Jim and I left last week on a trip, long planned, to play for a few days in Chicago with friends. Who knew it would be such good therapy, in part because good friend and dynamite animal trainer Laura Monaco Torelli arranged for us to get a behind the scenes tour at the Shedd Aquarium. Laura worked at the Shedd for years with Ken Rameriz before she left to open up her own animal training business, and asked her friend and marine mammal trainer Jessica Whiton to give us a tour. Jessica generously devoted much of a morning to us, and we couldn't be more grateful. We got to play with Beluga whales. It's the first time I felt happy since Willie died, and you didn't have to be there to see why. I am of the opinion that Beluga whales are not real animals. They've been created by some Read More
Archives for April 2019
Color
I am stunned by, and everlastingly grateful for, the response to Willie's death. Someday I will be able to thank you adequately. Someday, just not yet today. Today this is what I can do: Post photos of colorful things. My brain is working on another blog, about us and dogs and grief and love. Soon. Here is Bloodroot, which is spreading all over the hill behind our house, thanks to ants, who eat an organ called an elaisome on the seeds, and then toss the seeds in the ant trash heap. It's white flowers lighten up an otherwise drab hillside, and it's spreading like crazy. Scilla siberica also immigrates itself all over our gardens. But it's impossible to have too much, so I keep transplanting the little bulbs to new places. I adore it almost as much as does a species of a small, Read More
Goodbye Willie
Willie July 3, 2006 - April 15, 2019 That'll do, Willie. That'll do. I can not write more right now. Not now. I can't even find the perfect photo to include. Not now. But I will have lots to say, when the miasma of this pain has cleared. So, so much to say about life and death and dogs and the biological miracle that is our relationship with them. And about Willie. Our Silly Billy Willie Boy. We are bereft, that's all I can say now. Here is what I sent friends yesterday morning, on Monday the 15th of April, 2019. I'm including it here, because so many of you feel like friends, even though we've never met. We wanted to let you know that we are putting Willie down tonight. His cancer has defied all expectations, and in spite of chemotherapy and a gazillion other efforts, has Read More
Dogwise–the (Not) Amazon of Dog Books
Recently Lisa Lemberger (Business Mgr, Numbers Wizard, HR guru) and I traveled to Wenatchee, WA to visit the good people at Dogwise. Several years ago we partnered with Dogwise such that they send out all orders that come in through our website. It's been a great arrangement--as the "Amazon of Dog Books" [I mean that in the best of all possible ways, not in a take over the earth kind of way] they are set up to mail packages all over the world to individual buyers, to big book distributors, like Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and to Amazon itself. But unlike Amazon, they are a small, family-run business that has staff that's been there for decades, and considers Dogwise part of their family too. Here's the pack in front of their dog friendly office: That's Nate (VP & son of Read More
I Am So Sorry
I am sorry to have to tell you that Willie, my Silly Billie Willie Boy, has metatastic pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Lung cancer. Chemo might slow its progression, but can’t cure it. Surgery isn’t an option. I thought you would want to know. So many of us here have become a close village of dog lovers, and have followed each other’s dogs for years. Many of you have read about Willie’s challenges in The Education of Will. I didn’t want to blindside you with the end of his life, which is predicted to come in two to six months. In my experience, people don’t want to be protected, they want to be informed. This chapter began with a quiet cough, a little mouse of a thing, a single solitary huff after he got up from resting. By the end of January it became 3-4 coughs in a row, as if he were Read More