A deaf mutt

Daddy is a pure white mix of who knows what kind of dog who also happens to be deaf.  But it in no way spoils his fun as he's a huge fan of playing, people and pooches.  He's a lovely, friendly, playful dog.  On Sunday, we will be handing him over to his adopters who live in New Jersey.  Here's the story, taken from the PetFinder web site:

Daddy is a 10 month old Mix with silky soft (not wire), white hair and a story that will make you smile. A few weeks ago, a rescue worker was called and told by a woman that she had been watching a momma dog with small pups out alone in a field for several days. She said the momma was making shelter for the babies at night and bringing them food, but after several days, the good samaritian was very sure no one was coming back for these dogs. The rescue workers arrived and the dog was, obviously protective of the babies, but after some coaxing, they got the "mamma" to come to them. It was then that they found out that "Momma" was the "DADDY". In all our experience, we have never seen a Daddy dog stick by tiny puppies: feed them, protect them, love them. But, this guy did it all on his own. We may never know what happened to the mom, but somehow at just 3 weeks old....Daddy managed to keep all his little pups alive. I think of it as a tribute to all the good daddies in the world! Daddy is sweet and kind, he aims to please and gets along well with other dogs. He has experience with children as young as 2 years old and seem to adore them. His favorite things are to get hugs and be petted. He also does not mind car rides. There is one thing....after Daddy and his pups were rescued, he was brought to the vet where it was discovered that he is completely deaf. Daddy gets around just fine and can learn to follow hand signals. He sometimes startles when people come up on him unexpectedly, but he has never been aggressive...just surprised! Other than not being able to hear, Daddy shows no health problems and is ready to live a good, long life. Daddy is currently 45lbs.
Isn't it a great story?  Anyway, we have him for just this week.  He really is a super dog.  I believe his puppies are all spoken for too.  We wonder if he misses them or worries about them at all.  Below (left) is a photo that makes his coat look a bit creamy.  Below (right) he's in the field looking after the puppies.  He might have bits of Airedale and poodle as described in his profile, but I doubt it.



Supposedly, there is a correlation between a whte coat and deafness, although I wasn't able to establish the strength of that correlation. He isn't albino, although he does seem to exhibit partial albinism.  His irises are hazel but his eyelids and exposed bits of skin are all very pink.  He's got some blotches around his "undercarriage", so there's definitely pigment there.  He's a bit underweight but he's a good eater (including counter surfing if he can get away with it) so we expect him to catch up pretty quickly.  And he's extremely smart and trainable, with an excellent sense of smell.

Meanwhile, I went to see Philip Glass' opera Satyagraha ("truth force" in Sanskrit), the name by which Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protest is known.  It's incredibly moving emotionally, which is amazing given that there are so few words that are actually translated.  The action is very slow and contemplative.  And of course the music is endlessly repetitive -- but I actually like that.  It really works.  Look up Satyagraha on YouTube if you're interested in seeing excerpts from it.

Last week we were in Seattle for the NABCs.  We had a super time, although the bridge was not quite as successful as we would have liked.  However, Kathy made life master (!) and we had a nice party for her -- that was a lot of fun.

A little fall of rain

What a summer we've had!  Day after day of beautiful sunny days.  We've hardly seen a mosquito in Carlisle for about a month now (with the exception of the one that gets delivered on Fridays).  Incredible.

The photo above is from a point close to the summit of Mt. Albany (1930') looking towards the Caribou-Speckled wilderness. We hiked it last week while staying at the pet-friendly Paws Inn (see left) in Bethel at the end of our Maine vacation.  Since the hike wasn't too strenuous we added another two mile out-and-back to a beautiful pond called Round Pond (see below, right) near the Crocker Pond campground.  Pixie (aka Madison) was an incredibly active hiker on this day: always leading the way, sometimes taking a detour but never tiring or lagging behind.  What a difference we've made to that dog!

While we were up there, we also visited with Kim's cousin Kristin.  That was really nice to get to know them all better.  What a wonderful place Bethel is!  The air really is different up there.

Last night, we had a little fall of rain ("... can hardly hurt me now", as Eponine sings) and it prompted me to check how many rainless days we've had recently.  We were rain-free between July 23rd and Aug 5th.  Then the 7-9th, then the 12-15th.  And the rain we've had has generally been in drops: the total rainfall for August so far has been 0.15" and for July was 2.37", of which about 2/3 fell on just three days (10, 11 and 23).

And temperatures have been high too.  100F was the max for July, 93F so far in August.  But our weather has been nothing compared to that of Europe and, especially, Russia.  Indeed, the period January 2010 through July 2010 is officially the warmest such period ever, when global temperatures are considered.  July itself was either the warmest July ever, or the fifth warmest, according to who you believe.  Here in the U.S., July was only the 17th warmest (of 116 previous Julys).  February, March, April, May and June have all been the warmest, globally, on record.

But you mustn't jump to any conclusions about global warming.  These are just anomalies whose significance has been overblown by the liberal scientists we put in charge of our meteorological agencies.  Right, and the tooth fairy really exists.

Trouble is of course the ground is parched.  Wildlife must be having a hard time of it.  But our tomatoes are doing extremely well (left).  Indeed, we are very much enjoying having BLTs, open-faced sandwiches (kind of like a Caprese), and anything else tomato based (yes, we also have Basil).

Dog days

We're now in the dog days of summer.  The weather is sultry and oppressive.  It's just plain hot.  Sirius (the "dog" star) is in conjunction with the Sun (and therefore invisible) but gives rise to the name.  Our dogs certainly find it too hot to go out.  Yesterday, the Bedford temperature was 100F with high humidity and no wind.  Boston recorded its highest temperature in several years.

I took the opportunity of driving down to Dedham for a "summer sing" with the Masterworks Chorale: Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.  I've performed it (in the orchestra) three times but had never before sung any of it.  It's tricky stuff!  The melodies and harmonies are reasonably easy but the words, rhythms and timing are definitely a challenge.  Consider for example two verses from the drinking song [bibit = (he/she) drinks]  (all sung with essentially no breaks):

Primo pro nummata vini;
ex hac bibunt libertini;
semel bibunt pro captivis,
post haec bibunt ter pro vivis,
quater pro Christianis cunctis,
quinquies pro fidelibus defunctis,
sexies pro sororibus vanis,
septies pro militibus silvanis.
octies pro fratribus perversis,
nonies pro monachis dispersis,
decies pro navigantibus,
undecies pro discordantibus,
duodecies pro paenitentibus,
tredecies pro iter agentibus.

Tam pro papa quam pro rege
bibunt omnes sine lege.
Bibit hera, bibit herus,
bibit miles, bibit clerus,
bibit ille, bibit illa,
bibit servus cum ancilla,
bibit velox, bibit piger,
bibit albus, bibit niger,
bibit constans, bibit vagus,
bibit rudis, bibit magus,
Bibit pauper et aegrotus,
bibit exul et ignotus,
bibit puer, bibit canus,
bibit praesul et decanus,
bibit soror, bibit frater,
bibit anus, bibit mater,
bibit ista, bibit ille,
bibunt centum, bibunt mille.

Getting to know the music better made me realize that Orff was essentially a minimalist, in the way that Philip Glass and John Adams are. The music is fundamentally very simple (not in the sense of ease of performance) with many many sections which repeat almost ad infinitum.  I think this must be a large part of its universal appeal.  I don't know any classical music fan who doesn't love it.  And even non-classical-music folks all know and love O Fortuna which probably holds the record for uses in movies, commercials, etc.  Of course the universal and ageless subject matter, including fortune and fate, the seasons (esp. springtime), drinking, eating, gambling and sex, doesn't hurt even if there are at least three quite distinct languages represented in the text (none of which are English).  But there is a reference to the English Queen (supposedly a reference to the beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine who established in Poitiers a cours d'amour, the title of the last part of Carmina Burana).

And while we're on the subject of classical music, today is the sesquicentennial of Gustav Mahler.  Happy Birthday, Gustav!  He even made it to the front page feature article of the English-speaking Wikipedia (but not the German or Czech pages).

A day at the beach

What a wonderful day we had!  We went to Rexhame beach in Marshfield, one of only two Massachusetts that allow dogs during the summer days.  The dogs must be leashed, although they don't specify that the leash has to be tied to anything at the other end!  Several beachgoers, including ourselves, took advantage of this slovenly wording (as W.S. Gilbert put it) to allow our dogs a little more freedom of movement than they otherwise might get.  All five of us enjoyed the day very much.  The photo (play "spot the dogs") shows the other four under our new parasol, which worked brilliantly.

Puga had great fun chasing a gull (greater black backed?), including a (leash-less) swim of about 10 yards seaward.  Here (left) she is plucking up courage for the chase.  As you can see, this part of the beach was not at all crowded.  Here, we are looking towards Scituate.

And here (right) are Kim and Pixie (the latter in her favorite place).  Last evening, we watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua (well, we skipped a bit).  But we realized that Pixie is a dead ringer for Chloe.

We will celebrate "Fathers' Day" on Wednesday when Miranda returns and, with Will, we watch England's last gasp effort to get into the World Cup knockout rounds.  They will be playing Slovenia, having tied the U.S. and Algeria, the best French team in the event (17 of the 23 were born in France).  It should be an easy win, but it won't be.  So far, the team has been pathetic.  They couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding!  What with ineptitude in the goal and middle-aged torpor among the strikers (yes, Mr. Rooney, that's you), England is embarrassing us all.

But we now have some good bridge to look forward to (K & I will be on the same team but at different tables).  And we're planning a little belated celebration of June 12th at a much recommended authentic Italian trattoria in Belmont (or should that be Belmonte?).

Short and sweet

Our shortest foster dog project was completed in slightly over a week.  Kim collected Osito (little bear) from Great Dog Rescue after his two day quarantine at noon on Friday, May 28th and his new family picked him up from us on Friday June 4th.  I didn't get much in the way of photos of him, but this is perhaps the best one (right).  His face is a bit of a mess, and still healing, after some problems before we got him.

He's a very exuberant, cheerful dog.  Loves to go out (destination immaterial), especially if it involves a ride in the car with the back windows half-way down.  Nobody knows for sure how old he is but he behaves like a puppy so is probably around two years old, or something like that.  He's gone to a very nice family in Stoneham, first time dog owners, but they seem to have done their homework and know what they're getting into.

Meanwhile, after six and a half weeks, oil is still gushing, though possibly at a slower rate, from the hole in the bottom of the gulf of Mexico.  Are you as surprised as I am that these deep-water oil projects were authorized with no credible plan for how to fix it if things went awry?  Is that because the laws in international waters are lax?  Or, as I suspect, the oil companies have paid off the key decision makers along the way?  After all, the only casualties are a few seabirds and some fisherman from states that don't have a lot of political significance.  There's an excellent interactive map that shows the extent of the oil at the NY Times web site.

In the world-wide bridge game on Friday (anyone can enter), the good news was that we managed to beat 2783 other pairs.  The bad news was that 1954 pairs beat us.   In other words, we didn't distinguish ourselves.

Pixie (Madison) is still with us.  She is really beginning to fit into the family ways: for example she's more interested in walking in the woods.  She still barks at strangers but she quickly gets used to them.  When Miranda was here for the weekend (she was an attendee at one wedding and a bridesmaid at another), Pixie became very friendly with her.  I've tried to publicize her plight on the Carlisle internet bulletin board, but so far, nothing.

Yes, we have no bananas

We eat a lot of bananas in our menagerie.  And when I say "we", I do mean all of us (two humans, three dogs at present).  The dogs get their slice of banana, which they love, at breakfast time.  Well, all except Cindy who's no longer allowed extra calories, including bananas, by order of the vet!

So, there was some consternation when it became apparent that we were banana-less this morning (we forgot to pick some up on our way back from Little Monadnock yesterday).  Consequently, I started singing the old song, which I had always assumed was a quintessentially British song.  But then I looked up the origin of Yes, We Have No Bananas and found, to my surprise, that it's wholly American, albeit with British associations along the way.

We had planned to hike Little Monadnock last year but the trails were too damaged from the ice storm.  So, with Kara and the "muppets", we set off yesterday for the relatively easy hike.  The photo, taken during a short, light hailstorm, shows Kim and the dogs atop Little Monadnock, with Mt. Monadnock in the background.  Unfortunately, Monadnock doesn't allow dogs (although plenty people ignore the rule), so we generally pick one of the other hills in the area.  There are lots!  Besides, at this point in our training schedule, Monadnock itself would be a bit too strenuous.  We last climbed it in 2004 and it's surprisingly tough, especially if you go up the Spellman trail as we did.  Besides, do you see what's on the top of Monadnock?  Snow! 

This (photo above) is not quite the summit, however.  The summit, such as it is, is about a furlong to the west, along the Metacomet-Monadnock trail.  It has no good views, although at this time of year we could see through the leafless trees quite far to the west, or could have done if the weather wasn't so bad.  We stopped for lunch there.  We continued on the four-mile loop, eventually coming down a couple of "roads" back to Rhododendron State Park where we had begun.  We may visit this again in July with Ella when the blossom is out.  On the way back, we passed a rather large beaver pond (see photo).

Next, we stopped at the crossing of a rail trail, which I hadn't really been expecting, quite close to the park.  The trail runs the route of the old Cheshire R/R.  For more information, see my new railroad blog.

And, finally, our second goal of the day: sampling the wares of Lickity Splitz in Winchendon, MA.  I was quite pleased with my maple walnut.  The portion, a "small", was huge.  The maple syrup flavor was excellent.  At first, I thought there was a paucity of walnuts, but they appeared lower down.  Compared with Kimball's, I'd say that it was almost as good.  That's very high praise!

Madison

We're taking care of a very sweet little Chihuahua called Madison until she finds a home.  As you can see from the photo she likes nothing more than to snuggle up on a cushion or, better, a lap.  She was found walking the streets of Worcester, MA.  She'd never been spayed (she's at least six years old, probably older) and she had some health issues so she's been having a rough time lately.  But she's doing lots better now.

But she really is a sweet little dog.  She's not a big fan of walking in the woods, to say the least.  She's definitely a stay-at-home girl.

On Saturday, we'll be taking her to the meet and greet for potential adopters.  It would be really nice for her to find a loving home soon. Her entry on Petfinder is here.  What do they do to the photos we provide?

Meanwhile, recent days have been very warm.  Spring is in full swing.  At night the frogs are as loud as I can remember.

I've been watching the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency recently.  It's great!  Precious Ramotswe is just right and Grace Makutsi is absolutely perfect.  It's so wonderful to see all the views of a peaceful Africa.

The Three Musketeers and the iPhone

I now have an iPhone (my Christmas gift from Kim) and it is truly amazing.

There is never a web page that I can't read (although some pages require a fair amount of pushing and shoving of the text within the window).  But that is so easily done with just one finger.  The touch-screen keyboard makes typing incredibly easy (compare, for example, to the blackberry).  And, one of the most amazing features of all: it knows whether I'm viewing in landscape or portrait mode by magic!  [well, it seems like magic].

That reminds me of why the vacuum flask is one of the most brilliant inventions of all time: it can keep hot things hot and it can keep cold things cold and it knows which to do!

But to return to the iPhone, it also has an enormous number of apps, many of which are free.  I have the iBird app which is like having a field guide to the birds in your pocket.  Actually, it's better because a) it's smaller, b) it has more birds, c) it can play you the bird calls of species you think you might be hearing.  I also use a free RSS reader which allows me to keep up to date on the various blogs and news feeds that I read.

When I'm in need of calming, I go to the special built-in uTube app and play my favorite: Alicia de Larrocha's recording of the second movement of Mozart's 23rd piano concerto.

It also has an incredibly good digital camera built in that is so easy to use, I really don't need my old camera any more (in fact, my old camera always has about a half-second delay before it deigns to take a photograph which pretty much rules out an action shots).  Here, for example, is the photo (top) which I call "the three musketeers" taken on the morning before our foster dog Miley (center) was due to go to her permanent home.

Oh, and did I mention that I can use it as a cell phone?

About the only thing the iPhone doesn't do is make the tea.  Guess I'll have to go and put the kettle on myself.

An unexpected Christmas visitor

We had a jolly and populous family Christmas: 18 humans and 7 dogs!  The humans all got along and the dogs mostly did too.

Our unexpected visitor arrived as it was getting dark.  No, it wasn't the ghost of Christmas past, present or future.  It was dog number 8!  While we were playing pass the package (we call it pass the parcel in England), cousin Scott went out with their minpin Napoleon.  Along came a somewhat bedraggled large dog with leash attached.  A quick check of her tags revealed that she was called Belle and lived on Bedford Street, about a mile and a quarter from here.  Apparently, a neighbor had been walking her while her family was away from home for the day.  Belle had been spooked by something and bolted.  She looked somewhat like a Staffordshire terrier and was very friendly and well-behaved.  An hour or two later, dog and family were happily reunited.

In parenthesis, I might add that Belle's mom is someone I hadn't met before but had corresponded with by email (re: this blog).  It's a small world as they say and our favorite corner of it is right here in Carlisle!

Yeah, is it a Chihuahua?

The best five words you can possibly hear when you report a missing dog to the police, according to Kim in her Facebook posting (see title).  Assuming that it's a Chihuahua that you've lost of course.

Looking understandably contrite now (who am I trying to kid?), here Miley is safe at home again after the Carlisle police and animal control officer did a wonderful job in recovering her.  It all started when Kim was out walking the dogs and some snow-shoers came by.  Apparently, they spooked her and off she went.  She eventually made her way back to the parking area but without running into Kim.  I arrived from my interrupted shopping trip possibly minutes after they gathered her up.  So we spent the rest of the daylight (about an hour and a half) scouring the woods and calling/whistling for her.  As you can imagine, we were pretty depressed by the time darkness fell.  That's when Kim called the police.

Lessons learned:

• don't let foster dogs off the leash unless they have a tag with our phone number;
• if a dog gets lost, go back to where you started (home, parking area, whatever) and wait for the dog to find you;

It doesn't matter too much whether it's a long-established pet family member or a foster dog we've had for a week, a runaway is always a traumatic situation.

As William Gilbert put it (the Duchess in Gondoliers):

• When I merely
•   From him parted,
• We were nearly
•   Broken-hearted,
• When in sequel
•   Reunited,
• We were equal
• -Ly delighted.
  

Many thanks to our wonderful police and animal control officer!

Smiling Miley

Miley, our current foster dog, is making really good progress here at Camp Carlisle.  When we picked her up she was literally sick as a dog on the way here.  She hates being in the car and caused quite a mess that day.  She was also having frequent "accidents" at home.  The trouble was we didn't know how old she was because while normally we know everything about these foster dogs before we pick them up, this time we knew next to nothing.  She behaved like a puppy but we really didn't know if she was.

Well, all that has changed :) She is just a puppy (9 months) and she's learning really fast.  She's much better in the car now – she's been on many short trips and is getting much more comfortable.  We've got her on to a good puppy-type bathroom schedule too and she's really doing well.  No more accidents.

She's a really sweet dog how just loves to be loved.  In tail-wagging she rivals even Puga!

Meanwhile, we're getting to that season of the year (i.e. snow) where the other dog-walkers in the woods hereabouts seem to think that it's perfectly OK to let their dogs do their business on the trail and not pick it up!  I suppose they think that the snow will somehow deal with it.  Note to such dog-walkers: it doesn't.   I'll leave my other pet rant re: trails until a future blog.

Forty words for snow

It's "well known" that Eskimos have many words for snow.  I seem to recall the number forty but, apparently, the New York Times quoted "one hundred" in a 1984 editorial.  Note that I'm not using the word Inuit because the original context used the word Eskimo and of course that helps generalize the whole notion of snow-words.  In reality, of course, they don't have an unreasonable number of words.  See the Wikipedia entry Eskimo Words for Snow.

I needed a word for the kind of snow that fell overnight.  To describe it, it's like one of Santa's elves just opened a huge packing box and all of the little white styrofoam bits fell out over Carlisle.  You know the type: they're tiny and impossible to pick up because static electricity is so strong compared with our feeble fingers.  The thickness of the layer that fell is essentially one "nugget", that's to say about a millimeter or so.

Pictured with a background of little white snow nuggets, is our latest foster dog, Miley.  She's a sweet little Chihuahua mix (excuse the quality: I had to use my cellphone).  We don't know how old she is but she behaves somewhat like a puppy.  She weighs about 12 pounds.  She was adopted but then returned because she was "too much of a lap dog".  Duh!

While we're on the subject of atmospheric phenomena, what are we to make of Copenhagen?  The world leaders have arrived and of course we, the United States, are as always the bad guys.  We are never going to take responsibility for our overuse of the world's resources and our unequal contribution to global warming.  We are entrenching our position as the world's climate pariah and it is not going to help with our national security one little bit.  Unless we can actually help fix the climate crisis by technology, the rest of the world is going to hate us even more than they do now.  That won't be fun.

Yet, the global warming detractors (I won't dignify them with the term skeptics) are as determined as ever to obfuscate the real situation.  Just look at the email hoopla that they kept up their collective sleeves for ten months before springing it on the world just before the climate talks.

Winter has arrived

Looking out of the window always at our snowy yard is always pleasant.  The couple of inches that fell on Saturday are still with us, even on the tree branches.  The photo shown is actually from a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately, I'm currently unable to upload photos from my digital camera so I can't get today's image.

The temperature went significantly below freezing point for the first time this winter too.  But it's still very pleasant to be out walking the dogs.

On Sunday, we met up with Cooper (now Spenser) and his new family.  What a nice dog he is!  We were quite envious.  But he's really happy and apparently just loves his new black lab brothers, Phineas and Boodle.  In that menagerie, he's the little guy (if you don't count the cats).

This morning Kim and I went in to Westford to get our flu shots.  What a lovely morning to be out driving through Carlisle!  We came back past the cranberry bogs and through the state park, mainly to avoid the town center traffic jam (yes, we do get them at rush hour) and it was just beautiful.  We are so lucky to live in such a nice place!

Fall - on steroids

At this time of year, we're accustomed to nice fluffy light things falling down around us -- leaves! But this year, we are in constant danger (when outside) of nasty hard things falling down on us -- acorns! I've never seen so many acorns. I've been discussing it this week with Kim. This morning, the Boston Globe ran a story about the acorn glut.

Still, the weather is actually delightful! This morning we went to Great Brook State Park with the three dogs and the map from last week's orienteering event. We did some trails that I hadn't really known about before last week and we never met a soul on those trails. It was wonderful. Cooper (and Puga) had a wonderful time romping about. We discovered that, in addition to new people (women especially), Cooper is apprehensive about horses and bikes. The corn stalks as not quite as high as an elephant's eye, but it's getting up there.

We found that Cooper loves ice cream too (no big surprise there). Cindy ate a huge amount of it too. Kim also found out this morning at the vet/groomers where Cooper was getting his nails clipped that we aren't the only ones that think he's a super handsome nice dog! Apparently, there's a friend of one of the groomers who's looking for a dog. We'll have to see what happens.

Incidentally, I'm sitting here with five dogs (the muppets are here while K & K are at a concert) and all is quiet. It's great that they all get along!

Dog days and orchestra

This (Friday) afternoon, we went to pick up our latest foster dog, Cooper. He's half Shetland Sheepdog ("Sheltie") and half... well we don't know but he looks a bit German Shepherdish to me. In any case, he (yes our first ever male dog) is the sweetest and best behaved dog imaginable. He's not really house-trained yet so we're keeping fingers crossed!

He came up from Tennessee starting out last Monday and after the two day journey and two day quarantine he was ready to be picked up today.

Meanwhile, Wednesday was our first orchestra rehearsal of the season. The program for the first concert of the year. We'll be playing Mendelssohn's 3rd (Scottish) Symphony and Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs. I don't really know the latter piece well, but I already love it after a few hearings of the CD that I just got. It's going to be a great concert!

(Sun morning)...

Well, Cooper has been a super dog -- no problems whatsoever. More on him soon, I expect. But for now, we're off for our balloon ride!