Three Beautiful Things 06/03/09: Mellow Snug, Molly at Church, Ice Cream Delight

1. Snug can be protective in situations when he doesn't need to be. Today the painter arrived, opened the garage door and Snug ran to the garage. He didn't growl or snarl or, thank God, bite the painter and was cooperative when I brought him back into the house. I was hugely relieved, but will take measures with closing the right doors so that neither Snug nor the painter are in that situation again.

2. I hadn't seen Molly at church for ages and she arrived to quilt the same time I arrived to celebrate the Eucharist and we had a good chat before going our separate ways. She's a very kind soul.

3. The Deke and I enjoyed some Tillamook Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream with blueberries...and I threw some raspberries in my bowl for good measure.

Sibling Assignment #92: Snug

Silver Valley Girl posted a sweet assignment for us to work on:

Write a poem, essay, song, story about one of you pets, and how having that pet has made your life better.

She assigned it, but she has not squeezed time in between track meets, a spaghetti feed, play going, play auditioning, career day at the middle school, and a 1001 other demands to write it just yet. But the every faithful, reliable, and steady (I thought those were the traits of the oldest child...where did I go wrong?) InlandEmpireGirl posted a poem devoted to her Springer Spaniel Annie. It's here.

It's hard for me to write only laudable words about my Springer Spaniel, Snug. He makes life difficult. He's a very protective dog. If he's unsure about a person coming into Mom's house or our house, if a person bends down to pet him, he feels threatened. He lunges. He bites.

Similarly, when I walk him in the neighborhood, he cannot abide other dogs to walk close to him. He growls at them, sometimes leaps straight up in the air on the leash. He wants to protect me as well as himself.

I can't take Snug to the dog park anymore. When dogs come around to sniff him, he stiffens up and turns on the dogs, pins them to the ground. He doesn't really bite them. He slobbers them. But it's frightening, for me and the other dog owners. It's a shame. Snug loves the open spaces in the dog park. He loves to run and, once he feels comfortable, he loves to play chase with other dogs.

It's the feeling comfortable part that's hard for Snug, at home when the doorbell rings, around the neighborhood on the leash, and with other dogs at the park.

But then there's the Snug I spend hours with at home. He's relaxed, at peace, restful, affectionate, a comfort.



When Snug is relaxed, when he's calm, when he's with me in our protected little world, he is the epitome of restful presence.

I don't know if Snug has a sense that a past has happened or that future is to come. When he's pressed against my shins or licking my face or licking his paws or turning on his back so I can rub his stomach or staring peacefully at me, he is completely present in that moment, an example of how I might be, enjoying the pleasant sensations of the moment I'm in, letting my regrets of the past and worries of the future go.

I'm grateful to Snug for the pleasure he derives from our hugs, from his licking me, from me petting him, and from his habit of pressing against me when I'm lying in bed.

I can't measure his pleasure, but if it's half of what mine is, then in these moments protected from past and future, locked in the present, we experience sheer bliss.

Three Beautiful Things 07/25/08: Pictures of Amazon Park, Snug's Ready, There Will be Blood

1. I decided that I had to try to take some pictures while Snug and I walked in Amazon Park today, even though I find that Snug often walks better if I'm not stopping to snap off shots. So here goes:

Snug loves this tall grass. I wish I could unleash him.

Here's a wooded area in Amazon Park. It's sizable urban park in Eugene.

Here's a walking/biking path. Snug loves how the city leaves grass to grow tall along these paths.

2. Snug is becoming more cooperative when it comes time to be leashed up to go out for a walk:




3. I watched "There Will be Blood" this afternoon. It left me cold. I admired Daniel Day-Lewis' intense and creative inhabitation of his character, Daniel Fairview, and the movie was brilliantly shot. The pictures were stunning. I longed for a better story, especially when the movie lasted two and a half hours. I haven't talked with anyone about this movie. I'd enjoy hearing what others had to say....if you read this post and have seen "There Will be Blood".

Three Beautiful Things 04/28/08: Donut, Snug Improves, Etienne's Conflicts

1. I needed some extra time this morning to get myself together and my team teacher, Margaret, got class going. The extra time allowed me to stop by the cafeteria for a cinnamon donut and that little bit of sugar sweetened my whole day.

2. My adventures playing ball with Snug continue. He's starting to understand gravity better and his timing is improving and he snatches the ball out of the air more often, but still provides plenty of comedy, biting at the ball, chomping on air, and clumsily recovering and picking up the ball off the ground.

3. I read more student essays on Germinal today and some of my students' work made my jaw drop with their deep understanding of the conflicts that churn inside of Etienne, turmoil we, as readers, see and understand, but that Etienne himself has little understanding of himself.

Three Beautiful Things 01/08/07:Flowers, SnugBlog, Easter Sisters

1. Posting pictures of flowers in my neighborhood, here, and knowing I didn't post them all!



2. Dropping the new picture of Snug each day idea and just posting a bunch of new pictures at snugdaily.wordpress.com. I had pictures saved that I didn't get on his site on a daily basis, so I just post a bunch of new ones, giving up the day to day idea for now.

3. Enjoying my sisters' beautiful Easter days via the fun and gorgeous pictures on their blogs, here, here, here, and here.

Snug on the Road to Kellogg

One of the things that so deeply endears my dog, Snug, to me is that he loves to ride for long distances with me in the car. You can tell, I think, in this picture:


If you'd like to see more pictures of Snug, go to his picture blog, here.

Three Beautiful Things 01/21/07: Snug Injury, Photo Taking, Wucky

1. Snug and I went to the Emergency Vet Hospital to make sure a wound Snug suffered at the swiping paw of a cat wasn't too serious. Dr. Mark McConnell treated Snug: he's a University of Idaho grad and I had on my North Idaho College hoodie and we had a good talk about Idaho. The best news is that Snug did not suffer serious injury.

2. We had an eight hour rehearsal today for Othello. I took Snug with me and we had a lot of free time to walk together and I took a lot of pictures. I enjoyed most taking pictures of the sculpture of the small boy in the huge chair with a tree growing out of his head.

3. Rick Wainwright, one of my favorite friends when I was in junior high and early high school commented on my blog post about the 1970 Kellogg-Wallace baseball season. (The picture at the top of that post is of the 1971 team.)

Three Beautiful Things 01/15/07: Snug Running, Snug Bathing, Laundry

1. After a few months' absence, Snug and I went to the dog park on Crest Drive and I marvelled at how gorgeous Snug is when he runs and how much I love the way he invites other dogs to chase him. I want to write about and explain how it is I love Snug so much, but, for now, words escape me. I do not have words for why my heart stirs when I simply watch Snug run.

2. Snug and I went to Suds Em Yourself after the dog park so I could cleanse him of the mud that gathered all over his underside while at the dog park. Snug was placid and cooperative in the tub. He acted right at home and the looks on his face said to me that he loved his bath.

3. I had a lot of clothes and bedding to launder and I love going to the laundromat when I have a ton to do. I enjoyed how it was as if a bell went off in the neighborhood at about 12:30 p.m when staggering college students began to fill the place, carrying their laundry in back packs, orchard baskets, big cloth tie bags, and in black plastic bags. It was early afternoon and several of these young people looked like their day was just getting under way.

In the picture, Snug sleeps on my newly cleaned laundry.

Three Beautiful Things 12/30/06: Crystal Blue Persuasion, Poker, Snug Blog

1. Frigid blue-eyed day, perfect for going out and photographing different sites around Kellogg.

2. Ed, Jake, Stu, and I put up a card table in Stu's boat, turned on a portable heater, put dvd's of the old tv show "The Wild, Wild West on Stu's laptop, and played six hours of poker.

3. I went to wordpress.com and set up a blog where I will daily post photos of Snug and not write a word. It will simply be a picture blog. I'll post the URL for this site as soon as I begin posting pictures on Jan. 1.