cody bear’s friends

this mad lib is dedicated to fergus, lavenderbay and e.g.’s new puppy

BRINGING HOME A NEW PUPPY - a mad lib. disclaimer: please don’t actually do this!

Puppy training during the first week is dusty and sweet. It is obvious that you need certain physical wags such as a ham sandwich or papason, molar and raccoons, puppy chow, collar, woodpecker, toys, etc. Insistently as huge, all family cats must decide and agree on coffee pot, responsibility and a whisker.

The first few fish are extremely important. Enthusiasm and swiss cheese are furry. Everyone wants to lick the puppy, play with the puppy and humiliate the puppy. Sleepy rules are gaily broken. Everyone agreed that puppy will sleep in her dumpster but as soon as she’s home, someone melts and insists that puppy will sleep in The Queen E II! Everyone previously agreed not to let puppy chew up on them, but in the excitement, no one even notices that puppy is jumping gently. No one leaps the first night. Puppy wins and gets to pant in bed. The next map we find puppy has eliminated all over the hummingbird. So the following night puppy is banned to her toilet and bushwhacks all night. No one barfs tonight either.

Grouchiness naps in; enthusiasm is playful. No one wants to get up at the pre-agreed upon fatty morning feeding time. How are we going to jump puppy? How are we going to sleep with her constant wagging.

Your gooey puppy has just been taken away from her hairball and littermates. She is content and smelly. What she needs now are bells and tuna. Set up a small computer to be her very own special rock for the next couple of months. Opine the entire floor and put her food/water bowls and spoon in one box. Exsanguinate her toys everywhere.

Play with her sloppily and slowly. Don’t flood her with shoes and rubber dinosaurs. If she looks like she wants to gesticulate, leave her alone. Puppies need translucent sleep.

thus ends the mad lib….

oh my gosh! i went to my friends after work and shot pictures of mindy and her family for hours!  i have hundreds of pictures of them!

r & a are amazing. they love their dogs so much.  and you can see how much they love each other in their pictures, too.

please continue to keep them all in your thoughts.  it is a really hard time for them right now, you see, the doctors determined that the ongoing treatment was what was keeping mindy alive.  they sent her home to be with her family for a couple days, but they will have to take her back when she starts failing.  oh god that is so hard to type.

it is better she spend time with her family now, so r & a cleared their schedules and are staying home with their family for the week.

it took hours to go through all the photos.  late into the night.  cody bear finally gave up on me, until i turned around in my chair to look at him…

remember his not-so-super super power?  the one where he senses someone is looking at him and exposes his belly for rubbing?  his senses are becoming even more heightened now!

yesterday actually turned out pretty bad, despite my attempts to cheer myself by listing all the happy things.

there was the ruining of a new shirt, a crappy morning at work, a funeral, and the ongoing saga of the creepy neighbor with the cops basically not caring at all.

BUT, despite all that crap, there were some nice things:

a beautiful dog to keep me busy and make me smile:

a great friend who spent much of the night with me problem solving and ultimately taking me to a mexican restaurant.

and the bees, curled up for a night’s snooze in their little pollen beds.

and my blog friends, visiting my site and making sweet comments about my loki post.

and my sister, for talking me through everything so i came out feeling like i’m not crazy.  no easy job.

i’m wary about how today and tomorrow will go.  there’s alot to do, and i just don’t know if my sinuses are up for the challenge!

yesterday i did a post about 5 things in my bag, 5 of my favorite things in my bedroom, 5 things i’ve always wanted to do, etc.

under the 5 favorite things in my bedroom, i mentioned this….

which lavenderbay inquired about. it deserves its own post because it is about loss, and love and healing.

when my dog loki died in 2004 my friend susan showed up with a card with a $100 bill in it. i thought it was strange to get cash in a sympathy card, but she explained: that 100 dollars was to use to tribute my dog in some way, whether it was a grave stone, a pet urn, whatever i wanted to do to memorialize this dog that i loved so much.

so, i held on to the money for weeks, wondering what to do. everything just seemed so cliche, so unimportant, so…unloki. then i remembered my friend jill does stained glass panels. we talked and here’s what we decided:

the colors in the panel are all colors of the bandanas she wore the most and she just looked SO CUTE in them. we decided to have a crystal hanging, to catch the light, so that every now and then a sunbeam would flash and i could remember my girl.

then the dog biscuit cookie cutter. she would sit so patiently while the baking and mixing was happening, but as the first pan exited the oven, she knew a cookie was in her future.

there are two charms hanging together, a raspberry and a strawberry. once when loki didn’t know i was looking, i saw her through the window. she was sniffing all the strawberries in the backyard. i had called my dad that morning and said the strawberries were coming along fine, by that afternoon the first one would be perfectly ripe! after work, i watched her sniff each berry, return to the ripe one, look around to make sure no one saw, gently plucked it off the stem with her teeth, look around, eat it, then slink in through the doggie door as if nothing had ever happened. that was when i learned she loved berries. particularly raspberries, they were her favorite treat.

the soccer ball charm. a few days a week we would go to the soccer fields by my house. no one was ever there, 6 soccer fields! and she and i would play soccer. a couple times i put her in goal and she blocked shots. so cute. she LOVED soccer balls. kicking them with her feet, carrying soft ones in her mouth. that was one of the most fun activities i have ever had in my life. ever.

jill surprised me with the mirror. when she gave it to me she said that the most important thing to loki….what made loki her special self…was me. the bottom corner has little places to put little memory notes….

but i never used them because that cat of mine always batted them out.

in the top left is a picture of her, …..giving me her paw. she always had her paw on me. she was my border chow. my girl. the dog of my heart. she seemed to understand everything i said. she looked in my eyes and with a look that said, “i love you and i understand you”. and to this day, even though she’s a dog and it may seem weird, i believe she was my best friend ever, my soul mate, and that she and i have been together since the beginning of time….some how.

so, lavenderbay, thanks for asking. i’m crying, but thanks for asking….

today, i think we’ll talk about happiness.  why?  because so far my day has been pretty crappy. i would like cogs to turn the other way.

(above cody bear demonstrates being happy with a rubber toy)

so, here, in no particular order, except the first two…

1. (a tie!) my dog and my cat

2. my friends

3. my family

4. coka cola, veggies from my friend’s farm, drinking beers with ruben and anna, going to dog school with cody, agility class, puppies, flannel sheets (even in the summer), “the office”, shooting stars, making up celebrity big brother rosters with leslie, unexpectedly encountering someone i know in a random place, riding my bike, my plants, taking photographs of smiling dogs, getting my photo credit in a publication, waking up without a stuffy nose,

interlude with dog picture…

happy things continued:

waking up after a big sleep, long walks with my dog when he does not see a cat, reading a blog that makes me laugh loudly at my desk, finding any amount of money in the pocket of something i haven’t worn in a while, limeade, orange scented hand lotion, holding a hot washcloth to my face and taking a deep sigh, cardinals and curved billed thrashers, bees, getting a comment from someone on my blog, bobcats, seeing a cat in a window, fresh salsa, getting out of work early, watching cody bear run h.o.p. through the back yard, raspberries, clean fluffy towels, new washing machines, sticky notes, my ipods, pig jokes, full moons,

oh, i guess that’s good enough for now…

beasts

regarding the possibility of cody bear’s baby sister….

i pretty much have called everyone i know today and yesterday.  got some voicemails, talked to some folks.  also…got some great feedback from blog friends.  i have to say, i’m weighing the post from blog friends pretty heavily, as we have heard eachother’s voices pretty loudly through font-on-blog these last few months.  with the exception of one person, everyone i actually spoke to or read words from supports the idea.  funny thing, the people who didn’t answer are the ones i expected would think it was a stupid idea to get another dog!

here is cody bear….waiting for his baby sister…

here were the big CONS:

money, time at work, cody bear’s “issues”, hard to find someone to watch pets when i leave town, small house, cat, i take it hard when the pets get sick,

ok, here are the pros:

before i counter the cons….

1. i’m not sure what i want to do with my life, where i want to live, of anything….but i do know i want a dog.

2. for the last two years i have used cody’s not liking dogs as an excuse, but he does like some dogs and he is so lonely.  nowadays, when he sees dogs, he wants to play.  his friend’s families are too busy for play dates.  he is SO LONELY.

3. i love dogs.  i’m a good dog mom.

ok, addressing the cons:

money: i am never going to be rolling in the dough.  so, shall i never get another pet?  that goes against who i am.  i’m not rich and i have pets.  it’s ok.  even with cody bear’s illness, he has NEVER missed out on medical care.

time at work:  i get to come home for lunch every day normally.  i have some vacation time to welcome a new puppy.

cody bear’s issues(being health and fear of dogs): he has never gone so long without barfing! we’ve found a great diet, and an exercise plan that works.  he actually misses his dog friends.

hard to find pet sitter: lets revisit the financial issue, shall we.  dog sitters are a crappy argument, since i never have enough money to actually go on vacation anyway!

small house: yes the house is small, but the yard is HUGE.  and, its not like dogs do an obstacle course while i’m away.  adults sit and wait till you get home….puppies chew up small houses just as well as big houses!

cat:  the cat loves dogs, wishes cody would play with her more, even.  plus, getting a puppy, he will grow up knowing he has to treat her gently and …. learn that she isn’t food.

taking it hard when pets get sick.  yes, i have no argument for this.  i still miss loki every day….

anyway, thanks everyone for your input!

i’ll keep you posted. after all, this rescue group may not approve me anyway….

today’s topic….LOVE.

as i confessed in 40 something things about me, i am not really into dating/marriage type stuff.  but one thing i DO really enjoy seeing:

proposals.  in the last two years i have been right next to 3 wedding proposal happenings.  people i never met before, standing or sitting near me while the deal goes down.  I LOVE IT.  as a spectator, i can tell before the new bride can what is about to happen.

anyway, while i don’t really think its a good idea for myself, i have to say that i do wish the smitten kittens the best of luck.  who knows, maybe enough of these spectacles will chisel away at barnacles that have clamped on to my salty heart!

i am capable of love. i love my family, i love my pets.  but, i love having my own place, too.  we’ll see…

twas a sunny day…..

i packed up my camera, overnight bag, kibble and of course…the dog. we were on our way to visit loved ones!

surprised by a sudden cold, i slept well into the late morning, whereas cody bear rose early and tried to woo the locals with his winning smile and a waggy tail. wanting to catch up, i moped out of bed, grabbed the canon, and commenced taking pictures of these crazy flowers in my equally colorful jammies.

and thus went easter sunday!

i write this as my cat paws at my arm, “let me up, let me up.”

something about blog friends: we don’t know each other, but…through key words and categories we find each other. we somehow become friends through key words that sum up what we find important, what we love and what makes us happy or sad. in my case: pets. dogs. cats. someone furry and emotive that loves us.

recently the aged cat passed away. while we bloggers never met the aged, never gave him a treat, scratched his chin, made his kitty butt rise…we so much wanted his mom to know we understood. the aged cat was a cherished pet, and something about his blog hit us in our hearts: someone loves their pet as much as we love ours.

every few days a blogger has lost a pet. many times i want to say, “i know! i understand! read my blog!” but it seems weird and inappropriate to ask someone to read something right after their family member dies. i want people to know that all though it has been years since my loki passed, i think of her everyday and i know how much it hurts. i wouldn’t like myself if her loss didn’t still hurt…

my current dog, cody bear, is a young soul, different from loki in innumerable ways. at first i thought loving him so much would mean i didn’t love loki anymore. but now i still love her and miss her more than anything, and i have this different sort of kid now. i’m glad he’s here, he kept me busy and took the hurt away. and i’m so glad i had loki. she opened my heart and my family’s heart to furry family members.

so blogpets, toulouse(in memory), tuffy, jonesy, rusty, dennis, trixie, tucker, checkers, scruff, nash, sissy, tinky, scout, hannah, sparky, poggles, moose, bugsy, dash, gringo, hoju, kodos, barnie, mindy, maggie, henri hopper, oliver, eddie, moppet, sugar, sassie, ben, louie, and all the other beloved pets who have visited any of these blogs…know you are loved enough to write about, to give a voice to, to impact a person’s day.

the collective good bear.