But first. Our desktop computer recently suffered a mid-life crisis and decided to take some time off. Now while this is really annoying for a number of different reasons, its particularly obnoxious because that computer held most of our electronic data... including all of the food pictures that I've taken over the last few months. Right now, we're mired in trying to recover data and determine what (if anything) was backed up. I'll let you know how that goes. But basically, this means that I can't show you some of the lovely pictures of scrumptious food that had yet to be uploaded... and unfortunately, I just cleared the memory card on the camera-- so they may be gone for good.
In the meantime, I thought I'd put up some rouge pictures of my dog, L (named after the
elevated trains in Chicago). I adopted L about three years ago from a dog shelter. I have been meaning for some time to contact the shelter (and one employee in particular) to let them know that L (formerly Naomi) has found a happy home and has a good life. While I know that any shelter would be pleased to know that one of their dogs found a good home, I think they might be particularly pleased that L is doing well because it wasn't always that way.When I first adopted L, she had severe dominance issues. I believe (for several reasons) that L was abused before I knew her and I know (from shelter records) that L was placed repeatedly and unsuccessfully with many families. Learning to take care of her and dealing with these issues took a long time and a lot of hard work. I had to learn about and extensively research canine behavior and dominance issues. I spent even more time working with L, training her, and teaching her how to be a good companion. Sometimes progress seemed slow but over time she has become a loving mellow animal who is part of the family. These kinds of behaviour issues always require constant vigilance but, overall, today she is a happy and lucky dog with a good life.
She is also very playful and often quite clever. One of the things that made her a very bad dog when she was challenging authority is also one of the most fun things about her now that she behaves well. L is particularly sensitive to moods, generally attentive to people and their behavior, and extremely stubborn. You can imagine how unpleasantly these qualities could be combined to, say, steal and angrily guard a person's wallet for several hours... alternatively, they could be used in a positive manner to learn new games and tricks. L loves learning new things. One of L's favorite games is hide and seek. We play this a few different ways. Sometimes, I will just tell L to sit and wait while I run off and hide. I then tell her "Ok! L!" and whistle for her. Other times, Ken or I will hide and then the other will tell the dog to go find that person. L loves these games, bounds around, and always looks so pleased when she's found us. She's also learning to go find toys and specific objects in the house. It's all great fun.In any case, I guess my point here is that if L can change from being an angry frightened animal to a lovely well-behaved dog, don't give up hope... Perhaps my computer will abandon its blue screen of death, turn on, and miraculously have all of my files in working condition.
Here's hoping.
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