I had to say good-bye to the bestest puppy in the whole world today.
Daisy Buchanan aka Daisy Doodle, 2004 -2013
Rest in peace my Daisy Doodle. I will miss you. My heart is breaking.
Our Lives Change The World
I had to say good-bye to the bestest puppy in the whole world today.
Rest in peace my Daisy Doodle. I will miss you. My heart is breaking.
Stupid human. How am I supposed to get any decent rest without my bed properly configured? I tried sleeping on the bed this way, and it is not comfy. I am cat. I need comfort.
Now, go check my food bowl, would you? I keep telling you that I need fresh wet and dry food at all times.
The whole empty nest stereotype is bogus. There are as many reactions to graduating out of the daily, in-house parenting phase of life, as there are parents. People who have maintained their own identity while parenting, and most people these days do maintain a healthy identity and don’t live solely through or for their children. But there can be patterns of behavior from the parenting years that are comforting, familiar, and rewarding and that may be maintained once the kids are gone.
I didn’t know that we would fit into this pattern. But we do, I think. Our life together has been almost totally filled with parenting. We didn’t have much time together alone before our family started. And while that may be less than ideal, per what is recommended by marriage experts, that is what we have come to know and with which we are comfortable.
I think that some of this is underlying our decision to get a puppy. We can’t imagine life without a being able to care for a living, loving creature. I’m pretty sure this is one of the reasons we now have a 26 lb. puppy.
Yes, that is right, twenty-six pounds! Our Little Guy has BIG feet.
Humans have a need to parent. There are many ways this urge can be filled, satisfied, or mitigated. Having kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, volunteering with kids, having pets, engaging in a caring profession, and so on also can take care of the innate need to parent. Also, some couples engage in lots of care-taking behavior with each other, and that fills the same care-giving niche.
But us, we parent puppies. BIG puppies.
In the midst of having a list of writing and platform installation tasks as long as my arm, this past weekend, my Hubby, Fang, wanted to try to track down the person who ran the kennel where we purchased our last Italian, or Neapolitan, Mastiff. Since the untimely death of Mr. Worf, our last Neo, from an Africanized bee attack, Hubby Fang has been inconsolate. He is a boy who really needs to have a puppy. We ended up with Gelato instead of a puppy. I have to highly recommend Frost for some of the best gelato ever. Really! The master gelato maker is here from Italy with a special work visa used exclusively for highly skilled specialists. If you are in Tucson you need to check it out one of their locations for some excellent, one-of-a-kind flavors, and they always have two sugar free flavors that are the best you will find anywhere. Actually, they are opening up franchises for this Tucson-based business, so you might be able to find one close, or at least closer, to you.
We have to spend time creating our new married life for the next phase of our life together. We never had any real time as just a couple. We started our family immediately upon finally getting together. I knew Fang for 15 years as a dear friend before we ever got together. Once we finally got together there was no time to waste, apparently. So here we are 23 years later, after already having grown tired of each other's annoying habits and idiosyncrasies, as most long term couples do, trying to be nice to each other in our new dynamic, and not really knowing how. Remember, remember, remember… what was it, besides sex, that I found so irresistible about him so long ago? Well, he is brilliant. But then so am I. And he loves dogs. For me that says a huge amount about a person. Good sex, good brain, and dog-lover. What more does a woman need? I need something for Fang to do to keep him from starting any more construction projects around the home. Have I told you about the kitchen cabinets he has been building for five years? That, as they say, is another story. I'm in hot pursuit of finding him a new pup to be his best friend.
In fact this weekend, today, we drove up to Phoenix from Tucson to meet some rescued Neapolitan Mastiffs. We are seriously in the market for a companion for our grouchy 8 year old mixed breed bitch. So we met the most adorable rescue male Neo. His name is Cooper and he needs a forever home. He is a year or so old, but Neos act like puppies until they are two or so. He loved me and gave me kisses almost immediately. He got on fine with our Miss Daisy too; serious butt-sniffing ensued and there was a little bit of circle play. But he was sort of indifferent with Hubby Fang. And Fang is the boy who needs a puppy.
It broke my heart not to adopt Cooper because he has a sweet, truly non-aggressive personality, and is so friendly, happy, and playful. He isn't super wrinkly at all, as most non champion Neos aren't, and he is a bit on the small side, which I think is good because that could extend the shorter lifespan tht some of the really big dogs tend to have. I think he is perfect. I wish he would have hit it off with Fang. He has a cherry eye that will be corrected with surgery, at the same time he is neutered, before being released to his forever home. I hope someone special adopts him soon. He would be perfect for a woman in need of a companion dog, and he is good with kids so a single mom with kids would be a great fit. Did I mention he has the most gorgeous soft, shiny black fur? He has a short coat so shedding wouldn't be bad. Mastiffs are the most loyal canines ever and when they bond with their forever pack, they are the best friend you will ever have. Rescue animals need your love even more than regular animals.
I hope you will consider adopting a rescued animal the next time you are searching for a pet. They need us so much. There are probably a hundred or more animals in need of homes in your city right now. You can check out rescue animals in AZ and the Southwest by going to Canine Rescue Coalition on Facebook. Pet Finder is a national website that works with many local rescue groups to connect you with animals that need homes. Don't buy, adopt. That way you are not supporting puppy mills and setting up unpurchased animals for abuse or euthenasia.
When I began writing a blog post every day as a part of Nablopomo, National Blog Posting Month, to join the celebration of Nablopomo officially becoming a part of BlogHer I knew it would be tough, but I had no idea how much extra stress I would be under. Why do we women always think we can do more than is humanly possible?
I will have accomplished something spectacular by following through with 30 posts in 30 days. I have also worked on a lot of other events, projects, and “things,” and it isn’t over yet. I have about two weeks of sheer insanity left and then the simple hectic rush of the Holidays will begin, and “No, this extra craziness I’m talking about isn’t part of the Holiday hustle and bustle.”
A Partial Menu of Stuff on My Plate
Blogging every day may have kept me sane this month. Now I just have to make sure that all the posts that I wrote and posted here or on my other blogs or on BlogHer show up here on this site as blog posts too and are labelled Nablopomo. And there are some that I posted here that I wanted to cross post on my other sites, but somehow I didn’t get them cross-posted.
Thank Heavens that next year is coming soon. I can’t wait!