Oh My Dog!

obsessed with dogs

Grateful

I prefer Thanksgiving to Christmas.

At least, I prefer the spirit of Thanksgiving, of expressing thanks and gratitude and joy, to the consumer-driven craze Christmas has become. Don’t get me wrong: I love presents, giving and receiving, and I love decorations and pretty lights. I love holiday food and cookies galore. I can’t wait to see Violet’s visit with Santa this year. And, I LOVE hosting my annual holiday gift guide and being able to give away tons of presents to the dogs, cats, and pet people who make this space a community.

I love lots of Christmas things, but Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart.

Grateful for my babies

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” – Anonymous

I’m so deeply grateful for what I have. I’m grateful for the life I’ve built. So, for this week of thanks, before the Black Friday madness begins (coincidentally, of course, when my gift guide launches… which makes me feel a bit hypocritical… but I’d rather frame it as my annual way of giving back to this space…) I wanted to share a handful of things for which I’m immensely grateful. Starting with:

You. 

I’m so grateful you’re here. I’m so grateful you’re willing to share your time and your pets with us in this space. It’s incredibly easy to feel lonely in this world, and this space gives those of us who are obsessed with pets a place to hang, share stories and tips, and appreciate the incredible bond we have with our animals. I realize that a blog often feels one sided, which is why I recently launched a Facebook discussion group to make this more conversational. But, I’m just so grateful that this is a positive space filled with a shared love of animals. So, thank you for being here, and thank you for being you.

Cooper.

OMG, you guys. This dog. He rocks an Elf Elmo costume (stay tuned for the gift guide because I can’t even with this one), takes a million kisses and stickers from Violet, puts up with the cats thwacking him (though he pummels them right back), deals with being the official product tester for this site with aplomb, runs miles and miles and miles or just snoozes, hangs out with me all day, snuggles like a champ… I mean, he’s just the greatest. No, he’s not perfect. And that’s OK. He’s really flipping fantastic just as he is. I’m so, so grateful for him every single day.

Violet’s Birth Mama.

Violet turned our hearts and our lives inside out in the most amazing, breathtaking, astonish way possible. She brings magic wherever she goes. She’s strong-willed and opinionated and bossy, which can be… challenging…, but she’s also a kind friend and an animal lover and an absolute clown. She brings us joy in magnitudes of an epic scale. Without her birth mama and her compassionate choice to place Violet for adoption, we wouldn’t have this fierce love for which I’m thankful every second of every day… even the seconds when Violet is hucking her burrito across the room because she’s overly tired and wanted the purple spoon, not the green spoon. All of it. Violet’s birth mom is one of the most special and important people in our lives, and we’re forever grateful to her and for her.

John and Violet.

No words. Just a deep, bottomless well of love and gratitude.

The Kittehs.

My cats are hilarious. I think all cats probably are in their own ways. Newt and Ripley are a comedy duo who deserve their own late-night talk show. Neither cat joined our family in a planned, purposeful sort of way. And yet, they’ve both brought exactly what we were missing: Newt, an unending supply of sarcasm (voiced by us, obvi) and the occasional heart-melting snuggle; Ripley, an acrobatic circus of play that’s keeping Newt young, plus a nonstop purring-and-rubbing lovefest that could win over even the most strident non-cat-person. You’re the perfect cats for Cooper and the perfect cats for Violet. I’ll be even MORE grateful if you leave the Christmas tree alone this year… worth a shot…

There’s so, so much else: access to healthy food, a reliable car, wonderful friends IRL and online who lift me up, an incredible preschool where Violet thrives, organic wine, our public library, parents willing to jump in and help whenever we need it, long walks in the woods, Tagalongs, this list could go on.

All this to say: Thank you. I’m grateful for so much in my life, and a big part of that is right here.

What are you grateful for? If you’re in the US, I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!

A gratitude list

The tiny whiskers that dot Newt’s chin shine as they twitch and catch light when she’s focused on something

Emmett’s yips, growls, and twitches as he sleeps because he may not be able to chase bunnies across the icy yard in his aging, arthritic body, but he sure as hell can–and catch ’em, too–in his dreams

Cooper snuggling right up against you, all knobs and points jamming into your appendix as he settles just so across your stomach, despite the entirely empty rest of the couch

A husband who takes and texts random pics of the herd… here’s Cooper in the living room, here’s Newt under the coffee table, here’s an attempt at a selfie with Emmett and Cooper… when I’m traveling because he knows how much I miss them

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Planes that are on time and coworkers who are excited to have a week to work together

Starting the day with a less-than-perfect night’s sleep because Newt nosed and poked and pushed her way from the top of the covers down my legs to sleep the night nestled up against my feet, twitching and rolling around all night, keeping me up, but still… nestled up against my feet

Cell phones that take amazing pictures so whenever some kind soul says, “do you have any pictures of your pets?” HA! DO I?! Let me show you my roll of a million… here’s Emmett sleeping, here’s Cooper sleeping, here’s Newt sleeping next to Cooper, here’s Emmett sitting…

Knowing my three are safe and warm and cozy and cared for, even when I’m gone

(But, John, don’t forget: Cooper gets two scoops of coconut oil. Oh, and Emmett prefers his bed to be pushed up to the side of our bed, and sometimes it slips, so you have to scoot it back before you go to sleep. And Cooper wants the blanket spread on the couch when you watch TV, not in a lump on the back of the couch. And don’t forget to give Newt her afternoon puzzle. It’s past time. Did you forget? Did Newt get her puzzle?)

What are you grateful for? 🙂

On cancer and kindness

We heard the elderly couple express their fears of administering an oral chemo at home to their dog, Dixie. Their concerns centered around one theme: What if something goes wrong?

We heard them tell the oncology resident about Dixie, about how she literally saved their lives from a burglar and how she, as his farm-hand, saved him from a charging bull.

We heard them explain how she’s their baby, how their kids are grown, but she’s everything to them.

We, of course, were already wrecked at that point, and hearing their worry pour out touched my heart. When the resident walked away, we jumped in. We explained that Emmett was on an oral chemo for over a year, and we shared our experience. They asked us how we get him to take the pills–because Dixie is picky about pills–and we said we give him his worst one shoved inside a large marshmallow every day. They asked us if we subscribed to a veterinary journal about cancer. We don’t, but they said it was invaluable and pulled out a file with marked-up, highlighted articles. We chatted some more and discovered that they live in another part of Bloomington, the opposite side of town from where we are. Before we both got pulled into exam rooms, they asked for our address so that they could send us information about that veterinary journal.

Our appointments ended at the same time, and we parted ways at checkout.

A few days later, John went out to get the mail and came back with a photocopy of the latest issue of the journal along with a note and a reply card so that we could mail it in to start a subscription.

That gesture–the couple going through the effort of photocopying the magazine, then driving it with a reply card all the way across town–that kind gesture perfectly reflects the tremendous kindness that accompanies cancer.

The kind messages and emails that we’ve gotten…

The tremendous outpouring of support for the eBook I launched last week…

The tips and tricks from others who have been through the same diagnoses…

The support, the unending positivity, the kind words, the wishes for light and healing and peace…

If you’re someone who turns on the TV or looks at the internet or reads the paper or posts on Facebook–that is to say, if you’re a human alive in 2015–it’s easy to get bogged down in negativity and fear. Because those are the stories that get told. Day in and day out, watching all that negativity unfold, it’s easy to become negative. To become fearful and disheartened at the behavior of other humans.

There are so many horrible aspects to cancer, whether it’s you experiencing it or someone else, that drain your physical and mental energy. But the constant that helps replenish what’s drained is the bottomless well of kindness that comes from friends, family, and perfect strangers.

All that negativity? It’s really just a teeny sliver of what really goes on.

What really goes on is love. And kindness. And support. And warm wishes and positivity and connection, real human connection.

I don’t think those stories are told enough, so to say thank you for all your support over the last week, I guess I wanted to share one of those stories–the lovely, thoughtful, kind gesture of nearly perfect strangers.

Thank you for your support. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your wishes and words and thoughts.

Lukey sure is tired (though still a goofball!), but all of our spirits are lifted because of your kindness. Thank you.Lucas is a goofball 08.10.15