The price of the dog does NOT make a good owner

I REALLY wanted to have a nice post today. I went out this morning with my business partners, to deliver boxes of Thanksgiving Food to families. It all seemed like a very rewarding morning. And truthfully all the families/individuals we spoke with were very nice. The disappointment came as we were just finishing up with the last box. I heard a weird screaming sound behind me that I couldn't place...as I turned around I saw a scruffy older hispanic guy picking up a little schnauzer puppy by the scruff of the neck and shaking him while the puppy screamed and fought. Then as I turned to take another look he was walking across the street hanging the puppy from it's hind legs like he was carrying a dead rabbit. By the time I got around the fence and down the driveway he was cutting through he had the pup back up in his arm. I yelled at him that if he was going to treat the pup so badly he should just give it to me. He said he wasn't treating it badly. I told him I SAW him shaking it and carrying it upside down by it's hind legs. The poor little pup is looking over the guys shoulder at me just asking to get him out of there. I told the guy I'd give him $10 for the puppy (I didn't even know what I really had in my pocket)since he must not think much of it. He had the nerve to say he spent a LOT of money on that puppy. So I told him then he better start treating it better if he spent so much money on it because the way he's treating right now is abuse. He said something I couldn't hear and slipped through the break in the chainlink fence. I told him I was going to call the police with a description of him - but he knew and I knew that around here they don't care. Nothing will happen to him and the dog will end up dead. Not to mention the sad statement it makes that this scroungy, unclean man living in a crappy apartment building paid god knows how much money - that he could have used in many constructive ways like clean clothes and a bath - on a small helpless animal that will either die because he kills it, die because he can't afford to pay for any of it's healthcare, or die because he will have screwed it up so badly that when it lands at the shelter they will have no choice. Sometimes it doesn't seem worth it to get up in the morning...

Getting Spayed

Evidently it's really offensive to say this about a human. Evidently it's really frowned upon even if you are saying it about yourself. It is really insensitive to all those women that are losing something they wanted so badly. But I have to be able to express my feelings, honestly, somewhere, without having to worry about hurting someone else's feelings that I don't even know. How is it fair that I have to NOT say what I feel about myself because someone else might be offended? I'm not saying it ABOUT them. I am not saying it FOR them. I am saying it about and for ME.

So here, in my own blog, I get to talk about what I will be going through soon. I will be going in for a hysterectomy soon. I have always had seriously bad periods. When I was young they were so painful I passed out a few times. An emergency room gave me demerol for the pain, and made me stay the weekend thinking I had a ruptured spleen - even though I kept telling them it was just my period.

So, being a dog person, I used to ask why I couldn't just get spayed. I have NO desire to be pregnant - never have never will. And I am sorry if women who want to and can't find that offensive but dammit I am allowed to express my own feeling. I'm not saying to them, you can't so live with it or you can't and I can but won't (don't actually know there's any thruth to that) so nyah nyah nyah. I am simply saying I am going through a whole lot of pain and misery to hold on to something I am NEVER going to use. And since I am never going to use it, and it causes me so much discomfort, lets just spay me. See I don't view spay and neuter as bad words, so I don't look at this as a bad thing. In the animal world of our civilized society S/N has a very useful purpose, many actually. Not only does it prevent unwanted litters it also protects our beloved pets from various health risks and cancers that they should not have to risk simply because some people think they should remain intact for some reason. If you aint gonna use it, and it causes problems, lose it. So that's what I'm doing. It does not make me less a woman. I am not defined by my body parts. I know many women are tied to their anatomy for their definition of self but it doesn't matter to me personally if I no longer have a uterus. I was born a woman and that isn't going to change after 40 some years simply because a body part is now missing. That's like saying all humans have 2 legs so if you lose a leg you are now somehow not human. And I know, again I am being insensitive because that is exactly what people go through emotionally when they do lose a leg. I'm just saying, I don't see myself that way.

I am not going to wake up one morning and wonder "what the hell have I done? I can never have a baby now!" It just isn't in my make up. And I have to say that I can not be the only woman out there that feels that way. I want to go to and utilize the information and support that is offered on many sites about hysterectomy, but I feel as though I am not allowed to truly express my feelings without being labeled insensitive, crass, unkind, thoughtless. So I have to lurk quietly and just read what I can. But I can't ask questions that pertain to NOT feeling a great loss. I can't ask questions that pertain to NOT crying over babies that won't be. I need somewhere that will accept questions after surgery NOT related to those things. And If you say no it's not that because I don't miss that - then you are thoughtless of all the women that do. Uhoh, no more help for you. You are not a woman. Please don't post your insensitive questions on our site. NOT that I've been kicked off of any sites because I read the rules about posting first so I already know I can't ask those questions. It's just like when I was a kid and I knew I could not ask questions about certain things. I just had to wait and see if someone dropped an answer without thinking about it. But if you actually asked the question then you were labeled.

So I have to wonder, but don't yet know where to find the answers. What kind of mood swings will I have if any? Since I am not attached to the idea of kids, will I feel a new sense of freedom by not having to worry about periods or PMS? (as opposed to mourning for children not to be) Will I be greatful for no longer having to experience killer cramps or am I going to regret what I've done for some mystical reason that even I can't anticipate? Here's one for you...is there someone out there that felt just like I did before surgery that discovered that once the parts were removed you ended up having the exact same feelings of remorse as the women that did want to have kids someday? Cause that one would really mess with my head.

For now I am excited about being done with it all, and nervous about the recovery time. I actually bailed on it all 2 yrs ago and opted for a smaller fix it surgery just because of the idea of missing 6 weeks of work. Now I've figured out I can work at home after about 2 weeks, and timing it near the holidays makes for a slower work time and time already scheduled to be off. So those things have made it easier to choose. All in all it feels right.

Pat Robertson, who does he think he is?

I wasn't going to write but the more I thought about Pat Robertson's comment today to that Pennsylvannia town the more irrate I got.

If he is a truly religious, God fearing man just who does he think he is speaking for God?! He tries to cloak his own need for vengence against those that think different from him in Gods words. What a bitter man, unable to face the daily challenges of life in a mature, adult manner. It's like he's too old to cry "my daddy's going to get you!" so he uses Gods name instead. Pathetic. I'm sorry, but I am simply apalled by what passes for a good christian these days. I think he should be looking at his own behavior and conduct and spend a little less time putting words in Gods mouth.

I'll thank him and all the other evangelical christians to keep their noses and their voices out of my relationship with God. Get your own house in order and stay out of mine!

Too Cute Squirrel

Oh, my friend Sheena sent me the cutest email today, the kind with pictures in it. It ended up like a little picture story book of this cute little rescued baby squirrel. The whole thing was so cute and heart warming I can't do it justice with words. I made a PDF of the email so everyone could see the pictures if they want. If you go here http://carepets.org/kate/finnegan_squirrel.pdf you can view the PDF of how Debby Cantlon helped this little guy. Be sure to share with people you think need a pick me up.

People just suck

You know, I get a good run for awhile where there is hope for humanity. Then along comes reality and just knocks the stool right out from under hope. Yesterday was one of those days. I'm sure anyone and everyone in rescue knows the feeling, but I'll vent just for the hell of it.

I got an email yesterday from someone looking to place their dog. Seems they are leaving the country and don't want to put the dog through the move. Since they adopted him from the rescue I volunteer with, they would like to give him back. Oh, by the way they adopted him in 1992 when he was 10 months old, and he's been a backyard dog ever since. He doesn't have any health issues, other than being 14 years old. He's very good, gets along with everyone, but they don't think he'd make the transition to being a house dog at this age, and they don't think he would survive a winter outside in Switzerland so they liked to give him back. So he can live out his life in comfort. Outside somewhere, without the only sad form of a family he's known for the last 14 years. People suck. And things like this make me seriously doubt our ability to get to the truth when we interview for placements.

Then I have my own return coming back, after 6 years. He is the sibling of the 2 dogs my friends adopted from me 6 years ago (they adopted the mostly white one, and the one on the ground. Prince is the other one in the lap). The owner thought about returning him last year, because he's untrainable. Seems they took him to a class 3 times - not 3 different classes but attending 1 class for only the first 3 sessions, and the trainer told them he was untrainable - at 12 weeks old what puppy isn't easily distracted. So they didn't try to train him for the next 5 years. Last year I met with them and gave them some suggestions if they didn't want to give up on him. But I could have taken him back. They kept him, supposeldy to try. Now a year later they didn't try anything, still think he's untrainable - though without any effort I don't know how you reach that conclusion - and want to give him back.

Now, I know we rescues say we want the dogs back because we don't want people to just bail on them, take them to a shelter, or abandon them. But sometimes you have to wonder if you are perpetuating the disposable pet mindset by making it so easy for them to give them back. It's truly a rock and a hard place.

People suck. Whenever I start to have a little faith I just need to remind myself that for the most part people are really selfish, self centered, uncaring, unthinking, self absorbed bastards. Regardless of their political views. Regardless of their income levels. Regardless of their religious beliefs. Regardless of their social backgrounds. Most of them will bail on something meaningful in a manner that causes pain to someone or something else if it is to their advantage. There are a few good ones out there, and I am lucky to call some of them friend. But for the most part, People Suck.

Thunder bad.

I don't have much to write really. We are having an odd little thunder storm move through. And though to many I know it would seem almost laughable, I know my Border Collie is at home beside him self with worry that the world is, indeed, coming to an end. And for some reason this frenzy of concern for the world drives him to pounce on his poor little deaf cattledog buddy, Ekko, who has no clue TS is aggitated until he lands firmly on her head. I guess it's his way of sharing the thunder with her, since she can't hear it. It's like he says "here, this is how it sounds in my head!"

Dog news at The Bark

I guess I just got busy and forgot they had set up a blog over at The Bark. But I found my link again today and paid them a visit. They have some interesting news about how to help various groups trying to help the displaced Katrina animals. They also have some interesting links to articles about what is and isn't working, and how to help change Red Cross policy on dogs in shelters.

One thing that really struck me was that no one had left any comments. Odd. There were entries that seemed to warrant feedback to me. I commented on one, but then decided I'd comment here and link over to them, even though no one reads my blog either :-)

If you happen to read this, go visit them.

Thanks!

I Love Meerkats!

I visited them at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. I got this cute series of pictures and made this little animation. I was going to post it here, but it wouldn't animate for me so I had to send you to it instead...

Fixing our world image

Evidently President Bush is feeling the heat from all his bad choices and has assigned someone to spin us a new image. According to an article by Reuters:

One immediate task for Hughes will be countering the negative effects abroad of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Television images of desperate and mainly black survivors of the storm stranded in danger and squalor in flooded New Orleans fueled perceptions abroad that the United States was a racially divided country in which the government is unconcerned about its poorest citizens.

Umm, hello, they fueled the same perceptions at home. Or I should say added fuel to a perception that already existed. After the President got elected he was quoted as saying that:

"This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base.” -- George W. Bush

Some people argue that this was a quote repeatedly taken out of context. I would argue that simply popping in to his mind is an indication of his true feelings. And now we have thousands of poor people dying due to lack of a timely response to a disaster we even knew was coming. And since Bush had given only a fraction of the money asked for to shore up failing levies, it wasn't hard to imagine thay at least some of them might fail in a situation like this. How come no one asked, oh my what happens if our crappy levies are damaged by this class 4 hurricane? Damn, someone do their job please.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I'm PMSing so I'll shut up now.

Still learning the art of blogging

But, I am getting there. I just added 2 blogroll links to my sidebar. I am very proud of myself. Now I need to find a few more to add. The thing is I don't get "out" much to read everyone's blogs. I just pop in here and there to see what's about town, so to speak. I'm much more of an observer than I am a participator. But I like being exposed to all the different viewpoints, and just daily chatter. Maybe I'll start getting more active now that I have a few lessons under my belt.

You'd think that by working with and being friends with someone who's writing a book about how to blog (look julie, a link in my paragraph) that I'd be right up there on ability. Just goes to show you how non-participatory I really am...

The inmates are running the asylum

never has it been more true...

My one class

Well. School is back in. I have one evening class on Tuesdays. Psychology of Women. We will be examining gender roles and societies attitudes towards women in different cultures. Should be interesting. She's mainly lecture and video. Last night, though, was a shock to my apparently sheltered system.

We learned all about various endocrine insufficiencies during gestation that affect gender. We learned about babies born genetically male but with deformed genitals. And since it is evidently easier to make a vagina than it is to make a penis, they opt to turn the baby boy into a baby girl. Even though it is genetically a boy. They keep having problems with the kids when they hit puberty, basically being too much a boy and then opting for surgery to turn them back. I was really having a problem with why they were making an obviously wrong choice simply because the surgery was easier - to perform by the way not necessarily to withstand. So even though children are born every day with some kind of deformity that they must live with, boys born with deformed gemitals would some how be better off turned into girls rather than learning to live with their deformity or possibly waiting to repair the genitals when the child is older. How could they possibly survive the ridicule, was the justification! Hello, children are mean to each other all the time but that doesn't mean we put a bag over the head of the kids with cleft palettes or hide the ones that need leg braces. We address the issues and teach the kids how to cope. And at a young age, before those damn gym classes, it's much easier to hide deformed genitals than it is a limb or a face. I think the Dr.s are doing much more damage to these kids pschologically than if they were simply allowed to develope the way they were born rather than being forced into the wrong mold. I was having a real hard time with this whole thing...and I don't even like kids.

I could go on about this because it really seems to have messed with me, but I won't. Can't wait to see what I learn next week...

It's not looting people, it's survival

I'm not going to launch in to a big long rant on what ISN"T being done for the victims of Katrina. But I am going to say that when you are left out in the elements, with no food or water or medical care and there's a store right in front of you, and no aid in sight, it's not looting it's survival. Has any one bothered to look at the news footage of what these people are "making off with" when they show pictures of "looting"? Thi sis not the L.A. riots with people making off with TVs and stereos, these are people taking food, water, and medical supplies to try to keep as many friends and family alive as they can. Hello, anyone else hearing a wake up call?!

Evil, Evil vet, just ask the dogs

Well, yesterday was time for my 2 remaining dogs to get their booster shots, heart worm tests, and general exam. We have a new vet. She's very nice. Helped us with our 3 most difficult situations in recent time. But I was not sure she had enough charm to win the problem children over.

T.S., the border collie, has been a wreck at the vet since he was a puppy and had to spend 2 weeks in isolation with pneumonia. Since then he trusts no one through those doors. He whines, shivers, paces. He tries to climb in to my lap. He looks like he'd like to bite them, but he's even too afraid for that.

Ekko, my deaf cattle dog, loves people. But she absolutely senses when your intentions change. You can play with her ears, until you want to look in them. You can touch her feet, until you want to examine them. And don't even THINK about the teeth. Just try to sneak a look as she pants. If you restrain her it's like trying to hold a wild fawn.

But, the good doctor came in and sat right down on the floor, at dog level. T.S. stuck his nose to her outstretched hand and looked at me like "can I bite it?". Then backed up into my lap. My brave boy. Ekko was a bit more curious. She approached the good doctor, and even climbed in to her lap. She let her play with her ears, and sneak in a quick look. But then all trust was shattered when she went to look at her teeth. The good doctor didn't give in though. She held on, got knocked in the jaw, hit her elbow on the door, and got sprayed by Ekko's anal sacs (Which is VERY stinky if you don't know. My friend Mar calls it butt juice. It smells like dead fish.) when all other efforts at escape failed. She didn't look at the teeth, but she did hold on until she calmed down. But I still think Ekko won that one. Especially since she would now have to go home and do laundry.

So then it was time to examine T.S. Truthfully, he is better if I am not around. He is still a puss, but less inclined to bite and more inclined to shrink up. So I suggested they go ahead and take him int he back to give him his blood test, etc. There was a lot of commotion from the back, which left us in the room wondering exactly what was going on. The good doctor came back and told us he did fine, just pooped on his leash when they were working with him. That's my boy.

Clearly, this was no better experience than any of the others if you are the dogs. Forget about the fact that the vet is nice, or that she may become a family friend, or that she may come visit the house. I hope they don't carry a grudge if she stops by sometime.

Poptart

poptart_dogs,
originally uploaded by DogDebt.

This is my sweet foster dog Poptart. She looks very much like Fudge, but they were not related. Poptart is a very sweet girl who just wants to be included. She is very submissive with other dogs, likes cats (she was play bowing and belly crawling with my friends cat) and kids. She is a very soft girl, she can be trained with a buckle collar, praise and a harsh tone - anything stronger breaks her heart. I called her for bed the other night, didn't even think I'd raised my voice, and when she didn't come I went back around the corner to find her laying flat on the deck as small as she could get - which isn't very small because she's 55lbs.

Sad turn of events

I had to put Jodie, my 14 yr old corgi, to sleep on July 14th. She had been fighting kidney failure as you may know, and it had become too much for her.

Now Taylor, my 10 yr old lab, is having seizures which started this last Sunday. She is on meds to control them but it is likely a brain tumor. We are looking in to options for treatment/prognosis/etc right now. My feelings are that she will not be with me much longer either. We are going to see the neurologist in Santa Cruz tomorrow and maybe get a CT scan.

Hard to believe it is happening so close together. I'll send out an update when I know more.

Well, it was confirmed yesterday that my lab, Taylor, does have a brain tumor and it is not operable/treatable. We will just medicate to control the seizures and when they return make the hard decision then.

Then, to make things worse:

I came home Friday after work and as I was getting ready to lock my dogs in the house so I could Amanda's dog Angel, Angel broke through 2 gates and started a fight with Ekko. As I got Taylor in the house to safety and went back to rescue Ekko, TS was now in it with Angel and Ekko was on the border. I got Angel on the side yard and closed the gate but before I could get TS back in the house she body slammed the gate open and they were at it again. I tried to pick Angel up to get her out of reach but it didn't work so I steered them back towards the back fence. TS gave her a chance a few times to just let it go but she wouldn't and he would be back on her neck in an instant. I finally got them back by the fence/gate Angel had come through but I had to pick her up over my head to get over the fence. She tried to come right back through but I had my leg holding it. But since it has open bars TS stuck his nose through to snap at Angel and when he did that she clapped down on is upper jaw/nose. He was stuck in the bars and she would NOT release her grip so I had no choice but to try to pry her bite open. Once I got TS free her mouth shut on my left fingers. I finally found something I could wedge against the fence to keep her in long enough to get TS in the house.

Then I sat on the steps and had an asthma attack for a few minutes and went to check on my dogs and my hand. Right then Amanda came home and checked the dogs while I ran cold water on my hand. Ekko was fine, TS has a scraped up nose and a gash on his lip...and Angel is a MESS. She has a drain tube in her chest, stitches on her back right leg and possibly a damaged knee. And she STILL tried to get to them again yesterday!

We ran Angel to the vet Friday. I didn't want to go to emergency cause I didn't want a bite report filed. Amanda's EMT friend looked at it and said I could wait i I wanted to. So I did. Saturday I felt like I needed to make sure it was really OK so we went to urgent care and I told them I dropped a jack hammer on it. Nothing broken, infected though that quick.


Amanda broke her foot last night in softball. spent 2.5 hrs at Kaiser ER.

We have an appt today at 1pm with Trish King at the Marin Humane Society. She is evidently very successful with dog/dog aggression. So I'll be driving Angel hopping on three legs and Amanda hopping on 2 legs up to Marin today.

Thought I'd fill you in on how the meeting went with Trish King.

She said unfortunately her advice is to put her down. She said she is the quintessential fighting pit and a person of low moral character would be happy to have her. After hearing of how the fight played out, and that Angel still wants to return to it, she was convinced that she is a disaster waiting to happen.

She said a few things that drove it home for her were the fact that she was as injured as she was and kept fighting, that she let me reach in and pick her up repeatedly without turning on me, and the fact that she is one of the few dogs that noticed the dogs Trish had in her office on a large crate with a big blanket in front of it. Angel caught the sent right away and though she didn't lunge she kept her focus on that crate.

I just wanted everyone to know that we had to put Amanda's dog, Angel, down last night. I will be at the pet fair tomorrow but Amanda will not.

And then:
My little lab Taylor has gone off to play with her corgi buddy, Jodie as of this past Saturday. I hope we are done with this trend for a while...

Dixie and Fudge

fudge_dixie1_web
Originally uploaded by DogDebt.

OK, this is a picture of Dixie - a tall and beautiful Catahoula mix that my friends adopted from me. She is playing with Fudge, a sweet and gentle Am Staf that went to a wonderful family that takes him everywhere with them. Julie got me set up on Flickr and I am just getting my feet wet.

weird experiences post surgery

(I actually wrote this on 6/3 but hadn't posted it, so there are more updates to follow)

I've been away awhile. Not sick, just not writing. Today I felt like sharing a few thoughts on the weird feeling resulting from my recent surgery to hopefully cure my sleep apnea. It's been one week. They did a septoplasty - where they straighten out the septum that runs up the middle of your nose dividing nostrils into left and right. Evidently those can be pretty windy instead of straight. While they were in there they did a turbinate trim - these are the boney wall like structures that make up your various sinus areas. Evidently the walls can be too thick and they go sheer them away a bit. They moved into my throat where they did a tonsilectomy - didn't lose them as a kid. And they did a UPPP which is a really long word for taking out part of the soft pallet at the back of the roof of your mouth and removing your uvula (punching bag). Then they did a radio frequency reduction to the base of the tongue. Lots of work. All went well. I really expected my throat to be the worst of the experience. Not even close. True, it looks weird to look into my throat and see no punching bag in sight. And it feels weird to feel all of those little stitches back there tickling the back of my tongue like some tiny, bristly little kitten sitting there. But my sinuses have been the thing that has been tweaking me this past week.

First, they were packed for the first night. I had a sling under my nose to catch any runoff blood. Nice. Worked well though I must say. Even with the morphine - which didn't really seem that impressive - and the liquid vicodine - which really does work - I was up most of the night with a painful nose. And I could feel the packing, which felt wrong. The next morning the good doctor said to come by so he could remove the packing. My partner went with me. She watched as he pulled a plug from my nose - I closed my eyes and dealt with the feeling. Hmm. Not bad. Air. She says oh that wasn't very long at all. Not bad. Nice Doctor turns back around and says Ok time to take out the packing. Uh..oh. I did not watch. It felt like someone removed a t-shirt through my nose. She said, oh that was kind of long. yuck. Then he took a tiny little tool and vacuumed out my sinuses. Oh, this was a bad sound and a worse feeling. It didn't hurt. It's important to know that it didn't hurt. It was just, disturbing, unsettling. Go on home, don't blow for 4 days. You betcha!

OK, so I can see I have furry little stitches at the back of my throat. And they aren't going to let me forget about them. But my nose has stitches too. It has stitches inside the left nostril - the side ALL the knots fall on. Evidently every stitch in my nose tied off in the left nostril. So I carried tissue around to dab at my nose gently while it healed. It was doing pretty well though.

Genetically engineered foods

OK, I was visiting the Whole Foods website and read their stand on genetically engineered foods. You can read it here: wholefoodsmarket

I felt like I had to respond because things are getting out of hand, so this is what I sent them.

I LOVE your stores and your products. I have to feed not only myself but a number of different animals that are even more sensitive to pesticides, etc. than we are. However, I have one concern about your statement on genetically engineered foods. I think that you are in a position to education people with true scientific information rather than jumping on the mass media band wagon and lumping all "genetically engineered foods" in to one scarey basket.

Please remember that even hybridization is a form of genetic engineering. That Ice Berg lettuce did not occur in nature. And that many crops we enjoy today would have been wiped out at some point in history if farmers and botonists had not figured out how to share the hardiness or resistance of one plant with that of another.

I think there are absolutley risks with some genetic engineering and as always we need to be watchful about how far things go, but I encourage you to temper your position on the subject with some common sense and expanded understanding of the broader subject of possible benefits as well as risks.

I feel that your position right now just encourages ignorance in favor of a great marketing angle. I would hate to have Whole Foods become just another manipulator of public hysteria.

why do babies count in carpool lanes?

I'm sure someone will be annoyed at me, well would be if anyone outside of my 3 friends read my blog, but why exactly is it okay to use the carpool lane if you have a kid in your car? I thought the whole reason we got carpool lanes was to reduce the number of cars on the road. So am I to understand that if mom wasn't driving little 2 yr old Johnny around with her to the store etc, he'd be out in his own car adding to the pollution? I fail to see how anyone under the legal driving age should qualify for carpool privileges. Seriously, even if you are hauling other peoples kids around with your own, their parents are still on the road in their own car going somewhere else. Having kids in cars does nothing to reduce the number of cars on the road and I do not think it should be a free pass to use the carpool lane. If they get to, then my dogs should qualify. They are unable to transport themsleves around but are still taking up a seat in my car, breathing air unlike the carpool dummies. Just my opinion but I'm sticking with it.

character studies

OK, this one brings us up to date. We had to pick from a few options. I chose the one where one character was silent but described and the other had dialogue. Here it is:

Mae was a short, round woman, 4’11” tops and 180lbs, that brought to mind images of a cartoon banty hen; all round, wearing an apron and clucking perpetually about everything and nothing while running in endless circles. In sharp contrast James was tall, 5’11”, slightly built and soft spoken. He went through life with Mae trying not to make a ripple in the fabric of their marriage. Mae did not like ripples, and James would never hear the end of it if one arose.

James sat quietly, reading the papers as he did every Sunday, trying to stay out of the way and pretty much out of sight. It never really worked, but he was persistent. Mae flew in the house from the garage, clacking away before she was even through the door “… is the box that has all of the papers about the appliances that I gave you to put away in a safe place so I could find them easily if I had a question about something because you know you aren’t the one that reads directions I am and if I can’t find the box with all of the booklets I am not going to be able to fix anything that has to work in the house to keep us warm and fed and bathed because…” and she was back through another door and fading from earshot before he could even put the paper down to look at her, let alone answer her. He just shook his head from behind his paper and turned the page.

“…if they don’t start thinking about how it affects other people they are never going to make it in that complex because other people aren’t going to put up with it you know they don’t have to because they aren’t family and family is the only one that has to accept what you are anyway so I told them they better start learning how to act like civilized human being cause it isn’t like I didn’t raise them with manners but it’s also not my fault…” James could hear her coming back around from the other end of the house, her volume increasing with proximity.

He shifted in his seat and readied himself for the arrival. “….did you figure out where you think you put that box so I can look through those books I asked you about because I want to get that taken care of this morning to put my mind at ease about it all…” he lowered his paper and got as far as opening his mouth,“…never mind by the time you spit it out I will have found it myself and read them all since I am at least up and looking at this hour who is sitting around still reading the paper anyway…” and she was again through the door to the garage.

James put down the Chronicle, picked up the Times, and smiled to himself through a sip of black coffee. Far be it for him to cause any ripples in the fabric of their marriage.

A Villanelle

We are learning poetry. We're learning the different forms. Our first real poetry assignment was to write a villanelle - this link isn't from class but it explains it well. This was my attempt. The class actually liked it.

A Second Term

My life continues as if on a dragon's flight,
And as my foot slips from the stirrup, cold,
I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Is my fall from the mounting or the fight?
Or is it from the faint words I hear, so bold?
My life continues as if on a dragon's flight.

I struggle through the challenge with all my might.
Straining against the outcome, foretold.
Still I tumble head first into the darkest night.

My soul, feeling the meaning, is frozen with fright
as the mother falters under the red mold.
Yet my life continues as if on a dragon's flight.

Why must the mother endure such a slight?
Where are her champions of old?
I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Have they all converted to the conservative right?
Is there no champion left to remove the blindfold?
My life continues as if on a dragon's flight.
Still, I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Kate Humphrey

from the perspective of a non-human

That was the assignment.

8 Weeks Old


I don't understand. When I'm quiet you're all
concerned, when I'm playing you get angry with me for
making too much noise. You toss all sorts of things at
me that I can't stand, and this makes you happy but
when I find something laying around that makes ME
happy, this makes you angry.

I try to stick close by cause I think you're the boss,
but you keep telling me to GET OUT OF THE WAY, so I go
as far away as I can and you call me back. I come back
over, follow you everywhere, and you step on me
OUCH, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH I scream and you yell WELL GET
OUT OF THE WAY! I slink away and lick my wounded
feelings.I do not understand.

It was so much easier with my mom and siblings. Let's
play meant let's play. A good growl meant get out of
the way. Everything was a toy. It was impossible to
get TOO CLOSE to each other. It was so simple. The
rules were easy to understand.

What is the right signal for play? How do I know when
to stay away? When is the right time to come near?
Which objects are mine? Where is it ok to lay? Why do
you bark so loud? Who is the boss? I want to make you
happy, make you like me, fit in with this new pack,
but can't you see, I don't understand your rules.

Kate Humphrey

writing exercises

OK, as I am going through things I've decided not to post ALL of the assignments because they are simply not interesting if you aren't part of the class. But some can stand alone. In this one we are supposed to describe something in three lines - first line contains an abstraction, plus a verb, plus a place. Second line describes attire, third summarizes an action. I did 2, they seemed to fit together once I started.

Hatred slinks its way into society,
cloaked in its white piety,
suffocating the masses with its single deity.



Tolerance struggles to break the surface.
Narrow chains bind its limbs.
Kicking free, it swallows clean air before sinking.

Been back in class

Well, I have been really bad about posting anything to my blog, and Julie told me today she was about ready to drop me from her list. So, I decided I would just post my homework assignments for my creative writing class.

In the first one we were supposed to start with the words "At home, we" and build from there. Here it is.

At home, we
are safe in the arms of our bed
are warmed from the breath of the fire
are bathed in the glow of its light
are comforted by the sounds of sleep
are soothed by the rhythms of the night
are calmed by the weight of pups
are nourished by love
are replenished, refreshed, restored
end chaos with peace