animals — Page 4

Winston

July 17, 2019 at 9:56 am by Claudia

I went on Instagram this morning and discovered a post from Grace (@alightinglightly), the wonderful artist who painted a watercolor of our Scout.

I gasped.

This is our first baby, Winston. I don’t have many photos of him on the blog because he died not long after we moved from San Diego – a year or two – and I didn’t have a digital camera. In fact, this photo was taken in our home in San Diego. Winston had a big ball that he carried from room to room. I have several photos of him holding it in his mouth. It was his favorite thing. At the time I took this picture, he had jumped up on the sofa (the same one we now have in the den). His front legs were on a big throw pillow and he was holding his beloved ball.

When we moved into our rental house in San Diego, we knew we wanted to get a dog. Once Don fixed a gap in the fence, we went to the San Diego Humane Society. Winston was the first dog we saw. He was 18 months old and was trembling in his cage. His owners gave him up because of ‘allergies.’ I can only imagine how bewildered he was and how frightened. We kept going and looked at lots of other dogs, but we kept going back to Winston. We couldn’t bear the fact that he was so scared. So we asked if we could have some time with him. We talked to him and petted him and played with him. Meanwhile, I put my handbag on the ground. Shortly thereafter, I saw Winston lift his leg and pee into my bag. I was stunned at first, and then I started laughing.

I quickly realized he was marking us. We made arrangements to adopt him. Before we could take him home, he would have to have a couple of shots and a fecal sample sent to the lab. We waited two days. According the the SDHS, he wouldn’t poop. We were so anxious to get him home with us that we said we’d take him home sans fecal sample. After we picked him up and parked the car in the garage, we brought him into our back yard. He promptly pooped.

See? He was marking us and our yard. He was home.

We loved him like crazy. He loved to run. We took him to the dog park and to Dog Beach. He loved the water. He was affectionate and sweet. He was so dear.

Eventually, after a few years, we realized he needed a pal and we adopted Scout. When it came time to move East, I drove our CR-V across the country with the dogs riding shotgun. The first night in our rental cottage, we took the dogs outside and let them off leash. They ran and ran while the light from fireflies flickered throughout the yard. It was magical.

A couple of years later, Winston jumped off the sofa and cried out in pain. His tail went down and stayed down. We took him to the Vet, where it was discovered that he had a tumor on his heart. The outlook was dire. They could keep him alive for maybe six months if they drained the fluid periodically. We were all set to do that because we weren’t ready to say goodbye. But he quickly declined over the weekend. We took turns sleeping downstairs with him. As soon as we could get him into the vets that Monday, we did. They had him on the highest dose of painkillers and he was still in pain. We knew it was time to say goodbye. All this happened over about 5 days.

He was only 8 years old.

On the day we said goodbye to him, we came back home to Scout. She was lying on the floor by the sofa. She didn’t get up. She just looked at us with her wise and sad eyes.

She knew.

All these years later, I cry when I write this remembrance. He was our first baby and he was taken from us much too soon.

Shanna did a portrait of Winston with his ball, also. A different photo, a different position. I also have a photo of him somewhere, standing on our porch, ball in his mouth. He loved Scoutie. She loved him.

Thank you, Grace. Our hearts are full this morning.

Happy Wednesday.

Egg Cups, Some Clarification & A Video

March 22, 2019 at 11:18 am by Claudia

Some egg cups that are either too tall or too wide for the cubby. It’s so hard to get a good shot of this, as it’s in the corner of the den right next to the sofa and there’s no way to get a full on shot.

The egg cup gentleman is quite tall. The head is removable and the egg sits where his egg-head normally sits. It’s meant to be part of a set, and the heads are meant to be salt and pepper shakers, but mine has no holes, so go figure! Next to him is a red transferware egg cup. There’s a little egg held by a little clown on the second shelf. I have a feeling it’s not an egg cup, but a toothpick holder, but the clown is holding an egg, so I include it in my collection. The goose egg cup is lovely and it’s from France. Humpty Dumpty is from England. The wooden man and woman egg cups were a gift from a reader of this blog. The eggs are salt and pepper shakers. I bought the glass egg cup just this year because I loved the orange coloring. And the little wooden mama and baby ducks were found a few years back in an antique shop. I really love them. Everything is vintage, including the shelf.

I want to address something today – I want to be clear about the former owner of Ashley and Pliers. He’s a very nice man. We know him. He spent his life with horses, working as a farrier. He raised Ashley and Pliers and loved them dearly. Any neglect was not intentional, rather a result of diminished capacity. – both mental and physical. Horses are expensive. I don’t think he could afford repairs to their paddock. It got very muddy there after rains and the ground was unsafe for these now elderly horses. He did the best he could. But it got out of hand. He was encouraged to surrender the horses more than once, but always declined because he loved them and didn’t want to give them up. Those of us who knew them from walking the trail were concerned. The owner of a boarding facility that bordered the trail was concerned. Winter was coming and there was no way they would survive the cold without adequate shelter. And their wooden shelter was falling apart and far from adequate. To make a long story short, when things finally reached a tipping point with Ashley falling more frequently and both of the horses in danger, the owner knew it was time and was persuaded to surrender them. The boarding facility took them in until the Catskill Animal Sanctuary took over. And when it came time to load them into the horse trailers for their journey to CAS, the owner – as painful as it must have been for him – guided them into the trailer.

It’s a heartbreaking story with a happy ending. They got to live out their lives with food and shelter and a safe environment.

I want to remind you: this same gentleman lost his home to a fire not long after losing his babies. He had nothing – he managed to save his cat, but everything else was gone. He was a longtime resident of our community and many of us contributed to a Go Fund Me appeal to raise money for a new home for him. He now lives in a manufactured home on his property, funded by generous donations. He’s been through a lot.

Changing the subject: I want to point you in the direction of a video. Don brought it to my attention yesterday morning and, I have to say, the ideas discussed here make the most sense of any I have heard on the subject of fixing our broken democracy. You might find it quite compelling. For the first time, I feel there just might be a way to work around the corporate money and corruption that fuels many of the decisions made by Congress. It will make more sense if you watch it. The actress Jennifer Lawrence and the Director of RepresentUs, Josh Silver, narrate. It’s smart. It makes sense.

If you’re so inclined, here’s the link.

Still raining here. But it’s nothing, considering what is facing so many in the Midwest. I’ve watched video of the flooded rivers and towns and farms and my heart breaks for everyone impacted by this deluge.

Happy Friday.

Saturday Thoughts

November 10, 2018 at 10:07 am by Claudia

I took this photo earlier this week and now, due to rain and winds, those leaves are on the ground. Both Don and I felt a bit blue yesterday because it got much colder and we had a strong sense that the temps had officially moved to ‘winter’ mode.

And we’re not big fans of winter, to put it mildly.

It’s windy today, but sunny.

I’m remembering a couple of questions that were raised during my travel posts.

One reader asked if it was hard to find vegetarian food while traveling. The answer is that is was surprisingly easy. The French and the English love their meat, that’s for sure, but we could always find a vegetarian option on the menu, and quite often, a vegan option. Even on the first night we arrived in Paris, jet lagged and exhausted, we wandered into a bistro down the street and the lovely man behind the bar said he could whip up a salad for us with hard boiled eggs and nuts and other sources of protein. And he did. It was quite tasty.

The world is changing. Vegetarian and vegan options are becoming mainstream. Don thinks that eventually, maybe not in our lifetime, but at some point, meat will be a thing of the past. Raising animals for meat is not all good in terms of the environment, and for both us, it’s not at all a good thing morally. We could never go back to eating meat. Nor do we have to, when there are so many wonderful options out there, so many more than there were when I first became a vegetarian over 30 years ago. I pray for the day when we no longer kill our fellow innocent beings for food. When I don’t have to see cute pictures of cows on the kitchen walls of those who think nothing of turning around and eating them. Or when millions of turkeys are no longer slaughtered so humans can celebrate “Thanksgiving.”

I also pray to do better myself, because though I am consistently vegetarian, I am not consistently vegan. And I still wear leather shoes.

Another reader asked what I meant about the trip being transformational. Well, it was transformational in a few ways. Moving beyond the borders of this country and visiting another country, another culture, is always transformative. We escape the bubble in which we live. We see the world with fresh eyes. We meet people, talk to them, get different ideas and points of view. We see a world that exists quite nicely apart from ours. We also learn about issues that are important to those who live in whichever country we are visiting.

My awareness expands. My world expands.

Also, traveling involves constant visual stimulation and a constant flow of information. Seeing the Seine at all times of day, learning about the history of Notre Dame, or the Tower of London, or the ancient and now gone theaters in London that were once gathering places for live theater. Talking to a cab driver about Brexit: “Well, we’re a democracy and we voted for it, so that’s what’s happening.” Talking to another cab driver about being born in the East End and being a true Cockney. Grappling with the fact that Paris was occupied by the Germans in WWII. That London was bombed repeatedly during the Blitz and seeing the evidence left on the walls of buildings, on the walls of the Tower of London.

I got a greater understanding of history, of the patterns that keep recurring, of the past and how it is echoed by our present. And that there’s nothing new under the sun.

The trip took us far away from the States and into completely different worlds. How could that not be transformational? Also, with all the stress and insanity of the past two years here in the U.S., it was an enormous gift to leave it behind for 2½ weeks and just be. I cannot tell you how much that meant to us, how much we desperately needed it.

We were with each other 24 hours a day, every day, and we loved it. We travel well together. We miss that sense of being away from everything, just the two of us, completely and utterly engrossed in new sights, new sounds, new things, new people. To be honest, we’re still having a hard time adjusting to being back and, if we had unlimited funds, we’d be heading back there shortly.

I felt more free there than I have in years. I felt as if I had wings.

Anyway, I hope this answers those two questions. If you have more, feel free to ask.

One last picture of a sunny porch filled with potted plants. It’s going to get very cold at night this week, so these lovelies will soon be no more. That always makes me sad, but at the same time, I’m grateful that they’ve lasted this long. I fully expected to come home and find them gone due to some freak hard frost, which often happens in October.

Currently reading Michael Connelly’s newest, Dark Sacred Night. Excellent, as always. Lee Child’s newest just came out a few days ago. Susan Hill’s newest Simon Serailler mystery comes out on November 20th. And the great Louise Penny’s newest will be published on November 27th. I’m excited about all of them. The positive side of colder temps? Tucking into some hot cocoa and a good book.

Happy Saturday.

Winston

Egg Cups, Some Clarification & A Video

Saturday Thoughts

claudiahillsparks

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