Day 4498

There was one less dog when we visited the kennel this afternoon. Julip has gone to her new home. Things are looking up for the Dalmatians. Potential adoptors have been looking at Candy and Oliver as well. Not surprisingly, there is a huge amount of interest in Sammy's puppies, but it's nice to see the adult dogs getting some interest as well. Hopefully more of our rescues will find their forever homes soon. Every one of of these dogs would make a great addition to some lucky family.

It's nice to see the progress the puppy mill dogs are making. Each week we visit they appear more well adjusted and normal. Rocket is much less fearful than he was when he entered the rescue program. He's become friends with one of the kennel attendants and is starting to show a playful side. Rocket won't play with Janet and I yet, but he will take cookies from us. He's definitely making progress and his skin is getting better too.  Candy is definitely calmer than she was last week. I think the person who has been thinking about adopting her has really helped. Basically, all these guys are decompressing, learning to trust, and starting to realize that life is much better than they ever thought it could be.

It was my turn to drive to the kennel this week and I tried to imagine seven hours of this on my upcoming drive to West Texas. Freeways are horrible now. The traffic is relentless and most of it consists of eighteen wheelers going as fast as they can. It is unnerving to be on a multi-lane freeway and have one of these huge trucks on either side of you. All things considered though, driving in town is still probably worse than the open road. On a busy day, even the supermarket parking lots are worse than the open road.

The weather was weird today. When we took Dawn on her early walk it was cold enough for winter coats again. The furnace was running when I woke up this morning. It warmed up quickly though. I only needed a light jacket when we visited the rescue dogs at the kennel and by the time I took my long walk later in the afternoon, I had to change to shorts and a t-shirt. Just another normal Texas day, I guess.

I got a tracking number on the camera part I ordered from China. It's coming by FedEx again. I hope I have better luck than I did with my last shipment from China. The star tracker was lost for so long that I thought I was never going to receive it. This time I am definitely not going to change the delivery location in route. In retrospect, that blunder played a big role in why the package was lost for so long.

My long walk was pretty short today. I think I overdid it yesterday. My feet bothered me quite a bit this afternoon and I saw no reason to punish myself. I only got 16,000 steps today and probably should have stopped when I passed the 10,000 mark. It's hard to stop on a nice day though. Although it was cold this morning, this afternoon was almost perfect.

Our Easter dinner tastes just as good as leftovers. Since there are only two of us, there are lots of leftovers. I"ll probably be eating Easter dinner all week. It's a good thing I like ham. I guess it's a good thing I like shredded wheat and berries as well. I might be eating this for breakfast forever. For some reason I just can't bring myself to go out for breakfast anymore. I can't bring myself to cook either. I used to cook elaborate breakfasts and even got one of my recipes in a cookbook once. Not anymore. Shredded wheat is just fine.

There's not much on the agenda for tomorrow. Sleeping in sounds good to me, but Dawn probably has other ideas.

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4464

Today was busy. It's easy for me to forget how many aspects of Dawn's life that Janet takes care of. I was finally able to get Dawn to do everything she needed to do, but it wasn't easy. I've never seen a dog so totally focused on a single person. Without her best friend nearby, Dawn seemed lost. She was pathetic and sad all day. The only way I could get her to eat was to go to to the opposite end of house after I fixed her meals. When Dawn was sure I wasn't anywhere near her food and water bowls, she would finally venture out of the bedroom and eat. She wouldn't leave the bedroom at all for her meds. I had to bring each pill back to the bed covered in cream cheese. She was reluctant to go outside and pee but I knew she couldn't hold it forever. We were a little off schedule today but I was able to get her to go outside with me on a leash. I didn't even try to get her to poop until later in the morning. She has a favorite place in a field behind our house and it took quite a while to get Dawn to work up her nerve to leave the backyard without Janet nearby. Maybe it helps that I'm usually the one who walks her. I've been doing this for months with this trip in mind.

Hopefully Dawn will start to relax a bit in the days ahead. It's going to be a long week if she stays as frightened as she was today. I was glad that she was OK with sleeping with me. She usually sleeps in the middle between Janet and me, so as long as she was on one side of the bed and I was all the way on the other, we maintained an uneasy truce. If I get too close, she starts to cry. Even with all these difficulties it is still much better for Dawn to be here than at a kennel somewhere. The house is her territory now. She loves our house and yard. I'm just kind of in the way. Dawn tolerates me when Janet is around, but I don't think I'm that important to her. Janet is the love of her life and I'm some kind of kennel attendant that takes care of a few basic chores.

If you saw how scared the puppy mill dogs the rescue group just picked up are, you'd start to understand what Dawn has gone through for most of her life. She was born in the same puppy mill kennel and spent nine years there as a breeding dog. In the grand scheme of things life in a regular home is still very new to her. To say that she has trust issues with men would be a giant understatement.

I'm still hoping that Dawn will eventually learn to trust me. It's going to take a lot of patience because Dawn hasn't had many good things happen to her in her life. She's really a wonderful dog and she deserves to relax and enjoy the rest of her life. Janet loves to travel and I prefer to stay around the house, so it would be great for everyone if Dawn could realize that I want to be her friend.

Dealing with Dawn took most of the day, but I was still able to go on my long walk, take a shower, and work with the star tracker some more. I think Dawn likes it when I take my long walks. She has the house completely to herself for two hours. She's very comfortable being alone. I watch her on the petcam sometimes while I'm out walking and she seems completely relaxed.

The latest version of the star tracker software is finally getting there. I had very few problems today. Some of the things that crashed the app before seem to have gotten fixed. I guess the next step is to take it outside at night and take some pictures. Some of the people in the Polaris support group are already getting good pictures. I'm just a little slower at mastering this thing.

Dawn has two more things to do before we're done for the day. She gets a late night snack at 10:15 PM and then goes out to pee one final time before bed. She's not a happy camper right now, but I think she did pretty good for her first day without Janet.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4456

It was a busy day at the kennel. We met the three new females. Candy is a very active eight month old pup. Julip is a small four year old who loves to smile. And Sammy is a sweet three year old mama who is going to have puppies soon. Sammy will go to a foster next week to have her puppies and Candy and Julip will soon be joined by Rocket, a three year old male who is still at the vet. Considering what these puppy mill dogs have been through, they all seemed happy and remarkably well adjusted.

We spent a lot of time taking pictures of the new dogs, but we didn't forget about Charlie, Oliver, Jo Jo, and Willie. The rescue group hasn't had this many Dalmatians for quite a while. Each of these dogs has their own unique personality, but they are all wonderful. I would have a hard time choosing a favorite. When we left the kennel this afternoon I wondered if I would see some of these dogs again. The younger Dals often get adopted very quickly.

Winter has returned, but I hope it doesn't stay around long. It was so cold when we took Dawn on her early walk this morning that she didn't want any part of being outside. As soon as she did her business, she quickly turned around and wanted to go back to the house. While I was eating breakfast it was even sleeting for a while. Eventually the sun came out, but it never got very warm. It was still cold when I took my long walk later in the afternoon when we returned from the kennel.

I didn't walk far today because my feet were bothering me again. Every day is a new day. Some days I can walk almost normally, while other days I just hobble around. The inconsistency makes no sense to me. I probably spend way too much time wondering about my feet. If things were really bad I wouldn't be able to walk at all. The simple truth is that just about everyone my age deals with aches and pains. I'm probably still doing better than most.

I noticed on my calendar that Spot's birthday is tomorrow. If Spot hadn't been such a good dog, we probably wouldn't have continued having Dalmatians after he passed away. Spot changed everything. So many Dalmatians have been a part of our lives over the years. We've had some serious health issues and there are still teeth marks in some of the furniture, but I wouldn't change a minute of the time we've been able to spend with these dogs. Hopefully the people who end up adopting our friends at the kennel will feel the same way about their Dalmatians.

I'm just about finished with my taxes, so I'll probably take the files to my accountant tomorrow. Next on the list is re-applying for press credentials with the Space Force. With NASA you apply to attend individual launches, but Space Force credentials last for the entire year. It's good that I am thinking about going to Kennedy Space Center again. For a while this Winter I didn't feel like going anywhere.

Tomorrow I need to get the new dogs up on the Dalmatian Rescue website. I probably need to get the star tracker out of the box again too. There have been several software and firmware upgrades recently and I need to keep up. I keep moving along but I still have trouble doing more than one thing a day.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4453

What was I thinking when I convinced myself that I could post something interesting for 5000 days? There are a lot of days where nothing interesting happens at all. I really don't have a lot of wisdom to share. Each morning I reluctantly get up. We take Dawn on a morning walk. I come home and make the bed and then I eat breakfast. Breakfast is the only time I watch television during the day. I wonder why I continue to do this because the news is universally dismal. Watching the morning news doesn't give you a lot of faith in humanity. After breakfast I turn on the computer and check my e-mail. The mail is almost entirely spam these days. I did get a message from the Space Force this morning reminding me to reapply for 2022 press credentials. I'll do that tomorrow. Sometimes I take my long walk in the morning and other times I wait until the afternoon. It all depends on the weather and how my feet are feeling.

I almost always walk the same route. This route has become so familiar to me that I could probably do it with my eyes closed. The long walk is a little over four and a half miles. With Dawn's shorter walks, this give me a total of at least six miles every day. Lately I've enjoyed watching the renovations that are taking place to the main trail that circles the lake. The work is pretty impressive. If only they built our city's roads this well. There are a few ducks and geese I see every day. I haven't given them names yet, but maybe I should. Two of the resident geese have disappeared and I haven't seen the Muscovy Ducks for a while. Whenever I start thinking that these birds might have died, they suddenly reappear. Usually by this time of year I start seeing wildflowers. Not this year. I've seen nothing so far, which is kind of odd.

My seasonal allergies are so bad this year that they actually help take my mind off my feet. The allergies are so pervasive that I occasionally think that this might be some strange undocumented Covid symptom. I've always tested negative though so I suspect that this is just is just a bad case of ordinary Hay Fever. I shouldn't complain about things like this because I know so many people who are dealing with far worse. It is irritating though to have a continual runny nose.

I'm glad to see that the fundraiser for the puppy mill Dalmatians appears to be going well. With this kind of support, it looks like we will reach our goal. I wonder what the dogs think about their new life. They are all scared right now, but it won't take them long to realize that their lives have dramatically improved. These dogs are all going to get really good homes.

I have mixed feelings about the war in Ukraine. I really think the United States should stop getting involved in foreign wars while at the same time wondering why we aren't doing more to help the Ukrainians. There is an impressive amount of unity among the Western nations. You'd think that with everybody on the same page we could do a lot more to stop Putin. What do you do in a situation like this? You can't let Putin get away with anything he wants. At the same time you don't want to start a nuclear war. I'm glad I'm not making the decisions. I have a feeling that it is a no win situation.

Janet's trip is getting closer and I still haven't won Dawn over yet. This will be interesting. Dawn tolerates me but I don't think she trusts me. This is understandable considering what she went through at the puppy mill, but I still wish I could convince her that I'm OK. I do think I'm making progress, but Dawn is not a young dog. Do I have time? At any rate, I've got my work cut out for me while Janet is on vacation.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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