yes, sober

Southern Cali Shook Today...

Funny thing is I had a meeting this morning and as I'm sitting there, half paying attention, I thought to myself "what if an earthquake hits". It did almost 3 hours later.

I think that way because I was a senior at UCSC when This hit. I'll have to blog about it at a later time, because it was quite an experience. I've ridden a few quakes since then without a worry, but this one felt like that one at the get-go. It scared me. It started slow, like no big deal, and then started stronger and started rolling. Just like 1989. Plenty of time to think about what to do and where to go...

I work at a paint manufacturing plant. I don't want to be under a desk/table during an earthquake to then face a fire/explosion. I grabbed my bag and started running out when it stopped, my manager was standing there, in the door way of his office. "No sneaking off early today". Shit. I was embarrassed...

Although this has nothing to do with Jo'Burg - aka Burg - here's another of my favorite photos of us...

funny jo'burgism

It was nearly impossible to get Jo'Burg to lie on his back. I'd try to flip him to the side and he'd brace against me. Try the other side and he'd flip his weight. Needless to say, Jezebel was the only one getting treats for "roll-over".


Don't remember who had this theory, but it made sence: The ridge on Jo'Burgs back is like velcro and he's affraid he'll get stuck...

what is that smell????

Such a regal boy, so handsome, so....

Ginnie just reminded me of a great story...

We love to hike. Good excersize for all and there's a great trail by Ginnie's house that we can let the dogs off (one terrier at a time because they get in a hunting panic). We hike that trail a ton.

Luckily it was only one time, but I lost Jo'Burg for a bit. I'm used to loosing Jezebel. She doesn't listen to me and takes her sweet time when she decides to acknowledge my presence. But not my shadow. My shadow would immediately be present, unless he was in danger...

On this trail there is a cliff with a creek. Burg's not appearing, so in my head I'm seeing him chase a rabbit down the cliff, into the creek and can't come back up. How am I going to get him up the cliff he stupidly jumped down? Can I call the firemen to rescue a dog from a creek? They do it for a cat in a tree. How much is that going to cost me???

As all this is flashing through my head, he appears, thank god! "Where have you been?", "Could you not hear me?" Pat, pat, "Bad dog! But good for coming..." (yet another reason I shouldn't have kids)

So we head off on our "gossip" hike (hiking is a good time to gossip) and there's this smell. What is that smell? Not a skunk. Not anything I recognize. Jo'Burg trots up, stink! Trots away, no stink. Oh shit!

(just reminded of the skunk story, have to share that later)

Why? Sniffing him I found it, around his head! In his mouth? Picture a dog or person who just had a huge spoon full of peanut butter. The tongue gets flapping, "it's stuck to the roof, it's stuck to the roof of my mouth!" Yep, my handsome boy just had a huge spoon full of Coyote poop... Dis-Cus-Ting..

He was so proud of himself, so proud and happy, tail wagging, "you didn't get any, I got it all" until we had him tied to the tree. Me holding his head and Ginnie spraying his mouth with the hose...

Love that boy, but never let him lick me again without a wippee handy....

escape the yard artist

I say escape the yard artist because Jo’Burg would leave the yard, but I found him all sorts of places other than the other side of the fence…

The first time he left our yard, it was to the other side of the fence. He couldn’t jump over the fence, so he tore it down. After he tore it down he ran out our community and across a major 4 lane road. Some people found him and called Chuck. I couldn’t believe what I saw when I got home…

If I didn’t close my windows in the car I left in the garage, Jo’Burg would be stuck in it when I got home. For some reason he could get in the car (usually scratching up the side) but could never manage to get out. I always wondered how long he was stuck in there. Wish I had a picture to show you. I came home this year and he was in my bug, head sticking out, tail wagging. I took a picture on my cell and sent it to Chuck, but deleted it thinking there's plenty more to come when I forget to roll up the window. Silly me...

The worst escape for me was when I forgot to close the windows to the house. Twice he did this, unfortunately once it had been raining so there was mud involved. I came home and the screen on the window was torn to shreds and there was mud everywhere. On the windowsill, in my bed (he must have been napping), in the couch, all over the floor. It looked like he kept jumping out the window to get more mud and then jump back in the house. I couldn’t believe my eyes…

And every time there was poor Jeza, meeting me when I opened the garage door crying like she was telling on Jo’Burg – “he ran away again” – squeek, squeek, squeek – “he’s in the car again” – squeek, squeek, squeek – “OMG, he’s in the house” - – squeek, squeek, squeek.

The worst escape for him was about a year ago. It all started when the wind blew down a side of my fence and he found he could venture out into the neighbors yard. He loved the neighbors yard. After I had the fence fixed, he’d still jump it and go to the neighbors yard. Sometimes she’d leave her gate open so he hopped the fence, out the gate and toured the neighborhood. My other neighbor would try to catch him for me and say he was down by the creek running back and forth. All I could think was that he was looking for me because that’s where we went running.

I’m sitting at work and I get a call on my cell. It’s some people who found Jo’Burg stuck on the fence of their next-door neighbors. Oh god, I thought. I raced to pick him up. From our house he went down the street to the creek, crossed the creek (by bridge or swim?), down about a mile to another community and tried to jump into some ones yard that had a iron rod fence. He had to have been chasing a cat to try this maneuver. The people found him with his front paws suck in the iron rods that jetted up from the brick fence. One paw was stuck in between two rods and all cut up, the other was stuck in the rod itself. They got him down before I got there, but I could not believe it. There was blood everywhere. I raced him to the vets where he got all sorts of stitches.

He only tried to escape one time after that. It had rained and when I came home he was covered in mud. Caked with mud. Red lights blaring in my head I found his tunnel, hard to see, but there's quite a ditch. (still need to fix that one)

I just love this picture,

he was such a couch hog...

we feed him what?

It was Chuck's decision to get a ridgeback. He did all the research and found the breeder. We hadn't been living together for more than a year when I found myself going to Escondido to look at a litter of puppies. I love animals and have had my share of adopted dogs growing up, but never one of my own. This addition to our family wasn't going to be any different, this was Chucks' dog. As soon as I saw them I fell in love, as you can imagine, and we made a deposit on a male, not show-quality puppy. I forget how long, but we had to come back to pick which one after they got a bit older.

Chuck let me pick the puppy when we went back. It was so hard to pick, took me hours. I sat in the corner of the pen and watched them interact. In the end I picked Jo'Burg because he was a wheaton (orange) color with big blue eyes and a bit of a loner. He'd sit in the corner and watch the other dogs. I felt he needed us.

The breeder took us up to fill out the papers and handed me this cookbook. She believed in feeding the dogs what they would normally eat in the wild. Raw meat, with added oils and flax seed and green stuff like whatever the animal they caught would have in their tummy. I looked at Chuck like "you've got to be kidding me" but took the book, figuring it was his dog, he'll make it.

On the drive home I held him on my lap as he cried for his siblings. I felt so bad but promised him he'd be happy.

Most people love a puppy, as they love a baby, but I realized how much I loved this little boy in no time. As I'm chopping up his raw chicken and mixing it with fish oils, wheat germ, dried seaweed, etc, etc every night I realized he could be Chuck's dog on paper, but guess who he cuddled with???

i lost my shadow

Jo'Burg Arnold-Wagner 8/24/1998 - 7/14/2008

I lost my shadow yesterday due to cancer. His sister, Jezebel, is doing OK but needs her mom. So I plan to type more soon...

I hope he hears Grandpa say "What do you know, Jo?" and hangs with him. I whispered the phrase in Jo'Burgs ear a bunch so he'd remember and find Grandpa...

I miss you so much but glad you aren't hurting anymore...