Day: July 15, 2013

This is my first dog poem. There will be more

“The Mastiff needs his own sofa,

his joints will ache if he sleeps on the floor,

in town, the Mastiff is kept near the big tall door.

The boxer is trendy and snappy,

Did you ever see a boxer who looked truly happy?

Pugs are small thugs,

they have no snouts, their eyes are big,

they come way out,

Pekes are freaks,

they would fight a cougar,

but are owned by a woman named Lady Luger.

Labs are big and they are boxy,

they will eat a tube of extra strength Epoxy,

Border collies know how to read the Encyclopedia Briitannica,

but they’ll try to herd a dropped bananica.

The dachshund is quite affectionate,

Lie down in bed, he is there,

Walk out the door,

he thinks you wouldn’t dare.

The big brown dog is loud and crafty,

he was abused,

so you can’t be nasty,

Then there’s the Heinz 57,

he’ll meet you in heaven.

German Shepherds can lead the blind,

and can bite delivery men in the behind.

Will your dog get past St. Peter?,

Will he dance and laugh and greet her?

And then there is the venerable mutt,

with a sense of entitlement,

and a poodle’s strut.”

– By Me

 

 

Sometimes you can appreciate color without color, by looking at structure and imagining the brightest blood red that a flower can be, the sensuous Latin Queen, the Dahlia.

I’m not sure if this is a geranium or a petunia, it doesn’t matter much to me, when I use the 100 mm macro lens I get lost in the flower, I was in Geraniumville, a world of color and light, a good lens can bring you inside of living matter, you can see the world anew. I am not a gardener, but I have five gardens, I am drawn to the flowers for their color and light, they transport me.

Maria took a bunch of vintage handkerchiefs and made them into a new kind of layered scarf – I don’t know what to call it, you can learn more on her website. She is selling at our Open House At Bedlam Farm, this Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The hot weather is breaking Saturday, just in time. Donkey visiting, sheepherding, artists selling some stuff, talks and readings. You can meet Lenore and Red and get a look at Frieda, who will not be happy to see you.

I don’t know all the details of Red’s story, I know his mother’s name was Rose, an odd coincidence and I know he was bred in Northern Ireland, and I know he had some trouble there and was taken to the United States and fell into the loving hands of Dr. Karen Thompson, and I know he sired 70 little Red’s and then Karen began looking for a home for him. I love the idea of all those Red’s out there, Red is a living argument for good breeding, whatever happen to him and I always think of that when people tell me the only way to get a dog is from a shelter, and then, of course, there would be no Red’s or Lenore, either.

Karen Thompson read on one of my  books “Izzy & Lenore”, about my hospice therapy work with my border collie Izzy, and she got a message that God wanted me to have Red, and she set about making that happen, I am not quite sure how she did it, but Karen is a woman of faith and if she believes something ought to happen, I would not want to be standing in the doorway.

She also had this idea that he might be a therapy dog as well as a herding dog as he is soft and sweet and intuitive about people. That seems to be happening as well, you get the picture. I wish Karen would decide that my next book will sell a million copies, Red will retire with a county full of sheep.

It is fascinating to me to consider how dogs come to us, I believe we get the dogs we need, they are spirit animals and they find us when we need them, and vice versa, perhaps. When the right dog finds the right human, magic happens and lives are altered.

Red is entering the next chapter of his remarkable life, we will begin working with veterans in the Fall, I am clear about that now.  Yesterday, in a nursing home in Vermont, I saw Red trying to figure out the work, he kept looking at me and I kept nodding and reinforcing him when he connected with someone. Like Izzy, he is one of those dogs for whom this work is natural. I can hardly wait to see how the rest of Red’s story turns out.