Today's Ornament

Well, I'm back to peddling ornaments via eBay. I love this one. It's a print of my oil painting of a Jack Russell hunting by the barn. The color reproduced very well in this piece and the detail looks great!

Here is the link.

Today's Project

This is Eagle, a black German shepherd dog belonging to my friend Debbie in Ohio. This piece is oil pencil and conte on black paper, about 12 x 16".

Today's Watercolor

This is Pansie, a tricolor collie pup. The original picture of her was pretty flat. I wanted to use backlighting to add depth, so for reference on shading, etc, I used a pic of Ripple! 9 x 12"

Fall Ride

Clifford and I took a nice little ride today around the neighbor's fields. It's downright balmy here, about mid-sixtys. He was feeling really good and actually did a couple of side steps. As usual, when I was tacking him up, he wanted to make out. I had to spend quite a bit of time today smooching with him. I didn't do the cinch up tight enough and when I went to climb aboard, I pulled the saddle down. I was sliding down the side of him and he was stepping around in a circle. I told him to whoa and he did, standing still while I just hung there, grunting. He stood there while I finally struggled back up with some effort. You would think after spending 15 years with the same horse, I'd at least be able to get on by now. Oh well.

We had a wonderful time.

The Fam

Here's a pic of Dad and Mom and Amanda, from last week when I was up North for Amanda's birthday. She turned 38 on the 24th.

We had a great day! We did our traditional thing -- the two of us (since our third partner in crime Judy has relocated with Jon to Washington -- we called her from the pizza place to gloat! HA HAH!!!) went to the movies ("The Women" starring Meg Ryan and we loved it!) and then did the traditional "Bluff Yell".

The Bluff Yell was instigated by Amanda several years ago -- I think when she turned 34. She wanted to go up on a hill "over all the houses and people" and yell out her age. So every year I drive us to the biggest hill I can find -- the back of LSSU campus where it looks over the international Bridge to Canada. We yell and scream our ages until we are hoarse.

Sometimes we lie, but the truth eventually comes out.

It seems to make the whole aging process a little easier!

Today's Project - Becky the Westie

Here is Becky, a West Highland White terrier. She belongs to my friend Debbie in Ohio. Becky was sadly killed last night in an accident. So this is my little tribute to her. It's about 8x10", oil pencil on charcoal paper, with conte.

Amanda on Current Events

Today is Amanda's birthday so I came up to spend some time with her. She is sitting her watching me type on the laptop, and she asks, "What do you think of Sarah
Palin? Did you hear she has a Down's Syndrome baby?"

"Yeah, that's nice for her. But would you want Mom to be president?"

"Vice president," she corrects me.

"Okay, well would you want Mom for vice president? SHE had a Down's syndrome
baby. Does that qualify HER?"

She pauses for a moment. "I see your point."

Jon Update

My brother Jon was released yesterday and drove himself home from the rehab center!

More German Shepherd Rescues... Or Not...

The rescue effort to save brother and sister German shepherds, Ace and Lucy, reached its height today. They were scheduled to be euthanized tomorrow. In my snooping around, I discovered that there was a home waiting in Northern Ohio, with a six year old boy and a Labrador Retriever.

Ace and Lucy had lived outdoors their entire lives. They needed training but were listed as nice dogs. The owner surrendering them listed their age as two, but the shelter decided they were more like six year old dogs. Since they were being held at Livingston County Animal Control, only 20 minutes from my house, I volunteered to go over and evaluate them.

The dogs were beautiful. Lucy came out sniffing, very doggy, very stressed out. She barely took time to say hello to me; she was too busy with her investigations. Shelter worker Darma told me that she had been in heat when she came in. Lucy and Ace were littermates, out of a brother/sister breeding, and they had created numerous litters themselves during their lives.

I asked to see Ace, whose picture reminded me so much of my Cajun. Darma said that she would "try" to bring him out.

Ace wouldn't walk on a leash and had become hysterical when she tried to walk him. She showed me the scratches on her arms that he had given her. I had immediate flashbacks to Grendel (now Achilles) and how impossible he was when I first tried to walk him.

Darma disappeared through the back door with Lucy, but then later came out and beckoned to me. She couldn't get Ace to walk out with her. I followed her back into the shelter area, and I saw why.

An imposing, gorgeous, 100 lb black and red male stood looking at me. He was big, he was strong, and all GSD. His presence was so very much like Cajun's that I was taken aback for a moment.

She opened the door and I went into the pen with him and stood petting him. He smiled up on me, his head broader than my hand between the ears. He was panting hard, stressed, and I got the sense that he hated the shrill barking all around him.

He was a big, lovely boy. The longer I stood there next to him, the sadder I became. It would take a lot of work, and a very knowledgable person, to fix a dog like this. Neither one of them were altered. The former owner had to wrestle them to get them into his car.

I came out and called the potential new owner, and told her what I had found. I thought the two should be separated. Lucy needed to bond with a person and not another dog. I felt that each would need a lot of time, energy and work. And how in the heck I was going to manage transporting Ace anywhere, I had no idea.

Sadly, at times euthanasia is the best option. There were no homes and no real resources for the dogs at this time. I personally could not afford to take them, time- or money-wise.

After I hung up, I went to thank Darma and I started asking questions about the history of these dogs. "Why were they turned in?"

She said the owner had lied to them repeatedly. She couldn't be sure of the real story, as he'd told her he was moving away and couldn't keep them. But, his address was recognized because he had had a number of complaints on these dogs.

That, to me, spelled out the rest of the story. These German shepherds, so sadly neglected and in the hands of ignorance, had a history of something not right.

And so I thought of the doomed dog Ace, so much like my Cajun, and I burst into tears, right in front of the sympathetic shelter worker. "I understand," she said.

Euthanasia is not always the worst option for dogs like this. They could have ended up in the wrong hands, so easily. This is how I console myself tonight.

Thank you to everyone who tried to help these dogs.