Stoutpup

Winston Lights up my day, that is. He’s my secret BFF! Because I have been wearing only bear pelts for the last six years I had to get some more real world clothes, so it was a good excuse for some mother daughter shopping time. Out to Lynnwood I went.

Here’s a nice little picture of Winston playing with his toys and showing me all the things he can do. What a smart guy!

Actually we are back from Phoenix. We had a great time and  wish I was still drinking Bud Light in the hot tub with my sister. But back to reality. Traveling always makes me sick and this trip has been no exception. Because of my recent assimilation into civilization after 6 years of being at home amongst primarily the company of two dogs and a cat, my immune system seems like it’s in shock. Indeed I am feeling like the Unfrozen Caveman Art Director. 

Your world frightens and confuses me…

Needless to say aside from the sickness and disease of the civilized man’s world, I am adjusting quite nicely. No one would ever know I was a caveman for so long. Just goes to show what a haircut and a nice pair of pants will do for a girl. In any case, Lucy seems to have taken a turn towards her wild animal instinct. She is officially banned from Doggie Daycare after allegedly “grabbing onto” a staffer and failing to let go when we were away. I find this really hard to believe plus I’m really embarrassed.  Ever since we lost Mazzy she has been acting like a real bitch. I feel bad.

Here’s a picture of cookie baking in the warm arizona sun.  Chocolate Chip! 

As the title says, It’s Hot! This has been a very steamy weekend in Seattle with temperatures in the high eighties. It’s been perfect weather for spending time out doors during the evening listening to music as the sun goes down. But the heat is not ideal for the dainty creature known as the English Bulldog. It’s also too hot too cook, so here is Lucy pictured outside Taco Del Mar waiting for Corey to get our Tacos so we don’t have to heat up our little kitchen making our own.

Day 1
One of the best things about living in Washington is all the Outdoor Recreation at our fingertips. We spent the weekend in Deception Pass which is one of the coolest places I have visited in Washington second only to Cape Flattery at Neah Bay last year. We made the hour and a half drive checking into our site at about 3 pm on Friday.

As Corey and I pitched the tent and set up camp, Lucy was a little uneasy about all the dirt and uncushion-y surroundings. But she quickly got over that as we headed down to the north beach a short distance away from our campsite. For a dog breed that notoriously cannot swim, Lucy loves the Ocean. She can either smell it or hear it off in the distance and will pull you with all her might towards the direction of the water where she will dip her dainty toes into the surf and also take mouthfuls of the salty water as happy as a clam. Up and down the beach we walked and then headed back to camp for dinner. Corey was able to catch the sunset from North Beach which is the picture you see above. As in the past, Lucy retired to the tent full of pillows and blankets for a summer night’s slumber at about 8 pm. We stayed up talking and drinking wine by the fire until the Park Ranger came around to tell us that radios were off limits past 10 pm. It was midnight. Fair enough.

Day 2
Now, why is it that my barely audible iPod must be shut off at 10 pm yet it seems required that children throughout the campgrounds start screaming at the top of their lungs at 5:30 am? I’m not talking about kids screaming for toilet paper or chex mix — both of which are completely reasonable shouting requests for a person of any age under the right circumstances — I’m talking a blood curdling “AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!” over and over again. For no reason.

We made breakfast, and set out hiking, Bulldog in tow. Lucy is a pretty good hiker and she was a real trooper that day. She led us all over the park, we hiked several trails including a trail up to the bridge. Our last stop of the day was West Beach where Lucy fell asleep in the cool shadow of some driftwood - the sound of the waves crashing in the distance. Dogs normally sleep like 20 hours a day, so Lucy was pretty tired from the past two days of excitement. The beach was beautiful and a perfect way to catch the last hours of sunlight.

Lucy safely and snuggly asleep back at camp, we started off our evening at the band shell to see the Ruže Dalmatinke (Dalmatian Roses) a Croatian band from Anacortes. Very awesome.

Cousins Terry and Gina paid us a visit and we sat around the campfire talking and telling stories into the night.

Day 3
The next day, Corey and I had planned to wake up at the crack of dawn by running into the road in our bathing suits screaming at the top of our lungs, but that plan was foibled by the amount of beers we drank the night before so we ended up sleeping late, expertly packing up our camp and heading out. We popped by Rosario Beach to see the tidepools. Rosario Beach is home to the “The Maiden of Deception Pass” story pole. It depicts the story of the Samish Indian Nation. This entire area was settled by the Samish and Swinomish tribes and they lived on the land until the early 1900’s. An excellent detour on our route home for the story alone we decided - not to mention the awesome tidepool project.

Our final stop was The Anacortes Arts Festival on Fidalgo Island. Anacortes has a great downtown and we were so happy to have stopped. I anticipate Lucy will sleep for days after this action packed trip, she’s already got a jump start on that. We’re home and refreshed from being in the open woods and can’t wait to head out again soon.

From the Humane Society’s website: Dog-A-Thon 2008 A Howling Success!
$130,000 raised for homeless animals! Updates coming soon, but preliminary results show that the Dog-A-Thon raised $130,000 for homeless animals!!! Stay tuned for more information!

And on a side note, more donations continue to pour in on our firstgiving page! Thank you! Our on and offline total is at $665.00. Rock and Roll!

Updated: Photos from the event taken by Marguerite here >>

Greetings! Dog-a-Thon 2008 totals are still rolling in, but our individual totals for the day came to $570.00! Thank you to everyone who participated in sponsoring us, your contributions make a difference! Even better, I have noticed that donations are STILL coming in online and in the mail, and this is wonderful! All these contributions go straight towards the The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. The closest I can get to a total for the entire event is for online contributions from firstgiving: 365 people have raised $74,082 for The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County . My guess is double this for the number of people who collected off line. I hope there is some Tacoma News coverage that will surface soon for this very important event .

This year there were lots of lovely dogs! We saw a few Great Danes, Some Chinese Crested Powder Puffs, a few sable Huskies, Basset Hounds, Beagles and the list goes on. A dog lover’s paradise! Our Team Mixed Bag ‘o Mutts had a collective total of at least $4000.00. Way to Go Mikki & Puccini and Margaret, Fiona & Neva! You can see a little slideshow Margaret has posted from the event.

Lucy did really well on the 1 mile walk. She gets pretty tired these days, she’s no longer the 4 mile girl she was when she was 2! Also she gets more cranky than she used to. After a while she was over all the hub bub and actually snapped at Bosco the Bulldog and a nice Boxer. Wrinkle discrimination? I don’t know. It was embarrassing!

After the event we celebrated with lunch and a beer at the Spar, with Jeff and Andrea. The perfect ending to a perfect morning!

Thank you Corey for taking these the great pictures of the event featured in this post.

Special Thanks to Mom Cristina, Chica Fernandez, Julie, Dawn G, Dawn AJ, Mom Sue, Laura, Dee Dee, Andrea and Jeff, Dad Larry, an Anonymous Donor (Mazzy), Corey, Lucy and Deezy.

3 days until The Humane Society of Tacoma Pierce County’s Dog-A-Thon 2008 event happening on Saturday July 26. We’ve raised $295.00 online so far. Visit www.firstgiving.com/dionneknafelz to donate or pass along this link to anyone who might be interested. This year we’ll be walking in Mazzy’s name. Rock n’ Roll!

It’s Day 3 of being unemployed and I decided to check out the The Frye Museum. This is something I have wanted to do for a while since the R. Crumb exhibit (that I foolishly did not see) and after my visit today, I was mad at myself for not going sooner. But oh well. No regrets. I went specifically to see Dario Robleto: Alloy of Love. I loved this exhibit. Much of the artist’s work involves melting and/or pulverizing an original material and reconstituting it into something new different.

Here’s an excerpt from the Frye Museum website about the exhibit:

…The resulting artworks are much more than just the sum of their constituent parts or factual interpretations of particular events and personalities; rather, they are sincere and emotional meditations on love, loss, spirituality, and ultimately, healing.

It seemed very appropriate for my week. After the show I walked over to Bimbos Cantina for some nachos and to finish the book my mother gave me called:Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen.

I only teared up once while reading this, but it brought up a couple of things I had been thinking of with regards to Mazzy. 1.) That we made the right choice by not keeping her alive for our sake, but to let her go with dignity that she may suffer no more pain and 2.) Like many dog owners, I am a projector of feelings to my pets.

I sometimes say to Corey, “Lucy looks sad today.” To which he will reply, “She always looks sad. She’s a bulldog.” Then I will say, “Yeah, but today she looks REALLY sad.”

I have been feeling like the dog and cat do not know how to deal with Mazzy being gone. Lucy has been laying in weird places. She’s seemed a little despondent and not her wiggly self. And the cat is really super needy all over us. Almost annoyingly so. When I read Good Dog. Stay. I thought, well that’s probably it, I’m just projecting my feelings about this to Lucy and Deezy. But I can’t be sure, so I spent the afternoon with Lucy in the park just looking up at the clouds, Lucy at my side. She seemed to cheer up after that.

Cheyenne Frontier Days, The Daddy of ‘em all! You really have to sing that to its proper tune - I can’t seem to find a sound-bite online although that radio jingle has been in my mind for weeks. Anyway, we weren’t in Cheyenne for that event, but we were there for a family event and here we are loading up to go to Grandpa’s house. Cooks was riding in style in Brandon and Juliana’s convertible - However it may have been a little too hot and dry for such a dainty creature as a bulldog. It was so hot and dry that we all got bleedin’ noses at one time or another during our stay but only some of us had to resort to foliage to stop the hemorrhaging.

A lot of things happened here at Stoutpup last week. A few days before we embarked on our trip to Wyoming and before the loss of our beloved Mazzy, I was also laid off from my job. I wish I could say it was for something exciting like getting dooced but I don’t write about work because that’s not the kind of blog this is. Work doesn’t deserve a spot on the fun pages of Stoutpup.

Anyway, today is my second day of unemployment - my first day was spent having lunch and drinking pinot gris at my mother’s house and then meeting my father for dinner in the evening. I felt lucky that I got to see both my parents on the same day - that hasn’t happened since my brother’s wedding four years ago. At dinner dad told Corey and I that he felt lucky about his recent bicycle accident in which he was struck by a vehicle and sent to the hospital unconscious. How could that be lucky? most people would ask.

Dad said he felt lucky because the truck that hit him, struck his rear tire and not his body side - on. He felt lucky the truck came two seconds later than it could have sparing him serious injury or death. I hate thinking too much about this, but I will say that my dad’s words resonated with me because all week long I had been thinking how lucky I was, despite the job and dear old Mazzygirl.

Being back home in Cheyenne during the most difficult time I’ve had in 10 years made things bearable. I was so lucky to be surrounded by my immediate and extended family all in one place for 4 days. I was so lucky to be immersed in such love and kindness, forgiveness and comfort at a time when I could have been under the covers crying my eyes out for days, cursing life. I was lucky to dance and laugh the night away with my sister at my cousin’s wedding instead of drinking myself silly in my apartment from sadness. More than once through this trip I thought to myself, we are so damn lucky we sold that house in Tacoma in the worst housing market because now we’re not stuck in a town that has no job opportunities for art and media. We are so lucky to live in the best city in the Pacific Northwest. And I haven’t stopped thinking about how lucky I am to have grown up with my cousins three blocks away where I have lasting memories and strong bonds, even after 16 years of not returning home. And how lucky I am to have grown up with grandparents and aunts and uncles around me. That doesn’t happen for kids as often as it used to.

This week, though an end to an era in some respects, has also spawned new beginnings. A new marriage for my cousin and family, rekindled family bonds, and a new life for me. I vow to not let life pass me by anymore, and to focus on the things that matter, family, friends, love, and enjoying my time here on earth.

So today I took myself to the Seattle Art Museum - something I never seem to have time to do. I chronicled it in these photos. I saw the Impressionism exhibit I’d been dying to see. Job schmob — I’ll do that next week. It brought me back to my art school days and it was another good familiar feeling, but being carefree out on the town I was also filled a very inspirational exciting feeling. The type of feeling you get as a fifth grader when you know that you might run into you know who at lunchtime or in the hall. Just maybe something exciting is waiting around the corner…