whadda week, whadda life

tiger woods runs over hydrant & golf club saves his life (or did it almost kill him) drama

fancy dinner at white house overshadowed by a tall wanna be a reality tv star lady in red & her wino horsey husband

dawn’s head start on christmas plans gets stymied by nostalgia & 15,000 photos.

yes, i had my shopping done early.

my wrapping was right on time

the tree went up & then a detour….

i had the idea to move all the photos from my big clunky desk top to my svelte lap-top & organize them. distribute them on cd’s that i made. you know - the family vacation photos. the old group shots from multiple holidays gone by (including the easter beer tasting fest.) the candid of you while playing guitar hero like the rock star that you are.

do you have any idea how many memories lie in 15,000 photos? honestly, i’ve only looked at about 3,000 so far & i’ve lost an entire day. like the famous philosopher turned folk singer BREAD says “...a picture paints a thousand words…” & millions of amazing memories. i knew i was blessed, but the details are tntc. (this acronym is not from texting - it’s from science - laboratory microscope geeks - when they look through their lens & see millions upon millions of something important they are said to be “too numerous to count.)

seriously, the fancy french toast in gatlinburg (one more bit of evidence that proves if you add cream cheese to anything it automatically improves the flavor). the mamma bear & her two cubbies. lisa & stephen spending days & days & days helping us get our doggie daycare, mojo’s backyard, open. (that's lisa, below, giving mojo a little ride!)

the moment we met mojo. (she's the little one below & the big fuzzy one above.)

the moment we met sparrow.

the very second that ditto was handed over to me to love forever.

somehow i have about 20 photos of some hurricane katrina dog rescue folks in action. i don’t recognize a single dog or human & don’t recall who sent me the photos, but i do recognize the phenomenal efforts/money/emotion/time that rescue people put into what they do & my respect for them is ott. (over the top - i might have made that up)

the black chunky pug, raisin, she was an early mojo’s boarder - i thought she was dying, but her mom said nope. that’s just how she breathes. i love that raisinette

our many bow-wow birthday parties (oddly enough all 5 of my dogs share the same birth day.) my husband’s eye for the subtly gorgeous (we have so many photos of flora/fauna/shroom photos he could publish a horticultural encyclopedia). an early daycare regular, jamaica, & all the places she liked to rest. ( i hope i can find the one with her lying in the bowl of the water fountain.) when the floors at the daycare looked great (look at raisin's pic above)

omg, i could go on & on & on…..

it’s official, my fond memories are tntc & i’ve got to get that tree decorated.

running for relaxation

throughout june, chris & i have been out and running many mornings. we must get up & go early to avoid this oppressive big heat / humidity issue we’ve got going here in north florida.

i mostly enjoy our by dawn’s early light jaunts - or try not to think about it - i just wake up & run. my mantra is: it’s just another part of my day, like brushing my teeth (a huge thank you to kate for getting me off on the right foot with this!)

on days that we have to be at work, chris & i and get up at 0500; that’s 5 am for you non-military types, [beep beep beeeeeep ...pet peeve alert] aka “5 am in the morning.” [silly syllable wasters, you don’t have to say both “a.m.” AND “in the morning” - the definition of “a.m.” is amante meridiem: before noon] not one of our 5 dogs will get up with us at this way ridiculous hour. it’s just me & my guy huffing & puffing through our neighborhood.

weekends have risen to a new level of happy for us. we don’t get up until 6 am (yes, in the morning), the latest the dogs will let us sleep. (as you know & the dogs clearly realize, there’s a long long hour & a lot of sleep to be had between 5 am & 6 am). then it's coffee, newspaper, & out for our run by 0700. at this time of day, every one of our fur kids is begging to accompany us on our exercise expedition.

i love running with one of my dogs by my side; two is usually too much for me to think about - i’m busy concentrating on breathing & remaining upright. chris & i just circle around the block and swap them out. the little loop is for mojo (too much fur and mild hip dysplasia to go an entire mile) and lucas (not quite 2 years old, and a bit thick over the ribs.) the other 3 dogs can go on the big loop (2.3 miles), each of us taking one.

when we’re finished, chris and i are ready to relax and thankfully, so are the dogs. there is nothing better than a tired dog, unless, of course, it’s 5 tired dogs. an exhausted, happy dog has few requests & sleeps like a sweet little baby. they’re so relaxed i can clean teeth, cut nails & even eat a snack without being “hounded.” [that’s funny - i've never used HOUNDED when talking about my dogs - i love that!!]

i hope you have a way to keep your dog busy & tired. if you can’t run, walk or skip! if you don’t have time for activity with your pooch today, think about taking them to mojo’s backyard to play. get out early, get back home & enjoy the rest of your day with a calm canine.

don't tell the dogs their dad used to run without them.

it's been over a month.....

wow this last few weeks have been so busy & telling...no blogs by me. megan & i have vowed to each publish a new blog at least once weekly. find megan’s blog here: http://tallydogs.wordpress.com/

i’ve been working behind the scenes on several projects:

mojo’s backyard is going to be on twitter & facebook (“they” say we have to keep up with social media - “they” being the advertising types) stand by for more on that. you’ll want to sign up - we’re going to do live action updates on the crazy happenings at the doggie daycare, send recipes, quotes and even coupons to discount daycare and products. we’re planning to have good stuff give-a-ways, too. it doesn’t get much better than a give-a-way!!!!

megan & i have been working for months on our plans to start our very own dog ranch. our intent is to offer a permanent home for dogs if their owners become incapacitated or die. much much more on the BFF DOG RANCH in future posts.

we want to be your best friend’s next best friend.

my husband, chris, and i have made a family decision -



ditto, our little tall skinny gorgeous jack russell terrier is going to train for some competitive agility. the real challenge is mine - can i keep up with this lanky bundle of flying fur? i guess i picked the right month to start running again.
ditto & i will be under the close guidance of shawn, our amazing & oh-so-patient agility instructor. our goal is to attend our first competition on thanksgiving weekend. the training begins this monday with “two-a-week’s.” [doesn’t that sound jock-like? translation: two practices per week for now]

find info on shawn’s awesome agility classes here:

http://capitalcanine.com/agility.html

mojo has been shedding her undercoat...the brushing, vacuuming, plucking, grooming, sweeping, shaving, & did i mention vacuuming?....it’s almost too much for my fuzzy girl to bear. thank goodness it’s almost over. AND she’s lost four pounds of fat (it turns out it wasn’t the fluff that was weighing her down!) her hips feel better (no more crying when she stands up). HOW glucosamine works may be a medical mystery, but the fact that it WORKS is not a question for mojo.

life is good.
(and if you haven’t checked out that website, you should!!)

roadie-oh

At mojo’s backyard, we foster dogs. One of the groups we work closely with is boxer rescue. (boxer aid and rescue coalition– you should check them out –great people, love dogs.) we usually have a boxer or two hanging around the daycare waiting for the perfect forever home.

We’re hosting a little boxer man right now named “roadie” I prefer to call him roadie-oh. He’s a jack russell/boxer mix – so they think. a jack in the box for those of you who need a designer dog. [you can read roadie’s story at www.boxerarc.org]

I love him.

this is jean - he works with us at mojo's backyard - holding roadie-oh. too too cute!!

roadie hated me or feared me most likely for a long time & I don’t know why. most dogs get one whiff of me & seem to trust me. this little dude gave me a fit. growled barked snarled lunged backed away for 2 or 5 days. I spent over an hour inching him toward me with treats & when I ran out of food, he ran away. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, he fell in love with me almost as much as I am with him.

Confession: He is a coprophagiac (he eats other dogs crap) but hey, many dogs do it. So he’s got a single fault…

I was tucking roadie-oh in one night (I work at the daycare a couple of nights a week and I always say goodnight to each dog – kisses, calming rubs, telling them they are good good dogs. sometimes I have to lie.) & I smelled light poop on his breath – so I wouldn’t let him kiss me. I kissed him on the top of his head. He laid his head down and accepted all of my affection. This must be why I love him.

Have you ever seen a smoosh face dog’s teeth? Oh my goodness – they are a crooked mess. Underbite-city, crooked as my conniving uncle eric, snaggle tooth from way back. it’s just so comical and wonderful. I love looking at them – it brings up a smile from way deep in my soul. (I had braces many many many years ago – so my bite now is disguised as almost straight – perhaps malformed k9 teeth remind me of my younger days looking in the mirror)

I really wanted a little look at roadie’s dentition for my own personal happiness meter – it never hurts to charge it up when you can sneak a peak at something that makes you feel so amazingly joyful.

When I parted his lips and prepared for my smile I instead felt a little puke come up into my throat. Uppers and lowers caked full of poop, shit, crap, excrement, grey brown burbling and overflowing from the crooks and crannies – just like my ex-husband.

[The only time that mean man ever made me laugh is when he would clog his mouth with chocolate, smile big and say “do I have anything in my teeth?” & that was really only funny the first thousand times he did it.]

Maybe that’s why I was so horrified mortified and nauseous with roadie’s gaping cesspool mouth & the foulness spewing from it….. he reminded me of my ex. Oh roadie-oh. …

or maybe it was just freakin’ gross.

designer dogs

I haven’t blogged in so long and I have no excuse. I am once again working at mojo’s backyard part time along with my full time job as a physician assistant in dermatology. so I am busy (that’s a BIT of an excuse and true at the same time)

truth be told, I would much rather be with the dogs at mojos than the people at the dermatology joint (shhhh – don’t tell the folks at the derm office…I enjoy that work tremendously as well as the people, but the dogs…..ahhhhhhh the dogs)

I love doggie kisses and nuzzles and the smells (SOME of the smells anyway) and the noises, the fur (when it remains attached – the floating fur is not my favorite) I could watch the dogs play all day. heck I even like watching them sleep. they are gorgeous.

I’m trying to think – have I ever met a dog that was NOT amazing to look at. I have to go with NO. I will say this…puggles are so cute when they are puppies and when they grow up they get a bit….”less cute” shall we say.

you know a puggle is a “designer dog,” right? a puggle is a beagle bred with a pug. I believe it is recognized by some group as being official in some sort of way. to me, it doesn’t matter – I just love beagles and I love pugs, so PUGGLES – what’s not to love?

at my dermatology job I work with a wonderful woman who has a jack Russell and a shih-tzu combo dog. I don’t know if that combo is an “official” designer dog or not. but I have dubbed the breed as the jack-shit. her name is bella and she is a beauty!! so when I say she is a jack-shit, I mean it in the sweetest, kindest possible way.

pictured above is my designer dog, Eiyso, she is a lointer. (lab/pointer mix. some might call her a mutt or a mix. i just say she's my sensitive sweet girl.)

side note: if you haven’t noticed, I’m lowering my grammar and punctuation standards. maybe I can blog more if I don’t try to get things all perfect and pretty. after all, while my life is perfect, it ain’t always pretty.