Thanksgiving in Phoenix with Many Four-Legged Family Members -- Gabe

Gabe is the only dog that anyone in my family meant to have.  He was given to my sister as a Christmas present years ago -- hence the name Gabriel.  I'm not a huge fan of dogs, but I love Gabe.  I call him Gaby-Baby.  Allyson and Kevin call him Mush.  He is mushy in both looks and demeanor.  And he works it!  He knows he's cute, and that when he gives you that pathetic, droopy look you'll forgive him anything.  I'm the only one slightly immune.

Gabe used to live at my Mom's.  She had a glass-topped table in the kitchen.  Gabe used to look up at people through the glass top as they were eating.  It was nearly impossible not to give that droopy-eyed cutie food, but I managed it.

There is nothing in this world that Gabe loves more than a ball.  Nothing.  He has been known to lay on the floor looking at his ball under a low piece of furniture where he can't reach it.  Every once in a while he will look back over his shoulder with a pitiful why-aren't-you-getting-my-ball look.

In this picture, he believes that if he stares at his ball with enough intensity it might fly through the air on its own.  That is his area: to not need a human in order to play ball.

See how cute and mushy he is?

Thanksgiving in Phoenix with Many Four-Legged Family Members -- Slim

Next up is Slim.  Slim washed up on my Mom's front lawn during a Phoenix monsoon.  Again, very smart of him to wash up on the lawn of that particular house!  Slim is an Italian greyhound, and he is my sister's dog.

If you are counting, you may notice that Slim is missing a leg.  Yep!  When he washed up he was missing a leg.  He does just fine without it.  It only stops him when he needs to do something he doesn't want to do.  Then suddenly his leg is a liability.  He's quite the little manipulator.  And he gets away with it because he looks so pitiful without that leg.  Sigh...

Thanksgiving in Phoenix with Many Four-Legged Family Members -- Mac

This Thanksgiving I went to Arizona to spend the holiday with my Mom and sister.  My Mom lives in Phoenix, and my sister lives in Prescott.  There were many, many dogs present during this trip.  Allow me to introduce the cast of doggy characters before I describe my trip.

First up is Mac.  Mac is my Mom's dog, and he is a chihuahua.  Mac managed to wriggle under the fence at my sister's old house.  He was emaciated and in very poor health.  Allyson asked my Mom to keep him while she found his owner or a new home.  This was a couple of years ago, so you can guess that the new home never happened.  Smart, smart Mac to wriggle under the fence of a person who would do anything for him, including pawning him off to another person who would do anything for him.  Ha!

Mac is always cold.  Always.  Even during summer in Phoenix.  I am quite sure that Mac's native Mexico wouldn't be warm enough for him.  Even in his sweater his preferred place is under a blanket.  Even better than that would be in his sweater, under a blanket, being held by someone.

Mac has a very stylish wardrobe.  I am only sharing two outfits among many.

This is what everyone calls his Mexican pimp coat.  Perhaps you are wondering what that blue thing is.  Well, Mac is often too cold to go outside to go potty.  So he goes in the house.  After spending hours every day scrubbing pee out of her carpet, my Mom decided to get Mac a doggy diaper.  That's what that blue thing is.  Pathetic.

The great thing about Mac's Mexican pimp coat is that it has a practical handle!  This is Kevin holding Mac.  More on Kevin later.

If I Were Ever to Develop Diabetes, It Would Have Been on This Day.

So last spring, on a Saturday in May, Newburyport almost did me in.

Many of you know that I LOVED the Tour de Chocolate that chocolate store The Chocolate Box offered in Seattle.  I think I took that tour at least five times.  I probably could have given that tour myself.

Well, a church in Newburyport does a chocolate tour fundraiser with -- get ready for this -- 24 stops.  Yes, you read that right: TWENTY-FOUR stops.

Many stores, bakeries, restaurants and ice cream shops participated, and I just went happily from place to place, increasing my blood sugar levels with each stop.  Some non-food stores just handed out Hershey's Kisses or other little chocolates.  The food stores handed out cookies or other chocolate goods.  The ice cream shops handed out actual little bowls of ice cream.  It was crazy.  Crazy DELICIOUS, that is!

Here's a picture of the list of stops.  The shops would initial or mark your sheet so that you didn't try for repeat visits.  Though I'm not sure how a person would do that.  I love chocolate, and I was ready to pass out after all of the stops.

(Sorry -- I can't figure out how to turn the picture around so that it's upright. )

So, if you live in New England and want to join me this coming spring for the Chocolate Tour of Newburyport, let me know.  I certainly won't be missing it!

Did You Think I Had Moved to Another Dimension?

I have been the worst blogger ever!  So let's see if I can catch up.  Or at least post once, being realistic.

I have renovated my pathetic bathroom!  It is now gorgeous.  Before I show you pictures, allow me to ask you a question.  My Dad and I had the same initial reaction, which did not even occur to my Mom.

Okay, my shower was very tiny.  As my Mom made measurements, she discovered that there seemed to be an empty, unused chunk of wall.  This was great, as I could expand my show if it was true!

Now, when you hear that there is an empty chunk of wall, about 2 ft. x 2 ft., what is the first thing you think of?

My immediate first thought was that there HAD to be a dead body in there!  Perhaps I watch too many crime shows on TV, but come on.  My house was built in 1850, the size of the empty chunk was right, and why ELSE would you have a 2x2 empty chunk of wall in a very small space?!

Was that your first thought, too?  I want to know!

Anyway, allow me to show you before and after pictures:

Before (shower):

AFTER (shower):

Half again as big (due to the dead body empty space)!  And tile!

BEFORE (toilet and tub):

AFTER (tub):

Tile!  And shower head!

Other changes include tile floor and shelving outside the shower.  And my favorite change: one of those fantastic toilets that have one button for flushing pee, and another for flushing poop, in order to save water.  I love it!

One more change was to add a railing to my loft.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So now, if you have kids, they can stay in the loft guest room and not fall out!

My Mom is coming to visit over Christmas.  There is almost nothing left to improve.  I'm sure she'll come up with something, though.  Every time she visits I seem to do a major renovation.

Oh, by the way, to my great disappointment, there was no dead body in the wall.  I was hoping some poor soul had been trapped in there, and I was going to be able to give him a final resting place (not in a wall) and his family closure.  Oh, well.  Maybe next time.

Skunks and Bugs

Back in the fall, I mentioned that there are a lot of skunks here, judging by the smell.  However, "a lot of skunks" does not do this issue justice.  People, I am smelling skunk at least two nights a week.  Even in winter.  Why are all of these skunks here and, more importantly, who is setting them off?!  Can there actually be people and/or animals in Newburyport who have not yet learned their skunky lesson?  Are there people out there who don't freeze like a statue when they see a skunk?  I saw one a few months ago as I was taking an evening walk, and I stood stock still for a good five minutes even after the skunk was gone.  I swear the skunks outnumber the dogs.  Are there ding-dong dogs who are willing to chase a skunk more than once?

Of course, it could be some sort of sick skunk joke.  Perhaps they got together and decided, "Oh, look at this cute town.  Let us destroy it with our stink!  Mwa ha ha ha ha!"  I just don't know.  It's weird.  And smelly.

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Bugs.  There are bugs here.  "Of course, stupid," you say.  But you must remember that I just spent 11 years in Seattle.  There are almost no bugs there.  (In Seattle, not the entire Puget Sound area.)  Many people don't even have screens on their windows, that's how bugless it is.  I usually got a couple of spiders each winter, but that was it.

Now I am inundated with bugs, and I'm told that I haven't seen the worst of it.  That there are swarms of huge flies that are going to come and bite huge chunks out of my flesh.  But until then, I still have big, black ants that I haven't seen since I-don't-even-know-when; mosquitos (itchy bug bites!); ladybugs; and other various flyers and creepy-crawlers.  Luckily I don't mind bugs (until they bite/sting me).  It was just a shock to remember they exist.

And so I am back to buying citronella candles (I always want to say "salmonella" candles -- ha!) and Off.

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Skunks and bugs.  Aren't you just chomping at the bit to come visit me?

A Deserved Life of Leisure

Earlier this month, greyhounds came to the library!  A wonderful greyhound rescue group called "Greyhound Friends" came to talk to folks about greyhounds: the breed, it's history, and what to expect if you adopt a retired racing greyhound.  I knew next to nothing about greyhounds.  Now I adore them, and I am not even a dog person!  If I ever adopt a dog, it will be a greyhound.

We were lucky enough to have five greyhounds visit.  Here they are with their three adopters (the people with leashes).

One of the myths about greyhounds, a myth that keeps some people from adopting them, is that they are hyper.  I assume people assume this because they are bred to be racers.  It turns out that this is patently false.  One of the owners said (and I think only half jokingly) that they are the laziest dogs in the world.  In fact, even when they exercise, they play really hard for about 15 minutes and then collapse in a heap and go back to sleep.

As you can see below, in a room full of people they don't know, the greyhounds feel fine about laying down and hanging out.  I don't have a picture of it, but at one point they were all sprawled out flat on the floor half asleep.

Another thing I learned is that you shouldn't adopt a retired racing greyhound by him/herself unless you have another pet at home.  If you don't, you should adopt two.  From the minute racers are born they live in a big place filled with dogs.  They have never lived by themselves.  If your greyhound is alone s/he will get very, very anxious.  Even if you stay at home, if your greyhound has no other companion s/he will stick to you like a burr.  It was made clear that the friend doesn't have to be another greyhound.  Any dog will do, even a little one.  In fact, friendly cats will do the trick, too!  Though my guess is that a rabbit probably isn't a good choice.  Ha!

If you adopt a greyhound, you also need to remember that they know nothing about houses.  One of the presenters reminded us that a greyhound will never have experienced stairs.  He adopted two greyhounds.  He tossed a treat up the stairs, and one of them learned the stairs in about 30 seconds in order to get to that treat!  But the other, who had particularly long legs, took three weeks to figure out how to use stairs.

I guess they also have no concept of glass.  If you have sliding glass doors, you have to take a greyhound up to it and touch its nose to the glass.  Otherwise, the greyhound will have no idea a barrier is there at all.

In addition to their laziness, greyhounds are very laid back.  Many are very good with children and make excellent family pets.  I don't have a picture of the exact acts, but some of the kids you see in these photos were less than gentle with the dogs at times, and dogs didn't react at all.  In fact, they seemed happy for the attention!

As I wrote earlier, the five dogs came with three different owners.  Some of the dogs had never met any of the others.  All five were immediately fine.  There was no fighting to see who was in charge.  The only fighting was to push each other out of the way for pets. :)  They all snuggled together and hung out during the program.  It was amazing.

We were also told that greyhounds will get along with other animals, as I wrote above.  The presenters told stories of greyhounds living with small dogs or cats, and the greyhounds were never in charge!  I think they are too laid back to want to be in charge.  So now, if you ever see a little dog bossing around a greyhound, you know why.

My Dad and Sue were visiting for this program.  They both loved the greyhounds.  Here is a picture of my Dad, apparently horning in on this little girl's greyhound time.

Aw.  Dad and Nova, the sweetest greyhound who was rescued from West Virginia just in time.  In another 24 hours, she would have been dead from neglect.  Take a look at her lean frame; when she was rescued, she only weighed half of what you see.  She must have looked like a skeleton.  But now she's the most outgoing, darling dog of all, living a life of leisure and representing rescued greyhounds.

Here is Sue with one of the greyhounds.  Sue looks like she wants to take this one home!

My coworker, Paula, with a greyhound.  Paula was ready to take one home, too.