I had a great post planned….

….but I lost the nose pad on my glasses. Staring at the computer is making me nauseous because I apparently need the progressive lenses in my new glasses. I thought there was not much of a difference between the old and new but boy was I wrong! So you will have to wait until tomorrow for a good post. Thanks for reading everyone!

Mornings

I love mornings these days. We have either Piper and Gemma or Piper and Zoe sleeping on the bed with us now. They are all so lovely and affectionate in the morning. They love to have their bellies rubbed as they cuddle in for the last bit of time before we have to get up. Generally they will stay in bed until the last one gets up. It is such a lovely way to wake up and ease into the day!

Turtle Gardens

The Shelter Challenge is on again until April 18, 2010. Turtle Gardens is in 4th place. We are trying to get as many people as possible to vote for Turtle Gardens every day! Turtle Gardens is a rescue in Northern BC. There are no other agencies that care for dogs up there except for TG. Turtle Gardens adopts out over 200 dogs a year mostly to homes in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. They have very little formal funding and in fact, lost their gaming grant for 2009. If you love dogs and other animals, please consider voting for Turtle Gardens everyday. Click here to vote.

RIP Brendan Burke

By all accounts Brendan Burke was a decent young man who had recently come out to his family. His father, Brian Burke, is the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Coming out is difficult enough let alone in a family where pro sports figure prominently. It could not have been easy for young Brendan to tell his father he is gay, and his father, bucking the trends of homophobia in pro sports, accepted his youngest son. Brendan died on Friday, succumbing to injuries he sustained in a car accident.

The whole process of coming out is extremely difficult and complicated. Many of us, at least from my generation, put off coming out as long as we could. Some of us opted to live a lie for a very long time before coming out. Some of us came out via supportive relatives. When I told my parents they believed that I only thought I was a lesbian because I was fat. According to my mother, I simply just needed to lose weight and voila I would find a man. I guess my mother has never seen a fat woman with a man.

Some parents react even more strongly. Some youth who come out lose not only their parents acceptance but their homes as well. The suicide rate for lesbian and gay youth is much higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts.

Some families come around in time. My family is an example of a family that was able to work through the issues and ultimately accept their gay or lesbian family member. My mother has come a long way in 11 years. She completely accepts me and Deb as a couple. Given that the first time they met my father would not talk to her and my mother tried to pick a fight. Most days I think my mother loves Deb more than she loves me.

It is time to make coming out a non-event for today’s lesbian and gay youth. We all have a role to play in making this a reality. When someone tells a homophobic joke we need to challenge them. We need to support our gay and lesbian friends and acquaintances and those who have gay and lesbian children. It is time to embrace diversity and move towards a more inclusive and accepting society.

Quiet Day

I am liking the new weekend pattern of sleeping late and just relaxing all day. We have been watching TV since about 1 pm. I tried to watch District 9 but it was way too weird. Then some Liam Neeson movie about his wife leaving him for another man and he decides to kill this man. Very, very boring! We watched a couple of episodes of Dirty Jobs it was ok but the guy narrating it tries too hard. Still a fan of Morgan Spurlock’s 30 days. A has just gone to pick up curry for dinner – we have the best curry place ever I think. So it will be curry for dinner and hopefully Couple’s Retreat will not disappoint.

Go Aussies Go!!!

Apparently, Australia has a team here for the winter Olympics. I had no idea that Australia was such a hot bed of winter sports. Apparently there team is comprised of 38 members. This is down to from the team that went to Torino. Australia, it seems, was denied two spots for women’s bobsled and they are appealing. There is still a chance that the 2 women will get to compete as Australia is appealing the ruling here in Vancouver. There are 11 Australians competing in freestyle skiing. Who knew that Australia produced winter sport athletes. I just checked and yes there are places to ski in Australia. In fact there is an entire website devoted to it. But I digress.

What this post is really about is the Australians hanging the boxing kangaroo flag on the outside of the Athletes’ village and pissing off the IOC! The IOC has ordered them to take it down because it is a registered trademark however the Aussies are refusing to remove it. The Australian Olympic committee is fine with them using it and they own the trademark.

I have to say I think the flag is a breath of fresh air, visually, from all the sleek over-production that has surrounded these Olympics. All of the logos and graphics are very slick but they don’t seem to mean anything. The boxing kangaroo, on the other-hand, has history and meaning.

One really has to wonder what exactly the IOC thinks they can do. The whole Olympic thing is beginning to seem like a whole of dictatorial edicts coming down from on high about what the little people can and cannot do. It will be interesting to see what happens next Friday when the opening ceremonies take place and the planned protest happens. By all accounts the protesters have said they will be peaceful and if there is violence it will be because the police caused it. I have seen the way the police behave in Vancouver and it is not great. The other forces that have been brought in to help are not much better. Hopefully no one dies as a result of the protest.

I really hope the Australians are able to keep the flag up at the Athletes’ village. If not, Mayor Dianne Watts of Surrey has offered to fly the flag in that municipality. She is always classy.

Dispatches from Chez Shihtzu Staff – Feb 4, 2010

When I saw the gastroentrologist a couple of weeks ago we discussed why I was having so much trouble eating. She thought I might have an ulcer or some other kind of irritation in my stomach so she prescribed pariet to help it to heal and if the drugs don’t work then she would set up a scope. It has been over a week now and I am not seeing any change. In fact, I have to say it is worse. I am rarely hungry and nothing much appeals to me at all. I am taking vitamins and drinking Ensure* so I am getting some nutrition. I am still finding this a bizarre change in my world. My hope is that if I need a scope they can do both ends at the same – double the fun and only one prep!

The consequence of not being able to eat is weight loss. I am down a size in pants and some of my shirts are looking like dresses. I don’t mind the weight loss especially when I am not having to diet. At this point it is basically effort less. There have been some interesting changes. First of all many things are easier. I am not having as many difficulties walking although sometimes the colitis pain really inflames my pelvic area which then presses on my hip joints. On the days I don’t have the pain it is easier to walk. My stomach has always pressed into the steering wheel. In the Subaru it was just a little bit. Now even with my winter coat on the steering wheel no longer touches my stomach which makes driving way more fun! There are other things too but some of them would fall into the TMI category.

In other news – all the dogs seem fine. Poor Zoe had a poopy bum so I had to clip the hair away from anus and clean her up tonight. Clio is reminding me of a Pez dispenser, only in reverse. She pops up, I put food in her mouth and she goes down. Wash, rinse, repeat! Zoe continues to come out of her shell**. She is now playing really hard when we first go into the living room. I slap the leather couch and she jumps and paws at my hand to get me to do it again. She is seriously 17 kinds of funny! Kirby had a dental last week and I am pleased to confirm that Deb survived it. Kirby bounced back the very next day like nothing happened. He also seemed to enjoy his foray into canned food*** while his mouth healed. Deb had a bit of a disagreement with one of our vets about feeding raw. She (the vet) still firmly believes in her kibble and canned. We really don’t get how people can think that some mixture of bones, skin, unsellable meat and grain extruded into hard little pellets are somehow better for your dog than unprocessed meat. She actually said that dogs cannot get enough protein!!! Seriously have you ever heard anything so bizarre? What is meat if not protein? But I digress.

I got a couple of comments about unplugging from the internetz. One of my former work colleagues sent me this link: I seriously thought about doing it but I am not there yet. I could probably do it with my Twitter account as I am almost never on there. I still use it occasionally to see what the trending topics are when my Gmail is down.

I am heading into what I hope will be a nice relaxing long weekend.

*Interestingly the US government force feeds hunger striking prisoners on Guantanamo Bay Ensure. If you had asked me yesterday if I had anything in common with prisoners at Guantanamo I would have said no. You learn something new every day!

**I am pretty sure she must be done because that dog is crazy cute and very self-actualized. The other night Deb was eating cheesies in bed and Zoe got in her bag and ate a bunch before Deb noticed.

***Canned and kibble in our house is considered junk food. The dogs are love it but it is not really that good for them.

Unplugged

I spend most days connected to a computer. As soon as I am up showered and dressed, I get on my computer. Before I go to work I read personal email, work email, and facebook, if there is time. Once I am at work I am pretty much attached to the computer there as well. I respond to emails, write reports, do grant applications etc. In an average day I spend upwards of 12+ hours on the computer. I used to use the computer to relax by playing games and listening to music. I rarely do this. Now I spend my time on social networking sites.

The net result of this computer attachment I have is that I am feeling scattered and this stresses me out. I am almost constantly multi-tasking especially at work. The only exception I make is that if people are in my office talking to me I take my hands off the keyboard and mouse and engage in the conversation. I find it incredibly disrespectful when people continue to interface with their computers when others are talking to them. I bop between programs all the time. Some times I will click off of a screen and forget what I was going to look for before I get there.

I have been completely immersed in a raffle* we did as a fundraiser for the last couple of weeks. I have created spreadsheets and balance sheets for tracking all the tickets. So today, I needed to attend a conference for work. I had emailed the organizers to see if the setup would be conducive to a laptop and if there was wifi. She got back to me and said no wifi, however she never told me about the setup so I decided to leave the laptop at home. The conference started at 9:30 in Burnaby which meant I needed to get up at 7 am if I was going to make it on time. I no longer, it would seem, do mornings. I am usually up around 10 these days and to work by noon. Needless to exhaustion had set in pretty quickly.

I sat down at the table and I turned my iPhone ringer off. Then the conference started and facebook notifications started up, which distracted me. I decided to turn off the iPhone and give my full attention to the presenters. I took copious notes by hand and actually immersed myself in listening to the presenters.

I  really enjoyed the day! This surprise me, as I usually opt to have a computer at my fingertips if I can. This experience demonstrated to me things I had noticed lately. I feel stressed trying to keep up with everything. I am subscribed to many blogs – in the triple digits. I read facebook religiously several times a day. I read and respond to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5o emails a day, if not more. I write a blog most days** (it is my goal to blog for all of 2010) I will read links that people send me sometimes, I rarely watch YouTube videos though. I am on the computer when I am watching TV a lot of the time – although I have begun to reduce that computer time.

What I am noticing is that I skim most things and rarely immerse myself in the details unless it is a report or grant application that requires my full attention. I watch television but it is not relaxing because I am always trying to figure out what I missed. I skim over stuff I like to read because I don’t want to miss what is happening on the show. I am unable to pet dogs when I am on the computer in the living room. Communing with the dogs is an integral part of my relaxation and self-care plan. When interactive components of the computer/internet intrude on other activities I am finding that I am actually causing myself more stress than is necessary.

I have decided that I am going to unplug a little here. Nothing drastic just trying to put a new understanding of how these activities affect my life into practice. I am using a third-party application to put in status updates on facebook. By using the app it means I do not actually have to go there and get sucked in. I gave up twitter several months ago and I don’t think I will go back, at least for the foreseeable future. I find the twitter interface limited anyway. I prefer facebook and the conversations people can have when they comment on a status update. I am going to strive to do much more for myself in terms of self-care and using the computer in a way that is constructive for me. So, you may see a little less of me on the internet.

*Raffle=lots of work, not much money

**I look at blogging as a release and a way to hone my writing skills. The more you write the better you get hopefully or that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

The Little Jack in the Box Dog

Clio

Clio is definitely one of the dogs to whom I am tied. Clio is about 8 or 9 years old. We are not really sure. She likely came from a backyard breeding nightmare. She has several health issues including being born blind. It looks like her back legs were put on backward or she was constantly kept in a crate, from birth, and her legs could not grow properly. If you look at the photo below you can see how her one back leg looks backwards. We had the other leg fixed. The vet said not to bother getting this once fixed unless it causes her pain and he feels it doesn’t because she is able to use it and it is not atrophied.

Clio came to us via the Vancouver Animal Shelter. She had been thrown from a moving vehicle on Marine Drive and luckily someone noticed and picked her up before she was killed. This kind man took her to the shelter. Once at the shelter was tied to someone’s desk as she was walking in circles and banging her head on things. This was likely due to the barking she could hear but could not otherwise identify. One vet also thought she may have been born with encephalitis. She does appear to have some brain damage. She behaves a bit ‘autistic like’ when you first pick her up. She seems completely overwhelmed when she is touched. Eventually, if you are calm and don’t pet her she will settle down.

Clio in the grass, needing to be groomed.

Clio is not an easy dog. For the first couple of weeks she was with us she did not interact with the humans. She simply had no use for us. I think this was a result of severe neglect in her first year of life. She was semi-feral. She came around after traumatic event for her (getting groomed*) and she came to me for comfort. I held her and fed her. She was a starved dog and was very thin. She is still quite thin and we have been trying everything we can to put some weight on that dog!

Clio is profoundly blind. She gets around the house fairly well and adapts pretty easily. We moved three times since she came to live with us. She is able to find the water on her own after being shown a couple of times and generally does navigate quite well. Her blindness makes her move differently which is upsetting to the other dogs because they do not understand. Some of the dogs growl and snarl at her, most eventually figure her out.

Now, on to the title of the blog: “The Little Jack in the Box Dog.” Every time I eat something in the living room Clio finds me. It does not matter where she was in the house or what she was doing (sleeping) she will come and find me. Once she finds me, she stands beside my chair, pops her head up (waiting to be fed) and then she goes back down. This will go on for the entire time I have food. She is quite persistent and true to her breed (Shihtzu). Sometimes she ends up standing on her back legs for what seems like a long time waiting for something to be popped into her mouth.

Clio’s favourite pose

This is Clio’s favourite pose. Whenever there is food or the potential of food her head is up because all good things come from above in Clio world. Given all of her disabilities and her rough start in life, Clio has done remarkably well. We had the option of letting her be put up for adoption after she had been with us for almost 2 years. I was going to consider her going to another home but as soon as someone was interested we adopted her instead. I did not think it was fair to make her go through acclimatizing and bonding to a new family. I was not sure she could bond to another family. Now that she has bonded to several people and she will go to new people who come to our house I see that it might have been ok for her to have been adopted. After 2 years she had become a member of the family and we could no more place her for adoption than we could anyone else. So Clio stayed and became “The Little Jack in the Box Dog.”

* She still hates to be groomed and she has perfected her biting to reinforce this lately.

Ties

NaBloPoMo suggests a blogging theme for each month. In December it was ‘mitzvah’ which means giving. I chose to deviate from the theme as I did not want to post everyday about doing something nice as I thought it would be artificial. February’s theme is ‘ties.’ According to the person who runs NaBloPoMo it can mean blogging about things we are tied to (family, home, job etc) or neck ties or zip ties.

I am tied to a lot of things, some good some bad. Good things are my family here in MR both human and canine. My job is mostly good. Dogs are good. My ties to social media I have begun to notice sometimes cut into my self-care time which is not good.

And now I must go because one thing I am very tied to, our septic is backing up again because of the freaking rain! I have to find someone to come and pump it first thing tomorrow so I can have a shower before I go to work. I hope it either dries up or gets really cold. I wish the rain would stop and that we were not on a septic system. At least I have a roster of three companies I can call who answer their phones late at night and who are flexible.