Category Archives: Pet

A Best Friend

Posted on June 14, 2014 | Leave a comment

I wanted to call it “man’s best friend” but then I forget over 50% of the planet, and probably the ones who take care of our dogs, are women.

Concentrating on a life well lived, great food, baths, sleeping on the bed, having caretakers sleep over, much love and a monkey ball go a long way for Zoe.

I lost my first dog 13 years ago and still have a Golden Retreiver dog ornament with angel wings sitting by my desk. I cut off the ribbon and have it sitting right here by a 2″ photo of my first cat I lost the year before. Also, there’s a tiny photo of me at age one standing up in my pink snowsuit to show the growth of my father’s trees and hope for the future.

Friends lost their dog recently and another dog I’ve cared for is very ill. When your dog wakes you up in the morning to go out you don’t want to go, but feel better for it when you do.

No matter if you’re the boss at work, you’ve a job to do and it includes a walk and picking up poop. No-one is ready to be a dog owner, child or adult, unless they know they will be responsible for this and lifetime care.

My rule goes for cats as well, but if you’ve a family pet who is in pain and requires euthanasia you must be by his/her side. Ask the vet to walk you through the process and decide how much alone time you need and make sure you can call a tech if there is a problem.

Hold your dear pet. When I lost my first dog an ER nurse told me to hold on to all of her things until I couldn’t bear it anymore. It took two months. I still have some of them, especially the teddy bear I got for $.50 at a park benefit. Thanks to a neighbor her ashes are in the heart with a felt heart atop and lace and beads and all the wonderful things my other “Mom” did for me.

Chani brought that teddy bear to the park her last day. She always brought a ball. Unbeknownst to me she said goodbye to everyone. That bear was hijacked by our Zoe during a move. I was asked by friends helping us move whether to allow her to have a stuffed animal. I said OK, they’ve all been through “surgery” multiple times.

Then I asked “what does it look like?” She said it’s a big brown teddy bear and I said NOOOOOOOO. It’s up on the top shelf of our linen closet with a collage “Mom” made for me as well. The neighbors also bought the city a tree in her memory in her favorite park and from GoogleEarth it seems to be doing very well.

It’ll be six years since my mother died soon. I believe that for a few years she did not live well due to cancer and doctor error, but that she died well with a wonderful hospice staff and family around and effective pain management throughout the way for years.

We have the responsibility and opportunity to take care of our pets better than we can our families who face years of surgeries, chemo and radiation. It is up to us to decide a delicate balance between whether it is better for them to go now, or to stay a while.

To all our best friends, canine and feline. All creatures, great and small, thanks James Heriott, May we be their best friends and treat them well. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Pet

Guilty

Posted on June 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

Last night I made two NY strip steaks. Half of mine is left for me to make steak and eggs for my husband in the morning and he should feel guilty because he’s going to ruin it with steak sauce.

The rule is that you don’t ruin my good steak with sauce at dinner, but it’s OK when it’s rested overnight and will now be overcooked with eggs over medium. It’s a compromise called marriage.

My guilt is that as our wonderful dog Zoe declines I think I’ve another pup in me, to raise, and am starting to look into it. Sorry, Zoe. She can’t get up to the bed anymore and is now struggling to get down. Her first senior bloodwork  panel was fine and I know what cart to get if she needs it to move around.

I hate to see her go downhill but her health is OK. I’m just asking questions for the future and hope she knows I’ll not do anything that would jeopardize her final years. Guilt. Catholic, it’s inbred. She’s never jealous of other dogs but I feel bad for even looking. Guiltily your writer de jour, Dee

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Pet, Recipe Ideas

Tagged , , ,

Simple Folk

Posted on May 24, 2014 | 1 comment

“I love the mountains, I love the rolling hills….” I don’t remember the words but awakened singing it this morning. I’m a song a morning kind of gal.

Memorial Day makes me think of my grandfather, who fought in WWII. Also of a dear friend’s brother who flies or drives a thousand miles “home” to be in the town parade and play Taps at the cemetery.

We are spending the weekend at home with our dog and not venturing too far. Tonight I made a gorgeous NY strip with olive oil and Borsari seasoning. My husband cooked it just right, I let it rest and I still have a few ounces of my smaller steak to slice and make him breakfast tomorrow. Steak and eggs, of course.

With the steak was a baked russet potato with a smidgeon of butter, salt, pepper, sour cream and sliced scallion. Also new asparagus, steamed then dressed with just a touch of butter, salt and pepper. A great meal.

Our task this weekend is to weather-strip our front door. It turns out that many neighbors open their windows (we’ve not since early February) and bugs come in to visit me. Of course since childhood bees, wasps, gnats, mosquitoes, everyone comes to see Dee and not necessarily in a good way. Perhaps that’s why dogs and cats come to visit.  Interesting thought. We had a pact in an old neighborhood that I’d handle stray felines and canines and another would take care of anything avian or reptilian. It worked. And yes, I did find the iguana who’d been missing for three months and was freezing and called him asap and it worked out.

My husband just heard, hours ago, that a dear canine friend of ours has surprisingly just been diagnosed with bone cancer. We all love you, bud and will do our best to help you in the days ahead.

People always extend platitudes such as “it’s for the best,” “God has a plan,” or “it’s better this way, she’ll be happy.” No such thing. That’s only what we tell ourselves to make us feel better.

If feeling better is the key I get to clean out a full refrigerator Saturday morning and take out trash. Also it’s pizza night so if I pick up some mushrooms I’m good to go and will make dough mid-afternoon. Only 00 Italian flour now. We’re spoiled.

I’m in fake “hot water” with my butchers as I did not give them a sample of my signature Pedernales River Chile, originated by Lady Bird Johnson and served at the Pedernales Ranch in 1962 to JFK and 5,000 guests. It was the most requested document at the White House that year.

Unfortunately the recipe fails on certain counts. I grind my own meat, rough grind, Texas style. The recipe does not include, nor do I, beans. There are no beans in TX chili. It calls for chili powder. In 1962 that was a watered down mixture. I use pure cumin, ancho, chipotle, sometimes Aleppo peppers and oregano. I use more tomato and add tomato paste and cook it 2-3 hours over a low flame, stirring regularly.

I use a sweet onion and several garlic cloves minced, to start, remove to a large pot then brown the newly-ground meat (yesterday it was chuck and short rib) in batches, salting as I go and draining before adding to the big pot. Add ground tomatoes and spices and simmer, partially covered. Taste and add more salt, pepper, spices or tomato paste as needed.

Add lime and serve with lime wedges, sour cream and of course corn bread on the side. Every once in a while I like to let my Texas in-laws that I’m taking good care of their son. He loves my steak, and chili, and even roast chicken from time to time!

Keep cooking. Enjoy the long weekend but remember our veterans while out on the boat sipping a beer….. Dee

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial, Music, Pet

Tagged , , ,

Violence

Posted on May 21, 2014 | Leave a comment

I’ve worked with shelter pets for twenty years and just saw a billboard yesterday that reminded me of how important it is to report abuse of any kind.

Years ago I volunteered for a shelter that was one of the first to take and hold pets until a domestic violence situation was concluded.

Bullies/abusers usually start with small animals, turn to pets, then their children and spouse. If someone makes a call that should be answered, ahem, listen to this shelters and domestic violence agencies who probably put callers on hold, that an animal is being abused chances are the family is in danger.

Often folks don’t want to tell on their neighbors if they think there’s a problem, and even if they’re concerned city agencies don’t pick up the phone and their hours are ridiculous. No-one who works can spend an hour on the phone or longer going to a shelter and standing in line.

When I got my first shelter dog in 1991, she’d been abused by a deputy sheriff and kids threw rocks at her and her brother. I started volunteering there the day after my family’s Collie died and she’d just come in as well.

I visited Chani every week even when I was in a neck brace and couldn’t take her out. The owner came to the shelter and asked for her brother, Buddy, but he’d been adopted. He didn’t want Chani.

A year later even in a no-kill shelter there was talk of euthanasia and a fellow volunteer turned staff member let me know. Chani was home with me the next day. For a while she had aversions to anyone in uniform, also kids. We had a good life together for another ten years.

She rallied in weeks and with basic obedience and some private training was the best dog and loved kids. Uniforms were still tricky but she never attacked, only barked when our neighbor came out in his dress whites and not shorts and a t-shirt.

When she died I had to tell all the parents and kids at the park, and all the dog owners. They all bought the city a tree in her memory, a tree that is thriving and since I don’t live there anymore I’ve seen Google Earth and talked with a photographer, and also a good friend there who has promised to place a cup of water on her tree for me.

My dog was an abused dog. I don’t know how she was abused but I rehabilitated her step by step. Now I wonder if this law enforcement official “graduated” to abusing his wife and children and think how horrible a situation I may have ignored just because our neighborhood loved my dog for ten years.

I will try to get animal agencies and domestic violence agencies together but BEFORE an angry person starts beating the dog or the kids, let someone know.

Pets are the gateway to violence towards people. I want to make sure people answer the call.

Dee

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Pet

Tagged , , , ,

Care and Protection

Posted on May 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

I knew my husband’s mother and grandmother would be inundated this weekend for mothers’ day so took the opportunity to give them each a gift certificate to a stellar tree nursery nearby. Nanny has already taken a day trip to purchase some hedges for her garden, and M will stop by soon for more trees for the new house.

While I went through five days of interrogation (less than an hour before my f-i-l asked when and that it’s OK with him) with his mother and grandmother many years ago, I left as family and have felt so ever since.

Sometimes when a person treats my husband badly, I’ve things to say. Of course we discuss the issue and he deals with it. Likewise, he protects me, not always giving me advance warning. He seems to think his protection of me is more important than my protection and care of him. I let him think that while incorporating less meat and butter and more veggies in his diet.

I do protect our 35 lb old hip-less wonder dog Zoe, though. This winter she was about to go down hard on the ice as I watched all four legs go out from under her at the same time. I pulled up on the leash and she was OK but I went down like a ton of bricks. A former gymnast and ballet dancer I always knew how to correct and if not, how to fall. No time here. I’ve still vestiges of a huge bruise on my hip.

Zoe is family and maternal instincts kick in. Two years ago a woman asked if her dogs could say hell0. I’d just moved here and said OK. One went on the attack and had Zoe’s jugular in its teeth and I went against The Dog Whisperer and everyone else and dropped Zoe’s leash and grabbed the dog’s collar and lifted him off her. The dog’s owner said something like, oh, well, he’s not good on a leash. No apology, no offer to pay vet fees.

My husband and I went through her fur and couldn’t see blood but I took her to the vet anyway. The woman and her nasty dog moved away because there was more than one complaint of unprovoked attacks.

Years ago someone let their dog run amok with no collar or tags in our park and my dog was sitting, on leash, at my side. The dog came around quietly and attacked her from behind. I dropped my old dog’s leash and grabbed the pit bull by the back of the neck (no collar). He let her go. I was instructed never to do that again by dog experts. As you can see from above, I did it again. What did the owner say? “Oh, we’re dropping him off in Mexico later today so wanted him to go for a run. He won’t be back.” No sorry, no vet bill. And I’ve no animosity towards Bull Terriers unless they are bred and trained to fight. They can make really sweet pets.

And please, if you’re a responsible dog owner, find a legal space in town to supervise your dog off the leash. Check it out online or try to form your own with city or county assistance. No, they won’t assist you. You have to go to your elected officials and meet with staff and then after 18 meetings you may have the go-ahead to make parks staff work with you. Take advantage of the leash-free parks that exist now and know that these folks have run the gauntlet so make sure you’ve a collar, leash, current tags and vaccinations, a permit, poop bags, “petiquette” and a thank-you for all who’ve done this work on your and your dog’s behalf.

I spent six years volunteering to gain legal leash-free areas in California and we made a few baby steps but my dog died. She never got her park but all our neighbors and friends donated a tree to our park in her memory. I don’t have kids so have had two dogs and two cats and they’ve kept me company. No, they never got me a mothers’ day card or a can of Fancy Feast. I can’t have cats anymore because my husband is allergic to them, but we’ve a herding dog for the past ten years who is at my feet now and keeps me in her sight day and night. That’s enough of a gift for me.

In a nutshell, I protect my husband without his knowledge, he protects me more with some knowledge, and no dog will challenge Zoe with my husband around but I will protect her, whatever she needs, as I take her out the most. Take care and protect your loved ones, even husbands who don’t want it! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Pet

Tagged , , , , ,

Doghouse

Posted on May 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

Yes, that is where I am at present. It’s a virtual doghouse because we live up in a big tower….. It all started before five this morning with fire alarms blaring and flashing lights glaring.

My husband and I jumped out of bed immediately. I was dressed because daily I’m being munched on by mosquitoes so I quickly grabbed my and my husband’s jackets, and my purse and phone were by the door. Where’s the dog? Despite the loud noises she was in the middle of the bed saying “What? Who has the nerve to disrupt my 20 hours of beauty sleep?” I grabbed her leash and we went to go to the stairs with our other neighbors when the sound stopped.

The first thing I thought of was my next door neighbor, who recently had a hip replacement and could never make it down the stairs. By the time everyone showed up on our floor in slippers and robes the scare was over. It happened twice more for a few blares and is not over yet as “experts” have been called in. Interestingly the Fire Marshal was just here inspecting everything a few days ago.

We decided to take out the dog anyway and I fed her nearing 5:30. She drank her fresh water afterward and I lifted her back up on the bed. When she awakened an hour later she wanted to go out, then have “dinner.”

I’m in the doghouse because I never made her a second breakfast! She’s been out three times and it’s only ten in the morning. Permit me to explain, with a herding dog there is a routine and it must be kept. Put her in the back seat of the car once to drive hubby to work at 100 degrees and 98% humidity and it’s routine. “Daddy” gets out of the car to cross the street to his office and Zoe jumps up to the passenger seat and sits down like a person and everyone at the bus stop bursts out laughing. We did that routine for five years.

I’ve been up since four-thirty something and she’s finally sleeping at my feet, having given up the quest, temporarily, for a second breakfast.

On another matter I found the perfect gift for my husband’s office. He’s had a betta in a bowl and a blue lobster and other fish in a three gallon tank before, no longer as he’d bring them home when their environments were nasty or they were dead. Not a pretty picture.

Yesterday I found an air plant in a hanging vase. All it needs is sunlight. No food, water, or cleaning. The perfect guy gift. Of course he’ll take it home when the glass bowl needs dusting, but at least I won’t have to flush dead bettas down the toilet.

Thirdly, hubby put in a new fan in my MacBook. Yes, it’s nearly seven years old and began to sound like a lawn mower being run a couple of blocks away. He didn’t get the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) component but one that cost 1/5 as much and installed it himself. Interestingly, he needed multiple bowls and sheets of paper to label each screw as he took the machine apart because they’re all different. Leave it to Steve Jobs to make most mortals call tech support. Luckily my guy had his MacBook up (his battery went last week and his machine is only a few months younger than mine) with the instructions to install my new fan. How handy is my guy!

All I hear now is the washing machine, dishwasher, A/C and all the mosquitoes flying outside our hermetically sealed windows. And the dog, now in REM sleep chasing squirrels. Enjoy whatever Spring you can. It may get up to 50 here today. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Pet

Tagged , , ,

I Knew

Posted on March 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

he was “the one” when he went on 14 pet sitting visits in one weekend with me. I knew when I organized all his stuff three weeks later and he moved half a country away and returned two weeks later to a new job. A neighbor asked him why he came back and he just said “her.”

I knew when we were out walking a neighbor’s dog and I saw a 2br apartment 1,000 feet from mine and he called the owner, we saw it and he signed immediately. By then it was three months in. We called it the “Barbie House” as it was tiny and had three floors and many steps. I arranged to do all of his laundry if I could do mine as well. Gone, clean pile/dirty pile (his plan, never mine). Over a decade later he doesn’t even notice that the bed is made, the dog is walked and fed and all of his clothes miraculously appear in the closet clean and folded. The absent-minded professor preferred clean/dirty and opined that one never needs to make a bed as one will just get back into it at night. Ick.

I really knew when I was at Pier One, had walked 1/3 mile there and found these glasses we still have. Very utilitarian Picardie glasses for juice et al. They were really inexpensive so I bought the case of 18 glasses of three sizes.

It did not occur to me that glass is heavy, especially 18 glasses in a box. I had to stop every 250 feet and rest. Finally I gave up and crossed our park. I left them, hidden, up even more stairs and left them before his front door and limped home.

When I arrived, there was a note from my dear husband of over 11 years. It said “Home sick, need an aspirin. Do you have a glass I can borrow?” MFEO, if you ever saw Sleepless in Seattle.

He did bring something significant to the relationship besides his personality, wit and wicked brain. One plastic blue colander for the kitchen. Yes, we still have it. I moved half my kitchen in, then my office, then we got married and he got me and a bunch of furniture too.

It’s snowing again and I may insist he take my car today, even though it’s sparkly clean. But his snow tires are in storage next door and mine are on my car and I can easily put on boots and walk to the grocery and take out our old dog. I still have to do our taxes so that’ll keep me indoors a while. Plus I’ve a special home improvement project planned that will make him happy, as well as a casual Friday Pizza Night (all homemade by moi) for our new neighbor from Sweden.

Let’s hope they plow before rush hour. Yesterday after a couple of inches they waited until night until they sent out a lone plow. I’m not even trying to guess where our taxes are going in this city. Cheers and find The One. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education, Pet

Tagged

Wake up Singing

Posted on March 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

I do most every morning. Luckily I don’t keep it in my head for days. Right now I’m singing Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight.” I’ll let you know when I awaken with another. I’m thinking maybe Johnny Cash.

Perhaps it’ll be Robert Duvall’s eclectic selection on Crazy Heart, an a cappela treasure.

The snowplows are finally coming by, I just took the dog out as she wouldn’t awaken last night for a final pee. It’s still dark, no sign of sun. She’s back up on the bed with my husband to enhance her beauty sleep. Must be why she’s prettier than me even though she’s older now, 70 in dog years.

You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man is what I sang yesterday morning, in my head. I’ll have to go back to sleep now to get another. Of late I’ve been thinking of the late, great genius Pete Seeger (rip) and To Everything There Is A Season.

Now I want to go NYC and see the new Carole King musical Beautiful. If we could get away for just a weekend that would be a treat. Add MOMA or the Cloisters, and the Met and I’d be happy, but my husband wants to see the Natural History Museum as well, plus we have to take my brother to dinner, my favorite Italian place closed in his neighborhood and we’re already over-booked. Such is NYC.

Let’s see what song today brings. No, it won’t be anything from “Annie.” Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education, Music, Pet, Travel

Fragile

Posted on February 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

Such is life, every time a child takes to the swings or grows wings and heads off to college.

I’ve had serious health issues the past few months and now am dealing with a chronic condition and my dog may have cancer.

It’s all fragile, how we slip on the ice on sidewalks not plowed by our taxes. I’ve seen my mother wither away at a wonderful hospice, and held several animals in my arms as they were euthanized as a gift to keep them from suffering,

We are all fragile and should embrace the lives we live and be closer to our families and friends and pets, of course. Saint B, be with us. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Pet

History

Posted on February 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

Last week our dog, Zoe (Greek for Life) turned ten. The other day she took her first “senior” blood panel.” The vet called the next day and said it was “beautiful.” Then she said if she doesn’t gain weight she may have cancer, and that blood work has no indications for cancer so she needs x-rays and ultrasound.

Zoe is 1.6# from my goal but my new vet has not disclosed her weight goal. I’ve done a lot of research and talked to two other vets, including her hip surgeon of nearly ten years ago.

Val the Vet, Zoe’s hip surgeon, is an Aggie, is top notch in veterinary circles as there were few women in the field back then. She says the blood-work should have shown something and that Zoe’s coat is “luxurious” and that a nutritional absorption problem should be dealt with by probiotics, which our current vet recommended and will arrive tomorrow. Her weight goal for Zoe is 32 pounds.

I have fought for Zoe her entire life, since she came to us at six weeks (having been spayed at five weeks of age, shameless) and we’ve had her nearly ten years. Aside from her bad hips, diagnosed at five months, she’s been healthy. But we’ve moved across the country several times (she loves the car and her orthopedic bed in the back and only sits up at off-ramps) and have several vets.

Our government allows doctors to keep our records on file and use them for (and against) us. I have Zoe’s files. I know Zoe better than any vet ever will because I give her the best food and care and keep her on the European pet travel scheme for the past nine years in case we are sent overseas.

Vets, know that I have her file. It’s a file of her adoption, former name, and every vet visit and obedience class. Telling me she may have cancer with not a hint in the blood work may just mean she’s getting older and her body is changing.

I will work with a vet on Zoe’s behalf and have no problem changing vets if I think someone can give her better care because I know her better than anyone else.

***********

Greeks and Turks

I grew up loving the ancient Greeks and learning the culture as I’ve visited there a bit. The last time was tracing the route of Odysseus through the Ionian sea.

Turkey, not so much. I always wanted to go and my father and brother have gone twice over the past year and I always benefit from their travels. This weekend I’ll hang an artisinal trivet on my kitchen wall. It’ll be around the corner from my gorgeous newly-framed photos from Korfu, Zakynthos and Lefkada.

Also, I’m wearing a Turkish bracelet all the time, except in the shower. The shake reminds me of Greek worry beads.

I think you were meant to be together all these centuries. Luckily the choices we make for our dog with vet et al are not yet between Scylla and Charybdis. Yes, I saw it and also went through the Strait of Corinth from horrific seas.

All the cargo ships saw this small sailing boat bobbing around like a cork and called it in asking for us to go through the strait first. I hope we get some calm seas around here sometime soon, and hope our lifelong companion will be OK. Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Greece, Pet

Tagged , , , , , ,