From new commentor Delk:
Long time lurker that has recently posted a couple times in regards to John’s rehab issues. Today is 11 months and 21 days for me!
Anyway, this is my rescue dog Gav (AKA Gavatron, Gavatron 2000, Gavatron 2001, Gavvie, Gavvles, and kitten). Gav is about a year and a half. He sort of looked like a Jack Russell when we got him, but he is now about 56 pounds.
A couple months ago, Gav and I were photographed for a national AIDS Awareness campaign about dogs that help HIV+ people heal. I’ll be marking my 29th year in September.
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Anything else cheerful / uplifting on the agenda for the start of another week in Silly Season?
Tommy
I was just reading Daily Beast and there is a feature story about Fancy Farm. Oh so political.
Happy story …..
In my the little rural town my parents live in they have something like Fancy Farm. Well it is called Corn Day. We eat corn until we can’t stand. $5.00 for a piece of chicken and all the corn you can eat.If you live in a larger metro area and I took you to Corn day you would not be able to compute.
If you are running for office you have to be there.
Funny thing. It is an apolitical event.We all like corn. Try to get political and you get mocked.
JPL
Congratulations Delk. I don’t know when you sent this in but you are approaching a year and that’s a wonderful achievement. Those puppy eyes, could melt anyone’s heart.
Mustang Bobby
I’m visiting my parents in the suburbs of Cincinnati. Both are in their mid-80’s and while their minds are sharp, their physical abilities are limited. They moved into a very nice independent living community. It’s a relief to me and my siblings that they can keep their accustomed lifestyle of a 68-year marriage but also be well-taken care of.
That is a most adorable pup, and props to you Delk for your years of sobriety (almost 22 years here) and helping with the HIV+ awareness.
MomSense
Congratulations, Delk! Gav is a sweetheart. Happy you have each other.
Betty Cracker
The thought of a 56-pound JRT is truly frightening. Gav looks like a sweetie, though.
satby
Congrats Delk! You’re a survivor, that’s for sure. And when things get bleak, getting out of bed and carrying on for the ones that depend on us gets us through. I’m rooting for you, John, and anyone else who is going through the same quest for continuing sobriety.
Southern Beale
I did a Good News Friday post on Friday (well duh). Lots of good news there!
OzarkHillbilly
Pittsburgh woman attempts to steal unmarked police car with two police officers still in it
A guy I once worked with was stumbling around a parking lot trying to remember which way was home after getting kicked out of the local tavern at closing time. He suddenly realized he really had to pee. So he leans up against a car, whips it out and proceeds to take care of business. That was when the cop got out of the front seat.
Tommy
@Mustang Bobby: My parents are in their 60s. I could not imagine a world where they needed assisted living of any kind. I know that day might come, but not so sure how I’d do it.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: That is both funny and sad at the same time.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: Slowly and with great care.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I will have to remember that phrase.
Luna Sea
Oh that face is just perfect for a Monday morning. Congratulations to Delk on both huge achievements! And so happy our Curmudgeon in Chief is recovering as well and back at the blogging helm. This is all just what I needed to start my first week back at work after surgery in June. Though I’m walking into a hornet’s nest at the office, I’m alive to do it! And I figure if I can beat cancer, I can handle stupid office crap, no problem.
Everybody have a grand Monday!
Johannes
Congratulations, Delk, and many more 24! I just made 17 years in June, and I can tell you this–it gets better. Every good wish, and congrats on Gav, too–he looks like a fine dog!
Josie
What a sweet puppy. A face like that would be a big help to anyone. Good for you, Delk, on your accomplishments and on joining the conversation here.
Botsplainer
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s nothing. I know a guy who managed to get locked up in Key West at Fantasy Fest. Seems that he and some random woman took a mutual shine to one another, and needed to get to business on the first available horizontal surface, which happened to be the hood of a Key West police cruiser tucked into an alleyway.
The bliss got interrupted by the return of Key West’s finest, who couldn’t just let that one go.
The miscreant’s traveling companions were all police officers, and hilariously documented the arrest from across the street. They managed to intercede on his behalf at the station, stating correctly that he would lose his very responsible doctor job were charges of a sexual nature to be made.
A couple of weeks later, his friends presented him with a framed blowup of him getting cuffed over the hood of the scene of the crime.
Mustang Bobby
@Tommy: As OzarkHillbilly said. I’m in my 60’s, as are my siblings. We were gently pro-active, knowing we’d get some resistance, but with love and guidance they decided on their own. They moved from Toledo to Cincinnati — turning down a place near me in Miami — and it’s both lovely and affordable for them.
Now I need someone to do it for me in twenty years…
Joy
Congratulations Delk! My sister is just beginning her sobriety journey. I’ll pass on your success to her. She needs some positive reinforcement. Your Gav looks so similar to my rescue, Chloe. Very similar markings and she weighs about the same. I’m guessing some rat terrier in her. Definite terrier mannerisms. They are quite the characters!
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: Somewhere, on somebodies wall, there is a citation from Monteagle Tennessee with my name on it… Whenever they need a laugh, they look at it.
WereBear
What a sweet face! So often in rescue, we rescue each other.
I’ve found that the puppy I got from the shelter will look distinctly one thing, and then grow up to look a lot like some other. And often, a third thing will pop up.
Like Arby, who was soooo Norwegian Elkhound as a pup, but showed a lot of Lab once grown. We decided he was a Gator Dog… North Shore Animal League got him from a kill shelter in Louisiana. And then he started teething.
shelley
Today is gonna be my first session at Kessler Rehabilitation (for a neurological condition I won’t go into details) and i’m a little nervous.
Shakezula
Congratulations, that is a great story (and a great puppy.)
Does nice weather count has happy news? It should be as hot and dank as Satan’s jockstrap here, but it is a little chilly with a light breeze this morning. This marks summer #2 where we’ve gotten off really lightly.
Yatsuno
@shelley: *hug* You won’t get much sleep I’ll tell you that right now. You’ll get a favourite nurse and probably a PT & OT as well. Make sure you’re honest about how you’re feeling with them especially if you think something is not helping. And hopefully you figure out the menu enough to determine what is edible.
shelley
@Yatsuno:
Thanks, Yatsuno. Luckily It’s on an outpatient basis. Hope they’ll give me tips on what I can do at home in between sessions.
Nicole
Gav is a cutie. And congrats on the continued sobriety! As someone who lost a family member to a lifetime of drinking (he was 60), it really comforts me to see posts from people that chose to break the chains.
I went out for a friend’s birthday celebration last night- she and her husband had taken in a foster dog (a lab-Dachshund mix, the daddy was the wiener dog) that had been pulled from a high-kill shelter. She was seeking a permanent home form him as she has allergies (the reason she has never owned a dog). I asked after the dog last night and she laughed and said, after realizing she was deliberately reaching to find something wrong with all prospective adopters, she accepted she and her husband just really wanted to adopt him themselves. One very expensive air purifier later, and a dog willing to be trained to stay out of the bedroom, and all seems to be going well.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Tommy:
My parents have both passed and both required assisted living and more before they did. Slow and careful is a wonderful idea but it doesn’t work well if you are in denial and wait too long. Some members of my family were not as practical and wanted to wait. And wait. And wait. If you wait too long the situation can get a lot harder. You frequently don’t have as many options as you might think and placing someone can take time. John’s recent debacle is unfortunately not that unusual in finding a long term bed that is both acceptable, affordable and open. Planning can make that a lot easier and in some cases more acceptable. It’s not fun nor is the idea of putting the folks in a home something to look forward to but it can very much be a reality/necessity.
Ruckus
@Mustang Bobby:
Should have read the entire thread first. But the concept does lend itself to repeating, planning and discussing is/can be very helpful.
Mnemosyne
Charlotte has her follow-up cardiologist appointment this morning. Hopefully, it will be the same news as last time (slight thickening of the heart with no effect on function). Then I get to have a very fun conference call with my brother where I ask him to voluntarily step down as the trustee of my mom’s marital trust. If he refuses, I will have to lawyer up to try and force him out. Good times, good times.
muddy
@Ruckus: My parents had an assisted living place picked out, but when my dad passed unexpectedly, my mother didn’t want to go on her own. Without him she’d be just another one of the old biddies, she said. No instant social status without a husband. Anyway she was able to stay at home as long as I went there every other day to do everything for her. Everyone said that it was too much for me, and if I refused to do it all, then she would have to go to the place etc.
That’s all very well, but it ignored the period that would have to be gotten through first. Sort out the 54 years of packrat house *with her input*. And now without the voice of reason and much needed strict tones from my dad. Getting the house ready and selling it *with her input*. Having to go choose new furniture for the new place. This may sound like nothing to anyone who has not shopped with her, this would entail a multiple month search of every item in 10 counties, a number of returns and eventual disgust with what she was “stuck with”. Plus she kept insisting that she get the 2 bedroom apartment at assisted living, so that she could still have “houseguests”. Longer waiting list for that as they don’t have many, and of course cost way more.
I did it for 3 years until she passed, and even after all that appreciate how much easier it was to clear that house without her. Honestly I can’t imagine having to do all that with her there, I’d probably be in prison for murder now.
I guess my point is that the particular circumstances of each elder person really do inform the choice entirely. No one from the outside would ever have thought it was less work to care for her at home, but it really was.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Gav is adorable, and I’m glad you’re in good health Delk.
Good rehab thoughts for you shelly.
Hillary Rettig
Mazel tov to you both Delk! Thanks for sharing the adorable Gav. They really do rescue us at the same time we rescue them.
Ruckus
@muddy:
You are correct, some situations are easier. But and it’s a big but, in many cases the ability to manage the day to day needs just can not be met by family. The prognosis of the parents is important, are they just old and less able to care for themselves or do they have real issues such as in my dad’s case, Alzheimer’s. Do the family members live close enough, many of us do not. In my dad’s case I lived/worked 2500 miles away and even if I had lived next door I traveled over 6 months of the year. And so it goes.
I wasn’t saying that everyone needs to go to a home as they get old or infirm, but planning for that possibility makes it far easier if that becomes necessary. I’ve had/have friends in their late 80s early 90s who are perfectly capable of living on their own. I have a friend whose grown son requires pretty much around the clock care. What will the parents do if and when they can’t care for their son, let alone themselves? Or in my case, I’m 65, in reasonable heath but I have ended up with no family, no kids. I have to plan for my eventual inabilities myself, there is no one else but the state to do it for me and if I wait too long, will not be able to.
ruemara
Congrats to you both for rescuing each other.
Ramalama
@WereBear: When our dog chose us from his cage at the local shelter, he was a baby panda bear / Malamute wolf mix. He started growing and looking really funky. At one point he looked like a dog who was wearing an ill-fitting dog costume.
Also, Delk, I absolutely love the name Gavatron 2000. Congrats on the sobriety!