Benedict Arnold Dog

You know it's bad when even your dog rejects you. My husband and I used to have the most wonderful dog on earth, named Zenith--a Catahoula Leopard Dog that we were blessed to find at a local shelter. We had never heard of the breed but we got her as a birthday gift for our then 3 year old son, and she was am amazing dog-a once-in-a-lifetime dog who was so smart, she trained us, and so comical and sweet and manipulative--but in a nice way--we adored her. She passed away two years ago from cancer  of the spleen, and our hearts were broken when we had to put her down.  SO broken in fact that we all went out immediately to get a new dog, as we just could not stand the idea of not having one, and Max, the other dog, belonged to my middle son, Tanner.

So, we ended up with a small German Shepherd-cattle dog mix named Sukey.  She's a sweet dog, a bit of a troublemaker, likes to chew things up, but we loved her. Not like Zenith, no, but she was a friend.  She always slept on the bed between Robert and I.

Well, since my youngest son Daniel--who has been sleeping in my room at the foot of the bed since his dad died most nights--began usurping her spot on the bed, she refuses to sleep anywhere on the bed. She umped up as usual the first night we came back from the hospital in Houston where Robert died, and when she saw it was Daniel and not Robert, she hopped right back down. She won't come back ever since.  I feel extra-rejected somehow.

7 Quick Takes Friday

Inspired by Jen over at Conversion Diary, I have decided to try this "7 quick takes friday" thing I see on so many blogs. How hard can it  be, right? Right?..........

1) Autoimmune disorders are frisky, pesky little critters! They have been struggling to diagnose mine for three years now, and so far all they can come up with is that it's one symptom short of being Lupus, and I have a weird, reoccurring rash that biopsies as "consistent with" Lichen et Sclerosa, which I am told is common in peeps with autoimmune disorders, and I have consistently high ESR (sed rate) levels and a high ANA (anti nuclear antibody) count, discovered during a pregnancy 13 years ago. But they can't seem to pin it down any further. SO, what on earth is it that causes all these aches and pains, rashes, etc? My sister in law Susie is going through something similar, and she and I both had eczema as children that went away when we began puberty, then these autoimmune disorder started plaguing us both big time when we hit peri-menopause. Perhaps it is hormonally related? Anyone know?

image of typical autoimmune weird rash

2) How is it that a whole generation of parents are now dependent on their children's help to operate their electronic devices or repair them when they go kablooey? When you get those annoying "Google Chrome has left the building and taken your Farmville with it, and will be holding it hostage until you remit a ransom fee to Geek Squad" messages, do you immediately cry out for little Brandon and Paisley to please come figure this crazy thing out for you, thereby giving them the chance to think back on all wrongs real and imaginary you have ever done to them? Or do you fork over the cash to the tech guys?

random child happily computing because he knows how by golly!

3) Do you have a favorite image of the Blessed Mother? Mine is the one at the top of my blog, entitles "Kissing the Face of God". I think it just invokes such a real sense of who Mary must have been at that time--a young Jewish girl in simple, modest clothing, cuddling her darling baby boy, overjoyed at both being a mother, and being the mother of the DIVINE SON--the mother of God.  I can just see her dancing around her simple home with him, her face wreathed in smiles. What is your favorite image of Mary?

4)  Our pastor is from Uganda, and is on a committee there to run and enlarge a catholic school. Right now they have a boy's dorm but not one for the girls, so they must stay in local villages if they do not live close by, with people they barely know, and it's just not safe for the young ladies.  So, Fr. Isidore is trying to raise money for a girl's dorm.  He showed us a beautiful video about the project just before Christmas, and the countryside there is just lovely. I would love to visit Africa one day. 

Our Dear Father Izzy speaking at an event

5)  Presenting.......our puppy dogs, Sukey and Max! Sukey is mine, but is occasionally a benedict arnold if someone offers her an extra walk. She's about 2 years old, a german shepherd-cattle dog mix.  Max is my middle son's dog, an australian cattle dog mix, and is the very soul of humility and deference--and is a major couch potato.  We lost our dear doggie Zenith about 18 months ago and I still grieve for her--she was a catahoula leopard dog, the smartest, most loyal dog ever.

Sukey-dog

6) I have always been fascinated by the story of the Donner party, that ill-fated group of emigrants who set out for California from the east back in 1845, just before the gold rush, in a wagon train of some 80+ people and got stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1845-46 at what is now Donner Lake during the worst winter the area has ever known.  Their food stores were already gone when they were trapped just three days ride from the Sacramento valley and civilization, and rescuers could not get through. By the time they were finally rescued in the late winter/early spring, cannibalism had occurred and the survivors were only 40 or so people. Only two families, the Reeds and the Breens, survived intact.  It's a fascinating story, best told (in my opinion) by George Stewart in "Ordeal by Hunger", written back in the thirties and still in print. If you haven't read it, you should give it a try--the man knows how to tell a story!

The fateful trail

Donner Pass in winter

7)  I think one of the best shows airing on tv today for the kiddos is "My Catholic Family" on EWTN.  I have learned so much from that show myself--each episode features a saint or blessed, with a modern catholic family of mom, dad, sis, brother and baby learning about them. It's quite well done for what it is, and they are still making new shows, unlike most of the other cartoons on the channel. They had a new one just last week on St. Clare!