed up to Jasmine, and we all fell in love with him. That's sort of the way it works with dogs, even obnoxiously high maintenance dogs (like Mini), after two weeks you just can't imagine life without them. Maxy wasn't high maintenance though. There never was a dog that wanted so much to please. I taught him to sit and roll over and lay down... and the most adorable of all, to play dead when I shot him with a finger gun and said, "bang". Sometimes he'd be so excited about the possibility of a treat that his actual dead time lasted only a few seconds.

Shortly after we got him Andy said, "of course, we can't take him backpacking. It's not like he's a real dog". By which he meant that Maxy was too small to go. I answered, "What does that mean? He's an imaginary dog?" And so Maxy went with us every year. He loved it.

I didn't mark the day on the calender when disaster first struck but it must have been about a year after we got him. Andy was in Denver because his mother had just had hip surgery and Jasmine was in Kansas with her dad. Maxy got into the bathroom trash and ate all the tampons. I called our regular vet and he said to give the dog some vegetable oil, which I did, and keep an eye on him. We were dead broke at the time and I didn't know how I could pay the vet bill if he needed surgery but by the end of the following day it was obvious that Maxy was going to die if I didn't do something. I called a friend who's been a dog owner a lot longer than I, and her partner answered the phone. After hearing the whole story she told me to take Maxy to the animal hospital in Monte Vista and she said she'd loan me the money if he needed surgery. She told the vet to put it on her bill. Maxy didn't end up with surgery. He ended up with an IV to rehydrate him and some expensive flavored Vaseline, and he survived. And we have a bathroom garbage can with a lid now.

Then, for financial reasons and reasons of MIL's health, Andy had to move to Denver without us. We hoped this situation would be temporary (it has lasted several years now) but Andy really wanted to bring Maxy with him, so our family split up. By now we had Mini also, so Mini stayed with us girls and the boys went off to Denver.

It has been a hard few years for our family but Maxy was always home with Andy to comfort him when things weren't going well. Even MIL seemed to benefit from the extra company while Andy was at work (though she didn't always admit it). He was a restful dog to be around; undemanding and eager to please, though he was fierce if he thought his family was threatened (even if the threat was just the elderly woman who brought MIL communion). It's hard to imagine how we can possibly go backpacking without him.

International Box Day

Mini isn't exactly a feline but she thinks she's one cool cat.

International Box Day Information Here

Self Amputation for Fun and Profit

I know it has been a while since this has come up in the media, but something reminded me of it the other day.

I just want to say that if you find yourself in the wilderness, trapped under a tree, and you cut off your own leg, you might deserve to be called a lot of things but hero is not one of them. You might be justified in calling yourself pain tolerant, or skilled at amputation, but I dub thee idiot.

You did tell people where you were going? You can live three days without water and a lot longer, maybe weeks, without food and chances are pretty good that you have some of both on your person. You are wearing halfway intelligent clothing?

The tree will keep you in one place for handy location by the search and rescue people. Stay put. Make noise. You do have that emergency whistle?

Going the rest of your life without a limb may be a small price to pay for celebrity-hood, but it doesn't make you a hero.

Cross Posting?

I have this personal blog, a business blog/website, two twitter accounts (business and personal), an utterli account, facebook, and my facebook page for my business. I try not to post the same stuff to all of them on the off chance that I know you on more than one of them. The exceptions are with Utterli, which I'm just now starting to really use and I cross post a lot because I want people to listen to me, and I cross post my blog to my facebook. I do this because I like when other people do it.

Some people post the same stuff to twitter and facebook so that if you read one you don't really need to read the other. I've read how some other people get annoyed by this. All I know is that I'm spending a lot more time on a lot more social networking sites and posting less to each of them.

How do you cross post? Is cross posting good or bad? Do you ever find it annoying?

Ruby Tuesday: My red pack

This Mountain Smith pack was Andy's but it never fit him right. I have a longer torso and it fits me much better. It's also a great pack for carrying heavier loads which is good because it is ginormous, even though it isn't filled very full in this picture.

Ruby Tuesday is a production of Work Of The Poet by MaryT "The Teach"

Manic Monday: Shower

Isn't it a little odd that we call a party where we give a lot of gifts a shower?

When I was in college I lived in the married student housing and most of my friends were international students. One of the women in our group had a baby and so there was a shower for her. Everybody was invited, men and women alike. As we were getting ready for the party my Vietnamese friend asked if I was looking forward to the baby wash. He thought we were going to have a party and give the baby a bath... I guess it's okay that we don't do that, given what a bridal shower would be like.