Not much to say today … just a cute shot of recently-groomed Sydney at Duke University.

Before I blog more about Boston, please check out this blog: Bean the Pit.  It’s a lovely story about a lost dog that was recent recovered in my fair city of Durham, North Carolina.

Back to Beantown.  Days 4 and 5 were my “blah” days, and I spent most of them in training and at the local shopping mall (the only real fixture within walking distance).  The weather took a turn for the cold, and the rain from the prior day meant everything was a mix of cold slush, ice and general frigidness.

Of particularly amusing note were the “no pedestrian” signs at most of the driveways leading into the mall.  I’m not sure how a foot pedestrian is supposed to get into the mall; fly, perhaps?  I cheerfully ignored them, dodged the incoming SUV’s and had an otherwise acceptable time.

Of some worthwhile note was my consumption of seafood.  Boston folk sure know how to make good chowders, as I’m sure my waistline will attest to.

Sorry about not having a blog update yesterday.  What started out as a quiet and rather peaceful day ended with some sadness.

My sister and I were running some errands in her car.  Early in the afternoon, a dog ran in front of us on a very busy street - and as hard as she tried to stop in time …

We have no idea if the dog survived.  The owner, thankfully, came outside of his house immediately and put the dog in the back of his car, and promptly brought it to the vet.  Names and phone numbers were exchanged hastily, but we haven’t had the heart to call and follow up.

Which brings me to my point - there are no stupid dogs; only stupid owners.

Dogs’ natural instinct is to run around curiously.  Why people think they can put dogs on those long tethers in unfenced backyards - on the best of days, a cruel way to treat any animal, and on the worst of days, an escape puzzle that’s not too difficult to solve - is beyond me.

I’m vouching for a law that says that owners should be treated as their dogs are.  If the dogs have to stay outside all night in the freezing cold, so should their owners.  If the dogs are permanently chained to a dog house, so should the owners.  If the dog is neglected for weeks on end - well, so should the owners.

Some people laugh at me for “spoiling” my dog.  She lives inside of the house.  She eats healthy, homemade meals (prepared specifically for her; that’s not a codeword for “scraps”).  She is loved and cared for as any human member of my family would be.  And this is only natural; she’s a living, breathing, feeling creature - just like the rest of us.

Of course, we feel terrible about what happened yesterday; an innocent dog suffered terribly - for the sake of someone who had no business owning a dog in the first place.

Nice way to end off a Christmas holiday.

• Went to the gym on Saturday and did about two hours of climbing.  I was still pretty sore from climbing on Thursday and Friday so I stuck to the “easy” walls and the bouldering cave.  I also bought a book on climbing so I can start to figure out the “right” way to do this.
• Decided to paint the house myself.  I was going to hire a friend of mine to paint that inside, but she has a full plate with school and work and won’t be able to do it.  So fuck it - I’ll just go to Lowe’s myself and buy all the shit I need.  I’ll put the money I save towards one of those new sexy iMacs.
• Carolyn came by the house and picked up the last bits of her stuff.  It’s funny how we managed to divide up thousands of dollars of furniture in a matter of minutes, but we poured over DVD’s and CD’s for well over an hour.  But - it went well, and I even made her some food while she was “visiting” (is it visiting when you come to a house that you own but don’t live in anymore?)
• Carolyn brought Muskoka with her, and it was *great* to see him.  He was very happy to see his daddy, and we spent some time play fighting and wrestling.
• I gave Sydney a lot of attention this weekend, and maybe gave her one or two too many “bickies” for being a good girl.  She’s been a real trooper throughout this separation, and she’s given me a lot of reasons to keep my chin up and my head high.
• I decided that what I really need is a Volkswagen Eurovan camper.  I want to circumnavigate North America next spring - and wouldn’t it be way cool for me and Sydney to do that in a Volkswagen camper?  I just need to drum up the $20,000 that these things go for used.

It’s easy for me to close my eyes and say “thank god we don’t have any kids”, but we do.  There’s two puppies in our lives that are every bit as much our kids as we could hope to have.

Sydney is daddy’s little girl.  She has an underbite that prevents her from closing her front teeth completely; the tongue is a permanent fixture.  She’s a soft-spoken girl who likes to be close to one person - until it’s time to eat.  Her first loyalty is to her stomach, and her reminders for her dinner are not subtle.

Muskoka is the goofball.  Silly and full of energy, he’s an extremely affectionate dog that feels the full gambit of emotions.  We got Muskoka as an 8-week old puppy; I still remember bringing him home for the first time.  That little ball of black and white fur has brown into a beautiful English Springer, and I’m proud to be his daddy.

So, the obvious question - how are they doing?  The easy answer is Sydney - she’s living with me right now.  Sydney has taken the separation well, and actually seems to enjoy the quiet time.  Of course, I have given her a lot of my time and attention and she’s never the unhappy recipient, but I also wonder what’s going through her mind as she carefully paws her way around our now-empty house.  The hardest thing is to watch her run into the master bedroom, where she’s used to leaping up on the bed to look out the window.  Now she goes running in … and stops in the middle of the room, wondering where everything went.

Dogs aren’t stupid - I’m sure she knows a lot about what’s going on.

Muskoka is having a harder time with this.  He’s with Carolyn, and apparently managed to scratch a good bit of the paint off the front door when he was left alone for the first time.  This isn’t entirely unprecedented;The paint on the door to the garage of our house was also scratched the first few times we left the dogs alone, and we’re now starting to wonder if it was Muskoka all along (we suspected Sydney at the time).

Stress sometimes causes Muskoka to not eat, but I understand he’s been eating OK so far this week.

I’m worried about both of my kids; if there’s a “victim” in this separation, it’s them.  I just hope they know that their daddy loves them, and will do anything for them.