Showing posts with label a jewel of a dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a jewel of a dog. Show all posts

Monday, October 21, 2024

Jewell


 

50

 

Jewell

 

I followed Indiana Jones's example and named myself after my dog. Sometimes I use the name Jewell as a nom de plume.

 

I say that Jewell was my dog, although she started out as DD's. DD was in high school, and Jewell was a puppy when they found each other. The Roly poly puppy, basically all black then, chewed on my diamond ring on the way home and earned the name Jewell even before her personality told us she was one.

 

I wouldn't have parted with that dog for anything except to save my kid's lives.

 

While we were still living at Rancho Santa Fe, CA, Jewell contracted Parvo, a dangerous disease to dogs, probably because, as a pup, she had the propensity to munch on about anything available. Now, they have a vaccination for Parvo, but then, all we could do was wait and have her quarantined for a while. During that time, I wandered into the canyon below our house praying that she would survive. 

 

She recovered and put aside her puppy ways of munching and became a beautiful lady, a gray Malamute-shepherd-husky. A perfect dog. 

 

She and I were a part of the caravan that snaked its way up the long state of California into Oregon when we moved back here after the girls graduated from high school, and both were accepted into the University of Oregon in Eugene. Lisa accompanied by her boyfriend drove her Rabbit vehicle. DD and a friend drove her (not new) Porsche, and Neil drove a Rider Rental truck loaded with our belongings. Neil was still working in California part time, so he was traveling a lot. I was the den mother to three students going to the University while Jewell and I spent our lives together.

 

When I studied The Course in Miracles, I found a card that said, "Live forever, you holy Son of God." I know it sounds like swearing but say it kindly. I kept saying that to Jewell. However, when she was old and infirm, I tried to take it back and release her, for it was hard for her to let go. I grieved terribly when she died. I don't like to take a life to its end, but Gabe came soon after, and we got the puppy Peaches, who used Gabe as a footstool to get onto the bed with us. That seemed to please him, and I believe it prolonged his life.

 

Jewell and I were a team. We went hiking into the forest behind our house on Hendricks Hill when the land was wild and unfenced, where I imagined a fern grotto (my name) beside the path was harboring fairies, and an old rose garden hidden in the forest produced large rose hips in the fall.  Why would a rose garden be hidden in the forest unless once there was a homestead there, or indeed, fairies had planted it?

 

I loved all our dogs, but Jewell planted a diamond in my heart. 

 

Live forever, you Holy Daughter of God!







Mary Trump has written about her uncle for years in The Good in Us. In it she has told that he has been a bully all his life. Now, she wonders why in the world the polls say the Presidential race is 50/50.

A comment from one of her supporters:

 “It’s not Trump they want; they will get rid of him in a minute. It’s the puppet Vance.”

Oh, my heavens.

Remember Plato? That guy born approximately 428 BC? Plato suggests that ideas are the only constant, and that the perceived world through our senses is deceptive and changeable. Because Socrates, his teacher, constantly questioned the values of society, criticized politicians, and proposed ideas that made the establishment nervous, he was finally put on trial for corrupting the youth and for not worshipping the correct Gods. Plato’s dialogue The Apology portrays Socrates defending himself against the accusations of the state. After being sentenced, he willingly drank hemlock, saying, “I do not fear death.”

After the oligarchy was overthrown and democracy was restored, Plato briefly considered a career in politics, but the execution of Socrates in 399 B.C.E. soured him on this idea and he turned to a life of study and philosophy.

Good plan.