The Day Marley Saved My Butt

Here's another Marley tale that some have already heard, but to those of you who haven't, it will give you goosebumps!

I think we had Marley about four months and he'd already grown from the mere 73 lbs. he weighed when we adopted him and a couple inches taller, too.  Marley and I were driving back home from Austin to Rockport and I have to say, Marley wasn't a very good traveler. Perhaps he was remembering an earlier time when he got lost from his previous owner, but who knows what happened to him before us!

He kept whining from the back seat and I kept telling him to settle down, please shut the hell up, and several other comments.  Finally, in Goliad or Gonzales, one of the G-towns I go through along Hwy. 183, I decided the dog MUST need to pee.  I pulled into a city park where there are baseball fields, bleachers, etc. and put Marley on his leash to take a little walk.  It was the middle of the day and there was no one around.  Very quickly Marley saw a white pickup truck coming our way, but it was 1/4 to 1/2 mile off.  Marley started barking at it so fiercely that I knew any chance of him relaxing enough to pee was gone.  I turned around and walked back to my truck with Marley looking back and growling at this oncoming vehicle.  I had the back door open and was urging Marley to get in when that truck pulled up right beside me blocking me completely from Hwy. 183 and only about 4 feet from my truck.  Marley nearly had a conniption fit!  He turned around and was barking like a rabid beast, every hair on his back was at attention, and spittle was flying from his mouth.  Cujo comes to mind.  Needless to say, he was very intimidating!

The truck had two men in it and the driver rolled down his window and said, "That dog's real protective of you, isn't he?"

I said, "Yes, he is.  I suggest you don't get out of your truck!"

Then he proceeded to ask me questions about the dog, Marley never let up on his leash, never stopped growling, never lowered a hair on his back the entire time. Finally, when he was getting nothing from me except, I have to go, please move on, and Marley never giving an inch, he slowly pulled away.  

The last thing he said before rolling up his window was, "You're lucky you have that dog."

Now, I could be wrong, but I have a feeling to this day that those two men had very different intentions for me.  My plan was that if the man even cracked his door I was going to let that ferocious beast loose and what was left of them when Marley got through was going to be shot with my pistol hidden in my front door panel.  Good plan, I think!

Of course, I wouldn't have even been in that situation if Marley wasn't with me because I would never stop at a vacant park if I were alone.  But nevertheless, it proves what a protective beast he is for his Momma and that's good to know!  I never feel any fear whatsoever when 97.6 lb. Marley is by my side and when Randy isn't home, he NEVER leaves my side!  He takes his job VERY seriously!

It's funny, when Randy gets home, Marley goes to his crate, curls up in a ball and sleeps for hours.  It's as if he's saying, "Good!  You're home! It's your turn to protect her now!"

Why I Can’t Seem to Clean Out My Closet

Many years ago before I met my sweet Randy and after my divorce from my kids’ father, I met a man who convinced me I was damaged goods.  I was 30 years old, divorced, and had two small children, who was going to want to take that on?  In hindsight, I can only admit that I was extremely vulnerable after being replaced by a nineteen year old.  I believed at the time that the love of my life was gone forever and that I should just settle for whoever would have my children and me.  He was thoroughly convincing and was truly a con artist doing an outstanding snow job.  I took the bait, hook, line and sinker and will regret it to my dying day.

This man slowly but very surely alienated me from my friends.  The divorce had taken care of that with the only family I had in Arkansas.  Eventually he convinced me we should move out to California where his family lived so that’s what we did.  Very quickly I begin to realize what a huge lack of judgment I’d made for not just me, but my precious babies as well.  I won’t go into all the details but it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.

Three days before we finally were able to leave California this man and I had the biggest argument I’ve ever had with anyone.  It got physically abusive and resulted in me being pushed so hard I blacked out for a few seconds.  I slid down the wall my head had hit and when I begin to slowly open my eyes, what lay within an inch of my right hand?  A perfect weapon, a child’s T-ball bat, and the man who needed me to hit him with it bending over me at the perfect angle.  Without a single doubt, to this day I believe God provided me with that bat.  I grabbed it, began to rise, and swung the bat with all my might in one fluid motion.  It landed squarely on his nose with a satisfying crunching sound and that nose immediately began bleeding profusely. He yelled as he grabbed it and said, “You broke my focking nose!”

“Good!” was my reply as I rushed out the door and ran to the neighbor’s house where both my kids were playing with her two.  Those kind people let us stay at their house for three days while my brother-in-law flew out to help us.

During those three days that man managed to clean out my entire walk-in closet including shoes, purses, jewelry, hats, underwear, bras, all my work clothes, jeans, t-shirts, blouses, skirts, everything, except one set of sweats and a pair of tennis shoes.  He did the same thing with my kids’ things as well.  Not only that, he put sugar in my car’s gas tank.  Ruined it.  My brother-in-law called the police and said he’d stolen all of these things from me but the cop looked me straight in the eye and said, “I think you should count your blessings and get on back to Texas.”

So that’s what we did after my brother-in-law bought us some more sweats at K-Mart and home we drove.  I’ve never regretted leaving him. 

An after affect of this trauma is that I can’t seem to clean out my closet.  I might need those things!  Who knows when someone will take everything I have accumulated over the years!  I guess I have PTSD but it is what it is, right?  Do you think I should get some help?

More About Marley

The sweetest thing happened with Marley yesterday and I thought I should counter it to my last blog entry when I was furious with him.

First of all, I have to explain a bit about Marley.  He came from the Rockport Humane Society.  They found him at the Victoria shelter and picked him up because the Victoria shelter was going to euthanize him and Rockport is a no-kill shelter.  He lived in our shelter for 6 months until we came along, or til Randy came along, that is.  We had lost our sweet Abe only weeks before and were still grieving his loss.  Randy likes having a big dog around so off to the local shelter we went. 

There were lots of dogs to choose from but this great, big-pawed, black hunk’a dog attracted our attention.  They allowed us to take him to our vet for a check over before we agreed to make him part of our family.

At that time our vet said, “Well, he’s got fleas and ticks, ear mites, he’s skinny, and he definitely has hip dysplasia.  I recommend you take him back because eventually he’s going to be in a lot of pain as he ages.”

That was enough for me because our last two Golden Retrievers had hip dysplasia and we spent a fortune on them in operations when they were young and meds in their later years.  So we took him back to the shelter and said we had decided not to keep him.

He wouldn’t get out of Randy’s truck.  Just sat there with this sad look on his face and finally, very slowly, jumped out and went back into his designated pen.  It was sad but I was convinced at the time it was the right thing to do.

The next day Randy went on one of his long bike rides and during the ride he said God, or Abe, or somebody, convinced him that he needed to save this dog and invite him into our family.  When he arrived back home from his ride he relayed to me this overwhelming feeling during his ride that urged him to save this dog and that was exactly what he was going to do.  So I said okay, but he’s your dog!

“Famous last words” come to mind at this point.  Randy went and got him, I stayed home.  If he was going to be Randy’s dog, then so be it.  Plus we had guests for the weekend.

His name at the shelter was Majestic and that didn’t work for me so I suggested we call him Marley, which is a perfect name for him as it turns out.  We’ve had our ups and downs with Marley.  He has to be crated when we leave the house and you can’t leave food out on the counters because he will eat it – package and all.  His nickname is MarshMoo, because of his love of jumping in it and being a royal pain in the buttinski to get out.  But, at the same time, he has many endearing qualities.

He saved my life once … literally.  But I won’t tell that story here. 

We had a DNA test run on him and he has not a drop of Great Dane in him like the shelter thought.  He’s one-half black lab, ¼ Dalmatian and the other ¼ is a mix of about 7 different breeds.  The Dalmatian part comes out in a couple of different ways.  #1 being he can be kind of aloof and his sleek coat is definitely the texture of Dalmatian rather than black lab, even though it’s black.  His white cross-shaped badge on his chest has a black spot on it and he has a great big knot on his bony head that has a cowlick sticking straight up right on it.  I call it his top hat.

Yesterday he gave me a gift he’s never given me before and we’ve had him almost two years.  He came to me and offered me his head to pet, which I gladly did because this dog is extremely sensitive to having his head messed with.  I don’t know what happened to him in his life for him to be reticent about that but he’s always been that way with us.  He even lowered his head and leaned into it.  He needed a cuddle and who doesn’t from time to time? I was so moved by his trust that I cried great big alligator tears.  After a few minutes he looked up at me and licked a tear from my cheek.  Made me cry some more.

I petted him very well and told him how much I love him and how happy I am that he is in my life.  I thanked him for saving my ass and taking such good care of me when Randy isn’t home.  He takes that job very seriously and follows me wherever I go.  From room to room, doesn’t matter if I’m only there a minute, he’s with me.  He sits by me facing the doorway when I’m on the toilet, ever vigilant because he recognizes how vulnerable I am.  He is my constant companion and a stalwart defender against anything and everything that might even remotely threaten me.

So, whose dog do you think he is?  Who feeds him most of the time?  Who gives him his meds when he needs them?  Who does he guard with all his might?  Yes, it’s me, his Momma, and I will love him for it forever!

 Notice his top hat

 Look at the size of that paw, would ya?

His hip dysplasia doesn't seem to prevent him from leaping, running or chasing the ball.

What a sweet & lovable guy he truly is!  More top hat showing here, heehee!

That's my Marley!

Why Does Something Like This Happen Every Time Randy Goes Out of Town?

You wanna hear about my crappy day?  No?  Tough, I'm gonna tell you anyway.

First of all, I didn't sleep well last night.  Tossed and turned and generally fought with the covers all night long.  Had a horrendous hot flash, thought I was going to internally combust and then all my problems would be over.  Even sorta wished I would!

Finally got up around 8:00 and had a fairly pleasant morning.  Drank my coffee outside, watched the birds, took a picture, posted it on facebook.  Ran on the treadmill.  Was pleasantly surprised when I got on the scale.  Fed the dog.  Tidied the house.  Just another regular day.

Then the lawn maintenance guys came.  I wondered why one of them knocked on my front door to open the gate. They sometimes have trouble with their code so I locked it open for them and went about my business.  It obviously had worked once because he was inside the gate and wanted to leave.  Didn't think too much about it after that.

A little while after they had finished and I had closed the gate, Marley wanted outside so I just opened the front door and out he went.  He laid down on the driveway to sun and I didn't think much about it for about 30 minutes.  Then I started looking for him and realized the breezeway gate was down.  Either the wind had blown it over or the lawn people left it open.  Well, you know where Marley was, right?  In the marsh, that's where!  Having a grand ol' time.  Wading and frolicking all about!  His nickname isn't MarshMoo for nothin'!  Normally when this happens Randy simply jumps in the marsh and lifts him up and over the bulkhead and all is well after a good rinse with the hose.  But Marley weighs 97 pounds and I can not, no way, no how, lift his big ass out of the marsh.

So I yelled at him and he comes running toward the bulkhead.  I go back in the house.  Get his leash, open the gate with the remote control, leave the remote in the house because I can simply punch in the code on the keypad to open the gate after I get him out.  Walked two doors down, trespassed in the neighbors back yard since that's the only place I know of that Marley can leap out because it's sandy there and higher ground.  Yelled at Marley and he came to me happily splashing and leaped out like he had wings or something.  I hook him up to the leash and walk to the gate keypad.  Punch in the code - nothin', nada, no beeping, no response, no opening gate.  How the hell am I gonna get me and this freakin' dog over this fence, I ask myself.  I was at an utter loss as to how I was going to do that.

On the plus side, this house is practically a freakin' fortress.  Very hard to get in!  But since I'm inside the house typing this, I obviously found a way.  I ain't telling how, but I have a bleeding, scratched, bruised leg for my efforts.  It's a five foot fence with pointy spikes at the top.  All I can say is it's a damn good thing I have long legs!  

I am SO mad at Marley right now.  Obviously I had to leave him tied to the outside of the fence.  I contemplated putting a sign on him that said FREE DOG, COMES WITH 40 LBS. OF FOOD, MEDS, LEASH, CHOKER CHAIN, COLLAR AND A HEADACHE!  But I didn't, I brought him around to the back of the house.  Shoved his stinky butt into the pool, then rinsed him under the outdoor shower with warm water.  Dried him with a towel.  Put said nasty towel in washer along with filthy leash and collar and am listening to them clank around while I type this.

Just cleaned the bloody gash on my leg and put Neosporin on it.  Guess I'm going to be okay.  Still pissed at him though.

Every single time Randy leaves town something breaks at this house.  Seriously, it does.  My house doesn't like me!  That's the only conclusion I can come to.

Sheesh!  Damn dog!

I think I'd better curl up in a ball in bed before something else breaks!

So, yeah, that's my crappy day, how was your's?

This is him leaping and that's the front gate that wouldn't open.

ADDENDUM:  October 28, 2012 at 4:57 p.m.

Randy just got home and merely LOOKED at the keypad and it started working.  I'm not kidding!  Well actually, I am kidding a little.  He did open the power box to the keypad but there didn't seem to be anything wrong in there.  Then he went over to the keypad and noticed that the 9 key was stuck in.  Sprayed corrosion X on it and gave it a quick swipe and it started working immediately.  Beeps and all.  Works like a charm.  Which simply proves my point, the house loves him and hates me!

Teo

Mateo Gray Cardenas was born on August 8, 2011 at 5:11 p.m.  I'd already been in Austin over two weeks because there was expectation of his impending birth prior to his actual birth due to changes in my daughter's body.  So I came and lived in our apartment in Austin for the duration.  I had promised her I'd be here for 3 weeks after his birth and I am a woman of my word.  I came early because I didn't want to miss one second and it's a 3 1/2 hour drive from Rockport.

My son-in-law, Rey, and I were in the labor and delivery room for the entire process and that poor baby and mommy worked extremely hard to meet each other.  I am so proud of her.  She's such a trooper and so is Teo, for that matter.  I had never witnessed the birth of a child before, not even my own.  I mean, let's face it, you can't see what's going on down there while it's happening, and I've never watched a video of it either.  It's traumatizing for everyone, I assure you.  The fact that the human race still exists is a complete and utter miracle.  I guess we forget all about these things, otherwise we'd all be one-child families.

To say Teo had a cone head after he was delivered is an understatement.  I was truly worried about his poor little head.  In fact, during the delivery when the cone first emerged I thought that was his head, but nope, shortly thereafter his real head came out and I was pretty flabbergasted about the condition of his poor lopsided little noggin.  The doctor, pediatrician and nurse were all exclaiming that it would go away but man, I have to tell you, I was worried.  Most natural born babies have a bit of a cone head from traveling through the birth canal, but geez louise, this infant's head was way off!  He was turned wrong so it took a little longer than it should have to push him out and therefore his head was stuck in the birth canal longer than it should have, resulting in the off-kilter shape of his head upon delivery.  Surprisingly, it was almost gone after only 24 hours, thank goodness!  He weighed in at 8 lbs. 2 1/2 ozs. and 21 inches long, the exact same as his mommy when she was born.  Coincidence?  I think not!

I am a believer in numerology and the synchronicity of people in our lives and families.  I knew Teo couldn't be born on May 11th but his Poppy, Randy; his Grandpa Roland; my niece, Stacy; and Sadie, my daughter's Shih Tzu puppy, were all born on that day.  To tie it all up rather neatly, Teo was born at 5:11 p.m. - coincidence?  No way!

Teo is now almost six months old and I can't tell you all the changes that have occurred so quickly!  He's sporting a perfectly round little head, the biggest blue eyes and longest dark eyelashes and the most beautiful, angelic smile imaginable.  I've dubbed him 'The World's Cutest Baby' or WCB because frankly, there isn't a day goes by that I don't actually think it's 100% true!  Every time we go anywhere people stop and tell us that he is so cute, so handsome, so adorable, so whatever.  He draws a crowd, people.  One time we were in the mall and I was pushing the stroller while Angela shopped in this baby boutique.  Shortly upon our arrival there were several people peering down into the stroller and I watched while this young woman just stared at Teo for a while.  Eventually she looked up at me watching her staring and she said, "I ... Can't ... Look ... Away!"  I laughed out loud.  She literally was mesmerized.  I do the same thing.  He's truly hard to take your eyes off.  And a flirt, oh my goodness, he's the biggest flirt already!  He has everyone wrapped around his little finger.  From me and Poppy, to his God Mommy, to Grandma Jane and Grandpa Roland, to his teacher at day care, to all of my daughter's friends, to Rey's yoga friends, it's just one big happy Teo Fest!  To say he's one well-loved little guy is putting it mildly.

A friend of mine once told me shortly after the birth of her first grandchild that she could try and explain the feelings you have for a grandchild but I would not understand until my first grand baby was born.  She was absolutely spot on.

The love I have for Teo is beyond my wildest expectations.  I tease people and say, "Well, I thought I loved my own kids, but nah, I didn't."  I'm kidding, of course, because my children are the best thing I've ever accomplished in my entire life and I love them beyond reason.  But still, these feelings I have for Teo go beyond even that.  Maybe it's because it's all joy and not much of the hard stuff.  The midnight feedings and lack of sleep, fussy or sick baby, or the myriad of other infant woes are left to the parents and the fun stuff like babysitting and just observing his sweetness are for grand parents.  I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm enjoying it immensely.  Oh, I'm sure I'll have some times when Teo tries my patience in the distant future but I'm okay with that.  He has been and will continue to be one of the greatest blessings in my life.