I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
#Meteor
Yesterday EJ and I were enjoying a quiet, peaceful evening at home. Luke was in EJ’s lap and Hannah was on mine. Suddenly, EJ pointed at the window and shouted, “Whoa! What is THAT?” I quickly looked out the window as Hannah leaped off my lap barking in excitement. We saw a huge fireball streaking south across the sky. It was blue with a fiery red tail. EJ said he saw it spiraling. We’ve never before seen anything like it.
A few minutes later, news and weather pages and sites lit up with people’s stories and videos of sightings. Some people said that they heard a boom and their houses shook. ABC News posted:
The sparkling display sent social media users into a frenzy, making “#meteor” a top 5 trending topic in the U.S. on Twitter.
Michigan Weather Authority posted on their Facebook page:
This was meteor entering our atmosphere flashing over into a meteorite as it passed through our atmosphere creating that tail flash and sonic rumble. It was heard, felt and seen in several states including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana as well as in Canada. It appears as though most of it burned up upon reentry and there are reports that what was left may have landed within Lake Michigan and St Clair Shores causing at least a 2.0 quake.
Here is an article (with videos) about the meteor from MLive.
EJ stayed up late because of the meteor excitement. Hannah wanted outside just before EJ went to bed so he came out with us. The stars appeared extremely bright in the dark cloudless sky. We saw light pillars on the horizon. One reached high into the sky. They weren’t as strong as have been seen elsewhere, but they were noticeable.
We were really glad that we saw these awesome sights. They were very cool. I don’t have photos because the meteor went too fast and I don’t know how to take good night-time photos. The photo at the top of this page is not mine. It is a royalty free photo by Alexander Andrews which I got from Unsplash.
Hannah always watches me from the window when I go out to care for the ducks and chickens in the early morning. This morning I was able to get a photo of her at the window. EJ says that Hannah cries whenever I go outside without her. When I am with Hannah, she stays very close to me. She follows me and either lays at my feet or on my lap. I think she is glad to be loved.
The animal shelter where we adopted Hannah posted a photo of another dog needing a home at their Facebook page. The dog is a male that looks just like Hannah. EJ is tempted…but one dog at a time is enough for us.
This afternoon when I went out to the garage to clean out the litter boxes, I found that Miss Madeline Meadows, our serial killer cat, had put the remains of her squirrel in their food dish. There’s not much left. Yuck. I got a shovel and–trying not to look at the remains too closely because it grosses me out–I picked it up and carried it to the edge of the forest. I’m really hoping that Madeline won’t bring it back. It’s beginning to have a horror movie-ish sort of feel to it.
Magical Diamond Dust
The sunrise this morning was gorgeous. The skies were mostly blue all day and the sunlight made the ground sparkle, as if the snow had been replaced with diamond dust. It was absolutely magical and I truly felt as if I live in an Enchanted Forest. I took many photographs, with different settings, but I don’t really know how to photograph magical diamond dust–or maybe magical things can’t be photographed. I was only able to capture a few specks of light instead of the whole glittery landscape.
People are always complaining about the cold, Northern winters or bragging about their tropical weather. I have nothing against people who love the warmth of the South, but I’m glad that I live in the wintry North where the air is brisk and the snow sparkles in the sunlight. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Hannah’s new coat arrived in the mail today. I haven’t gotten a coat for a dog since I was a child (and my dog immediately escaped and “lost” it) but I bought this for Hannah because she had been starved by her previous owners and had no fat to keep her warm. It took several weeks for the coat to arrive because it came all the way from China. I didn’t realize that when I ordered it. I was a bit concerned that it wouldn’t fit her, but it fits just fine and is actually of better quality than I thought it would be, especially since I paid less than $20 for it.
Hannah didn’t seem quite sure of it when I first put it on her, but she’s getting used to it. I think she looks like a proper Michigan dog in her Nordic coat–and I hope it will keep her warm on our cold winter days.
Eight deer came to our feeders today. They always arrive in the late afternoon when I’m busy making supper so I can’t sit and enjoy them as much as I would like. They usually get spooked by my movement, but I got to observe them for a few minutes.
Early this morning I finally brought myself to get rid of Miss Madeline Meadow’s dead squirrel. It was gross because she had been eating it. I tried not to look too closely at it when I scooped it up with a shovel and threw it out near the edge of the forest. This afternoon when I walked through the garage to go out and shut the poultry in the coop for the night, I saw that Madeline had brought the tail back inside. She was gnawing on a bit of flesh that was still attached to the tail. Yuck.
Madeline’s Surprise
I had an interrupted night of sleep.
First, I heard Hannah jump off the bed to welcome JJ home from work. I often wait up for JJ, but not if he gets home too late. Last night he didn’t get home until midnight. I’m rather glad that Hannah disturbs me when JJ gets home so that I know that he arrived safely.
I fell back to sleep and then woke when the fan suddenly shut off. We always have a fan on at night because EJ suffers from tinnitus and he can’t sleep when there is complete silence. He was awakened by the silencing of the fan as well. My first thought was “Oh, crap! We’ve lost our power!” But the clock was still on so I figured that a cat must have unplugged the fan–and I was correct. We got the fan plugged back in and the went back to sleep.
I woke a few more times when I tried to shift my position. It’s not easy shifting positions at night because we are wedged in with animals. Hannah sleeps near the foot of the bed. Kee-Kee sleeps on the pillow above my head. Often Timmy sleeps on top of me. I was aware that Little Bear was sleeping between EJ and me. The only inside animal that was not in bed with us was Luke, who still does not like Hannah. I often exclaim that Luke has gone over to the Dark Side of the Force. He doesn’t just hiss and occasionally swat at Hannah. He seems to delight in positioning himself where near Hannah and then hissing and swatting her. I tell Luke that we aren’t getting rid of him and we aren’t getting rid of Hannah so he is just going to have to adjust to her.
This afternoon Hannah wanted outside–for the millionth time. Sometimes I suspect that she wants out only so she can get a treat. I’m trying to teach her to walk with me and to go to the porch on command, and she gets treats for doing so. If Hannah wants out too many times, I start telling her “No, no, I’m not taking you outside!” but she can be very insistent. She starts by sitting next to my floor staring at me and make low grunts, and eventually gets into my lap where I can’t ignore her.
Hannah got so insistent that I finally sighed, got up, and put my winter coat, hat, boots, and mittens on. I was putting the leash on Hannah when I noticed that Josette was outside on the porch. I thought, “This is not going to go well…” because they haven’t encountered each other before. I wasn’t sure how Josette would react. I shortened Hannah’s leash and opened the door. Josette was right outside the door, but she wasn’t scared of Hannah at all. She just greeted Hannah as if they were old friends, and Hannah happily greeted her, and everything was fine. Josette could teach Luke a thing or two about making friends.
Every afternoon I clean out the litter boxes–both in the house and in the garage. I swear that half of my day is spent caring for animals. Not that I mind. Yesterday I took my bucket out to the garage, scooped out the clumps in the litter box, turned around, and was scared half to death by the sight of Miss Madeline Meadows’ latest kill. She always brings her kills into the garage and puts them on the mat near her food bowl. I’m getting used to the various mice, voles, and shrews that she leaves there, but I was completely startled to find a large Fox Squirrel. Squirrels are quick and I’ve heard that they can be vicious fighters so I have no idea how Madeline managed to kill one. And it must have been quite a feat carrying the body into the garage when it’s almost as large as she is.
I like that Madeline is a good mouser, but I hate it when she kills squirrels or birds. Fortunately, she doesn’t kill many of them. Although I hate it, I figure that she’s doing what a cat naturally does–just as any predator does. I remember watching documentaries about various animals, and I always rooted for the animal being featured. If it was a mouse, I was glad that it had gotten away from the fox, or wolf, or hawk. If a fox (or wolf or hawk) was featured, I felt bad when its meal escaped and it went hungry. It’s a harsh world out there and everyone’s got to eat. Madeline doesn’t go hungry if she doesn’t catch her prey, but she is still a predator with a hunter’s instinct. And she does keep the population of rodents down. I’ve read that chickens sleep so soundly at night that mice in the coop will sometimes chew off their toes. That’s not good.
The Day of the Squirrels
Our weather has turned cold again. I was worried about the roads and our driveway becoming super slippery when all the slush froze, but it hasn’t been that bad. Whew.
We adopted Hannah Joy from the county animal control shelter two days before Christmas. The shelter had just enough microchips for the dog adopted before us, but not enough for us, so we weren’t able to get Hannah microchipped. The shelter called EJ on Thursday to tell him that they had gotten more so on Friday JJ drove us to the animal shelter. Fortunately, JJ didn’t have to work that day, and his new college semester doesn’t begin until this Tuesday, so he was free to take us. Hannah has not yet learned to sit quietly in the car so I didn’t want to have to try taking her by myself. The people at the shelter were all very glad to see Hannah. They exclaimed at how good she’s looking, and they gave her lots of lovings, and they also gave her a treat, which she loved.
JJ had to work today–as he does every weekend. EJ and I spent a quiet day at home. We especially enjoyed watching all the activity at the birdfeeder.
First, we had an invasion of squirrels. I counted nine of them at the birdfeeder! That is the most squirrels that I’ve ever seen at one time. They were scampering all over the place, eating the seeds from the feeders and ground. I know that a lot of people hate the squirrels coming to their feeders, but I figure that, hey, all the critters need to eat, and I enjoy seeing the different animals that visit. One little squirrel found his (or her?) way into the lantern feeder, which I thought was very cute.
In addition to the squirrels, three deer showed up. These three are our most frequent visitors. By the time they showed up, there were only two squirrels at the feeder. They didn’t seem spooked by the deer. Sometimes the deer stay for quite a while, but this afternoon they didn’t stay long. I think it was probably because EJ was trying to see if one deer was a male who had lost his antlers. If we move too much in the house, we make the deer nervous.
Finally, Miss Madeline Meadows, our sweet serial killer cat, showed up at the feeders. She lurked under the feeder for a while, chittered at the birds, and even climbed the post. However, she was unsuccessful at catching any of them and she finally wandered off. I am glad when she kills a mouse, shrew, or vole, but don’t want her killing birds. Fortunately, she’s more successful at killing the rodents than the birds.
I have watched for the possum, but I only saw it that one day. After we saw the possum, I emailed the Opossum Society of the United States asking whether they were a threat to my poultry. They replied that “It could grab a chicken or duck and it would eat the whole thing, bones and all. They don’t ‘live’ anywhere, they are transient creatures and crash in the same spot 2-4 days in a row, then move on. They may repeat the cycle, staying at your house in another couple of weeks or so. In a large area, I have recommended deploying either human male or coyote urine on the perimeter to discourage ALL wildlife of a size to grab your chickens. Wouldn’t work on anything bigger than a coyote, though.” I think coyotes and raccoons are a greater threat, and my poultry is safe in their coop at night, so I’m not all that worried if I see a possum.
The R.O.U.S.
The temperatures have risen into the mid-40s. It’s so warm that I’m tempted to wear a jacket instead of a coat. The snow is melting rapidly and I can see patches of bare ground in places–mostly where we’ve snowblowed or walked paths in the snow. When I was a child, we called this warmup “The January Thaw” because it usually happened every mid-January. The snow would melt, forming large puddles and small ponds. Our large side yard always flooded. When the weather turned cold again and froze the water, we had a nice little ice rink. I don’t remember having actual skates, but we’d go “skating” on the ice by sliding in our boots. It was fun.
On our hilltop house in Northern Michigan, I view the thaw with a bit more dread. It’s better if the weather remains cold and snowy until Spring because when the melted snow re-freezes, our steep, winding driveway becomes treacherously slippery–as do the roads. In fact, even though it’s in the upper 40s and the snow is melting, I had to walk carefully to get the mail because the slush was slippery. The US National Weather Service says that we will get rain today and then temperatures will drop significantly tonight and dangerously cold wind chills will be back for Saturday morning. EJ is at work and JJ is spending the day with his girlfriend. I’ve reminded both of them that they might want to park at the bottom of the driveway when they get home this evening.
Late yesterday afternoon–I think at about 5 p.m., more or less–I happened to glance out the living room window and saw a large possum eating the vegetable peelings I had thrown out there for the deer. It probably wasn’t a good idea to throw the veggies out there since it could attract critters like possums, raccoons, and skunks, but I thought the deer would eat them. They didn’t. Oh, well, live and learn. Besides, it was also eating the seeds that had fallen from the birdfeeder. The possum went under the deck but we saw it periodically throughout the evening.
I called to JJ to come and look and he said that the possum could be a threat to the poultry. EJ said the same thing when he got home, adding that it might hurt the cats as well. EJ began to make plans to get rid of the possum.
I follow a blog called “The Backyard Birdlady.” Amazingly, I found an email in my inbox last night notifying me that she had written a new post. That’s not amazing part. What is amazing is that her post was called Fall in Love with a Possum | Nature’s Clean Up Crew. Within her post was a link to the Opossum Society of the United States. I don’t know much about possums, so I ready the Backyard Birdlady’s post and the Opossum Society’s website to learn about them.
JJ called the possum a “huge rat.” I laughed that, no, it’s not a rat, it’s actually a R.O.U.S.–or Rodent of Unusual Size–which is a reference to the huge rats in the fire swamp in the movie The Princess Bride. Actually, the possum is neither a rat nor a R.O.U.S. The Birdlady wrote that “They are North Americas only marsupial, meaning they have a pouch to carry their babies in after they are born. When baby possums are born, they are only about the size of a bee; they crawl up into their mother’s pouch, live and nurse in her warmth for about two months. Kangaroos and Wallabies, Koala Bears, Wombats and Tasmanian Devils are also marsupials, however, these guys live mostly in Austrailia and the surrounding islands. Once they are about two months old, they ride on Mom’s back as she travels around in search of food.” The Birdlady also wrote that “They eat both plants and animals. Their diet consists of mice, lizards, earthworms, snails, spiders, snakes, fruit, nuts, seeds, and carrion (dead animals or roadkill). They are considered a ‘gardeners friend’ as they eat the fallen, rotting fruit from the trees in your yard and the unwanted pests in our yard. Just one possum can eat up to 5000 ticks a year, helping to protect humans from Lyme disease. They are quite literally Nature’s Little Clean-up Crew!”
At the Opossum Society of the United States website, I read:
By nature opossums are non-aggressive, non-destructive and do not pose a threat to humans. However, when threatened they will attempt to defend themselves. Our best advice is to enjoy watching the opossums, but leave them alone.
LEAVE THE OPOSSUMS ALONE
Opossums should be allowed to live in their natural habitat. They are opportunistic animals and will often move into an area that has been damaged and then vacated by another animal. Unfortunately, the opossum is usually blamed for the damage.
DO NOT TRAP
Opossums are transient animals, staying only 2-3 days in an area before moving on. Removal is neither necessary nor desirable. Wildlife experts agree that if opossums were eliminated from an area, the population of roof rats and other pests would proliferate.
OTHER OPTIONS
If you find an opossum continues to return to your area, try eliminating the things that are attracting it. Clear away bushes, woodpiles and other hiding places, pick up fallen fruit from trees, and do not leave pet food out over night. Try leaving an outdoor light on at night.
I also learned that while possums might go after eggs or young chickens, they seem to not be as much of a threat to poultry as coyotes, raccoons, and other predators. They seem to co-exist peacefully with cats. I like the fact that they go after spiders, rats, and ticks, none of which I like.
After I read this information, my concerns dissipated and I was able to enjoy observing the possum when it returned later in the evening. When I shared the information with EJ, he also changed his mind about the possum being a threat. However, JJ was unconvinced and even after I told him what I had learned, he said we should kill “the huge rat.” I said “Absolutely not. Look at it. It’s interesting and rather cute.” Then I exclaimed, “Hey! You stopped me when I wanted to smash the huge, utterly scary-looking wolf spiders, telling me that they were outside in their territory and deserved to live. Yet you want to kill the possum, which is very beneficial and far cuter than a wolf spider?? You, my dear, are a hypocrite!”
Thanks to the Backyard Birdlady and the Opossum Society of the United States, the possum will live and we get to enjoy another fascinating creature at our bird feeders.
Hannah Joy makes me laugh. She is so different from Danny was. But that’s ok. I mean, one of the reasons I was able to get a new dog so soon after losing my beloved Danny is that I don’t expect a new dog to be the same as the old one. I miss Danny terribly–my heart squeezes every time I think of him or see a photo of him–and yet I enjoy Hannah at the same time. I appreciate that when Hannah goes outside to “do her business,” she’s quick and we are back in the house within minutes. I used to have to wait for a long time in freezing cold for Danny. It wasn’t his fault. When he was younger, he escaped his fence and got hit by a van. The van actually ran over his tail, but it stretched out his spine so he had trouble going poop. Sometimes it got messy back there and I’d have to wash his behind–something we both hated, but which I did because I loved Danny. Danny used to wait very, very patiently for me and only asked to go outside when he saw I wasn’t busy. I thought that was extremely considerate of him. When Hannah wants something, she wants it NOW, and she lets me know it quite clearly and insistently. In this video, she has been trying for several minutes to get my attention. I’ve ignored her so she’s getting a little bit more impatient.
The Snow Dragon
JJ arrived home from work last night at almost 11 p.m. I had waited up for him, and the first thing he said to me when he came in the door was, “Wow, Mom, what happened in the driveway? It’s all tore up and the snow fence is torn to pieces.”
This is what happened:
EJ was driving up the driveway after a long day of work. He was almost at the top when suddenly a fierce northern Snow Dragon descended upon him from where it had been lurking in the Enchanted Forest. I think the warmer temperatures woke it. It grabbed the suburban, with EJ inside, in its powerful jaws and pulled him back down the driveway. EJ tried with all his skill to escape–and he almost made it!–but the Snow Dragon grabbed him again and pulled him even further back down the driveway. The Snow Dragon shook the suburban from side to side, plowing deep furrows in the snow, and flung it into the snow fence, breaking the fence and bending the posts. The suburban finally came to a stop sideways across the driveway, not far from the sign I made which says “No Ogres, Orcs, Goblins” but which does NOT say “No Dragons”–because, you know, not all dragons are bad. I would welcome a good dragon.
I saw EJ’s epic battle with the Snow Dragon from the kitchen window so I bundled up and bravely went out to help. We fought with various weapons, some of which I had brought down with me on the toboggan. We slipped several times, fell a couple of times, but we finally freed the Suburban. EJ didn’t attempt to drive back up the driveway. We didn’t want to attract the attention of the Snow Dragon again, so he parked at the bottom of the driveway not far from the Magic Box, and then we trudged in weary triumph up to the house and enjoyed a homemade venison pie and some ale.
I didn’t think that JJ would believe that this is what really happened, so instead I told him a boring tale about yesterday’s warm temperatures melting the snow just enough to make the driveway very slick. His Dad almost made it up to the house, but he suddenly lost traction and the suburban slid down the driveway. He almost freed himself, but slid again, and the suburban finally ended up sideways across the driveway near my Enchanted Forest sign. Together, EJ and I dug out the suburban from the snow with shovels, kitty litter, boards, and the snowblower. Rather than try to make another attempt to drive up to the house, EJ parked at the bottom of the driveway. When we got back to the house, we enjoyed the venison pie I had made with some ginger ale. We texted JJ warning him to park at the bottom of the driveway and walk up to the house. I waited up for JJ to make sure he made it safely into the house.
This is the first year that we’ve tried to put up a snow fence. We are finding it to be quite useless to do anything except get in our way. We are thinking that maybe next year we will just put up wooden posts with reflective tape or paint on them to mark the sides of our driveway. When we get heavy snow, it’s actually kind of difficult to find the edges of the driveway.
This morning JJ sledded down the driveway to where he had parked the Buggy and drove off to spend the day with his girlfriend. After he left, I snowblowed the driveway. There really wasn’t much snow–except for the deep furrows EJ made trying to escape the Snow Dragon–but we are expecting even warmer temperatures for the next few days, and as much as possible I want to prevent slushy furrows from freezing into icy ruts when the cold temperature returns.
When I finished snowblowing the driveway, I put the snowblower away and then walked Hannah down to the bottom of the driveway to retrieve the sled that JJ had left near the sign. I was surveying the good job I had done clearing the driveway when a county snow plow went by, flooding the end of the driveway with a huge tsunami wave of snow. I yelled an agonizing “NOOOOOOOO! Curse you, you Terrible Snow Beast!” Ok, I didn’t really yell or curse them (although I might have whimpered) because they were only doing their job, and I’m thankful that they keep the roads cleared, but for the briefest moment I was a trifle horrified that they had messed up my work. I went and looked at the end of the driveway and it’s not really all that bad, even though the snow plow really did make an impressive tsunami wave of snow as it went by.
JJ’s sled probably has bite marks on it now. Hannah either really liked JJ’s sled or she hated it, she was either trying to be helpful or she was trying to defeat the sled–I’m not quite sure which. As I dragged the sled up the driveway, she kept grabbing in her mouth and trying to pull it. I couldn’t keep it away from her. Of course, it’s also possible that I had a tug of war with a werewolf–perhaps even Northern Michigan’s famous Dogman. But no one would believe that story.
Eventually I’d like to see if I can teach Hannah to go sledding with me and maybe I can even teach her to take the sled back up to the house.
We might be parking at the bottom of the driveway until the weather turns colder this weekend. It’s so much better for us if we don’t get winter thaws. We can deal with snow, but ice makes our driveway monstrously slippery.
The Joy of Hannah
We had some really cold days and nights here. EJ said that one morning our thermostat said -6. On that morning it wasn’t long before my face and hands starting hurt when I went out to do my morning chores. I tried to blow a few bubbles but it still wasn’t cold enough for them to freeze. Bummer.
Hannah Joy has been a lot of fun and she is bringing us a lot of joy. I think we named her well.
Last night EJ and I laughed so hard. Hannah was fast asleep on my lap when EJ sneezed really hard. She woke up, raced over to EJ’s chair, and I swear she was about to give him CPR. She looked really concerned, but EJ told her that he was ok. So she came back and settled down on my lap. Then EJ sneezed again and Hannah leaped up, raced over to him, and again looked as if she was going to rescue him. EJ sneezed multple times, and every time he did, she raced over to him. He even went into the bathroom and when Hannah heard him sneeze, she leaped off my lap and raced in to check on him. For a while she kept close beside him as if she was very worried. I haven’t managed yet to get this on video because by the time I get out my camera, it’s all over. I told EJ that he needs to alert me before he sneezes. I remember when JJ was a baby and he would cry whenever his Daddy sneezed. Hannah is completely unconcerned when I sneeze.
Hannah Joy’s has a box of toys. She knows the box is filled with her toys and sheoften goes over to it to get out her favorite toys. She loves playing fetch. We throw the ball into the kitchen and she races after it and brings it back, but she hates letting go of the ball. She gets a bit tricky because sometimes she will let the ball go but when I move my hand to take it, she grabs it back. I would reward her with a treat whenever she dropped it into my hand, but when she sees I have a treat, she loses all interest in playing fetch. I have to come up with some other plan. Hannah also loves to play tug-of-war with her rope toy. She’s fun to play with.
Hannah communicates her wishes very clearly. I have to laugh because if I ignore her, she gives a short little growly grunt to get my attention.
Hannah is doing very well with her Hebrew lessons–especially when I tell her to wait while I put her food bowl down and not eating until I tell her it’s ok to eat. I am amazed at how quickly she is learning this, especially considering that her previous owners had starved her. When we first adopted Hannah from the shelter, she was absolutely frantic about food and would jump as we carried her bowl and surge forward to get to her food before we could even put the bowl on the floor. Here is a video showing how well she is doing now:
Hannah is a joy. She’s helping us get through the grief of losing Danny.
Piper and Hannah Joy
Piper, the amazing Cherry Capital Airport dog who chased wildlife away from the runways so planes could take off and land safely, died of cancer last night. He was loved so much by the community that the whole Traverse City area is grieving his loss. Piper actually became an Internet celebrity a year or so ago. Here is a CBS News report about him:
I feel very sad about Piper’s death–maybe because Danny so recently died of cancer. I feel bad for Brian, Piper’s owner, because it I know that it really hurts to lose a beloved pet. Cancer really sucks.
Early yesterday afternoon some relatively heavy snow moved in. The forecast said we could get 5-10 inches of snow. I was indecisive about whether or not to snowblow the driveway. On the one hand, I didn’t have to hurry to clear the driveway for the mail lady since the mail had already arrived. Also, snowblowing the driveway so late in the day would just mean that the driveway would get covered again if it snowed during the night and I would have to clear the driveway again the next morning so my efforts would feel wasted. Of course, on the other hand, it would be harder to snowblow if the snow got too deep and deep snow could potentially cause problems for the guys when they left in the morning. I think that what really made me decide to snowblow–besides the accumulating snow–was that the meteorologists were saying that the temperatures could get dangerously low on Friday. They say that in such cold, frostbite can occur within 30 minutes. It takes me 1.5 to 2 hours to snowblow the driveway. I didn’t really want to get frostbitten. So I bundled up and went to work.
I had cleared the bottom half of the driveway when a cable came unfastened and the auger on the snowblower quit working, which means the snowblower stopped blowing snow. I took the snowblow back up to the garage. EJ easily fixed the problem when he got home and then he finished clearing the top half of the driveway in the dark. I would have helped–or done it all myself–because EJ was tired from work and not feeling particularly well, but he just went ahead and did it. He didn’t snowblow up near the house so I finished that bit this morning.
I realized that we had forgotten to put up our board measuring how many feet of snow we have before winter. Actually, we don’t ever take it down, but last summer we needed the post it was attached to elsewhere and we never got around to putting up a new measuring stick somewhere else. I decided that I really would like to have a way to measure the snow, so yesterday I painted some wooden numbers and this morning I attached them to the bird house post near the rocks. I didn’t know if the “liquid nails” glue I used would work in such cold weather, but it set almost immediately. In the few minutes that it took to glue the letters on the post, my hands were aching with the cold. Brrrr.
Although it’s been cold, it hasn’t been as bad for us as other areas of Michigan or the country. The south of the country–as far south as Florida–is currently getting cold and snowy weather. I think they suffer more from it because they don’t have the warm clothes or snow removal equipment that we do in the North.
I have spent several mornings figuring out what Hebrew words to teach Hannah. I finally thought of googling “Hebrew Dog Commands” and found a list that the IDF uses to train their dogs. I’m using some of their commands–such as “wait” and “go outside” and “let go” but I am also substituting some of my own commands. For example, I’m not using their word for heel–which literally means “to the foot.” Instead, I’m using a Hebrew word meaning “with me” because I want Hannah Joy to walk with me. As far as I can tell, the IDF doesn’t use gender specific words, which only makes sense because they want to be able to give a command applicable to any dog whether male or female. I’m using some feminine words but some not–especially if I’m not sure of what the feminine form is or I’m not sure of the pronunciation.
I also have to decide whether to use an English or Hebrew word, and which Hebrew word to use. For example, Hannah already knows “sit,” “shake” and “fetch” in English. Do I stick with those or teach her the Hebrew words? And if I teach her a Hebrew word, I have to decide which to use. For example, I could teach Hannah the Hebrew word for “hand” (yad) when I want her to shake my hand or I could teach her “shalom” or some other greeting. Some commands are better in Hebrew so only we can tell her to do something, but other commands might be better in English so she can interact with others–such as shake their hands or play fetch with them. And some words are just more automatic in English–I could teach Hannah “good dog” in Hebrew, but find myself saying it in English without thinking about it.
I think it’s going to be easier for Hannah to learn the Hebrew words than for us because I have to first decide on and find the words, teach them to myself and EJ, and then remember them to tell Hannah. I have made cards of the Hebrew words and their phonetic pronunciation and stuck them in strategic places around the house to help EJ and me learn and remember. I made cards of the few words I am currently teaching Hannah as well as cards for words that I might teach her–because it’s easier to make all the cards of words that I might use rather than having to go back and find them later.
It’s really fun learning the Hebrew words and teaching Hannah. She is actually doing quite well. I tell her to “wait” for me to put her food own down and eat only when I tell her to, and while we have lots of work to do, she’s doing quite well when you consider how hungrily she went after her food when we first brought her home. And she is learning to walk “with me,” sort of. It’s difficult to get her to walk for long beside me because she wants to get in front of me to get her reward/treat. She’s making progress.
Hannah Joy is such a delight. She has such a personality. It’s really nice to have a dog in my life.
Hannah Joy Learns Hebrew
Happy 2018!
EJ and I didn’t stay up to see the old year turn into the new one. I think we went to bed at 10:30 or 11 pm. We becoming old geezers. Oh, well.
As soon as I got out of bed this morning, I got on my coat, hat, boots, and mittens and took Hannah outside. When we got back inside the house, I fed her and then the cats–first the inside ones and then the outside ones. As soon as it began to get light outside, I went out to care for the ducks and chickens. Then I put refilled the bird feeders with seed for the wild birds–and the deer. After I came inside, I took my shower, and then I poured myself a large mug of eggnog, which we had bought as a New Year’s treat. I set the mug on the table next to my chair, sat down to relax for a few minutes–and then Hannah decided to jump into my lap. She accidentally knocked my mug off the table and the eggnog spilled into my purse. UGH! I had to quickly wipe off my checkbooks and a book and set them up to dry so the pages wouldn’t stick. I wiped off pens and pencils, a comb….everything! Then I rinsed out my purse and put it in the dryer to get dry. What a mess!
JJ had promised his girlfriend that he would pick up some poultry feed for her at the farm store because he goes by it every day that he works or go to school. She has four chickens. He asked me if I would go with him. I really just wanted to stay home today, but I remembered that EJ wanted some oranges so I told JJ I would go to TSC with him if he would stop at Meijers, which is not far from TSC. We passed two bad accidents–one on the way to the stores and one on the way back. Yikes! If I had known it was so slippery, I for sure wouldn’t have left home–but JJ drove well. We bought the poultry feed, we bought the oranges and a few other things, and we got home safely.
While we were gone, EJ went ice fishing. He caught a few fish, he says, but he let them go because they were on the small side. Mostly this was a test trip to begin learning where the fish are in the lake.
Because she was starved by her previous owner, Hannah Joy has been very frantic about food. At first she would leap around while we were trying to feed her and we could barely put the bowl down on the floor before she was gobbling it down. She is getting much more calmer now, but we are trying to teach her to sit while we put her food bowl on the floor and only begin eating when we tell her that she can. Our dilemma has been trying to decide what word to use to tell her to begin eating. Words like “eat” or “dinner” or “ok” or “food” are words we use all the time in conversation so they might be confusing to her. We decided that we needed to use a unique word that we don’t use very often. I suddenly decided that since I’m trying to learn Hebrew, I would teach Hannah the Hebrew word for “eat.”
But why stop there? Today I noticed that when I took her outside, she went to the door of the suburban, apparently wondering if we were going for a drive. So I decided to teach her the Hebrew word for “walk” for when we are going for a walk and “travel” for when we are going for a drive. And I came up with other words to eventually teach her as well, although I decided to stick with the English words for “sit” and “shake” and “fetch” since she already knows them.
The hardest part is trying to decide which form of the words to teach her. Each Hebrew root word has masculine and feminine forms so if you are addressing a male you use one form and if you are addressing a female you use another, and there are masculine and feminine forms for singular and plural words, and past or future tenses. It sounds very complicated and it sort of is. There are a lot of different forms to learn, although it is logical once you understand it.
EJ said that I should keep the words simple–not only for Hannah’s sake, but also for us who have to try to remember the Hebrew commands. At one time I knew the words and their various forms, but my friend and I haven’t studied Hebrew regularly since JJ was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and we have forgotten a lot. We are trying to get back into Hebrew because we really, really, really want to learn it, but life keeps interfering with our studies. Teaching Hebrew words to Hannah might help me remember more Hebrew. I just have to decide whether to use the correct feminine form of words like “eat” or “walk” or “travel”–because Hannah is a girl–or just stick with the basic root words, which are easier to remember but are actually singular words used when addressing a male. I think I might stick with the easier but incorrect forms, but I haven’t totally decided yet.
EJ and I both thought it would be interesting, and fun, and handy to teach Hannah Hebrew words. It might seem weird to teach Hebrew to a dog but, if you think about it, not every dog in the world knows English. Each dog learns the language of its owner. Israeli dogs have no trouble learning Hebrew so I think Hannah shouldn’t have much trouble with it. She’s very smart.
Tomorrow EJ goes back to work. This week of vacation went by much, much, much too quickly.
Winter Bubbles
Happy New Year’s!
It’s hard to believe that it’s already (almost) 2018. I remember when we were kids, my siblings and I would calculate how completely ancient we would be in the year 2000. I remember all the hoopla as 2000 arrived–what with the Y2K scare and all. And now it’s already 2018 and I am 18 years past ancient. Ha ha!
EJ said our thermometer registered -3 degrees when we got up this morning. It’s so cold that the snow squeaks when we walk on it. Brrrr! But it was far better than the -20 temperatures at a nearby town. EJ says that the clouds and the fact that we live on a hill kept our temperatures from going so low. It snowed very little today so we didn’t have to snowblow the driveway. The National Weather Service is forecasting more lake effect snow and colder air later this week.
We had so much snow yesterday that our medieval castle birdhouse transformed into a onion-domed Russian winter palace. It was rather pretty.
We had heard that if you blow bubbles in low temperatures, they will freeze. So after I took care of the animals this morning, EJ and I went outside with our bubble stuff, and tried it out:
As you can see, our bubbles didn’t freeze. We will try again when we get colder temperatures. I think it would be interesting to see bubbles freeze.
A few weeks ago EJ bought a toboggan at Goodwill. It is a really nice one with cushions and everything. Late this afternoon we sledded together on it down the driveway. We were going to go down on it a second time so I could video it–I go so fast on the plastic sleds that I can’t manage to steer the sled and operate the camera at the same time. However, my hands were hurting from the cold so we went inside to warm up. After we warmed up, we went back out, but this time I sledded down on a sled and then videoed EJ sledding down on the toboggan. The toboggan goes slower than the plastic sleds.
The deer have been coming to the bird feeders almost every evening now. Of course, they come during the night as well, but I don’t see them then. I know that they’ve visited because the feeders are empty in the morning. Usually a Mama comes with her two little ones. Sometimes another adult female visits as well but usually the Mama chases her away.
Yesterday we bought snack food and today I spent several hours making homemade pizzas. I made a double batch, which resulted in one large pizza and two smaller ones. Our New Year’s Eve tradition is to stay at home and eat pizza and a variety of snack foods–chips, pretzels, Doritos, etc.–as we welcome in the new year. Sometimes we’ve had movie marathons–like watching the Lord of the Rings or Star Wars movies. At midnight we watch the ball drop and yell out the door, “Happy New Year!” JJ has a supply of fireworks which he saves from July 4th celebrations and he fires off a few. Tonight is going to be quieter: JJ had to work today from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and he is going to his girlfriend’s house afterwards to welcome in the new year with her. I’m doubt that EJ and I will stay up for the new year. It matters less and less to us as we get older. A good night’s sleep matters more. We are enjoying our quiet evening eating pizza and chips, snuggling with the animals, and reading, writing, and surfing the ‘net.
What traditions do you have?
Hannah Joy’s Enchanted Collar
We took Hannah Joy to the veterinarian yesterday afternoon. The vet checked her over, gave her a couple vaccines, and answered our questions about feeding her. This vet works closely with the county animal shelter, which is just down the street, so she was familiar with Hannah and the other two dogs who were rescued with her. She told us that we should wait for two months before we get Hannah spayed because she needs to increase her muscle mass before she undergoes anesthesia. When a dog (or a person, for that matter), is starved, her body consumes first the fat and then starts consuming muscle mass. Hannah is increasing in weight, but the vet said it will take longer to increase her muscle mass.
It was snowing very hard when I got out of bed this morning. EJ estimates that we got about a foot of new snow. I had to shovel the snow away from the gates to the poultry pens before I entered. As soon as I open the coop door in the mornings, the ducks usually go outside, heading for the little pool, which I fill before I open the doors. This morning the snow was so deep that the ducks looked as if they were swimming in the snow. It was rather humorous.
As the sun rose, it revealed a beautiful snow-covered landscape. Every now and then some of the snow would get dislodge from the trees and it would fall in an avalanche. The raised garden beds are all covered with their snowy blankets. I don’t think anything is more beautiful than a snowy landscape. I feel sorry for people who live in warmer climates and don’t get to experience the beauty of winter.
The mail lady won’t deliver our mail if there is too much snow so not long after JJ left for work, EJ and I walked down the driveway with shovels to quickly shovel out the mailbox. With his shovel slung over his shoulder, I thought EJ looked like a dwarf marching off to the gold mines.
As soon as we got back to the house, EJ got out the snowblower and began clearing the deep snow from the rest of the driveway. With his little snowblower tractor, our neighbor cleared the end of the driveway for us where the big snowplows push the snow as they plow the roads. That’s a big help. I took a turn with the snowblower after a bit, and then EJ took over from me. I was going to back out for another turn, but I couldn’t get the laundry room door open and my boots and mittens were in there. EJ got it open when he finished the snowblowing. The knob was ruined by he said that he had noticed that the door was getting wonky this morning so he would have had to replace the door knob anyway.
Hannah’s new collar arrived in the mail today. It is well-made and looks beautiful on her. The collar was made by a Etsy store called Fairy Tale Collars and it looks as if it totally belongs to a dog who lives in an Enchanted Forest. I told Hannah that it is a magical elvish collar and as long as she wears it, she will never be unloved.
EJ and I had to go to the hardware and grocery stores. We wanted to both go into the stores together and we didn’t want to leave Hannah in the cold car so we left her home alone for the first time. Hannah looked through the window forlornly when we got into the suburban without her, but she did fine at home.
As we shopped, I had an increasingly painful stomach ache. I was glad to get home. I was sick for most of the evening, but I’m feeling better now. I am assuming it was something I ate. Ugh.
JJ said he got a letter of appreciation and a plaque recognizing the good job he is doing at work. He had to work until 10 p.m. tonight. We got a lot of snow in our county, but the county where JJ works got tons. He said that they were getting four inches of snow an hour. He called when he left work and said there was about three feet of snow on his car. We are waiting for him to get home now.
Holiday Week
This week is zooming by. I wouldn’t have minded if it had slowed down a bit so we could savor EJ being home. It didn’t, and it’s already Friday.
Wednesday EJ finally got his new eye glasses. He chose bolder glasses for the first time–his glasses have color rather than just being gold wire frames. They had been ready for several weeks, but EJ had trouble getting to the eye doctor’s office to pick them up because they closed before he got out of work. With time off for the Christmas holiday, he finally was able to go get them. The journey to the eye doctor was quite an adventure. With the wind blowing the snow about, we couldn’t see very far ahead and, brrrr, it was cold! However, the snow-covered landscape was beautiful, and EJ got us safely to our destination and back home again.
Tuesday evening I realized that Hannah wanted to play. Sort of a “no-brainer” but it’s been a long time since we have had a young dog and even when he was young, Danny had always preferred to go for walks. He wasn’t a fetching sort of dog. When we threw a ball to him, he just looked at us with a “Uh….no” expression on his face. When I realized that Hannah wanted to play, I went out into the garage to find her a couple tennis balls and she happily played fetch–we would throw a ball out into the kitchen and she’d run to get it and bring it back. She gets her ball out when she wants to play and brings it to us. Hannah quickly demolished the tennis balls so after picking up EJ’s glasses on Wednesday, we stopped at the store to buy her a couple dog toys. She is mangling these too so I ordered a couple of balls on Amazon that are, supposedly, for “aggressive chewers” and are “indestructible.” We shall see.
After we got back home, I made more pot pies with the remainder of the turkey. I made the filling and the pie dough, and then Hannah Joy needed to go outside so I stopped my work to take her out. She got back into the house before I did and went after the pie dough, pulling the bowl down from the counter. We pulled her away and EJ took her into the living room so I could finish the pot pies (making new dough), but she snuck through the kitchen into the laundry room and went after the garbage, which put in there to keep it from Hannah. I probably forgot to shut the door when I realized Hannah had grabbed the pie bowl. In spite of these incidences, we do notice that she’s getting less frantic about food. She’s also gaining some weight, which is very good.
At home Hannah follows me everywhere, sits on my lap, sleeps with us, and is just soaking in all the attention she is receiving. We just love her! We have also been taking Hannah with us when we go places. At first we took her with us because we weren’t sure how she or the cats would handle being left alone together. Although Luke is still hissing, I now think Hannah would be fine left alone, but it’s just fun taking her with us. She loves looking out the window as we drive and people watching when we are parked. If we have to go into a store, one of us stays with her. She is very alert and intensely curious about everything.
Yesterday we finally had a break from all the snow so EJ snowblowed the driveway again. I offered to take a turn, but EJ says that I have to snowblow the driveway often enough so he would do it while he’s home. We live in a snow belt area (with a lot of storms) and we also get a lot of Lake Effect snow, which is caused by the moisture from the (relatively) warm water of Lake Michigan. The warm water also helps prevent the temperatures from getting as cold as other areas. Other areas are below zero, but we are in the single digits or teens. Once Lake Michigan cools, we will get less lake effect snow and colder temps.
Last Sunday we bought a dog kennel because we had plans to go to the Star Wars movie on Christmas day and didn’t know how Hannah would react to being home alone so soon after bringing her home from the animal shelter. (We ended up not going to the movie because the weather was bad.) Although we think Hannah would be fine alone now, we don’t consider the kennel is a waste. Last night EJ and I set up the kennel in the garage and made it warm and comfy for the cats. It’s bigger than the shelter I had made from an old radio cabinet so all three outside cats can stay together in comfort. Before we had even set the kennel up, Annie was in it and when I went out to the garage later, both Annie and Josette were in it so I think they all approve.
Several days ago–maybe as early as last weekend–Madeline killed another shrew and left it on the mat near their food bowl. Every time I went into the garage, I told myself that I would get a shovel and throw the body outside. But it was very cold so I decided that I would do it the next time I was in the garage, and the next time and the next time. EJ said he told himself the same. Wednesday I finally went out to dispose of the body…and found it lying in an empty cat food can as if it had been positioned peacefully in a coffin. I led EJ into the garage to show him and even though I knew he hadn’t, I had to ask him if he put the shrew in the can. Of course he didn’t. Obviously one of the cats put it in there, although we have no idea why. JJ asked, “Why do we have such weird pets?”
I’m not sure what we are going to do this morning, but this afternoon we are taking Hannah to the vet for a checkup and shots. Oh…the last dog rescued from the same abusive home as Hannah has been adopted by a family. Yay!
Snowy Days
I hope everyone had a tremendous Christmas!
After we moved to Northern Michigan, we started a new tradition of going to the theater to watch the latest Star Wars movie on Christmas day. We were all set to do it again this year, but there was a winter storm warning out with the possibility of at least a foot of snow, blowing snow, frigid temperatures, and hazardous/impossible driving conditions. The weather in our area ended up being not that bad. We had several inches of snow, wind that swirled the snow around, cold; those north of us had it much worse. There was no way of foreseeing how bad it would be so we decided to just stay home, eat popcorn and other snacks, snuggle, and watch all three Hobbit movies. It was a good cozy day.
It was also good to stay home because we weren’t sure how Hannah Joy would handle being alone in the house with the cats, particularly with Luke who is still lurking and ambushing, and hissing and swatting Hannah. We’d like to give Hannah and the pets more time to adjust before we leave them alone.
Today was colder than yesterday with temps about 8 degrees. It was less windy than yesterday but still windy enough to blow the snow all around. EJ spent several hours snowblowing the driveway. About halfway through he took a break to eat lunch before heading out again. At the beginning of his break, I turned on my new electric kettle for some hot tea for him and began to fry him some hamburgers. I left the room for a minute and we heard a huge bang in the kitchen. We discovered that Hannah had grabbed the pan off the stove and onto the floor and was gobbling the half-cooked burger. We got her away and cleaned up the mess before she had eaten too much. I then made cooked some macaroni and mixed it in with the leftover chili to stretch it.
Poor Hannah Joy is really hungry, but because her previous owner starved her, we have to be careful not to feed her too much too soon.The animal shelter people said to only feed her about a cup of her special food four times a day or she could get bloated and die. It’s a challenge to cook or eat near her because she is prone to grab what she can. Yesterday she grabbed some of my popcorn before I could stop her. Today EJ set a bag of trash outside by the garage that had turkey bones in it and Hannah kept asking to go out and trying to pull me over to it. She didn’t stop wanting outside until she saw that we had put the bag away in the garage. In spite of her wanting more food, when I get her bowl of food and tell her to sit, she sits. In fact, after only a couple of times she didn’t even wait for me to tell her to sit–she just sits on her own. Of course, she surges forward and gulps it when I try to put the bowl on
I made her a vet appointment for Friday afternoon to get her rabies shot, etc., and I plan to talk to the vet about when we can start feeding her more. Poor girl.
It’s fun to learn Hannah Joy’s characteristics. She is very expressive about making her wants known. If I ignore her, she will get put her front legs on my chair and look at me. If I continue to ignore her, she will get onto my chair and press her forehead against mine so I can’t ignore her. I ask her if she’s trying to mind meld with me and/or communicate by telepathy. She loves to sleep on the footstool of my chair. At night she sleeps in bed with us.
I ordered Hannah a very pretty collar from Etsy. I always bought Danny a simple collar. He had so much thick fur that it was difficult to even see his collar so a pretty one would have been wasted. I’d like Hannah to have a pretty feminine collar so people look at her and see a pretty girl dog and not a scary breed. Besides, I really, really love the Nordic/Elvish look.
I also ordered a coat for Hannah. I’ve never bothered to get coats for my dogs before. When I was a child, I gave two different coats to my schnauzer-poodle mix. I can’t remember…but I think I made her one and my sister made her the second. Both times she ran off the very day we first put them on her and returned later without them. I think the coats embarrassed her. Danny’s hair was so thick that he never needed a coat to keep him warm. However, Hannah is short-haired and so starving thin–with no fat on her–that I think she could use a coat to help her keep warm if she’s out for any length of time during the cold Michigan winters. I feel bad when I take her outside in the frigid cold. I chose a blue Nordic/Elvish coat. I think blue will look awesome with Hannah’s reddish coat.
Maybe I just want to spoil Hannah Joy a little because she’s been so mistreated in her life. Or maybe I’m just so glad to have a dog again that I want to spoil her a little.
The last dog that was rescued with Hannah from the abusive owner will soon be put up for adoption. I think that he was in the worst shape of the three of them. The animal shelter said that they are working with the local veterinarian hospital to get him healthy. “He is heartworn negative, has been dewormed, has had two laser treatments on his feet and tail to get blood flowing better. He is on a special feeding regimen and pain meds as well as antibiotics. He had a check up and laser treatment today with his Doctor. She feels with the right loving home Bo can have a loving family the first of next week. He loves people, does well with other dogs and cats. He even has met horses and no problem there. He tries so hard to please! Do you know someone who would be a great family for him? He is neutered and needs an indoor life.” I don’t know how anyone can treat dogs this way. I hope this adorable little guy finds a good home soon.
The hat JJ bought for EJ arrived on Saturday. It is called a “Jayne Hat” because a character in one of our favorite TV series (called Firefly) wore it. Every time EJ wears it, we go around quoting from the series. I think EJ looks adorable in his hat.
EJ wouldn’t let me take a turn snowblowing the driveway (I suspect to give me a break) so I made a few turkey potpies this afternoon. It was difficult because I had to keep everything out of Hannah’s reach, but I managed without any mishaps. I froze two and baked one for supper. While we were eating our pot pies, four deer came to eat the seed from the birdfeeders. There was a mama with her two young-uns and another adult, which she chased off. Hannah saw them and went right up to the window and they weren’t scared of her at all. While the Mama deer was eating from the tray feeder, she pulled it and the bracket down on top of her head. It scared her and they all ran off. We will have to fasten the bracket better. Maybe EJ can do it for me with screws instead of the nails I used.
JJ had to work today. He got home about 2 p.m., changed his clothes, and then went to visit his girlfriend.
Grandma’s Feather Bed (And Darth Luke)
I hope each of you have a restful, peaceful, and delightful Christmas Day!
Last night when EJ and I got into bed, Hannah Joy jumped into bed between us. Ah, well, we let her. I’m not sure we could have prevented her, but we also let her sleep with us to keep her safe from Luke. Luke is usually the sweetest and gentlest cat, but I think he has gone over to the Dark Side. He follows Hannah and lurks in strategic places–like doorways–to hiss and swat at she when she gets close. I’m beginning to think of Luke as “Darth Luke” and I hear Darth Vader’s theme music in my head whenever I see him. The other cats and Hannah get along fine. Luke is beginning to irritate Hannah and she’s been setting him some boundaries. Hopefully they can work out a truce.
After Hannah settled on the bed between EJ and me, Kee-Kee walked up and settled in his normal spot above my head on my pillow. Then a cat came to lie at my feet and another one at EJ’s feet. I told EJ that I felt like “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” a cute song that John Denver sang. We aren’t grandparents and we don’t have a feather bed, but lying in a bed surrounded by multiple animals, I thought of the chorus describing all the kids and animals sleeping in one bed:
And a piggy we stole from the shed
We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun
On grandma’s feather bed.
Here is a Youtube video of John Denver singing the song:
This morning EJ and I drove to TSC to buy Hannah Joy a dog kennel. We had never thought we’d ever put a dog in a kennel. I never could see the sense of putting dogs in kennels unless there were special circumstances. It’s always seemed to much like “I will play with you when I feel like it, then put you away when I don’t.” Our dogs have always been a part of our family and included in every aspect of our lives. However, we are going to go to the theater tomorrow to see the new Star Wars movie, and we don’t know how Hannah will act by herself. And we also don’t know what Darth Luke will do to her. We aren’t really sure if we will actually put Hannah in the kennel or just shut her–or Luke–in a room. But at least we have the kennel if we decide to use it. When we are sure that all the animals get alone and do ok alone, we will use the kennel for other purposes.
Hannah Joy went with us and I waited in the surburban with her while EJ went into TSC. A TSC employee helped EJ load the kennel in the suburban. They got to talking about Hannah and the guy said he has raised pit bulls since he was a child. He said that actually “pit bull” is not a breed. It’s what people involved in dog fighting started calling the dogs who they put in a pit to fight. A “pit bull” is actually an American Bull Terrier. They are incredibly sweet and loyal family dogs. It’s a shame that people have given these dogs such a bad reputation. He thought Hannah was a mix–with maybe a bit of lab in her. He suggested we love the crap out of Hannah for the first month or so. (We don’t have to be told THAT.) Meeting this guy was a blessing.
Hannah Joy has been my shadow today, following me around everywhere. She jumps into my lap when I sit down and sleeps on me. She seems to be very intelligent and learns fast. She is curious about everything and very expressive. She barks when strangers approach, but isn’t yappy. She viciously protected me from the vacuum cleaner today (so I put her into the bedroom until I was finished. We feed her a cup of her special food every four hours. She gets excited when she sees her food and jumps and walks on her hind legs. We make her sit until we put the food bowl down on the floor. She understands the “sit” command. I noticed that whenever I said “sit,” she sat and stuck out her paw. I realized that she was “shaking hands.”
She’s an incredible dog and we are all very glad she has joined our family.
We are supposed to get hit with a snowstorm tonight and through tomorrow. Meteorologists have forecasted that we could get more than a foot of snow. I hope we will be able to get out to the movie tomorrow…
Introducing Hannah Joy
Despite my greatest efforts, I was unable to resist temptation. I gave in. I failed miserably….well, to be honest, I actually failed joyfully.
Yesterday our local animal shelter posted at Facebook that they would be open for adoptions from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. I couldn’t help it, I asked them if they had any medium- to large-sized dogs. They personally invited me to come visit.
So we did.
This morning.
I took along a leash–you know, just in case.
The shelter had three dogs that had all been rescued from the same place. They had been abused. They had been kept chained outside all the time and were starving. The shelter was keeping one of the three before putting her up for adoption because she was so starved that they needed to get her healthier before letting her go. When we walked back to where the dogs were, a man was calling his wife to see if she was agreeable to adopting the second dog. Like us, his previous dog recently died of cancer. In fact, his dog had the same vet we took Danny to. The man also really missed having a dog.
The third dog….well, we fell in love with the third dog.
She growled at EJ when he approached her cage. The shelter woman said that it’s probable that the dog was scared of men. We weren’t sure if she would accept EJ, but the shelter woman took the dog out of her cage, and EJ sweet talked her, and it wasn’t long before she was giving him lovings. So, of course, we adopted her. Unlike many shelters we’ve looked at–with adoption fees of $150-$200–the fees at the shelter were reasonable: $45 with a refund of $25 when we get her fixed. The shelter will microchip her, but they had run out of chips so they will call us when they get more.
The dog’s face is scarred and she was starved. She is so thin that we can see her ribs. We have to give her a special nutritional dog food for a while that we can only get from the vet. The shelter called the local vet to tell him that we and the guy adopting the other dog would be there for the dog food so he wouldn’t close before we got there. Even though our dog is starving, we can only give her a cup of food several times a day because if she eats too much, she could become bloated and die. It’s very heart-wrenching because she is totally focused on food. She constantly indicates that she wants food and tries to grab some if she can. She even ate a nut shell that fell to the floor and tried eating the seed that had fallen from the bird feeders when we took her outside. Poor thing. I tell her that it won’t be long until she can have more food.
The shelter people didn’t know how she would react to cats so that was a concern, but the dog had such a gentle face that we decided to risk it. We know it can take a while to introduce new animals so when we got our dog home, we kept her on the leash until we saw that she was ok with cats. The dog didn’t lunge at the cats and they seemed quite unafraid of her. Only Luke has hissed and swatted at her, and she is so scared of him that she jumped into my lap for protection.
We told the shelter people that we always rename our new pets. They thought that was a good idea. “She’s had a really rough life,” they said, “and she needs a new name so she can put her past behind her.” After much discussion and trying a few names, we decided to call her Hannah Joy. It seems to fit her.
Hannah Joy is about two years old (the shelter thinks). She’s a pitbull. Pitbulls have a bad reputation, but I remember when I was young and everyone was scared of German Shepherds…and then Doberman’s. There’s always one breed or another that people are scared of. I don’t think any breed is naturally mean. Our Hannah Joy has a gentle face. She is very sweet and loving. She rode on my lap almost all the way home, and keeps jumping into our laps at home. She seems to be quite obedient and makes her wishes clearly known.
We already love her.
No dog can ever replace Danny. Hannah Joy is making her own place in our hearts.
I Love To Go A Gardening 