Last Thursday

Last Thursday was the 451st anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birthday.

Last Thursday I saw my first violet in the yard.

Last Thursday my favorite beech tree in the woods dropped its old leaves.

Last Thursday it snowed in the middle of the day.

Last Thursday I lost one of my dearest friends.

B and T

After the joy of an extra two years with Tilly after her original cancer diagnosis, we faced the sad news that it had returned. We’d hoped for a few more weeks, just long enough for her to savor more warm days, just long enough for me to finish classes and spend entire days in the yard or on the porch with her.

Last Thursday when I returned home from work, it was clear that it was time to ease her out of this IMG_2335life. I held her while Neal rushed home, and together we stroked her and murmured our gratitude and love to her while we waited for our incredible vet to come to the house.

We’re sad, of course. Tilly lived here before I did. Her love brought me back from the saddest periods of my adult life. Her empathy and sweetness, her humor and grace, her joy and devotion created hundreds of sweet memories. Tilly is the dog who made me a dog person.

Last Thursday a tear ripped in our world. We’ll look for her button eyes gazing at us, for her to tuck her head on a heart, in a lap. We’ll miss her.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog in the world. They do. I know I did.

 

Ethical Elegance: Stitching Together Passions

I’m thrilled to share this guest post from Chelsea Nelson. Chelsea has been my student in several writing classes, and let me tell you–this woman is a dynamo. She’s passionate and has an impressive work ethic. I hope you enjoy reading about her fundraising project…and that you’ll hop over to support her!

220Everyone has that one animal that changes their life when they are a kid. Mine is a dog named Jasmine. We adopted her when I was 10 years old and had her for 11 years until this past November when we had to put her down due to old age. She was more than a dog to me; she was my best friend and the reason I am so passionate for dogs today.

Sterling Shelter gave me my best friend 11 years ago, and I can never truly repay them for that, but what I can do is help them stay running and succeeding as a no-kill shelter.

I created a campaign called Scarves for Paws in which I sell handcrafted scarves for 10 dollars and give those proceeds to Sterling Shelter. As a no-kill shelter, they are always in need of volunteers, supplies, and money donations to stay open. Because they are located at least 45 minutes from my house, volunteering seems impossible, so instead I figured what better way to say thank you for giving me my best friend then to raise money for them.

Knitting has always been a hobby of mine. It relaxes me and calms me when I am stressed. Knitting scarves is my favorite thing to do. One day I was sitting in my room brainstorming for something I could do in my spare time that would benefit the animal shelter. I have had the name Scarves for Paws in my head for a while but bringing the idea to life was a whole other dream. With two weeks of organizing and encouragement from other people, I began to run the Scarves for Paws Campaign. This whole process has showed me that anything is possible no matter your interests and hobbies. I have a long way to go until I am completely satisfied with the campaign but am proud of my progress in the little time I have been up and running.

So far I have gone once to the shelter and was able to give them a box of newspapers and $230 in cash that will benefit all the animals in the shelter. After I dropped the money off, the owners gave me a hug and said they really appreciated my taking time to make the scarves and giving them the proceeds. It was really touching. I never imagined raising $230 just three months of sales. To reach more people, I opened an online store. Although at first the campaign was only a thought I had discussed with my roommate, I am proud to say that I have raised that much money.
I hope in the future I can raise a lot more money and bring it to the shelter to help them out.

By combining my two passions of knitting scarves and my love of dogs, I was able to do something more to benefit someone other than myself, and I am truly proud to say I helped sheltered animals get adopted and have a comfortable stay at Sterling Shelter.

008Chelsea Nelson is originally from Upton,  MA and is about to graduate from  Westfield State University, where she’s been studying English with a writing concentration.  She has had dogs her entire life, currently Kodiak, an 8-year-old Labrador retriever, and Bear, a 2-year-old chow lab mix. She has also worked at a kennel for four years and still works their on holidays and breaks from school. Read her dog blog,follow her on Twitter, and on Instagram.

 

The Pack 7/28

Coco2710
Coco was forlorn when her daddy took her big sisters to visit grandma.  She might growl ferociously at the big girls when they hop on my her bed in the morning, and she might steal Nyla bones from them.  She is the littlest member of the pack, though, and her ties to the rest of us are mighty strong.

Thanks for the comments about the micro video of Dan's speed painting.  I'll mess around with iMovie and see if I can do anything with the roughly eight minutes of video…without being able to see the actual painting, I didn't think the video was interesting enough to post, but I'll see about editing it a bit to give you, dear readers, a bit more of the performance.

The Superbowl is over, which is just fine by me.  I'm glad the Saints won; New Orleans, and I mean the city, needs a win, don't you agree.  I'm no fan of the game (unless I'm watching it on a fall night in the stands at a local high school).  The Superbowl, in my world, means the end of a long season of noisy nonsense.  You might like it and be clucking your tongue at me, and that's okay.  

What I do like, though, is hanging out with a fire going and reading.  Tonight I'm catching up on the two novels my different sections of Composition 102 are studying.  I've read both several times, but I like to have everything fresh in my mind, so I do the reading as assigned.  Note to self: do not assign two different novels at the same time.  It cuts into personal reading time way too much.

Which leads me, contestants, to a question for you:  what book are you looking forward to reading?  I love hearing about the books on others' nightstands…it helps me to build up my "to read" list.  

Hope you had a great weekend!

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