Dog Magnet

I secretly must admit that I am vicariously enjoying my daughter, Bryn's college experience almost as much as she is! My college years (Viet Nam era) found me riding my bike through police blockades, tear gassed streets and curfew shutdowns. Isla Vista, the town attached to UC Santa Barbara was a military zone after protestors burned down the Bank of America and threw off all restraints in their determination to have a voice in the War. Though not a protester myself, the energy of the era (and the moisture of the ocean) freed my hair to frizz and fuzz to outlandish proportions. Thus the nickname, "Bushwoman." Definitely not a man-magnet! More like Bride of Frankenstein! Bryn, however is quite the magnet and school is a safe, fun place to express her magnetic energy.

I can, however, make a strong claim to magnetism, just not in the human realm. Throw a party and no one will show up, but walk out into the street and every dog in a quarter mile radius will come a'runnin'. Given dogs' strong sense of smell, my aroma must be the calling card. Not exactly something you want to bottle and market though. I have spent some time analyzing this magnetism that attracts dogs, but not humans. Could be my quirkiness...habitual hummer, energetic verging on spastic, willingness to wiggle with delight at the sight of them, drooling when retainer is in...all potential canine turn-ons! Ed tells none of this does much for the male species...so I guess this explains my desert experience in college.

I was filling out a gifts and abilities survey the other day and couldn't find a category for canine allure, so I went to God and asked Him about why He wove this into the fabric of who I am. (I'm guessing you've had this conversation with Him before as well.) Why the strange combination of gifts, abilities and interests that pull me in 10 different directions at the same time? Well, no specific answer appeared in the clouds but I was reminded of a shepherd boy named David who probably hurled a thousand stones with his sling as he herded his mindless sheep across the grasslands of Israel. I doubt that he ever thought God could use sling, his songs, his dancing, his passions and his deadends to bring about amazing things in his world. But God did. So there's hope for me too! I will join with David in saying "I will praise you Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made!"(Psalm 139) Dog magnet, that's me...and proud of it!

Coming Up For Air

Well the ordeal is over, verdict in... we are losing the Dog Park as it presently is and getting a shrunken, diminished and fenced version instead. Government at its best! Our voice made no difference in their tank-like determination to plow through their plan from the get-go. What a loss for canines and humans alike. Barring an administrative miracle, my "Happy Dog Off-Leash Adventures" will be history come the turn of the year. But, with effervescent tenacity, we will keep adventuring until they cuff and leash us into submission. I'm told that they have wifi coverage in the county jail, so perhaps our correspondence via blog can continue!

Genuine tears and sarcasm aside, this whole season of "social action" has been an enlightening experience for me. Don't ask me why, with all the blatant injustices in the world, this one swept me into action. "Dogs' rights!" Not exactly at the top of God's eternal issues to address. Yet it possessed me these past 6 months. Just ask my husband Ed. Though supportive, I'm sure he was ready to take me to the pound and put me up for adoption! I couldn't exactly blame him for all the yapping and howling I have done in his ear, on paper to the powers that be and to friends who innocently ask me how things are going. Anything and everything launches a diatribe on the evils of government and their indifference to our needs and issues. I am scheduling a total body waxing to rid myself of all the werewolf fur I have forged in the fray of the struggle.

So where does this leave my blog? Well, luckily I brainstormed a whole page of possible entries before I became obsessed with saving the Dog Park, so hopefully my brain will be able to detox enough to write something fun, enlightening and spiritually edifying. Stick around. I promise life lessons will be worth drooling over in the weeks and months to come. As for now, the main lesson learned from this ordeal is that even if you go into something, knowing there is barely a shot in hell to succeed at it, the real success is that you went anyway. You rode the wave of your convictions with passion and abandon. The outcome wasn't as soul-defining as was the process of giving it your all. My dogs didn't see the stack of letters I wrote, or the hours I spent on the phone, or the ink cartridges I blew through printing copies to hand out to impassion other people to action, but I know they sense my commitment to them. They express their thankfulness as only dogs have the freedom to do! That's the freedom I was fighting for!