Read this book. Get it from the library, buy it, or borrow it, but do what you can to read it. I know . . . you might have a pile of books beside your bed (guilty) and bookcases stuffed beyond capacity (guilty), and not want to hear about yet ANOTHER book to read (depends on the day). But. Honest. It's been described as a ". . .tremendous burst of oxygen . . ." (Rebecca Sklot, The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks), and who doesn't need that right now? Here’s what author Susan Orlean says about Ed Yong and An Immense World: “He’s an extraordinary reporter and a writer of such grace that this work seems effortless. This is a journal of discovery and animal magic . . .”. I didn’t see how I could improve on her words, and I add my admiration to hers. I flat out adore this book, and because Read More
Life Happens.
Well, I was going to write about some of the great information in Ed Young's best-selling book, An Immense World, and then, life happened. As it does, when we have other plans. My day started at 5:30 AM ("did you know your website is down?") and turned into ("your website got hacked"), and went down hill from there. I won't bore you with the details, just explaining that this post isn't what I envisioned. The good news is that thanks to David and Sid, the Princes of Cyberspace, all is well now, at least, regarding the website and blog. I'm a bit of a puddle however, after one unrelenting piece of bad news after another, and decided to feed the dogs early, take them on a long walk, pour myself a drink, and do old people stuff like watch Jeopardy. Apologies. I'll write lots more about Read More
How to Apologize to a Dog–Or Can We?
Is it possible to apologize to a dog? I'm not sure there is an answer to that question. But I wish there was, and I'd love to have a discussion about it. Here's what got me thinking about apologies to friends who don't understand all the intricacies of human language: Last week I was working Skip on something he's struggled with-- driving the sheep in a straight line, say at a 45 degree angle, as if toward ten o'clock on a clock face. This is relatively easy if the sheep are happy to go in that direction. The challenge is when the sheep want, badly, to move at a 90 degree angle, toward, perhaps, eight o'clock. Skip, reading the pressure, wants to flank around to the front of the sheep ("overflanking"), which stops the sheep, and ends up creating frustrated sheep, frustrated dogs, and Read More
Oh Maggie, My Maggie
First: Maggie is alive. Second: She almost wasn't. All thanks to a cork. Which she ate. Which almost killed her. I'm telling the story in hopes it will educate, inform, and inspire. And don't we all love a good dog story, as long the the dog doesn't die? This one didn't, but it was pretty damn close. It all started on Monday, June 13th, when Maggie began vomiting. At first I wasn't particularly distressed; we all know owning a dog means cleaning up the occasional vomit on the rug. But the vomiting continued, and became so violent that her body actually was pushed backward by the force of her stomach expelling its contents. "Rocket vomit," I'm going to call it. Lots of yellow fluid, with a bit of partially digested food. She was also thirsty--very, very thirsty, but she couldn't Read More
What Would YOU Like to Talk About?
Due to a glorious visit from five family members, straight out of a commercial for _______ (Fill in the blank--Allergy medicine? Arthritis medicine?), in which old people are still able to keep up with and enjoy the youngsters, I'm behind on everything else. "Everything else" being far less important than family, right? (Note: Using the word "youngsters," makes me feel old right there.) I was looking at past posts, as I do on occasion, to see if I could repost something I wrote that hadn't been covered in a while, and was reminded that asking readers what they like to talk about has resulted in all kinds of good things. As in, me learning things I didn't know before, and/or, didn't know I didn't know. As in, readers getting to bring up topics important to them that I have never Read More
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