Geordie’s Kennel

If you look closely, you can see that Geordie has tucked himself into bed and pulled the blanket up to his chin.
If you look closely, you can see that Geordie has tucked himself into bed and pulled the blanket up to his chin.

Before the surprise arrival of Geordie, I had been doing a lot of volunteer work for the Armed Forces.  I did everything from knit camo scarves and black wool socks that went to Afghanistan to helping to put together Back Packs for Iraq and even made special patriotic quilts that were given to injured soldiers air lifted from combat zones.   When a soldier is transported, he/she travels with nothing.  Their very uniforms are often cut off to facilitate treatment.  At first, they would have nothing to call their own except for these blankets.

One of the last projects I was working on B.G. was making adaptive clothing.  If you have ever had a cast of a halo, you know how difficult it can be to get your clothes to fit around them.  The adaptive garments were made specifically to accommodate these devices.  I made special pants, underwear and T-shirts to help wounded warriors.

After making as many pairs of pants as I could from some twill fabric I had bought, I still had an oddly shaped piece leftover.  As it turned out, that scrap was the exact size and shape to cover my little boy’s kennel to give him a bit of shade and privacy when he arrived.

Whenever I look at Geordie’s kennel, I wonder about the men who ended up with the other pieces of that fabric.  I hope they are happy…maybe even playing with their own dogs today.

Are We Cool?

Are We Cool?
Are We Cool?

If you have a terrier, you know that you must keep them on a leash pretty much all the time.  (They are too interested in the world to reliably come when called.)  In an effort to get Geordie some exercise, I bought him a really long, 50 foot leash.  I thought that he and I would be able to romp, chase balls, catch Frisbees and such with him still safely tethered to me.

I was so disappointed when I took Geordie out on his new leash!  Although it was 50 feet long, all he cared about was being 50 1/2 feet away from me.  I couldn’t engage him in any games; he only wanted to pull further away.

Finally I had had enough.  Geordie was busy sniffing mystery scents as far away from me as he could, so I decided to lie on the ground and watch the clouds for a  bit.  After a few minutes, I closed my eyes and simply enjoyed the quiet.

The next thing I knew, I felt something brush against my hair.  Ew!  What was that?!? Turns out, it was my puppy gently sniffing me.   When he was done, he laid down next to me with his fur barely brushing against me so that he could tell if I moved.  Everything about his body language said he was checking to see if things were still cool between us.  Sure, puppy, they’re cool.  This was one of the first times Geordie seemed to show an interest in whether or not I was upset with him.

After a few minutes, I gave him a hug to let him know we were OK and to  release him from his apologetic “good behavior”.

A Good Scottish Name

One day, before puppy had a name, I was out taking him for  some exercise.  A neighbors saw us and said, “Oh, I see you have a new puppy.  What’s her name?”  (Everyone always mistook him for a girl.)  “Well,” I said, “I found out that terriers come from Scotland and I wanted him to have a a Scottish name, so I decided to call him ‘Wee Evil Beastie!'”

We are not amused.
We are not amused.

What IS That?!? Yipe! Yipe! Yipe!

After our “pet me until I go to sleep” experience on our first night, I woke up on the second day cautiously optimistic that perhaps the puppy did like me after all.  Maybe our relationship was going to be OK!

Running 1
Running - Copy

That afternoon, the puppy was engrossed with a toy, so I decided to sneak into the next room and grab the newspaper.  The puppy apparently didn’t notice me leave the room, but he heard me rustle the paper and came to investigate.  What did he find?  A strange person!!  This scared him so badly that he scrunched his eyes shut and ran screaming (Yipe!  Yipe!  Yipe!) as fast as his little legs would take him.  He barreled right into the refrigerator but was too afraid to open his eyes to navigate and kept banging into it again and again.

I sure made an impression on my boy, didn’t I?  As soon as I’d left the room, he no longer recognized me! : (