Chancey's Obsession with Yellow Lines!

This wonderful story was written on December 22, 2008. It took awhile for me to truely fall in love with Chancey because of his aloof manner. Scottish Terriers are know for being bad tempered and stubborn. Also, Scottish Terriers are most frequently the dogs that bite judges at dog shows! But this isn't true of Chancey, he loves's everyone he meets. He's  very sociable!

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Chancey, is the latest addition to our four-legged fur family. I dog-napped him this past summer while visiting a friend down in New London, Connecticut. She was dog-sitting him for a week while his family was on a business trip. They didn’t want him in the first place but their daughter did and then she moved to California and left Chancey behind. 

At the age of two: Chancey hated being walked so he pulled a great deal; he also had a great hostility of anything with wheels on it so he would charge at it while barking at the top of his lungs; he didn’t know any basic dog commands (sit, stay and do doggie commercials and bring home the mega bucks) nor was he potty trained. With that said, I wanted a better life for him. So I brought him home. Which then made him dog number three in a tiny house (1097 sq. feet) on a heavily-trafficked state road with no fenced-in yard. What was I thinking?

Episode #1 - I learned quickly that I was in way over my head having three dogs.The first hint happened when I took all three of them to the local dog park. I had Chancey on a leash but he was pulling so hard I let him off, which was a very stupid move on my part. Everything was fine until we met up with several groups of dogs. With all the doggie greetings involved, (barking, sniffing butts and a little bit of growing) he walked off with another group. By the time I got my wits about me and had the other two dogs under my control, I realized that I was missing the newest addition. Yikes! I walked around yelling for him but had no luck. I took Chloe and Fast Eddie back to the Jeep and went searching for him.

I was running around asking other dog owners walking their dogs if they had seen him. No luck! Finally, a woman with her own three dogs shows up with Chancey in tow. Yeah!!

Episode #2 – I didn’t have a tight hold on him while transporting him from the Jeep onto the kitchen porch. He quickly took off and headed East on Rt. 66 while running down the road using the double-yellow lines as his guide. With four knee surgeries, it is hard for me to move quickly much less run but run I did, and I scooped him up.

Episode #3 – We are back at the park and I’ve now learned to keep him on leash and use the Gentle Leader that a friend had given us. It was just the ticket when it came to keeping him from pulling and under control. We finished our morning walk and headed back to the Jeep. Both Fast Eddie and Chancey needed help getting up into the back. Then it was Chancey’s turn. My big mistake was removing the leash before lifting him up into the Jeep. He took off. I went after him leaving Chloe who jumped out of the Jeep with a fellow dog walker while Eddie was left in the Jeep. Right next to the parking lot is a large community garden which was in full bloom. Well, I couldn’t see him because he has such a low profile. His legs are only six inches long. He evidently returned to the parking lot where we re-united.

Episode #4 – A friend of ours came over for dinner this past fall. We were using a baby gate out on the kitchen porch to keep the dogs contained. In letting our friend onto the porch I created a small opening that Chancey used for his escape. I’m screaming for him to stop while I’m doing my version of jogging to catch up with him. Off he goes, again heading East following the double-yellow lines again! Now he’s a little black dog and with the light fading, it was hard for me to see him much less for the on-coming drivers. Of course, a woman waving her arms does slow traffic down a bit. The first driver stopped but the truck behind her moved around her and was heading directly toward Chancey and the driver didn’t see him. At this point, I felt something moving quickly pass me. It was Mary madly running. She hadn't had any knee surgeries like I've had so she’s still able to sprint. She had heard my screams from the house and knew it had to do with one of the dogs. She finally caught up with Chancey before the truck ran over him!

Episode #5 –Mary and Lisa had just gone shopping for our Christmas dinner and were unloading the groceries with Chancey jumping up and down on the porch. He was so excited that they had come home. Seeing the opportunity to make a run for it, he did. Both Mary and Lisa ran yelling and screaming after him as he again headed East on the double-yellow lines. This time is was light enough out for traffic to see him. Traffic came to an abrupt halt. Coming from the East was a large truck, the driver made a quick decision and turned his vehicle so it blocked the road. And, a pick-up truck coming from the West stopped traffic from that direction. Yeah, another possible disaster averted!

We’ve come to the conclusion that Chancey thinks he’s “Toto from the Wizard of Oz.” He is a terrier just like Toto was. He does hail from Kansas and he is obviously searching for that elusive yellow-brick road like so many of us are!

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P.S. Even after all these years of living with us, when Chancey has the opportunity to escape he will, and he always heads East using the double-yellow lines as his guide. Old behaviors are hard to break. Boy, am I a prime example of that!

Our House has gone to the Dogs

Literally. Dogs rule our household. We have three of them. Our oldest is Chloe, she is ten, and is a Eurasier. Fast Eddie, is seven, and is a Puggle. And finally, Chancey who is also seven is a Scottish Terrier. In my old blog are many stories about them and in time you will have the opportunity to read all about them on Flash Back Fridays!

All five of us have one thing in common, we all have some type of dysfunctional behavior. I could write volumes about our issues, but this posting is about our dogs and theirs. Chloe is our very first dog that we adopted. Chloe is a rescue who as a puppy was abandoned and was shot. If you rub her side, you can feel where the buckshot still is. Needless to say, any type of loud noise, (fireworks, thunder, nail gun, even a marching band with drums), will cause her to have a meltdown. Fast Eddie, aka Eddie, aka Edward Wayne, on the other hand is fearless and that has led to many emergency visits to the vets. You will find out more about his exploits in due time. Chancey being a terrier from Kansas is always looking for the yellow brick road. More about that later.

Ok, back to the house. We have a side table next to the couch that in reality is a dog crate! It’s wood with nice metal rungs and not the typical metal cage which definitely would not have matched the decor in our living room. This is for Chancey when we are not at home. He’s safe and secure and Fast Eddie can’t annoy him as easily. Unfortunately, when Chancey get annoyed he acts out by peeing on the rugs.

We have three containers of dog toys hanging out in the living room assorted by types. Large stuffed animals in one, smaller ones in another and the hard things like bones and plastic dinosaurs in the third. Did I mention that the couch, ottoman and all the beds have to be covered to be protected from hair and wet feet? The dogs have their own set of towels to be used to wipe their paws off when they come in from the outside. How I hate the muddy season! Plus they need their blankets to cuddle in. We are talking lots of laundry.

We had to get the back and front yards fenced to keep them contained. Putting on shoes, leashing them up and taking them out in the rain, snow and the middle of the night got old real quick. And, do they like to dig! When it gets too bad, I find large rocks and just lay them in the holes until I fill them up with dirt. That can make mowing interesting especially when I don't move the rocks..

And feeding time! Thanks to Eddie, who will eat everyone else’s food, the dogs have to be fed in different parts of the house. Even so, one is required to be a referee to protect their food from Eddie. Chloe is very protective of her food and does not take kindly to Eddie eating hers. After all these years, Eddie still hasn’t learned to leave her alone while she is eating.

Then there is the barking and howling. Chancey has issues with motorcycles and will start barking when he hears them while they are still miles from our house. Also, he doesn’t like runners or humans walking their dogs past our house either. For reasons we can’t fathom, cars have a tendency to turn around in our driveway on a regular basis. That creates major howling from all three dogs that goes on way too long.

Now if you are a dog lover, you will understand all of this. If you are a cat owner or have no pets you won’t. But is spite of everything including the expense of feeding them, lots of vet bills and rugs that have to be professionally cleaned, they are worth every dollar spent. Talk about unconditional love. They always greet me at the door and are thrilled that I came home. I had ex-husbands who didn’t even notice when I came through the doorway. Chloe, Eddie and Chancey sense when I’m sad or upset. When I‘m crying my eyes out, they will come and stay by my side ‘til my tears subside. When I want to take a nap or read, they cuddle me which is more than I got from my ex-husbands.

So a parting thought for tonight. My entire adult life I thought I loved men and cats. At the age of 49, I found I was allergic to both!  I am so very thankful that I share my life with Mary, Chloe, Fast Eddie and Chancey. I am so blessed.

Until next time, cheers!

P.S. - Friday's  Flash Back is going to be about Chancey and his obsession with roads that have the double yellow lines.

Other's Obsession with My Hair...Including My Own

This was originally posted in August of 2008. By the way, I've changed my hair style three times in 2013. That might be a record high!

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Ex-husband #2, while he was married to me, felt that it was his mission in life to continue Mother’s legacy regarding my hair and its imperfections. In the dozen years we were together, I had more than that number of different hairstyles and not all were of my choice. It was never curly or wavy enough nor was it ever long enough to suit his tastes.

One of his favorite choices made me look like a poodle! It was extremely curly on top and straight on the sides. Yuck! One time I tried one of those zigzag hair bands. I showed up to pick him up and in front of his colleagues he said in a harsh tone, “What did you do to your hair?” Absolutely nothing, thank you. You could tell by his inflection that I hadn't towed the line as was expected of me.

In my experience with the dynamics of a relationship, I've noticed that when a relationship is doing badly, one will withhold what the other so desperately wants. In our case, one of the many things he wanted me to have (the list was endless) was long hair so I just kept cutting it. Ear length, chin length, whatever, as soon as it started growing I had it chopped off. When we separated, I started growing my hair and by the time our divorce was final it had grown out nicely. Yes, he did comment on it. By the way, his favorite hairstyles were the ones that required hours of effort on my part, electric curlers every morning, hair products and a body wave every three months.

Now for reasons that are unclear to me, I've longed to be a redhead for years. I had several hair stylists tell me that I had the skin coloring and eyes to carry it off. Well… for my 43rd birthday, I had my hair color professionally changed. I loved it! I spent 11 years as a redhead and most of the time, folks thought it was my natural color. Even my GYN thought so and she should have known!

All good things come to an end. In the fall of 2007, I started reading articles about how “gray” is the new color for woman in their fifties. I decided I’d go to my natural hair color, whatever that was, with a lot of natural gray as highlights. I went to my favorite hair stylist of the moment. By the way, in the four years that I've lived in Northampton, I have gone through six hair gurus’ before I found my present one! I was never happy with the coloring job, or the hair cut or whatever. Because I never do anything half-way, I decided that I didn't want to go through the process of growing out the color. She used a number 4 electric razor blade on my hair. Yep, not quite a cue ball, but close.

Most folks in Northampton and at Smith College liked it. They marveled at what a nice shaped head I have. That was a big gamble I took, because really who knows what kind of shaped head one has until you have no hair to hide under any longer. The ones who didn't like my new look either said so, or just ignored the fact that there were babies out there that had more hair than I did.

Ironic, isn't it? Fifty-two years after my mother shaved my head, I go do it again. The difference this time was that it was my choice. It wasn't forced onto me by her desire for perfection.

Until next time…

Guess what day it is? Guess WHAT DAY it is?

Flash Back Friday! This is where I take one of my favorite postings from my old blog and give you, my new readers, an opportunity to read something from way back when. 

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I'm having so much fun with yesterday's posting of Caleb the Camel and his obsession with Wednesdays. I love playing it. Every time I do, it makes me smile.

Obsession, seems to be a theme running through my postings. By the way, what should I call my postings? What word would I be most comfortable with? Should it be entries, articles, musings or some other word? I will have to dwell on that, more later.

Right this very moment, I'm listening to Ingrid Michaelson's song "You and I." "Let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France. Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance. Let's get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants. Way up there you and I."

I don't know about having a house up that high. How would you get up and down the driveway in the winter time? What about mowing? Would you need to have sheep and goats to eat your grass because of the steep hills? Where would you house them? What would you feed them? Questions to ponder if I were rich enough to build a house up that high. Oh well, I haven't won the lottery yet so I don't have to come up with those answers until I do.

Ooh, I'm now listening to "I've Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye. I love listening to music on my iPhone. My present one is named "Jeeves" and my last one was named "Baby." I miss her, she can never be replaced. She lived in a pink Otter case which made it easy to find and made her look so cute! Jeeves lives in a black Otter case, he's harder to locate, and he's very reserved. When I put him out to pasture, he will hear about it through the grapevine. I have not developed an attachment to him like I did with "Baby."

Well, enough musings for now.

Until next time…

Turning 60 with Style!

When I turned 60 last month, I decided after much thought to embrace it. By doing that, I've moved from being extremely neurotic to just being plain eccentric. And as many of you know, I do eccentric with such style. I now wear cowboy boots year-round but my favorite ones are my red pair. They look great with sleeveless dresses in the summer time!

It also helped that I received the cutest t-shirt ever from a friend. It reads "I'm Too Sexy to be 60." Damn right! And, thanks to another friend who reminded me that I'm 60 years "young" and not "old." So much to look forward in the years to come. Such as adding to my ever-expanding boot collection and spending time in Paris. And, I don't mean Paris, Texas! 

Until next time, cheers!

I Saw Live Camels in Church Today!

I had no idea what I was going to do for Mary’s upcoming birthday. In the meanwhile, I went to a Christmas party held at the home of friends who attend our church. I was mingling and I heard a conversation about “The Boar’s Head Festival” and I butted in and asked what it was. Well by the end of the conversation, I had purchased two tickets and started planning for Mary’s birthday surprise.

Trinity United Methodist Church in Springfield held their first Boar’s Head Festival in January 1984, as an epiphany gift to the greater Springfield area and has continued to do so. This year is their 31^st festival. And, do they know how to throw one! If you go out to Trinity’s website you can read about the history of the festival where the boar was the first dish served at great Roman feasts, nearly two thousand years ago. And, yes folks, there is a YouTube clip from last year’s event which is worth viewing. But what intrigued me when I first heard about it was that they have live animals participating in the festival. And guess what? They have camels, three of them walking around in the church!

Camels have intrigued me from the first time I saw one as a young child when my parents took me to see “Lawrence of Arabia.” I love that loping walk of theirs. And, the cute way they move their mouths. Have you seen the Gieco commercial with the camel in it? What a hoot “hump day.” Oops, I digress. Back to the birthday surprise for Mary.

I created a puzzle that consisted of pictures of the festival and bits of information that I gathered from Trinity’s webpage. I put each puzzle piece into an envelope. Mary’s birthday fell on a Sunday and we hosted coffee hour after the church service which worked out perfectly. I gave out the envelopes to individuals with the instructions to walk up to Mary when we were singing “Happy Birthday” and give her their envelope. She ended up with 14 envelopes, one cake and a large package. Inside the package were two tickets to the festival and one stuffed camel! He’s so adorable.

Well, today, Sunday, January 12, we went to our very first and hopefully not our last “Boars Head Festival.” The talent and logistical efforts involved was just unbelievable. And guess what? After the camels made their walk down the aisle, each with their own handler, they went into an alcove right next to our seats!  I was no more than ten feet away from three very adorable but large snorting creatures. When they first made their appearance, I was jumping up and down and clapping my hands, I was so excited because all through the performance I had been waiting for that very moment. I was so thrilled. I can now check off from my "Bucket List" the desire to see camels close up and in person. And, did I mention that I saw them walking down the aisle of a church! Oh, by the way, Mary enjoyed her birthday present as much as I did!

Until next time…