Tiny Dogs!

Our dog chain was broken, about four years ago. The beloved Mr. Mike lived to be 14 1/2 and soon after his passing, his buddy El showed signs of rheumatoid arthritis. I like having an older dog and a younger dog; it is easier to train a dog when you already have a trained dog to set the good example. But, I was unwilling to bring a younger dog in with such an arthritic buddy. So, when El passed in July, 2006, I was suddenly dogless for the first time in years. At first, I wanted to get another dog right away. Eric wanted to wait. Then, I need surgery. We were just busy, all of the time. Last summer, we talked about a dog and then went through the Sammy Fiasco. I started paperwork with Dachshund Rescue but, did not carry through. My mom's health was failing and I was focusing much of my energy in her direction.

Just as Eric willed Sammy to us last year; he willed us two more Dachshunds. A co-worker of Eric's suddenly announced that she would be relocating to the Detroit area and asked Eric to take her two dogs. So, on September first, Buster and Barkley arrived. Small dogs have been a big adjustment. I've never had a small dog in my life and I certainly have never gravitated towards purebreds. My approach has always been to go to the pound and see who is there. I'd make my pick based on personality and how well I thought they'd fit in the household. This is a whole new deal. Overall, things are going well. They are both a delight.

Buster has learned to speak and cuddle. Barkley has learned "off" and "sit pretty". Both have learned to sit, wait and are now learning to shake. I've learned that they are essentially couch potatoes. I thought they'd be a little higher energy than they are. That is not a complaint; I really don't like being swarmed. Unfortunately, I am also learning about vasculitis. Buster has an issue with his ears that is a real problem that I am trying to get ahead of. All in all, I'd say we are doing well in the transition to household of tiny dogness.

My Mom.

Well, I've had kind of a writer's block. My mom passed on back in August. Generally, I don't talk too much in depth about my family here. But, it seemed too weird to just cruise along, chatting about painting and building projects or what-have-you as if nothing significant had happened. So, I haven't written anything, for awhile. Like most people, I think my mom was a great lady. She was witty and occasionally sarcastic. She was generous and never petty with other people. She genuinely wanted everyone to do well. And, she liked to play pranks.

She taught me how to sew. She had made most of our clothes when we were kids and I thought I'd never achieve a standard that satisfied her. But, on a visit to Providence, we bought a pattern to make me a dress. The fit in the back was awkward. So, I copied the problematic pattern piece and re-drafted it to fit. Looking at the completed dress on me, she said "You really can sew.". Wow, that was a big moment.

My interest in birds comes from her. She kept a bird book with the locations and dates of sightings in it. She fed birds and kept a pair of binoculars on the top of the window sash in the kitchen. We'd discuss who was there and who we'd seen while sitting at the table. I've got her books now, as well as my own and I record in them in the same way.

I learned recycling, composting, gardening and canning from her. As a kid, I thought the amount of work I was expected to do in our garden was overwhelming. They were massive (one of my brothers recently referred to it as small-scale farming) and we grew most of the vegetables that we ate all year 'round. Canning was a marathon that started in July and went through to fall. I seriously hated being stuck in the house, in the middle of summer, with gallons of boiling water and screaming hot jars. We processed gallons of tomatoes for chili as well as more finished products like tomato soup from my great-grandmother's recipe and I recall making ketchup one year. There were stuffed peppers and the dill pickles seemed endless. There were corn and beans and peas and squash that got processed for freezing. It seemed like it went on and on and on.

Early each year we'd peruse the Jung's catalog and select what we would grow for the year. In addition to all the usual standards, we'd all select something that we'd like to try. We tried popcorn, potatoes, pumpkins, peanuts, spaghetti squash; all kinds of things and we also grew a lot of things that were consumed fresh. There was an asparagus bed and we also grew apples. At the end of the season, we'd take them off to be pressed for cider. Part of the basement hung full of gallon jugs from A&W and we'd take those along and have them filled.

My mom read National Geographic, Organic Gardening and gave money to Greenpeace. For a homebody, she sure was interested in and concerned about what was going on in the world. She was a powerhouse in a quiet kind of way and pretty freakin awesome.