The Great Escape

Hours later, she is all clean and innocent-looking

A few new names - or epithets - to consider for the new dog:

Whodini
Big Muddy

Good thing I got home from church when I did. Tuffy met me at the door, whimpering in a way that said something was wrong. Newdog was not in the house - and she was not in the back yard, in the rain. looked for a hole in the fence. There wasn't one. I looked closer. There was a small hole under the fence. I saw a streak of black in the yard, rushed back into the house, and grabbed a leash by the front door. By the time I stepped outside she was across the street. Yes, she came when called, more or less.

By then she was by far the muddiest dog I'd ever seen, absolutely covered in dirt and grass. So she got her second bath in two days. She hasn't been allowed outside since.

John came back from work early and filled in and blocked that hole. There is nothing to stop her digging another one elsewhere. Until we solve the problem I guess I'll drive home at lunch to let the dogs out under supervision.

How much for "Invisible Fence"? Would that solve the problem?

K.

Rename This Dog

Here she is, Lady Heather, the Dog from SAFE. (We've been calling her Lady, Lady H, and Newdog.) She's been here since about noon today, and it's been, well, interesting.

We got to the shopping center at about 10:20 AM, and it was a zoo. There were a lot of dogs and cats up for adoption, and nearly as many people looking at them, plus the SAFE volunteers. I think the news story about the 752 dogs motivated more people than usual to come out and give homes to other puppies in peril, dogs in danger, and cats in crisis.

We met a number of SAFE staffers and volunteers, including the couple that's been taking care of Lady H since she and her puppies were rescued from the Pima County Animal Control and Care facility back in November. Apparently it's hard to get anyone to adopt a dog and her new litter. Their time was up at the shelter, and they would have been euthanized had it not been for SAFE - Saving Animals From Euthanasia. All but one of two of the puppies had been adopted as of this morning, but they were a little worried about the mother. "She's gone unadopted far too long for such a sweet dog," they said.



They figure she's two years old, and completely healthy. She was spayed in February, and immunized for kennel cough. She comes with a 30 day health insurance policy against the sorts of diseases dogs get in shelters, and I'm supposed to take her to our vet to get her checked over. What we know so far is that she has very dry skin, and scratches herself a lot. We've found a few small bumps on her, tick-sized, but not ticks and maybe not tumors. We gave her a bath right away, but if anything it increased her scratching.



The good news is that she and Tuffy are getting along just fine. At first they mostly ignored each other, but once they were home together Tuffy hung out in her general vicinity and they did the sniffing thing from time to time. They haven't played together, but there wasn't been even a hint of a growl or a snarl, and Tuffy has shown no jealousy at all, just a slight tendency to guard the food. They've each been given leftover chicken and (later) cheese, with no competition or unpleasantness. Tuffy didn't eat the cheese, and didn't protest when Newdog came over and ate what Tuffy had dropped. This evening Newdog even tried to lick Tuffy's face - and Tuffy let her, for about a second.


She's in Tuffy's Purple Tongue Club, and theoretically she's a chow-collie mix. She's a little smaller than Tuffy though, with a shorter snout.

She spent most of the day outside, and hasn't been leash-trained or taught the usual commands. She doesn't come when called unless she feels like it. She's supposedly housebroken, but a wet spot in the front room says she's not perfect in this. She's done a little whimpering, but not much, and hardly any barking. She's actually behaved very much like Tuffy - wanting reassurance and petting and treats but not a major lovefest of licking and kissing and such. She's not secure enough yet to play or to recognize play behavior as harmless, but give her time. It's only her first day here!

I have to say I don't like the Lady Heather name much. If she'll accept it, I'd like to rename her. So far the best of the ideas are as follows:

Lady Madonna (Donna for short?)
Tess, short for Tesseract
Martha (my dear)
Buffy (rhymes with Tuffy)
Lady H
Rose
Ace

Rejected:
Merry
Willow
Birthday
Romana
Schroedinger

So now that you've seen her, I throw it open to the floor: what should her new name be? I'm looking for something that fits her low-key but wayward personality, and preferably has a pop-culture connection of some sort. Whoever suggests the name we go with will win...well, I'm not sure what yet, but probably a piece of original writing, or a photo or something. The deadline is Easter Sunday, or whenever I read the name and shout, "That's it!" - whichever comes first!

Karen

Walls and Bridges

This is going to be one of those rambling entries in which I make a lame attempt to tie disparate subjects together under a vague theme. You don't mind, do you? Mostly it's an excuse to use a couple of photos I took yesterday. Walls and Bridges, in case you don't know, is the title of a John Lennon album.


On Thursday I happened to find out from my boss that Baggin's, a local deli chain, has a location on Valencia near the airport. That's not terribly close to where I work, but I decided to take Palo Verde over there anyway. On the way I noticed these walls going up on the left side of the road. I have no idea what they are building, but these huge concrete slabs with no roof really caught my eye.

When I first drive past there was a man standing in between the two slabs, looking almost as if he intended to play Sampson and knock down the walls. Unfortunately there was no way to photograph the scene at that moment, as I was passing by at 40 mph, with my camera turned off and in my pocket. When I returned after lunch, there were no humans in evidence at the site.


On the return trip I photographed the two walls from several angles as Pink Floyd played in my head. This particular angle reminded me of the backs of building facades at Universal Studios. I bet these slab walls weigh a lot more than the average false front on a back lot.


But as massive as they look from the front and back, from the side there's not much to them!

This is another part of Palo Verde Road, photographed last summer as I commuted from the Anonymous Regional Retailer business office. This particular underpass has a name like Veteran's Memorial Underpass or something like that. I was trying to capture the flag motif and the rainbow in the same shot.

And here's that wonderful downtown bridge again, as photographed the day I was taking train pictures for the Round Robin in January.

Now for the lame thematic tie-ins:

WALLS:

AOL is getting between me and my email. The stupid Webmail apps (both versions) has been unreliable for several days, often not loading anything new when you refresh the page, even though AIM says new mail has been received. Tonight the webmail won't load at all. I eventually got at it through Vista's Windows Mail, which is basically Outlook. Even that got stuck several times. Oh, and Julie, I tried to leave a comment on your journal, but after the timeout and a page back, Firefox refused to try again. So I won't be leaving any comments tonight, except the one I successfully got onto Sarah's LJ.

BRIDGES:

I have now heard from three different people from SAFE (Saving Animals From Euthanasia) about Lady Heather, the black and tan chow mix we're going to see in the morning. They all have been very nice, and all want me to know that the dog will be at the PetSmart at I-19 and Irvington tomorrow morning. We'll be there, in preparation for which I will not be pulling my usual Friday all-nighter. If we do bring her home, she will probably get a new name. Any suggestions?

Karen

Weekend Assignment #207: Too Much News?

This dog was not seized from a trailer in Avra Valley.

I've started and rejected two assignment topics tonight, the first because it wasn't original enough, the second because it called for me to revisit a rant I've already ranted, several times over. My brain is full of the news of nearly 800 dogs and birds seized from a triple-wide trailer this week, just outside Tucson. All day today, people have overwhelmed the local Humane Society, adopting the rescued dogs as fast as the beleaguered volunteers could check them over, clean them up and bring them out. (Nobody actually gets to take home one of the rescued chihuahuas, terriers, etc. under they are certified healthy, altered and chipped.) Meanwhile I've heard from two people with an animal rescue group about a mixed chow I'm interested in, and filled out their adoption application (NOT the one I wrote about last night). It seems odd that here I'm fussing over adopting one dog and trying to do everything right, and it turns out that many of the groups whose dogs I've been checking out online are currently taking in a huge influx of dogs from a trailer 20 miles from here.

National news is fixated on the seamy details of the downfall of the governor of New York, the fallout from two pointlessly dysfunctional primaries and every foolish thing ever said by anyone who ever met Obama or the Clintons. Meanwhile in Cardiff, fans have spotted still more filming of what promises to be the biggest, most insane, most baffling Doctor Who season finale in decades, possibly ever. And I've updated the St. Michael's web site, just in time for Palm Sunday - but I have no intention of doing a religion-based Weekend Assignment topic, ever. So what shall we talk about?

Weekend Assignment #207: Are you a news junkie, or not so much? Do you seek out news on tv, radio, in newspapers or online, or are you sick of the endless rehashing of the same issues? I realize it's all a continuum, from "I never watch the news" to "I keep it on all day, and read several newspapers" (or whatever). Maybe you vacillate, depending on what's going on in the world or your own life. What's your current level of interest?

Extra Credit: Is there a particular news story you have been following recently?

At the moment I'm listening to the local NPR station all day, but from time to time I get bored or annoyed and switch to a CD (Doctor Who or the Beatles). It's starting to get to me, though; most of the news about the Democratic presidential campaign has little or nothing to do with what the candidates would actually do as President. I'm going to have to bring more Beatles CDs to the office, and maybe some Clash. I supplement NPR with a little online news and a light browse through Tucson Weekly.

But I did go out of my way tonight to Google up the news about the puppy mill case. The Humane Society of Southern Arizona is seeking donations to help pay for the huge extra expense caused by this situation.

Your turn: are you soaking up news, or turning it off? Tell us about it in your journal or blog, and come back here and leave a link. I'll do a roundup a week from now. And as always, please include a link back here in your entry so readers can find out what everyone had to say. Thanks!

Karen

Weekend Assignment Results: Your Birthday Wish Lists

For last week's Weekend Assignment, I invited you all to share in my March 10th birthday and asked what you would want as a gift. The responses:

Becky wants a Canon telephoto lens...no, wait, a Sigma one.

Saqib wouldn't mind having an iPod.

Laura actually did have her birthday this past week! About two dozen people have come through with her requested gift.

Mike wants a good telescope so he can share the stars with his family.

A different Laura figures to order her gift from Amazon.

Duane expresses annoyance that I won't actually buy him a digital camera.

Florinda is celebrating her actual March birthday with a long weekend, but won't mind getting gift cards and Season 3 of Lost. She also tells us of a month-long birthday party for those of us who were born in March.

Megan would like a weekly pen delivery, and every book in the world.

Kiva wants something BIG, and the freedom to use it.

So overall, we want to read books, do some writing, listen to music, take pictures of the stars with state of the art equipment, and watch DVDs as we ride away on Kiva's present. Works for me!

New Weekend Assignment will follow in a couple of hours.

Karen

Dog Owner Audition

The more I look at pre-owned dogs online, the more I see that it's not just a matter of choosing a dog that John, Tuffy and I all consider suitable. That's certainly part of it, but the rescue organizations are mostly interesting in knowing that they and the dog being adopted will find us suitable. Aside from photo, sex, breed, age category and size, one listing I looked at merely said "X is a nice dog," followed by a paragraph that said over and over that an online application was required before they would even discuss the dog with you, let alone set up and appointment to see her. I'm not sure I'm interested enough in that particular dog to initiate this process, but I filled in most of their form anyway, without sending it. Here are some of the questions it asked (paraphrased):

• Why do you prefer a dog that's female, 6 months to two years old and 18 lbs and up? (This group specializes in smaller dogs.) Explain. Are you flexible? Yes, we're a little flexible. But do they really need me to explain why two working adults don't want to housebreak a dog if there's a choice, or adopt an older dog when we already have one whose further life expectancy is two years at best?
• Are you willing to adopt a dog that's been abused, is deformed or handicapped, needs ongoing medication, is not good with children, isn't housebroken, or comes only as part of a two-fer? Good grief! Should I feel guilty about saying no to most of these categories? I realize there are lots of "special needs" dogs out there, including one I looked at online tonight that's blind from birth, and another that's deaf and "mostly blind." I sincerely hope they all find good homes. But Tuffy started her life with us by wrecking two couches and some wallpaper, never got over her insecurity from having six owners in her first six weeks of life, and cost us about $3K in medical bills in 2007. After dealing with all that, and bearing in mind that we both work full time, John and I really need a dog who doesn't have "issues." A happy, healthy, mellow, friendly young dog: is that too much to ask?
• What is the name, species, breed and age of each of your existing pets? What is its personality like? Well, you folks mostly know the answer to this bit. In the form I haven't sent, I wrote: "Tuffy Toro: mixed chow, age 12, has carcinoma on tongue (treated with surgery and radiation) . Tuffy is gentle, skittish, only mildly affectionate, and insecure. In her home she barks at strangers and runs away, but will eventually approach if not pursued, especially outside the home. Will sniff other dogs but doesn't play with them."
• Exactly what happened to every dog you no longer have? Jenny (aka Princess Guinevere of Westcott St.): euthanized age 12, with Cushing's disease and metastasized cancer. Noodle: euthanized age 15, severe arthritis, dementia, incontinence, cataracts, etc. Will these people disapprove of putting a dog to sleep when all quality of life is gone? I dunno, but it's what we had to do.
• How often do you have visitors? Um, do trick or treaters count? How about Girl Scouts selling cookies? Other than the guys who delivered the new refrigerator, wired the air conditioner and repaired the dryer, and the friend that looked after Tuffy during our last several trips to Disneyland, I don't think anyone other than John and myself has actually been inside this house since the week of my mom's funeral over four years ago. (That sounds bad, doesn't it? But the house is somewhat overloaded with boxes, and most of our IRL friends and all of our relatives live out of town.)
• How will you introduce your visitors to the new dog, and what will you teach your kids about approaching a dog? I don't expect anyone else in this house anytime soon, but our experience with Tuffy is that it's best to let her decide whether to approach a visitor and when, and to be very slow and gentle in responding when she does approach.
• How long will the dog be left alone each day, and where will she sleep? About nine hours, and anywhere she wants.

Above: Tuffy and Noodle on the couch Tuffy half-
destroyed as a puppy. Photo probably by John Blocher.

So what do you think? Do we pass muster?

Karen

Belated Birthday and Canine Auditions

It's funny how things can change from one day to the next. Last summer when First Magnus imploded, Tuffy was diagnosed with cancer and I changed jobs twice, I had several days of sudden, major upheavals, sometimes three or four of them of them in a single day. Compared to all that, the contrast between yesterday and today is a mere blip, but still worth mentioning I think.

As I was trying to work out how to handle the lack of birthday recognition yesterday, there was something relevant at the back of my mind, something literary. I didn't remember what it was until tonight. Howard will recognize it immediately:

"Sad? Why should I be sad? It's my birthday. The happiest day of the year."
"Your birthday?" said Pooh in great surprise.
"Of course it is. Can't you see? Look at all the presents I have had." He waved a foot from side to side. "Look at the birthday cake. Candles and pink sugar."
Pooh looked--first to the right and then to the left. "Presents?" said Pooh. "Birthday cake?" said Pooh. "Where?"
"Can't you see them?"
"No," said Pooh.
"Neither can I," said Eeyore. "Joke," he explained. "Ha ha!"


I hope I didn't follow Eeyore's example--too much!

But this morning I did mention the birthday thing to my boss. She enthusiastically wished me a happy birthday, and confessed that she never thinks to look at the whiteboard. I don't know whether she said anything to anyone, but over the rest of the day, seemingly without prompting, about four different people stopped by to wish me a happy belated birthday. The person in charge of birthdays also polled me about what kind of cake to have next week, which was rather considerate I thought. I said anything but white cake, which fits in well with the two votes for chocolate. The remaining birthday person had not yet been asked, but the birthday maven was hopeful he would go along with the chocolate as well. We discussed the lack of choices in commercial cakes - no lemon, no cherry, just carrot if you're lucky, but of course I'm fine with the chocolate. After all, it's chocolate!

So as not to be a hypocrite (which I sometimes am), I made myself seek out the guy wbose birthday was the 11th and offer my greetings. His attitude was basically, "Yeah, whatever." Birthdays are apparently just a meaningless distraction as far as he's concerned. I'm glad I said something, though, because it was the honorable thing to do, it took me out of my comfort zone, and it gave me a chance to get an inkling about the accounting problem he's wrestling with. Later in the day I was asked to assist him when I finish my current project, which I'm glad to do.

I also had discussions with several people about getting a dog. One had a brother in law who needs to get rid of some puppies, but she didn't remember the breed; she herself always goes for a breed she called Australian Blue Heeler, or something like that. My boss told me her dog has Valley Fever, pneumonia and other problems. John said something about getting a short haired breed to minimize the dog hair, but someone told me she had dogs with seemingly no hair, but it was all over the house anyway.

And after all, I grew up wanting Lassie. For years I read the newspaper ads for AKC collie puppies, which only cost $75 in those days. With my dad allergic, I had no chance of getting any dog for years to come, regardless of price; but I kept looking anyway.

So here are the current criteria for the next canine in the Blocher family:

• Adult, pre-owned dog, housebroken, all shots and in good health
• Small enough to fit through the doggie door and not tower over Tuffy. Therefore no
  Borzoi, Great Danes, Newfies, and probably not even German Shepherds or Labs.
• Not small or yappy. No toy breeds. Medium sized and mellow in temperament is what we're going for here.
• Intelligent and friendly, not overly territorial, traumatized or skittish.
• Not more than a few years old, because we don't want the trauma of losing another dog to age just a few years after losing Tuffy.
• No promises about the length of the fur, but it shouldn't be copious and constantly falling out.
  

I expect we'll try to get the dog on Saturday. Either we'll go to a PetSmart that's doing an adoption event (dogs brought in from I think the Humane Society) or Animal Control (the pound) on Silverbell, or possibly some other shelter. If it's PetSmart we can take Tuffy in and let them sniff each other to get an idea whether Tuffy will be able to cope. I expect her to be skittish, but if the other dog is roughly the same size and not aggressive with her it should be okay. If it's a shelter, maybe they'll agree to take the dog outside to meet Tuffy.

Meanwhile I've just discovered Petfinder.com, which has a number of Tucson dogs in its database. Here's a smallish Lab who might be okay, from Animal Rescue Foundation, a no-kill shelter I'm not sure I knew about. The main no-kill shelter in town, The Hermitage, is just a few blocks from us, but for cats only.

Plushpuppy says that some of the dogs are crate-trained.

(Half an hour later:) I've been perusing Petfinder. They've got dogs on there from the Tucson Humane Society, Pima Animal Control, and dozens of other groups around Arizona. Quite a few of these rescue shelters are for specific breeds or species, not just greyhounds and cats but ferrets and beagles and horses and even keeshonden. Some groups describe the animal fully, with notes on personality and what kind of adoption situation would be ideal (please adopt this other dog too because I love her; wants to be the alpha dog, shy but getting better, athletic and active, needs to be an only dog, needs another dog around, etc.). Humane Society just lists the color in the description section; not very helpful, that! Adopt a Mutt has listings for special needs dogs; I'm not up to adopting a blind dog, but I sure hope someone else is. So it looks as though we won't be going into this cold, choosing a dog on looks alone. But yes, I'd prefer a dog who is at least a little bit pretty!

Karen