5 posts tagged “dogs”

Bailey 2

OK ... he's not mine exactly. He's my mom's, my sister's and my niece's. But he is the sweetest and most loving dog ever, and when you're at my folks' house you can't help but feel that he's adopted you. In fact, there's no way you can NOT pet Bailey. He'll just nudge and poke at you until you do.

He's also the "miracle dog" that my family almost just lost because he ate a sock and got it stuck in his intestinal track. Much surgery and stress later, he's back to normal. So I'm extra glad he's here to have these moments.  

Bailey 3

Bailey

To all the Vox Moms out there!

I'm not a mom myself. But last night, I got a glimpse of what the whole parenthood thing means. My mom, sister and I went to see my niece in a dance recital. The recital was at a local high school, and was primarily numbers from the high school dance company. My niece is in elementary school, and her dance teacher happens to be the same woman who runs the high school company. So the elementary schoolers got to come in and do one number, at the end of the show.

All the elementary school moms I was with sat lovingly through the entire show to see their little ones on stage for maybe 5 minutes. The rest of it was the high schoolers strutting their stuff. Which, while entertaining, was not what a large number of those moms had planned on seeing this particular night.

See, Kenny Chesney was in town yesterday, doing a show at a nearby concert pavilion. Most of the moms, including my sister, are HUGE Kenny fans. And many had sold or given up their Kenny tickets (again, including my sis), when the dance recital got scheduled for the same night. They all joked about how they could be there now, instead of spending two hours watching a bunch of high school girls twist and turn and bounce so that they could witness their own kiddos' five minutes on stage. But the bottom line was they did it lovingly and without regret, because their children had worked so hard for this moment and were so excited about getting on that stage.

And that to me pretty much sums up what moms are all about.

My niece, by the way, rocked. I may not be a mom, but I am a very proud aunt.

I brought the camera to take some pictures at the recital, only to find out that cameras weren't allowed. But since I had it with me, I took some pictures of my little brother instead. I never mentioned a brother? Oh, well. That's because he's ugly. So ugly that he's cute, and my mom even named him Otis Ugly:

Ugly Otis

I love this little dog. My parents have had him for years. He snorts and grunts and flies through the yard trying to bite the other dogs' tails, and never stops barking, and gives all sorts of attitude. When I house-sit for my parents, he crawls on top of me when I'm sleeping and stares down in my face, and I wake up thinking I'm looking at an alien or a very large bug. But he's precious just the same.

Of course, the little brother thing is a joke, but my mother always proudly said that she tries to treat her dogs just like her kids. Our family photo albums have just as many pictures of the various dogs that grew up with my sister and I as they do of us ourselves. Since for whatever reason my parents always had male dogs, I've always joked about having four-legged brothers.

That's one of the things I love the most about my own mom - her love of animals and the way we always had pets in our family and how the joy of critters was instilled in me and my sister pretty much from birth. I can't imagine life in a family that didn't have pets.

Ugly Otis 2

I mean, LOOK at him? What would the world be like without Otis Uglies?

Happy Mother's Day to all!

... on "Me and My Monday."

I was all set to get up and do my first one this morning, then realized Lee took the camera to work with him. He likes to roam about and take pictures during his lunch break, especially this time of year when things start coming back to life again.

So instead, I'll just say I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.

Mine started when we arrived at my parents' house and I was greeted by my niece saying "guess what? Bailey ate the Easter Bunny!"

Bailey is the golden retriever who just went in for surgery after a stomach blockage he got eating things he shouldn't eat almost killed him. He just got the staples removed two weeks ago. And now he's eating Easter bunnies.

OK, not Easter Bunnies.

It turns out, though, that what DID happen was that when my mother let her dogs out Saturday night, she couldn't get Bailey to come back in. They have a huge backyard, and the entire back half is filled with trees and bushes. He finally traipsed to the back door with his tail wagging and something hanging out of his mouth. The "something" was a bunny.

Mom's response was to freak and drag Dad out of bed to deal with it. I don't blame her.

Bailey's timing really sucks.

It has been a productive weekend around here. That's what happens when Lee and I kick back and chill instead of going to The Pub.

The front door is now painted a beautiful country yellow with white trim. That was Lee's project last night. This morning, he's outside with my father's chainsaw cutting down tree limbs. The tree in our front yard turned half-brown and sickly this summer, so we're hoping if he cuts off the limbs it will grow back in better shape and feel more like itself again. We'll see.

The scary thing was how close this tree is to the house. We were both afraid one of the branches was going to go through the kitchen window during this little project. Luckily, neighbor Tom came over and ran interference, which was going to be my job. Lee, me, and the house are much better off this way, and I spent the time doing things more suited to an uncoordinated clutz like myself - safe chores like putting away the groceries and cleaning Vin's cage.

Did I mention that we watched the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre II last night, and that sound is REALLY creepy at the moment?

The best news of all is that Bailey is doing OK at the moment. He's even eating. Now they just have to go on poop watch again, and if he succeeds in taking a dump he can come home Tuesday. Hopefully I won't be asking my blog friends for poop vibes too much longer!

And in the irony that is life, they re-routed the bus service in our neighborhood. For over a year now, I've had to take two buses to get to work - one going in the opposite direction downtown to get a connection to campus. Starting tomorrow, the bus that runs up my street goes right to the college.

The irony in this is that by the end of March, we should finally have a car.

Happy Sunday!  

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With the exception of heading out for the 25th anniversary party of some family friends Saturday night, I spent the weekend pretty much happily holed up at home.

The party was fun. Being a dumbass, I forgot to bring my camera. This sucks because the guy half of the couple-of-honor always dances like a rock star when he's got a few beers in him, and this makes for some really funny photo ops. Next time.

Lee finished the floor in the bathroom. Now it really looks brand new. We were just a tiny bit short on the border we put on the wall and have to go back to Home Depot for more, but other than that, the job is done.  As for me, my productivity was pretty much limited to the standard boring housework and laundry stuff. I didn't have much in the way of writing in me this weekend. I'm losing my weekend battles with laziness these days - I think I have a case of the Februarys.

And my mom called last night to say they had to take their golden retriever, Bailey, in to the vet for emergency surgery. He ate something he shouldn't have (probably out of the laundry room) and got an intestinal blockage. They had to remove both the fabric and quite a bit of his intestines. They did the surgery last night, and he's on a 48 hour recovery watch now. The poor guy. He's such a sweet, loving dog. But no matter how much she tries, Mom can't break him of this habit of eating things he shouldn't. He gets into something every single time she lets her guard down.

Think good thoughts for him, would you? I can't imagine the family without Bailey.