i have never really been much interested in animals of any kind. growin up we always had pets but down south pets live outside so i don't even remember much about the ones we had except maybe their names. we always had some dogs and had a horse too. when my adored brother didn't ride his unicycle to school, he rode dixie, our horse. this wasn't long enough ago that this was the typical way to travel to get your daily dose of readin and writin - the horse or the unicycle - but my dear brother, like me, has never been afraid of bein different from everybody else.
i tried my best to take a likin to the horse but queenie, my sister, got to decide how the beast would be split up among the three of us (she always got to decide everything because she was goin to marry prince charles and be a real queen one day). she assigned my brother the head so he had to get the thing fed, assigned me the back end so i had to pick up the manure and in her queenly fashion, assigned herself the middle so she got to decide who got to ride it when and for how long. the combination of shovelin the manure and breakin my good arm fallin off ol dixie made me resign my end of the horse to the other two early on. my father had insisted i give the trick ridin a whirl. he had once been a rodeo cowboy himself and maybe hoped one of us would follow in his boot prints. but i fell after just a few tries and never got back on that thing again.
dogs were always on the top of my list of useless animals but i seemed to be the only one around with these feelins. where i grew up EVERY family had at least two and they were all allowed to roam free and make friends with all the other dogs. one of the things coach litton included when teachin us driver's ed after school was how to drive down a residential street without hittin one of the packs of dogs that would chase your car and that to avoid gettin your elbow nipped, not to rest your arm where it poked out the driver's window.
i do believe every boyfriend i ever had came with a canine attached to em and while i tolerated the furry creatures i never felt the overwhelming need to pet em and such. they were just somethin i had to put up with while i was bidin my time datin and waitin for prince charming and his safety fetish to come along and sweep me off my feet (bringin along with him his two vicious weiner dog - willie and wall e.). and while i could tolerate having to date a dog to date the owner, i would of dumped both if the dog ever showed up in any sort of clothing.
i developed a serious dislike of any animal lookin like they were tryin to be human early in life. besides mighty mouse who i loved but only got to watch occasionally when queenie allowed since flicka was on at the same time, i have never been able to watch cartoons because most of em consisted of animals dressed like humans and doin human things. they all gave me the creeps. especially that big yellow bird and any of the ones ruled by that mouse with the creepy voice that lived out in california in his own land. who would have ever guessed that one day i would actually find myself smack dab in the middle of both of em, being forced to hold their furry hands and that the rodent would end up breakin my foot by steppin on it with his big ol human shoes. as much as i dislike him for his greed and desire to dress in fancy human clothes i have to say it wasn't his fault - they make midgets climb in those hot as hell humans-playing-animals-dressed-like humans costumes and those big ol heads are just to hard to see through to know where their fake feet are goin.
anyway, i was pretty sure when the time came for me to be layin on my death bed, i'd be able to claim i had never had a pet and never seen a 'star wars' or 'star trek' movie - never cared much for aliens either though i think i've written here someplace that gigi's daddy was in one or another of the star treks so hopefully he won't be standin by my death bed when the time comes as he might take this announcement personally.
havin now confessed to all this, you can understand how every day i look at my little tinkerbell and wonder how on earth it came to be that she belongs to me, mo - disliker of dogs. and to top that, i can't imagine what happened to me that not only am i a dog owner but i have one that is better dressed than i ever am or have ever been.
it's hard to believe that this beloved little 3 pounds of hair (tink's breed doesn't have fur - they have actual hair - not sure the difference but thought i'd share that bit of dog info with you) is turnin two. i was tryin to remember what happened to make me do such a complete turnaround in the pet department. afterall, once prince charmins vicious weiner dogs were safely tucked in their little cremation canisters on the shelf of honor in the library, god rest their mean little souls, they were quickly replaced with lady bird, lucy bird, fred w., wilma and betty so there was really no need to add any more pesky pets. i'm thinkin it was around time my mom got so sick and when i realized mini's feet were draggin across the floor when i hefted her up to carry her to bed. i shared my pendin desire with mini who was delighted i might want a dog and she asked me to describe for her the dog of my dreams. i told her i wanted one that would fit in my purse, would always look like a baby and would love one that was completely round like a ball so it could just roll around . she quickly drew up a sample of my description and even made me a life sized one out of paper mache. that seemed to do the trick and meet all my new dog desires and then i sort of forgot about it.
but when christmas rolled around what did i find in my stockin but the cutest lil round dog i'd ever seen. and since then i don't go anywhere i can't take her, ridin along in my purse. some places say they don't allow dogs but most times jo or i can convince them she is a seein eye dog or is in charge of the money. the only place that turned us away so far is wal-mart and i am secretly delighted that i now have a good excuse for not attendin jo's hour long treks to the only one available in our area.
it's hard to believe how much happiness this tiny creature has brought to me. she arrived just in the nick of time to help fill the void left by my dear mom's departure and the invasion of mini's body snatcher. i can't even imagine how different i would feel if i didn't have her. so...i guess i have to admit i am now among the many people who fall into the category of dog lovers. if i had even the slightest bit of doubt, it quickly faded when watchin all the sadness on the t.v. after the first hurricane, and feelin just horrible but not yet givin in to my emotions, i caught sight of the little white dog that assumed it could follow it's owner on the bus takin the evacuees to their unknown destination. but as it's little paws reached the steps to hop into the bus, the door slammed shut and drove off leaving the poor little thing all alone. my heart broke into a million little pieces right then and there and i still cry every time i think about that image. i'm sure my tears are not just for the little dog. this image was and is just a perfect illustration of how it is possible for our biggest fear to actually come to life - our world as we know it up and disappearrin without any notice. and that's what was happening to the little dog and the little boy who had to leave it behind and all the other people on that bus along with all the thousands who had their lives as they knew em washed away overnight.
mini's daddy ended up telling me some wild story about how the little dog was rescued and taken to it's owner but i fear it was another one of his attempts to keep me from agonizin over the sufferin that goes on in the world. sort of like when i wanted to see 'shindler's list' and he made a copy of it for me to watch that ended up bein a story about some families takin a trip on a train and it not being the best vacation they ever had but was no where near the devastatin movie i had anticiapted or when he and mini tried to block oprah from the doo dad den's t.v. so that i wouldn't be in total despair every afternoon when they arrived home from work and school.
anyway....i thought tinkerbell deserved to have her big day honored with a bit of bloggin. the lovely art posted above was created by my dear friend tracy usin a shot of tink, in my lap and nestled in her little nest of pink lace. thank you missy tracy - from both me and tink.
just a bit of news for anyone who has signed up for my site or is waitin for somethin or wonders why the mo entry site, shop and gallery are all screwed up... i had a sort of bandit do some serious damage to everything last night and am workin hard to get everything back to where it was. i hope you will be patient with me with me while i try to get everything sorted out. a big thanks to all of you who have written today. it has really made me feel better about the whole ordeal.
i better get back to cleanin up the big ol mess - thank you for stoppin by the blog and i hope you will come often!
happy birthday tinkerbell!
