Photographic Nightmares - The Prequel

Diana & Michael bought a real camera for Christmas.  No more Barkberry photos.  Mom is reading the manual tonight.  Michael is fiddling with all the buttons. 

Once they figure out how to use it - I'm doomed.  There will be no rest for me.  They will photograph me until I beg for them to stop. 

If I leave the room, they will follow me.  If I try to sleep, they will say how sweet (blech, patooey, yuck - I prefer smart, courageous, adventuresome and daring) I am and take the picture anyway. When I go outside - I better go outside by myself or there will be consequences...

Stay tuned...

I’m a Twit…er…Tweet…er…

I begged Diana to join Twitter earlier this fall. She was skeptical.

“I don’t want to know what a stranger just ate or who they are mad at this moment, Pish.”

I had a hunch it was more than that. Diana visited with @PhotosRmStry and she said, “You have to join. You will be amazed."

Duh. I’d been barking that for ages. Did she listen to me? Nooooooooo (oh, nice howl, don’t you think?)

Diana is kind of shy and does not meet new people easily and Michael is so busy with his work that he doesn’t have much time to meet new people either. At Michael’s encouragement, Diana is working on not being shy. I am helping with that. I am not shy. At all. Ever. I’m showing her that you just have to go for it. Good things will happen. Sometimes bad things will too, but that’s life, eh?

Twitter has really helped Diana get over her shyness a lot. We have found a community of wonderful people doing amazing things to help animals. They welcomed us in just like that. No questions asked. No uncomfortable moments. We don’t always chime in. We sit by the edge of this fast moving river of chatter and dangle our feet, enjoying the view. But sometimes we jump right in and paddle around.

Diana feels so blessed to have met me and brought me into her life. She should. I’m awesome. But I’ll save that for another posting later. To thank them and to help current pals in need, we started making snuggle blankets for the rescue agency that saved me. Diana is very slow at it. She is a “perfectionist” for barks sake. But we have nearly a dozen ready to go to the agency and plan on making tons more in the coming year. Diana makes them because no one in the family wants her crocheted stuff anymore.

“Oh, no, really, the lap blankets you’ve already made for me are plenty enough. Thank you.” But she spends nearly three hours a day on the bus going and returning from work. She has to do something with her hands and gets dizzy reading for that long. Voila. Sasha’s Snuggles, blankets for us lap doggies ad kitties, was born.

We are small peanuts compared to the people we follow. We are completely floored by the hard work and dedication we have found within the confines of our Barkberry and the Twitter Universe. So in this season of hope, this season of giving to others, this season of good cheer, we would like to Bark Out Loud a short mention and clap our paws together in support for some of what we have discovered:

• Some people run rescue agencies. Their work is so desperately valuable and, unfortunately, never ending; 

• Some people train fearful dogs to become more comfortable in a world that has not been kind to them; 

• Some people foster dogs and cats, providing them with a safe home until their forever home can be found - sometimes this is the first safe home they have ever known;

• Some people post information about the terrible things people do. While this if often difficult, heart rendering and almost impossible for Diana to read, she told me they are angles on earth because they shed light on evil and diminish it;

• Some vets give their time and experienced voices to help people understand how to take care of our health needs better;

• Some people challenge the stats quo of looking at the world and ask that we explore other ways of looking at dogs, dog behavior and human interaction with them;

• Some expend countless hours organizing and rallying their followers to raise money for selected charities by organizing #PawPawty events. These are virtual parties of amazing proportions and fun - all on the internet with real, tangible results benefiting so many, many needy animals;

• Some are creative and funny. They write The Anipal Times, they write their own blogs, they write books and they create amazingly cute pictures and videos for their followers to enjoy and share.

We are a blip in the Twitter Universe and yet have been changed forever by what we have seen and learned. We have less than 200 followers and follow about 250 from all over the world. Imagine what is out there that we have yet to discover and bark about!

Special Thanks to #SuePicArtist4Anipals For My Festive Look

 

 

P.S. If Sandy Paws would be so kind as to come to our house this year, Diana would like some yarn for the blankies, Michael would like some new socks and I would like some CHEESE!

 

A Few Holiday Words From My Sponsoring Human

Pish: Thank you for letting me take the spotlight here for one post.

The holiday season has been a very difficult time for my family in the last decade. My Grandmother died on Christmas Eve 2000. My Father was permanently placed in an assisted living facility specializing in dementia on December 26, 2001, and on December 17, 2006 my Husband was diagnosed with a condition that required immediate surgery to save his life. On December 18, 2007 my Mom suffered a massive stroke that left her paralyzed. By 2009 I had come to dread the holiday season.

Starting in the late fall of 2009 I began having dreams. At first I didn’t realize what I was dreaming about. Each dream played out its own theme built around dogs. But in each dream there was one sentence that stood out.

“Rescue me and I will rescue you.”

The sweet voice in my dreams continued unabated. By early February, 2010, I was searching PetFinder.com obsessively. I took a chance and sent an application to Northwest International Pet Rescue (NWIPR). They had a darling dog, Poncho, available for rescue. Could he be the one? Almost.

Christina reviewed our application and invited us to meet Poncho. But first she wanted us to meet a dog that wasn’t getting very much attention at all and they didn’t know why. She had been brought into rescue a few months earlier when her human family decided that they didn’t want her anymore. I read her profile on their site and agreed to meet her before I met Poncho.

The foster family lived over an hour from our house. My husband and I left work early and worked our way north to meet the little red dog with the huge eyes, funny smile and desperate need of a home of her own.

I knew that the interview was for the foster family, NWIPR and the dog to interview me as much, if not more, than I for me to interview all of them. The meeting went well but I was extremely cautious. It was really hard not to make a commitment that night. I wanted to meet Poncho first. I met Poncho a few days later. Oh, sure, he was a great dog, all right. He was awesome in fact. He wasn’t the one.

Something had shifted inside me. I was daydreaming about the little red dog with the raspy bark. I bought yarn and crocheted a small blanket for her to use while sleeping on the sofa - in girlish colors. I read and re-read her profile on the NWIPR site at least a hundred times.

I was home sick for a couple of days the week after meeting both dogs. I wasn’t up to making any decisions. In my dreams the words calling to me had changed.

“You found me. What are you waiting for?”

I called my husband at work and said the little red dog had to come to our house. He was on board with this but he wanted me to be very sure. I was. We went and got her as soon as we could.

In the next few days I plan to log onto the local pet insurance company, http://www.trupanionpetinsurance.com/, and sign Sasha up for insurance because in my family you just never know what will happen during the holidays!

The love and desire to give to another, to protect, care for and love those less fortunate than you, is what the holiday season is all about. The selfless way this tiny little dog, that we nicknamed "PishPosh", lives her life as my friend and companion, has restored my faith in Christmas once again.

Sasha is an amazing dog with a resilient soul and joyful way of approaching her world. Sasha wakes up happy every single day. I find myself wanting to do the same now. Watching her live in her world has inspired me beyond anything I have ever known. Sasha and I are now on the life-long journey of rescuing each other. We are having a grand time. The holiday season is fun again, thanks to the gift of Sasha’s love!