He's ALMOST never bit anyone!

My good friend (the Wolfman) is still an officer at the PD that I retired from. His recent "anonymous" comment on my blog begs me to tell this story. I wanted my dog, Ransome to like my friend. Ransome is a guard dog, and really doesn't like to let strangers come in. (and they don't get any "stranger" than Wolfman.) Several years ago we decided to have the Wolf and the wolffie dog Ransome make friends. Big mistake. They strongly dislike each other. I told the Wolfman not to stare at Ransome, but I suspect that he did anyway! Ransome jumped on him and bit him in the stomach! Big deal, it didn't break the skin - it was just a warning from Ransome. Let's face it, if he had wanted to kill him he would have gone for the throat! After that, I still wanted them to be friends. I had them sit in the living room and basically ignore each other. It seemed to be going good, so I invited the Wolfman to take Ransome for a walk around the block. All went unexpectedly good, the Wolf holding the leash and Ransome ignoring him and marking all the bushes and mailboxes as we circled the block. When we got back in the house I was just saying how all went well - when Ransome gave the Wolf another little bite on the hand - just to let him know that he still didn't like him. Ever since then the Wolfman has been threatening to take my poor dog Ransome for a walk in traffic.

Ransome says, "Bring it on - I will bite your ass off!!!"

Familiar face

My son Preston is 17 today. He was born on the First Day of Spring and he is my proudest acomplishment and the joy of my life. I went up to the store to get him an ice cream cake. I waited until the last minute because Preston really doesn't care that much for cake, but I found out that some friends were stopping over. People aways expect cake and ice cream for a birthday celebration. So, it's 5:45 PM and I go over to the local grocery store. I am scooting around the store when I see a familiar face. A lady is coming towards me with her cart. She looks at me and smiles - I grin back. OK, I never forget a face - but who the hell is that? I have met so many people in my life. Often times even people that I have arrested come up to me years later and speak. "hey, remember me??? You arrested me in '97! remember?" (no, I have no idea who you are or what offense you committed) I never forget a face, but that is as far as it goes! It took about an hour for the light bulb to go on in my head. One of my bloggie friends has this lady's photo posted on her blog! It is her sister and she lives in my small town. Funny that I should recognize her. Had I realized it while I was in the store, it would have been akward to explain who I was.

"Hi, I'm Tuffenuf". "Oh yeah? well, you don't look so tough to me!" No, I mean my name is Tuffenuf- or, oh well, it's not really my name.

Small world, even in blogland!

Danger!

I hope everyone with pets has heard about the dog/cat food recall. Canned and packaged wet food seems to be the problem so far. I told my brother about the problem, and he said, "We are OK, we don't feed our dogs the cheap stuff." I had to explain to him that not just the inexpensive foods are tainted. The manufacturer makes foods for some of the expensive brands like Eukanuba and Iams. Check out your pet food at www.menufoods.com/recall Be sure to click on the brands to see any sub-brands. Also, the symptoms if your pet has been contaminated are: throwing up, thirst, (but refusal to drink), loss of appetite. Watch you pets for any kind of change. This "poisoning" causes kidney failure. Buddy & Hemi say, "Be careful what you feed your pets!"
Ransome says, "HUH?, I will eat ANYTHING!

Early flight

I have no idea what I am doing up this late, reading your blogs! I have an early flight to Virginia to check on my Mom. I try to go up about once a month but it is hard to leave Florida. I am worried that I will have to put my Mom in assisted living. She gets more helpless every time I see her. She wants to stay in her own house; it is difficult to explain to her that she is not very safe doing that. Tomorrow I will take her to the doctor, she is seeing a rhumatologist, for the tingling and weakness in her hands. She really needs someone to come to her house a couple of hours a day to assist her. My brothers and I will be interviewing an agency for this on Thursday. I can at least visit her for a while (I will be coming home on Monday) and clean her house and do her laundry. I worry about my Mom all the time. I wish we lived closer, but she will not consider coming to Florida. She doesn't want to leave "the boys" (my grown brothers!) I hope we can keep her in her home for a few more years, but I honestly think that she would be so much happier in a group home with her peers. I guess this is what we all must face as we get older. Enough of my tale of woe, I better finish packing and charging up my ipod. E-see you when I get back. Oh, hell, where is that coat?

We took some time off

We stopped the never-ending re-modeling & chores this weekend and went to the theatre on Sunday. We saw the Broadway show "Wicked" at Tampa Bay Performing Arts and it was great! We had box seats, and a great view of everything. It never ceases to amaze me the work that it takes to put on a show like that. I could see right down into the orchestra pit. One conductor has his head just high enough to see the actors on stage, so he could take his cues from them, while another conductor watched the first conductor, so he could lead the other half of the orchestra. Intricate mechanisms and hatches on the stage floor controlled large set pieces and smoke and wind coming up from the floor. I am just as much fascinated with the behind the scenes workings as I am with the play itself. What a wonderful job it must be to be involved in live theatre. I always worried that the actors could fall into the orchestra pit from the stage. I went up for a closer look during intermission and discovered that there is a large (mostly invisible) net over the orchestra pit. It was pulled tight and looked sturdy enough to catch even the heftiest of the actors!