A Buddy for Buddy

I am writing this on Buddy's last day here.

I received a note that the SPCA has another 6 week old (which is probably Buddy's approximate age) pit bull mix puppy who was turned in, another singleton, and they have decided to put the two of them together for companionship and to test for "alpha personalities."

I had earlier written to Sharon that I felt strongly that Buddy should not be put in a family that has small children. He is sweet, but he can also be aggressive, and as he gets older this is going to have to be watched and trained out of him. I am not the person to do that. Too much of a wimp!

But having a sibling for a couple of weeks before they both go up for adoption will be great and will give time for observation of both of them to help find the right kind of home for each.

So tomorrow we will pack him up in the crate he came in and take him back to Petco. I know people think I'm going to cry when he goes because all the pictures have shown how much I've enjoyed loving him, but there comes a time when they all go. I could never work in a kill shelter because as each animal reached the end of his or her time, I would want to adopt them. It would be so easy to be a hoarder!

But long ago I had to come to peace with the fact that they all leave. If I were to keep all the ones I fell in love with, I would have less and less attention to give to them all. I might love them, but you have responsibility for the animals you choose to live with. As it is adopting Polly has meant less time for Sheila and Lizzie, especially as she is so incredibly demanding of my time. But I still think it was the best decision all around. As I watch her now running to greet Walt, her tail wagging a mile a minute, jumping up on him and demanding to be petted I am in amazement of the change that has taken place in that scared little girl who first showed up here. It has taken two years, though and she still doesn't like other people ... and there are still times I wish we hadn't adopted her, but who else would have taken her? When she cuddles up with me in the recliner, I'm glad she's ours.

The past few days have really been very nice, since I made the decision to give Buddy lots of body contact. For one thing, I have watched all but 3 of the Showtime Homeland which won the Golden Globe as Best TV Drama and won an award for Best Actress in a Drama for Claire Danes and nomination for BestActor for Damian Lewis.

I was so glad to find Homeland as an OnDemand option, especially since we subscribe to Showtime. With all this time spent cuddling Buddy, I used it to start watching the show. I found this "post 9/11" drama very entertaining, following CIA agent (Danes) as she spies on Marine (Lewis) who had been held captive by al-Quaeda and whom she thinks has been "turned" by his captors. It's a great story and I am happy to learn that it has been picked up for a second season, to begin sometime in 2012. I will have finished the 12 episodes of Season 1 by then!

So thanks to Buddy, I have had guilt-free daytime television watching and worked my way through a great new TV series. If you have Showtime, and if you have OnDemand, I highly recommend it.

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The storm in the Pacific Northwest has turned into a big disappointent for us. Steve is giving a benefit concert in Olympia along with one of my favorite groups, the Righteous Mothers, writers of "Old Fat Naked Women for Peace", "Big Legged Women," "Missing Molly Ivens," and "She Shanty," the hilarious song about childbirth. I have a couple of their CDs and just love them. This was going to be my chance to visit Steve, see another of his concerts, and to finally get to see the Righteous Mothers live.

But the weather is just too iffy. Right now Olympia has 4' of snow, though people think it's going to melt by Friday. But we are not too keen on the iffi-ness of it all, so I canceled the motel reservation, Walt canceled the flight and we will let the money we paid for tickets be our donation to PFLAG.

But I won't get to see Steve (assuming he can get to Seattle from New York!) and I won't get to see the Righteous Mothers and for that I am very sad. I won't even have Buddy to cuddle to make me feel better.

A Local Celebrity

I have been fortunate to have met a few celebrities in my life. Some biggies like Judy Garland, Piper Laurie and Carol Channing, some lesser celebrities like Brian Childers, who did such a wonderful job of playing Danny Kaye off Broadway and Michelle Mays, whom I first saw in the Last Session and later went on to appear in Rock of Ages on Broadway.

It's fun meeting celebrities, even when someone just points them out to you, like Steve Schalchlin did at opening night of Jim Brochu's Zero Hour, pointing me to Marge Champion, Robert Osborne and Theodore Bikel at the opening night party at Sardi's.

But there's nothing quite like meeting a local celebrity and actually sitting down and spending time with her.

And so yesterday I got to meet Joey, the 2-legged Chihuahua puppy.

I've been reading about Joey for a few weeks now. Though she looks like a Thalidimide baby, she is probably the result of inbreeding to produce smaller Chihuahuas and she was about to be euthanized by the breeder because she had no front legs, but ... I mean look at that face! ... Ashley rescued her and has been trying to find out how to help her.

She started becoming a celebrity when she appeared on the local news station. At that time, Ashley was hoping to raise enough money to have a special wagon built that would enable her to move around like a normal dog.

The TV story managed to raise enough money in a day, and a week later there was a follow-up story about her.

In the meantime, Ashley had contacted a company named Ortho Pets, based in Denver, which makes prosthetics for disabled dogs like this (little wheeled carts). The company offered to fit Joey for a cart and then adopt her out when she’s adapted to life on two legs. Joey will even get new carts and extras as she continues to grow.

The money raised from the television appeal would pay for Ashley's flight to Denver, so Joey wouldn't have to fly as baggage. Southwest charges an additional $75 fee to bring pets inside the plane, but they eventually agreed to waive the fee when they heard Joey's story.

Ashley has been telling me for days that I would have to meet Joey before she left, but somehow the time never was right, but, with her departure today imminent, Ashley brought her over for a meet and greet last night.

As I said, I have been seeing photos of her ever since Ashley took her in, but I was unprepared for how really tiny she is. Ifigured she was somewhere near Polly's size, but I think she's less than half her size.

The dogs couldn't get enough of sniffing her, until Joey had her fill and retreated to Ashley's jacket sleeve, where she spends most of her time.

Today was the day she was leaving for Denver and a film crew from TLC (The Learning Channel) showed up at Ashley's house to get pictures of getting her ready for the flight, because Joey is going to be part of an upcoming feature of TLC's show about Southwest Airlines.

When they got to the airport, the "pupparazzi" was waiting for them (and will accompany them to Denver)

Joey seemed it to take it all in stride.

She instantly made friends with the Southwest crew...how could they not love her?

As I write this, Joey, Ashley, Stacy (from the SPCA) and the film crew are winging their way from Sacramento to Denver.

All of us who foster dogs grow to love them and it's difficult to give them up. Some are more difficult than others, and I know that Ashley is going to have a difficult time letting this little girl go, but she also knows that it has to be done.

I told Ashley last night that Joey had been saved for some reason and that I was sure that once she has become accustomed to her paraphernalia and is placed with the perfect family, she will somehow live out her destiny.

She evokes such love from every person she meets that she would make a great therapy dog for hospitalized people.

I know we haven't heard the last of this little girl, and I look forward to watching the TLC program when it is broadcast...and, more immediately, getting Ashley's report on how things are going in Denver, as Joey settles in.