Sometimes... life makes a LEFT turn

I started to write this post on Tuesday morning, but my heart was just too broken. Every line made me want to start crying all over again. So I erased what I had written leaving just the title.

I am back, not to normal quite yet, but there is a little brighter future and more work, but it will be joyful.

The Heartbreak: We had to give Bandit back to the breeder over the weekend. It was a very difficult decision for us. It was a first for me to abandon a pet. But it is what needed to be done. We had been working with the breeder to bring some of his escalating behaviours under control since late summer. While some things were getting better, the one thing that caused us the most difficulty was not. He wanted to be the dominate figure in the house and was starting to use his size (90 pounds at 10 months) and teeth to push back, we had been trying to work through this. The last straw was when he nearly got me in the face, (his teeth grazed the flesh and left welts) and he did get my hand, I have a few healing holes. 

Monday and Tuesday were difficult and after crying and agonizing I sent the breeder a note, asking how Bandit was doing. If he was adjusting (to living outdoors in a kennel after being a house dog and the new rules). We missed his presence (chaos and all) just like a year or so ago when we had to say goodbye to Axel his predecessor. We do have Lini, and she tries, but her temperament is very laid back and pretty easy going, (unless you are a rabbit or a squirrel in the yard). The breeder called last night to reassure me  us, that Bandit is adjusting, although in some cases not willingly, but he will continue to work with him. 

Bandit with Jeff, the breeder, you can see how big Bandit is!

The joyful part? He offered us another puppy. I don't think that would have been the case if we had not worked so hard to try and bring Bandit around. We drove 5-6 hours round trip to spend an hour or two each week with the breeder and we did all the homework and training he suggested and Bandit was happy to comply -but the Dominant Aggression just would not stop. So we go this weekend to view them and make a selection. I don't know if it will be released or if they plan to keep them a little longer, but I am making preparations! I know a new puppy will not be the same, but it will be close and that will have to be good enough. 

There will still be sadness, as we adjust. Bandit did have a sweet side that he showed us most of the time, but the times he wanted to be boss were scarey and becoming more frequent, not less. We knew he needed more that we could physically give him in terms of control and that was the best thing FOR him.

Stay tuned! Lots more later- Beth

Struggles....

Time!!! Do you have enough? Do you have times when you seem to have all the time in the world and other times where no matter how you.... rearrange the demands you don't have enough? Sometimes it is a big thing and other times it is many many small things. Sometimes at the end of the week do you wonder how you got it all done?

One of the fellows my husband used to work with called the small
things 'Time Thieves'. Little things that eat up lots of your time and attention in small almost unnoticeable chunks, that add up to hours at the end of the week.

We all experience the little ones... emptying the dishwasher, picking up a room, feeding the dog, answering a phone call that extends by 15 minutes.... giving some attention to a family member that just needs a little comfort or a sounding board. I bet you can name a few too and at the end of the week wonder where all you time went?

And there are the regular big ones... work for a paycheck and then there is housework, and family duties oh and let's not forget sleep. All suck up an enormous chunk of our available time, not to mention energy.

At my house we seem to be grappling with a few of the bigger ones. Bandit, the 10 month old puppy has needed a little adjustment. He is a dog bred to be aggressive, (not necessarily mean, but not a fraidy cat either). He was not understanding his place in the house and certainly forgetting what the word NO meant in regard to him. So off to the breeder, for some
more stringent training than the regular obedience that we already completed. This is taking about 17-20 hours a week, but in the end Bandit will be a better dog and we of course will people and all be on the same page.

Added to the dog woes... my computer has been acting up... regularly for months but I just couldn't figure out where the problem was. The computer was shutting down, or the program I was in (usually Google Chrome) would freeze and I would have to restart, or after restarting the computer the program would not start so restart the computer again. I think I have it worked out now. It appears to have been caused by an Anti-Virus/Internet Security update/upgrade that was loading a .dll or other startup directive... where it cause interference with another program, possibly even Windows 10. But my computer has behaved itself for 24 hours now, without a restart, which lately is a record.

So where was all this going you ask... well my time has either been used up or not allocated well enough, and I seem to be behind in all areas.... and for me it won't get too much better until the end of September. The for most of the month I get to play hostess...  a little time back in Chicagoland, some time showing off Kentucky and a trip to Paducah for the new Fall Show. I am so excited about this opportunity, and of course, I will post about that a bit later.

In the meantime, check out www.ihaveanotion.com... I have started to update the stock and some of the prices. So far Books, DVDs, Fabric/Kits and Stabilizers have been sorted. Check them out, some are pretty good bargains if it is something you need.

As always, there will be More Later-
Beth and Bandit