For the Love of Dogs-part 2!!!

Great story from Colorado regarding a Valley dog that was caught in traps and lost parts of his front and back left legs.....

Get tissues, you'll need them.

DOGS: They teach us so much about overcoming adversity, hell, they teach us so many things regarding our own humanity. Living life 10 minutes at a time; that's what dogs do and perhaps that is what humans should do. (someone at some point named our companions DOG. Is there more to it that DOG spelled backwards spells GOD?)

Click below for the entire heartbreaking, but then heartwarming story.

Andre's story

For the Love of Dogs!

There are a few geriatric dogs in our family now. My brother has Oskar, who as you can see isn't as strong in his rear end as he used to be. He has some sort of spinal degradation and just can't get around without dragging his back legs and falling down. Other than that he is good; his mind is strong and his will to go out for daily walks is even stronger.

At our house we have Mo. He's a 14 year old 120-lb Newfie mix. (He's the dog on my lap in my Profile photo). Mo's body is still pretty good, but his mind is a little compromised. Plus he has a wicked cough because the "flaps" in his throat are decaying thanks to the effect that the passage of time has had on his tissues. Mo's cough was "cured" by a moderate dosage of steroids, but the same steroids have given him urinary tract infections because they so heavily degrade his immune system. No more steroids for Mo; he has to take Robitussin for the cough now and daily doses of Dannon immune boosting yogurt drinks to bring his immune system back into balance. But he's still a joy and his cough won't kill him and well, getting old can sometimes be a BITCH!

When I look at the old dogs that are still kicking around my family and my brother's family I am reminded of the ones that did not have the honor of aging but were taken out early in life by various illnesses that we (and they) could not control. I'm reminded of those whom I had to make the ultimate decision for; those are the saddest. My happiest memories of losing a furry loved one are of my 12.5 year old Basset Hound, Rosebud, who passed in her sleep a mere 2 hours after I'd let her out for her morning constitutional. If there is a good way to go, she chose it. (she always did have style!)

Anyway, the photos above are of Oskar, the 13-year old Anatolian Shepherd and his new "legs". My brother tried to build a device to assist Oskar but ended up spending a hefty sum on someone else's engineering prowess to provide Oskar with a means to get around.

Oskar has bagged many peaks in his lifetime; some that he probably should not have ventured onto at all. Now Oskar gets to enjoy the "lowlands" with his trusty new legs, and he seems to really like it.

A Spring Ski Day at Alyeska Resort!

View from the restaurant at the top of the mountain (looking towards Crow Pass)

Ah, Spring skiing; it's a wonderful thing! Skiing is just soooo much more fun in the bright daylight and warmth of Spring as opposed to the flat, low light and hideous cold of winter! (I'm such a wimp!)

Here are a few more photos from the mountain:

(they were taken from my camera phone so they are not the best quality)

On the Spirit Quad lift to the top

View of the town of Girdwood, Bird Ridge and the Turnagain Arm

There are more photos from this trip to Alyeska located on my Flickr account.

My Flickr

Easter

It's Easter. Now it's snowing. Thought we'd get through this Easter without snow, but no, it's 6pm and it's snowing.

Brief history of my Easters in Alaska. Been here since 1990, first Easter in AK was 1991. Easter usually means snow up to your butt and more snow coming down on Easter.

Spring seems to have sprung a bit early this year but still, the snow is falling on Easter Sunday.

It's still Spring; it's light at 5:00am and light until 11:00pm, but still it is snowing on Easter, April 12.

Snow in the woods is only up to my knees so not so bad; walked with the dogs in fields of last year's grass and no snow, except in patches.

Friends in other places have photos of daffodils and forsythia on their blogs. We'll be there soon, but for now, it's snowing, and snowing hard on Easter.

They're all going to Pop!

There was a good bit on Jon Stewart last night about the right having their knickers in a twist because they think that our country is going to hell in a handbasket. The right keeps talking about the "tyranny of the left". Jon Stewart reminded them that it's not tyranny, it's called losing. Get used to it. You're not on top any longer. The other side is not being "tyrannical" and picking on you. We on the left put up with being on the bottom for a long, terrible time. A time in which we watched lesser minds run our country into the ground.

Now it's someone else's turn to be on the losing team.

Here's what I see as being their biggest worry, aside from the left picking on them: I don't think that many of them are going to survive their anger!

Watching some of the overweight pundits and far right supporters get all red-faced and angry makes me realize that they are not going to survive even Obama's first 4 years. We're going to lose most of the far right to strokes and heart attacks before the first year of Obama's first term is even up! After 4 years of this only the few conservatives that don't live on just bacon and sodas will remain. If there is a second term for Obama, well, let's just hope that these people drop some weight and improve their diets because their hearts are not going to be able to take it.

If this trend continues, saner minds may just prevail after all, for the long haul, not just for the next 8 years.

Strange week for Alaska's Governor (A quiet week, if you ask her)

Stims, Dems and WAR, Oh my!

Sarah Palin is still holding out on not accepting 100% of the Stimulus funds offered to Alaska. Everyone knows by now that the portion of the Stim that she was most opposed to would go towards education. I still don't know how we are going to accomplish the "shovel ready" projects that she is accepting stimulus funds for unless we have an educated work force to man the "shovels". Forest, trees? She can't see either the forest OR the trees.

Dems, pesky bee in her bonnet! She found herself a brand new shiny Dem to fill Kim Elton's vacated Juneau Senate seat, the one he left to go work for Obama. Her choice to fill the seat was Tim Grussendorf. She found him all on her very own and offered him up to the Alaska Democratic Senate members for approval. "Looky here guys, I have Democratic friends too, so there ya go." Problem was, Tim Grussendorf, her choice to fill the vacant Senate seat had only been a Dem for a few weeks. He, like totally, accidentally became a Republican a few years ago when voting absentee or in a Republican primary, or something like that, and chose not to correct his party affiliation until two weeks ago, when he was offered a position that had certain requirements attached to it, specifically that he be a DEMOCRAT! Our Governor is now pissed off and wants the entire process to be changed so that she can have her "magical Democrat friend" get the job he deserves. (please excuse my 15 year old gossip girl commentary above; couldn't help myself)

Because she didn't get her way she's also questioning the process that led to Grussendorf not getting approved. Namely, the same process that allowed her to fill a vacancy in the Alaska House with her Republican friend and churchy bud, Wes Keller. I guess if the process gets the desired result it should not be questioned. If the results are less than satisfactory, certainly the process should be questioned. It was questioned before; the Governor made us aware of this in a press release yesterday. I guess if the process doesn't work, then perhaps it was less than fair at all points at which it was employed and all Senators or Representatives that were appointed by this process should all just step down and we'll do a "do-over".......

Speaking of "do-overs", our Governor thinks it would be a good idea for our US Senator Mark Begich to step down and agree to a "do-over" of this fall's election since Ted Stevens had his ethics trial tossed out of Federal Court. She and the other "koolaid" drinking crazies believe that Begich only won the election because Ted was on trial. They neglect to mention that the courts did not find Stevens innocent of any wrong doing, they basically decided to drop the matter because of a technicality. This dismissal in no way says that Ted is innocent of all charges, merely that the performance of the legal system was not up to it's usual standards. Perhaps Sarah doesn't want Ted to have his seat back in the Senate, perhaps she would like to run.

Guess she perhaps saw God opening another door and put a doorstop in it for future reference. God opens so many doors for this woman that smart people should be buying stock in doorstops! This would be certainly a recession proof investment if God keeps being a gentleman and opening doors for Mrs. Palin! Provided that she can keep the "witches" from showing back up. A monthly appointment with the African "witchdoctor" Thomas Muthee could be considered. Maybe she should change her hair; a lot of witches could hide in that "updo". Better yet, perhaps she can even get the state to pay for it. Can you expense "witch removal"? Just get rid of them, we don't want no witches in our Governor, no way, no how! (There was a great piece from Bruce Wilson on HuffPo a few days ago regarding the Gov's religious leanings. Great read, go get it!)

WAR, Wayne Anthony Ross. Governor Palin's new pick for Attorney General of the State of Alaska. Loves the NRA, hates queers, drives a big ass Hummer with vanity plates, wears camo, thinks big game hunters should get more rights than the Native Alaskans that use game for sustenance, not just as heads on walls....get the picture yet? The Legislature still has to approve him but he's already hard at work down in Juneau, presumably writing press releases for the Governor as she talked about some legal stuff in her last press release. She's never been one to talk about legal stuff before, like when Katie Couric asked her to name some important Supreme Court cases that had relevance to her or to our state. Sarah had nothing. No court cases she could quote, no newspapers or even magazines that she could say that she reads. Good that Palin has a mouthpiece that actually knows something and can help her PR team put some "legally" things in her press releases, bad that his credentials are so far to the right. If the powers that be don't approve WAR's appointment, I guess Sarah and WAR will just have to go shoot something so that they can get over it. That means more homecooked meals for the mainstream media; more mooseburgers, moose hot dogs, and moose chili for Matt Lauer, Jon Ziegler and Greta Van Susteren and her hubby John Coale. Did she feed Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric too? I can't remember, perhaps she didn't and that was why they were so hard on her! A little moose meat goes a long way towards forging friendly relationships with the media.

I think there is a big pissing contest going on: Sarah Palin vs. the Legislature. The last card in her hand is the stimulus money. Today is the deadline for accepting it. She is probably not going to accept it unless she can have the assurance from a majority of the Legislature that they will accept WAR for Attorney General.

If Sarah can have WAR, then the State of Alaska can have 100% of it's share in the wealth of the national stimulus plan. No WAR, no dollars. (Hands on hips frowny face, from Sarah Palin, that is. Progressive Alaska blog has a great photo of her that they use frequently that shows her looking frowny and unhappy, sullen, not sultry....all of you 50-60 somethings that think she is hot can just go watch "Nailin' Palin. Those Russians are really randy!)

THEN, Mt. Redoubt has the audacity to blow at least every 36 hours since 3/22, threatening to destroy or flood a Chevron tank farm at it's base. It only has over 1/2 the amount of oil that the Exxon Valdez spilled. Any comments? Nope, not in her "quiet week".

SO TOO ALSO, (not my words, you know who is famous for that string of words), a big "frufrah" has ended up going down regarding the Republican House/Senate fundraising dinner in June and whether or not our Governor would speak at this function. She says that she never confirmed, function organizers said she did and called her a "disaster". They picked Newt Gingrich to speak instead. The organizers called him "a leader" and a "great speaker". They didn't bother to call Sarah Palin to tell her they'd hired Newt. She had to find out just like the rest of us, by reading the Huffington Post! Just kidding, it was on Fox News first. They're eating their own over there....

THIS WEEK'S POPULAR CULTURE ROUNDUP FOR GOVERNOR PALIN: (It's not all just politics, ya know)

The icing on the Governor's weekly cake is that Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin's "baby daddy" has filmed an episode of Tyra Banks, to air on Monday 4/6. His sister and mother are there with him. There is a preview on the Tyra website. He talks about what is involved when teens get pregnant. Should be enlightening. I always wondered how teens managed to produce offspring. Levi is going to tell us, stay tuned! Sounds like it might have happened right under the Governor's nose, right under the roof of the Palin home! Guess she thought that kids wearing "purity rings" could just sleep together as good friends, ya know "besties" as they call each other now. Guess God was there to open some doors for Bristol and Levi too. You just never know where He will be or what doors He will open. Teens, beware......

Oh, another not to miss moment in the Governor's week, the first Dude, Todd Palin, will have an article in the May issue of Esquire magazine. A very odd video promo came out this week as a teaser. Google it, you'll find it. You'll also wonder if it was an "April Fool's" joke. It wasn't.

The Dud also did an article for Men's Journal. Google also, wow, he's such a Dude!

The last bit of irony in all of this is that the Governor said that it's been a quiet week for her. Hmmm, makes you wonder what a CRAZY week is like for her.....

I'm not linking any info to specific sites right now, you can either trust me, google stuff, or check out the blogroll on my website. Those folks have done all of the hard work; I'm just doing a funny post about it all.

Peace out everyone and have a great weekend.