Povey Prattle

Geri H of the Racing Dog Rescue Project was good enough to tell me that good ole Ben is already in a new home.  He is with a family which has a big fenced in yard, and more importantly have two dogs, a Rottweiler and a Greyhound. Ben bonded with the dogs in a heartbeat and is utterly relaxed in his new home. Of course I  miss him, but I am so very happy that he is now well settled. It was so good of Geri to give me this news. I'll be looking for a new dog, but not until much later in the year.  In the meantime I will be free to do a bit of travel. My closest friends and family members will understand that my greater sense of loss is for Penne who lived with me for nine years.  I miss her so much. I liked Ben, but I loved Penne. Penne, the dog of my life.

When I was a skinny and wispy child I was in the hospital twice.  Once for a tonsilectomy (and they gave me rice pudding afterwards instead of ice-cream blah!), and once when I was in an isolation hospital with scarlet fever (where my parents could visit visit but only look at me and wave through a window, and where a nurse slapped me for eating an apple which she had told me not to eat). So it was sixty four years or more on when I became an overnight patient following surgery. For at least four years when walking I've had dullish pain in my right leg, pain which I  could "walk through". At first I thought that I had poor walking shoes, then I tried a potassium rich diet, and finally decided that I needed more hydration before walking. O foolish man -  self diagnosis is not wise! Six or so weeks ago I asked my Primary Care Physician about this.  She could not find a pulse in my right ankle.  After a vascular test the diagnosis became clear. ...

Thursday 8:00 p.m. I'll be incommunicado for the next 24 - 36 hours. Then Ill be in touch again.

A City of Sarasota (FL) Police Department Cruiser with two Officers arrived at my home last evening. I knew at once why the Policemen were here. For you see, my address is almost the same as that of an elderly woman who lives in an adjoining community.   When and if she falls she dials 911 to ask for help. One time before the Police came to my home by mistake, and twice the Fire Dept. Ambulance with its' EMT crew have done the same. So I strode outside yesterday, and with confidence announced to the two cops that were at the wrong house. One of them replied  "Oh no we are not, we are here for you.  Trader Joe's has issued a complaint again you for bad breath". You've guessed!   This was just one more of my zany dreams.

By the time you read  this Ben will be in a new home. He is a wonderful dog  -  you will agree.  His separation anxiety is great.  So, despite my best efforts,  (using tips from dog trainers) he continues to be destructive when I leave my home. Crating him makes him more anxious -  for instance, he bent some crate bars inwards in an attempt to escape, so much so that there was blood on the floor from his jaws. He managed to chew his way out of a muzzle. Last Wednesday I was out for two hours and I returned home to a trail of destruction. I got very angry with him and yelled at him. Yelling does not make sense to dogs, so this was not good for him or for me.  He acted acted out from his anxiety many times before, but this was my last straw. I cannot live this way.  I have to be free to leave my home without wondering what chaos will greet me when I return. I made arrangements with the Racing Dog Rescue Project to ret...