A Good Gift Friday, Dec 21 2007

Rieger the dog was visiting for the last few weeks. If I haven’t mentioned this before, Rieger was our second Canine Companions for Independence puppy. He was a handful, I was really pregnant and so he finished his training with another puppy raiser. When he was released from the program (while chasing geese, he nearly took his trainer into a pond) she kept him, but it’s always been understood that we have visitation rights. We keep him when she goes on vacation and sometimes he visits for fun. The latter has happened a couple of times since the loss of Carla.

While he was here recently Brian got a really awesome portrait of him. I had one blown up to an 8×10 and framed it with a simple frame from Kohls, wrapped it and gave it to Marty when we met to turn Rieger over into her care. She loved it. She was so surprised and felt bad she didn’t get me anything. I didn’t care. I wasn’t looking for a gift from her. I just wanted to share with her something I knew she would like. That was giving. That was joyful…on both of our parts. And I realize that that’s what the spirit of Christmas gift giving is supposed to be. I have become too wrapped up in wish lists (both mine and others) and giving to get it done. How I want to give gifts that mean something…really bring joy. I would like to strive for that more often.

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Still Missing Her Tuesday, Dec 4 2007

It’s quiet time right now, when the boys are asked to spend an hour alone and quiet in their rooms. I get a break, and they get a break from each other which keeps them from wanting to kill each other by 4:00. I’ve been catching up on their baby book pages. I don’t scrapbook, but I have always filled out a page a month for what the boys were up to. They’re going to have very complete information for their autobiographies.

I was catching up on February and March. Never have I been so long in filling out a month. But in February and March, Carla was sick and dying so we were busy with other things. But I want their books to be mostly complete, so I filled them, if vaguely. But it’s still really hard to think about that time. About our last weeks and days with her. And my calendar is filled with her temperatures and medicines. And it’s just hard to look at that and not be sad.

My life and my house are filled with dogs-Louie, who has seen so many other dogs come and go, Britta, a beautiful and loving creature who we think will go far as a service dog, and even a visiting Rieger dog, who we raised, was released, but still comes back to visit. But there is still a Carla-shaped hole. There are times when I can think of her and smile now, but thinking about when we were losing her still breaks my heart. I still miss you, pretty girl.

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A Good Dog Book Tuesday, Nov 20 2007

I had heard about this book somewhere online, and though it sounded good, I ignored it figuring that even seven months after losing Carla I wasn’t ready for a dog book. Then Hubby reserved it at the library and brought it home for me. Well, it was here. I might as well look at it. Forty-eight hours later I had read the whole thing and was sobbing uncontrollably on the couch while Hubby looked on wondering what he had done.

Merle’s Door is a wonderful story about Merle-a stray dog the author finds while on a rafting trip and brings home. Merle is an incredible dog with an amazing personality, and Kerasote does a wonderful job of interpreting Merle’s voice. (“You need a dog and I’m it.”) Kerasote combines the stories of Merle’s adventures with lots of research into the lives and histories of dogs and wolves in an educational and engaging way. (He also made me want to move to Wyoming with his description of the wildlife and the beauty of the place.)

Merle’s story ends, like they all do, far too soon for the likes of us longer lived humans. But before I had to say goodbye to Merle I had fallen in love with him which made the end harder and yet somehow bearable as well. Reading about Ted’s care for Merle through the end somehow helped me deal a little more with the grief I still carry with me for my furry girl.

I’d highly recommend this book.

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Long Time No Blog Saturday, Oct 27 2007

I know. It’s been since July. July! Where did the summer and most of fall go? September and October seemed to disappear in a haze of homeschool, soccer and Florida! We took our first real family vacation (trips to see family don’t count), and it was wonderful!

But I’m giving myself permission to not catch up for four months. Otherwise I’ll never get back into this, and I’ve been feeling the call to blog again.

Mostly, that has to do with Britta. Remember her? Cute, little, black puppy. Yep, thats the one.
She’s now 7 months old. This is significant because something special happens to Canine Companions puppies when they reach six months-they are allowed out in public. Until that point they are restricted to going to friends’ homes, puppy class, and the vet. Not very exciting.

It just so happened that her six month birthday fell the day before a puppy class that was held at our local shopping mall. This gives the pups a chance to be exposed to stores and strangers and smells and also give the trainers a chance to guide the raisers in how to handle a dog in such situations. It’s a great experience. And a big step for a first outing. Britta wowed me. At first she was very excited to see her doggy friends (“Doesn’t seeing them mean playtime, Mom?”), but she recovered and did very well. Including *not* doing her business in the mall. Whew!

Well, after that we went on vacation while she went to a fellow puppy raiser’s house. But this week, I have managed to get her out on two different field trips. One, yesterday, involved me, the dog, two boys, and a bag full of library books. Amazingly she did well. The boys did well too. It’s hard for them to not love on her, but she’s a working dog and needs to not be petted constantly while working. I was impressed with myself that I could handle all of that. It went well.

Tonight, we went as a family to Lowes. For an hour. And she was amazing. She’s learning to keep her bottom on the ground when people pet her. She wasn’t fazed at all by big carts or strange sounds. Just took it all in stride. And absolutely loved it when people petted her. She’s a dream.

A funny thing happened while we were there. We don’t own a full length mirror. But we walked past the section where they had the closet doors that are full length mirrors. She had a great time checking herself out and sniffing her reflection. She was awfully good about it. Lots of pups when they see themselves at first attack the reflection (with tongue or paws or by barking). She was calmly inquisitive. Best kind of reaction she could have.
She was a pleasure to take out.

She’s going to be the kind of dog that everyone offers to take off of our hands if she’s kicked out of the program, just like Miss Carla. How many offers we had for that dog! And just like Miss Carla, Britta has been spoken for by our family in the event that she’s released, but so far nothing is indicating that she will be.

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Been Up To… Sunday, Jul 1 2007

Here are a few of the things that I’ve been up to while I’ve been away from my blog:

Training Britta. She’s three months old now and nearing 30 pounds. She’s still doing really well with her training. She’s also worming her way into our hearts. I’ll have to get a picture, but she has the most webbed feet I’ve ever seen in a retriever. We call her duckfoot because there is hardly any part of her toes that aren’t webbed!

Cleaning my sewing closet. Inspired by Tammy I organized bins, threw out some stuff and Hubby added another shelf. Best of all I put all of my in progress projects in one bin and made a list of projects to work on so when I have time I can check my list to see what I should work on. It’s working because I’ve already finished several projects off that list including:

This is a mini quilt…only 16″x20″. I just love the colors. It was fun to do a project that was so quick and gave me lots of practice on piecing triangles. (I still need more practice, but I’m figuring it out.) I worked on this this weekend while our boys were spending the weekend with their grandparents. It was so nice to spend some quiet time doing things for me and with Hubby.

I also have my queen size double irish chain quilt bound. I just need to tweak a couple of things before I can call it completely done. It’s very very warm so we won’t need it for a couple of months yet.

And I also painted Alex’s wall above his bed. He’s wanted me to do this for ages. I did it while he was at camp, and he was surprised and thrilled when he came home and saw it. He actually painted this turtle on paper and then I reproduced it onto the wall using acrylics.

I’ve been enjoying the break from homeschooling, though I am spending some time working on lesson plans for the fall. Also spending some time in prayer and bible study…something neglected for too long.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer!

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What’s the Plan? Thursday, Jun 21 2007

Nine years ago this month I miscarried my first pregnancy. That baby was due December 6th. On December 31st of that same year a fuzzy golden retriever was delivered into our lives. I had no idea that Carla would become an incredibly special part of our lives. If I had not lost that baby we would never have adopted Carla. Good came out of grief.

Five weeks ago we began the puppyraising journey again. I find myself staring at this pup with the different colored eyes and wondering what good will come out of my grief. Who needs this pup I am raising? Why did she need me to raise her? I don’t know.
But I trust there is a plan, God’s plan, a reason that I may or may never understand.

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I Has a Sweet Potato Wednesday, Jun 20 2007

If you have dogs you must read this. I laughed so hard I cried because I’ve had my share of days like that.

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Pupcakes Saturday, Jun 16 2007

We had a puppy class and going away party for one of our puppyraising friends who’s off to Belgium for three months. I was in charge of the cakes. Here’s what I came up with:

The black dog sits on a chocolate cake and the yellow dog sits on the butter(yellow) cake.

They were fun to do, but they took a lot of ingredients as they were 12″ diameter cakes. Here’s what it took for the cakes:
4 boxes of cake mix
4 sticks of butter
12 eggs

For the frosting:
6 pounds of powdered sugar
6 sticks of butter
3 cups of shortening

It was all worth it to see the look on her face when she was surprised!

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Britta 10 Weeks: Off to the Vet Wednesday, Jun 6 2007

Here she is at ten weeks:

This photo was taken by an exceptional young lady, CCI puppy raiser and soon to be OSU graduate who blesses us when we go out of town by housesitting. She takes care of absolutely everything while she’s here, and I love it!

Britta had to go the vet last night for her next round of shots. We’re pretty new to this vet practice as we only started using them the last month of Carla’s life. They took very good care of all of us through Carla’s ordeal, and I was very much looking forward to taking a new puppy there.

Not surprising half the clinic came out to greet Britta who was dressed in her CCI cape and loved all the attention. The vet knew of CCI from another puppyraiser who takes her dogs there. I was grateful…especially when she asked if CCI provides us with behavior information. I told her yes, we have a binder-full, and that this is our fifth CCI pup so we’re pretty used to this routine. And here’s the best part-she says, “Great! We usually give a big speech about training, but it sounds like you don’t need it. If you have any questions call us anytime.” See, I really like it when a vet respects my knowledge. I just want them to respect me as someone who understands basics and knows something about dogs…especially my dogs. A couple of times I’ve run into vets who disregard that knowledge and experience, and, well, I haven’t gone back to them. I’m awfully pleased with our new clinic.

Britta’s doing really well. We had puppyraising friends over for a BBQ Friday night and they all brought their pups. The pups all had a great time playing with each other.
Britta’s really got the housebreaking thing down going to the backdoor when she needs to go and holding it for longer periods. She’s pretty good at sit. She’s learning speak, down, roll and dress. Working on walking nicely on a leash. The biggest problem is she wants to pick everything up off the ground and she’s quick!

She’s a nice pup. Brian told the vet that it’s looking like she’s a dog we’d probably keep if she’s released from CCI. I can’t commit to that yet. But Carla sent us a good one…just like she said she would.

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Britta at 9 Weeks Tuesday, Jun 5 2007

These are from last week.

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