The old man and his blog…

As most of you loyal readers know, my little sister has a blog called Bird By Bird.  (If you don’t know that already, then you need to pay closer attention.  This is like at least the third time I have mentioned it here.)  Inspired by the on-line adventures of both myself and my sister, my father had decided to start a blog as well. It is called Kid By Kid.

As excited as I was to see my sister start to blog, I am even more excited to see my father start to write. He always has very interesting stories about his life and lessons. The stories I find particularly interesting are those that occurred before I came into the world. More often that not, I find myself thinking, ‘Oh, that’s were I got that from’.

It’s funny to see yourself in another person. This always happens with my kids. I will see them do something that I did when I was that age. Or sometimes I see them do something that I do now. It’s like have four trained monkeys around the house, copying your every move.  (Except for Leela, of course.  She can only copy major bodily functions)  I can only imagine what my parents think if they see one of their behaviors in their grand-kids. 

There have been times when I watched one of my kids do something that I do when I am frustrated.  That can be a little disheartening because you only want your kids to pick up your good habits. 

So go visit dad’s blog and ask him to write about the time he was stuck in Minnesota with a pair of Eskimos who only spoke French.  It’s an absolute riot. 

And so it goes.

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The Greatest Teacher Who Never Lived

I my wife’s room in Carson City there is a sign that reads, ‘Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.’  This last week I got a big dose of experience.

As you may recall, several months ago we thought our dog was dying.  That may still be true, but it is not an immanent event.  After a string of events that included Mary being on the business end of the dog’s mouth (no injuries), we decided to investigate giving the dog away.

That being said, it was a very difficult decision.  Certainly one we did not enter into lightly.  The key point to understand was that we did not decide to give the dog away, but to investigate giving the dog away.  We also agreed that the end result of whatever we did could not result in the dog being put down.  If that was want we wanted I could just take to the vet right now and be done with it. 

After some work we found three options:

• SPCA
• The county
• Another family

We were able to rule out the first two quickly.  They would take Cassie and put her up for adoption, but if no one claimed her after five days she would be put down.

For the family option, we asked some friends with no luck.  Then I decided to post an ad on Craigs List.  Enter the poor judgement.

I put up a picture of our dog with a brief note about her and why we were looking for a new home for her.  The note basically read that we could not give her the kind of love she deserved.  I also mentioned the three children and her age, condition and such.  Then I put that we had bedding, supplies and that I would offer $100 for set-up costs. 

Here are some of the e-mails I got:

• You have a heart of iron.  Your children will not turn out well.
• PLEASE DO NOT  offer money to people to take your 14 year old dog!!!!

  My God do you really think someone wants a 14 year old dog? They will take the money and dump the dog a few miles from your house.

  I can not believe anyone could be so cruel. The dog would be better off dead than in the hands of someone who would take the dog for money.

  Please, at least contact Cocker Spaniel Rescue.

  This is the most heartless post I have ever seen on Craigslist. Some creepy person has just been waiting for someone like you to take advantage of. You can’t possibly be that naive to think someone will want an old dog. They only want the $100. They should be giving you $100. Take the dog to the vet and spend $100 to have him put down!

  How can you give up your dog in his elder years? All he really wants is a warm place to be and  enough food to eat but that is too much for you??

  Take him to the vet and have him put down! Unlike you he will miss you and probably die wondering where his family has gone.

  PLEASE do not do this to your poor friend.
• why not just have the poor thing put down at the vet someone will just come get the money and the dog and dump the dog and make some money please rethink your choices   

Those were the best three.  The one almost common thread was that it was mean to give the dog away.  If we really loved our dog we should kill her instead.  Now, I am just a simple country type boy who is not all that familiar with the ways of the city folk, but is seems to me that killing a dog is less kind than that giving it away.  But that is just me.

I was particuarlly amused with the messages that pointed out that whoever took the dog would take the money and kill the dog.  Again, simple county bumpkin, but I ain’t that dumb.  Of course we would screen the person and of course we would only offer the money to help them get set up.  Bring me a reciept and I will pay you back kind of set up. 

We did get two messages that were supportive.  Those were nice. 

So long story short, we kept the dog.  After all that it seemed that we just need to make the time we need.

I am now going through all of the mean messages and responding to them with compassion not shown to us. 

And so it goes.

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