DanceThis is my James (far right), and his off-and-on-for-30 years band mates. Here, they are last year, playing a local festival in Spokane called Pig Out in the Park, held at the site of the 1974 World’s Fair. The song? Their very hot version of “Let’s Dance”! These guys, just Bowie’s age when we lost him, can still rock!!!
Tag: weekly photo challenge
Joy, the “guard dog”
I follow Wild Currents, a very moving blog and today was inspired by her post.
This entry moved me to write about my purebred German Shepherd, Joy, named to counteract her malfunctioning tear ducts, which were cosmetically disturbing enough that her breeder considered doing away with her.
Disgusting.
I’m afraid I don’t care who that offends.
I had always wanted a big ole German Shepherd. My best friend throughout my teens lost his vision and had the most wonderful guide dog, called Rue St James. I adored that dog.
And when I discovered my neighbor up the street was a well known breeder, with champion Shepherds, I made it known that I wanted one. Unfortunately her dogs went for thousands of dollars which put me out of the running….until my accountant asked me if I needed a Guard Dog for my therapy practice. Hmmm. I started saving money even though I never had any intention of teaching any nasty habits to a pet of mine.
One day I got a call saying if I wanted a dog for free, I could have a damaged one if I came for her right now. This precious puppy had been kept in a separate cage for the first four months of her life, no other dog or human contact, waiting to see if she would outgrow her birth defect to the degree her owner could at least breed her. I jumped at the chance.
I fell immediately in deep love. Joy grew up to be such a beauty the breeder wanted to buy her back. By then she was all mine, though that did not exactly come easily. She spent her first few weeks with me hiding under my bed.
Eventually I was able to take her to work with me. I’m a psychotherapist in private practice. Right around this same time I had started accepting clients referred by the courts and some of them were actually pretty scary. Several people suggested…strongly…that I have Joy “protection trained”, but I just wouldn’t do that. She was already pretty skittish and not reliably nice to strangers.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to train her. I hoped that her mere presence would imply protection for me. And in a bass-ackwards way, it did.
I was blessed to have Joy for 16 years, completely healthy for 15 of them, highly unusual for such a large dog of her breed. And you know what, she never so much as curled a lip at a client of mine. Not even when one of them showed up at my home at 2 AM, in a rage of negative transference, and carrying a baseball bat! Joy spotted this client out on my deck and started barking her “I’m so glad to see you” bark, tail wagging furiously. When I let her out, she simply ran to the client (her buddy from numerous therapy sessions) and attacked her with 110 pounds of slobbery kisses.
Joy protected me alright, by winning over the most hardened of hearts, and making instant friends with the innocent “child” part of them all.
Joy died in 2001, during the same trauma-filled stretch as several of my family members passing, both my other pets dying, AND then, 9/11 happened. I was devastated by all the jumbled loss in my life, and though I have grieved much of that loss, I still have not had the courage to adopt another dog….yet.
Joy, and her cat Bandit
I call her a Grandmother of the Service Dog, because she was here before we really knew the power and healing a therapy animal can have…..
Chosen State of Mind for WPC
click on a pic for slide show
This is my state of mind these days.
Probably just the thyroid problem I am having…………
Seasons for WPC
SeasonsIf I can just hold on a few more weeks…..although I noticed these photos were taken before I knew how to set (and/or remove) the date on my camera. (Should be in late May.)
Just don’t tell anyone these pictures are taken in the Northwest. We like it that everyone else thinks there is nothing but gloomy RAIN up here!!!
Seasons (just past) for WPC
Spotted this on our regular trail, driving through the neighborhood in Hood Canal, WA.
We were told in order to create this Holiday Display, it takes several freezing nights in a row, out in the dark, with the garden hose trickling on the trees, bushes, etc.
My Grandsons were fascinated and wanted me to take their picture. It wasn’t until later we discovered how the sun had lit up the piece of ice they picked up.
Seasons for WPC
Seasons in the Northwest, especially the transition we are in now from Winter to Spring, are so unpredictable, labile, not necessarily related to the calendar..
One day it’s this!
And the very next day, it can be this!
My Grand-kids call this the Pink Snow (under the Camellia tree), that comes after the white snow.
Time-WARNING to young women: rated R for terror
Time sped by this week. Time’s up tomorrow for posting on TIME. I had to work up my nerve all week. This will undoubtedly be one of my most frightening posts ever….(really scary for me but terrifying for women under 50 or so…)
I saw the actress Ali McGraw a few years back, maybe on Oprah, maybe along with Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton. The topic was beautiful older women (or over 60 women).
Ali McGraw said she had a secret to keep her face looking young. I’m sure the women watching expected surgical tips or miracle face creams but no. She lifted up her hair and pulled out this weird apparatus that was hidden there. As she slowly removed it, her face sagged more and more. With the faked tightness gone she looked much more her age, maybe older.
The women on stage with her were stunned into silence. It was a dramatic and pretty amazing difference. (It reminded me of childhood when an aunt who would brush my hair into a pony tail so tight, she would tell me, in her well-intentioned way, that I looked like a China doll.)
After a moment, a recovered, non-plussed Oprah said she thought Ali’s action was one of the most “generous” things she had ever seen a woman do.
I hope you see my personal photo sharing as “generous” and not egotistical or even worse, self-pitying. I didn’t think I was even mildly attractive until I was fifty!
ABOVE–Me at thirty, forty, fifty and fifty-five
Then the phrase the ravages of time comes to mind…..
I do not know what happened to the TIME. I do not recognize who this person above is. I don’t know what some of these body parts even are!
(Judy Collins singing in the background here…Who knows where the time goes…)
Here I go. I’m gonna push “publish” now Karuna!
another Chosen Perspective on TIME for WPC
Time as reflected by the Generations
top left-my Irish grandfather, right below him-my son’s Italian father, the rest-my gorgeous son!
The story….
Those who see pictures of my son often mistake his very Italian father for his brother. They look a lot alike.
He certainly doesn’t look anything like me.
It wasn’t until we found an old photo of MY grandfather (extremely Irish) that we saw some family resemblance on my side of the family.
Chosen Perspectives on TIME for WPC
Generations
top-my mother, middle-my biological daughter, bottom-me
And the back story is…
I didn’t see a picture of my daughter until after the longest stretch of time in my life…23 years after I gave her up for adoption. The reunion specialist I hired found her high school annual in a library.
I thought she was beautiful but could not see a trace of myself in her. So I didn’t really believe she was mine.
Then I remembered this photo of my mother when she was in the Navy at 21 years old. When I laid the photos side by side, I saw it!
The photo at the bottom is from my high school annual.
Vibrant for WPC: gift to my sister
One of the best gifts in my whole life is having the privilege of house-sitting every year for my sister. They live in paradise….San Juan Island, WA. They go sailing while we tend their Bamboo Farm and arguably, the most spectacular gardens in the Northwest. One year I photographed just a few of their flowers (few, meaning hundreds) and then for Christmas, made them a calendar. These are the 12 photos I picked.