Christmas Card

"My father carries around the picture of the kid who came with his wallet." - Rodney Dangerfield

As promised, here is the picture I used of Sandy for my Christmas card. I printed it in sepia so the colors didn't overwhelm the card. I liked it. Hope those who received it did too.

Our Christmas was fun and too quick and filled with pictures. For as long as i can remember, there have been no pictures of me as a baby or toddler around. For years, my sisters teased me about being adopted... as only sisters can do. And my parents claimed they went through a slide phase... all the pictures taken were on slides and we needed a projector to see them, blah blah blah. As the second child, I take every opportunity to show how I was neglected... teasing my parents about my pictures. So, my younger sister pulled out all the slides and we went through all of them. Found some great pictures of our family and trips and proof I was once a baby in their household... pictures of me crawling and Leah holding me as a baby. We're taking them to preserve them digitally so we'll have prints and copies to share soon. I'll share a little timeline when I have the pictures in hand.

My bad... My bad

"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth." - Maya Angelou.

Often, I talk my dog, Sandy for a walk around the neighborhood at twilight. It's cooler and after we've eaten and it's a great way for me to unwind before going to bed. Rarely, do we run into anyone else. And certainly no other animals so while she has a lease clipped to her collar, I'm usually not holding it. She behaves.... for the most part.

I realize this is wrong and irresponsible.

Tonight, we were coming down the last stretch and she took off after something and got ahead of me. The street lights are not bright and I couldn't see into the shadows. But I heard dogs barking so I started to walk faster. Then I heard a man yelling and I could see Sandy approaching an older gentleman with two large white dogs (not certain of the breed) at full force. I'm not certain who growled first but at that point I started running and yelling for my dog which illicted no response. The man was able to make Sandy back down and she came to me when I was closer. He was fussing at his dogs when I got there and after I secured Sandy, I turned to apologize. My dog was off leash and I was at fault and I wanted to make sure all was okay.

He glared at me and then sniffed and then walked past me.

It was like a scene from the movies. I was sincerely apologizing and he didn't even stop to accept it. I wasn't certain what to do but I finished my apology, getting louder as he walked away and then continued on my walk, Sandy's lease tight in hand.

I don't know what this means for our future walks...
Do I need to change the way I walk Sandy? I've lived here since March and I haven't run into anyone at this time of night so there haven't been any problems.

Sandy is aggressive to other large dogs... if they are female... sometimes. They have her file marked at the vet's as an "aggressive dog" yet the workers love her. I've had her play well with others and I've had it go horribly wrong. She's a sweet and lovable dog who I trust completely with my innocent nephew but I have to be really careful around other dogs. But it's not predictable. And everything I've done as far as training her goes has had no affect upon her or her reactive behavior.

I know I shouldn't let her walk free if I can't rely upon her to obey me. I know that I'm responsible for anything my dog does to harm another person and/or their property. And I wouldn't shirk from that but I also don't want anything to happen.

I guess it's back to obediance training for us again. Oh joy.

Treeing

"Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game."

- Paul Rodriquez

This big tree sits in my front yard and whenever I let my pup out the front door, she beelines it to this tree. When we were outside over the weekend, I went over to the tree and tried to imagine what she sees.

Is it something like this? Or is it more? She has heightened senses of smell and sound that I can only imagine. So when she trees up a squirrel, does she know where he went and feels frustrated that her paws won't allow her to climb? Foiled Again! I imagine her thinking as she trots back to me.

And, in contrast to the quoted Mr. Rodriquez, I beg to differ that the squirrels in my yard aren't a part of the game. They taunt and dodge, squeak and tease as they run in and out of my pup's reach. They enjoy the back and forth. Or at least, seem to be laughing from my perch on the porch.

Simple Pleasures

As you all know very well, I love my nephew - should Leah have more children or Lauren have any children, I will love them just as much, if not more. I'd love the chaos. I've always thought having kids the same ages as my sisters' kids and all of them running around together would be so much fun. I guess that comes from growing up in a rural community where everyone seemed to be related to everyone else except for my family. We were stand alones.

Leah and William came to Georgia last night and we ate dinner at my parent's house. I took Sandy over because William loves Sandy. He's terrified of her but he loves her too. He squeals and gets all excited but he's been knocked by her tail a couple of times so he's getting cautious of the back half of her body. His latest thing is paper towels so he was wiping Sandy down last night in between eating the paper towel. Actually they were taking turns wiping each other down, he was using the paper towel and she would use her tongue. It was pretty funny to watch him and I'm sorry the shutter speed on my camera isn't fast enough to capture the full event. Especially when Sandy got him backed into the corner and was licking him all over. I stopped to help him but looking back I should have gotten a picture first.

Wet Noses, Warm Hearts*

I've been promising pictures of my new house and as soon as I take them, I'll put them up and out there for all of you to see. In anticipation of doing that, I was cleaning off my card from my camera and I found these. I had tried to make Sandy pose for me in the back yard of my parents' house. I got a couple of good ones.

I love this dog... She drives me nuts sometimes but all she wants is to love and be loved. She's a smart puppy (not that I would put up with anything else!) and she'll do the funniest things. My sister's cat also made the move with us and it's the first time they've lived together in the same space. It's a constant competition - who gets fed first, who gets to sit beside me (I have 2 sides people!), who I talk to more, who I brush first, etc. Now I see what moms with the second baby go through. Sandy is just a little possessive of me. Makes me feel loved and I know I'll never be alone as long as I have her.

And who wouldn't want a that pink nose, cold and wet, pushing into their hand everytime it can, all to get scratched behind her ears.

*I'm well aware this is a title of a book about dogs - I don't know who the author is and I'm too lazy feeling right now to look it up. Shame on me, I know.