“A dog has the soul of a philosopher.â€Â
~Plato
This past May our family experienced something that we all hoped to never have to experience. We had to choose whether or not to put our dog to sleep. Razz was a dog that we met back in 1998 when we moved to the Kansas City area from Tulsa, OK. We were introduced to James and Julie and Razz was their dog. He fast became our daughter Tori’s best friend.
Tori had been asking repeatedly for a dog and we used the standard excuse that unless we had a fenced in yard we would not be getting a dog. Fast forward to the year 2001 and we are home owners with a fenced in yard and a daughter looking to hold our feet to the fire. James and Julie came to the rescue offering to let us adopt Razz. They had several young children and Razz wasn’t getting any younger and they felt he would do better in our home. For the next 5+ years Razz was our very own bundle of joy. He provided countless hours of companionship and fun for our family. In May he had a stroke which severely affected his whole body and after trying certain meds and helping him to eat and drink for 3 or 4 days we realized that he just wouldn’t get better and his quality of life was at an all time low. So we made that sad trip to the vet.
“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir, We must rise and follow her; When from every hill of flame, She calls and calls each vagabond by nameâ€Â
~William Bliss Carman
As I sit here on this sunny, cool morning, windows wide open after a night of autumn rain, I cannot help but be immensely grateful that blessed October has finally arrived, with the scent of cinammon on the air and her promises of crisp, fall days. Finally. I live for these last three months of the year.
October, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….
“With Icarus quill and ink from the blood of nameless things,
I here pen words no mortal should ever speak
Of horrors beyond the ken of man yet in possession of his senses.
Ere the hour of peace dawns upon mankind these abhorrent scratches
Will find their way into the hands of one whose eyes will be consumed
By my accursed remembrances.
It is in that day that all courage will fail you, for your doom is at hand
And things unspeakable will haunt your waking dreams…”
~Calvin Renct, 1698
Thus begins this Tiny Stories Contest, R.I.P. II style! For those unfamiliar with the Tiny Stories concept or for those needing a refresher, the rules are as follows:
Okay R.I.P.ers, the first of the promised contest announcements is here, with more to follow during the week. As I did with this spring’s Once Upon a Time Challenge, I want to encourage site visitation amongst those participating in the challenge. So…once again I am going to give away a prize drawn from a list of names of those who make at least one visit to every site on the R.I.P.ing Yarns Book Review Site. I believe I counted 123 sites listed there as of today. The sites listed today will be the ones you are accountable for. If you have already visited a site (or sites) then you can count those as already visited. The deadline for visiting all the sites at least once and reporting back to me with a comment here is….drumroll please…Friday, October 19th. That gives you a little over 3 weeks to visit all the sites.
And what might you win if you were to take on this perilous challenge?
If I remember correctly, last Wednesday I advertised the fact that a body bag full of prizes and contest details would be announced on Friday. I made a grave error, not accounting for the fact that it would take me more time than I planned for to get the pictures ready, etc. Stay tuned, it is looking like Tuesday will be the new Friday! 😉
In other news, we had a wonderful end of summer/beginning of fall weekend with family and friends. How about you?
On Friday I was able to introduce my daughter to the magnificence of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his bizarre masterpience, The City of Lost Children. Her response: “That was very weird, but I liked it.” It had been years since I had seen the film and watching it again was like rediscovering my joy of the film. It is such a fun movie. Ron Perlman as One, Judith Vittet as Miette (who, I am sad to say has not done much more acting. Not sure why as she was wonderful) and Joseph Lucien as Denree (the little kid who eats ALL THE TIME) are terrific, as is the rest of Jeunet and Caro’s cast of regulars.
