Patty’s Neighborhood

The latest photo of the babies along with a context photo for gunderson bee.

This beautiful girl, wandering around 2nd and San Fernando in downtown San Jose. She's very sweet, seems to be around 2-3 years old and is obviously well-cared for.

No tags.

No chip.

A friend has taken her home for the night, but probably can't keep her. We've notified animal services in the hopes that her owner can be found and an ad is going up on Craig's list. But if she ends up going to the shelter she's not likely to meet with a happy ending.

Do you know her?

Alaskan Malamut

The day we went to the breeders to pick up our new dog we didn’t even know which one we’d be leaving  with. The breeder had given us a numbered order to go into the pen and pick whichever lab pup we wanted. We were 4 out of nearly 10 people.

As the first 3 people went into the pen and grabbed the plump little black lab they chose we sat to the side. I had my eye on one little guy who was normally running around the center of the pen but would then would run back behind the puppy house and hide when people walked inside of the pen to chose their puppy.

When it was my turn I walked into the pen with Deb. She immediately grabbed a puppy near her feet and said “Oh this one!”, I, instead, sat down on the cement floor of their pen and just said “Okay, which one of you is wail?” and that little black lap who had been hiding behind his pup house ran out and jumped into my lap. I grabbed him up into my arms, stood up and let Deb and the breeder know that this was my dog. At that second he became officially known as “The Prince of Wails.”

The trip home was long, some 3 or so hours and he slept in my lap the whole time. When we got back to the house he ran around our legs as we showed him around his new home.  Even though we had just taken this little creature, barely 4 months old,  from the only family he had ever known he settled in instantly and was just the happiest little thing I’ve ever seen.

He followed me everywhere and we were instantly a team. He was my boy. Everyone thinks they have the best dog. It’s just  like it is in parenting. With Wail things were different. Everyone loved Wail. Every time we’d go out someone would say “That’s the best looking dog I’ve ever seen.”, or “That’s the best behaved dog ever.”

With Wail, I was accustomed to him being the “best” in everyone’s eyes. The breeder, after witnessing the dog he was becoming, quickly told us how he regretted him to us because he was the perfect specimen for breeding and showing. He begged us not to neuter him so we could show him and breed him. While we entertained the thought for a while we realized we just wanted to love him as part of the family and be with him as he wanted to be with us. The breeder was not pleased and in the end he pretty much stopped talking to us all together over it.

It didn’t matter to me, all I wanted was a doggy I could love, snuggle, to play and have adventures with and Wail delivered in spades.  He lived a life of enjoyment, indulgence and happiness.  He had a few medical problems near the middle years of his life. He was diagnosed with cancerous tumors on his backside and belly, but luckily for everyone they were benign. And while he got a few more tumors over the years, they never affected his quality of life.

Just a few years ago it was apparent that he was having trouble with his hips. Hip Dysplasia is a common ailment in Labradors and the first year or so after it appeared we were able to treat it easily with medications. Everything was smooth sailing up to a few months ago when I noticed Wait appeared to have an infection in his tooth. We took him in and indeed it was a broken tooth that had become infected. After having it extracted I brought him straight home for a day of relaxation. As he was getting out of the car his sister Abby jumped on him and through him from the car to the concrete. Something bad had obviously occurred in his neck because he was unable to move his left front leg. We took him straight back to the vet where it was diagnosed as permanent nerve damage. From this point on Wail’s mobility would be severely reduced. With his bad back hips and his bum left from leg, on good days he could maybe move around at only 5% of his former range.

Interestingly enough where as a human would probably become insanely depressed at such a huge loss of mobility and independence, Wail was never down, depressed or sad. As a whole Wail was never upset at any time in his life. He was always happy, even when faced with hardest challenges that could be heaped on a dog. It’s this happiness and joy that I’ll miss the most. Out of every single person and animal on this planet he was the only creature that was always happy to see me.

Sadly all good things must come to an end, and so today something phenomenally great has had it’s epilogue. This morning, when I woke up I heard Wail making a grunting growling sound that I have never heard before. I knew there was something very wrong. When I went to him he was rigid, foaming at the mouth and his belly was shaking. We rushed him to the pet hospital in record time where the wonderful staff and terrific Dr performed test after test on him.

However, the prognosis was undeniably grim and final. I've lost friends, uncles, grandparents and a parent, and I cried harder than I’ve ever cried before as the realization sunk in and it was clear that Wail’s time had come to a close. We held him tightly as the Doc began to administer the sedative that would put him to sleep. He was a brave dog and in the last few minutes all of the pain and fear he had in the morning had eased away and he was once again the happy, tame, loyal, clam, perfect and loving companion has had always been.

I closed his eyes with my hand and whispered into his ear that I wanted him to stake a nice plot of land for the family in the afterlife, that I loved him more than anything and that he should hurry on so he didn’t miss ‘Doggy Heaven Orientation’.

Rest in peace, Wail. I love you <3<3<3

empty colar

Alright – we’re off (very early tomorrow morning) for our summer family tour!  We’re heading back to the East Coast for almost two weeks.  The main reason to go is for the Beloved’s folks’ 50th wedding anniversary – we’re meeting them at one of their favorite places on the “Northern Neck” of Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay.  Should be fun – that’s a part of the Bay I’ve never seen before.

Midatlanticism

Before that though, we’ve scheduled a brief visit with my brother in NJ and a longer one with my sister in MD (I still haven’t seen her new place that she moved into last Spring, mostly because I didn’t go back for Christmas/New Year’s last year…).   And, of course, we’re going to cram in as many visits with friends as we can get.  Should be hectic (and a lot of driving…), but we want to make the most of it.

We’ll probably have pretty spotty internet contact, so don’t drop me from your neighborhoods because I’m not commenting or posting, or force-quit our scrabulous games because they’ve gone “inactive”.

See you in a couple of weeks!

But it got me through the customer visit I was running out the door for.

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Molly Glover Gallatin and Lynn Cayabab

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Matt Cain pitched a complete game, battling in the ninth, before shutting down the ZNationals to complete the Giants' sweep. Complete game 4-hitter! Big fun...

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i've been out of commission for a while, but i miss reading your stuff. be back soon!

bisous,
kendra