It's almost a funny story

I've been off the blog for a month now, but I'm back. The question is: Do I yet have the strength, the perspective, the peace of mind to tell you why? It's almost a funny story. And I do think I'm ready to share. It just might take me a little while to do so. So please enjoy some other fun stuff I've come across in the past month while I take a deep breath and spill.

Like these guys. A friend snapped them waiting outside a Manhattan store for their guardian to come out. Evolution, right before our eyes!

So I had a wonderful, sweet foster and he didn't like his crate. We worked on it over our first weekend and he was barking less when I went back to work. (Note: Of the 16 dogs I've been fortunate to foster, I think I've had two who didn't have some separation anxiety at the start. It's very common and it should never keep you from fostering or adopting a dog)

When I think of dogs on the beach, they are usually running in the surf. But not always, I now know.

Where was I? Right, so "Mo" didn't like the crate. So he barked. Which is normal. What is not normal (or rather: not par for the course) is what came next.

Have you ever noticed how dogs are always saving people from fires? Ohio, California, Alaska, South Carolina. I think insurance should require people with homes to adopt dogs!

So Mo actually managed to bust out of his crate. I didn't know this was possible. But he rocked it so hard, he undid the clips and walked out the back. Then he turned on my kitchen faucet.

Dogs have also saved people from cougars, swarms of bees, and sexual predators.

I had dirty dishes in my sink, and Mo wanted to lick them. So he stood on his hind legs and did so, in the process knocking into the faucet with his head, and turning it on.

Dogs have also braved harm to save other dogs.

My sink overflowed. My kitchen flooded, as did the kitchen below. We calculated that it was no more than 3 hours of pouring, streaming, damaging water. I have a hole in my kitchen where the folks had to remove the flooring. The neighbor below needs a portion of his ceiling replaced. Do you know the term for drying out a place following water damage? It's water mitigation. I know that now. The water mitigation team told me how lucky I was. Wasn't feeling it.

Earning that knowledge was followed by lots of back and forth between insurance (mine) & insurance (condo's) & lots of stress, which pretty quickly decimated my immune system and let in a rotten flu. Three weeks of flu, responsibility assigned (to the condo. DC law is a crazy thing) and more stories of errant (I prefer "talented") dogs (in fact another dog in this very same complex did the same thing 10 years ago) and general water damage (the woman who forgot about the bath she was drawing til it overflowed, ruining her downstairs' neighbor's bathroom; the friend who was sick in bed when the ceiling started to cave in on her --she thought she was hallucinating) than I could have ever imagined, I am back.

The blog is back.

Fostering is on hold for a bit. But that's OK, because dogs are so amazing and so cute, that I'll still have plenty to write about.


Akasha of New City, NY, cutely changing channels.

Bella and I are off now to help look for Olivia. Because I can't imagine anything worse than losing your dog. And I have seen some crazy stuff.