More about Odin and Other Critters

Odin can catch pupcorn from the air. I tell him to "catch" and move it back and forth, he tracks every move. He managed to catch five out of seven. He takes little hops forward and just snaps right down. If he misses, it bounces off his nose, and as he's lunging forward, that just gives it more momentum. He managed to knock one a good three feet away. He also seems to know that his tongue has to be kept well back from those choppers. It's highly entertaining.

Pupcorn tastes horrible. It has no flavor at all. It needs salt, truth be told.

Oh, what is pupcorn? It's a crunchy doggy treat that is pretty much all air. It's "cheese flavored" (no, it's not. I can attest.) Low fat, low calories, low sodium, etc. You can get them at Petsmart.

I also give Odin his "Old man" treats (dog biscuits with glucosamine and chonditrin, for the joints). And pig's ears. He loves him some pig's ears. I also got him a gigantic rawhide bone that he's been working on for awhile now. Keeps those teeth clean and healthy.

One of the things I've been doing is giving him more and more exercise (and myself too in the process!) that now he is able to tolerate me holding him up by the forelegs for a bit. Not quite enough to where he can rest on my shoulders, but we're getting there.

We went up to the park today, by the river. There's still ice and snow, and often a layer of water under the ice, especially on the low lying sidewalks. There were a few geese around. Odin nearly dragged me onto the ice in the river, but I managed to pull him back and save us both from hypothermia. He really wanted to see that damn goose. I'll have to bring him out there in the spring when the geese and ducks are all there, with some bread. I can hand feed some of the geese and ducks.

It's also a great deal of fun watching geese attempt to land on ice. There's generally a lot of flapping and startled honking as they struggle to stop skidding.

Well, to bed. I have sacristy duties in the morning.

It Just Never Quits

It has seemed to be one thing after another lately...blogging's been light because of that.

Bills, bills, bills. The usual stressors of 21st century life.

The snow and ice from the last two weeks still hasn't melted yet. It is nice being able to walk on patches of bare ground though. We may have a good growing season this year.

The dog is doing well as ever, and the cat is now to the point where she'll sleep on the bed when he's on it too.

I've a touch of the cold now, and so I am hitting the Airborne and trying to stay nice and quiet. Busy schedule this weekend at church: Serve tonight's Vigil Mass, sacristan for both English Masses tomorrow. Well, I could certainly do with the extra time in church; my soul needs it.

In Local News...

Well, yet more snow. It's coming down something fierce right now.

Odin loves the snow, truth be told, it's like a giant slip and slide for both of us. He tries to eat the snow and ice. Yes, we still have ice. I've not walked on solid ground for a week.

And the story featuring Odin has run in the Eagle today (the picture isn't available on the Net, but I hope to get a digital version shortly). No telling how long that article will be available, either. At least a week or so.

Odin likes his celebrity, but I told him the gold chains and cigars have to go...

It"s Cold!

It's very, very cold out, and sleeting and snowing hard. The dog was utterly miserable, but I am not about to allow him to go in the house just because it's cold. This is an incentive for him to hurry up and go, already.

From the Curt Jester's blog:

Cold and Hot Catholics
un-Muted Mumblings blogs:
As the temperature dips into the low single digits (or below zero according to some), I ran into some particularly Catholic experiences this morning. So here is my "A Catholic knows it is cold when:"
- Your lips freeze to the metal crucifix as you kiss your Rosary for the morning commute.- You bless yourself with holy ice instead of holy water from the font by the front door.
- You experience an apparition walking by the front yard statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary; she isn't crying, but she appears to be shivering.
- The Rosary swinging from the rear view mirror chips ice off the windshield as you slam on the brakes.
and the number one way to know it is cold (not exclusive to Catholics)
- The environmentalists stop talking about global warming.

Funny stuff. Now here is my Florida counterpoint.

A Catholic knows it's hot when....

You fill up your Holy Water font five times a day because it keeps evaporating.
You have a cross shaped burn mark on your lip from kissing your crucifix.
You squeeze to rinse your scapular daily because of the all the sweat it has absorbed.
You never buy a Rosary with black beads because they retain too much heat.
The plastic Jesus on your dashboard melted.
There are no miraculous statues of Mary since her tears evaporate before anybody notices anything.
You burned your fingers blessing yourself at Mass from a Holy Water font warmed by sunlight through the stained glass windows.
And the number one way Catholics know that it is hot:
You start to wonder just how bad Purgatorial flames can be in the first place.

We're Making News!

At work, I told the story of how I unexpectedly met Lori, Odin's former owner, and what an excellent experience that was. Well, one of my coworkers (you're reading this and you know I will find some way to get back at you for this!) called the Wichita Eagle's Pets journalist.

My first knowledge of this was sitting down to an email after lunch telling me to expect a call from the newspaper about Odin and meeting his former owner, and that the journalist was very interested in writing a story. Whoa. My first thought was, "Oh dear Lord, they're going to want to take pictures and come to my apartment and I have to clean!"

The journalist called me later in the day and I granted her a short interview and set up a time for the photographer and herself, possibly, to come out and take pictures. I got ahold of Lori and let her know what was going on and if she would call the newspaper and so forth, and she seemed pretty enthused about the whole deal. So, hopefully she'll be able to come to the picture shoot on Monday.

The pictures will be around the corner where we met, and, if we can get Odin to calm down long enough, or the photographer has a very fast shutter speed (say, 1/500ths of a second?), we'll have a nice picture or two to go along with the article.

Odin will be a Wichita media darling for the length of time it takes groggy Wichitans next Saturday morning to sip their coffee, comment on his picture, "Dang big dog", and turn to the sports section.

Awesome Coincidence

I was out walking Odin during my lunch break when a lady came around the corner of the apartment building, looked at the dog, and said, "Odin!".

Odin then proceeded to run full tilt to the lady, dragging me behind like a little rag doll. Turns out the lady was his former owner! She and her husband were in the process of moving and they were unable to keep Odin, so they made the very difficult decision to bring him to the Humane Society, where I adopted him less than two, three days later.

She and I had a good visit and talked about the dog and exchanged info to stay in touch. Now, out of 300,000 plus people in the city of Wichita, she would drive by at the right moment and see me walking the dog. That's one of those God moments.

Turns out that Odin is in fact registered with papers, was stood to stud and helped litter ten puppies, and they were intending to show him, but life circumstances got in the way over the years. It's very sad how things like that happen, and I have the deepest sympathies for those who have to give up a companion and family member of many years. I've lost my own dogs over the years, and I know how it hurts. His owner thought she would never see him again, would never know what happened to him. Well, now she knows! He's warm, safe, healthy, and happy with me, though it's pretty obvious he misses his momma terribly. I have never before had to pull on him as hard as I had to to get him to go back to the apartment with me.

He's pretty wired up, been looking out the window and running around the apartment, and I know what he's got to be feeling. The poor guy will probably be a little sad for a few days.

His former lady is going to get me his papers, as well as bring some puppy pictures of him and of his litter (awwwwwww!). So, I am going to get some pictures together of my dogs over the years and print off some current pics of Odin that I took recently.

Other things I learned today: he does have a kind of sensitive stomach. A little Pepto-Bismol will clear him right up. I can identify, I myself have stomach trouble. So does the cat, come to think of it. I'm sensing a pattern here.

He's also been a good Catholic doggie all his life, as his former people are Catholic as well, which is also another nice thing to know. However, I will not be putting him on the no-meat-on-Lenten-Fridays rule.

Also, the ear infection, he's always had, ever since he was a puppy. They cropped his ears to see if that would help (nope). He likes rope toys, balls, squeaky toys (another trip to Petsmart...), and, as I figured right away, has a need to be with me at all times if possible. He will tolerate showers, but you have to get in with him (we figured this out too).

So, this is one of those bittersweet moments of life for dogs and their people. He was, as she said, a blessing for her to be able to see him again and know what happens with him, and he certainly is a blessing for me to have and to take care of. God does watch out for even the least of His creatures.