Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Last of the Writing
"The Lost History of Sathyriel" is finished, for the time being, as I still plan to go back and edit it quite a bit. It's over at StormWyvern Press, but you knew that already.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Holy Crap, More Writing?
Part Seven of "The Lost History of Sathyriel" is up on StormWyvern Press. This is the first time I've been into the writing enough not to even bother putting on my recently compiled playlist of instrumental music. The ending should be coming early next week, if not sooner.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thoughts on the Writing.
No new "Lost History of Sathyriel" today as I wrote another partial section. But I figured I'd get down a few of y thought on how the writing is going.
I've been writing pretty regularly every weekday for I guess the past two weeks. The story is now about 37 pages long and over 13,000 words. I recently started checking how many word I write per day. I did about 800 on the previous two days and nearly 1,200 today due to a particularly long piece of dialogue.
As I said in the StormWyvern Press comments, I'm enjoying writing something where I'm certain of the ending but not all of the stops along the way. The conversation I'm writing now has to hit a couple of key points, but I'm not entirely sure how it will end or what else they might talk about on the way. I'm not sure, but I think knowing that I'll be writing every day makes me less anxious about getting through sections like this, since I know I'll be writing more tomorrow rather than waiting days before returning to it.
The one real problem is that I'm starting to worry about what I'm going to write after "Lost History" is done. Unlike "The Last Battle", the end is very much in sight. Continuing "Last Battle" may be an option, but I'm not sure it's what I want to do. I just hope I can find something that holds my interest; I want to keep this momentum going.
I've been writing pretty regularly every weekday for I guess the past two weeks. The story is now about 37 pages long and over 13,000 words. I recently started checking how many word I write per day. I did about 800 on the previous two days and nearly 1,200 today due to a particularly long piece of dialogue.
As I said in the StormWyvern Press comments, I'm enjoying writing something where I'm certain of the ending but not all of the stops along the way. The conversation I'm writing now has to hit a couple of key points, but I'm not entirely sure how it will end or what else they might talk about on the way. I'm not sure, but I think knowing that I'll be writing every day makes me less anxious about getting through sections like this, since I know I'll be writing more tomorrow rather than waiting days before returning to it.
The one real problem is that I'm starting to worry about what I'm going to write after "Lost History" is done. Unlike "The Last Battle", the end is very much in sight. Continuing "Last Battle" may be an option, but I'm not sure it's what I want to do. I just hope I can find something that holds my interest; I want to keep this momentum going.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Workin' on a Mystery
I did work more on "Lost History of Sathyriel" today, but I don't think it's enough to post yet. So instead, here's something fun I did yesterday.
I have a brief but strong memory from my childhood of seeing the video for Tom Petty and the Haertbreakers' "Runnin' Down a Dream". I remembered that it was animated and probably black and white, but not much else. So yesterday, I popped onto YouTube to see I could find it. Not only did I locate the video, but I discovered that it was a total homage to Winsor McKay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland"! Awesome!
Check it out
I have a brief but strong memory from my childhood of seeing the video for Tom Petty and the Haertbreakers' "Runnin' Down a Dream". I remembered that it was animated and probably black and white, but not much else. So yesterday, I popped onto YouTube to see I could find it. Not only did I locate the video, but I discovered that it was a total homage to Winsor McKay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland"! Awesome!
Check it out
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Writing Continues
Part Five of "The Lost History of Sathyriel" is up on StormWyvern Press. Link is in the usual place.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Look Ma, More Writing.
The link is both in the entries below and on in the lists of links on the right, so I think you can find it OK. I'm nearly done telling iTunes where all the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack files are, so hopefully future writing will go faster without me having to periodically stop and locate another file.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
New Writing
I'm trying to get some writing done again. Starting the Front Lobby Bench back up is still in progress. So for the time being, I'm writing some stuff for StormWyvern Press. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Oscar Thoughts
Still no comments, which has admittedly slowed my enthusiasm for keeping up the journal. But I still feel like I should and I've got some thoughts worth writing about. So let's see how long this lasts.
The Oscar nominations have been announced. With the continuing writers' strike (which I support), the sort of ceremony we'll get - if any - is still in doubt. But for the time being, the speculation is on.
As usual, I haven't seen many of the big nominees this year. With Andrew's job, getting out to see movies has become even more difficult. I can tell you that we really liked "Juno" and I hear good things about a lot of the other films with a lot of nominations, but that's about it. The animated categories, on the other hand, I can say a few things about.
There are five films up for Best Animated Short. In most years, I end up seeing one or none of the nominated shorts, usually a Pixar offering if anything. The vast majority of animated shorts (and live action short films, for that matter) only show in festivals and touring shows nowadays and I seldom get out to see them. But this year, a friend of mine located either the entire short or a trailer for the short for all five nominees on YouTube. So i've seen three of the shorts in their entirety and trailers for the other two.
My pick up of the films I've seen in their entirety is "Peter and the Wolf", a stop motion adaptation of the Prokofiev piece. The story itself is pretty faithful to the original aside from a slight modernization and a little bit of additional material. What makes this short special is the animation. This is some of the most expressive stop motion I have ever seen, with beautiful suggestions of character through action and movement. There's no dialogue and everything is perfectly conveyed through the characters' expressions and particular little motions.
The runner up for me in this category is "Moya Iyubov" ("My Love"). This film is done with oil on glass, quite possibly the most insanity inducing method of animating I can think of. The animator makes a painting with oil paints on a piece of glass, shoots one frame, uses linseed oil to erase parts of the picture, makes changes, shoots another frame, an so on. It's all the difficulties of stop motion - where once a frame is altered, it's gone forever - without the benefit of at least having your set and puppets still there to work with when you finish. The result, though, is absolutely beautiful, like a painting come to life. The reason it isn't my top choice for Best Animated Short may not be entirely fair. The film is Russian, it has a lot of dialogue, and there's no subtitled version available. It also featured very realistic characters, to the point where it feels a little too much like live action with a filter on it to me. It's beautiful and definitely worth watching, but it's not something that I had any kind of emotional connection with.
The other three films are a comic computer animated short that isn't particularly impressive in any way and the two I only saw trailers for and can't really comment on.
Best Animated Feature Film is a bit more of a challenge for me. I've seen two of the three nominated films and I really can't decide between them. (Incidentally, the nomination of the third film, "Surf's Up", surprised even Sony, the company that produced the film. They did not run any kind of publicity campaign for its nomination, so why it was chosen is anybody's guess. It won't win, though. Penguin movies are so Oscars 2007.)
"Ratatouille" is Pixar and Brad Bird's latest film, about a French rodent with gourmet tastes and a dream of becoming a chef. It's a beautiful film with an excellent balance of comedy and drama. The animation continues to up the Pixar standard. It doesn't talk down to kids and in fact barely caters to them at all. It's just a really excellent movie, let alone animated movie.
"Persepolis" is based on the autobiographical graphic novels about a woman's childhood in Iran. It's 2D, with a very simple style, and most of the film is in black and white. It's in French with English subtitles. It isn't a complete downer all the way through; the pacing and insertion of scenes to relieve tension are quite good. But given the subject matter, it's not light entertainment and certainly not for the kiddie set. Frankly, I've never seen an animated film quite like it.
The problem I have in choosing between these two films points to a flaw in having a Best Animated Feature category (or Best Picture, for that matter). Aside from both being animated, these two films have very little in common and it's nearly impossible to judge if one does its job better than the other, just as it's hard to say whether a comedy does a better job of being a comedy than a period epic does of being a period epic. I'm glad that there is a Best Animated Feature category, as it sometimes brings attention to films the public may not be aware of. But it just seems fruitless to pick a best film when the group contains both apples and oranges.
Which will win? I can't say there either. More people have probably seen "Ratatouille", which may give it an edge. But voters may also feel that "Persepolis" is a more "arty" and "important" film, the type that Academy members like to vote for. I could easily see them voting for it based on the plot summary alone without even seeing the film. Whichever wins, though, I'll be happy. I think it's definitely a good thing when there are two animated films up for the Oscar that are both so good that I can't make up my mind which should take the honor home.
The Oscar nominations have been announced. With the continuing writers' strike (which I support), the sort of ceremony we'll get - if any - is still in doubt. But for the time being, the speculation is on.
As usual, I haven't seen many of the big nominees this year. With Andrew's job, getting out to see movies has become even more difficult. I can tell you that we really liked "Juno" and I hear good things about a lot of the other films with a lot of nominations, but that's about it. The animated categories, on the other hand, I can say a few things about.
There are five films up for Best Animated Short. In most years, I end up seeing one or none of the nominated shorts, usually a Pixar offering if anything. The vast majority of animated shorts (and live action short films, for that matter) only show in festivals and touring shows nowadays and I seldom get out to see them. But this year, a friend of mine located either the entire short or a trailer for the short for all five nominees on YouTube. So i've seen three of the shorts in their entirety and trailers for the other two.
My pick up of the films I've seen in their entirety is "Peter and the Wolf", a stop motion adaptation of the Prokofiev piece. The story itself is pretty faithful to the original aside from a slight modernization and a little bit of additional material. What makes this short special is the animation. This is some of the most expressive stop motion I have ever seen, with beautiful suggestions of character through action and movement. There's no dialogue and everything is perfectly conveyed through the characters' expressions and particular little motions.
The runner up for me in this category is "Moya Iyubov" ("My Love"). This film is done with oil on glass, quite possibly the most insanity inducing method of animating I can think of. The animator makes a painting with oil paints on a piece of glass, shoots one frame, uses linseed oil to erase parts of the picture, makes changes, shoots another frame, an so on. It's all the difficulties of stop motion - where once a frame is altered, it's gone forever - without the benefit of at least having your set and puppets still there to work with when you finish. The result, though, is absolutely beautiful, like a painting come to life. The reason it isn't my top choice for Best Animated Short may not be entirely fair. The film is Russian, it has a lot of dialogue, and there's no subtitled version available. It also featured very realistic characters, to the point where it feels a little too much like live action with a filter on it to me. It's beautiful and definitely worth watching, but it's not something that I had any kind of emotional connection with.
The other three films are a comic computer animated short that isn't particularly impressive in any way and the two I only saw trailers for and can't really comment on.
Best Animated Feature Film is a bit more of a challenge for me. I've seen two of the three nominated films and I really can't decide between them. (Incidentally, the nomination of the third film, "Surf's Up", surprised even Sony, the company that produced the film. They did not run any kind of publicity campaign for its nomination, so why it was chosen is anybody's guess. It won't win, though. Penguin movies are so Oscars 2007.)
"Ratatouille" is Pixar and Brad Bird's latest film, about a French rodent with gourmet tastes and a dream of becoming a chef. It's a beautiful film with an excellent balance of comedy and drama. The animation continues to up the Pixar standard. It doesn't talk down to kids and in fact barely caters to them at all. It's just a really excellent movie, let alone animated movie.
"Persepolis" is based on the autobiographical graphic novels about a woman's childhood in Iran. It's 2D, with a very simple style, and most of the film is in black and white. It's in French with English subtitles. It isn't a complete downer all the way through; the pacing and insertion of scenes to relieve tension are quite good. But given the subject matter, it's not light entertainment and certainly not for the kiddie set. Frankly, I've never seen an animated film quite like it.
The problem I have in choosing between these two films points to a flaw in having a Best Animated Feature category (or Best Picture, for that matter). Aside from both being animated, these two films have very little in common and it's nearly impossible to judge if one does its job better than the other, just as it's hard to say whether a comedy does a better job of being a comedy than a period epic does of being a period epic. I'm glad that there is a Best Animated Feature category, as it sometimes brings attention to films the public may not be aware of. But it just seems fruitless to pick a best film when the group contains both apples and oranges.
Which will win? I can't say there either. More people have probably seen "Ratatouille", which may give it an edge. But voters may also feel that "Persepolis" is a more "arty" and "important" film, the type that Academy members like to vote for. I could easily see them voting for it based on the plot summary alone without even seeing the film. Whichever wins, though, I'll be happy. I think it's definitely a good thing when there are two animated films up for the Oscar that are both so good that I can't make up my mind which should take the honor home.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tech Update
Every now and then, I find it a little disturbing how addicted Andrew and I are to our technology. A couple of days ago, we were building Andrew's new computer desk, which took all afternoon and necessitated unplugging both of our computers. (I inherited his old computer desk.) Andrew commented on how strange it felt not to have internet access for even just a couple of hours. Of course, he uses his computer for work as well, but I felt much the same. We both spend a lot of time on the computers and a fair amount of time with the TV, either watching shows, watching DVDs, or playing video games. Even when I'm out walking the dog, I make the longer walks more interesting by listening to a podcast on the iPod. We end up kind of at a loss when the modem malfunctions, let alone when we're without power for a while.
Nonetheless, I generally like our various technology. Andrew and I each have a MacMini, each with an additional storage drive. Andrew just recently purchased a new Cintiq tablet monitor, which allows him to use a stylus to draw directly on the screen. Hopefully, he'll be able to do more work at home that way. I still have the iPod mini I got about three years ago. It's not as nice as Andrew's, which plays videos and has the nice full color screen and everything. But it still works. I mainly listen to podcasts these days, as they tend to be longer than most music I have and help me to pass time and stay interested while I'm doing something better than a bunch of short songs taking up the same amount of time.
If the internet is something of an addiction for me, video games are even more so, though I try to keep it under some level of control. I got three games for Christmas this year. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games is pretty much what it sounds like: the characters from the Mario and Sonic franchises competing for the gold in the summer Olympics. It's for the Wii and actually provides a pretty decent workout. Also for the Wii is Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, a kind of puzzle-adventure game which has been getting hugely positive reviews. However, I've only played "Mario and Sonic" a few times and I haven't even opened "Zack and Wiki" yet. Why? Mass Effect.
We bought an XBox 360 over the summer, largely so Andrew could have the version of the "TransFormers" movie game that came with a bonus disc. I appreciated the system's capabilities and even joined in the occasional Halo online battle. But I wasn't really playing a game seriously on the system until "Mass Effect". "Mass Effect" is a huge RPG from BioWare, makers of the popular "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic". "Mass Effect" is more of an homage to the great science fiction movies of the 80s and early 90s. You play as Commander Shepard, the first human to join the ranks of the Spectres, an elite group charged with maintaining order in the universe with carte blanche to act as they see fit. Your character's appearance is highly customizable. You can choose to be male or female, make up a first name (the game gets around this in dialogue by having other characters call you by your last name), change your hair, eye color, and facial features, and even select from a couple of different back stories. Unlike in many RPGs, your character does talk, with male and female voice actors recording hundreds of lines of dialogue for your character's various response options. Like the best games of its kind, "Mass Effect" gives the player tons of freedom. You can behave virtuously or demand payments from those you help or refuse to take on their problems. You can charm people in to seeing things your way or intimidate them into doing what you want. You can work on your main mission of saving the universe from a threat against all life, take on side missions on various planets, talk people through their problems, or just waste all your money gambling at the casino.
I was playing yesterday while waiting for Andrew to get home and came to a point where I had to make a call. Now a lot of the choices I make in this game are pretty clear cut, like "help this person" or "ignore this person". Some are less so, like siding with one person or another in an argument where both make good points. But this was a really difficult call. Though I couldn't be sure of the outcome, it seemed like something bad was going to happen either way. I made my choice and there were consequences. And I really felt it. I kept wondering if I had made the right decision, if things might have gone better if i had gone with the other choice. Then I realized that I was feeling exactly what I should have been feeling about that situation. If I really was a military commander who had to make a hard call with no clearly "right" choice, I would probably be second guessing myself and wondering if I had done the right thing. I was in love with the game already, but that was the point where it gave me something I had never experienced in a video game before: a real feeling of owning my actions and their consequences. It's an amazing game that I'd recommend you try if you get the chance.
Nonetheless, I generally like our various technology. Andrew and I each have a MacMini, each with an additional storage drive. Andrew just recently purchased a new Cintiq tablet monitor, which allows him to use a stylus to draw directly on the screen. Hopefully, he'll be able to do more work at home that way. I still have the iPod mini I got about three years ago. It's not as nice as Andrew's, which plays videos and has the nice full color screen and everything. But it still works. I mainly listen to podcasts these days, as they tend to be longer than most music I have and help me to pass time and stay interested while I'm doing something better than a bunch of short songs taking up the same amount of time.
If the internet is something of an addiction for me, video games are even more so, though I try to keep it under some level of control. I got three games for Christmas this year. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games is pretty much what it sounds like: the characters from the Mario and Sonic franchises competing for the gold in the summer Olympics. It's for the Wii and actually provides a pretty decent workout. Also for the Wii is Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, a kind of puzzle-adventure game which has been getting hugely positive reviews. However, I've only played "Mario and Sonic" a few times and I haven't even opened "Zack and Wiki" yet. Why? Mass Effect.
We bought an XBox 360 over the summer, largely so Andrew could have the version of the "TransFormers" movie game that came with a bonus disc. I appreciated the system's capabilities and even joined in the occasional Halo online battle. But I wasn't really playing a game seriously on the system until "Mass Effect". "Mass Effect" is a huge RPG from BioWare, makers of the popular "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic". "Mass Effect" is more of an homage to the great science fiction movies of the 80s and early 90s. You play as Commander Shepard, the first human to join the ranks of the Spectres, an elite group charged with maintaining order in the universe with carte blanche to act as they see fit. Your character's appearance is highly customizable. You can choose to be male or female, make up a first name (the game gets around this in dialogue by having other characters call you by your last name), change your hair, eye color, and facial features, and even select from a couple of different back stories. Unlike in many RPGs, your character does talk, with male and female voice actors recording hundreds of lines of dialogue for your character's various response options. Like the best games of its kind, "Mass Effect" gives the player tons of freedom. You can behave virtuously or demand payments from those you help or refuse to take on their problems. You can charm people in to seeing things your way or intimidate them into doing what you want. You can work on your main mission of saving the universe from a threat against all life, take on side missions on various planets, talk people through their problems, or just waste all your money gambling at the casino.
I was playing yesterday while waiting for Andrew to get home and came to a point where I had to make a call. Now a lot of the choices I make in this game are pretty clear cut, like "help this person" or "ignore this person". Some are less so, like siding with one person or another in an argument where both make good points. But this was a really difficult call. Though I couldn't be sure of the outcome, it seemed like something bad was going to happen either way. I made my choice and there were consequences. And I really felt it. I kept wondering if I had made the right decision, if things might have gone better if i had gone with the other choice. Then I realized that I was feeling exactly what I should have been feeling about that situation. If I really was a military commander who had to make a hard call with no clearly "right" choice, I would probably be second guessing myself and wondering if I had done the right thing. I was in love with the game already, but that was the point where it gave me something I had never experienced in a video game before: a real feeling of owning my actions and their consequences. It's an amazing game that I'd recommend you try if you get the chance.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tired
I just haven't felt like doing anything today. Why is that when Andrew tells me to be productive and spend some time drawing as he leaves for work, I end up completely not wanting to do either? Of course, I haven't in really wanted to draw for a long time, but that's another issue.
I spent most of the morning in bed. I haven't been able to really sleep in at all since we got Dante and I just wanted to rest. Dante likes sleeping on the bed, though he's not supposed to do it unless one of us is there to invite him. So he just curled up next to me and stayed there. I was glad for his company and for knowing that he wasn't getting into trouble.
Usually, I don't mind being alone for most of the day on most days. I can often get more done that way and do what I want without having to worry about anyone else's preferences for a while. But every once in a while, it loses its charm. I wish there was someone I could call or someone who would call me and just talk about how I was doing. I wish I had someone I could go to for advise about how to get past the points where I feel stuck. And no, this isn't a "subtle" way of asking whoever might be reading this to pay more attention to me. Through no one's fault but my own, I just don't have the kind of friendships where I can talk about these minor issues on a daily basis without it being a big deal with lots of catching up and possibly more worry than is necessary involved. Again, not anybody's fault but my own.
More upbeat post next time.
I spent most of the morning in bed. I haven't been able to really sleep in at all since we got Dante and I just wanted to rest. Dante likes sleeping on the bed, though he's not supposed to do it unless one of us is there to invite him. So he just curled up next to me and stayed there. I was glad for his company and for knowing that he wasn't getting into trouble.
Usually, I don't mind being alone for most of the day on most days. I can often get more done that way and do what I want without having to worry about anyone else's preferences for a while. But every once in a while, it loses its charm. I wish there was someone I could call or someone who would call me and just talk about how I was doing. I wish I had someone I could go to for advise about how to get past the points where I feel stuck. And no, this isn't a "subtle" way of asking whoever might be reading this to pay more attention to me. Through no one's fault but my own, I just don't have the kind of friendships where I can talk about these minor issues on a daily basis without it being a big deal with lots of catching up and possibly more worry than is necessary involved. Again, not anybody's fault but my own.
More upbeat post next time.
Monday, January 21, 2008
An Open Letter
Dear Lady with Four Dogs,
You don't know me, but I'm the woman you saw late this afternoon walking the mid-sized terrier mix up my driveway to my house. You were the woman with four little dogs (I think it was two pomeranians, a chihuahua, and what looked like a very small spaniel) walking along the bike path. For reason I'll get into in a moment, I couldn't help but notice that none of your dogs were wearing leashes. The town laws, which you probably received just as I did when you got notification that it was time to renew you four dog licenses, state that all dogs must be leashed or under effective command. Now I know dogs aren't always perfectly behaved and I'm generally not going to complain if a dog comes over to sniff me so long as the owner has the dog under reasonable control. As you may have guessed from the fact that I have a dog, I love dogs. I love dogs of all breeds, shapes, and sizes. The fact that your four dogs are all very small does not come into this. As long as you're keeping your dogs under control within reason, you'll have no trouble from me.
Unfortunately, this was no the case. As I was coming home from walking my dog, on-leash, I heard a high pitched barking. Looking up my driveway towards the bike path, I saw one little dog running up from the bike path in my direction. Seconds later, I was stunned to see the one dog joined by three more little dogs, all running from the bike path onto my property, all barking like crazy at my dog.
Now again, I like dogs. I hope I never in my life have to hurt one for any reason. But when I see a bunch of dogs running at me barking with no owner in sight, I get worried. And when my dog is with me, my dog who is a great dog but who gets very excited when he sees other dog and who seldom has the sense to see when another dog clearly does not want to play with him, I get worried about him. My dog's safety comes first. I told him to sit and despite being excited, he listened. I put myself between him and your four barking dogs as best I could and started trying to shoo them away. I yelled, I waved my hands and the end of the leash. I was not exactly friendly to them. Under those circumstance, it's hard to be.
It was at this point that you started calling your dogs. And I watched as, hesitantly, they turned around and started running back to you. But they didn't make it all the way back. They turned right around and ran back into my yard over to my dog. You called again, they came closer to you. Some of them did actually come back that second time, but there was one who still wasn't convinced. he headed back towards me and my dog and you had to call him a third time before he rejoined you and the others and you were on your way.
Now what's wrong with this picture? My dog - who is far from perfect obedience-wise, but generally responds to my commands - was on a leash, on my property, heading home from a walk. Your four dogs were off-leash, ran onto the property of a total stranger, barked at a strange dog who was on his property and not bothering them at all, and failed to come all the way back to you before you had called them three times. I do appreciate that you at least did not get mad at me for yelling at your dogs to beat it. But an apology, or some acknowledgment of the fact that your dogs should not have been on my property, would have been nice.
Again, the law in this town is that dogs need to be restrained or under effective command when off the owner's property. Your dogs were not under your control in any sense of the word. They need to be on leashes. Now maybe you think that's too much hassle. Maybe the leashes get all tangled up and you spend more time getting them straightened out than you do actually walking. I don't care. You're the one who chose to have four dogs. You're the one who needs to figure out how to walk them effectively and within the boundaries of the law and the bike path. And it's not just me that I'm thinking about here. It's your dogs too. What if they had run into someone else's yard, someone who didn't just yell and wave her arms, but gave each of your dogs a good sharp kick? What if one of your dogs ended up in a yard with a little kid and before you could get the dog back, the kid pulled the dog's tail and the dog bit the kid? Or what if one of the dogs even just wandered onto the wrong side of the bike path just as a fast moving cyclist was coming the other way?
I am an understanding person, especially when it comes to dogs. Had I met your four dogs under better circumstances, I may well have liked them very much. But for your dogs to run into my yard and bark at me and my dog, completely free of your control, is unacceptable. If your any of your dogs ever ventures onto my property again, I will not hesitate to tell you to leash your dogs. And if you give me the slightest bit of trouble, I will not hesitate to call the police - who have their station right on the other side of the bike path, in case you didn't know - and ask them to speak to you about leashing your dogs. For the sake of your little pack, if nothing else, I hope you are more careful in the future.
Regards,
Sara
You don't know me, but I'm the woman you saw late this afternoon walking the mid-sized terrier mix up my driveway to my house. You were the woman with four little dogs (I think it was two pomeranians, a chihuahua, and what looked like a very small spaniel) walking along the bike path. For reason I'll get into in a moment, I couldn't help but notice that none of your dogs were wearing leashes. The town laws, which you probably received just as I did when you got notification that it was time to renew you four dog licenses, state that all dogs must be leashed or under effective command. Now I know dogs aren't always perfectly behaved and I'm generally not going to complain if a dog comes over to sniff me so long as the owner has the dog under reasonable control. As you may have guessed from the fact that I have a dog, I love dogs. I love dogs of all breeds, shapes, and sizes. The fact that your four dogs are all very small does not come into this. As long as you're keeping your dogs under control within reason, you'll have no trouble from me.
Unfortunately, this was no the case. As I was coming home from walking my dog, on-leash, I heard a high pitched barking. Looking up my driveway towards the bike path, I saw one little dog running up from the bike path in my direction. Seconds later, I was stunned to see the one dog joined by three more little dogs, all running from the bike path onto my property, all barking like crazy at my dog.
Now again, I like dogs. I hope I never in my life have to hurt one for any reason. But when I see a bunch of dogs running at me barking with no owner in sight, I get worried. And when my dog is with me, my dog who is a great dog but who gets very excited when he sees other dog and who seldom has the sense to see when another dog clearly does not want to play with him, I get worried about him. My dog's safety comes first. I told him to sit and despite being excited, he listened. I put myself between him and your four barking dogs as best I could and started trying to shoo them away. I yelled, I waved my hands and the end of the leash. I was not exactly friendly to them. Under those circumstance, it's hard to be.
It was at this point that you started calling your dogs. And I watched as, hesitantly, they turned around and started running back to you. But they didn't make it all the way back. They turned right around and ran back into my yard over to my dog. You called again, they came closer to you. Some of them did actually come back that second time, but there was one who still wasn't convinced. he headed back towards me and my dog and you had to call him a third time before he rejoined you and the others and you were on your way.
Now what's wrong with this picture? My dog - who is far from perfect obedience-wise, but generally responds to my commands - was on a leash, on my property, heading home from a walk. Your four dogs were off-leash, ran onto the property of a total stranger, barked at a strange dog who was on his property and not bothering them at all, and failed to come all the way back to you before you had called them three times. I do appreciate that you at least did not get mad at me for yelling at your dogs to beat it. But an apology, or some acknowledgment of the fact that your dogs should not have been on my property, would have been nice.
Again, the law in this town is that dogs need to be restrained or under effective command when off the owner's property. Your dogs were not under your control in any sense of the word. They need to be on leashes. Now maybe you think that's too much hassle. Maybe the leashes get all tangled up and you spend more time getting them straightened out than you do actually walking. I don't care. You're the one who chose to have four dogs. You're the one who needs to figure out how to walk them effectively and within the boundaries of the law and the bike path. And it's not just me that I'm thinking about here. It's your dogs too. What if they had run into someone else's yard, someone who didn't just yell and wave her arms, but gave each of your dogs a good sharp kick? What if one of your dogs ended up in a yard with a little kid and before you could get the dog back, the kid pulled the dog's tail and the dog bit the kid? Or what if one of the dogs even just wandered onto the wrong side of the bike path just as a fast moving cyclist was coming the other way?
I am an understanding person, especially when it comes to dogs. Had I met your four dogs under better circumstances, I may well have liked them very much. But for your dogs to run into my yard and bark at me and my dog, completely free of your control, is unacceptable. If your any of your dogs ever ventures onto my property again, I will not hesitate to tell you to leash your dogs. And if you give me the slightest bit of trouble, I will not hesitate to call the police - who have their station right on the other side of the bike path, in case you didn't know - and ask them to speak to you about leashing your dogs. For the sake of your little pack, if nothing else, I hope you are more careful in the future.
Regards,
Sara
Pets Update
I don't harbor any illusions about keeping this blog updated on a regular basis again. But I figured I'd give it a shot just for good measure. Hopefully, it will inspire people whose blogs I read to update as well. Anyways, it's been a while, so there is quite a bit to discuss. I was going to do it all in one fell swoop, but it's turning out pretty long, so I'll be doing separate posts.
We adopted a dog in September. Much talk and planning went into this. (It's the reason I was cleaning off the upstairs landing in August: anticipation of a dog crate.) Dante is some kind of terrier mix, possibly some hound and whippet in there too. He's now about eight months old. I had no intention of getting a dog that young, but he honestly seemed like the best fit for our family. His original name was "Loafer" due to his low activity level indoors and his refusal to walk on a leash on the shelter's bare floors, making t necessary for the staff to kind of drag him around. After going through a bunch of name ideas, we settled on "Dante", after the main character in "Clerks. He's a wonderful dog. After a few weeks of me thinking that I'd made a mistake n getting a dog (which is fairly normal when I bring any new animal home), he settled in and became part of the family. He's fully housebroken, knows "sit", "down", "stay", "wait", "come", "crate", "hop up", "off", and "paw", graduated from his obedience class, and loves us both. He's absolutely fine with the bunnies - partly because we worked on introducing them and partly because his indoor prey drive is pretty nonexistent. Currently, his only real issues are barking at the door - which can be stopped pretty easily, his carsickness- which we're hoping he'll grow out of, and chewing on things that aren't his when we leave him alone for a while. He never shows any interest in doing this while we're home, so we're just resigned to crating him when we go out. Overall though, he's a terrific dog and I can't imagine being without him.
The story of another dog in my life has finally reached the point where I can talk about it this month, A couple of weeks before we brought Dante home, we had adopted another dog from the same shelter. "Dolly" (we never came up with another name for her) was a beautiful aussie/border collie mix with a likely difficult past. She was shy and probably had been mistreated before coming to the shelter. She seemed to be doing well around people when we brought her to the pet store and on her first walk, so I decided she would be OK coming to our neighbor's block party. On the way there, she was frightened by a kid bouncing a beach ball near her. She slipped out of her collar and ran away from me.
We spent the next two weeks trying to catch her and then to just find her. We called animal control, which provided very little help, and the Animal Rescue League, who were helpful, but unable to trap her. Eventually, we stopped getting phone calls from people who had seen her and we resigned ourselves to the fact that she was gone. We were both heartbroken. I felt like I had completely and catastrophically failed at the thing I had been planning for and looking forward to for months. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that if I didn't try again with another dog, this dog I had known for less than a day was going to keep me from feeling like I could have a dog for the rest of my life. That's when we returned to the shelter and adopted Dante.
Early this month, I got a call from a woman asking if I had a dog who was missing. Against all odds, she had found Dolly in North Reading, miles from where we'd last seen her. The woman had been patiently and eventually was able to get close enough to bring her inside. Totally stunned, I called Andrew and we went to pick her up. She looked remarkably well for having been loose for four months. We brought her home with us and considered what we would do. We wanted to take care of Dolly. But the issues that had caused her to leave us were still very much there. Though Dante liked having another dog in the house, he was constantly pestering her and she'd often end up growling at him to leave her alone. I had no way of knowing if they would be able to work it out eventually and it seemed like a bit much for Dolly. Though Dante was reasonably well behaved by this point, I didn't know if I had the energy to go through training and adjusting to another dog so soon. The decision became final when I was bringing Dante in from a walk and Dolly shoved her way past me and ran out the door. I was able to get her back before she got out of the driveway using the information I'd learned when she ran away the first time: lay down on my stomach, let Dante out as far as he could go on his leash, called to Dolly, let her come to Dante, and reeled him in until she was close enough for me to grab her harness. I realized that we just didn't have the facilities to keep this dog safe and that if we kept her, I'd be spending every day worrying that she might leave again and really never come back. We drove her up to the animal shelter, as we were contractually obligated to return her there if we couldn't keep her. I gave them all of the information I had on her: very shy, needs training, must be walked on a harness, should have a secure yard, likes other dogs if they're calm. We left a donation and said our goodbyes. I knew it was the right thing to do, but it wasn't easy for either of us.
A little over a week ago, Andrew's uncle who works at the shelter told us Dolly was adopted by a nice family with two older kids and a beagle. It sounds like a good match and I am confident that Dolly will be happy and well taken care of. I still sometimes wish I could have kept her, but given my history with her and our current situation, I know it wouldn't have worked. But now I finally know that she's being taken care of and loved and I can put her disappearance and all the guilt I had from it behind me.
We adopted a dog in September. Much talk and planning went into this. (It's the reason I was cleaning off the upstairs landing in August: anticipation of a dog crate.) Dante is some kind of terrier mix, possibly some hound and whippet in there too. He's now about eight months old. I had no intention of getting a dog that young, but he honestly seemed like the best fit for our family. His original name was "Loafer" due to his low activity level indoors and his refusal to walk on a leash on the shelter's bare floors, making t necessary for the staff to kind of drag him around. After going through a bunch of name ideas, we settled on "Dante", after the main character in "Clerks. He's a wonderful dog. After a few weeks of me thinking that I'd made a mistake n getting a dog (which is fairly normal when I bring any new animal home), he settled in and became part of the family. He's fully housebroken, knows "sit", "down", "stay", "wait", "come", "crate", "hop up", "off", and "paw", graduated from his obedience class, and loves us both. He's absolutely fine with the bunnies - partly because we worked on introducing them and partly because his indoor prey drive is pretty nonexistent. Currently, his only real issues are barking at the door - which can be stopped pretty easily, his carsickness- which we're hoping he'll grow out of, and chewing on things that aren't his when we leave him alone for a while. He never shows any interest in doing this while we're home, so we're just resigned to crating him when we go out. Overall though, he's a terrific dog and I can't imagine being without him.
The story of another dog in my life has finally reached the point where I can talk about it this month, A couple of weeks before we brought Dante home, we had adopted another dog from the same shelter. "Dolly" (we never came up with another name for her) was a beautiful aussie/border collie mix with a likely difficult past. She was shy and probably had been mistreated before coming to the shelter. She seemed to be doing well around people when we brought her to the pet store and on her first walk, so I decided she would be OK coming to our neighbor's block party. On the way there, she was frightened by a kid bouncing a beach ball near her. She slipped out of her collar and ran away from me.
We spent the next two weeks trying to catch her and then to just find her. We called animal control, which provided very little help, and the Animal Rescue League, who were helpful, but unable to trap her. Eventually, we stopped getting phone calls from people who had seen her and we resigned ourselves to the fact that she was gone. We were both heartbroken. I felt like I had completely and catastrophically failed at the thing I had been planning for and looking forward to for months. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that if I didn't try again with another dog, this dog I had known for less than a day was going to keep me from feeling like I could have a dog for the rest of my life. That's when we returned to the shelter and adopted Dante.
Early this month, I got a call from a woman asking if I had a dog who was missing. Against all odds, she had found Dolly in North Reading, miles from where we'd last seen her. The woman had been patiently and eventually was able to get close enough to bring her inside. Totally stunned, I called Andrew and we went to pick her up. She looked remarkably well for having been loose for four months. We brought her home with us and considered what we would do. We wanted to take care of Dolly. But the issues that had caused her to leave us were still very much there. Though Dante liked having another dog in the house, he was constantly pestering her and she'd often end up growling at him to leave her alone. I had no way of knowing if they would be able to work it out eventually and it seemed like a bit much for Dolly. Though Dante was reasonably well behaved by this point, I didn't know if I had the energy to go through training and adjusting to another dog so soon. The decision became final when I was bringing Dante in from a walk and Dolly shoved her way past me and ran out the door. I was able to get her back before she got out of the driveway using the information I'd learned when she ran away the first time: lay down on my stomach, let Dante out as far as he could go on his leash, called to Dolly, let her come to Dante, and reeled him in until she was close enough for me to grab her harness. I realized that we just didn't have the facilities to keep this dog safe and that if we kept her, I'd be spending every day worrying that she might leave again and really never come back. We drove her up to the animal shelter, as we were contractually obligated to return her there if we couldn't keep her. I gave them all of the information I had on her: very shy, needs training, must be walked on a harness, should have a secure yard, likes other dogs if they're calm. We left a donation and said our goodbyes. I knew it was the right thing to do, but it wasn't easy for either of us.
A little over a week ago, Andrew's uncle who works at the shelter told us Dolly was adopted by a nice family with two older kids and a beagle. It sounds like a good match and I am confident that Dolly will be happy and well taken care of. I still sometimes wish I could have kept her, but given my history with her and our current situation, I know it wouldn't have worked. But now I finally know that she's being taken care of and loved and I can put her disappearance and all the guilt I had from it behind me.
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