I have come to believe that when a being leaves our earth they leave
an energy behind or visit us in some way that sometimes we are lucky enough to feel. 

Years ago we fostered a wonderful elderly pug named Max after his owner passed away and the owner’s elderly friend could no longer care for him.  Max was already about 12 years old so we knew we would have him  for the rest of his days on earth as no one would want to adopt a dog of that age.  He was a dignified, sweet Pug who remained a bit aloof from our other dogs.  After we had Max about 6 weeks he became ill and was diagnosed with pneumonia.  Despite treatment he did not improve and on an x-ray was diagnosed with a tumor around his heart.  We sadly let Max go.  We knew it was time for him to go find his real owner — we had only had him on loan until he was ready to go.  That afternoon after he left this earth I took one of my Labs tracking.  As I pulled into the parking lot where my track was laid it began raining.  “Great” I thought, “just how my day is going”…….and then I looked up at the sky and this beautiful rainbow suddenly appeared.   I realized it was Max saying good-bye and telling me he was reunited with his precious owner.  Through my tears I also felt a sense of peace.

 Then when Lily suddenly died 2 years ago,  the next a.m. I went outside and 7 sand hill cranes suddenly landed on the hillside near our house.  We had never seen sand hlls there although we’ve heard them on occasion in the woods about a half mile away.  They have never landed on that hillside since.  I feel they were sent by Lily to check up on me.  Everytime I hear a sand hill crane now I feel Lily has been here to check on me and send me her love. 

 Fast forward to March 16th, 2008.  As I wrote previously my good friend, Karen, passed away that day.  Sunday a.m. when I got up the first thought I had was of Karen as I knew she wasn’t doing well and her time to leave was near.  It was a spring-like day so after I let my horses out I just stood in the sun watching them and thinking about her and her family.  A huge flock of geese flew over and then I heard sand hill cranes and knew in my heart she was gone.  The next day,  I was walking back to work by Hilldale Mall in Madison when 2 sand hill cranes flew over (I have two co-workers as witnesses).  Very unusual to hear sand hills in the city and this has never happened there before — I believe it was Karen’s energy in the area making sure her family is okay.

Two days ago a friend of mine passed away from cancer. It is such a nasty disease — it seems to always win in the end…….I first met Karen about 18 years ago when I was showing my Lab, Reilly, in obedience and she was showing her Flat-coated Retriever Sadie in the same classes. I believe we first started talking on an out of sight stay and kept running into each other at obedience trials. Both our dogs and us became friends. In fact Reilly became madly in love with Sadie (he was neutered so no danger of “Flatadors” there). When they were together they ran around and played but he also flirted with her. She was the only dog he ever flirted with his entire life although when he met her daughter he tried to flirt with her until he realized it wasn’t Sadie!

Karen gave a lot back to the sport of obedience and taught some wonderful classes at our kennel club including a much in demand “attention” class. She also got involved in tracking, hunt tests and agility and she and I traveled to some events together. Even when her cancer reoccurred she remained cheerful and optimistic. In fact I still thought she would beat this round of cancer but realized about 2 weeks ago it wasn’t going to happen. On Friday, after a rally obedience trial, a little voice in my head said to call her house and see how she was doing. I spoke with her daughter who was here helping care for her and realized time was short. Fortunately they said I could come visit.

Even though I realized she was dying it wasn’t easy to see her in so much pain. I won’t go into all the details of our visit but I learned something by going — if you have a friend who is terminally ill, go see them NOW. Tell them what their friendship means to you, if you love them tell them so, give them a hug, say your good byes. You will be glad you did. I know I am.

On top of that, today is the 2 year anniversary of my precious Lily’s unexpected death. They say time heals everything but apparently in some cases it takes much more time than others. There isn’t a day I don’t think of her at least once. Her photos, leash and collar and ashes are right by me here on my desk. I just haven’t been able to move them yet. Her daughters Sprout and Sprite are here as a reminder of her but they aren’t her or much like her. I have a tribute to Lily on my web page and a link to a story about her here: www.dunnsmarshlabs.com/lasttunnel.html

So today I am missing my friend, Karen and my precious gift from God, Lily. I love you both and will never forget either of you.

No time to post lately — I’ll try to write a bit more often. 

Erica and I went to Florida to spend Christmas with my family down there.  Kent joined us in time for the holiday after a challenging trip down.  We had the best weather we’ve ever had when down there at Christmas time.  70s/80s and sunny every day, most days involved some beach time.  It was very hard to come home although I did miss all of the animals alot.

Having both of us travel at the same time was a logistics challenge since we had to make sure all dogs, cats and equines had someone to care for them.  So Summer went to visit her co-owner/breeder,  Jazz and Cori joined Zamboni at my field trainer’s and Marley went to visit a friend’s boarding kennel.  We then had a housesitter here for the rest of the dogs, cats and equines.  She was great and Kent’s comment on arriving home (he came home 3 days ahead of us) was that everyone was very calm.

Since I’ve been back we’ve run the gamut of weather possibilities for Wisconsin in January and beyond…….snow and fog, snow and high winds (gust of 40 mph), high winds with cold temps under zero, a sunny 30 degree day, 54 degrees, dense fog for several days (and a 100 car pileup on the interstate near us), a thunderstorm with hail (drove to work in that one yesterday) and tornados about 40 miles away yesterday. 

If I could pick up the farm and move the whole thing along with all animals to a milder climate I would do it in a minute!

I have two jobs as an RN — one in a pediatrics clinic, one in a hospital NICU.  Often I am the triage nurse at the clinic so I’m on the “front lines” taking phone calls, answering parents’ questions, etc.  We all get interesting phone calls and of course with HIPPA laws I can’t be too specific but I could write a book about some of the calls I and the other nurses get. 

For ex — This summer one of my co-workers answered a call from a parent who was on a family camping trip out west.  They called for a refill of their child’s antibiotics because a bear broke into their supplies and ate the child’s antibiotics!  That was a call we talked about for quite some time wondering how the bear liked the strawberry flavored medication, if it upset their stomach, etc.!  Yesterday I got a call from a parent asking if we could write an excuse so their child didn’t have to wear part of a school uniform.  Just when I thought I’d heard it all……I’m sure there are many more interesting calls to come. 

It isn’t Thanksgiving yet but I have something important to be thankful for today.  Sixteen years ago today I had major back surgery.  It took me 9 months to recover and I still have pins and rods in my back BUT I can walk fine, I am not in pain and I can ride horses again!  Although the memories of the pain before surgery and the long recovery are tempered by 16 years I am very thankful to Dr. Zdeblick at the UW Hospital for his skill that day when he did my surgery.

It’s not the first time they’ve played Houdini…….Saturday evening the mini donkeys decided the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence and found the perfect weak spot in the fence to go through.  Unfortunately the grass is indeed greener there as it is alfalfa hay, not good for donkeys on a diet. 

 When I went to call the girls in for the night instead of being met by the usual braying there was silence.  Not good……It was pitch black out and I didn’t have a flashlight with me.  I listened intently and finally heard the sounds of twigs snapping but no donkey hooves coming closer.  I walked out into the pasture and as I got close to the back fence I could make out Glo (Morning Glory) as she is mainly white.  I then realized all four donkeys were looking at me from the other side of the wire fence.   Of course they weren’t able to get back through it as that isn’t where the escape route was located.  I remembered earlier in the year noting that a portion of the wire fencing was looking pretty saggy so felt my way down the fence line until my hands only touched air instead of a line of fence.  Voila!  The escape hatch was found!  Fortunately when I called the girls they came along the fence line and I held down what was left of the wire for them to step over.  They were moving pretty slowly at that point.  Got them into their stall and Glo immediately laid down — not a good sign.  Got her up walking and her stomach was really bloated looking and she kicked at it a couple of times. 

You may have heard of “colic” — it can be life-threatening in horses and other livestock and she had the symptoms.  Of course it was 11 p.m. by then on a Saturday night.  Fortunately the clinic we use for the equines has a vet on call even on nights and weekends.  I called the clinic number and was patched into him.  The one on call happens to own a couple of donkeys himself which was helpful.  He told me the girls would be fine but it is like a kid who ate too much Halloween candy so they were going to have stomach aches for a while. 

 It was one of those nights where you don’t sleep well and I did check on them a couple of times.   A close call but fortunately but in the a.m. all four were on their feet and seemed okay.  Of course the hole in the fenceline is now patched and they’ve had to stay off pasture for a couple of days which they think is torture.

Just another day in the country at the Blue Barn Farm……..

……..of writing in the blog……..I haven’t had time to write anything as the last week has been pretty hectic.  I was on the committee for the annual Wisconsin Dog Fair, an event that has gotten larger and larger each year.  This year we moved to a larger venue and as vendor chair I had 100 vendor booth spaces taken and their occupants to take care of.   The Dog Fair was 11/4 and I think it was a huge success since I have not gotten a single complaint from my vendors!  

 Friday (11/2) I was interviewed on the noon news program on Channel 3.  They said bring a dog and with all my reliable Lab girls in season it fell to a Pug to participate.  Sprite was as good as could be, sitting nicely on my lap for the entire interview.  Then the Sunday a.m. at the Dog Fair Channel 15 was doing a “live remote” with interviews from the Dog Fair as it was being set up.  I had brought Summer, my 1 year old Lab with to be a representative for our breed so she got her 3 minutes of fame as I was interviewed during that broadcast.  I saw the show on their web site and fortunately the cameras focused mainly on Summer while I was being interviewed.  Now if I was not at a dog event on a Sunday a.m. the last thing I would be doing was watching TV at 8 a.m. but apparently half of the population of this area was doing just that as everywhere I’ve gone the last few days someone is telling me they saw me on TV.    I wasn’t nervous because partially I thought no one would be watching!

A week ago we got a call from a company looking for a yellow Labrador who was obedience trained and would hold a pose lying down with her head flat between her paws while holding an ice bag on her head.  I decided Ali was the most likely one for this activity so started training her a few minutes a day to put her head down on the floor on command.  I did this using a clicker and treats.  Fortunately she is quite food motivated and by rewarding at first for any movement of her head towards the floor I was able to shape the behavior I wanted.

 Today was the photo shoot and she did great!  In fact she did so well they took some extra poses including outdoors and said they would be calling us again when they needed more shots.  It was a fun afternoon.

Reilly, age 14. 

What do Halloween and Heart Dogs have in common?  A little after midnight 19 years ago our Lab, Chessie, began having puppies.  When all was said and done there were 12 black lab puppies in the whelping box.  As the puppies grew one kept catching our eye.  He just seemed a bit different than the rest, even his black color was not the same raven black, he was more a chocolate black.  Of course you have figured out we ended up keeping him and his name became Reilly, more specifically he was “Chessie’s Life O’Reilly”. 

 Reilly wasn’t the most classic looking Labrador but he added a lot of titles to his name in obedience and agility.  Most important he was my “co-pilot” almost any time I went anywhere in the car except to work.  He and I literally travelled all over the country competing at Labrador Specialties (several nationals) and all breed shows. He was so well behaved he was welcomed anywhere we went.  One year he and I flew to California to the National and then stayed an extra week with friends.   When we flew back in late October it was 80 when we left San Francisco and it was snowing hard when we landed in Milwaukee.  I was a bit concerned about how he did on the flight as he was 9 years old and the last part of the flight was turbulent due to the storm.  As I exited the plane, the pilot said “I know your dog is fine, I heard him barking down in the baggage compartment for the last part of the flight”, a relief to me.

I’ve had other Labs before, during and after Reilly but he was the one in a million, my “heart dog” and I will never forget him.  Happy Birthday, Ri Ri, as always I’m thinking of you today. 

U-CD, U-AGII Chessie’s Life O’Reilly UD, NA, 10/31/88 to 12/16/03. 

Sunday, October 28th, 2007 

Yesterday the donkeys had some grazing time in the agility area (my classes are indoors now due to no light in the evenings). They can only have about 2 to 4 hours of grass per day as they are very “easy keepers” and grass goes right to their waists and crests (the top of their neck stores fat) just like frozen custard goes to my waist!  So my husband put them in their paddock after a couple of hours and never noticed the brand new gouges in my a-frame.  

Soooo, it appears that one or two of the younger donkeys decided to try climbing the a-frame and succeeded as the gouges went over the top and down the next side!   Did I mention I just repainted all of my agility equipment 3 weeks ago??  Fortunately it was sunny and 50s today so the paint cans came back out and I touched up the gouges as best as I could.  As Kent said — wish we had security cameras in the barnyard so we could see how they managed to climb it!