Territorial Bloggings

Another event that I’ve been remiss in documenting was a few weeks ago, when we agreed to dog-sit for one of Deb’s co-workers. The thing is, the dog to be sat was a 9 month old puppy. A 9 month old Boxer puppy. That already weighed 50-60 lbs!

Needless to say, this provided some interesting situations & interactions between our fur babies (who consider themselves to be big dogs trapped in little dog bodies — Holly in particular…), and Shelby, who is still a very exuberant baby girl growing into an already big (and still growing) body.

Here are some thumbnails of the festivities…

We eventually worked out a system where we rotated “free time” for the dogs, because it got to a bit much for them to all be out together all the time. This worked out quite nicely, as we’ve found that Hammie tends to be a bit over-protective of Holly in situations where other dogs are involved, which can be problematic, given Holly’s penchant for initiating roughhousing-type play.

All-in-all, it was a great experience. Shelby is a sweetheart — if I ever had to have a big dog, I could see getting a Boxer. That said, I still don’t want to get a big dog — I like my little doggies. Give me my BT fur babies, ’cause they are the very best you can get!

-ghp

I’m slack. I forgot to get photos documenting Holly Jean’s 1st birthday posted in a timely fashion. There’s not much I can say to mitigate that slackness, nor can I really add anything to enhance the cuteness that is Miss Holly Jean. So, I’ll leave you with one photo of what she looked like back when we got her, and several of what she looks like now, in her full-grown state.

She’s 14 pounds of Queen of the House sweetness, energy, snuggling, and (above all) kissing (like most BTs, she’ll lick you ’til the cows come home & then she’ll lick the cows! )!

-ghp

Well, my two week break is over. Tomorrow, it’s back to work (for me), school (für die Kinder), & the mud room (for Holly).

Several times during the past two weeks, I felt almost guilty, like I wasn’t getting done what I should. At those times, I tried to remind myself of why I took the two weeks off: 1) to watch the kids, so that we didn’t have to pay for daycare during their holiday break, and 2) to watch the new puppy, helping her get acclimated to her new home (esp. in the form of house-training her…).

I’m pretty sure that I’ve blogged before on my tendency to, shall we say, underperfrom/achieve in the face of large chunks of free time. This was certainly the case in the past two weeks, somewhat understandably fueled by the fact that Holly needed lots & lots of close supervision — meaning that I wasn’t able to do a whole lot of anything that required undisturbed concentration.

That all said, I’m willing to pin my rationalization (and, thus, my positive state of mind) on the vocational argument that realizes and accepts that I fulfilled the two main reasons/goals I had for taking the time off of work. Namely, I was able to watch the kids & keep from having to send them to daycare. Money was saved & lots of good time was spent with them. Second, I think that I was quite successful in helping Holly get properly integrated into her new home. She isn’t fully housetrained, but then what 10 week old pup would be? She is, however, making good progress, and seems to understand the basic premise. She is also showing herself to be much more comfortable with her new surroundings and, in particular, her new big brother Hammie. The two of them are now really starting to have fun romping & playing with each other, and then snuggling for a nap. And she’s growing like a weed, having gained a full pound in the past week, getting her up to a robust 4.2 lbs!

I know that returning to work will be a pain tomorrow (esp. given the backlog of work that’s resulted from one of my staff leaving with rather short notice recently…), but if it was all fun, it wouldn’t be work, now would it? ;^)

For those of you who might be interested, here are links to two new slideshows, one of Holly & Hammie snuggling, and the other of Holly’s first bath.

-ghp

They’ll be famous because photos of them have been submitted & posted to the Boston Terrier Photo Blog!

And to augment them, here are two more recent photos, one of Holly (up close & cute) and one of Hammie checking Holly out, and one older one of Hammie & Bwanna (from about a year before Bwanna died – i.e., about 4 years ago):

-ghp

Here are some video snippets from our first day with Holly. We brought her home yesterday (on her 2 month birthday) and we’ve all been having a good old time welcoming Holly into our home & family!

In case you’re wondering, the clips were shot with my Canon PowerShot S45 digital camera, edited in iMovie ’08, which also exported it automatically out to YouTube. Pretty nifty!
-ghp

Well, we’ve finally gone and done it — earlier today we drove out to the Nichols Happy Dog Kennel and put a down payment on the newest addition to our family, Holly Jean!

Click here to view a slideshow of the photoset at Flickr…

We’ll be going to pick Holly up & bring her home in two weeks. She’s still a bit young (born on 10/20/07) to bring home. I’ll also be taking two weeks vacation starting on 12/22 (actually only six vacation days, but combined with the 4 official holidays, it makes for a nice break, along with being able to keep from having to pay for child care during the kids’ Christmas break…), thus affording us a chance to ensure that Holly gets properly integrated into her new home.

She’s a sweet little thing, and it looks like she’ll be smaller than Hammie (our 5.5 y/o male BT, who weighs in at about 20 lbs), with the breeder’s guess being that Holly will top out at around 12-14 lbs.

I’m sure that photo ops will abound, and I’ll now have another topic to blog about in the new year, so as to offset any AI7 fatigue! ;^)

-ghp

A recent commenter not only asked about the Territorial Boston Terrier in a comment, he also did so at the recent LCMS convention (while I was waiting to talk at Microphone 5).

So, in the interest of disclosure, and because I like talking about the TBT — Hammie Burger Piper, (aka Hambone, aka Mr. Bone, aka The Dink…) — I will answer here.

In a word, Hammie is good. He’s an odd, unique, sweet, and ultimately kinda dumb little guy (the phrase “dumber than a bag of hammers” comes to mind…). But he loves us & we love him.

Here are some photos of Hammie, and, as a bonus, his cousins Ruby & Oliver. Click on the thumbnail to view the photoset.

-ghp

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I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, but I’ve just been slack. Thanks to IndianaJane, I’ve now been properly motivated…

This photo was taken on Apr 20, 2003, at the apex of the number of dogs in the family – 5 Boston Terriers & 2 Pugs!

Oliver & Ruby belong to big sis, and were 12 wks & 1 yr respectively. Lucy & Molly (depending on who you ask, the “pug sisters” or the “demon pugs”) belong to Jenny (big sis’s oldest & my number 1 goddaughter), and were also 12 wks & 1yr respectively. Clancy belongs to my parents, and was 5 y/o. Bwanna & Hammie are the Territorial Bostons, and were 13 yrs & 1 yr respectively.

Bostons are the coolest little dogs/fur-people, and have been a staple in my family for over 40 years. At some point I plan on doing a more thorough write-up of the Piper Family BT’s (building off of a web page that I did years ago). But for now, this will have to suffice.

-ghp

While today hasn’t been an overall bad day (that was yesterday, when everyone in the TB household was a bit on the cranky side…), there have been two rather distasteful things that I’ve encountered. Only one of those things, however, was justifiably and/or reasonably related to the execution of one of my vocations — see if you can guess…

First, after a reasonably good Divine Service (myself, I would’ve preferred a little stronger/clearer application of the Law, prior to the application of the Gospel — but then I usually do, so I suspect the problem might be with me, not with my Pastor’s homiletical prowess… — I would’ve also liked to have had Communion, but methinks the road to every-Sunday Communion will be a long & arduous one… ), we had the usual round of announcements. This week, however, there was an additional one — a little spiel by a rep from the Gideons.

Now, I had found out about this last Tuesday at our Elders meeting. I wasn’t all that pleased, but I didn’t say anything about it then, mainly because it was a done deal. And, to my shame, I didn’t feel like fighting the battle, even though I knew it was a mistake for us to have the Gideons present, as if there’s nothing wrong with their decision-theology based approach. Unfortunately, but quite predictably, my fears were realized.

A couple of things jumped right out during the presentation:

• the obligatory, heart-tugging, warm & fuzzy examples, one of which included a reference to the signing of the “Decision Page” (recreated here, at the Gideon’s website…)
• a statement that the goal of the Gideons is to “win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ”
• a massive litany of statistics, showing just how they can quantify their progress towards meeting that goal
• a Law-driven, guilt-laden, appeal for money, so that they can continue to win those souls

Now, lest you think me a heartless legalist bent on sectarianism, let me first offer up 1 Cor 5:6 (Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?) as a way of explaining why I feel it necessary and justifiable to point out the errors that make the Gideons inappropriate for promotion by/in a Lutheran congregation.

So, in a nutshell, having the Gideons was a mistake because their base theology, well, stinks. It’s flawed, and it’s dangerous. More specifically, there are two major problems:

1. WE DO NOT MAKE A DECISION — neither to be saved, nor to accept Jesus, any more than a corpse can make a decision to “accept” life & begin breathing again. Any organization that defiles the Bible by adding a “Decision Page” is doing a grave disservice. Thankfully the Holy Ghost is successful DESPITE, not because of flawed instruments like us.
2. WE DO NOT WIN SOULS — we contribute NOTHING. We bring NOTHING to the dance, other than an Old Adam who is desperate to queer the deal & send us to the pit. Again, thankfully the Holy Ghost deigns to use imperfect vessels, as we most certainly are, to the glory of God The Father. That we are so graciously used, can in no way ever be construed as meaning that we add anything to the process. All it shows is that God is so loving and so powerful as to effect, through Christ’s death and resurrection, the transformation of that Old Adam into the New Man. (I guess that this isn’t such a bad object lesson to have on the observance of Christ’s baptism (Mark 1:4-11), eh?)

At this point, let me direct you The Lutheran Heritage Foundation, if you are in any way, shape, or form tempted to give time/talent/treasure to the Gideons. Your efforts will be better spent, and you won’t have to worry about any “decision-type leaven” getting the lump!

The second distasteful thing I encountered today was having to clean up the yard, after many weeks of the dog having, shall we say, had his way with the yard. You wouldn’t think that a 20 lb Boston Terrier could generate that much, er, stuff, but he had a nice holiday season around some generous people… But, you know, cleaning up after Hammie didn’t bother me near as much as the Gideons’ spiel, especially after I thought about the two things in terms of vocation.

I have a vocation as a dog-owner, that entails cleaning up after the little bugger (at least until the kids are old enough to delegate that character-building job to! ). It might not be pleasant, but it comes with the territory, just like changing the kids’ diapers back in the day.

Being subjected to the Gideons’ spiel in the context of the DS, however, most certainly does not logically flow from my vocation as a congregational member, elder, service attendee, etc.

Perhaps the only way I can think it will end up being something of benefit, vocation-wise, is that maybe I’m being nudged in the direction of understanding and engaging a new vocation — something like promoting the LHF. And I guess that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, would it?

-ghp