It was a beautiful July day, and my three sisters and I were anticipating a long hike along the Appalachian Trail. Just the four of us. No kids, no responsibilities–just the mountains, the sky, and each other’s company. And the dogs, of course.
I called the dogs and we hopped into my husband’s car–an old Mercedes he had converted to run on used peanut oil we picked up in five gallon buckets from downtown restaurants. The car smelled like french fries driving down the road, and there were lots of reasons the dogs like to ride in it.
I drove to the south side of town, where I was picking up my sister. I stopped by Sharp Shopper for some peach/mango juice to take along. I browsed for a few other bargain items, paid, and went back to the car.
These pictures were taken on June 6, 2010. Hamlet is getting to be an old man, and turned nine on June 28. He can still run with the best of them, and doesn’t let Yorick push him around! Yorick is almost one year old in these photos (his birthday is July 24).
Yorick is a bright kid–in the space of a couple of minutes, I taught him to stand on a rock, stay, and jump off on command. Hammie might think this is ridiculous entertainment, but that doesn’t keep him from joining in and having fun! Click on the photo to enjoy the slideshow.
This album illustrates Yorick’s first six months in Virginia. To read the captions while you are watching the slideshow, click on Show Info in the top right corner.
This photo album chronicles Yorick’s puppy hood in Altforst, The Netherlands. He was bred by Roel Steenhuis. The album identifies Yorick’s mother and father, and gives an introduction to the kennel he came from. To read the captions while you are watching the slideshow, click on Show Info in the top right corner.
The party is over, the house is empty, the farewells have been said and the tears have been cried. The laundry room is empty: no more ragged old towels litter the floor, the puppy toys are stashed, the bowls washed and the washing machine and dryer silent after their heroic efforts to supply the puppies with clean bedding each day.
I'll be a sibling to a ... St. Bernard??
Unseen threads now fan out from my house to places far away. In each of these places a puppy is beginning a new life, apart from me yet encircled by good and loving people whose days will be brightened by the love and companionship of one of these enthusiastic little fur balls. My heart is sad at the letting go;
Leash, check. New family, check. Let's go!
I have invested much time, heart, love, energy and effort in Bianca’s babies. One does not give that much without bonding. But in thinking about the goal which I have set for my life … to make a positive difference wherever I am and in whatever I am doing … I believe I have achieved that end. The Kooiker genetic pool is five larger than it was, five new “Kooiker ambassador” families have been created and through these tiny lives I have been able to create happiness. Mission accomplished!
Water is not only for drinking. Bianca’s puppies have discovered that bit of knowledge in the past couple of days and have had no end of fun doing so. Unfortunately water-play in the house is quite messy and when you add food (which is not simply eaten but is sort of worn full-face) and yard dirt to fuzzy fur … well, needless to say I have happy, dirty puppies. Surface wiping removes … well … surface dirt, and on a day-to-day basis that works, but before each puppy meets his/her new parents, each will get a bath, blow-dry and brushing.
And yes, the days and weeks have passed and this weekend is puppy homing time. As I sip coffee and write this final puppy blog I know that families are expectantly preparing for their new charges and for a trip to Statesboro, Georgia to pick them up. Here is the emotional bridge or perhaps intersection of loss and gain. As each family drives away with one of Bianca’s puppies I will be transferring my own joy to their possession. One by one I will relinquish a puppy life to the care and delight of others. Will I shed some tears? Oh yes, for I have come to love each little fuzzy four-legger. But on the bright side, I can have my laundry room back and it will be dry!
In the past I have shared pictures and stories about how Bianca’s puppies have changed my house and my life. As you know, over the weeks the puppy command center has morphed from a large plastic tub in my office to free range of the laundry room floor, and my duties have changed from constant vigilance to general supervision and meal service. My biggest challenge currently however, is keeping up with the … umm … how should I say this? … umm, how about … puppy leavings?
...exhausted, they fell asleep in a pile
In the beginning Bianca did the job to perfection, leaving nary a trace, but now that the puppies are eating real puppy food like little vacuum cleaners and drinking water from a bowl, the job is becoming far more challenging. To keep the floor clean (in addition to my stash of paper towels) I have tried a number of things … old towels and blankets, a raggedy old sleeping bag and my latest attempt … a thick layer of newspaper from the bundle that a friend kindly gifted to me, thinking that paper would be the perfect solution to my dilemma. Now take a look at the pictures … the puppies obviously thought the newspapers were some sort of Christmas wrapping. They ripped, tore, shredded, chewed and generally destroyed that nice thick layer of paper and then, exhausted fell asleep in the corner in a puppy pile.
The weather has been marvelously sunny and dry with a bit of an autumn nip in the air this past week and the puppies are spending some time outdoors each day now. They do so enjoy their excursions into the “wild” where the outdoor smells tantalize the nose and there is an abundance of sticks to chew and leaves to roodle up. Squirrels chatter and complain in the tall pines over their heads, redheaded woodpeckers drum and the hawks cry in the distance as the puppies play in the sun. And … at least some of the “puppy leavings” land in the yard!
When one chooses to love, one also chooses by default, to let go. That is the inconvenient detail, the fine print that seems so inconsequential in the beginning and so ominous in the end. It is almost time for me to let go; Bianca’s puppies have reached six weeks of age and in two weeks they will be going to their new homes.
Out the door
Many milestones have been reached and passed in those six weeks. Eyes have opened, teeth have erupted, walking has been mastered, the vocabulary of barking and growling has enabled verbal social interaction to take place, first vaccinations have been given and an appointment has been set for the final well-puppy checks and interstate travel papers that
some will need.
Different smells
As I entrust each of these puppies into the loving hands of their new parents there will be a mixture of sadness and joy. The house will be just a bit empty and my heart just a bit melancholy, but other houses will be fuller and other hearts will be happier and as I think about it, I realize that is exactly why I set out on this adventure.
Following Uncle
Sharing the Kooiker beauty, exuberance and love is a wonderful privilege. You can expect that I will repeat the experience in the future, so those of you who did not get a puppy to warm your home this time can count on another chance in the future.
Mama!
Be sure to enjoy this week’s adventure pictures: escaping from the laundry room to roam the house and playing in the back yard.
The house still carries the afterglow of a wonderful Christmas spent with friends. A tiny tree all sparkled with lights and silver ribbons sits on the fireplace mantel, the dining table is set with candles in brass holders and an evergreen swag welcomes visitors at the front door. I chose a simple celebration this year, but the joy lingers even after the holiday. And as I look around I realize what a fortunate person I am.
Bianca’s five puppies, for instance, are an eternal source of love and laughter. Realizing that they would soon breech the walls of their cardboard home, I moved them to the laundry just off the dining room … cardboard home and all. And it was barely in time, for Cassiopeia was over the top within the week and others have followed in the days since. Bit by bit they were destroying my plastic-lined creation as they tried out their new and tiny teeth. After breakfast this morning I heard one of the puppies howling in distress and I made a dash for the laundry
There is always one in every group that moves!
fearing the worst … but it was only that Cato had pulled the plastic loose from the side and slipped between it and the cardboard, thus “trapping” himself. After extricating him I repaired the hole, but within 15 minutes another portion of the plastic liner had been pulled down and this time two puppies were stuck. I could see that it was time to change! So now the puppies have free range of the laundry floor which is covered in rugs, towels and blankets of the ragged variety. But even that remedy has not been uneventful. Cyrus found that by going through the shelving between the washer and dryer he could explore the space behind the appliances … but of course he had no idea how to return to his siblings. A cardboard facing has fixed that problem. Oh, and they discovered the curtains on Christmas Eve … I shortened, and thus saved them, by tying a knot half way up—a look which I anticipate will become a hot and trendy fashion statement very soon … be sure to watch for it in magazines this coming year!
Only a door between us and true freedom!
In two and a half short weeks each puppy will travel to its new home and the house will be back to where it began in the early autumn. There will be no more big plastic-lined cardboard boxes to fill up floor space, no more bowls of mushy puppy gruel, no more yips and howls, no more “leavings” on the floor to wipe up. But there will also be no more puppy eyes looking at me, no more puppy breath, no more puppies asleep on my lap and far fewer awww moments. I will bless each puppy with my tears as they leave, because I will truly miss them. But in those tears also comes a blessing for each of the families as they begin a life with this special little life.
One of the delights of my childhood was being snowbound. I grew up in northern Ohio in a tiny village of lake cottages that hugged the shore of Lake Erie. Winters were long and snowy and it was an unusual winter indeed that did not produce at least one snowbound episode to delight us children and frustrate the adults. What a delicious feeling it was to be cut off entirely from the world, save the old party line phone, for a few days. Silenced in a blanket of snow, life turned inward and mandated that we do other things that had been put on shelves and in the backs of closets in the rush of daily routine.
In a parallel manner I have become “puppy-bound.” The birth of Bianca’s puppies dictated an abrupt curtailment of my regular routines; my sole job had become guardian of their wellbeing. Like my dad in those snowbound days of long ago, I have taken a leave of absence from my work, not due to snow, but due to puppies. And like those days, I have tackled some of those second-burner jobs … several boxes of filing, closets, drawers and the like in the first weeks and yard duties in the last week as the need for constant vigilance changed to periodic checks.
Hello, hello!
But, the joyful outcome of being “puppy-bound” is not getting all those things done … although granted, I do feel pretty good about them. Rather, it is in seeing the transformation of both Bianca and the puppies. As each puppy was birthed, wet and helpless, Bianca shed her mantle of carefree school girl and assumed the cloak of motherhood with the ease of putting on one’s favorite sweater. Her instinctual abilities and her devotion to duty are spellbinding to watch. And then there is the transformation of the puppies! If I thought it was hard to keep up with my own growing human children, then all I have to say is that I am glad puppies do not wear clothes that can be outgrown! And if anything, the growth curve is steepening. New skills that the puppies have mastered this week are walking, wagging their tails, barking and growling. This new combination enables them to wage mock battles with one another producing hilarious consequences. One of the funniest is the friendly tail wag that gets out of control, tipping the owner over and giving the “aggressor” a definite advantage!
So with that, I bring this ramble to a close. But before I go, here is a little holiday gift for you to enjoy.
The great pleasure of a dog is that you make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, he will make a fool of himself too.
– Samuel Butler
Personally, I would not give a fig for any man's religion whose horse, cat and dog do not feel its benefits. Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility.
- S. Parkes Cadman
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
- Groucho Marx
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
- Aldous Huxley
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring—it was peace.
- Milan Kundera
Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
