A New Look

I'm playing around with a new look for this, so it may look awkward for the next few days and/or weeks until I figure something out. I really miss the Mac. Photo stuff was so much easier on there! So bear with me as I change things around and it looks funny or weird or out of place until it all settles in. =)

Decisions. Check.

Well, I think by now most of you know that we decided to keep Miss Monkey. I personally think this is 100% Jesse's doing, but he still tries to blame me on occasion. Since deciding to keep her, we have been trying to hit the training very hard. So far, we have worked most on the crate training, and a few basic commands - come, leave it, sit, and lay down. She is getting pretty good at all of them and seems to be warming up to her crate very nicely, taking naps in there and such. After she has mastered those, we will work on stay, speak, and quiet. Then once she has all of the basic commands down 100%, we will move on to useless, but cute tricks.

Currently, there is Monkey madness at the back door (aka: jumping, banging, pawing to come back in). Horton and Abe "knock" very nicely and politely, but Monkey goes ape. (Lame joke not intended.) It is a project training her. I took a lot for granted with Horton and Abe. Because they were older when we got them, they were (are) mellow, calm, already trained with the basics, and wonderful with each other - sharing food, beds, sleeping next to each other, great buddies with no fights at all, even when first introduced. It was always difficult to tell who was alpha and who was on bottom because they both just kind of went with the flow.

Monkey isn't so easy. Since she's a puppy, she's wild and crazy and doesn't know the rules. She is also figuring out her place in the pack, which has caused a few tiffs. I think (hope) they have all finally settled into their hierarchy at this point. Monkey is on top and Abe is the bottom rung. It kind of broke my heart to see Abe be demoted like that, but I know that what they need from me most is non-favoritism, consistency, and to support what nature created. So, we all know our place in the pack now and I need to just make sure I do my role. Hopefully I am making Cesar proud with my "calm and assertive" leadership. =)

We also finally made a decision about grad school. We decided that if I get in, I will only accept under certain conditions (x amount of stipend, etc.) Our "conditions" are pretty high and I highly doubt it will all pan out, but I am getting to be okay with that.

The positives of me not going are many, the most exciting of which is getting to live in the same place as Jesse! Behind that is being able to take a vacation, and doing more house projects. A couple weeks ago we went to Barnes and Noble and looked at house books. We thought of some really cool ideas for converting our garage to another bed/bath. And we have vacation narrowed down to two places - one of them is a given (Disney) and the other is Belize. Of course, we talk about all of this but we will need to find the money for it before it actually happens! The tax refund at least gives us a nice chunk to start saving with.

Otherwise, I am finally able to work in the gardens this weekend, getting lettuce and sugar snap peas in. My daffodils are in full bloom and make me happy every time I drive up to our house. And my tulips are just beginning to peek out. This spring is especially exciting as there are so many big changes/things around the bend. Not too much longer and Jesse will be running his first half marathon, which I am very excited about. He is becoming one buff guy.

Religulous

Jesse and I rented Religulous the other night. It's a documentary with Bill Maher, who I haven't really watched much of before. Apparently, it has been called "one of the funniest and most offensive documentaries ever made". I didn't really view it as offensive, though I can see how many people would, and for that reason, I won't publicly recommend it. It's pretty raw (even perhaps crude) in the way that it questions faith and religion, but I think it's a very honest raw and for that reason, I can respect it. Plus, it is full of the sarcastic humor I love so dearly. And besides that, many of the doubts it highlights are very familiar to me. The film spends a good portion on Christianity, but also peeks into Islam, Mormonism, and some other pockets of religions with smaller followings.

I think the point of the film is summed up in three quotes scattered throughout:

The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive courses, the world actually could come to an end.

If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limps into the future decimated by the effects of religion-inspired nuclear terrorism, let's remember what the real problem was: that we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got passed the neurological disorder of wishing for it.

The plain fact is that religion must die for mankind to live.

I don't know that I agree with the end conclusion, but I definitely see where it's coming from. No one can deny that religion or some form of defining belief system have caused the vast majority, if not 100% of all wars in the world. And most religions cling to some sort of "final days" mentality where the world will be judged/destroyed, and the faithful will live happily ever after, while the evil will die or receive their just punishment. I get what Bill Maher is saying when he talks about the irony of that mentality and I get the damage done, the danger of religion.

But I also get the fact that faith is often the only thing that keeps people alive in really, really crappy situations. It is hope in a crazy, scary world. So, I don't think faith is necessarily the problem. How we use it is. And I won't argue with anyone who says it's misused, because it is. But, faith still has a place in this world. To be extreme either way (like trying to fight the injustice of religion by calling for its destruction) is just as dangerous as the other. After all, even not believing is a belief system, and calling for others to not believe is a "witness" or "conversation attempt" of some sort.

I'm sorry for all the times in my life when I've been "sure", because looking back, I can see that I may have done more damage than good. My certainty made me blind and arrogant.

Really, I think we're all wise to recognize that the world and God and faith are a lot more gray than black or white. I think we're all wise to recognize that we should never stop seeking, because the moment we stop is the moment we enter into that dangerous territory of arrogance and judgement. And I think we're all wise to offer a little more grace to those around us, realizing that they are really just like us - trying to make sense of it all, trying to do what is right by God.

I Promise I Have a Life Outside of My Dogs...Honest.

The fate of Miss Monkey is still unknown, but here are some pictures anyway. We went ahead and bought a third dog bed, which Horton and Abe have taken to sharing. We aren't sure if they do this to get away from Monkey madness or if they both just really like the new bed. Poor old Abe can usually only manage to get his front half on the bed before his back gives out. This sort of works to our advantage when he has accidents - much easier to clean up on hardwood than a soft, absorbent bed. This is our nightly doggie routine. We have Abe's wiener cleaner, his antibiotics, his pain meds, his eye drops, and Monkey girl got in on the pill action by adding antibiotics and steroids to the mix. Turns out her rash thing isn't mange (thankfully!), but she does have some sort of allergy, plus it had a secondary infection from her scratching at it. After a couple weeks, she will be med free. (Though she does have a spay appt. on Wednesday, and I imagine she may have yet more meds after that.) Anyway, apparently, if a dog is high maintenance, it comes to live at the Nikkel house.
I personally think I am being much stronger than Jesse with trying not to get too connected to Monkey. He is a sucker! I often overhear him whispering/talking to her: "Go suck up to Natasha. Go put your head on her lap and show her you love her." or he will come up to me with Monkey and put his face by hers and then they both give me puppy dog eyes.
Monkey really doesn't photograph well, but you can get a better idea of what she looks like in this one.
And just because Abe is cute and we love him...
Monkey is harder to get a photo of because she's so squirmy and likes to do her puppy wiggles. This is the best one I have gotten of her face so far.
We took her and the boys up to my mom's house yesterday. She and Riley didn't get along too well, but Horton and Riley didn't get along when they first met either. She acted pretty scared and skittish at first when we got there and was being a grump, but after she warmed up to the place, she was running around happily. She enjoyed playing with my brother's puppy, but sometimes I wasn't sure if she realized that she is about 5 or 6 times bigger than he is, as she made him yelp once or twice. She is definitely still in the puppy stage and needs guidance and/or redirection often. She sometimes thinks it's fun to move socks and/or shoes around the house. She doesn't really chew on them, but we have been finding one or two random shoes or a sock in odd places. Mostly though, she understands that her toys are okay to chew on and carry around, but other objects are not. She sits quite nicely when she thinks you have a treat and she is slowly learning "off", "leave it", and "drop it". And although we have three Kongs, one for each dog, she wants whatever Kong the other dogs have. Abe put her in her place the other day by snapping at her and from that point, she sat down and stared at the Kong longingly, but she was very good to stay away from it. I think she's a pretty smart pup and with some training, she would make a wonderful and obedient dog. I am really pleased with how well she interacts with Horton and Abe. Horton is losing weight from being so much more active and playing, which is great, because he had really tubbed up over winter. And Abe doesn't really play with her, but he is more alert and seems to be pretty content with another dog around. That was my main concern. I didn't want my old guy thinking that he was being replaced or getting stressed out from too much activity in the house. Now, Abe is sort of like the old wise man in the village. He generally flies solo, but he will correct the youngsters when they get out of line and everyone is quick to listen to his reprimand. So, maybe Monkey has been a good thing for him. I just don't know.

Monkey is like my physical daily reminder that I have so many looming life decisions to be made. Sigh...what will we do with you Monkey girl?

Mocha Monkey Girl

So we are officially fostering the pup. I took her to the shelter last night so that we could get her photos taken and get some paperwork lined out for her. The shelter told me they were going to list her online as "Mocha", but that we could call her whatever we wanted. We figured it may be better if we call her some form of Mocha so that when people meet her, if they say that name, she will respond. So, now she is some form of Mocha Monkey Girl...Miss Monkey Mocha Moo...whatever plops out beginning with M basically. My biggest concern at this point is that she is really itchy on her legs and belly with little scabs or something and I'm kind of worried she has some form of mange...which is contagious to other animals and humans. Hopefully it's not that, but until she gets in to see the vet, I will be a bit worried. We have to wait for the shelter to schedule the vet appt. because they have special terms and what not worked out with certain vets, so we can't just take her in ourselves. So, say a prayer for no scabies/mange/mites at our house until then!!! I kind of wish we could just take her ourselves to put my mind at ease. Oh well...wait we will. We also don't know if she is spayed or not, so I suppose at any given moment she could go into heat, which would suck. So, I'm hoping for a vet appt. sooner over later for this girl!! Once her ad is up online, I'll post a link. We have to wait a while anyway because legally we need to give the original owner a chance to reclaim her before she can be officially put into any adoption system. Once she is up for adoption, we have to take her every Saturday to one of two adoption events put on by the shelter and we also have to be willing to arrange for meetings for people who contact the shelter saying they are interested. I think it's going to be awfully tough to drop her off on a Saturday morning and not know whether or not I will ever see her again. But, I have to tell myself with life circumstances for us, it's just not the right thing to do to keep her. Not only do we have an old Abe on our hands, but if I get into grad school, I'll be moving and life will be crazy enough. It just wouldn't be fair to a dog. But, if no one has adopted her by the time I hear about grad school and I don't get in....then maybe we will rethink the situation. I don't think that's likely though. She is very cute and will make a great pet, so my guess is that she will be adopted out within a month or so.