There's an IHOP in Topeka. Yeah that's all I got.
Kansas is so flat you can see the curvature of the earth on Hwy 70 said a truck driver to me once. For many years I wanted to see that. So I drove it, the 70, during one of the coast to coast trips.
That isn't curvature, it's dirt. It's flat and dirt—welcome to Kansas!! Gotta wear goggles in that state.
Ha! Sounds like the truck driver version of a mirage or something. Although I guess if a mirage is something imaginary that you want to see, earth curvature wouldn't be a truck driver's mirage. Maybe female curvature, or the curvature of a hamburger bun...I'm going to stop there and not go any further into this rabbit hole.
Your profile picture reminds me of a meditation I did when my dog was passing away. I had him for ten years and loved him dearly. He was kind of a hero. He was my bodyguard on many nighttime wanderings, and my companion otherwise. Anyway, when he was clearly suffering and at his end and I was waiting for the vet to come to euthanize him in our home, I held his paw and imagined that his energy was traveling through his paw up the veins in my arm and to my heart. I can still visualize his electric blue energy stored there - I get to carry his devotion and German Shepherd bravery around with me. Your picture reminds me of it.
You found D and A's soft spot and cranked up the light. Such a good thing holding his paw like that.
German Shepherd, her name was Rook.
Whoever don't like dogs can't be trusted.
She was a beauty. German Shepherds are the best. I had the good intentions of going to the local shelter and getting a GSD that someone had abandoned shortly after mine passed, sort of in his memory. There are a lot of folks here that buy them as pups thinking they will be pretty house ornaments, not living things that require work. They show up at the shelter pretty often here. But when I got there I was drawn to this very scared greyhound mix. She is now my right-hand man. She was abused physically and starved, so she has aggression issues with strangers and especially men, but we are working on it.
So then I went back again with the intention of getting a GSD because I've got room for two dogs in my life...and the kids talked me into a 10 week old lab mix. I told the lady I'd rather get an older dog that is harder to find a home for - everybody wants a cute puppy. She just kept saying "This is no place for a pup." And she was right. A few days later she came down with parvo. In that understaffed underfunded shelter I'm sure they would have let her dehydrate within 48 hours. So I'm really glad we took her home that day. She made it through after a week of hell, and the two dogs are best buds now.
Good lord you wrote me 4 sentences and I threw two paragraphs at you. Don't get me started on dogs. I'm sure Rook was as charming as she was beautiful.
iHeart rescue dogs! No such thing as too much to say to me about dogs. Let'er rip.
What's your right hand man's name, did I miss that?
My wife and I have fostered regularly. There's a process to shelters and no kill shelters that require immediate fostering in order for a shelter to accept a brand new batch of puppies. Often times, the mother can't be homed but puppies stand a good chance so they're shipped from a kill shelter to a no kill. But in order to have that 2-4 week downtime as they're spayed / dewormed / vaccinated et cetera foster families need to be on call.
They have our number.
If you get bored and want some puppy content, I've written about two of our experiences in the past. Willis is/was exceptionally sharp! Like, impressive. Dude knew English at 8 weeks. When we returned him to the shelter for adoption, I approached a man and young boy as they walked in, sold the shit outta Willis and he never saw a cage again. They took him home. His best friend is about a 7-8 year old boy now.
Cupcake and Ganache are sisters, believe it or not. One looks like a Jack Russel and the other a wiener dog. Yup, sisters! They were so much fun! Ganache was so intimated when we got her but I was able to calm her down and make her happy. I'm confident she's homed with a loving family. Cupcake was a fireball!!
I miss those dogs all the time and think of them regularly.
Look what you've done! All this lovey dovey soft mushy puppy talk is threatening my gangsta persona. = }
I'll see your paragraphs and raise you.
My right-hand-(wo)man's name is Sera. The shelter named her Serafina and she knew it, but I shortened it because I just couldn't see Serafina rolling off my tongue urgently while she threatens the delivery man :)
Aw, how sweet that you have done all that fostering. I would have had such a hard time sending Willy back. He was adorable. Or the girls. So sweet. We fostered a litter of kittens soon after my dog passed away, and it was pretty rough. They were very young, had been left in a box at the doorstep of the shelter overnight so they were stressed, and they had something viral. All the vet could do was give them sub-q and antibiotics. It did little for the weakest ones. We watched two die, one of which was a tom-cat that really reminded me of my dog. It was bad. However, the plan was to foster puppies once I got my new girls settled in. (I have not decided to brave kittens again, at least not yet.) Then the puppy I adopted got parvo, and now I'm not so sure it is a good idea to bring any puppies in this house for a while to come. She was very heavy-pawed with spreading those parvo particles all over the yard and my living room, etc.
Have no fear. I'm pretty sure dogs are the Achilles heel of all tough-guys and it is a little known secret. My neighbor is this bad-ass that takes care of business around here when duty calls, and he teared up when I told him my dog passed away. Lol. If you ever find yourself surrounded by thugs in a dark alleyway, just whip out your phone and shout "Look at this picture of my dog!" and everything will be fine ;)