Fifth anniversary of blog (with rainy day pictures)

Anna has been indoors long enough that
she's beginning to think that she owns
the place. She's a nice girl with bitch
potential, rather possessive. I think that
she is beginning to put on a little weight.

Blogging:  "Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few."

I missed the exact day again this year, but November 24th marked the fifth year that I've been blogging. Although the date is different, today corresponds to the day featured in my first post five years ago as we prepared to load up and head to Kentucky for Thanksgiving. We are not going this year, for the first time in many years, because I just couldn't figure out a way to leave. Leaving is always difficult but once we get away I always relax and enjoy myself and the dogs have generally fared pretty well. The way the weather is today it may be just as well that we are staying home. The drive through West Virginia sounds like it would be snowy.

Vince in his favorite spot under my desk.
Anna has been vying for that spot. No trouble
so far, but I'm watching her closely.

I didn't really have any particular expectations when I started blogging. It's a release, and an opportunity to vent, and these days it serves as my memory about former foster dogs and past events. I find that I can plug a few key words into Google, along with "vadogrescue" and generally find the post that I need to refresh or replenish my memory. I often wish the blog went back for the full 12 years that we've been fostering instead of just the past five.

When Gigi wants a change of venue from the
bedroom, she comes into the office and uses
one of nice, new, big crate beds from Costco.

Maya.  I hope that within
the next year she will be
settled down a bit more.

Some folks have noticed and pointed out that my break from fostering didn't last long and that's true but I never really intended to stop, just cut back.  We have just four or five fosters at the moment, depending on how you count, and that is down from the ten or more that we've had at times in the past. However, I would like to keep it to no more than two or three. 

Trooper curled up tightly on a cold, wet day.

I got a quick pic of Cabell before he got up
and left the room.  He now recognizes the
iPhone as a camera, which he hates.

Although I've thought it was pretty well known, we intend to keep Maya and one of my goals for the next few days is to complete and send in an application to adopt her.  Whether or not it gets approved is anyone's guess, but she's not going anywhere.  I still don't have a fence that will contain her, but she's "homed" here now and she doesn't stray very far or for very long.  She's relatively safe here at least and she seems to like it here.

My term on the VGSR board of directors expires at the end of the year; I did not seek re-election and I will be greatly relieved when it's over if I even manage to stick it out to the end of the year. I completely understand why rescue groups tend to splinter and break apart and I don't think that's such a bad thing. Increasing size brings bureaucracy; rules and regulations replace mutual trust. An open membership also attracts people who may love dogs but don't have a clue about much else. Rescue works best when it's local and is composed of a small core group that respect each other and are actively involved in the rescue work. Although those who can not foster can still make valuable contributions, those who view it as a social group or as a way to exercise petty forms of power are the bane of my existence.

Bremo doesn't get up any more than
necessary these days, but I saw him
running on a cold morning recently.

There's no shortage of dogs in need and no shortage of groups to work with. I still have four VGSR dogs even after adopting Maya, so I expect I'll continue to have some association with VGSR in the future, but I'd like to limit that for a while and try some alternative routes. I will continue rescue work and will continue this blog as long as I have something to say. With the number of dogs around here, most days I do not lack material.

I mostly stick to writing about dogs and rescue work, but not exclusively, to the dismay of some. But if you think that I don't hold anything back, you need only talk to Clay who will confirm that I think, believe, and say many things far more extreme and outrageous than anything I have written. If I offend it was probably because I was striking back at something that I find offensive; I rarely do anything unintentionally. In any event, I write to express my own feelings and no one is forced to read, or agree with, anything I write, so "non, je ne regrette rien."