{"id":19014,"date":"2013-12-23T17:47:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T22:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/?p=19014"},"modified":"2013-12-24T23:16:21","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T04:16:21","slug":"an-oversized-cliche-put-a-bow-on-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/?p=19014","title":{"rendered":"An oversized clich\u00e9 – put a bow on me"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’ve been speaking to people about dogs – here a dog there a dog, hell Tin and I even looked at cats at the shelter despite the fact that a litter was born under my neighbor’s house sometime a few months ago. One woman said to me, “I just want to make sure you will keep the dog because this time of year, people long for a dog because of the holidays.” <\/p>\n

Well mam, I wanted to tell her – welcome to my life, because I am among many things a card carrying clich\u00e9 – this time last year I had two dogs and two cats and a house on the bayou and thought differently than I do now. But that was last year, this year my household is very different – the footprint has changed, and the paw prints have definitely disappeared from the floorboards. <\/p>\n

Is this why I want a dog? Hmmm, let’s see. No. Why I want a dog – part one:<\/p>\n

The only remaining animals from last year is Heidi<\/a>, the German Shepherd rescued in 2010. If you know anything about German Shepherds you know they bond with one person even though they are a family dog. And Heidi bonded with Tin and Tin with Heidi. So when Heidi is at the Blue House<\/a>, Tin misses her. So when we are home in our cozy house, I long for a dog who will be here at the Spirit House<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That’s part one. Part two is I want a dog for me. <\/p>\n

I’ve grown accustomed to walking a dog to City Park<\/a> and getting my morning constitutional and now without a dog, I’m not pulled to complete my ritual alone. Well I do venture out for walks and do it alone, but it does not bring me the same joy that a trusty companion by my side does. <\/p>\n

Part three is I miss my four-legged companions of yesteryear. <\/p>\n

Arlene was such a joy to have around from the time she crawled out of the carrier at SFO airport and climbed up my neck till the time I carried her to the vet one last time<\/a>. I still think about her. I still dream<\/a> about her. <\/p>\n

Part four – because four is my lucky number – is that my mother told me she would come back as a dog<\/a>. And I miss my mother too.<\/p>\n

So I’m blue for the holidays – I miss the creatures I clung to in my life who transitioned to another – and my son who I waited 50 years for will be at the Blue House (how color appropriate) on Christmas and so yes, lady on the other end of the receiver, I admit, I’m a clich\u00e9 because I want a dog since I’m blue for the holidays, but I don’t want just a creature to temporarily assuage my blues, I am looking for a companion with whom to share this wonderful life. <\/p>\n

\"015_15\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I’ve been speaking to people about dogs – here a dog there a dog, hell Tin and I even looked at cats at the shelter despite the fact that a litter was born under my neighbor’s house sometime a few months ago. One woman said to me, “I just want to make sure you will keep the dog because this time of year, people long for a dog because of the holidays.” Well mam,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kHSD-4WG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19014"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19036,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19014\/revisions\/19036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}