Old Dogs, New Tricks

Our family recently adopted an older rescue dog, a 9 year old Miniature Pinscher named Chacha, whom we hoped would be a companion for our other elderly Min Pin, Sharky.

So far so good! But we've all had some adjustments to make.

Chacha seems to have had a hard life prior to us getting her. She is shy and easily spooked. I can't take her to the office with me like I can with Sharky, because she is prone to nip at strangers. Most people are not cautious enough when trying to pet strange, terrified dogs. They'll insistently swipe at the frightened animal who wants nothing more than to be left alone.

DH, who doesn't meet with the public as part of his work, is the one who takes care of her during the day. It's really sweet the way they've bonded. She's very much the daddy's girl. While he works at his computer she gazes longingly at him. He's even taught her a few tricks--like how to dance around on her hind legs like a circus dog and "speak".

Saint Sharky continues to come to work with me most days. That saintly little dog even tolerates bratty children who want to pull his stubby tail!

Chacha and Sharky are getting along very well, and seem to enjoy each other's company. When it's cold they huddle together under a blanket trying to get warm.

But even this adjustment has taken some time. The Guide Dogs I had raised, and Sharky, who apparently has always had it good, were much easier to handle than Chacha, whose background has obviously scarred her.

Still, rescuing a dog is the right thing to do. Chacha needed a home, and we needed another little dog to love and care for. (Though some people asked me what I was thinking adopting a dog of uncertain origins right before having a baby!)

Why go to a breeder when there are so many needy dogs out there who are just waiting for a family of their own?

As the Dog Whisperer says, there are no bad dogs--there are only bad people. And he's right. Our family is much happier for having Chacha. If she's had to change and overcome some of her less positive behaviors, it wasn't too late for her. With our love and patience, she's becoming an ideal part of our family. We just couldn't imagine life without her. Puppies are not the only option when you're looking for a good dog. Like people, older dogs can adapt and change for the better. Remember, Grandma Moses (I hope to own one of her paintings someday) was no child prodigy!

My friend YA Author William Sleator's Essay re: Paradise

A JUNGLE VILLAGE: THEN, NOW, AND FUTURE
William Sleator

I live with my Thai family in a remote village in Thailand near the Cambodian border. When my best friends around here were growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the village was very different. There were only fifty people in the village, which was hacked out of the jungle. Wild boars, elephants, and tigers lived in the jungle. (I know a guy who was chased by a tiger for miles; he’s in great shape.) Because there were so many more trees then, there were also more rivers. There were no telephones, and only one large radio belonging to the richest family in the village. (This was the 1970’s!) Everybody would gather to listen to the news on that one radio. Nobody had cars. They ate animals they killed in the jungle, and fruits and vegetables they grew themselves. The closest market was 20 miles away on a dirt road. They got there in a wooden cart pulled by an ox. It took two days. Riding to the market in that cart was a two day picnic.
The village is very different now. The jungle is almost entirely gone, chopped down to make rice fields and rubber plantations. There are no more wild animals except for an occasional boar, and when somebody finds one, we have a pig feast. The rivers are almost entirely gone; you find water in reservoirs created by dams. There are lots and lots of motorcycles and a few cars on the paved main road.
We bought our land in 1997, and built the first house on the dirt road. Now there are a dozen houses on the road, and it is paved and widened—and when they widened it, they cut down more big old trees.
But we still live much like people did thirty years ago. We grow our own rice, using no pesticides. We grow our own vegetables, and chili peppers (which are an absolute essential in Thai food). We have our own banana and mango trees. In mango season there are too many mangoes for us to eat, so my sister-in-law makes a paste out of the mangoes, spreads it on trays, and dries it in the sun. It is the most delicious mango candy I ever ate. We have our own chickens that run around squawking, (I find them irritating, but they’re delicious), and of course our own eggs. We have a large tank where we farm fish—tiny fish get big enough to eat in three months. The rest of the family relishes eating rats and large fried insects (I don’t), but eating them is better than having them running around the house.
When we bought the land it had been a rice field, but now it is full of trees we planted—our own jungle. The house is surrounded by bougainvilleas that bloom all year round—to get in the front door you have to paw your way through red and yellow
blossoms. We have our own well, which is 120 feet deep; they had to bore through stone to get that far down, but man, that water is clean! We are almost completely self-sufficient, except for electricity and gas. We do have a car, but mostly we use a motorcycle, (wearing helmets!), because it doesn’t use anywhere near as much expensive gas as a car. When I have to go back to the United States, I take the train from the nearest big town, fifty miles away, to the capital city of Bangkok, a six hour trip, where the airport is.
We live this way because it’s cheaper, and because everything we make ourselves is better than what you can buy. But we also just enjoy living like this, and we feel so safe here! If civilization collapsed, we could still go on living here in mostly the same way. And it’s good to know that we are breathing air that has no pollution.
When I first came to Thailand, years ago, I lived for two years in Bangkok. It is one of the most congested and polluted cities in the world. The traffic is so bad that it takes forever to get anywhere. If you’re riding in a taxi, you can get out of the taxi, walk into a store, wait in line to buy a bottle of water, go back outside, and the taxi will still be in the same place, stuck in traffic. Now that we have our house in the village, I can’t stand Bangkok any more. When I come back from America to Thailand, I only stay about a day or so in Bangkok, and rush back to our village.
But the village is changing. There are more houses all the time. Some day there will be factories. Some day there will be traffic and pollution. But because we have our own land and our own farm, we can keep living in the same way forever, no matter what happens around us. And we know we’re not doing anything to damage the climate, or the planet.


BIOGRAPHY

I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, with unconventional parents, (read my book, Oddballs, to find out how weird my childhood was). I went to the public schools there, which were great, because everybody was Jewish.
Then I made the mistake of going to college at Harvard, the most miserable four years of my life—DON’T GO THERE! But I lucked out—my first children’s book got published. Before I could live on the money from writing, I worked as rehearsal pianist for The Boston Ballet, touring with them all over the USA and Europe.
Now I just write, and spend most of my time in Thailand. I look forward to the time when I can live in this village forever, and never go back to the United States at all.

Jennifer's Beverly Hills Shopping Expedition

I went to Beverly Hills on Saturday to buy some perfume. Normally I wouldn't venture out into this circle of Shopping Hell, but this perfume is very special, and it's only available at Barney's New York or over the internet. I thought it would be a good idea to go buy it in person so that I could verify how it smelled.

The perfume, made by Yosh Han, (check her out at http://www.eaudeyosh.com) is expensive, but it smells so good (all of her perfumes do--forget all that Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren stuff) that buying it is a harmless vanity, rather than a useless extravagance. You pay for the quality, you know.

However, not all expensive things are worth spending money on. While I was at Barney's I eyed some pretty empire-waiste dresses that I could use even while eight months pregnant, and after that when my size goes back down to normal. The dresses were casual, pretty designs in groovy 70's style prints. I pulled one off the rack and checked the price tag. $1,250.00? What? That's a little too high. Just because I have some money these days doesn't mean I'm gonna spend it unwisely. I put it back on the rack hurried on out of Barney's.

But the shops in Beverly Hills all seemed to have a nice selection. I found some handknitted slippers in one shop for my dear sister-in-law, Trish. I don't think you could find such pretty slippers elsewhere.

And I bought some $9.00 cupcakes for DH and me. They were good, and the shop was pretty, as befits a Beverly Hills bakery, but you can achieve the same effect at home for a lot less.

Also, I had lunch at an expensive Italian restaurant. Once again, it was good, but not better than the Olive Garden. And we can all do better than that at home, can't we?

The moral of this story is that shopping can be a fun experience, but not that much fun. Making deposits in the bank is much more satisfying, and the benefits are longer lasting. Besides, though our little family lives modestly, we're very happy. But sometimes frivolities like handknit slippers for a beloved sister-in-law or expensive cupcakes are okay. But I don't think I'll be heading back to Beverly Hills any time soon.

Jen

Thanksgiving in the Land of Lincoln

I went to visit my mother-in-law in Springfield, Illinois for Thanksgiving vacation. Boy, was I sorry to come home. Let me explain why...

My mother-in-law is a very kind person. I really love her. When I first met DH I quickly saw how much he loved his mother. And now I know why. I can't believe I've known her for less than a year. She makes me feel like I've been her daughter-in-law forever.

While I don't want to sound like I'm geographically prejudiced, my mother-in-law could never have hailed from Southern California. And I couldn't exactly say why.

Additionally, Springfield, and most of Southern and Central Illinois, are really more like the American South than the Midwest. Though geographically not far from Chicago, the culture and accents of Central and Southern Illinois might as well be from a million miles away. And everything in Springfield has an Abraham Lincoln theme going on. Even the Christmas exhibition at the county fairgrounds featured Lincoln themed trees and exhibits. Believe me, LOL does not stand for "laugh out loud" in Springsfield. It is the Land of Lincoln and you can't drive two blocks without reading a sign stating that Lincoln had been there...

The day after Thanksgiving my mother-in-law took me along to her family reunion in Southern Illinois where I met her siblings, nieces, nephews and other assorted relatives. There were well over a hundred people there, and everyone had brought some sort of casserole or dessert. It was a lot of fun. I even got to tour her sister's hog farm (which convinced me to never eat bacon again).

Also, while I was in Illinois, my sister-in-law, Trish, threw me a surprise baby shower. I was so happy! I never expected it. We (my baby and I) received lots of cute baby presents,plus a very practical ear thermometer. I love Trish and her beautiful identical twin daughters. Too bad I live so far away from them!

Naturally I was happy to see DH and our little dogs again when I came home, but I still wish I could have stayed in Springfield with DH's mom and the rest of his family a little while longer. I miss them already.

The next time I see any of them, I'll be a mom, because Little Chuckie is due next month.

Jen