A neighbor of mine has just let me know that her mother died last night. Liz and Laurie are sisters who live in my community. They’ve been very supportive of me this past year as I’ve lost Nanook and Journey and faced other challenges, and Lakshmi has decided that their dogs, Emma and Gabriel, are […]
Late last night, Lakshmi and I had a close encounter with a rather ornery raccoon. Yes, we co-exist with wildlife in our neighborhoods. Last winter, I even wrote an article about urban wildlife here in Portland. For several months, I’ve been hearing from neighbors about one or more coyotes roaming through our neighborhood. No surprise, […]
SUDDENLY JEWISH Jews Raised as Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots Barbara Kessel Brandeis University Press, 2000 ISBN: 978-1584656203 Over the space of 15 months, Barbara Kessel interviewed the men and women who responded to her advertisement seeking people who had been raised non-Jews but who had discovered Jewish roots. She posted her notices in the […]
On Monday night, Lakshmi graduated from dog obedience. Not too long ago, Lakshmi was an excessively problematic dog with big anxiety and separation issues, to the point that she was a possible fear-biter. I’d been bitten and scratched up by her myself when she’d gotten into a state of hyper-anxiety (I’ll have the scars for […]
I’ve just picked up Journey’s cremated remains from the vet’s office. I’d had a fairly good week. My sadness had been neatly outweighed by huge relief ? that she was no longer suffering, and that my own life was no longer hostage to her illness (even though I’ve felt rather selfish for admitting that). The […]
Journey1997 – 2007 Journey, my little sheltie-jack russell mix, died today. She was just shy of her tenth birthday. I’m deeply shaken by her loss, but am not entirely surprised that she would go so soon after Nanook, who had been her life-long buddy. I found her at the Richmond SPCA when she was six […]
A writer friend, Jackie Dishner, recently started a blog about her BIKE philosophy. I’ve gotten to know Jackie through e-mail over the course of the past year and have always found her wisdom to be gentle, generous, and right on target. Seeing her courage in starting this new blog inspired me to take action on […]
