Boomerang-a previous story that has since evolved

I was reading the book " Small is Beautiful Economics as if People Mattered" recently, and came upon a quote from St Thomas Aquinas "It is evident that if a man practices a compassionate affection for animals, he is all the more disposed to feel compassion for his fellowmen" I suppose I was on the right track in my previous blog post.

I had a favorite book when I was a child called "Part time Dog" it was one of those children's books geared towards the beginning reader.The brown dog in the above photographs, with my Australian Shepherd, is Porky, well at least that's what his name was when I knew him. The shelter staff had named him Porky because he was found covered in porcupine quills. I fostered this dog for 6 months deciding that since no one had claimed or adopted him I would keep him, until one day his previous owner found me while I was out walking with the dogs. Of course by that time I was completely enamored of the dog and so attached to it as in the way that people become attached to something when they decide to incorporate it into their life. Although for me,there is a strange Buddhist type of crossover emotional area, since I have grown fond of and worked with so many dogs. I have a strange sort of combination of deep love and yet at the same time non attachment, which pervades more than the dog/ human world for me but due to my rather odd upbringing, I am also not so attached to people in a way that may be different from most people. Of course as things go and people are tested, the one dog that I really loved in a possessive way, besides my darling old Blue Heeler,( I had not found my Aussie Shepherd at the time) the one I was going to make into my second dog, was reclaimed by his owner which you can read about in this link to a previous blog post.
http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-ones-i-love-always-go.html

Well now it's a year later, I have a new Australian Shepherd as a walking and shelter dog training companion as well as my old Australian Cattle dog. I got over the loss of Porky and helped some other shelter dogs along the way. I have an old man friend that lives near me. I met him while he was out walking with his wife when I first moved here 11 years ago. His wife died some years back and I go and check on him and visit with him when I can. His house is about 2 miles from mine at the halfway point for one of my walks so I often stop by and say hello and catch up with him when I'm out and about. The last time I went for a visit we were standing outside talking when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dog walking around,checking me out.My old man friend said "don't mind that dog, that's Bear", which was Porky's real name. I said " I know that dog" and then Porky came to me and we were reunited and I was so happy to see him and pet him and visit with him. My elderly friend has a rental property on his place and the family that the dog belonged to had moved into it.The dog looked healthy and happy, and had the run of the farm. Now I can visit two friends at once, and get a nice 4 mile walk in as well. That's the beauty of being connected to a community and walking around a lot. You get to meet all kinds of people, you get a feel for a place in such a different way than when you drive around in a car. You can even get a reading on the economy based on observations over time.When I now go and visit my previous foster dog , he jumps up affectionately on me and seems to remember me, he even tries to go on walks with us but I make sure that he stays on the property. I talked to the young man who is part of the family that owns the dog. He really enjoys his dog and is so bonded with him and showed me all the tricks that he taught his dog. He says that the dog follows him all over on his bike. So I guess my heart break and loss are someone else's gain. After all, he was such a nice dog that I knew people had to have cared for him. In the course of things in this world he didn't belong to me, but I can visit with him like in the children's story I used to read"Part time Dog" perhaps we set the stage for our lives at a young age. I said to my elderly friend, jokingly, " well now that the dog is here I'll have to come by and visit more often" he seemed taken aback by that, and I felt a little guilty for letting such callous words fly out of my mouth, despite the fact that they were true. I contemplated that exchange as I walked home and realized something about myself, that's it's always easier for me to relate to the dogs. They don't lay guilt trips on you, they don't care about your political persuasions,they just want to be treated well and have fun.There is not the muck of expectations, desires, resentments, imposition of beliefs, that often encumber human relationships. Well I really can't help the way I am, it resulted from a long history of not being able to trust the erratic behavior of humans in my life, but at least I try and accept the way I am and do my best with the dogs and people in my life. I'm glad I fostered that dog for so long . Had someone else adopted him he may have never been reunited with the family that loved him so much. Had I not been the type of person who walks the neighborhoods with my dogs, they may never have found me. Strange, the luck and synchronicity involved here and that these people are now living near enough for me to visit. It's as if the dog orchestrated it all in some mysterious way. Maybe there really is some strange kind of Native American Animal Spirit Guide at work, as we are surrounded by Native American culture here, or maybe I just have an overactive imagination! You decide

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth."

Walt Whitman- excerpt from " Song of myself"

My Aussie Shepherd has a meltdown as I'm heartbroken over the devastation in Japan

Once again, perhaps it is coincidence or something else at work. I was very saddened and distressed at the devastation and destruction caused by the earth quake in Japan. The Japanese culture and people have been near and dear to my heart. I love the pottery, poetry, and aesthetics of Japan . I have been drawn to the beauty of homes built from natural materials, materials that were unfortunately, vulnerable to destruction. I was anxious about the state of the nuclear power plants, and I'm sure my very sensitive Australian Shepherd, Cash, was also picking up on at least my sadness and fear if not something deeper in perhaps a planetary way. I had decided to leave the dog home and take my older Blue Heeler with me in the car when I left to go to dinner at my friend's house on Saturday March 12th. Cash, my Australian Shepherd, had been out for a long walk with shelter dogs that day and my husband was staying home, so I thought it would be good to give my old Blue Heeler some special attention. As I was leaving the house, Cash tried to dash out the door and come with us so my husband grabbed his collar and pulled him back. I then left for my friend's house, without seeing what was going on behind me. Upon returning home, I saw about ten small puddles with paper towels sticking out of them, spread out all over the great room floor (he's not perfect, but at least he put the paper towels down!). I asked my husband what had happened and he told me that from the moment he grabbed the dog, the dog rolled on his back and peed and then seemed to be in a tizzy and kept repeating the behavior as my husband tried to assure him he wasn't going to be hurt. It's as if the dog just had a huge emotional meltdown. He had some fear peeing issues when we first got him out of rescue, but that had long since subsided, and usually involved only one incident at a time. So I'm wondering if anyone else has observed any odd behavior in their pets or farm animals, during the time of the Japanese earthquake and it's aftermath. I live in North Idaho, U.S.A., not too far from seismic activity and the Pacific Rim/Pacific Ring of Fire, so I was a bit worried that the dog may be picking up on some impending seismic activity. I wasn't sure if Cash was just reacting to my anxious state, or a situation specific incident to my leaving him and my husband grabbing the collar. It was so much more grander of a meltdown than what I had seen before, that I couldn't help wondering if what had transpired was one of those incidents of animal sensitivity to natural catastrophic force and grand scale suffering. I leave the dog unattended at night in the living room or when I go into my pottery studio without incident. I've left my two dogs alone together in the house, so I can't figure out what triggered this odd behavior. When I returned home the Aussie was also distant, and seemed shell shocked, he didn't come up and greet me as he usually does. By Sunday afternoon things were back to normal .Oh well, just another unsolved dog and human mystery that I'm still trying to sort out. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. I'm so saddened by this terrible tragedy

Getting to know you- Cash, our new Aussie Shepherd

Now that my Blue Heeler is 11 and not as active as he once was I went looking for a rescue Aussie shepherd or Border Collie purebred/ mix, to be my new walking companion and shelter dog, training helper. My Heeler is a tad arthritic and is now in semi-retirement, not to the golf course but to the sofa and truck. I was a little frantic there for awhile, looking for that perfect special dog in need of a family. The trouble with me is that I love most all dogs and trying to figure out exactly which one fit the criteria I was looking for became somewhat overwhelming. I looked in our shelter but the aussie we had already had a hold on her, I missed a day and someone swooped in and fell in love with her. I combed the http://www.petfinder.com/ website, where you can find a pet available for adoption. I Searched the Aussie shepherd and Border Collie rescue sites in my area and even some not in my area but within reasonable driving distance. For a dog obsessed woman on the hunt for the perfect additional dog, "reasonable," included Canada, Seattle, and Montana even though I live in North Idaho. We once had some people drive from Idaho Falls- nine hours away- to get a lovely purebred Springer Spaniel that was at our shelter, so reasonable is a relative term when one finds love on the internet! I combed the Spokane shelters last week and found an adorable Tri-color Border Collie who when I said excitedly, "oh your so cuute!" basically chimed back in the same tone and length of sentence in dog speak, reiterating" I want you too" but alas someone else got there first and he had a serious hold placed on him, and the girl who wanted him kept calling back to see if the owner had claimed him as he was not free to be released for adoption yet. I was feeling rather frantic, the kind of frantic and obsessed I've seen women become when desperate to have their second child. Since I have no children, this was the closest I'd get to baby fever. I persisted in making contacts and putting the word out for what I was looking for and called the wonderful devoted Mary Ann, of Inland Northwest rescue http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/ID48.html
I also called and talked to Joan, one of the Idaho representatives, of Pacific Northwest Border Collie Rescue http://www.pnwbcrescue.org/ who is located down in Southern Idaho and she said that she often transports dogs up North here to Inland Northwest Rescue, which is how I came upon my beautiful Aussie Shepherd who we named Cash, after the musician Johnny Cash, and another favorite border collie mix named Cash we had a few years back at our shelter, who I had fostered. Initially our new dog's name was Simon, and then Rufus and Rudy but we weren't too fond of the name Simon, and I have seen many dogs at the shelter adapt to new names rather quickly, with proper bonding and repetition of the new name and he seems to respond well to Cash so that's his new name. The shelter staff have also given a dog a new name if it had come from less than terrific circumstances thus allowing the dog be born again/reborn into a new name and new, hopefully happier, life. We bandied about an assortment of names from Rudy, to Huck short for Huckelberry Finn, Lucky, Chance, Alfie, but the name Cash seemed amenable to us all. So here we go starting into a new adventure with a gorgeous wonderful new rescue dog, who is a tad frightened but doing well, he slept most of the way home in the car, marked inside the house once and went to the bathroom outside in the morning! Knock on wood ,so far so good. I'm always careful with new dogs to take them out frequently especially before bedtime, first thing in the morning, and about 10 minutes after meals, and use the same word" potty" and then praise them if they actually go. A few times I've actually stooped to lifting my leg and making "pst pst pst" sounds and saying "potty?" and oddly enough the male dogs understood what I was trying to say and urinated outside. Of course I live in the country with no neighbors, a person might look a tad odd doing this in a suburban backyard! My little Blue Heeler seems to be adjusting well to this relatively mellow, recently neutered new member of the family. It's been rather hot here so I'm taking a break from volunteering at the shelter as it's not good for the dogs to be out walking in the heat. I'm just having so much fun getting to know my new dog. Thanks Mary Ann for helping this dog and all the others you have helped over the years.Thanks for making it possible for us to adopt this special guy, we just adore him. Thanks also to Joan of Idaho Domestic Animal Welfare Group http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/ID34.html
for helping to rescue and transport my new dog.