Ah, 2011. Here you are and you’re a salty one, I can tell already. I can tell the way a dog can tell by sniffing the air that there’s a poodle in heat 5 houses away, the way a shark can smell a drop of blood from 5 miles down the coast. 2011 wants to be a game-changer. In some ways, at least here, it already is.
I’m not a resolution-setter, normally, but with the start of a new decade it certainly doesn’t hurt to set down a few goals in writing. More Pet Doctor Barbie, for one. I got Kitty Care Pet Vet Barbie for Christmas, so we’re good to go. Less politics, which others enjoy more and do better. I just hate arguing. Stay positive, even when the ship veers into deep waters. Easier said than done, I know.
Continuing with the pets- they get resolutions too: everyone could use a little self improvement. Since they lack opposable thumbs, I thought I would do my pets the favor of penning some New Year’s Resolutions on their behalf.
Brody:
1. Work on manners, i.e, we do not greet by jumping despite our natural Golden enthusiasm.
2. Dig in the sandbox or the wood chips, not in the mud.
3. Cats are for kissing, not tasting.
Apollo:
1. Remember I am a loved and valued member of the family and do not need to mark the house to establish that.
2. Walls are for leaning on, not for marking up.
3. Keep my coat full and shiny by eating nothing but my allergy venison diet.
Kekoa:
1. Be less scared.
2. Remember that I am in my forever home and I am not going anywhere.
3. Learn to brush my own teeth.
After reading these to the pets, they looked at me solemnly, then disappeared for a couple hours. Later that night, I found these pinned to the bedroom door:
For some reason, December 30th is consistently a bad day in my life. I mean, consistently terrible, horrible, and the sort of day that makes me seriously consider adopting an alternative calendar. One that ends December 25th, a nice, happy sort of day.
I don’t mean to dwell on this, or ask for anything from you all, I simply wrote it to explain why I haven’t done anything particularly meaningful for today. I am, unfortunately, spent. That is one of the reasons I wanted to do a Top 10 instead, looking back over the good days this past year. It was fun.
I am so happy to see so many bloggers joining the Best Of Blog Hop! It’s open for adding links for a full week, so please do add yourself at your leisure. I plan to spend the day reading the posts, infusing myself with your happy energy, and I will take that with me into the New Year. I do have some great ideas and I promise I will scrape myself together in time for January.
On a more pleasant note, today the family is going to Lions, Tigers and Bears for a year end barbeque. It’s a local sanctuary that I had no idea existed, and it looks awesome. Of course we will take pictures.
Brody, sadly, is not invited.
Au revoir, 2010! It was nice while it lasted but we’re through.
With only one day left in the year, it’s time to dust off the old archives and pull out my favorite posts from the last 12 months. These represent the best, or just the most fun, of what we do here. So without further ado and in no particular order, here are my choices for the Top 10 Posts of the Year:
It’s not that often I make myself laugh out loud with my own posts, but something about the Wicked Witch shoving the broom in the Barbie’s face makes me lose it every time. Probably because I remember experiencing the real-life person all too well. Pet Doctor Barbie is my all time favorite category here. I need to make a New Year’s Resolution to do more of them in 2011.
I planned for Koa to be Lady Gaga for two months leading up to Halloween. Initially I was going to go for the studded bikini outfit, but when Gaga showed up in a flank steak dress I knew I had my outfit. Brody was a toss up right until the last minute- I couldn’t decide between Bret Michaels or Justin Bieber. I think I made the right decision.
A couple of weeks ago, Kekoa and I were asked to go on the local news station to talk about the Nulo Campaign to Fight Pet Obesity and how owners can help their pets make a New Year’s Resolution to take off a few pounds.
They had us on the morning after Christmas, so instead of laying in a semi-gingerbread and eggnog coma on a pile of wrapping paper as I am wont to do on December 26th, I packed Koa up and headed down to the local news station at 8 am sharp.
We got buzzed in by a disembodied voice like we were headed into the state pen, and directed by the faceless Oz-like producer past the greenroom, beyond the anchor desk and right on into the back parking lot, where we waited on some Astroturf for the anchor to throw on a coat and meet us outside. They appear to be well equipped for dog visitors, judging by Koa’s response to the Astroturf.
It’s not an exhaustive treatise on the issue of pet obesity, mind you, but it’s decent enough for a 5 minute clip on a blustery Sunday morning. I made my husband record it on the sneaking (and correct) suspicion that despite telling my mom it would be on Channel 6, she instead tuned in to Channel 9 for an hour and a half, calling me with concern at 11 am to ask why I hadn’t been on yet.
Did you catch the anchor telling me she feeds her bully dog broccoli? Brave woman.
Every once in a while I come across a product so off the mark that I feel the need to write an anti-review. The last time I did it was for a product that propped the back door of your car or truck open, just enough to keep up appearances and stop the cops from busting open the window while still allowing your dog to get heat stroke in the sweltering interior.
This time I’m jumping on the dog pile of vets clenching their teeth in horror at what might unintentionally be the worst dog related book of 2010, Smooch Your Pooch. It’s a lighthearted children’s book extolling the myriad virtues of hugging and kissing all over your dog, as well as, er, feeding him pizza. And sticking his head out the window.
There is nothing I can say that veterinary behaviorist Dr. Sophia Yin didn’t already state, and very eloquently, in her review. Are we being killjoys taking all the fun out of an innocent children’s story? I don’t think so. I try to overlook the occasional dubious actions in literary works if the overall message is OK, but since the very title and premise of the book invites the reader to engage in one of the most common behaviors leading to dog bites in children, it’s a fair critique. To borrow from my parenting lexicon, let’s make this a teaching moment.
Author Teddy Slater is an accomplished children’s book author, and I’ve no doubt she wrote this from the heart based on her own experiences with pets. Experiences which, fortunately for her, do not seem to include bites to the face, strangulation by leash after falling out a window, or necrotizing pancreatitis. The rest of us may not be so lucky.
Because the book is so darling, so adorably illustrated and so catchy, no doubt parents browsing the Borders shelves may easily be tempted to pick up a copy to go with that puppy they brought home for Christmas (not advocating here people, just keeping it real since we all know it’s happening.) Here’s the new dog! Now go stick your face right up in his!
I’ve witnessed my kids as toddlers attempt to snog the dogs. At best it has been tolerated. I’ve always swooped in before we could find out what ‘at worst’ entails, but anyone in the profession can tell you, it can be tragic. Even with my constant reinforcement and reiteration as to what is appropriate interaction, the kids still slip and overdo it here and there in their desire to show affection. They’re kids, that’s what they do, of course. Which is why it’s so vitally important not to encourage behaviors that could be harmful.
Despite my clear moral imperative to beg you not to read this book to your children, I feel bad for this poor maligned author. Therefore I compiled a list of books that would have been even worse, so at least she’ll have that:
Christmas is a bit of a surreal experience for me. That is by design. I was brought up in a house that transformed the day after Thanksgiving from a normal abode to a tinsel-filled glittery elftravaganza of kitsch, Rudolph figurines, and a sudden lifting of the No Sugar After 4 pm Rule. In short, December was magic.
Now that I have a 6 year old and a 4 year old, I’m beginning to understand why my mom worked as hard as she did to create that. It is kind of awesome to see a little kid shriek in delight at the sight of a candy cane dangling from the ceiling, to sing along to the Heat Miser song at the top of her lungs in the car, and to giddily warble through ‘Jingle Bells’ even though neither of my kids knows what a sleigh or snow is. It is cacophony of the finest degree.
I find myself needing that joyful lunacy more than ever the older I get, needing a little bit of holiday magic- even if I’m the one who had to make it. Life can be hard and ugly, and if you dwell too much on the despair without allowing yourself to just let it all go and be happy every once in a while, well, then the light goes out, and it’s hard to get back. So in my house, when it’s December, you’re gonna be jolly, dammit, even if I have to prod you out to the holiday light show with a candy cane in order to to do it.
I will march my kid and my dog in a parade with a bunch of other like-minded people in the 75 degree heat.
The software I used to make the slideshow last year no longer lets you put in music, so I couldn’t re-use my very favorite John Denver 12 Days of Christmas soundtrack, alas. No matter! I’ll do it a cappella! Thank you again so, so much to everyone who participated for doing such a fantastic job. Paw bless us, every one.
So without further ado and in no particular order, here are my choices for the Top 10 Posts of the Year:
