Today's Lessons From Ginger

1. Greet every day with enthusiasm. no matter how you feel.
2. Go outside every morning no matter what the weather.
3. Say good morning with a kiss to those you love
4. Don't pack around too much stuff. You don't need much more than your ID.
5. Greet your friends with a chest bump or something similar.
6. Run for the feeling of the wind in your hair....or walk fast depending on how old you are.
7. Never complain
8. Be kind and patient with your family and friends.
9. Lean on your best friend and sigh
10. Nap often
11. Eat with gusto
12. Drink lots of water
13. Take your medicine without complaint
14. Trust your family
15. Guard your family
16. Accept those who don't understand, just walk on by.
17. Celebrate a bone literally or figurativly
18. Swim every chance you get
19. Run around and jump for joy after a pedicure
20. Roll in the snow and on the grass, no matter how old you are.



My dear old friend Ginger

I am writing this before she goes because I don't know if I will be able to see through the tears to type when she is actually gone. When you read this she will have passed away.
I met Ginger in 1997 when she was 11 months old and immediately I knew she was my dog. I had been thinking of getting a dog for a few years and one day I opened the paper and my eyes were drawn to an ad for adoption. I should have cut it out and saved it, thinking of it now makes me laugh. The ARF foundation was fairly new and a dog who had been rescued from one of the reserve rescue trips had several puppies and one of whom had been adopted out to a family that was overwhelmed by a new dog and new human babies and the family returned the dog  to ARF to be re-adopted. She was as they described, part Great Dane and part Lab and her name was Ginger.
I called Laurie Flavin who was the founder of ARF and she arranged to meet me at the park for an introduction. I asked Linda if she would come with Angel, her German Shepherd so that Angel could give us her opinion as well.
The dogs got on famously and from the very first greeting they were life long friends. They were so close it was as if they were spiritual twins. They never tired of each other's company all through their lives and even shared each other's bones.
Ginger looked like a shepard crossed with a rottweiler. There was no Great Dane. We thought she was beautiful.
The next night I brought Bryan to Laurie's house to meet our dog. He didn't know it at the time but I was determined that she belonged to us. Bryan was armed with cheese in his pockets.
She approached him timidly and as Laurie's pack moved through the house Ginger stuck to them. She growled at us as she went past. I thought surely she will realize that we were her true pack. No, off she went thinkng she would  have nothing more to do with us.
The next day after talking it over we called Laurie and she brought Ginger to our house. As Laurie slipped away through the door Ginger panic'd and ran to the window to watch her drive away. She wimpered and came right back to me and kissed me on the cheek. I took that as a "lets give this relationship a try" kiss.
I had never had a dog before and knew nothing of the creatures, She had never had me before and knew nothing of us. Together we learned. She to understand English and me to open my heart to her.
We went everywhere together. She would patiently wait out my client appointments in the back seat of the car and then the van and then an SUV and then a cross over.
We walked miles and miles and miles together. We explored back roads and highways and side tracks. She showed us so many things on our road trip holidays that we would never have noticed without her. She used her nose where ever she went and she taught us to stop still and listen and look.
Together we have been as far as Prince Rupert to the California Redwoods. We have walked wild and windy beaches on the west coast of Vancouver island and we have trudged along the banks of the Saskatchewan river in Nipiwin and floated in the swimming holes of the Kananaskis Sheep river. We have been in snow drifts that covered our heads and hot summer days panting in the shade under a tree. We have shared every hamburger I have ever had and I learned to make a chicken stew that she adored.
Everyday she defended us against delivery people, plastic bags, squirrels and rabbits. She was courageous and brave and always the first at the door to take on an imagined intruder.
We gardened together, and she learned to eat raspberries from the bush without getting attacked by thorns. She lay at our feet under the table at meals, she watched for us at the front window and was so happy to see us return. We made friends through her and we met  Angel and Toto and Nikki andTrevor and Charlie and Boo and Ben and Clover and Teddy and Jimmy and Lexi and their attendant humans.
I will miss you my dear sweet kind friend.
(Ginger passed away September 21, 2011 at 1:20 pm. She spent her last morning walking with Bryan and I along the Bow river and even took a drink and a little swim at her favourite place.

I will miss my girl. )

You Asked for it

I forgot to mention some things during my narration. We replaced the newell posts and the spindles and railings. We took the hardwwod down the stairs. A lot of the kitchen detail is still waiting for the finishing carpenter. But we hired a guy with only two hands and two feet. Damn, next time we do this we hire a guy with many appendages that we can work around the clock.
So we wait for the cove molding at the top and botton of the cupboards and the finishing of the pony wall by the back door. We will get the tiling finished now that I have decided what to do with the back splash.Bryan has ordered some led light strips for the top of the cabinets.
Then the painter comes back to do the floor molding and the walls where we changed our minds on the colour.

a beautiful hot summer day in September...I will try to remember this in the middle of winter.  

This is one of the heads in the new shower. They all have governors I think so that they don't blast off your skin.