Live, Laugh, Read

Waldo was never totally house trained. He decided right off that the legs on the dining room table were close enough to being a tree and that the soft braided navy and white rug in my son’s room was close enough to grass for squatting purposes. We had a baby gate installed in the bathroom door to fence in the puppy when we were not at home. As he learned to jump it required a second baby gate placed above the first one. Waldo became a “yard” dog when in his late puppy hood (he almost became “the late” puppy) he managed to pull the bathroom sink off of the wall. We knew what had caused this to happen. Waldo liked to play with toilet paper. He knew that there was toilet paper in the cabinet under the sink, however he could not get to the paper because of the child safety lock on the cabinet door. His inventive mind reasoned out that the back of the cabinet was open, he stuck his nose and paws behind the sink until he moved the sink and cabinet far enough from the wall that the water pipes were pulled loose and water poured out. When we returned home we found a very happy wet puppy, who had unrolled all the toilet paper all over the bathroom floor which was also covered with several inches of water. He tried chewing on a tube of spot remover as well, but lucky for him his baby teeth failed to puncture the tube. Some time later we realized that a major portion of the linoleum floor was missing. The contractor, Grandmother had hired before we moved in, had put down the flooring and he did not bother to move our old, claw footed tub. Instead he had slit the roll of linoleum around the tub legs leaving exposed edges. Puppies chew on things. Luckily for Waldo he did not eat the flooring – but unluckily for us the wood was now bare under the tub.

I was talking to a friend the other day about many of the pets that have been in my life and he said “I have never seen you this animated before.” Of course I was animated -most people have either had pets or at least have had a friend who had pets. Authors have written books about his or her pets. I am going to share pet’s stories that are not in sequential order through time, but in the order of interest to my family.
Waldo was half wolf and half German shepherd. I did not want a dog. Our dog, Boover, had just died and I was not ready to get attached to another pet yet. We were volunteer police officers for a small town police department. One of the officers had a pet Mexican wolf that had breeded with a German shepherd. The male dog had actually come from Germany. I do not know if the breeding was planned or not, but the police officer said that the pups would be the perfect police dog. I was about to say “No!” when ha handed me a small fuzzy brown pup who looked more like a bear cub that a puppy. It became “yes” for a couple of reasons. Just like you should never pick up anything in a store that you are not planning to buy, never touch a cute furry creature that you do not intend to adopt. Secondly, my son’s paternal great grandmother was planning to give him a dog that was half Chihuahua and half terrier. I did not want a snappy, breakable, and loud dog for a preschooler. So as soon as the puppy was weaned he was ours.
Then we had to choose a name for him. We all had our favorite “Deputy” “Bear” or “Waldo.” Waldo was a book character dressed in red and white who hid in the pages of books. If we had only realized that the name Waldo would predict part of his future.
He was a very smart and strong dog. He was supposed to be my son’s dog – but something happened – he became my dog. I was the Alpha female who would make him behave by growling at him. Just like I had checked out countless child rearing books when I was pregnant; now I checked out as many dog behavior books as possible to make sure that the puppy was raised correctly.

I have enjoyed my Mars Spirit look since I started my blog - however I found it a bit tedious to read red on black. The contents of this blog are the same as in my old blog, it is just easier to read now. I am planning to blog more often. Now that I twitter and facebook perhaps I will connect to more people through this blog as well. I have always wanted to be a writer, but I have lacked the discipline required to write all day and everyday.
Days like this one have caused me to think. For three days now those of us in Dallas, TX have been “snowed in”. The schools are closed, people stay home or only drive if absolutely neccesary. It seems quieter in the neighborhood Mankind has had to pause and reflect that nature can even silence his machines. I feel sorry for the businesses that were looking forward to the millions of dollars brought to Dallas by the Superbowl. They showed the cold and dark restauraunts - many of the employees could not get to work because of the conditions. The weather man said that this is the coldest winter in 15 years. This means that my son was nine years old last time it was this cold.

This year is going to be great, however last year ended on a couple of really sad notes. My stepfather, George Neel, died at the age of 76 totally unexpectedly September 26th and then my grandmother, Dorothy Kounik, who was 94 years old died December 7th. My step-father did not want a funeral or burial. He was cremated. My grandmother wanted the complete funeral, internment, burial etc. She bought the plot - but did not buy life insurance or prepay for her services. It is getting too expensive to die anymore. I will be writing more about death and life in the coming weeks. We will be celebrating both of their lives.

I realized that I would unsubscribe to a blog if the posts were more than a couple of months old. Since my last post was in November 2009 I realized that I better write something and FAST. I have been enjoying the facebook and twitter world so I have not taken the time to write in my blog. I started to write a piece about my dog, but I have not finished it. There will be more updates.

I was grateful for the summer break when I went to the midnight o1 showing of Harry Potter 6 Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Two of the three theaters showing the movie were sold out. A few were in costume and one woman had a wand that had a glowing end. I would like to know where she found that. I enjoyed the movie very much - however the battle at the end was edited way too much. I wanted to see a lot more. One theater goer was very vocal in her disappointment. I reminded her that that is why we have books. She can imagine the batltle through words. The actor playing Draco looks very much the man and the scene showing the unbreakable vow was as I imagined it. It is nice to go to a movie with my husband, college son and several of his friends.

I was passing by a hotel the other day and it was advertizing honeymoon suites for $149 and up. It made me think back - which could be dangerous to one driving in traffic - to my own wedding and honeymoon. Plans do not always happen as… This day was no exception. (more…)