Beverly messaged me this morning to ask if it would be possible to buy one of Ed’s artworks. She said she would like to pay $100 for a sketch. I messaged Carol and got a quick answer: “Great, sure.”
I’m heading over to Ed’s this afternoon to talk to him more about it, and see if he’ s comfortable doing five or six sketches that I could offer for sale on the blog. I suspect he will like that idea.
If he agrees, we will sell them here on bedlamfarm.com. Please don’t message me yet, we have to figure the details out. But it is a lovely idea, good for Ed, something I would love to be a part of. I’ll sell them one at a time. More later.
I came across Buddy on a dog rescue site this morning. He’s coming here to Bedlam Farm later this summer, if he survives some health crises. He is a brown, pure-bred Boston Terrier.
He is being treated for heartworm in Arkansas, and is ill. He is expected to recover.
When rescued from his home – he was not wanted, and abandoned – he was filthy, neglected and sick. Someone got him from a backyard breeder, then decided he didn’t want him, and left him out in the heat and cold.
He is a one-year-old male, he loves other dogs and he loves to play. He is fearful of men, Carol, his rescue person warned me. “That just makes him smart,” I said. I thought of Frieda, who hated all men, and am confident I can help Buddy work through it.
He is only a year old, but he looks like an old soul to me.
I called the phone number listed on the rescue site when I first saw him, and I read about his very sad story and I gulped down my pride, and went on the rescue group site and did all of the things I resent doing – filling out an endless, intrusive and annoying form that took forever and was largely pointless.
This dog needs a loving home, and that feels good to be able to do.
I called Maria and showed her the photo and asked her what she thought.
We’ve both rescued dogs and other animals before – Orson, Frieda, Izzy, Simon, the chickens and barn cats, and it’s time for us to do it again. It just felt right. We were disappointed to hear that Hannah isn’t pregnant, but disappointment, like prolonged grieving, is not something I wish to spend a lot of time on.
I got on the phone.
As I have often written, the best way to get a dog is to get the you want, not the dog obnoxious people tell you that you should want, the dog that touches your heart in one way or another. There is never only one way to get a dog. And the best way for me to grieve the death of a dog is to love another one, as soon as is healthy.
Buddy touched my heart. I had just gotten off the phone with a very high-style Boston Terrier breeder who wanted nearly $3,000 for her puppies. I didn’t like her much. I felt it was time to rescue again.
Neither of us had any doubts about Buddy.”I want to do it,” I said. “Let’s do it,” she said. We just learned from Robin Gibbons. Maria is very excited about rescuing a dog, as I knew she would be.
I want to have Buddy here, I want to take care of him, and help him heal, should he survive the risky heartworm procedure now underway. I want to write about him. He has a fine back story, always good for a writer.
I want to continue the Small Dog experiment, and share the excitement of giving a good dog a good home, and training him through his difficulties. I want to bone up on my training.
Carol cautioned me that Buddy likes to chase cats, we’ll work on that, and he’ll be sorry if he tries to do that to Flo.
I sent a $200 adoption fee just before I wrote this.
If my many references are approved, then we will get him later this summer, once he is over his heartworm treatment andother medical issues. He will be shipped to Rhode Island where the rescue group is headquartered. I was born in Providence, we’ll go there to get him.
I will not say Buddy was abused, the term is just overused beyond meaning, but he has had a hard time. He will require some patience and training and lots of love (and beef jerky.)
Carol and I bonded pretty quickly, she explained why the rescue groups take so many precautions, she said I would be surprised at how often people try to rescue dogs but refuse to tell the truth about themselves, or end up rejecting the dog or returning them.
I conceded that I needed to be more aware of that side of things, and less impatient. In any case, we became good pals, I am thrilled to be getting Buddy, she is happy that I am. So is Maria.
So another gift from Gus, who opened our eyes to small dogs, and whose memory is still fresh in our minds. In his honor, we will give Buddy the best home we can offer. That is, if all my references check out.
There are few things more wonderful than getting a new dog. We are counting the days.
For me, the news is not about what CNN or Fox News or The New York Times or Washington Post say. For me, the news is about what I say and what I feel in my heart and soul.
And in my life.
The news is good for me today:
– For the first time in my life, I am being challenged to fully grasp what my country means to me, and what I am willing to do in order to preserve the values I love and share. These are not things I ever had to think about before, I was a lazy and disconnected kind of patriot, I deserved whatever I got.
I am awakened now, I feel very connected to my country and to what it means for me: freedom, compassion for the poor and the vulnerable, empathy and an open field for all. Like Thomas Paine, my faith is to do good.
How odd, since I am not a Christian, but I wish everything for my country that Jesus wished for his.
-Today, we learned that Hannah Gus’s mother, is not pregnant. We need to decide what we wish to do about getting another dog. We have to the chance to wait for Hannah to try again, to rescue a dog, to buy a dog from a different breeder, to look at local shelters to see what dogs might be available.
I think this process will reaffirm our love of dogs and our stewardship of them. I am fortunate to have the chance to get another dog to love, and all of these very good choices.
-Today,I received enough money to take Lisa, Mudasir, and Baseer to Wal-Mart this week near Albany to buy some badly needed personal items, and also the first new clothes in the life of these children. I am so fortunate to have this opportunity to do good and feel good.
-Today a reader of the blog offered to buy one of Ed Gulley’s evocative sketches for $100, I asked Ed if he wished to do this, and he said yes, he very much wanted to do it. I think I will ask him if we can make five or six sketches and I will sell them on my blog. This will be a great gift to him, he loves to sketch and will appreciate the recognition and the chance to share his creativity.
This is my news today, I am fulfilled in my life and surrounded, in person and online, with people who love and care for others.
We learned this morning that Gus’s mother Hannah, is not pregnant and has no puppies. Robin Gibbons tried to breed her with Gus’s father Knox, but it didn’t take this time. I’m sorry for Robin, I know she was looking forward to another litter.
So were we.
So, some disappointment, for sure, but also time to think things through. Maria and I will talk about it and think about it.
Robin says she will try again in six months, so we can wait and see if that works. That’s one option.
I have also been exploring rescuing a Boston Terrier, but so far, I have found the rescue sites so obnoxious, intrusive and self-righteous that I mostly feel that I don’t wish to support them or try to get a dog from them.
Most seem to be child-haters and won’t adopt a puppy to a home with children. I find that almost bigoted. Some won’t adopt to homes where people work, or where homes have elderly people, or where homes don’t have wire-mesh fences. Some want four or five references, and endorsements from one or more vets.
To me, every person and family is individual, different, lumping everyone together like that does not serve the many dogs in great need.
Others rescue groups I have come across refuse to adopt to people who are not wealthy or have a certain guaranteed income. I’m sure they all have good and polished rationales for treating people in this way, but I am quite turned off by it, these are not people I want to get a dog from, if they don’t trust me after some conversations and information, I don’t trust them.
And they are asking many questions that are simply not anyone’s business, questions the government would not dare to ask. Do they have a right to take more of my privacy than Facebook?
It seems to me that rescue groups ought to make it as easy as possible for families (and families with children and people who work) to rescue dogs in need of a home. I know children who would love to care for a puppy, and older people who would give a dog a wonderful home, and also make provisions if they passed away.
This self-righteous exclusion is not about the welfare of dogs, it is about the needs of people to feel superior to other people, that’s the way it strikes me, and sadly, I think that too often, that’s the way it is.
The me, the imperious rescue groups are no better than the backyard breeders who sell online. They seem to equate loving dogs with mistreating people.
I know there good and sincere rescue groups out there, so far, I have not found one. The group I am looking for is one that will question me thoroughly on the phone or in person, check me out online, and get a puppy to me as soon as is humanly possible. That person will be the one who loves dogs, not just themselves.
I could also contact other breeders, I’ve found some who charge up to $2,500 for a Boston Terrier puppy, the prices vary, some are $$1,450, some are much less. There are breeders who sell puppies online without even speaking to the buyer and ship them free the next day from anywhere in the country to anywhere else. I’ll pass on them.
And there are very good breeders who are just as snooty and exclusive as the rescue groups. Yuk. My disappointment is mostly about Robin, we really want to get another dog from her. Gus’s death from esophagus was very painful for her.
I am also open to a different breed if the right one appears, or to a stray or mutt from a shelter or sane rescue group.
The shelter people can be pretty obnoxious also, how curious it is that with millions of dogs in desperate need of homes, it has never been more difficult, expensive, or uncomfortable go get one. I’m not giving up my dignity to anybody, not even for a puppy.
I quite vividly remember when one would go to a shelter, find a dozen or so neat dogs there, talk to the workers and take a dog home. Is it really that difficult?
So Maria and I will talk about it and think about it. Waiting for Robin means waiting for nearly a year, with no certainty of success. That’s a lot of patience for me. Robin is worth it, so is Hannah, a sweet and and bright dog.
So I will continue to trawl around and talk with Maria and perhaps find a rational breeder or rescuer somewhere out there who has not traded humanity for ego.
I believe the right dog will make him or herself known to me, and me to him or her.
