Brushes and combs

  I am very picky about my equipment at work. Most of my brushes have a nifty ergonomic handle that keeps my wrist from hurting quite so much. Unfortunately for me, wrist pain is rather inevitable but I do my best to deal with it. They also have combs with handles like this, but somehow I find the traditional Greyhound style combs to be the most comfortable.

This is the handle my brushes have.

   Here's were the "very" picky part comes in. I am the looney who can tell my comb from another comb that looks just like it. My instructor grabbed my comb to demonstrate something.. then set it somewhere and spent the rest of the day handing me combs that looked like my comb and weren't my comb. Finally I picked up my comb and was like  THIS is my comb!
   I dropped my comb about a month ago and broke five teeth out of the fine side of the comb, making it rather unsuited to its job. I bought one to replace it right away. And. I. Hated. That. Comb. Immediately. It had a rounded spine instead of a flat spine. So I sprung for another comb by the same manufacturer as the first comb.. It still feels different than my comb but I suppose I will get used to it.

Soon I will blabber about my nifty new clippers!

Walking Away

For many reasons I had to give up on bringing home my puppy. I am, hopefully understandably, upset. But most of all, I am lost. Almost all of my non-work life, and the entirety of my internet social circle, is based upon service dogs. And yes, I am not the only SD handler to have to walk away.. but still.. Its painful to be told "well, everyone experiences that, just try again." So I walked away from all SD groups. And now.. theres nothing for me to do on the internet. That was the entirety of my social life outside of work.
Inside of work, I have to keep my disabilities as closeted as possible.. Nobody knew what Kiron's life path was to be. They all thought I was stupid to go through a breeder. So again, I am told "well try again" with a little jibe about "maybe this time you'll just get a rescue like the rest of us. Won't that be simpler?"

I don't know where this blog will go.
There's a couple of blog posts I promised Sharon I would do.
I guess I'll do those soon.

State of the Puppy Report March 28

I am eagerly anticipating the birth of a litter of Standards.. Due date is March 30, woo.

I haven't aquired very many more things, just a kennel because they were on sale. (I saved $38, woo) I think he will grow out of this size, because the sire is a very tall dog. If so I will get one of the Drs. Foster Smith ones because they have extra headroom compared to others of the same footprint.

I am trying to figure out how I want to set up my training logs this time around, I need something organized.

Thats the state of the puppy.. I'll update with pictures soon.

Puppy Stuff!

I've started buying things for Future. Partly because, while there's only a few things you absolutely desperately NEED for a puppy, the amount of things you see and go "OMG! I should buy that for my puppy!" is vast. Marley was a surprise, mostly. My mom was like "oh, hey, look at this puppy I saw on craigslist!" And he was in my lap the next morning.
Future has been anticipated, in various stages, for several years. So once I knew we were finally in the home stretch.. I started planning. Fast Forward. A few things have changed, and I may have a puppy coming home in June! And I've started acquiring things.
 
 First, for the winter holidays I got a Puppy Kong as a gift. Next, I bought a couple of Nylabones. One is for moderate chewers/teething puppies, and one is a durachew. Finally, I have a little squeaky, ball shaped mouse type critter. Its pink for valentines day. I'll probably acquire a million other toys between now and then.

I also have this thing. On one side there's a pocket to store like a rabies certificate or something. On the same side there is a note pad with a few sheets to write down your dogs information, your information, and vet contact. Has a few sheets, in case you move or change vets I guess. On the other is a "what we did today" notepad. Its small enough to fit in a purse or fanny pack, so conceivably, it could be used as a notepad to store training logs. I keep my final training logs in a flex notebinder, which is kind of a bear to carry around, but good for organization. I bought this organizer at a thrift store, so if I don't end up using it at all, no big loss.
There is also a bed, that will be good for a couple of weeks of use. It was originally bought for a very large cat, but he does not see the need to lower himself to the level of pet furniture. So it has never been used. I'm not sure how big Future will be, so I am waiting to buy his official bed until I have a clue!

Pagan Blog Prompts: A is for Altar

Perfect timing, I just finished the Altars class at the Magical Circle School. As part of this class I had to make several altars.
The first assignment for this class was a "permanent altar". As part of my research for this class, I found some good arguments for not leaving the altar up all the time. Not only do ritual tools left out start to acquire all the psychic garbage that builds up from ordinary life, but setting up the altar is part of preparing your mind for ritual. So, I do not have an altar sitting in a corner waiting for me to decide to cast a spell. I do have, I guess you could call it a focal point. On this I have a zen garden, a soapstone jewelry box that contains the spiritual jewelry I wear each day, a red candle, and an incense burner. I also have all of the components to a 7 day spell I am currently in the middle of.

Another assignment we did was a purposeful altar. I haven't decided if this idea does anything for me or not yet. Perhaps I'll do some experimentation, and update this later. I remember dutifully doing the assignment mostly thinking "this is really silly" so, probably, this won't be implemented into my spiritual path.

In the window I have a shrine to the goddess Brigid. On the shrine I have a jar candle with a picture of Brigid on it. A lot of tea lights, and a small pot that will hopefully grow into some flowers. The kitty is a plant murderer, so we shall see. Imbolc is one of my favorite Sabbats, because its a reminder that winter does not last forever. I have some pretty serious seasonal affective disorder, and about this time of year I want to go very dramatically mad.

There were a couple of other things in the class, but these I guess were the most interesting. 

The infuriating cycle

It seems most people, once they get diagnosed with EDS, are already on a permanent decline. Me.. I seem to be on a cycle. I feel good for a couple of days, so I do something ill advised, get injured, rest to get over the injury, then get hurt several times as soon as I am better. Eventually it levels out for a while, and then it repeats. Part of this is my fault, and why, even though its not a task, or work, or anything that falls in the category of service dog, I need a dog. Steadily getting just the right amount of easy exercise tends to keep me from feeling like a doll some kid pulled apart at the joints.

Now, I am worse than I have been before in my life, because I was on a bus that got rear ended. I screwed my back and neck up good. Plus, for even more fun I have a pretty severe case of the random faints. Not. Fun. At. All.

ADBC: (im)Perfect

Assistance Dog Blog Carnival

Past Perfect
My first assistance dog retired before his third birthday. I learned so much during the almost four years of our training and working life together. The first lesson I learned was never name a dog after a famous pot head. Marley had way more "wait.... what?" moments than I can count. He just regularly forgot he had a brain. Not everything I learned was positive. For example, Marley was a classic "bad" breed. And I got constantly harassed on the internet for it. Repeatedly told my dog was a ticking time bomb waiting to eat children. When he lost his vision, and I had to retire him, I was given no support. I gave up on connecting with other assistance dog partners.

This kitten demonstrates a stoner moment.

This Time Imperfect

Every time the assistance dog carnival rolled around, I wished I could participate. Yet, I did not want to bring the drama I experienced on assistance dog forums into my blog. Finally, this topic came up. I couldn't resist. Its okay to strive for perfection and not reach it. Its okay to not be the perfect handler, to not know every little thing. Sure, its not okay to work an untrained dog, or a dog who poses a direct threat.. I think most of us know the real big nono's. Most people who are trying to take this road *are* trying to do this right. Being told that you have to look and be perfect 100% of the time is not okay.  Nobody is perfect, and that's what makes us human. That's what makes our dogs, dogs. Its okay to be imperfect. 

Future Perfect.

About a year ago I began planning for Marley's successor. I started with nothing, but my requirements for the breeder I wanted my puppy to come from. You know, the usual things us owner trainers sometimes obsess over. Health tested parents, early neuro stimulation, early socialization, etc. Finally, the "perfect" breeder was found. Future, as I've taken to calling him in my head, will be a standard Poodle. In a lot of people's eyes, that's wrong, I guess. But I've decided, I'm not going to obsess over someone else's idea of Perfect. Its enough stress to obsess over mine.