Fridays are Golden

We try to take the Golden Girls to places where they can run, uninhibited by leashes or forest.  One of their favorite places is around a lake and over the dam.  Several times during these off-leash frolics, we call them back to us.  We hold both hands in the air as a visual cue.  Often we have little treats for them; other times the treat is only praise.  The purpose of doing the recalls at unexpected intervals is to reinforce to the dogs that coming when they are called is a good and necessary thing.

Here you see the laughing girls in the shadow of my huband.  He is holding two little treats and they are waiting patiently, not yet sure but hoping there is a treat involved.

The girls really do get excited about these tiny treats.  We use them for practicing commands and during grooming because they are small with few calories.

We take water and a collapsing bowl for the girls.  One water dish is fine when we are traveling since they would both use the same one even if we had two.

Tuesday morning we put the girls in the car.  They thought we were going for a fun outing.  Well, we were indeed going for an outing.  But not the outing the girls expected.  Lucy, our drama queen, always whines in delight as we go down to the main road.  She suddenly became silent.  I know she was thinking, "That's where we are supposed to turn!  Dad!  Pay Attention.  You forgot to turn.  Oh dear, this may not be good."  There was not a sound from either dog for quite a while.  Then Lucy started to whine again; not the happy whining like before, but mournful whining as if she were heading to her doom.

Close, but in reality it was simply a trip to their veterinarian for their annual physical exams and innoculations.  We select our veterinarian with the same care with which we selected pediatricians when the children were small.  Dr. B is wonderful, kind and patient with our dogs and we are so lucky to have him.  He pronounced both dogs very healthy.

Dr. B has a dog of his own.  He trained the dog to respond to the word "dead" by dropping down on the ground, all four feet stuck straight up in the air.  He selects a sports team (for my husband he would choose "Carolina Tarheels.")  He would then ask the dog, "Would you rather be a Carolina Tarheel fan or would you rather be dead?"  You can figure out how the game works.

Whether from the excitement of the exam, or a side effect from the injections, both dogs were rather lethargic that afternoon and into the evening.  I practically had to prod them to get them to come for their bedtime business duty outside.

This is Ellie's pitiful look, guaranteed to get someone down on the floor with her.

This is Lucy's zombie, ready-to-sleep-don't-bother-me look.

Fortunately both girls were in fine shape the next morning.  All of us, human and canine, are enjoying some cooler weather with new signs of autumn appearing every day.

We are trying to rise above the constant, often stupid political rhetoric we cannot seem to avoid.  North Carolina, like many (if not most) other states is having huge problems with the state's budget.  We have heavy unemployment.  More than 15% of our population go to bed hungry every night and awaken to hunger during the day.  The numbers of people visiting the food pantries are at an all-time high.  Neglected repairs of aging infrastructure are certain to cause problems in the near as well as distant future.  Simply put, we are in a crisis mode.

So what does our first-time-in-150-years-Republican-majority-in-both-houses government tackle as its most pressing agenda item?  It goes something like this: "It threatens the sanctity of marriage. 
What are we going to do with those gay and lesbian couples who think they should be treated like everyone else?  It's already against the law for them to marry, but we must amend our State Constitution to make it harder to change."

[NOTE:  I apologize for lumping all Republicans together.  There are many Republicans who do support the same civil rights to all citizens.  But I can tell you that the previous Democrat-led State Congress struck down this proposal each time its ugly head reared.]

So this week, the words "tolerance" and "courage" are running through my mind.  I cannot recall who said it, but I think it rings true:

The true test of courage comes when we are in the minority.  The true test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND, EVERYONE.  AND WHETHER YOU ARE IN THE MAJORITY OR THE MINORITY, PRACTICE COURAGE AND TOLERANCE.