Sunday, August 14, 2016

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken on August 8, 2009. By this point we knew Mattie's cancer was terminal. It was too late to do a Make a Wish request, so instead with the help of my parents, we bought Mattie a ride on vehicle. This was something he always wanted, PRIOR to cancer. However, when Mattie was well, my answer was always NO! It was too costly and I figured it would be a short lived novelty! Yet my mind set completely changed about this vehicle request once we knew Mattie was dying. In fact many forms of discipline and guidance that parents provide to a health child, go right out the window when cancer is on the table. Peter and I went to the store and selected a vehicle for Mattie. We knew he would want it to be RED, since that was his favorite color. We brought this huge box to our deck and then wheeled Mattie outside to see his surprise. He was beyond thrilled, and fortunately Peter is handy because I am not sure the average person could have assembled this thing so quickly! Mattie named the vehicle Speedy Red, and Speedy Red sat on our deck for over a year after Mattie died. I just did not have the heart to part with it. 


Quote of the day: So they speak soothingly about progress and the greatest possible happiness, forgetting that happiness is itself poisoned if the measure of suffering has not been fulfilled. ~ Carl Jung

After yesterday's fiasco looking at a depressing boarding facility, today we visited "Your Dog's Best Friend" in Alexandria, VA. I found out about this facility years ago from my zumba instructor. I made a mental note of it, I HAVE NO IDEA WHY, since I wasn't even contemplating getting a dog back then. But it was Jenny's description of this facility that caught my attention. Mainly because she says her dog LOVES it there and doesn't want to come home. What you see here is a photo of their main playroom. This is a cage less daycare and boarding facility. At night the dogs are separated into groups and placed in a real bedroom with a caregiver. They are called bedroom boarders! They want boarding to be a fun and social experience. Of course it depends in my mind how social your dog is! I asked if they had incidents of dogs attacking one another in this room and the answer was NO! They are under supervision and people are constantly cleaning the room because while playing dogs are also relieving themselves in the room.

While we were there on a tour today, we spoke to two customers who were there picking up their dogs who had been boarded. Both customers couldn't speak more highly about the place and they confirmed exactly what Jenny said..... the dogs don't want to leave the fun! Here is a promotional video about the facility, featuring the founder of Your Dog's Best Friend:

http://www.yourdogsbestfriends.com/videos/

Today was over 100 degrees in DC and even Indie isn't moving much!

However this sight had us laughing today! Indie is fascinated by Sunny's crate. She freely walks in and out of it. Naturally we do not want her to get used to spending time in there, since Sunny will be initially trained using a crate. 

Because of the intense heat, our plants need to be watered frequently otherwise we will lose our garden. We invited Indie outside today and she was eager to explore, though very cautious. Patches used to spend the summers out on the deck with us, under supervision, but she loved the fresh breezes. Indie seems different, she really wanted to explore all the plants and every aspect of the deck. 

Her first step outside!

Someone likes Mattie's fountain!

The curious cat..... inspecting all our flowers!