I think it will be necessary for me to apologize to whomever for not posting in, oh, six years, but so much has happened since I broken-heartedly wrote my last post.  For many complicated reasons, I am no longer with DAS.  We still care for one another but it is better for both of us that we are not together.  I am moving back to New York from New Jersey this weekend, but to Westchester County.  I teach in the Bronx so this move will be beneficial for my job. Life has never been the same since we moved from Syracuse and some of my very best moments and experiences were there.  I am hopeful that my future holds some more wonderful things in store for me and that my best life is not just in the past.

It still makes me sad to think of Xena and how much I miss her.  It is hard to believe that a human could love a dog so much but she was the most amazing little friend and I will never forget her.  I do not have another dog now although I fostered and later adopted another Basenji for a few years.  He holds a special spot in my heart as well, but no dog could ever replace my Xena.  I think today is just one of those sad days, one of those life is passing by days...  I remember everything that is good and Xena was one of those things.  For all of those who have something good in your life right now, please take the time to appreciate whatever or whomever it might be.  Family, friends, jobs, great dogs - all of these things are precious and are hard to come by.   I hope your blessings are many, your worries few and that love and caring find you wherever you may be.

Peace.

Trying to get back to normal...

It has been over three weeks since we lost Xena. I can think about her and be ok, but if I see a picture of her smiling face, I become really upset. I miss her very much and our place seems really empty without her. Life goes on and at least she is not suffering anymore, but she made my life so much better. I hope she is in dog heaven and has all of the rawhides and Pupperoni she can eat :) I was kind of wondering why she had to be taken away from us and today I heard this awful news story about a little boy 3.5 year old boy who was beaten up by this couple who was supposed to take care of him while his mother went to rehab. Xena loved kids so I know that when he got to heaven, Xena was waiting there to greet him. As I write this, I'm crying, but if there really is a heaven, I know she is there, watching over us and over that little boy.

Peace.

Memorial Day

It was a gorgeous day today. My heart is broken though. I'm numb and honestly all I want to do at this moment is crawl into my bed and never come out. Xena is gone. We had to put her to sleep today. Her disease robbed her of her vitality and verve for life. We could not stand to see her suffer. So today my angel died in my arms.

RIP Xena
November 21, 2004-May 26, 2008

China and Myanmar

For the last month life has been consumed with Xena and school. I want to just offer my thoughts and prayers for all of the people whose lives have been devastated by the natural disasters of the past few weeks. Sometimes life can be so unfair, and I just hope that the people who are affected by this these tragedies will be able to overcome them and carry on. My little tragedy is so insignificant in comparison. My prayers go out to you.

My sweet Basenji girl

So, my Xena girl is really really ill. She is on six different kinds of medicine, an anti-fibrotic, antibiotic, diarrhea preventative, appetite stimulant, antioxidant and Pepcid AC to help her stomach from not feeling sick. Every day she has ups and downs and my heart is constantly breaking for her. She has eaten very little over the past four days, sometimes she'll eat a whole wheat hot dog roll or other times maybe a rawhide, but she does not want to eat her dog food. Today started out really badly where all she wanted to do was sleep. She ate some of a hot dog roll and then still wanted to sleep some more. I left to go see my friend for a little while, and then when I came back, she was energetic and greeted my friend happily. She ran up and down the hallway and went to visit our neighbor. She had some roasted chicken and offered it to Xena who ate it... Since then, she has only eaten a little bit of bread and water.

Besides her lack of interest in eating, I have to give Xena all of her pills down her throat and she get so upset with me. I have tried to put her pills in cheese, cold cuts, peanut butter, honey and Greenie pill pockets and she wants none of them. She's getting incontinent and her stomach is filled with fluid, but she still has her sweet and happy go lucky personality. She wants to live so much! This little dog is the light of my life and DAS' life. I hope that the medicine starts to really work and she gets her appetite back, but her well-being is so tenuous right now. To top it off, my Dad, who walks her three times a week at lunch, can't come for the next two weeks because he is on jury duty. I'm probably going to have to drop her off at my mother-in-law's house for the day because I can't leave her home alone all day... I don't know what to do. I love her so much and I just want her to get better. I guess if you read this, pray for my angel. Thank you.

My little Xena

First things first, Xena was diagnosed with Liver Disease the day we returned from vacation, so she is on Medication and a special diet. She has been showing great signs of improvement, i.e. she is eating heartily and gained three pounds. Yesterday, I was taking her to the Vet for a check-up and she darted out of my car and into the street. I called her and tried to get her and a car came really close to hitting her. Then, she was about to come back to me but for whatever reason, she went the other way and a car, which thankfully was slowing down, hit her. She yelped and looked shocked. Then she came walking over to me with her hackles up. She looked ok, but scared and shaken, but all I could do was hug her and say that I was sorry to her. She had a small abrasion on her lip and was bleeding a little. I rushed her to the Vet and once he checked her over, he said that it looked like she was going to be OK. We still have to keep her on a special diet though and monitor her food intake and medicine. My poor Xena. Please pray for her.

I am immortalized...

in a shoe... The Air Elly by Cole Haan. I have to admit it was kind of cool when I received the e-mail about these shoes and saw my name in the subject... hee hee. I gave in and bought a pair in black patent. They're very cute and I wore them for the first time today. They were pretty comfortable for all day wear with the Nike Air technology and they only hurt my feet a little bit toward the end of the day... It took me three tries to get the size right, but at least when I ordered the third pair from the Cole-Haan store after returning the two pairs that did not fit, I did not have to pay for shipping again.

iPhone glee / a few rants

I know everyone and their mother (and grandmother) already have the iphone, but I have to add my two cents. I became the proud owner of an iphone the week after Christmas and I do love it. It is user-friendly and has most of the features that I need in a hand-held device. There are just a couple of silly things about it which I'll mention now.
-- It is too delicate. I have my phone in a hard plastic case which protects it when it is dropped every once in awhile, but I have heard about users whose dropped caseless phones are toast after hitting the floor once.
-- AT&T service is pretty good, but not the best. There are weird places where calls cannot be made or e-mails cannot be accessed.
--Every so often the phone screen will go blank during a call and then I can't touch the button to disconnect the call. Another truly bizarre feature of having no buttons...

I may add comments about this later on, but for now this is about all I have to complain about. :)

Basenjis are finicky...Poetry and other exciting things

One of my biggest challenges right now is getting Xena to eat her dog food. She used to love the MiniChunks, but now she refuses to eat them. I've tried three other kibble types and wet dog food as well. She does not like chicken broth on her food (a hint I heard which is supposed to entice finicky eaters to eat) and she did not want to eat the cottage cheese that I mixed in with her kibble today either. Whatever I'm eating, she'll gladly devour, but she'll detour around anything meant for her to nosh upon. Any suggestions?

The weather in the NYC area is getting really gorgeous now. Today the mercury hit 75 degrees and it was glorious. I spent my day with my lovely lower east side eighth graders and then did a few errands. I am looking forward to tomorrow because it is Poem in Your Pocket Day and I'm taking most of my students up to Bryant Park to participate in the poetic festivities. All of the kids are going to bring poems and share them with other people attending the event. I took one class on a poetry inspiration walk to Union Square on Monday and they were really terrific, so I'm hoping for the best on this expedition.

Oh last but not least, we have spring break next week and we're going on vacation! I am overjoyed... We're going to Ft. Lauderdale and then on a "Western Caribbean" Cruise with stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. This is our first vacation in a year and a half, and I am so ready to soak up the warmth and bask in the turquoise water. Yay, yay, yay!

...

I've been remiss in posting for many reasons. The first of which involves the fact that my laptop has been out of commission for several months. I finally got it fixed, and now it is better than ever... or something. The other is that I've been swamped with work and stress and all of that lovely stuff. Nothing much has been going on besides that. I'm riding again at a posh stable, the kind of place where the grooms have your horse ready for you, you hop on and ride and then ge the horse back to the grooms. I guess that is ok, but I really enjoy grooming and tacking up myself. The trials of my life are endless...