Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: Katie


by 3 Comments

Katie wanted to vote…but she's not registered.

After my library interview this afternoon Katie and I went to the park to work on her homework. As it happens the park is right next door to my local library which is housed in our township government building. This is where I voted earlier today. I figured I’d take Katie down to the library and try to teach her not to lunge and bark at moving cars. There were a LOT of moving cars. Katie pretty much lunged and barked at most of them. Sometimes she’d listen to me tell her to “leave it!” and “NO!” and “SIT!!!” But mostly I don’t think she learned very much. Eventually we moved further away and practiced our heeling and waiting. She did better at that.


by 9 Comments

A skunking good tale.

Bonnie: May 1992 – February 2007

I read a column in the Detroit paper the other day, describing a dog’s skunk adventure at 3 in the morning. It made me laugh out loud and recall my first skunk experience during the early years of living rurally. This story’s heroine is not current dog Katie, but the previous sheltie Bonnie. Well, heroine might be too strong. Lets just call her the lead drama queen. Though I had a pretty important supporting role. As it turned out.

I worked back then in the very stressful demanding mortgage industry, lots of hours, lots of late nights. Poor Bonnie waited patiently for me every night, but was always ready to run out and do her thing as soon as I got home. This particular night I let her out the front door, and followed her out as I did every night. She ran over the berm by the garage to go to her favorite wetting spot. Not unusual. What was unusual is that she ran back almost immediately, shaking her head and coughing. I didn’t figure it out immediately, but the smell followed her. Of course I panicked, and we both ran into the house. Bad idea. She immediately began to rub her face on all the furniture, with me running after her yelling to stop! Now! Really! Stop! The smell was..well…horrendous is a kind word for it.

I eventually got her shepherded down to her kennel in the basement. Not finding any dog shampoo I headed back out, still in business suit and heels to a neighborhood convenience store, looking for tomato juice. I walked the isles twice before approaching the register in the front. I asked if they had any tomato juice, the attendant said, no…then paused as my smell arrived…and apologized profusely that they didn’t, and offered her condolences. I headed further into town to the larger grocery store. It was going on 11:00 p.m. My feet hurt. So did my head.

At the grocery store I quickly grabbed a couple of cans of tomato juice and a big bottle of dog shampoo. I headed to the express lane (this was before there were such things as self checking) and waited in a long line. The people in front of me glanced at me, wrinkled their noses and moved almost imperceptibly forward, away from me. When it was finally my turn and I put the cans of tomato juice and bottle of dog shampoo on the conveyor belt the cashier asked how my day had been. I replied that I was buying tomato juice and dog shampoo. She finally got a whiff of me and said she was sorry. But as I was picking up my bag of goodies she still sang out that I should “have a nice evening!” Yeah. Right.

Back at the house I loaded the dog into the laundry tub and poured tomato juice all over her. Then I shampooed her with the dog shampoo. And then I rinsed and repeated. I can tell you with authority that tomato juice merely makes your skunky dog an orange skunky dog. She smelled still, ode of skunk with a faint tomato base. Yummy. It was late and I had to be at work early, so I gave up on the dog, confined her to her kennel and went to take a shower. I showered until there was no more hot water. In the morning I showered again until the hot water ran out.

I dragged myself into work, exhausted but determined to get a lot of work done. I sat quietly in my cubicle while the rest of the staff came in. My neighbor in the adjoining cube sat down, turned her computer on and called over the wall, “Hey Dawn! Did you smell skunk when you walked in here this morning?” DRATS! I didn’t let on that I did, and hoped I could finish out the day, but by afternoon she was having headaches and could still smell skunk, so I went into my boss and told him the (short version) story and went home. Walking in the door I realized the house reeked of skunk. I took the dog to the groomer for a skunk bath. But it took almost a month before the smell was gone from the house.

Poor Bonnie, she got skunked two more times in her life. I learned not to let her inside, and not to waste my time with tomato juice; just schedule the groomer’s skunk bath. I’m pretty sure that if Katie ever gets to run free she’ll be skunked too. I’ve got the groomer phone number on speed dial.

Katie: born December 2006

Still skunk free…knock on wood.


by 6 Comments

Can you do yoga with a broken foot? And other unrelated thoughts.

I went to my last physical therapy session this morning for that annoying crick in my neck. I haven’t had neck pain since I started PT, plus they gave me lots of exercises to do to keep the neck muscles stronger. And they reminded me about the importance of posture. In fact it feels good to be doing anything remotely athletic given I can’t run at the moment. Which makes me wonder just what I can do with a broken foot. I’m thinking maybe I can do some simple yoga? Do you think? I’ve got a few yoga dvds…I think I”ll dig some out and see what might work with a broken foot.

On another front I have two interviews scheduled for this coming week. One is tomorrow for holiday temp work at a bookstore. Another is later in the week for part-time library work. Wish me well, I’d like to try to do them both. Even with a broken foot.

Thirdly, Katie graduated from intermediate dog obedience this past week. She wasn’t particularly well behaved on our last day of class, probably because I didn’t work with her as much, and we only went to the park to practice our homework once during the week. But she still graduated. So next week we move on to advanced obedience. We considered for a moment not enrolling her, as a cost saving measure, but she loves school so much. And it certainly works out some of her energy on school nights, which works for me. Especially with a broken foot.


by 2 Comments

Favorite toy

A sheltie friend posted about his favorite toy, so Katie wanted to mention her favorite:

What you say? You’re not sure what this is? It’s a Mr. Froggy! Poor froggy has been sewn up a couple of times, lost his eyes (purposefully, we took them off for safety reasons) and his squeaker squeaks no more. But she loves him anyway.

She’s also fond of:

Mr. Squeaky who makes a loud shrill noise that Katie finds very useful early in the morning or late at night when she feels she isn’t getting enough play time. Sometimes Mr. Squeaky has to be put on a high shelf by Katie’s parents just because. And…

tennis balls! Any tennis ball will do but the smaller ones are especially good for playing fetch. Or dropping near a neglectful parent for a more subtle reminder that it’s PLAYTIME!

But mostly it’s Mr. Froggy who wins the popularity contest among Katie’s massive basket of toys.


by 5 Comments

Fracture

So…my suspicions were confirmed last night when my doctor’s office finally called with the bone scan results. Yep it’s a stress fracture, most likely happened during my long training runs. Double drats. I went today and got the boot. I’m unclear if I’m supposed to wear it during sleep or just when I’m walking. I guess I should get some better instructions. Anyway, it’s been less than 12 hours and I already hate it. I also don’t know how long I have to wear it, as in weeks, months, forever. I think I’ll call the doctor’s office tomorrow and get some more information.
Meanwhile, Katie barks at it, barks at the plastic bag I wear over it to keep my toes dry in the rain when she wants to go out, and is sad because we can’t go to the park and run around. I’m sad too. But really glad I didn’t have the news before my wonderful weekend!


by 1 Comment

Homework

Today was a beautiful day, and with no rain forecast for tomorrow I spent almost 7 hours on my homework – – staining more railing on our new deck. I now have the big deck finished! I still have the smaller one to do. Maybe tomorrow morning. Maybe not. I finished the big deck with about an hour of sunlight to spare, so Katie and I went to the park to work on her homework. The image above is our shadows at the park this evening with her sitting dutifully in front of me waiting for a reward. If you look carefully you can see her little ears tipped forward in anticipation.

When we got to the park it was very windy…

…but that didn’t keep Katie from chasing a phantom rabbit that she heard in the tall grass. That’s me you don’t see, running right along with her to get the picture.

She did really well as we practiced all her obedience skills, and she didn’t want to come back home when we were done exploring and practicing. I did though. I’m exhausted! Tomorrow I am driving up toward Traverse City to visit a friend for the weekend. No deck staining. Can’t beat that!


by 4 Comments

SURPRISE!! New toy!

Katie got a gift from the UPS man this morning. The box was addressed to her, and neither I nor my husband had purchased anything for her. So it was with a sense of mystery that we opened the box. Katie was excited, how she knew is beyond me. Turned out to be a gift from her Uncle P in North Carolina, a bright pink and green Soft Bite Dog Disc to play Frisbee with! She instantly grabbed it and ran around the house shaking her head in an attempt to kill it.

Eventually we got it away from her, took off the tag and tossed it. Turns out we are not expert at tossing, but we will get better. She actually caught several of them, though I didn’t get good pictures of her. She loves it.

Thanks Uncle P! This evening she is napping, exhausted from all the fun. Probably dreaming of becoming a famous frisbee dog. Maybe she can support us in our old age.

We need more practice!


by 2 Comments

Just a bunch of thoughts

To borrow a theme from a few blogger friends here are some unrelated thoughts, in no particular order:

Today I attended a half day seminar on oral histories put on by the Michigan Historical Society. It’s a concept I’m very interested in, and I thought the $10.00 fee to attend was reasonable for an unemployed librarian. I learned a lot, and am somewhat overwhelmed. Now I need to figure out what to do with the information and how to get more involved. I hope that, aside from enjoying working with oral histories, this may be a step to differentiate me from other library candidates when a position opens up somewhere near home. Plus it was fun to be in a library (it was held at a library not to far away) and be sitting with librarians!

**

Last night was week five of intermediate obedience. Katie and I had a good time, and we got to practice heeling OFF LEASH for the very first time! Good thing we were indoors! Still, it was stressful for me to think I didn’t have total control over her. But to be honest she did pretty darn good, except when she’d find a fallen treat along the way and stop to gobble it down. For a dog that initially wasn’t interested in treats while we were in school, she has certainly come out of her shell! I don’t think she even realized she wasn’t on the leash most of the time. And to top off our evening the instructor actually used her as a demonstration about a new skill because she knew that Katie already knew how to do a right finish (walking around me and sitting on my left side). So I got to watch Katie work from a ways away, which was enlightening. When I’m not concentrating so hard on getting her to do stuff, and when she isn’t sitting right next to me, with me looking down at her, I can see that she is a very pretty little girl! Rather than thinking how irritating she is when she won’t sit, or won’t stay, or won’t…well you know. And I know I’m still her favorite; when she got her treat from the instructor for doing the right finish, she glanced over, realized I wasn’t next to her and ran at top speed back to me. I could she in her face that she was saying “MAMA! MAMA! I got a TREAT!”

**

I haven’t finished staining the deck. It’s been too rainy. Oh darn.

**

I have started picking up “stuff” around the house. There is so much stuff it’s been overwhelming. So I decided to just work on one little part each night. Tonight while cleaning up a part of the closet I found a photograph of Bonnie, our previous sheltie, taken before she was so old. Gosh she was a cute dog! I showed the picture to Katie but I don’t think she cared.

**

I also found some lyrics to a song that I wrote down while I was in Alabama. The first evening I was there I sat at my mother’s piano. Randomly I opened a song book (Alfred’s Basic Adult All-Time Favorites) that she used to use when she went to senior housing to play for sing-a-longs. I slowly picked the melody out, then tried to play it with the chords. (I had piano lessons when I was ten, for one very long year.) I could sort of play this simple song. Then I went back and read the lyrics and wondered how I had come to open this particular book to this particular song out of all the music piled on her piano:

There’s a Long Long Trail, by Stoddard King, music by Zo Elliot

Theres a long, long trail awinding into the land of my dreams,

Where the nightingales are singing and a white moon beams

There’s a long long night of waiting

Until my dreams all come true,

Till the day when I’ll be going

Down that long, long trail to you.

I wonder how I came to play this piece, because sometimes I think it’s a long long time until I get to see her again.


by 1 Comment

It's a mad mad world

I’m sitting this afternoon on my beautiful deck, reading email, investigating retirement communities, checking favorite blogs. I’m also digesting the latest news about the financial mess, the potential bailout, fears of losing retirement opportunities, craziness here in the US and everywhere else. It’s a wonderful thing having wireless, access to the world from a comfortable chair. But the news is not good from anywhere. Ah yes, there is the news that GM will build a small plant in Flint Michigan. That’s good news for a town that has been depressed for several decades. And the weather is still good. So there are two positive stories. But the overwhelming feeling I get is that I want to curl up in a small, warm, safe spot and wait it out. Preferably with my head in the sand. Maybe in warm beach sand on a far away island.

Not having a job has exacerbated my fearful feelings. I am beginning to believe that I need to make the smallest possible financial footprint right now. Similar to making a small carbon footprint in an effort to cause no harm to the environment, I feel like I need to hole up and not spend anything at all. Not drive the car. Not shop for groceries. Certainly not purchase anything remotely frivolous. Like books. Or underwear. Dog food is on the potentially frivolous list, but don’t tell Katie.

I know I am probably reacting foolishly, but I feel like I need to find a job now. Any job. That I need to work to replace the funds lost in the crazy market because I don’t have years to wait for the market to correct. My hairdresser (yes there is another frivolous expense that needs reconsideration) said that maybe I could get a job at Borders. Probably could. Good thing I went to school for all those advanced degrees.

Wait a minute; note to self. Remember that you LOVED going to school, and that in itself was reason enough to spend the money. In those days. Maybe not in these.


by Leave a comment

The long run

Today I did my last scheduled long run out at Kensington metropark prior to the Brooksie half marathon which will happen at the beginning of October. Though the training schedule said we were to do 14 miles, our trainers said that 10 would be plenty. Thank goodness! I had all sorts of plans about doing 12 or even 13.1, the actual distance of a half marathon. But I didn’t plan well enough and didn’t eat enough to go longer than 10. Getting 10 done was a major undertaking and by the time I got 9 miles in the rumbling of my stomach was louder than the plodding of my feet.

During the fifth mile I was trying to decide whether I should just turn around at the end of the 5th mile and run back to the car in order to get the 10 miles in, or whether I should head down Turtlehead Point, which would add 2 miles to the 8 mile loop around the lake. In the end I went out to Turtlehead, a peninsula that juts out into the lake. Out and back on that road gives you an additional 2 miles, but it’s very hilly. In order to get the total 2 additional miles you have to go out to the end of the point and then also take a quick jog up another hill and around a flagpole. The hills on Turtlehead point had already beaten the stuffing out of me and I almost skipped the additional little run around the pole. I’m glad I didn’t, because up at the top of that hill were the two sandhill cranes again! I got to within 5 feet, close enough to see the rust colored feathers in among their gray feathered backs. They are truly beautiful birds…and of course I didn’t have my camera! I swear, on Wednesday I am going back out there and WALK the entire 10 miles with my camera and see if I can find them again! Having gotten so close to them the last two times I’ve been there at the park, but not having a camera is very frustrating. Of course you know that if I go out there specifically looking for them they won’t be anywhere to be seen. But it’s worth a try. If I can walk by Wednesday that is. I’m already feeling the effects of the 10 mile run tonight. By Wednesday walking will be an adventure in itself.

So..since I don’t have any up close and personal pictures of the sandhill cranes at the park, here’s a couple pictures of Katie at a park this evening. We went out to work on our dog obedience (doggie school is tomorrow, have to get that homework done!). We also walked along a mowed path way back in the fields behind the path. We had fun. She’s so good when she wants to be. Here she is sitting patiently, waiting for me to call her:

And here she is after I called her…

…which is sort of equivalent to HER long run!

I was trying to get some photos of the sun shining on the high grasses this evening, but we were a few minutes too late. Another photo project to work on some other day. Meanwhile, Katie and I enjoyed our walk through the fields.

Till then, hope you are all enjoying the wonderful fall weather…