Posts Tagged ‘miles’

….rolling around and scratching your back on the grass–if you’re a dog, that is.

Today the sun was shining again, the weather was sweet and all was well again in my life.  I love the sunshine!  In the afternoon we decided to take everyone out to explore a nearby canyon trail right up the street from our house.  The hubby was in charge of Miles, our dog, and I was in charge of Little A.  It was a nice little walk, although it was pretty muddy.  At one point it got so muddy we made the executive decision to turn around.  I was imagining Little A doing a face plant right in the mud and I didn’t want to deal with cleaning him all up. 

On our way back I managed to break out the camera for just two shots.  In this one, Little A stopped to look at something down in the mud.  He’s pretty enthralled with ants right now so I think he may have been looking for some.  We’ve been doing battle with ants at our house as everytime it rains they start coming in through the cracks in our bathrooms and our kitchen.

On this day we had Aunt Stinne and Uncle Eric over for a belated Christmas get-together.  Little A loved his new Geotrax train they gave him.  It was a huge hit!

On this day I took Miles into the vet for an exam and shots.  I do not recommend trying to do this with a toddler, but I had no other way since their latest appointment is 5pm and the hubby gets home much later.  Here is my tale of what went down at our vet’s office.

The receptionist told us it would be a bit of a wait since they were running behind.  I pointed to Little A and told her that the sooner we get seen the better as I have my two- year old with me and although he’s happy now, I don’t know if he’d be happy waiting for twenty minutes.  We sat down in the waiting room, which was a tiny 7 x 10 room.  A couple minutes later these two older foreign/European ladies walk in and stand at the front desk, possibly waiting for their pet to come out.

Miles was being such an angel.  I put him in a sit-stay and he obeyed.  If only I could do the same with my two-year old.  Little A doesn’t keep still.  He’s got ants in the pants.  I was just glad he was happy.  He walked around the room, hugged Miles a couple times, then started to sing and talk loudly to himself, reciting the things he knows (ABC’s, songs, etc.).  These older ladies kept on giving us dirty looks and I thought I heard one of them utter under her breath, “That’s why old people don’t have kids.”  Most old people love kids and it’s really sweet how they appreciate the youth and innocence of young children.  These old ladies were an exception.

I asked Little A to be more quiet but quickly realized that doing so would make him get louder, so I tried to distract him.  There was a cool viewmaster toy in there for him to play with.  There were also some stickers.  I put a couple kitty cat stickers on his hands.  He tried to tell the receptioninst about his preschool and Mrs. Hyatt (his favorite teacher).  It was really cute.  After that, he went back into his singing voice.  He’s got lungs of steel, which I think he got from me.  He’s loud.  He’s two.  But again, at least he was happy!

One of the old ladies turns around, waves her finger right in his face and growls, “You be quiet right now!”  The evil look on her face just took me by surprise.  She looked like she was about to lift him up by the ear and fling him out the window.  Suddenly, something inside me that never existed before motherhood came out.  I was ready to lift her up by the ear and fling her across the room.  If he was disturbing her she could have asked him nicely to be quiet, distracted him or better yet said something to me.  Furthermore, it’s not like he was throwing a tantrum or upset.  If he were tantruming I’d gladly apologize as this embarasses me for sure.  But, he was happy and just being a two-year old.  Couldn’t she have any understanding for me having to wait in this tiny waiting room with my toddler and my dog?  She wasn’t even trying to have a conversation with anyone.  She was just standing there waiting for her cat/dog.

I turned to her and said, “You will not speak to my son that way. ” 

Then she had the nerve to say, “If you had any sense as a parent you’d make him shut up because he’s hurting my ears!” 

That was it.  First, she spoke to my son like an evil, wicked witch and then she had the gall to question my parenting.  I confess I wanted to use swear words.  I wanted to call her a certain four letter one that starts with the third letter of the alphabet, but I didn’t.  Something came over me, that mommy protectiveness that kept me from losing my cool. 

I said, “First of all, you are very disrespectful for speaking to my son that way and secondly, for having the gall to question my parenting.  We have been waiting here for quite a long time and if he was really disturbing you so much you’re free to leave the room while I cannot as that is a dangerous and busy street out there.   You know what?  You’re just a rude, pruny, grumpy old lady who just needs to get laid.” 

Then the other pruny lady chimed in, “That was a disrespectful thing for you to say.  I really resent that!”

I said, “Good.  Then that means you need to get laid too.”

At that point the receptionist and vet had begun ushering us into the exam room and I shut the door on her face right as I said she needed to get laid too.

Before I became a mom and when I was much younger if someone had confronted me like that in public I probably would have been so taken aback that I wouldn’t have known what to say.  The whole thing would have ruined my day and I’d have been all upset.  But motherhood has spawned the new and improved Rachel–the Mommy who will go to battle with a couple of pruny old ladies if they threaten her child.  I’m proud of myself for not using profanity even though we all know ‘what’ they were being.  I’m glad I used a different tactic for insulting them back. 

I know, two wrongs do not make a right.  I’m not perfect.  Maybe I should have just apologized and been done with it, but something about that evil look in her eyes as she looked at my son just brought that out in me.

The vet and receptionist both apologized to me and said they couldn’t believe how rude they were.  They explained that she used to own her own business and is retired now, but she’s used to waving her finger in people’s faces and telling them what to do.  I’m sure they were quite entertained by the way this whole thing went down.  The moral of the story is:  the world would be a much happier place if people got laid more often.

Thank goodness Miles is such a good dog.  He behaved so well waiting in the reception room and during his exam and shots.  Little A was great too. 

I’m not faulting him for wanting to sing at the top of his lungs.  I’ve done that in the shower and in my car while driving and it’s the most exhilirating feeling to sing out so freely.  It just makes you happy to do that.  Yeah, so everyone should just sing at the top of their lungs and get laid more often!

The above photo is of our crazy Frisbee dog Miles.  Yeah, he’s looking a bit on the older side but I swear he still acts like he’s young and spunky.  This photo just cracks me up because it is just classic Miles.  He means business when it comes to playing fetch.  That used to be Little A’s soccer ball but it’s more like a few scraps of shredded leather now.  They never last long with Miles around.

Now that I’ve finished up with my photography portfolio class my work has not ended.  I still need to work on the final draft of my book and rework a few things in it before I unveil it.  Of course, there never really is a final draft because I could always keep working on it forever, but at some point I’ve got to call it done and move on.  If I stay true to the “Marketing Plan” we had to turn into our instructor, I also have to try to promote my work to be displayed at coffeehouses.  This is the part that scares me the most because I have no idea how to do that and don’t know if I’d be any good at marketing myself and my work.  There is so much fear that goes along with art.  (sigh)

 I’ve thought about taking another class but I think I need a little break so I can do some more of my own self-study.  I’d like to try pinhole photography.  I also have two rolls of Kodachrome 64 film that my friend April sent to me.  I’d like to try one roll in my Blackbird, Fly and the other in my Canon AE1 (this is the camera my Dad gave to me and the one he used to take photos of me when I was little…um yeah, it’s really old!).   Anyway, I think it will be nice to get back to more shooting with film cameras and experimenting once I have more time and energy to do so. 

Can you believe I’m still recovering from staying up late for 2-3 weeks straight working on my book?  I’ve been a bit of a vegetable this past week.  I need to get back into doing yoga more often so I have more energy.  Hmm, maybe I’ll join Deanna with Boot Camp.  Waking up before sunset doesn’t sound fun at all though….

Today at Borders my friend Trisha bought the cutest book entitled, “Old Dogs are the Best.”  It contained the bios and photos of some very loyal and adorable old dogs.  I couldn’t agree more.   This is how I got the idea of photographing Miles for my blog entry today.  I don’t consider him “old.”  I prefer to think of him as “older” than when we first got him.

Our dog Miles came into our lives when I rescued him from the pound about 9 years ago.  He was about a year old (or that’s what they thought).  He was a stray so they had very little information on him other than a note from the animal control officer stating he thought he was “a very nice dog.”  When I told the adoption counselor that I was looking for a lab mix that would be good with cats she smiled and said, “I know just the dog for you.”  He was the first dog I noticed when I walked the kennels because he came right up to me and pleaded with me with those eyes to pet him through the kennel.  We took him out into the yard for a brief meeting and that was all I needed to know that he was coming home with me–even though my husband (actually he was my boyfriend at the time) had said he wasn’t ready for a dog yet. 

A photo of Miles when we first got him

He was an extremely energetic dog but surprisingly very easy to train. We were pretty sure he was someone’s pet before and he somehow got out of the yard or got lost.  He was already house trained, loved to play fetch, and was very eager to please (still is).  I easily taught him many dog tricks such as shake, roll over, bark, and bang play dead.  Before Little A, he was spoiled like you couldn’t believe!  We took him to dog beach, camping, on road trips, and everywhere we went.  He lives for the frisbee and play!  Even now that he’s about 10 years old he’s still very spunky and he’s still got that extreme drive to play.  He’s just been the sweetest and greatest dog and one of the best things to happen to us.  He is really great with Little A, especially now that he can throw the ball for him.

I realize this blog entry is getting way too long but I just had to give you some history on Miles and share some photos of him from back in the day.

Miles in action

A more distinguished and handsome Miles

Miles is one of the smartest and most loyal dogs we’ve ever known and we feel privileged to have him in our family.  In fact, he is so loyal that he follows us from room to room and must be near us at all times, usually within a 10-12 foot radius. LOL  Yes, older dogs really ARE the best!

Sleepyhead Miles with his Papa Smurf beard, graybrows and paws

Today I felt like doing nada and just putzin’ around the house.  After our busy week I had like 8 loads of laundry to catch up on.  I wish I had something more interesting to share but at least this is amusing.  Our dog Miles (lab mix pound rescue) somehow got a hold of Little A’s lion, chewed him up and got him all dirty in the backyard.  Today I ran the lion through the wash.  When he came out his mane looked like it could use a good blow dry.  So, after considering just letting him air dry I decided to just throw him in the dryer with the rest of the clothes.  Well, let’s just say when he came out he was a changed lion.  He looks all tore up–one eye is all jacked up and he has a permafro for his mane.  And if he could roar before, he probably meows now.  It’s a good thing Little A doesn’t care how he looks.

The Lion who now meows