"All Creatures Great and Small . . . "

    My earliest memories are of dogs.  I don't remember much before we moved to Colorado Springs when I was 3.  But I remember most things that happened after we got here such as following two stray dogs down the street and a couple of blocks away to play with them in a drainage ditch.  I don't remember the spanking I got from wandering away from my mom, but I remember wanting to play with the dogs.  It seems that passion began quite young.
     Some of the most delightful books I have read were written by a British country veterinarian named James Herriot.  He spent most of his life (1916 - 1995) in North Yorkshire, England as a veterinarian surgeon for all of the local farms and nearby townships.  His books chronicle his extraordinary life working with animals "great and small."  His titles are from the opening lines of a well-known poem/hymn:  "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."
     When I retired from teaching French (after 32 years) about 10 years ago, I had no idea of what was in store for me.  I suppose no one does.  My dream, as you all know by now, was to move to France and enjoy retirement exploring the French countryside.  I was able to see that dream come true and those 7 months were amazing, and, as I reflect on that time I realize how much animals played a part during that time.  Besides the 3 resident cats and CoCo, of course, I found opportunities to visit 3 zoos.  One was incredibly sad, the other 2 were wonderful where the enclosures were welcoming and filled with enrichment opportunities for the animals.  The animals were healthy and seemed quite content.  I watched them playing with each other and with toys.  It made me quite content.  I had a "singing" contest with an African Grey Parrot and we both thoroughly enjoyed it!

My singing competitor

     I have had a membership at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for at least 30 years - since Andy was little, although I've been coming to the zoo since the 1950s.  When I retired I tried to go a couple of times a month and now I make it a point to go once a week.  It is so rewarding to see that the animals - especially the great apes - recognize me and come over to the glass to "greet" me.    The lions know me and respond when I call out their names.  I am totally enthralled with their beauty and majesty and intelligence.  From the 400+ lb silverback gorilla, Goma, and 500 lb male lion, Abuto, to the tiniest of reptiles, I love them all.  They are all fascinating and I enjoy sharing my knowledge of them with visitors.

Abuto and his girls

Goma

Tank, the plated lizard was a favorite at the zoo

     Our lion cubs will be four years old in June and are almost full-grown.  I was at the zoo almost every day when they were born.  They were just about the cutest little furry balls of feline I had ever seen!  I loved watching them grow and learn how to be lions.  I enjoy watching the little primates as they become beloved members of their family and troop and am entertained by them every time I go.

Elsa at 6 months

Elsa last week

Our newest orangutan, Kera

4 year old Ember being a ham

     I have had dogs my entire life.  I don't remember the dog we had when I was born and whom we lost just before we moved to Colorado Springs.  But when I was 7 we got a miniature poodle that I named Pom-Pom.  Let that be a lesson to parents - don't let your 7 year old name your pet!  Pom-Pom didn't know he was a dog.  He was well-trained, but certainly had a mind of his own.  He went everywhere with us and loved rock climbing on our camping trips.  I was in college when he died.
     As an adult I have had many dogs and I can't imagine life without one - or two - or . . . .   And now my retirement life is filled with many many dogs on an almost daily basis.  My two, who are both rescues, and all the dogs at National Mill Dog Rescue.  I never imagined being so in love with an organization that I would choose to go out there weekly with no pay to spend time with these dogs.  I won't spend the time here telling you all about NMDR, but if you are interested in our mission please do check out our website at milldogrescue.org.  I am so proud to be just a small part of this work of love.  We rescue, rehabilitate, and find homes for these precious "discarded" dogs.

Bella as a puppy - notice her black face

Andy with Bella at Thanksgiving - notice her not black face!

My present loves

     We can learn a lot from dogs.  They are resilient, brave, forgiving, and they show unconditional love.  Once you have earned their trust they will do anything for you.  They want only to be loved and to give love.  What more could anyone ask for?  Here's a video I took of one of our rescues - a 3 legged Pomeranian -  with his first ever toy!  Enjoy!

     I know that wherever this path of life takes me, there will always be "creatures great and small."  Thank you, God, for making them all and letting us see a glimpse of You through them.

"The Mountains Are Calling And I Must Go"

     Pikes Peak and the entire Front Range was covered in snow Sunday morning.  Absolutely breathtaking!  I grew up in Colorado Springs and except for a few years I have spend almost my entire life enjoying that view every day.  In those years that I lived elsewhere, I couldn't wait for the first glimpse of Pikes Peak when I was heading home. 

Photo of Pikes Peak taken the first morning after I returned from France

     The title of today's blog post is a quote by John Muir, a Scotsman who spent most of his life in the US as a naturalist, philosopher, writer, botanist, geologist and environmentalist.  He is often referred to as "John of the Mountains" and "The Father of the National Parks."  He was never happier than when he was in the mountains and spent most of his life in the Sierra Nevadas campaigning for the establishing of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.
     My love of the mountains began early.  My dad loved this part of Colorado so much that he was determined to live here and have me grow up in this beautiful area of the US.  So, when I was 3 my mom, dad and I moved to this lovely little town of about 40,000 people.  We spent many happy hours picnicing and hiking in North Cheyenne Canyon and up Ute Pass.  And then when I was 9 we got our first camp trailer and, oh boy, that was awesome!

Our 1953 Cadillac pulling our very first camp trailer

Me with my dad and our poodle, Pom Pom hiking along Tarryall River

     I shared in my dad's passion of the rocks and minerals that make up this section of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains - a passion that has been passed down to Andy.  We had a couple of books that identified the different rocks and in the evenings on the little table in our camp trailer, we would lay out the rocks we had gathered that day and identify them.  I can still recognize many of them - feldspar, quartz, iron pyrite, granite, amazonite, jasper. 
     When I first realized I wanted to live in France, I had fallen in love with a region called the Dordogne.  It's a beautiful area with limestone cliffs, deep forests, caves with prehistoric paintings, rolling hills, lots of castles and medieval towns.  And I had decided that this was the region where I wanted to live.  And then I spent two years in Liberal, Kansas taking care of my mom and realized that I have to have mountains.  It is a part of my spirit.  It's as though I don't recognize myself without mountains in my life.
     At that point I decided to look further south in France closer to the Pyrenees Mountains.  And so I ended up living in a region called The Gers in the department known as the Midi-Pyrenees.  On the hilltop about a mile from my cottage I could see the range of mountains.  Just about every Sunday that I lived there I drove towards the mountains and felt the same joy as I do in Colorado as they get larger and larger before my eyes.  They have a very different look from the Rocky Mountains, but they are still majestic.

Autumn colors on the Pyrenees

Snow-capped Pyrenees

Pyrenees on the Spanish side, taken from the French side

     For Christmas, Andy gave me some gorgeous crystals from his own dig which is somewhere not too far out of town in a secret location!  He has found numerous smoky quartz crystals of all shapes and sizes, from tiny fingernail sizes to one that's about 5 pounds.

My Christmas present!

     This earth is filled with wonders.  Ancient, forceful, awesome, powerful, beautiful, breathtaking wonders.  The mountains do call to me -and many others.  When we come to them let us do so with respect and honor and the desire to care for them and preserve them so that many generations to come can also enjoy their beauty. 
     The title of my blog, "Just around the next bend" actually came from our camping trips.  It was my dad's answer when asked if we were getting closer to the campsite and he didn't know for sure!  Sometimes you never know what's around that bend.  Even if we were lost - in the mountains - we were never disappointed at the views!
    Thank you for letting me expound on this, one of my many passions.  I wonder what I'll find to write about next week! Stay tuned . . .
    

2018 - The Year of the Dogs

Happy New Year!  I'm back, at least for now.  I have missed writing my weekly blog and have tried to figure out why I stopped.  I think the reason is that I don't feel like I have a mission anymore - I'm not preparing to move to France, nor am I in France to be able to share my adventures.  So, what do I have to write about?  Last year I thought I might cook and write about that, but my heart wasn't really in it.
And then came Bella!  I would love to be able to blame her for my lack of time to write, but the truth is that I just didn't take the time.  As I'm writing this, CoCo is lying on the rug just chilling and Bella is lying on the rug chewing on a bone.  She is seldom at rest!  At least she isn't chewing on CoCo, which is progress!  ha!  (Update - As I finished this blog Bella is trying to get CoCo to play with her and is making all kinds of noise!)

Bella at 3 months

Andy with Bella on Thanksgiving Day - her face looks so different now!

Me with Bella and CoCo on Thanksgiving Day

I have spent time this past week preparing my weekly planner (yes, I still use a physical planner - one that has photos of Italy on every other page.)  I enjoy doing this as it gives me a chance to see what I spent my days doing during the past year as I check on birthdays, anniversaries, etc. and get them listed on the planner for the new year.
Seems I spent lots of time with animals!  Since I started volunteering at National Mill Dog Rescue last January I have taken on many jobs.  I am a Group Volunteer Coordinator, which is part of the educational department.  I help organize groups that want to come and volunteer with us for an afternoon.  I do an orientation of our history and mission, a tour of our facilities, and monitor a volunteer time spent socializing our dogs.  I also am, unofficially, a part of the off-loading and intake teams.  I love being there when our rescue teams return with new dogs so that I can welcome those special souls to freedom.  We take them off the van and put them into kennels with water and food and beds and blankets.  Then within 2 days of the rescue we have intake which is where each new dog gets a name, initial medical care which includes being tested for heartworm, and initial evaluation of their personalities/behaviors.
Many come to us so "broken" and shut down because of traumas experienced in their previous life in a puppy mill.  Many come to us having had no grooming ever, no shots, no basic care and very little socialization with humans.
Our mission is to rehabilitate every one of them, get them physically and emotionally healthy enough to find them forever homes.  It is such a rewarding work.  I love being out there and spending time with the dogs - and all those awesome dog people!  In the past 2 months I have been hired to be part of the Meds Delivery Team.  I go out early every Saturday morning to give meds to our dogs who, for any number of reasons, are on medications.  It's a 50 mile round trip for me every time I go out there.  It's been many years since I got up that early to drive that far, but I actually enjoy the drive heading east as the sun is coming up over the prairie.  And then the drive home heading west towards Pikes Peak is always a joy. I never tire of seeing the mountains, no matter what time of year.
Bella is a year old now and has finally grown into her legs!  She is a hound mix - part whippet and part fox hound among other breeds - and has loads of energy.  She just finished her Agility 2 classes and I have her registered for Agility 3 starting next month.  She was born to run!  If I can keep her focused on the course she does great.  However, that hound nose of hers gets in the way and then she's all over the place.  Or she would rather play with Izzy, a chocolate lab about the same age as she is and they love each other!  Having a puppy is always entertaining, if sometimes a little frustrating.
Once Bella is settled down I would love to train her as a therapy dog.  She has such a sweet, affectionate personality.  She would be great in therapy work!
CoCo, bless her little heart, is very patient with the crazy puppy.  She comes with us to social hour and agility classes, both on Saturdays and as long as she stays in my "CoCo purse" she is fine with all the crazy activities.  She will be 12 next month and is in pretty good health except for some arthritis in her back legs which I'm treating with supplements. 
If you've been following my blog over the past years you know my love of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  I try to go out there every week.  It is such a joy to have the gorilla girls come over to the window to greet me.  I love the great apes and the lions the best of all and enjoy telling visitors about them.  Our lion cubs will be four in June and are almost full-grown.  They are so beautiful!
I meant to start this blog again last week, but I spent the beginning of the year with friends, both human and animal.  I went to the zoo last Wednesday with friends, Jay and Barb Matheson, and their "adopted" family including an adorable 7 year old with whom I spoke French for most of our visit!  (More about that in a later blog)  What a wonderful day which included many things that I love doing - visiting with friends, showing them our animals, and speaking French, which I don't get a chance to do much these days.

Who says African animals don't like snow!? Kwisha is enjoying a snack.

My beautiful Elsa - the female cub

The manes are getting fuller and darker on our male cubs (Aslan here)

Chewy enjoying a day in the sun

Abuto (father of the cubs) is "calling" his pride

I miss France terribly every single day.  But I love spending time with Andy even more.  So I don't regret coming back to Colorado after those 7 glorious months spent in Le Gers.  I'm so happy that I got the chance to go back for a few days in April and I'll tell you all more about that in a future blog post.
Although I feel like I don't have a specific purpose in writing anymore, I've been told that my blog is missed and that people enjoy hearing what I have to say - go figure!  I promise that there will never be any negativity or politics (perhaps that's redundant!) or anything that will make you uncomfortable, unless it's in a way that makes you look at life a little differently.  I think that's always worth the effort.  Perhaps that's why I love being with the animals.  There's something about watching the beauty, the power, the resilience of nature that often makes me look at life in a new perspective.
Over the next few weeks, I'll review why I started this blog 4 years ago.  And how it's still relevant (at least to me) in this new year of 2019.
As always, I thank you for joining me on this journey we call life, as I curve around those bends in the road, always facing forward, but sometimes reminding myself of where I've been.  Until next week.  Au revoir, mes amis!