The Personal: Matilda....A Bad, Bad Dog

Well the blog is titled DOGS, Blogs, Politics and the Personal, so I figured I should take some time to talk about well...my dawg.

Ya see, it's THAT time of year again...not the coming of Spring or Valentines Day... It's the annual Westminster Dog Show!!! I love the dog show. Partly because my family friend Dave Frei is the commentator and he's very funny (hi Dave)...and mostly because I love dogs...of course.

When I bought my dog 6 years ago I had visions of Westminster- no I'm not a show dog person, never showed a dog in my life...but the breeder (yes I have guilt that I didn't get her at a shelter so don't bug me about it) stressed that she came from Champion Lineage...she's of the "Brasco bunch" or something like that - 30 champion dogs in her lineage. So I took her home, went to puppy school, flunked out and that was the end of Matilda's asperations of stardom...

Anyhow, this is Matilda...




I realize she looks like a nice little creature, a friendly cuddly little beast -- but make no mistake - this is the face of a very bad dog. I know you just want to give her a smooch right there on her peppery lil nose right now but don't be fooled. She's devious and terrible. I believe I've already mentioned her affinity for cheese and all things in most refrigerators. Her latest indulgence? Candy...

A few days ago Jeremy accidentally left the downstairs door open, where Matilda usually spends her days. Well the sneaky lil canine took that opportunity to raid the candy jar on top of the kitchen table. Now this might have been a harmless adventure from a simple and curious dog...but not this time - oh no. First of all the candy jar had half a box of the super nice chocolates Ron Reagan gave me for Christmas. Second of all chocolate is toxic to dogs.

(I'll spare you the details from my moments of panic and calls to the vet only to find out she likely didn't get enough to hurt her)

The fact that she got into the candy jar in the first place isn't the big issue here. It's the crafty things she decides to do with the contents of the jar that I take issue with; you see...when Matilda goes on these food scavenging expeditions she likes to hide her bounty in various spots around the house. For instance last time she raided the refrigerator I found a stick of butter under my pillow.

This time...a Reese's Peanut Butter cup tucked neatly into the downstairs futon cover, a Lindt chocolate, perhaps reserved for later, hidden under her toys in her toy basket, vanilla chewy taffys? -- deep in the cushions of the chair by the couch. I will likely be finding candies and chocolates scattered around the house for weeks.

Every once in a while I see her nosing around in the spare bedroom - I still haven't figured out what's in there. She's freakishly smart, I wouldn't be suprised to go in there and find she's actually been making a treasure map of her findings to play with when we're not home.

In the end I'm glad she's ok - and now we realize the baby locks on the fridge aren't enough, it's time for a pad lock on the downstairs door - and on the candy jar. Finally if there's ever a crafty dog cattagory in Westminster, we're in!

And because I can't resist, a few more shots of Matilda in her finest moments:



Where she sits when Jeremy isn't home...pathetically awaiting his return.











Herding some sheep, because that's what Cow Dogs do...














Impatiently awaiting someone to throw a ball...

The Personal: What do you want to be when you grow up?

I'm sure you've seen the story; the one about the astronaut from NASA who was plotting to kill another astronaut in a sort of crazy love triangle...

This story got me thinking...

Every child in America over the age of 5 is asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I was asked it many times as a kid: "What, what, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I often answered "A veterinarian" sometimes I answered "A pilot, like my dad" or "I want to run college bookstores like my mom". But I didn't really know what they were asking me and of course had no idea what career I should be focused on between climbing trees and sticking gum in my sisters hair.

I imagine Lisa Nowak was asked this very same question, and maybe she answered "an astronaut" like a lot of kids did. After that, young Lisa must have worked very very hard - she has been an astronaut since 1996 and flew her first shuttle mission last July, serving as a mission specialist aboard the Discovery. She's someone we would all be impressed by because we judge people by their career accomplishments before we consider their craft of character.

So I wonder- why is career the question we always ask of our youth? Is it an American thing? We are so driven by our jobs that we groom our children for the right profession as early as age 5. Is it simply ingrained in us?

What if we didn't ask the question of WHAT? but of Who? WHO do you want to be when you grow up? WHO is the woman/man you hope to be? I wonder if it would put a different goal into our brains and I wonder if our country would be well...different - with different values (whatever that means).

But as I was asked, like most of us - this question of WHAT, instead of WHO ...I decided long ago this question of WHO is something I should replace with that question of WHAT. And so I have...I think of it often and I still wonder if I actually AM the woman I want to be. Do I have the patience, kindness, thoughtfulness, drive, strength, curiosity, compassion, honesty, sense of humor, skills in spelling.... of the woman I hoped to become in my youth? Nope...probably not. But I'm working on it.

Are you?