50 Days of Remembering 50 Years #14

The Pets

The problem with this blog anniversary memories in 50 days is that I forgot how long it would take to find the pictures for each one. I may have to go back and add pictures to a lot of them later. 

I debated on writing this one, but our furry family members were a part of our journey. Memories are bittersweet because our little ones have all passed away and several had tragic outcomes. 

Our first furry friend was a foster child...when George's mom moved into senior housing, she couldn't have pets so we took in Charley. She was a small black terrier dog. I don't remember how long she lived with us. I have one funny memory (well for us) of her. When George's mother lived in her house, George always went in and immediately Charley would jump on the couch and let George wrestle with her. It was a habit. Well, we all know habits are hard to break. One time the couch got moved and when George walked in, Charley jumped to where the couch had been and hit the wall. She was ok but boy did we laugh about that. 

I used to take her for rides in the car and twice she gave me quite the scares. Tiffany was a baby both times and the first time I had to pull over into the reservoir parking lot and do something with Tiffany. I got back in the car and drove a couple of miles when I realized Charley was not in the car! I panicked. This was my mother-in-law's baby. I couldn't be responsible for losing her. My mind flashed to someone picking her up or her getting hit by a car. I sped back using my flashers to let people know I was intentionally speeding. When I got to the parking lot, Charley was pacing back and forth not knowing what to do. What a relief!

The other time was in Riverton and I don't remember the exact sequence of events but somehow Charley had jumped up to the window when I was outside of the car and she had pushed down the lock button on the car. Tiffany and Charley were locked in the car! Real panic set in!

Fortunately for me, a kind man came by, went to his nearby home and got a coat hanger and was able to unlock the door--a "hack" that we had heard about and with the window open a crack, it worked. 

Charley died on a Good Friday, my parents beloved Sir Lancelot, who I lived with for many years, died on Easter at different year. It is so hard to lose pets.

We decided to wait until we had a house, and the kids were older to let them have pets. Every stupid year the teachers seemed to have the kids write about pets and we always got bugged to get pets. It was a conspiracy. Ben wanted a dog and Tiffany wanted a cat. So, we adopted Patches, a black and white springer terrier mix and Lacy, an adorable black bundle of fir. 

Patches, born on January 8th, Elvis's birthday, was our "hound dog". He gave us all the unconditional love a dog gives. He lived with us thirteen years. I am going to do brief memories of all because I still miss them and will get sentimental.

Lacy was born to a barn cat and the mother didn't have all her vaccinations. Lacy, therefore, had feline leukemia and only lived about 6 or 9 months from when we got her. That was so devastating that Tiffany was hesitant for us to get another cat. 

This time we decided to get two brothers to keep each other company. They were tiger cats who we named Dickens and Linus. They sure lived up to their names. We kept our cats as indoor kitties to keep them from the dangers of living outside and to hopefully give them long lives. Well, Dickens was a Dickens and always found ways to escape to outside. I couldn't understand one day how I kept putting him in the house and then I realized he was outside again. He had found a screen window which didn't latch properly below. 

Linus ended up being our little lion-hearted kitten. It turns out he was born with a bad heart and he died only a few months later. When we knew he wasn't well, we decided to get another cat to keep Dickens company when he was gone.

So, we got our gray striped Joshua. He was named that by the cat foster lady and we kept it because he meowed a lot like Joshua of Jericho making noise around the city.

Dickens developed intestinal problems and after several hundreds of dollars that were only going to mount up to more that we couldn't afford, well, you know what we had to do--a heart wrenching memory that I didn't really want to bring up, but it was part of our lives. 

So, we were left with Joshua and Patches. Joshua stayed with us 17 years. I loved that little kitty and I would love another one so much but I do not want to go through the pain and heartbreak of losing another pet. Plus, at this point in our lives, they may outlive us and empathetic me thinks about how they would feel for the loss. I think way too far ahead. Plus I always felt guilty whenever I left them home alone. For my mental well-being, I am better off without a pet, but I am grateful for the time with our beloved. pets.

 "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." 

Proverbs 12:10

The Dog Chapel

 

 

 

 

This was a scheduled stop. I first heard about the Dog Chapel from one of my customers. She explained what it was and I knew it was a place that I would like to go. The Dog Chapel is on Dog Mountain. After artist Stephen Huneck recovered from a coma, he had this dream to make this chapel dedicated to dogs. The grounds are a place to walk dogs with ponds and trails--a heavenly place for dogs. The Chapel (where dogs are also welcome inside) is a tribute to beloved dogs who have passed on.
These are pictures of the outside. Next up...the beautiful inside.

Halloween Scam?

Halloween night. No sense getting interested in something on TV as we don't have a DVR and we have to be ready at a moment's notice for the doorbell. It doesn't matter, if you are not into sports, all the other channels have pulled out all stops for gory, ghostly, spooky and scary movies. Don't interest me. Yes, I'm chicken.

It's been an interesting night. The first visitors were neighbors and the parents kindly asked if I knew these other neighbors (yes, I did) and that one of their kids was sick with the flu and therefore, they were collecting candy for him. How sweet. Then I saw the mother had this container of candy and she told me that since their driveway was so long and they were not home, they were delivering candy to the houses of kids in the neighborhood as they went trick or treating. How nice!

Well, less than half an hour later, the sick kid with the flu shows up with his brother! I feel sure that it was a misunderstanding and that the other neighbor did not know the kid would either make a miraculous recovery or would drag himself out of his sickbed (what kid wouldn't on Halloween?). I would be the type of mother to let them do it too--just a few houses. How can you miss a Halloween?

As the night progressed, an interesting trend occurred..."Can I have an extra one for so and so?" This happened four more times. Hmmm.... is this a new kind of Halloween scam? Or is the town under siege with the flu? Whichever, I don't care. We don't get many trick or treaters and we have plenty of candy. We all know I don't need it. Why did I buy my favorites? (Well, you know why!)

I did settle down with a VCR recorded "Monk" from the previous night--that way I could start and stop it as necessary. If you know the show, it was quite out of character when Monk takes in a dog and as dogs do, she stole his heart and was a wonderful companion. This is on the day that my dear friend has to put down her 14 year old companion. Not only was I sad for her but remembering our dear Patches.

Well, at the end of Monk, the dog puts his paw on Monk's knee in a touching moment and Monk takes off his glove to touch the dog's paw--if you know the show, you know how special this is as he is a germ-o-phobic. Okay, so I start to cry. "Ding dong."
Great, here I am "Happy Halloween!" with tears in my eyes. Yikes, I don't know what the girl and mother were thinking. Now I don't know all the people who come but I told myself they looked familiar. It was after they left that I remembered that was the little girl who a few years ago came to our door at Halloween and it was a mild night and I had the inside door open with the glass door shut. She was only about 3 years old and as I went to the door, Patches beat me there. He was on one side and this cute little girl was on the other side of the glass and she excitedly said, "Doggy!" She seemed more excited with him than the candy. I always fondly remembered her squeal of delight. Here was that little girl a few years older that came at that time when dogs were on my mind. Coincidences--I heard someone call these God winks. Been having a few of them lately. I love them.