Wooly Bully

It’s too late for this year but you might want to pencil the 41^st Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival into your calendar for next spring. I readily admit to being surprised at how big it is. The two day event at the Howard County Fairgrounds attracts about 85,000 visitors from all over. It is the premier festival “celebrating all things sheep and wool” in the world.

It’s free too.

We watched sheep dogs go through their paces, ate lamb sausage sandwiches, sampled lambs milk cheese, and checked out at a lot stuff made out of wool.

There was even sheep art. Conni Tӧgel has a collection of works she calls Sheep Incognito, perfect for this crowd. This work is entitled “Ewe Tube.”

It’s a dry event and after all that lamb I was a little thirsty so to keep in the spirit of things I picked up a six pack of Baba Black Lager on the way home. Not baaaaad.

Ahem.

All in all, it was a wooly bully day.

You can see more pictures of the 40^th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival here.

Upping Her Game

Tomorrow night loco celebrity status will be measured by the amount of tips given to six loco luminaries. Tom Coale, Mickey Gomez, Paul Skalny, Vicki Goodman, Dick Story and Pam Klahr will serve as celebrity bartenders for the HoCo library’s black tie fundraiser, Sparkles and Spurs. They will use charm and wit to see who among them can cajole the most tips to benefit the library.

Last year, when it was my chance to be measured against other loco standouts behind the bar, Mickey Gomez won the night. That got her invited back for another stint this year.

She is a very formidable competitor. Last night, on her blog “Life & How to Live It”, she wrote an open letter to one of my favorite humorists, Dave Barry. In the letter she tells a tale of a canine caper that reduced her autographed copy of his book “Insane City” to shreds.

“On Thursday I brought the book home. I took it out of my bag – worried about it getting crushed or torn there – and placed it in the middle of the dining room table. The large dining room table. My husband and I went to dinner and returned less than ninety minutes later to find the book laying open on the floor. The cover had been removed and – how shall I put this? – artfully redesigned by Shiloh, Mischief Dog. He even ate part of it.”

It’s a very funny read.

The best part though is that instead of appealing to the author for another signed copy of his book, she asks for a donation to the library.

“If you happen upon this message and are so inclined, I’d like to ask you to consider helping to promote our local libraries. They are top-notch, but – as with all libraries – there are programs that need support in order to continue. I’ll be raising money this weekend as a Celebrity Bartender during Evening in the Stacks, their annual fundraiser that supports two exceptional programs: A+ Partners in Education and Project Literacy.”

Nicely done.

High Water

It was the storm with no name. Despite the fact that yesterdays weather event included 13 tornadoes in eight states, no one has given it a name, not yet anyway. It was certainly worthy of a name. According to this story by Becky Kellogg on The Weather Channel, over “a hundred homes and businesses in Laurel, Md. were evacuated Thursday afternoon after heavy rains prompted the opening of nearby dams. A commuter rail station in Laurel was also closed because of floodwaters.  Roads in Montgomery County, Md. are closed, and some are even buckling, due to the heavy rain and high water."Wind gusts up to 81 mph were clocked in southern New England early Thursday, including gusts over 60 mph at New York's LaGuardia Airport and Boston's Logan Airport," says weather.com Senior Meteorologist Jon Erdman.”

In HoCo it appears that Ellicott dodged the flood bullet this time around. The bridge crossing the Patapsco River was closed as a precaution but this morning the river was still running under the bridge instead of over it.

It was right at the deck though. Walking across from the Baltimore County side this morning, Dave Carney remarked that crossing over with the river so high made him feel a little nervous.

 It didn't seem to bother Chloe.

Columbia Goes to the Dogs

It’s been a long time coming but it appears that, by this time next year, Columbia will have its very first dog park. According to this story by Luke Lavoie in Explore Howard, “CA staff has recommended that a dog park be built off Rivendell Lane near the CA Sports Park.”

Construction is expected to begin next February and will likely be ready for HoCo canines by early spring.

It could soon be followed by a second Columbia dog park. The HoCo Department of Parks and Recreation is working on plans to bring a dog park to the new Blandair Park in Columbia by spring of 2014.

“The county has identified two sections of Blandair park, one in the southwest and one in the northwest, as potential locations for a dog park.”

Parks and Rec currently operates the only existing HoCo dog park in Ellicott City.

A big wag of the wordbones tail goes out to all those who work to make HoCo even more dog friendly.

Thirty Dog Day

“How many dogs do you think we’ll see today?”

Peanut and I were just starting our walk around Centennial Lake. It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon and the park was loaded with runners, bikers, walkers and dogs. I guessed fifteen and she said twenty.

We were both way off. As we navigated around the lake we saw thirty dogs of all shapes and sizes, including one that was wearing white goggles whilst being carried by its owner.

Does that really count as dog walking?

“I smell honeysuckle,” Peanut exclaimed shortly after seeing the goggle wearing dog.

I told her that it was probably too early for honeysuckle. I was soon proven wrong. Could it be that this years schizophrenic spring has thrown natures schedule off a bit?

I think it was warmer in March this year than it has been in April.

When we were about two thirds of the way around we decided to take a break. I spotted an empty bench with a nice view looking down the lake. Even on a crowded day at the park it was still easy to find a quiet spot to soak in the spring afternoon.

I’ve walked, biked and run the 2.4 mile loop around the fifty acre lake more times than I can count in the twenty five years since the park first opened. It never gets old and from a dog wearing white goggles to a woman standing on a white bucket in the water, you never know what you might see.

Dog TV

There are cable television channels that mimic aquariums and fireplaces so it was only a matter of time that one would come along for stay at home dogs.

Great, just what this country needs. One of the great benefits of owning a dog is that it forces the owner to get and go outside every day, to exercise and socialize their animals. Now, with Fido becoming a couch potato, those outdoor excursions may become limited to potty breaks.

This is progress?  

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So True

I heard this song on the radio a couple of weeks ago and I still can’t get it out of my head so I thought I’d share…besides, it’s a dog song.

So true.

A Good Dog Story

Every so often I’ll read a story about dogs that reminds me why I’m a big fan. There is something remarkable and even a bit mysterious about the special bound a dog can form with a human. Even more remarkable is when that special bound helps a child with a disability cope with the world around them. In this story by Melissa Fay Greene in The New York Times Magazine I learned about an organization in Ohio called 4 Paws for Ability that trains dogs for children with autism or behavior disorders, seizure disorders or diabetes including a few dogs that have been able “to predict the medical incidents 6 to 24 hours in advance. (How they do this is something of a mystery.)”

The dogs also help the kids break out of the social isolation that their disability often creates.

“We place dogs with kids in wheelchairs, kids on ventilators, kids with autism, kids with dwarfism, kids with seizure disorder and cognitive impairments; but if your dog does tricks, other kids want to meet you. Kids will ignore your disability if you’ve got a cool dog.”

The organization works with prisoners in select facilities who assist in training the dogs.

"One prisoner with a sense of humor returned a dog who — upon hearing the command “Play dead” — lurched, as if shot, staggered across the floor, knelt, got up, buckled, whined piteously and then dramatically collapsed.

Cool dog. Lucky kid."

Reading, Redistricting, and Puppies

The problem with having a really good show is the expectation it raises for the next show. Our podcast with Chris Oxenham and Roger Caplan on January 27th turned out to be one of the more popular shows we’ve done so far and we really wanted to build on that. Unfortunately, due to a schedule accommodation with our next guest, we ended up not having anyone lined up for Friday as of last Monday.

Paul and I discussed simply cancelling this week’s show. Dave, thought we were giving up too easily. “There are plenty of people you guys could have on,” he suggested. That's the type of thing producers do, keep the show moving.

Dave pointed out that there were two big annual fundraisers coming up in HoCo, Evening in the Stacks next weekend and The Chocolate Ball on March 3^rd. Why not have someone come on and talk about them?

He was right of course and we ended up having a another fun show.

We decided to go with the library fundraiser since it was coming up next weekend. By the end of the day Monday, Christie Lassen, the Director of Public Relations for the library, had agreed to join us to talk about her event and the new Miller Branch library.

Another reason to go ahead with the show was the abundance of loco news stories since the last show, including the highly charged Board of Education meeting the night before the podcast.

I also found out that that Paul’s family dog, Bailey, came from an out of state breeder and was “flown in” when they got her. I’ve heard of people driving to another state to pick up a dog but Paul is the only person I know who’s ever had their puppy flown in. Consequently he had some pretty strong opinions about the protests against Charm City Puppies.

You can listen to the 59^th episode of “and there’s that…” here.

Politics & Old Dogs

At the end of Ken Ulman’s fundraiser last night I chatted briefly with Delegate Guy Guzzone and his wife Pam. Guy was the emcee for Ken’s gathering and his remarks were notable for their brevity.

“The best speech in history was only 265 words,” he observed.

Indeed, and it was written by a Repub to boot.

I don’t think Guy even used that many words. I took the occasion to probe him a little about his future political plans to which he was predictably coy. Then I turned to Pam and asked what she would like to see him do.

“I’d like to see him become county executive,” she said without the slightest bit of doubt or hesitation.

I like her. Pam works in organizational development at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, not quite a rocket scientist but you don’t really need to be one to understand the HoCo loco politico scene.

It was also an evening about old dogs, another subject near and dear to my heart. I was catching up with Ian Kennedy when he shared with me that his dog, a Husky named Atticus, is not doing well. “He has good days and bad days,” Ian said, “he still has the spirit of a young dog though some days he has difficulty just standing up.”

Ian knows it is only a matter of time before he has to say goodbye to his loyal friend and dreads the inevitable. It couldn’t come at a worse time either, with a new baby due in a matter of weeks. Joy and sadness at the same time seems so unfair. I felt for him.

I also spent time with HoCo loco energy guru Bert Wilson. Bert is the Managing Member of Castlebridge Energy Group. His wife Suzanne and her partner Tee run The Olbadi Inn in Ellicott City. Bert has a 12 year old dog at home with doggie diabetes. He showed me a picture of Buster on his phone. He told me that he had to get home to give Buster his insulin shot.

Bert wonders if Buster will it make it through the holidays.

When I got home I saw facebook posting from Mickey Gomez about the passing of her dog, Indy. She wrote a warm tribute to her old friend on her blog. Fair warning, if you love dogs you’ll have a hard time keeping your tear ducts in check.

And since this is Veterans Day, I offer this Veterans Day dog story by Steve Hendrix in The Washington Post. Just one day after rescuing a batch of puppies in Iraq, Army Specialist Justin Rollins was killed by roadside bomb. In one of the last photos taken of Justin he was cradling one of the puppies.

“When his flag-draped transfer case arrived at an airfield in New Hampshire, an Army general asked the family members if there was anything he could do for them.

As a matter of fact, there was.

“I want one of those puppies,” Rhonda answered immediately.”

The story of how Hero made it home is about as good a tribute to vets and the dogs they love as I could find.

To all the vets who stop by here, thank you for your service.

Three Things for Tuesday

The neighborhood I live in now is one of those neighborhoods that gets absolutely jammed on Halloween. For about two hours last night, the streets were overrun with laughter and squeals. It was wonderful.

Admittedly I haven’t always felt this way. I can even recall years where I tried to ignore the holiday by riding out the evening in a loco watering hole, preferably one that wasn’t festooned with ghoulish foolishness.

I think becoming a parent changed that for me. The excitement of my kid for this night of home hopping and candy harvesting is infectious. 

It’s always interesting when a loco blog reader decides to become a blog writer as well. It seems that by reading the blogs they are able to find their own voice. I think that is the case with Julia McCready. Julia has been a regular and frequent commenter of HoCo loco blogs and now she has started her own, Village Green/ Town Squared. As someone who serves on her village board, she brings a studied and well written perspective to Columbia community issues. Welcome.

My sister is also a regular reader and commenter of Tales of Two Cities. Though she now lives in Baltimore, she grew up in Columbia and graduated from Glenelg back before Columbia even had a high school. In the late sixties and early seventies and they shipped all the Columbia kids out west because that was the only HoCo high that had excess capacity.

Anyway…

Kelly has recently completed a children's story about dogs. Her friend David Isreal even wrote a song to go with it. 

Nice job sis!

Dog Days

This was first summer in 14 years that I haven’t had a dog. It was a conscious choice. Before Mars I had another eight years with Sears. I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss a summer between those two. This time around I decided to take a break.

Actually we decided to take a break. Mama Wordbones has also decided not to bring another dog into our home, for the foreseeable future at least. She has a had a dog or dogs in her life for almost three decades. That’s a lot. Owning a dog is not easy, that’s why its done out of love. Unlike other family pets like cats or birds, dogs don’t do well when left alone for extended periods. When they’re young an extended period can be two hours. Labradors stay like that until they’re eight.

So it has been a bit freeing to not have that responsibility, though we still miss our dogs, very much at times.

Too assuage those feelings, we offered to dog sit for one of the remaining members of our old dogs club this summer. For Bailey, the fourteen year old golden retriever, it was like summer camp. She spent her days basking in the fenced backyard interspersed with regular walks up and down her familiar street. Once again we were saving leftovers and doggie bags with a real dog. She ate good. She ate real good.

I’m pretty sure she enjoyed her visit too. Her owners tell us she tugs at  her lease towards our house every time she passes by on her walk. 

I know its mostly because of the food but it that's okay too.

I’m Outa Here

I’m going to take off for a few days. For the past two and a half years I have posted to this blog practically everyday. I’m overdue for a break.

I also haven’t gone away for a summer vacation in two years as I stayed home with our aging dogs. The dogs are gone now so I’m leaving too.

I’m not closing down completely. It is quite possible that I’ll put up a post here and there as I shift into vacation mode, but I am putting my normal routines aside, if only for a week.

That’s what summer is for after all.

Stay cool. See you in awhile

"The Maple Flavored Kind?"

CG just showed me this video and I about fell off my chair...

Dog Day Afternoon

Whenever I drive past the Wine Bin in Ellicott City, I look to see if Chloe is lying by the door. Peanut does the same. It just makes us smile when we see her.

There she was today, a little beyond the doorway, lying on the brick pavers warmed by the sun, an honest picture of contentment.

As passed by and headed down the street it occurred to me to go back and take her picture, besides, I wanted to see if they carried Black Ankle. I circled back and snapped a picture of the dog on the sidewalk in the sun. For a moment I wanted to be her.

As it turns out they do carry Black Ankle. I snatched up a couple bottles of Rolling Hills. Black Ankle is proof positive that Maryland can produce a decent red wine.

This evening I’ll be dropping by Calvin Ball's fundraiser in Shipley’s Grant. I like Calvin and so does just about everybody I know. That kind of broad based type support presents him with some interesting options in the event he has any thoughts of a higher office than councilperson…if ya know what I mean.

And lastly, my Intermodal Insanity post generated quite a bit of heat. I get that. There is a good deal of bad or incomplete information floating around that is fanning fears of the unknown. My motivations have been called to question as well.

That response deserves a post of its own, so stayed tuned if you’re interested. 

Two Dogs Dining

I reserve the right to occasionally post something that is just plain silly. Today, Limowire, a dog lover and a netizen of Tales of Two Cities, sent me this video. I showed it to Mama Wordbones during dinner tonight and she suggested it was worthy of posting on the blog.

I agree.

Max Needs a Home

Yesterday we bundled up all of Mars remaining pet meds, dog food, toys, bowls and leash and took them to the Howard County Animal Welfare Society on Davis Road in Columbia. Mama Wordbones had done the same thing after Lucky passed on last year.

The folks at the shelter were happy to receive them.

After handing over the supplies, Peanut and I lingered for awhile to check out the menangerie of pets. There were dogs of course along with cats, ducks, rabbits and a couple of chickens.

As we were getting ready to leave a large yellow lad bounded up to the fence. I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for labs so we circled back and asked if we could visit for a moment for the big guy.

We were told his name was Max and that he had been given up by his former owner who was no longer able to care for him due to disabilities. Prior to arriving at the shelter Max was underweight and had been chewing on his own paws. Since arriving his paws have begun to heal and he has regained some weight.

Unfortunately, I am not ready to bring on another dog right now but if I were I’m pretty certain that Max would have gone home with us. He is a sweet big guy and he melted against me as I scratched his ears. Michelle, the worker at the shelter, told me she thinks that Max is about four years old. This would be a great dog for a family.

A Good Dog Down

I put my dog down today. I thought I was emotionally ready to do this. I wasn’t. Though her health had declined markedly over the past week, I was reluctant to give up on her. I realize that this was really more for me than her; I that sensed she was ready. Age and infirmities had taken their toll. She no longer had the energy or strength for play.

Afterwards, I asked her vet, Michael Shulkin, if playing Dr. Kevorkian was difficult. He shared with me how he once was given permission by a pet owner to perform an autopsy on a dog that had been suffering from cancer. When he opened the animal up the insides were black as night. He imagined that the dog had been suffering for some time. This helped him rationalize that euthanasia was the most humane thing he could do for them. It even gave him some comfort when is own dog contracted cancer and he had to put him down.

Of course the dog has the easy part. Their suffering ends quickly and painlessly. It’s a far different story for their humans.

Leaving the vets office with tears streaming down my face I wasn’t ready to go home. I knew that walking into my house without being greeted by my four legged friend was going to bring on another wave of grief. I needed to go somewhere and collect myself first.

When Mars was a puppy I was living in Ellicott City, not far from Patapsco State Park. Once she was about four months old I’d take her for long walks through the woods to the park almost everyday and her first experience swimming was in the Patapsco River. That’s where I headed this afternoon .

Today, our neighborhood old dogs club lost another member. The ranks are getting thin.

Annie Burton-Byrd and My Dog

It’s been a tough weekend. My old dog is taking her final lap. Her bodily functions are starting to fail. She wanders aimlessly in the kitchen at night, sniffing a pair a slippers, walking away and then coming back to the exact same spot and sniffing again. She’ll do this for twenty minutes…or longer. I know the end is nigh, but making the call as to when to actually pull the plug is gut wrenching. We’ve been together for over thirteen years.

Anyway, I haven’t been really been thinking about the blog this weekend. That is until I received a rather scathing comment yesterday from someone who identified themselves as “Radicalexplicittruth.” Radicalexplicittruth took issue with this post about the developing controversy of Annie Burton-Byrd and the Domestic Violence Center.

“It amazes me that you have the audacity to write a Blog in regards to Ms. Burton based on hearsay. I would advise you to get all your facts straight before you Blog and put anything on the interenet.”

Until Friday afternoon I had never even heard of Annie Burton Byrd. Before every podcast Paul and I grab lunch to go over what HoCo loco news stories we are going to cover in the show. Paul had the same Annie Burton-Byrd story that Lindsey McPherson reported in The Flier later that day. He also told me that his firm had been previously involved in action with her. His take was that the board of the Domestic Violence Center did a pretty lousy job in vetting their executive director. We decided to use the story.

Later I did a quick check on the Maryland Judiciary website and saw that there were five recorded judgments against her totaling over $800,000.00. I decided I had enough to write that she had been in “hot water.” I also wrote that she had been accused of being a slumlord and provided a link to the site that made this accusation. I just figured I'd get to the rest before the weekend was over…or not. The point had really been made already.

Radicalexplicittruth took me further to task.

“This is very irresponsible reporting and any reporter should investigate everything themselves and not listen to hearsay if you are really a Professional.”

In fact I am not a professional reporter. I am a commercial real estate broker with a social media problem. That being said I stood behind what I wrote and I intended to respond to Radicalexplicittruth, later. Right now I was dealing with canine hospice issues.

That’s where Jason Reddish came in. Within a few hours he took up Radicalexplicittruth’s challenge to investigate and found plenty of fire beneath the smoke. I am always appreciative when a Tales of Two Cities netizen takes up some of my slack. Thanks Jason.

My dog thanks you too.

The End of the Good Life

The Good Life Market in Ellicott City is closing. After six years of breathing new life in their little corner of Ellicott City, Randy and Steve are selling everything and closing up shop. Their closing will be felt in the tight knit retail community in the historic district. The Good Life Market was an anchor of the Second Sunday Markets and it’s closing casts a shadow over the viability of future Second Sundays.

I understand that these guys will be leaving Ellicott City altogether, reportedly heading to Portugal. I also understand that Monah, their Bernese mountain dog will remain in the old mill town with friends.