[nagdu] Stepper's first step again

Fri Apr 2 19:41:25 UTC 2010

Mardi,

Are you sure Nala is not the same person as Daisy's Dad.  /grin/  He finally
put in for retirement, although he plans to work full time and just take a
bit more time off to enjoy his retirement...  /lol/  I totally get that.
Only after a brief period of happy calm having arranged everything with
social security and planned his budget and when he's going to take time off
and...  He's started showing increasing signs of real stress.  He's a pretty
mellow fellow, so I didn't really stop to think until he started having some
physical signs that could possibly -- and even probably, given that they're
not consistent like, say, flu symptoms.  I haven't said anything, or hinted
at my growing suspicions, because I would hate to stress him out.  /grin/
In fact, some of my "stuff" that he normally takes in stride are suddenly
looking to me like they're really stressing him out.  Most of that sort of
"stuff" is stuff I need to be working on anyway, which stresses me out a bit
and, well, you know how it is when people are stressed out because they're
more likely to do the things that stress out the people around them...
/lol/

I just noticed, and my new focus in life is focusing on not being stressed
myself (I'm trying to follow through with the whole VR thing without getting
stressed out) and on paying attention to my around the house "stuff" -- and
how that affects my literally stuff...  /lol/  If I'm not careful, I stress
myself out over it!  /grin/

We must not be doing so badly as all that with the mutually reinforcing
stress, though.  Daisy, the three-legged stress monster with teeth, is calm
and happy and making progress still with some of the new things I'm slowly
and carefully introducing her to.  End goal:  Allowing herself to be picked
-- and to feel safe being picked up -- in case she does something to that
overburdened single front leg!  I can now put my arms around her in a
lifting position, add slight lifting pressure, lift her front end as much as
an inch off the ground and even -- recent breaktrhough! -- reposition her an
inch or two to one side.  All without creating tension in her, let alone
receiving negative vocal feedback or having to suddenly remember that my
face has ended up way too close to hers and that this could change my face
in ways I probably won't like.  /smile/  Given her background, the fact that
this works out well for the two of us after a mere almost 2 years of careful
conditioning is really an achievement on her part.  Whew!

Side benefit:  I can semi-wake from my after dinner TV nap and reflexively
hug and kiss the dog that's snuggling me on the muzzle.... Then realize that
that rough thing I just brushed my mouth across is the bone the dogs have
been guarding from each other for the last week and the dog I just kissed on
the muzzle, does *not* have curly hair.  This brings DD from his doze in a
big way, but he's a mellow fellow and doesn't raise his voice or anything
when he mentions the situtation I just put myself in.  Well, part of the
ground work for the picking up was teaching Daisy to give things she had in
her mouth, which took about a year of once-daily putting my hand on whatever
I wanted her to give and just standing there (or bending or whatever) calmly
until she quit growling and generally making Cujo and allowed me to take it.
I thought this might be an important thing to work on, since I would be
reaching the point I wouldn't see the glowing white part of her coat very
well and could get myself in big trouble.  Then again, the first time I
realized that I had just kissed the glowing white muzzle -- and it's bone!
-- without noticing it wasn't jet black, I found it to be very calming to
just freeze and not move for awhile, then slowly and calmly begin to move
away one muscle at a time...  So she lunged at me, growling.  OMG!  Turns
out she was ticked off that I wasn't face snuggling and petting her.  /lol/
She forgot the bone and ended up in my lap for big loves.  It was a long
time before the human nerves of the household were not traumatized.  /lol/
Love the dog, but she can be scary at times.  Even when all she wants is
love!

She doesn't growl anymore when she wants me to keep petting her head and
muzzle, just follows my hand so that her muzzle is under it without the
human-freaking vocalization.  Whew.

Point being, if the humans are both wigging and trying not to wig each other
and so wigging more, but Daisy is calm and happy, it can't be all bad.
/smile/

Mitzi is a more sensitive barometer than Daisy, actually, but without the
Cujo or the likelihood of facial rearrangement and other issues arises
therefrom.  She's doing fine, too, except when we're both on edge, in which
case she sighs a lot.  So we forget our own problems and start jollying up
the dogs, because heaven forbid they should be upset....  Well, now you know
who really rules the roost around here!  /grin/

The point being, really, that retirement is not necessarily all it's cracked
up to be.  /grin/

Oh, I met a (the guy thinks) husky/belgium shepherd (unless it's a bulgarian
shepherd?) mix the other day.  Even on sunny days, I can *see* less detail
than I could last fall, but the husky tail is visible to me.  When the dog
came up to be my new best friend, that was what I saw, then I gave the
obligatory pet, looked down and saw more reddish brown and thought collie,
only that wasn't right.  /smile/  Since I could see the white undercoat, I
was able so observe enough of the dog to pick up some information about what
it looked like and how it behaved and to be more confused!  It was busy
bonding with its new best friends, then coming back to its new old best
friends, so I couldn't identify a human to ask until I just happened to pass
by the dog's new human on the way out.  Finally!  I could solve the mystery!
He'd had the dog a couple of weeks and had rescued it and was delighted and
baffled by it at the same time -- you know how new pound hound owners can
be! -- so he wasn't sure which kind of European B shepherd was involved.

My first thought:  Mardi would just *die* over this dog.  /lol/  It was very
good looking, and very good natured and a lot of fun to watch.  /smile/  Now
that the sun has come out and it's officially "puppy season" at the dog
park, peole are showing up with really great husky or husky mix pups, too.
Other cool pups.  With the economy, too many people are having to give up
really great young dogs, so the quality of the rescue dogs in terms of
temperament and prior socialization has gone up.  I just try not to dwell on
what this means for the dogs who needed rescue in the first place, just to
survive.  Sigh.  I still meet a few, with people who are working with them
to bring them back to mental health.  Whew!  Tough job, but not the dog's
fault.

Anyway, some great huskies, and I always think of you.  /grin/   I always
take my sunglasses off to watch the dogs, too, and I really need to stop
doing that.  My blindness has progressed to the point where I don't get
totally thrown by the contrast between "going visual" and going back into
"blind mode."  I get pretty stupid when the sun goes behind a cloud, though.
Sigh.  Progress, but I have a feeling my blindness adaptation for the spring
and summer will be:  Don't look!  /grin/

Take care, hope you and your pack are doing well!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Mardi Hadfield
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 10:13 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Stepper's first step again

Hi Stepper/ I am just catching up on all my emails and read your post, I am
so glad to here that you are going to try again for another dog. I hope
every thing goes well for you. My prayers are with you. Good luck with your
journey. Mardi and Shaman and Nala, who can't quite make up her mind about
retirement.

-- 
http://wolfsinger-lakota.blogspot.com/
http://wolfsinger2-thegoldendragon.blogspot.com
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