About Monkeys

Since I was a kid I always wanted a monkey for a pet, what kid doesn't right? Well, I play a diffrent drum than most. When I want something, I go out and I first learn all I can about it. What it is, where it is, what it does, what it doesn't do, and everything else in between. I have spent around 10-15 years researching this species of primate. I had hoped that one day I would have a Tamarin to call my own. Washington sate laws and regulations have decided that I won't! Thanks to fucking stupid morons like that dumb bitch that owned the chimp that nearly killed a woman and ruined her life what's left of it. I wish I had the opportunity to chat a while with her! So The little girl Cotton top Tamarin in this picture belongs to a woman that I met online in my quest to own a Tamarin. She is a very knowedgable and kind person and shares her life with this Tamarin and several other exotic animals on the web in the form of videos and photos and a daily blog.

Fat-Boy

Meet Fat-Boy, a Rottweiler that has stolen my heart. If you read my last blog entry you already know part of his story. He has not had a fair and balanced life. In my hopes he remains, one day to come and live with us so that we can show him what it means to really be loved and cared for. For now I have my hands tied. I can only hope and blog about his future. I took this photo last summer. It was one that doesn't have so much of the misery that he ussually lives in. We had just gone over and raked and shoveled up his crap, washed his dog house and cleaned his area up of debree that he gets tangled up on. I brushed him and played ball with him. Our time was over and he was upset because we were leaveing. I wish that I could take him with me and never leave him behind again. I wish.     

This is Wrong

I have shared my sweet and loveing American Pitbull Terrier and his rather spoiled life with all who care to read it, now I am going to tell you about 2 other dogs that are in my heart and always a little tug of worry in the back of my mind. They came in to my life when they were around 7 weeks old, all cute and little and every body wanted to hold and pet them. They belonged next door to the eldest 2 sons of our nieghbors. At first they ran loose and that wasn't a problem really because they were small pups and they stayed next door for the most part. But as they grew they became destructive as unattended puppies will do, tearing up the insulation and cables under our home. They became a bit of a problem. We talked to the boys about it and the parents and soon the dogs were chained up with new chains, collars and plastic dog houses. And they stayed like that for a large period of time untill one day the boys came and got them and moved them. Later we found out that they had both gotten rental houses and had taken the pups to live with them. End of Story. No. A few monthes later the male dog,"Fat-Boy" was back, chained out back again. Eventually, his little sister was also back and both Fat-Boy and Sweetness remained there in the backyard of our nieghbors for a year and a half.
During this time we got ourselves pretty involved with the dogs because they were often in need of our attention. What I mean by that is that they spent the hottest days of the summer with no shade or water, they were tied on 15 foot chains so they were always in thier own shit and waste, and on 2 occasions the managed to get tangled together in such a way that the chains acted as touniquet around thier necks and one was passed out the other well on it's way. The chains were so tight I almost failed to rescue them in time. After that incident, they and I were bonded. They were clear who we were, the good people who cared.
When you have been as involved with dogs as I have been you learn the language of dog. Though each dog has a variation of that language the base stays the same. So you know what each bark indicates and how to decipher every whine or growl in time.
There were times that the dogs would bark all night. I wouldn't be able to sleep, so I would go check it out only to find them tangled or hungry sometimes just scared but often no water. I came to know when they needed help, and eventually we just made a point of going over to them 2x's a day with food and some love. I bought clean 5 gallon buckets and used my dremel to cut down one side in a half circle and we put rebar into the ground to stake the buckets to. I would pull the buckets evry three days and bleach them and the food dishes and my partner, Rick would rake the poop up and we both would lavish them with love. If they got loose, we would collect them and return them to their chains. On several occasions, Sweetness would get loose and come to our bedroom window and softly whine for us to help her.
When we took care of them they rarley barked, or broke loose, why should they, thier needs had all been met.
Then one day we came home and the dogs were gone. My heart ached for them. Because if the boys didn't care for them here what would happen to them some where else? I worried and worried, and made a point of enquireing about them and how they were doing every time I saw the boys.
Then one morning I heard a single bark so familliar coming from the back yard! I ran out there and sure enough, there was Fat-Boy jumping all over me and whimpering softly as if to say,"Oh human friend How I have missed you!" Sweetness was with her boy and they were doing much better from what I understood. She was indoors and had other dogs to play with where they lived.
Fat-Boy was so lonley with out her, when they were both together, they would howl every time they heard a siren, it was always an experience to hear them. Now that he was alone his solo howls seemed more like cries of despair and loss than anything, and I would go and try to comfort him.

Spoiled Dog

Well, here he is again that spoiled dog of mine! Yes he has his own blanket and it is a thick and fuzzy thing that he has loved since puppyhood! When I take it off the bed and wash it he gets all stressed out and has to get involved with the whole process of laundry. He watches as I put it in the washer, eyes wide makeing this snorting noise we call "Snuffalufagus Sounds". Then he passes back and forth from me to the washer untill it's time to go in the dryer. Then he waits for me to open the dryer and promptly sticks his head in to inspect this thing that I am going to put his fuzzy blanket in as if to see if it's up to his standards for blanket drying. Then the passing begins again untill the dryer is done. When I get it out he follows me and it to the bed where he does the blanket dance on it untill he gets it just right. Then he likes to get all wrapped up in it as you see in the picture, We call it "Burrito-Dog". I often wonder what he really is because dogs are not this human!

The Definition of Family to Me

Webster's Pocket Dictionary gives the following definitions for the word, "family".

1. parents and their children
2. relatives
3. lineage
4. group of related things

Of coarse Webster's is only stateing facts with no emotion as it is a reffrence manual.
Everyone has their own definition of family and naturally so do I.
Thing is that the word family is not such a good description of the folks I call Family!
I preffer to use the term,"My People" because as a child growing up I didn't know many members of my family very well and some I still don't know at all. But I did recognize that being a part of Family, My People, or whatever word you want to use, was a vital and missing part of my life and there for became my life long ambition. I was determend to find and be with ,"MY PEOPLE"! I was about 8 years old when I made that promise to my self. I spent the better part of my 40 years following that goal, all the while driven to do it by some deep unseen force that would not let me stop untill I was successful.
Strange, when little kids have som e crazy idea or dream it ussually is something like, I want to be a fireman or I want a puppy or even a dragon, not when I grow up I want to be with my family!
Why don't healthy and balanced children ever set goals like that? Because they are born in to it and it is strong constant that is almost like breathing, kids just don't think that way normally.
Knowing that, you would think that it wouldn't be a goal that would be difficult to achieve. Wrong! I really did spend my entire life trying despatretley to be with my people! I wanted it for so long and so badly that I had some how, gradually given up in side, that I would ever find it. So to my surprize, when I realized that I had come to be with my people, I was upset at myself for not recognizing a lifetime goal and truley appreciating it. But I did see it and I celebrate the goodness of it every minute of every day now!
Kind of hard to explain how good it feels to know that there are a group or groups of folks out there who know who I am and where I came from, and the love me any way. I also struggle with describing what it does to a person's world to be accepted and to belong some where to people who call you their own. You could not imagine and I fail to find words that could say.
With this, I am also able to see my past and all the people in it for what and who they are. My heart aches with it all and I am over whelmed.