On the move…

Those of you who’ve been reading Dog Trainer’s Log for awhile might have been wondering when I’d get to that picture of Casey celebrating his birthday and the latest update on Princess M’s weave pole training. Soon, gang – soon – and I promise you’re going to enjoy what I’ve got in mind for December!

But this weekend instead of writing posts, I was building websites – one at patsteer.com that will be the new home of my survivorship blog Life Out Loud and my freelance writing projects; one for my food blog Kitchen Jam in development here; and one for Dog Trainer’s Log, evolving here.

None of these sites is ready for prime time yet – although I’m aiming to launch all of them officially later this week. When they’re ready, your links, bookmarks and RSS feeds to the WP.com sites will direct you automatically to their new domains. Until then, wish me luck as I work to make 30 years of writing and 10 years of tech training pay off.

I’ll update this site with the final addresses. Meanwhile, feel free to drop by and check out the construction. Look for some special December blog-warming projects at both Kitchen Jam and Dog Trainer’s Log as I feel out the dimensions of their new homes – and for the same old me (working under my real name now!) at Life Out Loud.

Completing circles: what our animals teach us

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been slammed at work for the last couple weeks – twelve hour days do not let me be a good dog (or cat) trainer. Some days, the cuddle time I get with Casey, Madison and Churro is all the interaction we share. I feed them, they eat. We go for walks. We cuddle for a few minutes before I go off to work, and they moan (M.) or groan (Casey) or purr and head-butt (Churro) with me until it’s time for them to go back to crates to nap the day away. I come home, and we repeat the process – except that cuddle time usually melts into falling asleep together. Then Casey wakes us all up in the middle of the night. I ex them all again, and they go into crates for a couple of hours until daylight, when the alarm goes off and we do it all again.

I’ve been so slammed that for a couple days this week, I didn’t keep up with my blog reading, or my Twitter stream. And then I saw a tweet from my friend @azahar – missing her Sunny, her 16 y.o. cat who earlier in the week hadn’t been doing well and had needed a quick trip to the vet.

Sunny died while I was off trying to coax a validation test script out of some co-workers and do role reviews in my application and help plan a retirement party. And my friend, a day ahead and thousands of miles away in Spain was deep in the agony that follows when a circle closes, and the realization that our lives are longer than the pets who enrich our days hits us, hard.

I can’t make Az’s pain less. I’m not sure anything can, except time. As I shift softly here on the couch, so that I don’t wake up my own old man Casey, reading about her pain reminded me how close that minute can be for all of us with pets, but especially for those whose pets are celebrating senior birthdays.

Casey will be 15 this week. No, to those who’ve wondered, he’s not dead – just living the slightly befuddled life of a senior dog who some days doesn’t remember who he is or where he is, but is otherwise physically healthy. This weekend, I’ve been slowly working at getting him trimmed up, to take a 15th birthday photo. He can only tolerate a few minutes of grooming at a time, so routine maintenance is a process – but I should be able to give you all a picture of my old man looking his best sometime before the week is over.

I vividly remember the day I went to meet Casey. We drove 3 1/2 hours through a blizzard to come home together. He rode in the #100 crate on my front seat. We stopped twice so that he could pee. He was so small, easily the smallest non-cat creature I’d ever had in my house, and as he sat at the top of the stairs to the side door, looking down, I could hear him thinking “It’s very far, Pat.” He played ball almost from the moment I brought him home. He adored my Gordon setter Bard and my English Springer spaniel Jazz (who were 8 and 12 1/2, respectively, when I brought Casey home.) He learned everything at light-speed. He was the little red speed demon that ran the fastest course of the trial on the day that he earned his NA…and the reason that agility hot-shots like Diane Bauman lined up the next day to watch *us* run.

Casey became the head cuddler as I worked my way through first the recovery from a hemorrhagic stroke, and then five+ years of cancer treatment – if you’d like more of that story, you’ll find it at Life Out Loud. He adjusted as his show career abruptly stopped, shifted gears, restarted after the stroke, downshifted again during cancer treatments, and then took on new directions when I grew stronger. In ’96 he lost his mentor Jazz; a few years later, his friend Bard. He outlived all of his cats: Aslyn, Rocket, and Rani. He saw me re-home the upstart Gordon setter Reuben – I found for Reu the active performance home he deserved, so that he didn’t have to spend his young life as my cancer therapy dog. Casey welcomed into our home his new BFF, Princess M., and a new cat, Churro. His circle is smaller now than it used to be, and I can see that it’s nearing the point where it will close – but not just yet.

I’m dreading that day. And Az’s week has reminded me that I must not let the other things in my world interfere with enjoying the days I have with the creatures around me whose lives are too short.

Az discovered some truths about herself while she lived within Sunny’s circle, and she shared them here in this post from Casa Az: “Learning to Love.” As I read it, hugging my own creatures, I realized how much I’ve learned from all of mine – Taryn, Jazz, Nola, Muni, Bard, Reuben, Ashlyn, Silkyn, Rocket, Rani – and now the ones who draw the current circles in the knots of my time: Casey, Madison and Churro.

But circles close – it’s their nature. It’s our gift to learn from the pets who author our circles, and realize how much they enrich our days.

What have you learned from your pets today?

Getting a handle on the crate addiction!

36" folding fabric expen (mine is camouflage)

If admitting the problem is the first step, then let’s go:

My name is Pat, and I’m addicted to crates.

Two weekends ago I moved my Sun Spot vintage trailer to its winter home in my rented garage. I packed some other things to winter over in the garage – my two larger coolers, a lounge chair from my patio, and crates. Four crates. I have so many crates I no longer need them on a daily or even weekly basis.

Five years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer, I did take stock and gave away many of my ‘extra’ dog things. As my dance with cancer has had its ups and downs, I’ve gotten a good feeling from seeing my former stuff in active use at shows and trials and in the SOTC training building. I had this green Sharpie that truly did have indelible ink - the fading but still readable STEER printed on my former crates always surprises me when I see it in someone else’s setup.

But it’s been five years since I scaled down my dog equipment, and slowly, my crate addiction has resurfaced. Once again I find myself harboring (or maybe it’s hoarding?) extras. I have two english cocker spaniels (easy keepers in 200-size crates) and a pretty large orange tiger cat who fits in a 100-size crate but is much happier in a 200. My oldest functional but damaged crates are the house crates – at this moment that includes a 25-year-old 400 side-door wire, a 10-year-old 200 Deluxe VariKennel (Casey and M.’s houses, respectively), a 200 plastic PetMate (Churro’s ‘cat house’), and a 100 Varikennel and smaller than 100 cat crate which are cat-transports to the vet or kennel. That’s actually a sort of controlled chaos – it’s the car that reminds me, daily, that I may be taking ‘Be Prepared’ a step too far.

Two plastic 200 Varikennels are secured in the car all the time. Stored around them are a medium Guardian Gear soft crate (big enough to hold a gordon setter, it’s now my hotel crate that holds both Casey and M.), a 200-size Noz2Noz soft crate with a strong aluminum framework (for venues where I need crates that stack), three 200-size off-label Petmate soft crates, and my brand new folding 36″ soft ex-pen. That gives me one crate for the car, one crate for the show site and one crate for the hotel for each of the three in my current entourage – and an extra in case space is a problem.

The fabric ex-pen is an upgrade/replacement for my 25+ year-old folding metal 36″ covered ex-pen – how could I *not* want to reduce my weight and load from 25 pounds to 4? You heard me – a 4-pound ex-pen. I love it! Although the website recommends the 36″ size for ‘Shelties and Mini-Schnauzers,’ it’s just fine for larger breeds who respect a soft crate – and the solid bottom and zip-off screened top make it more escape-proof than the average wire ex-pen.

But I have to admit, today was a one-day-at-a-time crate day. The email came in the digest of the SOTC mail-list: MidWest Metal is clearancing its 30″ black-expoxy-coated wire expens for $37 and change with free shipping. I caught my breath, I clicked the link – and then I closed the ad. In the car-port, waiting for their own trip to the garage, are a 300 Deluxe Varikennel, a 300 folding wire, two 200 folding wire crates, and two uniquely sized tall and narrow wire crates that often fit into tight spaces and are no longer manufactured. I need to move them to enclosed storage before winter really hits.

If you’ve been keeping count, I own 20 crates for two medium-sized dogs and a cat. Full disclosure: Casey will turn 15 in a couple weeks - his crating requirements are much lower than when he was actively traveling, showing and going to classes two or three times every week. But once a crate comes into my home, it always stays years after the dog who first lived in it has passed on.

I’ve rented crates to students, and never bothered to get them back. I gave away the partner to my metal expen, and I’ve given away at least as many crates as I currently own.

Okay, my name is Pat, and I’m addicted to crates. But at least I’m always prepared.