Blog Shifting

For my fellowship next week, we have to blog. The group blog is on wordpress, so I decided to move the blog over there because I had to create a new blog. You can find the promised video post over there. Please forgive the fact that the video embedding didn't work, but there are links to each video.

Enjoy: http://jdrummond.wordpress.com/

Pup-date: They Have Collars

After three weeks of the insane game of "which puppy are you?" we finally put 'collars' on the pups. We were very lucky to find eleven different colors of ribbon, and they are now color coded. The pic above shows our list that we use to keep track of what color goes with what gender. The collars also provided a good way for us to refer to them, so we now a list of names that we use. We have tried to keep it as generic as possible so that we don't fall even more in love with them all, but we also wanted to be somewhat creative. Here's the list (color - name - brief description):

• Light Blue - Sayid - This black male is ours. We picked him out almost right after he came out of the womb. He has a big head and a big wrinkly face, which we hope foreshadows a big dog to help watch over our little cabin.
• Red - Josh - This little yellow male is special to us. He's the one that she buried (i.e. the runt). If you haven't heard Josh's story, I'll give you more details later. He's being adopted by Cassidy's sister, Chelsea, to go try and mellow out their other dog, Cooper.
• Explorer (dark) Green - Magellan - This little black male got his name from the famous explorer. Since he learned to walk, he has been all over the garage. For a few days it was a game to see where he would be sleeping when we went out in the morning.
• Pink - Pinky - She is the sweetest little yellow female. She is quiet, but she loves to play with her brothers and sisters. She also likes to lick toes and the gates on the pen.
• Blue - Not Josh - This is the other small yellow male. For the longest time (before the collars) we had to look really close to find the differences between him and Josh, so we started calling them Josh and Not Josh. I know - real original. He is very sweet and likes to be held.
• Yellow - Yellow or Lemon - We haven't really come up with a temporary name for this yellow female. She is big and loves to romp. Call her Lemon when she is with the lime green girl, who I call Lime.
• Lime Green - Lime - She is another playful yellow female. She likes to roll other puppies and then pounce on them. She also likes to block out her siblings when she is at the food bowl.
• Purple - Violet - A sweet big yellow female. She likes to explore with Magellan recently, and she found out that if mom is eating, she's now big enough to reach her "food" on mom's belly.
• Peach - Georgia Peach - What's not to like about this big yellow girl? She hangs out with Bruno (orange), and likes to charge at her siblings or your feet and then hope backwards. She also likes to eat.
• White - Clancy - This black male is the baby. He is the last pup that was born and survived. He is super sweet, and loves to sleep in the corner created by the cabinet in the garage. He got his name from Cassidy's mom, who really wants to take him home but can't.
• Orange - Bruno - This is the BIG boy. He's yellow male who sleeps with his head between his paws, which causes his face to wrinkle up. Although his is big, he is not overly aggressive. He likes to nibble and chew, but he snuggles when he is held.

There's the update for now. I'll probably post more updates today because I leave for a 2 week journalism fellowship on Sunday. The other posts will have more pictures, but here's a few to tide you over (Macy-wink wink).

Pup-date

After much consideration, Cassidy and I have decided to post the majority of future puppy updates (or pup-dates) on our blog rather than on the CDP Blog. This is mainly spurred on by the fact that the puppies are changing daily, and we have so much that we can post, we would over power the main intent of the CassidyDawn Blog.

So, since her last update, the pups have had their first and second adventures outside to the grass (we'll have some video of it the next time) and have begun to really get the hang of walking. We go out in the morning and usually find one or two who have ventured out into the garage to find a nice cool place on the cement to sleep. They are much more vocal and responsive because their ears are opening up. This means that we have to be quieter with things like opening the garage door and starting until they can see and hear better so that they don't develop fears of loud noises.

They will be three weeks old on Thursday, which means we will begin to introduce some water and moistened puppy chow to begin the weaning process. Hopefully they will be fully weaned by the end of 6 weeks. They will also be getting their first "collars" this week in the form of ribbon. We have eleven different colors so that we can begin to track weight and behaviors and ensure that we spend enough quality 1-on-1 time with each of the puppies. So stay tuned for more videos - they're wrestling and wagging their tails now!

Here are a few from last Friday that show them learning to howl, bark, and otherwise be noisy.

This first one is Cassidy's favorite:

Snuggling Puppies:

Mama wakes them for lunch & they start barking:

NPM - Day 15

Funeral Blues

by W.H. Auden 

 

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, 

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, 

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum 

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. 

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead 

Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead. 

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, 

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. 

He was my North, my South, my East and West, 

My working week and my Sunday rest, 

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; 

I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. 

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, 

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, 

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; 

For nothing now can ever come to any good. 

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I love this poem.  A group in one of my college classes set it to music, and it was very moving.  Here is a link to a clip from the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral that uses the poem quite affectively.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_a-eXIoyYA

NPM - Day 11

Spring is like a perhaps hand
by E. E. Cummings
III Spring is like a perhaps hand  (which comes carefully  out of Nowhere)arranging  a window,into which people look(while  people stare arranging and changing placing  carefully there a strange  thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully spring is like a perhaps  Hand in a window  (carefully to  and fro moving New and  Old things,while  people stare carefully  moving a perhaps  fraction of flower here placing  an inch of air there)and without breaking anything.

NPM - Day 10

I know we are past Christmas, but for Good Friday I thought it might be nice to look at a Christmas poem to bring things full circle.

A Christmas Carol

by Christina Rossetti

In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid-winter Long ago. Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign: In the bleak mid-winter A stable-place sufficed The Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ. Enough for Him whom cherubim Worship night and day, A breastful of milk And a mangerful of hay; Enough for Him whom angels Fall down before, The ox and ass and camel Which adore. Angels and archangels May have gathered there, Cherubim and seraphim Thronged the air, But only His mother In her maiden bliss Worshipped the Beloved With a kiss. What can I give Him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man I would do my part, -  Yet what I can, I give Him, Give my heart.

I'm featured...

So for the past few months I been checking out Bonobos pants, which look awesome.  Sadly, they are also way out of my budget, or so I thought.  They have an amazing program for men who work in public service fields (like teachers, firefighters, police, etc.) who they are aware might not have the funds to procure their products.  

In order to qualify, you have to send them a brief bio and a pic, and in turn, they give you a discount code.  My bio was featured on Monday, and you can  read it here.   I haven't purchased any pants yet, but when I do, I'll let you know how they are. 

NPM - Day 8

How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual
by Pamela Spiro Wagner

First, forget everything you have learned, 
that poetry is difficult, 
that it cannot be appreciated by the likes of you, 
with your high school equivalency diploma, 
your steel-tipped boots, 
or your white-collar misunderstandings. 

Do not assume meanings hidden from you: 
the best poems mean what they say and say it. 

To read poetry requires only courage 
enough to leap from the edge 
and trust. 

Treat a poem like dirt, 
humus rich and heavy from the garden. 
Later it will become the fat tomatoes 
and golden squash piled high upon your kitchen table. 

Poetry demands surrender, 
language saying what is true, 
doing holy things to the ordinary. 

Read just one poem a day. 
Someday a book of poems may open in your hands 
like a daffodil offering its cup 
to the sun. 

When you can name five poets 
without including Bob Dylan, 
when you exceed your quota 
and don't even notice, 
close this manual.

NPM - Day 4

Today's poem is dedicated to Mama (Cassidy's grandmother). If you know her, you should know why.
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The Daffodils
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

NPM - Day 3

Pied Beauty

by Gerard Manely Hopkins

 

Glory be to God for dappled things--

   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

       For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

   Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough;

       And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

 

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

                                     Praise Him