Chapter 1

It’s been raining for the past couple of days, so I haven’t taken Koda and Columbus on their regular walks. This morning called for finding a trail where they could run free and expend some pent-up energy. That meant I had to find a trail with no people or dogs on it. I headed to the back side of the mountain.

Along the way to where I thought I was going, I saw a trail called Dickens trail. Part of the mid-state trail, according to the sign. In the middle of nowhere, no cars around. Perfect!

I let the dogs out, and they were off like a shot. Koda knows a trail when she sees one and she didn’t need to wait for me to show her which direction to go. Okay, I thought, the name of this trail fits my dogs, the little dickens! (Haven’t used the word devil, yet, just you wait.)

I quickly grabbed their leashes and took off after them. I soon heard splashing. Aha, they’ve found water. Came around the corner to a huge brook, which required crossing on stones and logs. Columbus was in the water, Koda had moved beyond but I could hear her.

We continued on in a cycle of the dogs taking off out of sight, then turning around to come back and check in. The couple of times I called them, Koda tried to herd Columbus. After yelling at her to no avail, I started encouraging Columbus to fight back. Instead, he did a marvelous job of avoiding her nippy mouth. At one point he was on the ground and started biting a stick. Look, Koda, no problem here. I’m just gonna play with this stick, okay?

The trail was wet from the past days’ rain. The dogs found a few places to get wet and muddy. Ten minutes in we hit a sign for the wildlife sanctuary. No this allowed, no that allowed, the list was long and it included dogs. Okay, I’ll be a good girl and obey. So we turned around and headed back. It was starting to spit some rain, anyway. If the rain held off, I could walk the trail again, perhaps, or continue on to the trail I was originally headed for.

We made it back to the brook in our same cycle of dog dashing, me catching up. It was time to put them on their leashes before we headed back to the road. I called the dogs, which triggered Koda’s herding mode. She started herding Columbus along the edge of the brook, ran into a branch hanging out over the water, did some kind of twirly maneuver trying to recover and ended up over her head in the water. Ha! Serves you right, I told her.

Now’s where the hellish part starts. I went to put on their leashes and realized I didn’t have Koda’s halti. The haltis allow me to control the dogs, otherwise their impulses can pull me right down onto the ground. I’m not a match for one of the dogs, nevermind two. So, I put the leash on Koda’s collar and decided to chance it with Columbus and skip his halti. After all, they’d just run around like banshee’s, they must be a little tired.

Well.

The devils took off like a speedboat with me as the water skiier who didn’t get a chance to give the thumbs up to let them know I was ready. I was pulled over that brook, my feet barely hitting the rocks as I hung on for dear life. I think I must have been held up by angels who saw what those devils were doing to me, and my feet skimmed the rocks only because they didn’t lift me up high enough to catch just air. There was no stopping those dogs until I reached solid ground. Like hitting an ice patch when you are skiing and not trying to stop until you get to the other side. It crossed my mind to let go, but it was all happening so fast I wasn’t sure that was a good idea for an injury-free outcome, either. It might just launch me backwards.

Since I’m writing this you know I’m not laying injured in the woods. You can bet I was thanking God profusely for keeping me safe.

Chapter 2

We made it to the car and I decided I wanted to walk some more. Part of this hiking is for me, you know….

I continued on to the West Road trail. (I think that’s what it’s called.) Nice wide, unpaved road, really. I let the dogs back out of the car and guess what they did? They dashed off, that’s what they did. This time I had Koda’s halti with me, though.

As I’m walking along with my dogs out of sight I’m thinking, this is not how I want to hike with my dogs. I want them exploring around me, a little ways off is okay, but not out of sight. So I tried to reign them in. I focused on Koda, who knows the routine of waiting for me to catch up when I say wait. So, I told her to wait, and she waited. The first time. The next time she gave me a look as if to say woman, you are BOTHERING me! Hmmm. Koda was feeling her oats. Time to put her on the leash. You want to go on leash Koda? Nope? Then wait when I tell you to wait.  Not going to wait, are you? Okay, then COME Koda.

She performed her old trick of pretending to come and then veering away. She’s really good at that trick. She could win prizes. Okay then, I thought, I’ll try getting Columbus on the leash first. However, it appears he’s been learning from the master and he performed the same trick. Perfectly.

I’d had enough. I pivoted and told them to have a good life. Started to walk back to the car dreaming of a dog-free existence. Heck, they’re good-looking dogs, someone will find them and want them. There’s the small technicality of their licenses being on their collars which would allow me to be tracked down, but I didn’t want to let that little detail spoil the dream.

I woke up as I heard galloping behind me. Didn’t even turn around. Columbus ran past me and then came back. I put him on his leash. No Koda. I gave a whistle to give her one last chance of being my dog. Columbus and I got most of the way back to the car before Koda came back, huffing and puffing. I put her on the leash, told them they had spoiled their own nice walk (as well as mine), got them into the car and we headed home.

The End

(Did you see the word devil used a few times?)

2012-03-18 from Cana Community Church on Vimeo.

PS If you have trouble viewing it in this page, watch it on Vimeo.

This is Columbus.

That’s also my screen porch.  Minus some screens and plus some barriers.

The screens used to be there.  The ugly barriers didn’t.  Until Columbus came into our lives.

I had just mentioned to Andy that I thought it was about time to get the new screens.  The weather has been gloriously warm. Columbus didn’t seem to be trying to get into the screen porch anymore. But then, yesterday, I heard a loud noise from the porch area.  And I came out to find that Columbus had yanked that door barrier off its frame and was inside on the screen porch.  (If you look closely at the picture you can see the frame pulled away from the door right under the handle, and the heavy duty mesh floating free from its constraints.)

I guess Columbus doesn’t like to be shut out.  Or in, for that matter, because he’s starting to really protest the crate at night.  And the electronic fence training doesn’t really seem to be clicking with him, either.

I think he’s a free spirit.  Don’t box him in. Or out.

I wonder if we’ll get to use our screen porch this year….

Columbus is getting big.  In bigger than Koda and bigger than Stella big.  Well, at least taller than both of them – they both still have more significant girth.  Suffice it to say, though, he’s a 60 lb-something, big puppy.

And this morning, for whatever reason, he was excited to see me.  More than usual, I mean.  (The mornings, after a long night of no people, are always a challenge.)  I’ve started to use the word “settle” to try and calm him down.  It works, sometimes.  This morning for some reason it translated to “jump all over me.”  This was out-of-control jumping.  Words were futile.  I tried them all.  “Settle Columbus no bad dog off down STOP JUMPING you are hurting me.” I turned my back.  He jumped on my back.  I tried to knee him.  He came back for more.  I kicked at him.  He came back for more. There was nothing to do but to put him into the submissive position.  If you don’t know what that is, it is to make him lie down on his side and be still under you.   Whether or not you are touching him, although touching at this point was a given.  I was going to need to hold this puppy down.

When I first did this to Blackie, after reading about it in a book, he snarled at me but then gave in.  When I did it to him the second time, he emitted a low growl, then stopped.  When I tried a third time he became immediately submissive.  I never had to do it again.  He was broken, I was boss, he knew it.

So, I expected similar from Columbus.  Not even close.  Since I don’t have a picture of what happened, I will try and draw you a picture with words.

To set the scene, I was on my back deck.  We had moved out there with the first “settle” attempt.  I’m still wondering if my neighbors got a picture….

First, I pushed Columbus’ shoulders and head down.  They were down, but they weren’t settling.  He was having a merry old time.  I wanted to be able to grab hold of his hind legs but those things were in the act of trying to kick me off of him.  So I was going to have to do a full body pin.  And that’s what I did.  I laid on top of my wiggly, squiggly puppy until he finally stopped trying to get me off of him.  Submissive.  Sort of.

The minute I let up he was up.  But at least he wasn’t jumping on me anymore.  And midday, after a nice morning hike/run, he is back to his normal puppy exuberance.  Which, I keep telling myself (and actually I say it out loud to him, too), “some day you are going to be a nice, mellow dog.”  At which point there will be no more WrestleMania at my house.

Koda is an alpha dog.  She came into the house as a puppy and quickly established that she was the boss of Blackie.  She tried to establish that she was the boss of us, too.  We – especially I – had to work very hard to make it clear that she was subservient to humans.  I *think* she gets that now.  One wonders, sometimes, though.  In getting Koda, I was trying to get a dog that would be like our wonder dog Pepper, who had been a one-in-a-million dog.  Very smart and very willing to please.  A winning combination.

Koda is missing the “willing to please” gene.

Our new puppy, Columbus, appeared to be the alpha of the puppy pack.  We brought him to visit Berto’s parents’ new litter of puppies. (Stella, Columbus’ mom, is from them.  They have been breeding Golden Retrievers for a decade.)  Columbus and the alpha of their pack had it out.  Columbus wound up on top, but walked off limping.  Yup, alpha.  And we brought him to a puppy social at our local dog trainer and we were told that he was an alpha dog with nothing to prove.  He was a gentle alpha.  He would walk into a squirmish between two other puppies as if to say, “hey guys, let’s all get along, shall we?” and they’d stop their nonsense.  I started having hopes that he would be able to out-alpha Koda and we’d get a stable leader of our two-dog pack (three, with Stella, but she’s a part-time member).  I had visions of them bonding, once Koda learned to relax.  Of Columbus telling Koda, “listen girl, just leave everything to me.  I’ve got it covered.  I’ll take care of you.”

Hahahahahahahahahaha.  I have such an imagination sometimes.

Koda quickly decided to set the record straight about her boss status.  She did this by grabbing hold of Columbus’ nose and shaking him.  It was brutal.  There was blood. I was horrified.  I called in the big guns.  A dog trainer named Kerry who has a passion for working with difficult dogs.  She assessed the situation, gave us some tips, and I tried them.  They were always okay walking together.  But outside of the walk, the attacks were quick and seemed to happen out of nowhere.  I knew and avoided a few things that would set Koda off, like letting Columbus get near her “stuff.”  But I couldn’t figure out all the trigger points.  I think sometimes Columbus just looked at her the wrong way.  I think sometimes she was just plain jealous of the attention he got.

I gave up on the “let them be together as a pack” advice and claimed Columbus as mine with Koda.  I wouldn’t let her near him unless it was under close supervision.  I put their crates next to each other so they could get used to each other at night, with protective bars between them.  I was VERY careful with dog toys and chewies.  Slowly, very slowly, I started to trust her more.  Then, just when I’d think things were good, there would be another attack.  It was very discouraging.

Until, one day, coming back from their walk I decided to let them loose to run up the driveway to the house.  Koda immediately started using her obnoxious herding maneuvers on Columbus.  And then, Columbus, prone from being bowled over by Koda, snarled at her.  And she backed off!  It was a beautiful thing.

Now Columbus is near full size.  And instead of the rivalry they once had – in Koda’s mind, at least – they are playing together, sharing toys, and Koda licks his muzzle now instead of biting it.

I love stories with happy endings, don’t you?  Oh, but I’m not done raising my puppy, so this is only the end of a chapter.

To be continued….

Many times when I am starting to plan in my head what I want to do next, someone else’s plans smash those plans to smithereens.  Like when my daughter asked if she could let her dog have puppies at our home.  Here’s how that went down…

Me:  No.  I don’t have the time nor the energy for that at this time in my life.

Tracey:  The mother dog does all the work.  You don’t have to do anything.

Me:  I don’t believe that for a minute.  And I’m the one that is home and I’m the one that’s going to get stuck doing all the work.

Hubby:  It would be a really great experience.

Me: Oh, I know it would, but I’m the one that’s going to get stuck doing all the work and my job gets really busy at times. No. No. No.

I was overruled.

End of that story.  Beginning of the next….

Stella had 9 puppies and a puppy stuck inside of her.  She had to go to the hospital (with puppies in tow so she could nurse them) and have that puppy removed (it had died).  She came home and was able to care for her puppies while she herself was attended to medically by Tracey and her boyfriend Berto (who came to stay with us for awhile to help with the puppies).

The puppies were precious.  And my family did a really great job of keeping me out of doing any work I didn’t want to do.   Then Stella got really, really sick.  Luckily it was just at the time the puppies were being weaned.  The humans took over as Stella fought for her life at the emergency hospital where Tracey works.

I wound up taking the morning shift so Tracey’s boyfriend could do the late night one and sleep in.  Then I started doing the suppertime one.  This was all my choice, mind you, because I started to get really attached to those puppies.  You cannot help but get attached to puppies if you have any kind of emotion at all inside of you.  I mean, really.

Stella pulled through, but had to get spayed in the process.  And she couldn’t be with the puppies because she had a quadruple bacterial infection, including MRSA.  Bad one.  Really bad one.

Tracey started talking about keeping a female puppy to continue Stella’s line.  “You can’t afford another animal!,” both her father and I protested (she has Stella and 4 cats and had to move back home to get back on her feet financially.  PS the cats live with Berto, because we already have 2 cats of our own.)

We had just had to put our lab mix Blackie to sleep a few months prior.  My other dog, Koda the Aussie, is like having 5 dogs, and so when anybody asked me if I was going to keep a puppy, I would tell them no, Koda was enough, thank you very much.  She wasn’t really that attached to Blackie, either, so it wasn’t like I felt like I needed to get her another companion.  I was her companion.

But about this same time my daughter Kelly said to me, “Koda seems bored.”

So, I started thinking about keeping a puppy.  And I told Tracey I would talk to Dad about it. If we kept a puppy it would be our puppy but she could breed her once she got back on her feet financially (it takes two years for the puppy to be breed-able, anyway).  And she could take a puppy from that litter to continue Stella’s line and her breeding business.

Little did I know Andy was having the same conversation with Berto.  And little did I know Tracey and Berto were getting a good chuckle out of Andy and I.

So, we picked out a female and named her Arizona Rose (we had just gone on a trip to Arizona).  Rosie or Rose for short.  She was the spitting image of her mother in both looks and temperament.  We called her Stella’s “mini me.”

Then, one day, I noticed Rose’s eye looked funny.  And I started thinking, “oh no, this plan of Tracey’s to continue Stella’s line could be in jeopardy.”  And Rose’s eye turned out to be a condition called entropion which is hereditary.  The only dog out of all the puppies to be so stricken.  Using her for breeding was out. That’s when I justified myself in thinking we could keep two puppies, one of them this male puppy I was getting attached to who we had started calling “Columbus” for his propensity to explore.  The other two females were already spoken for.  Tracey could breed him with a female from another breeder and keep the pick of the litter to get a female for her kennel.

And so, that’s what we did.  And every evening I would take time and train these two puppies (and actually, when I started, I was spending time with 4 puppies because we still had two to sell.)  Can I just say IT WAS A LOT OF WORK?  We finally got down to two puppies.  But it still was a lot of work.  And this little nagging voice inside me kept saying “how are you going to find time to train two puppies?” and “how are you going to take 3 dogs (remember Koda) on a walk?” and “what were you thinking?!”

So I asked my husband how he’d feel if we found a home for Rosie and just kept Columbus.  He was all for it.  No discussion needed.  And he liked Columbus.  Columbus was very mellow at the time.  Tracey was able to fix Rosie’s eye through a surgical tacking procedure and once she was better, we found her a home with a wonderful girl that lives in the same town.  Yay!  We would still be able to see her.  And she kept the name Rosie (not so sure about the Arizona part).

Here is a picture of the three of them, right before Rosie went to her new home.

To be continued…

Here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version:

Mazie the lazy bird (don’t you just love Dr. Seuss?) is getting bored sitting on her egg.  She talks Horton, who just happens to walk by, into sitting on her egg to keep it warm while she takes a quick vacation.  Horton protests but she eventually wears him down.  So they prop up the tree – he’s an elephant, after all – and he plops down on the egg.  Fine, for a bit.  Then things begin to get tough….

It storms, all the other jungle animals taunt him, hunters capture him and take him out of the jungle, on a boat (where he gets seasick), and they sell him to a circus (which just so happens to be in the town Mazie has escaped to months ago).  And there is a happy ending.  But here’s the gist of the whole story.  Over and over, through all the things that happen to him, Horton keeps his word by staying on that nest.  The saying he recites is this:

I meant what I said,

and I said what I meant.

An elephant’s faithful

one hundred percent.

So here’s the thing about this book that has carried into my adulthood.  I’ve noticed that not too many people follow Horton’s wise ways.  We are very good at making excuses as to why we can’t do something that we told someone else we would do.  We make excuses to other people, and excuses to ourselves.  But that’s not okay.  I don’t think that’s okay at all.  And although we need to have the grace to excuse one another when we fall short (because nobody is perfect), we also need to take Horton’s words to heart and try to live our lives as faithful, dependable people.  People that can be counted on.  And when we are tempted to back out of a commitment, we can recite Horton’s words.  I do it often.  Both to myself and when someone lets me down.  To remind myself that this is a very, very important thing to pay attention to.

Thank you, Dr. Seuss, for this life lesson.

(Note: these pictures were scanned from my childhood book, which is falling apart at the seams, but which is one of my most treasured possessions.)

We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly.  When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited.  – Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

I want to know the REAL God. Not the God I’ve been taught by man.  Not the conflicting doctrine among bickering Christians each claiming to have the truth.  After being so disheartened by the smallness of all of it, I’ve finally realized its purpose.  It is to send you fleeing into God’s loving arms….

“My child, I’ve been waiting for you.  You are free now.  I AM The Living Word.  Remain in My love.”

I’m finally understanding what it really means to be saved.

Last year, I talked my family into doing a themed picture Chrismas card – everyone needed to have a candy cane in the picture, and optional Christmas paraphernalia, including red Christmas hats. One of my children – I will not call him/her out here – balked. Andy said, okay, we’ll do the card without said child, and s/he came around.

This year, it was my turn to feel like that recalcitrant child. Andy, unbeknownst to me, purchased matching sleepwear for us all to put on for a picture. Okay, that could be cute, IF it wasn’t all men’s sleepwear. Gray, no less. I ask you, what woman looks good in gray? ‘Nuff said. So, anyhow, my dearest oldest daughter did a little Photoshop magic and this is what we’ve got for our family picture this year….

Oh, but wait! This isn’t our whole family!  Where are the animals you ask?  Oh, you didn’t ask?

We’ve actually had some changes in our animal family members this year.

Blackie is no longer with us, but will be remembered fondly as our most neurotically loveable pet.  He lived a good long life…never got over his aversion to dogs, thunder, or walking through tight places, but loved people and cats.

Columbus is our new puppy.  Born of Stella, Tracey’s Golden Retriever.  Purebred.  Possibly will be continuing Stella’s line, since Stella almost died and had to be spayed.  He’s VERY mellow, a welcome addition to our family.  Here he is in all his fuzzy puppy glory.  He’s now 4 months old.

Koda is still with us.  Beautiful as ever.  Has decided she is NOT happy with the new puppy and is beating him up.  Called in the big guns – a dog trainer – and we’ve got some techniques to work with but it looks like time is ultimately going to be the solution to this problem.  And she is going back to school.  Basically, life outside of work right now is working with the dogs.

Stella is living with us, too, and helping to raise the pup.  They have fun playing together and it is gentle, golden retriever play as opposed to nippy, Australian Shepherd play.

As for the cats, we still have Gracie….

And Max.  Max is Alex’s cat and Alex moved out a few months ago – to Brighton, to be closer to his new job  – in an apartment where you can’t have pets.  I think Max is pretty settled here and in his relationship with Gracie, anyway, so Max and Alex get visiting time when Alex comes home:

2011 Highlights

2011 was a great year.  Alex moved out (new job in Cambridge, moved in with his childhood friend Sean), Kelly moved home (work-study this year at EMC doing event planning.  Bought her first car.  Is living at home to save money).  Tracey is still at home, but periodically looks at houses closer to her job in Western MA.

Both Alex and Andy got new jobs and are both happy at them.  Alex is at a start up called 9-Point Medical.  Andy is working with his friend Craig, who owns Reliance Engineering.  Still in sales, still in plastic manufacturing.  I am still at IBM, but this year marked my 10-year anniversary and I got an extra week of vacation.  Woo hoo!

Andy and I took a wonderful trip to Arizona – we hit Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Prescott.  We hiked and mountain biked in Sedona, flew over the Grand Canyon in a plane, rafted the Colorado River in Glenn Canyon, which is the beginning of the Grand Canyon, visited the underground rock formations in Antelope Canyon with an American Indian guide, joined in Prescott’s celebration of Arizona turning 100 years old, went horseback riding through the desert, and hung out in Matt’s Saloon, a really cool Western bar, with live country music.

I also took a trip to Florida to help celebrate my great-aunt Helena’s 100th birthday.  It was a special time of reconnecting with a side of the family I hadn’t seen in many years.  Nice people who I’m proud to claim as family.   My parents went, too, so I got to spend some time with them as well.  And my great aunt?  She still lives by herself at 100.  Sharp as a tack.  Gentle as a lamb.  Gosh, she’s special….

Andy took a golf trip down south with his buddies – looks like it may turn into an annual thing – and I took a trip to Florida with my friends – we are doing it again this year, too.  We are blessed to be able to travel more now.

The last big event – actually probably the biggest event because it changed our lives – is that Tracey’s dog Stella had puppies at our house.  Beautiful puppies.  Win-over-your-heart puppies.  After helping raise them from 4-weeks, when their momma wound up in the animal hospital and then quarantined from them, it was impossible not to keep one.  And so here we are.  I do believe 2012 will be our dog year.  Half of 2011 was, but 2012 will be us integrating Columbus into our family, and getting him trained up properly.  I am hoping he will be docile enough to be a therapy dog so I can take him into nursing homes for visits.  And in a couple of years, if he has the right breeding qualities, he may be the reinstatement of Tracey’s kennel, which is her dream.

And so I close by wishing you all a wonderfully blessed 2012!  Love you all.

Blessings,

Chris (and Andy)

*The expression “have a cow” is said to have originated in the 1950s. The idea is that certain bits of unexpected or bad news might create the same agony and pain as literally giving birth to a cow. There is every chance that the recipient of bad news might “have a cow,” in the sense of going ballistic or blowing his or her top. – source: www.wisegeek.com