Kids, Dogs, and Wisdom

      I saw the following story on Facebook today.  I thought it might be an example of creative writing with no basis in fact.  I went to http://www.snopes.com/ to try to verify the story.  I couldn't find anything, so I started Google searching.  There were several versions of the story.  The boy was age four; the boy was age six.  The dog's breed changed.  The anecdote seemed to be more internet legend than solid fact.  Then I came across this:

     Some of the most poignant moments I spend as a veterinarian are those spent with my clients assisting the transition of my animal patients from this world to the next. When living becomes a burden, whether from pain or loss of normal functions, I can help a family by ensuring that their beloved pet has an easy passing. Making this final decision is painful, and I have often felt powerless to comfort the grieving owners.  That was before I met Shane. 

      I had been called to examine a ten-year-old blue heeler named Belker who had developed a serious health problem. The dog's owners - Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane - were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer.

     I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for the four- year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt Shane could learn something from the experience.

     The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.

     Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. 

     Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up,    "I know why." Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me - I'd never heard a more comforting explanation. 

     He said, "Everybody is born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody and being nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, animals already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

By Robin Downing, D.V.M.

from Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul

Copyright 1998 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker and Carol Kline

     Robin Downing is a real veterinarian with a practice in Colorado.

      http://windsorvet.com/team/robin-downing-dvm/

     So, it all seems to check out.  I'm glad because I'm a sucker for a heart warming dog story.

   

$#*! Mike Says

     Remember the TV show starring William Shatner called $#*! My Dad Says?  I've collected some of  Mike's verbal gems (think doggie diamonds).
     A while back, I thought I would personalize a set of bed linens.  I decided to copy something I saw in a Pottery Barn catalog.    I took the pillow cases to Al's Custom Interiors and Embroidery in Mt. Holly to get "bonne nuit," French for "good night," embroidered on the hems of the pillow cases.  The pillow cases were on the guest room bed for quite some time before Mike noticed the embroidery.  He asked, "Who is Bonny Newit and why do we have her pillow cases?"  So much for thinking I was so sophisticated.
     After the last snow storm, we stood at the kitchen window and watched the birds eating from the neighbor's feeder.  I wondered if the neighbors, like us, had nests in the rain gutters and roof angles and in their low, bushy trees.
     "Maybe they eat there and reproduce here," I conjectured.
     "People don't have their babies at the supermarket," was Mike's reply.  That's almost universally true.
     Some of Mike's best material comes from trying to read subtitles or the guide information on the television before it disappears from the screen.  That's how "savoire faire" became a "suave affair" and "Caligula" became "calligrapher."  Mike is not the only one who mispronounces with humorous effect (and I think he does it on purpose to make me laugh).  I used to know someone who referred to Beyoncé as Bouncy.  Sort of captures some of her essence, doesn't it?
     One of my favorite examples of $#8! talk comes, not from Mike, but from a stranger.  We were at a sporting event when I heard a little boy question his father's choice of  beer instead of juice. You have to keep things simple with kids.  Dad's reply: "I like beer better than juice."  Lot's of people do.    
     
   
     

Magnolia Plantation

     Mike and I like to visit plantations.  Magnolia Plantation is the third estate we have visited in South Carolina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Plantation_and_Gardens_(Charleston,_South_Carolina)
http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/house.html

     Here's a brief history of the place:  The plantation was established by the Drayton family as a rice growing operation in 1676.  It was passed down from eldest son to eldest son until the 1840's. The eldest son of that generation died shortly after receiving the property.  His younger brother, John Grimke-Drayton, who never expected an inheritance and had followed his calling to become an Episcopal minister, was suddenly a man of means.  John returned south from Philadelphia with his Philadelphia born wife.  He learned to be a businessman and also pastored Old St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, the church down the road from his home.  The house was burned to the ground level foundation at the end of the Civil War.  Reverend Drayton dismantled a small house the family owned in Summerville, South Carolina, and had it moved to Magnolia and set up on one end of the burned out home's foundation.  That structure housed the family until they regained their wealth and could rebuild a finer home.  Since profitable rice farming was impossible after the war (no slaves/no free labor), the Draytons opened the gardens surrounding the home as a tourist attraction in 1870.  Also after the Civil War, phosphate, a very rich fertilizer, was found under the entire property.  Three quarters of the land was sold off to a strip mining company.  After fifteen generations, Magnolia Plantation remains in the hands of the Drayton family descendants, and it is operated as their family business.  While all this is extremely interesting, the coolest thing about Magnolia Plantation might be the fact that the movie "Swamp Thing" was filmed there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_Thing_(film)
   

They told us these little, muscular horses were bred to pull carts in mines.   

Spanish moss, harmless to the the trees in which it hangs, was named for the sparse beards of the Spanish settlers in the Carolinas.  

 

Cypress knees are part of the root system of the cypress tree.  They can grow as tall as six feet. It doesn't harm the plant to cut them off. That's why people use them for kitschy lamps.

I think the camellias are the most beautiful flower in the gardens.

We learned that alligators, unlike crocodiles, have a fear of humans.  As long as you don't get between them and the water, you'll be okay. It's also safe this time of year because they can't eat in cold weather.  When it's cold, their bodies can't produce enzymes needed for digestion.  They don't eat, and hybernate most of the winter.  On a sunny day, they will wake up to sun themselves.  In the summer, a turtle would never share this board with a gator.
There is a $1,000 fine for feeding alligators.  Hainesport has that beat.  We have a $2,000 fine for feeding turkeys!

A live oak or evergreen oak retains it's leaves all year.  The wood is so heavy and dense that it is termite resistant. It is also strong that it was used in ship building.

The gray material used as stucco is actually phosphate.  Use the materials you have on hand. 

Two Yankees at Fort Sumpter

     We went to Fort Sumpter and took a bus tour of Charleston on our first day in the city.  Mike liked soaking up all those facts about the Civil War.  I liked hearing about the city and looking at the buildings.

You reach the fort by boat  - a twenty minute ride.
The monument was built on the ruins of the lower level of the fort.

Artillery shells are embedded in the walls.

The barrel was big enough to fit a small child - which makes me wonder how many children try to get inside.

The ship in the picture, the USS Yorktown, is now part of the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.    The bridge is the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge or  the New Cooper River Bridge.  It's the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  It was a gray, cloudy day, so the white cables are hard to see.

This is St. Phillip's Episcopal Church.  Charleston is called the Holy City because there are so many churches and synogogues.   Charleston was one of the few places in the south where all faiths were allowed to worship freely.  

This is our tour guide, Brian McCreight.  He's a tour guide,
professional storyteller, musician, writer, librarian, and former Seabee.
He has a website: http://www.lowcountryliar.com/index.html
Check out his book: http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Lowcountry-Liar-Other-Tales/dp/1561643378
He has another book coming out in a few months: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Googly-Moogly-Lowcountry-History/dp/1455617822

To Quote Forrest Gump...

     Mike and I decided to visit Charleston.  We weren't looking for a tropical vacation, just something a little bit warmer than New Jersey.  So, we got in the car at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, February 10th, and we drove south.  We decided to stop in Lumberton, North Carolina the first night.  We claimed our room at the Best Western, and went across the street to dine at the Texas Steakhouse.  Mike's gastroenteritis (the most polite way I can describe it) began at 2:00 a.m.  By 9:00 a.m., he let me take him to the emergency room.  Thus began our three day stop over in Lumberton, NC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumberton,_North_Carolina
http://www.ci.lumberton.nc.us/

     Mike was admitted to Southeastern Health.  http://www.srmc.org/main/ I'm familiar with Virtua in Mt. Holly, and Mike is familiar with Kennedy in Stratford.  Southeastern had pleasant surprises for both of us.  Every room is a private room.  All the rooms have a full bathroom with a shower. Patients can turn out all the lights and shut their doors, so no one has to put up with light and noise from the hall or other rooms,  Each room has a wide sofa that can be made up into a bed, so relatives can stay over.  There was even a mall two blocks away.

Poor Mike

      

My crib

     Mike was rehydrated, and he ate his grits, so he was allowed to leave Wednesday, February 13th.  We continued on to Charleston where we saw this license plate that seemed to sum it all up.

As Forrest said...

      
     Thanks to Dr. Reed, Dr. Kumar, and Dr. Rodriguez.  Also Nurse Sara, Nurse Nicole and CNA Jackie.  There were a host of others, but we are old, and we couldn't retain all the names.

Crazy Train

     Mike and I play a "dead or alive" game when we see celebrity spokespeople on TV.  Ricardo Montalban - dead.  Wilford Brimley - as of this writing, alive.  William Shatner is alive, but his Priceline character apparently died last year when a bus went off a cliff.  Jamie Lee Curtis - alive and regular!  We keep seeing Pat Boone in a commercial for reverse mortgages.  We thought he was dead.  Nope, he's still here.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Boone
     As I read the Wikipedia article about Pat Boone, I was surprise to learn that Mr. White Sport Coat released an album in 1997 (when he was age 63) called "In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy."  The album contained cover versions of heavy metal songs including (wait till you hear this) Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train."
     When "Crazy Train" was released in 1980, it didn't get much attention.  Over the years however, it became Ozzy Osbourne's signature song.  The family  used a Pat Boone sound-alike version as the theme song for "The Osbourne's" television show.  Listen to how Boone stylized the song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UApNEoF3fZc
Now listen to the original version:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxlqZBBttxg  I never heard "Crazy Train" until it was used in a Honda Pilot commercial.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmY_TRlO3MU  Now I'm forever hearing boom-boom and ay-ay-ay-ay.  I read an article that criticized Honda for using the song.  The writer seemed to think that today's tween would not be conversant with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, so the kids would never begin the cup shaking sing-along.  That writer should take a look at this video.  The pint sized singer slurs his words (a little too much like the "Prince of Darkness," maybe), but the guitarist has some precocious talents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGr1dCzbreA
  

A "Terrible Awful" Happens in Hainesport

     If you've read The Help or seen the movie, you know what the "terrible awful" was.  It was... well, terrible and awful.    It was also intentional.  A "terrible awful" of the unintentional variety happened at our house yesterday.  I began cutting Mike's hair before I put the guard on the clippers.  The result was the complete loss of one of his sideburns.  The word of the hour was s**t.
     "Oh, s**t!"
     "S**t, what have I done?"
     "S**t, how am I going to fix this?"
     "S**t, S**t, s**t."
     So much for that promise to stop swearing in 2013.

This gives you the idea.
(Image from Google Images)

 
     After a few more rounds of the "S" word, nervous laughter, and a few tears (on my part), Mike calmly said, "It will grow back."  Then he made jokes that could have, if I laughed too hard, resulted in another divot in his hair.
     We discussed possible fixes.  Hair extensions wouldn't work for sideburns.  Outside of Hollywood, it would be too difficult to find realistic glue-on sideburns.  Mike nixed the bald spot cover that comes in a spray can.  The only solution seems to be to wait for his hair to grow.  And this:

Where did I ever find such a great guy?

    

Ambergris

     In elementary school, I learned that ambergris is produced by whales and is used in the manufacturing of perfume.  I guess I thought it was rendered from blubber or squeezed out of a gland.  Who knew that whales either regurgitate it or poop it out?  It smells like BM, too!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris
     I got the full story on ambergris yesterday when I read about Ken Wilman.  Mr. Wilman was walking his dog on a beach in England.  The dog stopped to investigate a really foul smelling object.  Wilman and the dog left the rank clump in the sand and went home.  He must have more whale savvy than most of us because he began to think there was something important about the dog's malodorous find.  He went back to retreive the fetid blob.   Sure enough, it turned out to be a seven pound chunk of ambergris worth $50,000.00.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-finds-valuable-whale-vomit-english-beach-165619292.html
     Talk about stepping in excrement!