The Spark that was Disney

Hi, Peaches here,

Mom read a note from a reader to me. Our friend got this information from Jean Huston's book, Mystical Dogs.

What is one of the most successful enterprises in the world today? By any economic or populist standard it is the various Disney Worlds where archetypal animals – Mickey the Mouse, Donald the Duck, Goofy the dog – are there to greet us and bring us home again to a land of wonder and enchantment. The creators of Disneyland and Disney World may not know it, but they have presented us with modern Platonic forms, and in their presence we feel safe and ready for adventure.

Our friend then shared this story:

I once had a conversation at Disneyland in California with a man who every day and for some time had worn the Mickey Mouse costume. He had divested himself of costume and mask, and now was permitted to talk. I asked him what it was like being Mickey Mouse month after month, and he told me something very strange. He said that sometimes when he looked into the eyes of wonder of some little child, he felt that he was the great Mouse and that he also was the essence of the heart and spirit and knowledge of all animals. Then the parent of the child would tell him to pose for the camera and it would be gone. But for a moment, he had known the magic and the mystery that indigenous people know when playing in their totemic incarnation.”

Posted by Jewell D at 12:25 PM 1 comment:

"Grandma's Soup"

Mom and I spent the day in bed--no not the day, the afternoon. I was feeling punk, and had been hopping around on three legs. It was the front leg, don’t know why, it is usually my hind leg that acts up. The whole idea of food and water turned my stomach. I did lick water off Mom’s finger though.

 As I said Mom and I spent the afternoon in bed.

 Mom read, that is between sneezing fits. I slept when she wasn’t waking me with all that sneezing—she called it a head cold.

 That night I got my appetite back, and gobbled up some “Grandma’s Soup.” Wow! How good was that! I’ve been on a bland diet, (I’m not supposed to have fat—that’s a bummer.) That soup, though, fixed me up.  Grandma’s soup is a recipe from Mom’s mother-in-law. It’s tomato based, has hamburger, onion, celery, carrots, and a secret ingredient, PIZZA SAUCE. El Yum-o.

 I drank water, and I’m feeling much better, thank you.

 I even went out in the car with Mom yesterday.

 Things are looking up.

Optimism

I heard Mom reading to Fuzzy Fur Face, that is Dad, that California—where we live—in the most optimistic place on earth.  That isn’t to insult any other place; it is just one man (Derek Siver’s) opinion.

”Will you come to my event?” you might ask, and people will say yes. ”Do you want to help with this project?” they will almost always say yes, full of enthusiasm, and 100% sincere, fully intending to be there, to help, whatever. They believe they will do it. But when it comes to the time of doing it, and they’ve optimistically said “yes!” to a dozen other things too, or perhaps they’re just nestled in the comfort of their California home, maybe they are at the beach having fun, swimming, whatever, and then... well... they reluctantly “flake” - and won’t follow through.

Don’t get bitter and write them off as a fake, or backstabbers. Just understand that it’s a side-effect of sincere optimism, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Momma and I were walking down the street of Burbank California and met a young woman such as Siver's describes. She was the sort of person that makes you think of champagne--where bubbles tickle your nose. She offered to help, but we didn't hear from her again. Although maybe just meeting her was enough to make us believe anything is possible…and maybe meeting us gave her courage to live her dream.

Maybe.

Don't Worry!

I Peaches, Party Poodle for Peace, am a happy dog. Don’t worry about the future. Future will take care of itself. Many people don’t know how to be happy, don’t roll in grass, don’t know how to dig for moles and come to house with nose stacked with dirt. Don’t know how to give high-pitched happy bark in greeting, or how to give low bark than tells owner, “Check this out.”

Worry? I don’t worry—waste of time. Well, I did worry when I accompanied Bear to the Vet.  Couldn't help it! I thought I would have to go see the doctor, maybe be left there, but didn’t. Whew!

Can’t nap and worry.  Can’t chase lizards and worry. Worry takes away joy. I live for joy.

I have a job that makes me happy. I look after my people and the house. I go for rides and walks with family. I keep lizards away from the door. I keep Obi Kitty away from my food dish too—cats are so sneaky.

      Me

An aside from Mom. Little Peaches has Addison’s Disease which is not a disease, but a condition. It means her adrenal glands are not working properly.

Peaches lives with her chronic health condition. We take care of her, we give her medication, she maintains. She goes about her life in a positive way. If she feels poorly we give her more subcutaneous fluid. She makes a contribution to life. I love her, she loves me, and she pontificates on her blog…

Who Eats Carrots?

I, Peaches, am sharing information. It is second handed, but Mom told me, and I trust Mom to tell the truth.  She asked me who eats carrots, and I immediately remembered that horses loooove carrots. Not me, I don’t like carrots. Rabbits do. Rodents do, but polar bears?

Naaugh.

Yes they do.

 I wouldn’t have believed it unless Mom saw it with her own two eyes. I didn’t see a polar bear for Mom won’t take me to the Zoo. Don’t know why, just think of all the things I could chase, come to think of it maybe that’s the reason she won’t take me.

Okay, my family stood outside the polar bear area, watching through the glassed-in enclosure, and low and behold, one polar bear had a basket of carrots, and she was pulling them out and munching away on them—not just using like dog raw-hide chewer, but eating them.

Another bear was in the water holding a carrot between his paws and gnawing away. Who would have thought?

The San Diego Zoo has introduced another astounding thing, and that is the pairing of dogs with cheetahs and dogs with wolves. That is one cheetah and one dog. The dog and cheetah are born about the same time. They grow up together, and are Best Buds. They play together, live together, eat together. They take walks together around the Zoo with a keeper. They go on Ambassador Trips, and the dog sets the tone for the wild one. When the dog is relaxed so is the wild one. And we know dogs looove people. I do. I looove my person.

News from me,

Peaches

Live like someone left the gate open

 

I Peaches am a happy dog, all dogs are happy unless something terrible happens in which case we are sad dogs. Existential, don’t you think?

Existential—a word I learned from mom, fancy word for being in the moment. Dogs know that—don’t have to be taught.

Joy is lying in the sunshine, chasing lizards. You know what? A squirrel sat right outside the patio door the other day teasing me.  I yapped my head off until Mom let me out, and then I gave that squirrel a run for her money.  I didn’t want to catch the squirrel (well maybe), but the chase gave me goosebumps for half a day.…until a lizard came along, then I started all over again.

Happy lizards, good lizards, give dog fun stuff.

While You Were Gone

“What happened while we were gone Peaches? Sorry I had to leave you, but it was 107 degrees in Las Vegas.”

I know Mom, I forgive you. You might think I lay around and slept, but you see, this happened:  I was skulking through the garden when I came upon a rodent bigger than a house. It had teeth the size of a T-Rex’s and slobber dripped—it was disgusting. Well, do you think I was scared?  Yep, I was, so I called Bear. Now Bear is big. Bear’s a Newfoundland, and they are big, but that rodent was bigger. Maybe it was a T-Rex.

It was red and yellow, and its eyes shone even in the daytime.

Bear and I hid behind the rose bush and planned what we could do about this invader monster rodent. We couldn’t let it wander around the property, it would scare you when you got home.

Did I tell you steam spouted from its nostrils? And it was bigger than Big Rock Candy Mountain across the road?

Well, it was.

Bear and I hatched a plan, we would sneak up behind it at night while it was sleeping. We would tie a rope around its feet, and hook it to the truck. When Dad drove away—bye bye monster rodent.

Our paws really can’t tie a rope, but we can bark. So we barked as loud as we could. We even barked into a garbage can which made our voices sound like 100 dogs. And you know what? That rodent ran right over the fence into the next yard. Now neighbor dogs have big hairy monster.

And we have none.

Yep, that’s what we did while you were gone.

The Visit with Breeze

Rats, Mom left me at home when Daughter Darling, Little Boy Darling, and she visited Breeze. She said the car would be too hot for me. Sounds lame as the car always feels good. Mom knows best though. She is always looking out for me. I look out for her too.

Mom told me about the visit, and she did get a picture of Breeze, but Breeze was so covered with a fly mask and a fly sheet that you can’t see how beautiful she is.

After her surgery she will be good as new.  I had surgery once too, and after that I was better than new—maybe that’s how Breeze will be.

Breeze is 13 years old—perfect age for a horse. Her owners had her for 13 years--guess that means they had her as a baby, but then when they discovered she had a tumor they didn’t want her anymore…Can’t imagine. Villa Chardonnay Horse Santuary loves her, and is raising money for her surgery. Don’t have enough money yet, but are doing the surgery next week anyway.


Breeze will have a forever home at Villa Chardonnay. About other 50 horses all have forever homes too.

One funny thing, Eric the turkey, followed Monika and Mom and Daughter Darling and Little Boy Darling all around the farm. Mom thought she had a picture of Eric, but somehow it didn't appear. Eric's tail was unfurled during the walk around the farm, and when he waved in under Nitro's nose, (former racehorse) he grabbed Eric’s tail feathers  in his teeth. Eric squawked, but did he move his tail? No.  Shake head at turkey.

This is Chardonnay. First horse Villa Chardonnay adopted in California. Named Villa Chardonnay Horses with Wings fter her.

This is Chablis, Chardonnay's baby. She is one year old, and looks like her mother. She has a forever home at Villa Chardonnay too.

Whatever

I Peaches am cool dog. I love riding in the car--if the car is leaving I ought to be in it. If not--so sad.

I try to walk with my people in the grapefruit orchard, but there are so many burrs that they stackup on the hair between my toes. Yesterday I stood stuck to the ground until Mom rescued me.

I'm on Pinterest with Mom now--have my own board, and added a couple of pictures I think are cool--would you believe a dog sleeping in a child's seat belt--so funny, but then dog won't fall on the floor, bump chin as I have done when car jerks to a stop. Hey, I just thought, I could probably have my own Pinterest. Hum, consider the possibilities.

Monday we are going to visit Villa Chardonnay, the Horse Santuary--hope we will see Breeze the horse who needs surgery--or maybe she's already in the hospital. If she needs surgery they better hop to it. Anyway I will post pictures if I can get any.

Thanks for the visit.
Peaches

A Horse Named Breeze

That's not a horse, that's me waiting anxiously while Mom, Daughter Darling and Baby Darling stopped at Starbucks for an Arnold Palmer. You know what an Arnold Palmer is? Iced tea and lemonade. Yuck! Doesn’t taste as good as frozen yogurt.

They came out talking about an ad on the wall. A local restaurant, Hana Sushi, is giving some of their profits to help a horse named Breeze have surgery. Beautiful Breeze has a tumor on her ovary, and Villa Chardonnay, Horses with Wings, Sanctuary is going to see that she gets well, but they are asking for help.

Breeze—isn’t that a pretty name? She’s a pretty horse too, I saw her picture. Mom would post one for me, but couldn’t grab it off Villa Chardonnay Horse Rescue’s site.  Villa Chardonnay is not called Chardonnay after a wine, but after a horse named Chardonnay. She was the first horse they rescued in California. She had a bad foot and her owners were going to sell her for $400.00 for slaughter. Villa Chardonnay saved her, X-rayed her foot and found it to be fractured. She lives with them still, and has had some beautiful babies. Her foot seems okay, she was young and growing when they got her, had glucosamine supplements, but no surgery, and now she is even rideable, but they do not do that much. 

You guessed it, the next day my family, without me, ate sushi at Hana Sushi where 30% of the proceeds that night went for Breeze.

 I got some left-over Teriyaki chicken though. Yum—even better than frozen yogurt.

Yogurt Yum!

I, Peaches am Existential dog. When I’m happy I’m happy, when I’m sad, I’m sad, and when I feel sick—that sucks.

Today I felt like running and going places and Mom took me to the Duck Pond—prevented me for chasing a rabbit though—how frustrating. I forgot it pretty soon though, I was happy to be with my people, and on the way home we stopped for frozen yogurt—I love frozen yogurt.  See why I love going along? We do fun things—more fun that lying in the closet and waiting for my people to get home. But I Peaches am an existential dog. And being in the moment means I am happy to see them even if they leave me at home for a while. No sense holding a grudge—interferes with happiness.

Wise woman Maya Angelou said this:

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

My purpose is to lick, love, chase lizards, and be happy!

Any more?

Here's to Many Happy Yaps

I'm a poodle--born on the 18th of July, and almost six years old. I've decided to jog with the rest of the joggers. What's that? Mom said BLOG, not jog. Darn and she said my butt looks cute when I jog.

Oh well, I spend most of my time sleeping anyway, except when I know Mom is going out in the car—I love going along—car, yes,  airplanes, no. Airplanes suck—you have to ride in one of those horrible cramped plastic carriers and get stuffed into the baggage department.  Not a proper way to treat a lady to my way of thinking. I get left behind from the car sometimes—that sucks too. It gets hot where we live, and when it does the people in this house say the car gets too hot for puppies. A puppy? I’m almost six years old, what-do you mean, a puppy! And the car always feels great to me. But I know my parents wouldn’t lie, so I have to go along with the program.

Things that don’t suck:

Toys that squeak.

Chasing lizards.

Sunshine on the grass and me sniffing through it, getting my nose wet, and having a ladybug land on it.

Lying on my belly on the cool cement.

Getting a belly rub.

Eating tidbits of cat food--the wet kind, not that gaggy stick-in-the-throat dry stuff. The people only give me a taste, and I think that is why people give out samples, it just sets you up wanting more…

Did I mention chasing lizards? I love chasing rabbits, too, and squirrels. Squirrels are the best, except they tease and then jump into a hole—not fair. I even know the places where they live like beside our driveway, and at the park, and beside El Torito in Eugene Oregon. I get so excited I begin to bark just when we drive up. I can’t help it. The joy just pushes the yap out of me.

To many joyful yaps!

Peaches