from Standing in the Shadow

to believe
winds that blow, do coldly,
set loose this soul's unease.
a heart that ventured boldly,
now loneliness must appease.

for why in shelter even sought
this heart a comfort from the wind?
crushed so carelessly without a thought,
man has fallen, love has sinned.

still stands fast this simple man,
with discipline and trust.
for courage wavers without plan
and believing is a must.

tomorrow is but another day,
brought by night to end.
if then love should come my way,
it will be brought,
by you,
my friend.

written by Shadow, for me, shortly after we met

It's been 3 years. I still miss you everyday.

My buddy

This is Ears, a red-nose pit bull who lives at the vet clinic where I worked. One of the sweetest, goofiest dogs I've ever met.
Ears is a Katrina refugee. I started working for Doc shortly after Katrina. She was already involved in the rescue/shelter operation, providing veterinary services and helping to locate owners for all the animals who ended up here. I don't know if anyone saw (or remembers) the story one of the news stations did about the animal shelter set up in a Louisiana prison with the inmates doing a lot of the daily care for the animals. That's the one Doc helped with and that's how I met Ears. We thought he'd had a home at some point since he was in pretty good shape and obviously accustomed to being handled. As a matter of fact, Ears insists on being handled, played with and loved on. He doesn't mind men, but he absolutely adores women. Needless to say, he enjoys living at Doc's clinic, since her staff is usually all female. After taking care of him for months, none of us wanted to let him go so Doc kept him. He's survived Katrina, living on the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath, lots of upheaval and a pretty bad case of heartworms.
Being around Ears is one of the things I miss about working at the clinic. He thinks he is a lap dog so he's constantly trying to climb up and sit on someone. Sometimes he would come and sit under my desk, resting his chin on my feet. He's quite an escape artist, he figured out how to get out of kennels pretty quick. There were several mornings I walked in to the clinic to find him sitting on my desk or laying in front of the door waiting for someone to arrive. He bounces around like a puppy if he sees a tennis ball and he's one of the few dogs I've seen who is happy to jump up on an exam table. To him it means lots of petting, a few pokes when he gets a shot, and then more loving and treats. He's a little spoiled now, but as sweet as ever. When I took Skye to the vet the other day, he ran right up to the fence to say hi and get some pets and scratches. He also wanted to see Skye, since the two of them got along pretty well. She doesn't much care for being licked head to tail in one swipe and he always looks as if he's laughing when he does it.
All of my life I've heard horror stories about pits. Ears is nothing like that. He's just a great dog, big hearted, loving, sweet, mischievious and funny. And a reminder (to me, anyway) that judging a book by its cover and living a life based on assumptions is a good way to miss out on too many wonderful things.

Princess, Pampered

I've already introduced my min-pin Skye. And I'm pretty sure I mentioned that she is incredibly spoiled and pampered. Somehow I get blamed for this. Dad brings her bags of Cheetos every time he stops by and T gives her cookies slathered with peanut butter. Sarge and Wench have been known to feed her steak. Everyone else babies her outrageously but it's my fault she's rotten. Yeah, right.
Skye is an indoor dog, has a nice little bed with a blanket on it, plus a blanket on the couch and another under my computer table. T insisted she needed a house. Why? Because she needed "her own little space". I said okay, figuring we'd get a carrier. Wrong. That wasn't big enough or good enough according to T. And carriers don't look like houses. (spoiled, remember?) So we looked for dog houses that looked like people houses. And found one at Hell-mart. I read the description on the box and tried to talk T out of it, since it was for dogs up to 70 lbs. Skye weighs 7 lbs. "That's going to be too big" I told him. Not to mention, it would take up a lot of room in our very small house. But he really, really wanted to get it and since I have a hard time saying no to him we bought it. (Okay, okay I'll admit I thought it would be kinda cute for Skye to have this huge house)Anyway, we bought it, brought it home and put it together. T stuck her bed in there then decided she wouldn't like walking on plastic. He took her blanket, folded it and used it to cover the floor. She now has wall-to-wall carpet. Since he'd used her blanket for the floor, he took one of my fleece throws and gave it to her for a blanket. Needless to say, Skye loves it.

The sight of this tiny dog lounging in this huge house makes me smile.Pretty darned cute, huh?

Not on my need to know list

One of my favorite characters from Edding's Belgariad said "Any day you learn something is a day you haven't wasted." (Badly paraphrased, but I can't find my copy)
Last night I learned how to remove stitches from incisions. Hopefully, I'll never have to do it again. I'm not squeamish, but I don't do well with scissors.
Talked to my dad today, he'd been to the doctor. His eyes are doing great.
T goes to the doctor tomorrow, but he is doing really well. The stitches were actually cutting into his shoulder and the incisions were getting irritated. Since they came out, he's done much better. He still can't lift his arm or use it to push/pull/carry anything, but he can move it pretty well. Plus, it's not hurting as much.

Things are going pretty well, there have been further developments on the job issues. I'm waiting to see what happens next and how everything turns out. (Can't talk about it in detail until it's all done. Cross your fingers for me, please!)

Southern charms

One of the things I enjoy so much about living in the South is that warm weather comes earlier and stays later here. So, for all my friends enduring icy, dreary weather, here's a little sunshine for y'all.

Tulip magnolias from two different trees. The one above is from the zoo, below is near my home.

Kumquats. Soo good. Right around the corner from my house. I just liked the contrast of red berries and green leaves against that drab, gray wall.

Hope y'all enjoyed this. Wishing everyone warm winds and blue skies. Hugs.