Advent Theory

Today I received some spectacular news.  My son is in Kirkuk, Iraq right now, and he found out today that he can go on leave beginning September first, weather permitting.  This piece of news made me happy for the entire day.  My husband came home from an overnight boat trip to an antique boat show and I shared the news about our son coming home.  I didn’t really have any plans for dinner so we called a local restaurant which specializes in Buffalo wings and had them deliver some wings and a big salad.  We watched some TV and ate dinner and I cleaned up the mess and that is it for me today!

Sandy is a female yellow lab who’s about 10 years old.  We got her when she was a year old from “friends” who blamed a new baby for why they couldn’t keep the dog.  Several months after she arrived in our family, we noticed odd behavior.  She had seizures!  It couldn’t be from the dog colognes I doubt. Boy, did she have seizures.   The first one we saw only because she ran into the side of the house and totally freaked us out.  Her seizures are unpredictable and last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more.   We give her barbiturates to mitigate the seizures, but sometimes they happen anyway.  We have to be aware of when they happen because afterwards she has to poop like crazy.  It’s not pretty when that happens inside!  Sometimes she wants to walk before the seizure is completely over so we have to hold her down and soother her.  Otherwise, she walks into furniture and walls.

A few years ago, a young Australian Shepherd was running around loose in the street in front of our home.  We enticed her into our house and our lives have not been the same since.  Neither my husband nor I had any experience with a dog like this.  After having no luck trying to find the pup’s owners, we decided that she was ours.  We named her Matty.  She was, and still is, a very active dog.  She used to find a way out of our backyard, then show up at the front dog with an expression on her face that said, look at me, aren’t I cute and clever? Matty was easy to train.  She is a Velcrodog, meaning she wants to be at my side all the time.   We home-schooled her to meet the requirements to pass the AKC Canine Good Citizenship test which she did on her first try.  She loves to wear dog pajamas. We have taken her to convalescent homes where she gladly accepts pets from the residents. While she can be rowdy, she seems to have a sixth sense about when she should be calm.  Matty makes our lives better.

Sheba isn’t my dog.  She is a dog I dog-sit every time her owner goes away.  She feels like my dog.  I take care of her like she was my dog; only I don’t have to worry about the food or vet bills.  Sheba is a butt dog.  I think all German Shepherds are butt dogs.  What I mean by that is Sheba likes to have that space just before her tail on her back scratched and rubbed.  She stands there and moves her butt from side to side and then she marches in place using only her hind legs.  Marshall, a male who unfortunately died of cancer like his owner, was the same way.  Whenever I visited his mistress’ home, I’d scratch and rub Marshall in that same spot right above his tail on his back.  Only, Marshall would just stand there.  He wasn’t as animated as Sheba.  She also loves her dog Christmas stockings! I am sure the next Shepherd I meet is going to love being scratched and rubbed there, too.