Here’s a photo of Max and I enjoying some cool breezes and bag pipes on campus tonight.
I plan to start posting more frequently here again. Stay tuned! 🐕 + ❄️
… I was in Madagascar and snapped this shot of my host brother Masoandro (“Sun”) and host sister Diamondra (“Diamond”) on the balcony of our house.
It’s wild how time passes and the spaces you inhabit change.
We spent so much time on that little balcony overlooking Manjakandriana, the town where I did my initial Peace Corps training.
We prepared food. We talked. We looked out on the town. We kept each other company. We chitchatted with passing neighbors. We smoked cigarettes.
We looked at the stars. We checked to see if the little corner store was still open for a last-minute ingredient. We washed dishes. We greeted each other as we returned up the path to the house.
We listened to music. We watched a little tabby cat warm itself near the stove, a cat that looked like my own at home and always made me feel a little less far away.
Time can feel so long and so short, even at the same time.
That’s how I feel about this memory.
I can close my eyes and be in the cold morning air of Manjakandriana. And at the same time there have been 17 summers, 17 Christmases, and 17 birthdays separating my current life from the life I lived in Madagascar.
I was trying to explain to a colleague yesterday that Macy is the prettiest dog in the world.
I got a sense from the interaction that he didn’t wholly understand or believe me, so I produced the video below to help him understand. Enjoy! 🐾
I like to tell people that Macy “fell out of the Pretty Tree and hit every brunch on the way down.”
- BOOM… Big ears!
- BOOM… Mottled coat!
- BOOM… Tri-color face!
- BOOM… Awesome blaze!
- BOOM… DOTS!
- BOOM… fringed collar fur!
- BOOM… Docked tail (I didn’t do it, but it’s cute especially when it wags like a metronome!)
- BOOM… Red heeler and blue heeler coat coloration!
Add all that to her goofy, fun-loving personality and you have the Prettiest Dog in the World. Give her the trophy already! 🙂
You’d think there was a supply chain shortage of dog beds at the Grabowski Household.
But there isn’t…
😂
In volunteering at a shelter, there’s always a short list of dogs that stand out in your memory as favorites. I can recount mine by heart at any moment: Kumah, Charlie, Zeus, Syer, Malachi, and Moose.
They could have been exceptionally sweet or quirky. More often they’re the ones that started out as a challenge but in the end taught you something you didn’t know yet.
Moose checked all the those boxes for me. She was an intimidating barker with an equally intimidating size and stature, stationed at the end of our runs where we usually place dogs who are reactive and need a little less stimulation from the passing public.
I’ll admit. I was scared of her. Like so many who passed her, it was clear she’d prefer if I just moved along.
Then I brought some hot dogs with me one day and after some necessary barks, she came over to take a few.
The next time, I got the same big barks but quickly she seemed to stop and say, “Wait. That’s the guy with the tasty meat treats!”
After that, we were best buds and I ended up bringing her home for foster last summer.
It’s hard to describe how beautiful, gentle, and majestic she was. Maybe the video below will do her some justice.
When people talk to me about volunteering at the shelter, they often say “Oh! I’d love to do that but I’d want to take every dog home!” Probably true for them, but for me, it’s always a thrill to get a new training dog when yours gets adopted. The cycle starts all over again.
More than a year on, I still miss Moose and part of me really wishes I would have adopted her.
The silver lining is that she found a really perfect home. I was there to introduce Moose to a couple who already had a shepherd puppy at home.
The interaction was going great and at one point Moose went into a down position, rested her head on her outstretched paws and looked into their eyes. Game over. As she did that, I realized I was not taking her back home with me and we were actually saying goodbye. 😔 The ride home was the saddest drive I ever had returning from the shelter.
I miss you Moose! Keep being an awesome, good girl! ❤️
A few weeks ago, Max, Macy and I were on a walk around the condo when Max got startled by something in the grass. It looked like a chipmunk and not the living kind because it wasn’t moving.
I went a little closer and it blinked and moved a bit. It was a little baby bunny, stranded in the grass under the hot and humid sun. She was barely responsive.
I rushed the dogs home, turned a Chewy box into a carrier, and dashed back to scoop up the baby bunny.
She was in bad shape. Her head was tilted and she had trouble moving. Probably heat stroke. I gave her some water and went to sleep.
The next morning she was moving around a bit, but really uncoordinated and lob-sided.
She was basically unable to use one side of her body. But that didn’t stop her from trying to move around and peer out of the box.
Most of the day though, she just barrel rolled. I mixed some kitten formula and heavy cream and got her to take some.
At night however, I started to think we had to find a way to humanely let her go. I couldn’t find mom’s nest and even then the bunny wouldn’t survive out there wobbling on her own.
The third day though I woke to scratching sounds and her moving around on all fours! Her head was still tilted but she seemed more alert.
I got some alfalfa from the shelter and she ate it up.
She even seemed to push me off as I tried to feed her. “Dude, I know how to eat alfalfa!”
The wife of a volunteer friend at the shelter volunteers (herself) at a wildlife rehabilitator that takes in bunnies (a rare thing it seems).
So I connected with them while I was at the shelter and after talking for a bit and finding out they would be open late, I left the shelter and rushed her up to them. They have meds that can help with neurological damage if given early so hopefully I got her there in time.
I named her Sol ☀️ 🙂
Macy’s tummy/butt have been giving her trouble for the last few days following an antibiotic treatment.
Yesterday, I woke to find a little mushy present in each room (some very desperately considerately placed as she tried to avoid carpets).
Anyway, she’s fine and eating and drinking well, however she must go to Poop Jail (aka the kitchen with a gate) when I go out.
I came back last night after getting some probiotics from Loki’s mom and I found my inmate half-escaping.
Max strolled too close to Poop Jail so I booked him on a previous offense. Macy seems excited to have a cellmate. 😂
The good thing about Poop Jail is that your guard (dad) has to make you chicken and rice, lest you continue to poop like a defrosted soft-serve machine!
So, Macy was pretty pumped albeit shocked this morning when she got her first prison meal.
Hopefully her guts will feel better in the next few days.
Call it a Belly Band. 🙂
I’ve tried pretty much everything I can think of to encourage Max to not pee or mark inside, so now it’s on to the nuclear option.
Max showed off some really great progress today when encountering unfamiliar dogs at the park.
Among several passing dogs, and although he was concerned with many, he was mostly able to resist barking and recalled back to me in most situations.
At the very end, as we neared the end of a path at the parking lot, I spotted two dogs coming against us, and one was a dog that got a barking reaction out of Max earlier in our walk.
I backtracked quickly and tried to find some space where we could stand on the side of the trail. It wasn’t much space, but we got about 5 – 7 feet between Max, myself, and the passing dogs.
With some reassuring encouragement and tasty hot dogs each time Max returned his focus to me after noticing the dogs, MAX ACTUALLY MANAGED TO LET THE TWO DOGS WALK BY WITHOUT EVEN A GRUMBLE!
It was awesome to see. Great job, Max! On the way home he ‘ruffed’ up some college kids from my car window while they crossed the street, but hey, no dog’s perfect.
Despite his great performance, it was no doubt stressful for Max so I gave him a whole afternoon of peace and quiet. A few photos below.
After a year away from serious snowboarding, I thought maybe I was over snowboarding.
Nope! ☺️🏂🏔❄️