The inevitable...

It was going to happen sooner or later. Jake ate my Blackberry. It is somewhat mangled--missing keys, others jammed and about 40 percent of the screen is AWOL.

Jake is a lovable monster--an ankle-biter, a chewer, a destroyer--a 41-pound puppy bounding through the house like a bull in a china shop (a bull on crack). If we survive puppyhood, he is going to be one heckuva great dog.

BOY AM I PISSED AT THESE PEOPLE! Dognapping in Johnson City TN a FRAUD.

Yep, I'm ready to kick some proverbial ass here! While a nationwide network of dog rescuers eagerly retweet and blog to help, these losers are just lying to cover up their own shortcomings. I DO NOT LIKE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF, especially when it comes to FRAUDULANT DO-GOODERS.

Here's the story copied and pasted with video, or you can click on the headline link above.
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Update 01/20/2010


Police report that Ashli Thomas, 24, of Newbern Drive, Johnson City has been arrested for filing a false police report.

Thomas originally told police and news reporters that she was stabbed by someone who dog-napped 12 dogs being housed at the Cool School for Dogs on Market Street.

According to the Johnson City Police, Thomas admitted she "made the story up because she had left the dogs unattended and had not been caring for the dogs properly."

The owners of the business, Brad and Tamara Josselyn, along with Thomas, have been charged with eight counts of animal cruelty.

Thomas is currently being held in the Washington County Detention Center under a $5,000 bond. She will appear in court tomorrow.


Update: 9:27 a.m; Dana Wachter:

Cool School for Dogs’ owner, Brad Josselyn, and his niece, Ashli Thomas, say that in five years, they have never been robbed. The two are rattled about losing 12 dogs overnight. Thomas works there, and stays in an apartment at the business. She said she heard the dogs barking about 3:30 Tuesday morning. She said this is normal, but when they didn’t stop barking, she went to investigate. She found the downstairs light on, which is unusual, and when she got downstairs, she saw a man at the back door. He was holding a knife, and he swung at her, slashing her side. The man got into a white utility van with no back windows, and the driver took off down W. Market street toward Jonesborough.

Josselyn says the backyard gate lock is gone, and the back door’s lock had been busted. Thomas and Josselyn say there were nine Doberman Pinschers taken, one hound mix, one Black Lab, and one Miniature Pinscher. One dog had three legs, and another was blind. The dogs were all rescued, waiting to be adopted.

Thomas says a man came to their business Monday afternoon, telling her that he heard they sold Doberman Pinschers. She told him that they do not sell the dogs, but they rescue them, and they are available for adoption. The man asked how much one in particular would be, and Thomas said it was not for sale, but gave adoption fee information about other dogs. Thomas and Josselyn say they believe the man is connected to the robbery, but he was not the man who cut Thomas with a knife. Josslyn fears the dogs were stolen to be sold for research.

Some of the dogs that were stolen have micro-chips with barcodes, so if they are found, they can be scanned and returned home.

Update at 6:29 a.m.:

11 Connects’s Dana Wachter reports police now think 12 dogs were stolen from Cool School for Dogs.

Here’s the first report:
Johnson City Police are investigating a report that two men broke into a canine training school and boarding facility, stole nine dogs, and injured a woman.

The alleged crime happened at Cool School For Dogs, 3548 West Market Street, at about 4 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

According to a police bulletin issued by Washington County 9-1-1, a woman at the business was assaulted by two men who loaded 9 dogs into a white service van and left on Highway 11-E headed toward Greeneville. An emergency dispatcher told 11 Connects the woman was “cut” by the two men but later refused medical treatment.

Fence grazers and Pepper the fearful and anxious dog

I am furious this morning. Furious at my neighbors and furious with myself. Pepper, our big chicken shepherd, set off out into the yard this morning and spotted our dog-hating neighbor(s) across the fence and started her scary dog tactics.

I don't approve of Pepper terrorizing fence grazers, no matter how much they dislike her, so I immediately went to retrieve her. Instead of being very stern with her, yelling "No! No!" I've started getting her interested in coming to me, saying "nah-ah," and then playfully "come on, come here" as if to say "hey, these hugs are more fun than barking at them." Usually it works and in general works much better, but it took me maybe half of a minute to get her back to me. In the meantime, my neighbor, with full awareness of me trying to retrieve my dog, is throwing tree limbs at the fence. Of course this makes her more fearful and protective. I have also seen them squirt her with a hose...again while I am trying to call her back. This morning I had to say something, simply stating "don't throw things at her" with my "what is WRONG with you" face. I was merely met with a grimace. I was almost to her when he did this and I got her by the collar and said "c'mon, let's go back inside..." I had her sit and calm down in the process and got her back in.

Pepper will get used to people who want to be her friend (it takes a few visits), but she sees our neighbors as unfriendly intruders (unfriendly for sure) and so she throws her hackles up and does her best to look vicious. She does a good job.

So, I'm mad at my neighbors for being so rude and dog-stupid, and mad at myself for not doing a better job of socializing Pepper. I guess that makes me dog-stupid, too. She needs much more socialization than a normal dog. She is the most fearful dog I have ever met, but also one of the sweetest and smartest. I think that's why my little scared shepherd transport on Saturday got to me so badly. I could see a sweet, smart dog in there, but he was petrified.

Inside with us or outside sans fence grazers, she's a real joy. Pepper's real nature is obedient, sweet, gentle, and extremely smart. But she is very fearful and very hypervigilant (which vigilance is already a shepherd trait) and has been since being abandoned in a parking lot with her littermates. She's a little food/toy protective, but only toward our beagle Petey, and only vocally. I can imagine she remembers being very hungry as the runt of that litter of shepherds. We got her when she was 5 months old. She was afraid of stairs, doorways, strangers, everything, but I knew her true nature when she (covered in mud) bounded into my arms as soon as she had room to run at the rescue the day we met her. The only time she has growled at us is when we accidently scratched a tender spot too hard on her chest and she said "hey, quit that!" She never growls at us over having food or toys taken away. In general she's a big chicken. I've just now gotten her to the point where she won't pee when I try to get her into the bathtub for a bath! Thankfully she is so active that I don't have to trim her nails too often, because she goes off the deep end when you try to do that. We are going to have to have them trimmed when she gets her teeth cleaned next month!

So, I could have done better. I am a homebody and when I get home I'm in my castle with my beloved pets. My New Year's resolution is socialization, socialization, socialization. I don't know many people who love their pets more, but I'm not a perfect pet owner by any stretch of the imagination. I share this because if you're a homebody like me you HAVE to get your dogs out more. I've done my sweet Pepper a serious disservice in this way and I hate that other people see only her frightened (and frightening) side when her "territory" is encroached upon. I don't know that I can train this out of her, but I at least want her to feel secure when I tell her to ignore the neighbors or other frightening fence-grazers such as meter people or delivery peeps.

And while I have been feverishly writing this post about my neighbor's transgressions as dog-haters, and my own transgressions as a lazy dog owner, the slurping sounds did not register in my brain...Pepper has just eaten a big piece of cat crap out of the litter box. Nice.

Whew...

My mom's surgery went great. She's the definition of "trooper." I am now "attempting" to sleep in a vinyl recliner that extends into a "bed" in her room. It's not all that bad but I am still wide awake as per usual. I am turning into a vampire.

It has been one heck of a stressful day starting at 6 this morning. Her pain is managed fairly well, but my God, what an incision. She is going to wish she could rent that pain pump at discharge. I am actually very thankful to be unemployed right now, because she is going to need some help for a while. Recovery is not going to be fun. She will have one drain removed after about three days and the other will stay in from 2 to 3 weeks. Pretty yucky.
Well, I guess I will get back to thrashing about in this "bed" and stare at the ceiling for a while. Before you know it, it'll be morning and I'll want to scoot over to my mom's house to get a shower before coming back.
I am just so VERY thankful today. Lots of friends and family have provided wonderful support.

Tomorrow is the day...

If you're the praying sort, please send good energy, prayers, or whatever you do to make good things (hopefully) happen. Mom's mastectomy for breast cancer is tomorrow...it's a pretty long surgery (3 hours). I am super nervous and she is nervous, too. Trying to NOT act nervous though. I don't want to make it any worse for her. I'll be heading over to her house tonight and spending several days with her to help her while she's in the hospital and at home afterward. I'll try to update via BBerry if I can. She's strong and healthy otherwise, so we don't expect complications, but my really long streak of bad luck has made me more nervous than usual. It's actually a blessing to be unemployed right now so I can take care of her. Now if *I* could just CALM DOWN!! ARGH.

sunshine!

I can't believe the sun is peeking through today...at least here and there. Gosh, any light at all at this point is a Godsend.

I'm doing a pet loss support group tonight which is kind of difficult for me right now after losing my kitty Grayson, but these groups help people so much. Our culture doesn't do a very good job of honoring companion animal grief and people really suffer when they can't get support from others. Loss is loss in my opinion. If you've loved an animal like a family member, that loss is commensurate to the attachment. Additionally, that loss reconnects people with other losses in their lives. Unresolved grief issues can pop up.

Mom's MRI went well...she had to be perfectly still for 45 minutes, which is like asking my mother to do a tightrope act between two speeding 747s, but she did it. We should know some more by tomorrow. She is nervous about getting bad news (that the cancer has spread outside of the known area). One day at a time. I am not good at waiting and she isn't either. Genetics, I guess. Overall, she is nervous but still has a good attitude. Me, I've gained 3 pounds. I'm not sure what that's about!

One day at a time. :-)

what are the odds on this one?

I really would like to know the odds on receiving a pitch letter from a funeral home on the very day you are told you have breast cancer?

Thankfully, my mother was able to laugh about it and shake her head. Today, she is a bit more gloomy, as is the weather. The news is starting to sink in and I can hear the fear in her voice. I hope and pray this cancer has not spread. It's hard to wait even one day to continue the treatment plan. MRI on Monday; discussion of type of surgery on Wednesday. I wish we could get it all done today and know what we're dealing with. And I wish the sun would come out. My mother's gas tank has always been run on sunshine.

Laid off...

For the past two years I have loved my job as a clinical social worker with older adults. We had a really unique program that helped older folks with mild cognitive impairment or mental health issues such as depression get their lives back. We saw so many people regain their resiliency and make new meaning and purpose for themselves.

But this year's Medicare cuts drove the final nail in our coffin. Our program was cut and the entire staff laid off. We will finish out treatment for our current patients and then we are off to hinterlands of unemployment, or even worse, forced into a job we are not suited for. It's all really depressing and the patients are angry and upset because there's no other program we can refer them to that's like ours.

It's been the best two years of employment I've ever had. It's a bad time to be jobless. I hope things turn out okay. It's definitely an anxiety-producing time.

Well, it's a start...

I suppose this awful blue thing is a start on rebuilding hatamaran, but it's not quite the same...I suppose it will evolve over time.

In other news, as I was shutting down my computer last night, I noticed police lights flashing outside. An old car was pulled over in the street directly in front of our house and the cops were searching the car for drugs, while they stomped through the edge of our mailbox garden.

Nice. Perfect end to the day. At least no guns were involved.

I think, therefore...oh wait, I didn't think...

Sometimes I do things that are SO stupid that it defies all laws of gravity, interplanetary goo-related molecule-type space dust-stuff and...well...I just totally f*cked up and lost my entire template.

The whole thing. No cached page.

Lesson learned was don't watch late-night basketball, eat an orange, and fend off dogs and cats while doing shit on your computer that is, at least on a hobby-level, quite important.

So here we are in the wee-hours and I at least dredged up some old hideous header that will do until the weekend, when I can *gulp* begin to rebuild this stooooopid thing.

Oh, what I would give for a time machine right now.

Alas, the world does not revolve around the blog.

Maybe it's some sort of lesson.

tired of being so dang clean...

Don't you get tired of showering? I do. If I could be a guy, it would be an event rife with utter joy, followed by clean clothes and zipping out the door into the fresh air.

But showers include thorough washing off product from long hair, then proper conditioning. This is followed by the shaving of nearly 50% of the body (daily for me because I am the original Chia Pet...ch-ch-ch-chia) and then the rinse cycle complete with manual smoothness check (I am so sleepy in the morning I often just shave one leg if I don't check).

Then the work begins. Application of base. Application of powder. Application of base shadow. Application of eyeliner. Curling of lashes. Application of mascara. Application of lipstick. Then I spend about 10 minutes frying my hair and still only get about 60% of the mess dry.

Spray hair.

Sigh.

Apply lotion...possibly powder.

Sigh.

Oops, swath pits with deodorant.

Pull sweater over head.

Sigh.

Wipe deodorant streak from sweater.

Grumble.

Change sweaters.

Change pants to match new sweater.

Spray hair again as it is now a flat mess.

Brush teeth.

Sigh.

Change toothpaste covered sweater.

Change pants to match new sweater.

Run from house screaming.

Get to office to rest.

...the worry people are after me...

JEEZ... I have had a hell of a week and it is only Tuesday...My mother wound up in the ER over the weekend (she is ok now) and all hell broke loose as soon as I walked in on Monday morning... but, so far, I am still alive... and so is everyone else.

The picture is of Guatemalan worry people...tell them your worries, stick them under your pillow and voila! your worries will be taken care of...no wonder they look so disheveled!

Kitchen Khaos...

part two of the kitchen disaster...I love the cabinets so far...

poor kitchen...gutted and downright scary

poor little kitchen still awaits its contents...I have gained about 10 pounds eating out...