Ode to two very special dogs.

by mischief mari on September 2, 2010

I used to think that people who owned dogs were absolutely nuts. They talked about their dogs like they were people, bragged about them, looked down on other people’s dogs. Then Nunuk came into our lives and we kind of became crazy dog people ourselves. Of course our dog is the most beautiful of all dogs. Of course he’s the smartest with the biggest heart. Of course he’s the best behaved.

Actually, he’s not the best behaved. No dog is. But Nunuk, in particular, is animal aggressive. In and out of shelters for a good part of his life, he’s never been socialized with other dogs. He wigs out when he sees them and instead of considering starting a friendship with them, he thinks he’s at the start of a big meal. However, around people, he’s the nicest. We often joke that if a thief broke into our house, he’d play with the robber. But around dogs, squirrels and cats…fuggedaboutit. That’s just how he is.

At first he was just too much to handle. Or so I thought. Then Paz, who loves dogs and is incapable of seeing any dog in a negative light, taught me a lot about how these animals think, feel and react under varying circumstances. Although she’s never met Nunuk in person, her instincts and understanding about him were always spot on. On days when he had just dragged me down the street after a cat and I thought I couldn’t take his antics any longer, I’d tell her about my frustration and she’d offer advice or some kind of anecdote from her own experiences that helped me better deal with him.

Sadly, Paz lost her two very special dogs, Menina and Cadeau in the past year. I never met them, but I am certain they directly contributed to Paz’s helping me with Nunuk. I know it may sound silly especially to those of you who don’t have pets or think we pet owners are a nutty bunch. But when she told me of Cadeau’s passing, and subsequently Menina’s, I cried. In the end, our beloved pets are members of the family. We feed them, play with them, teach them, and worry about them about as much as we do the human members of our family. So when they’re gone, naturally, we mourn their absence.

Paz asked me to design some cookies to honor Menina and Cadeau’s memories. I warned her that they would be whimsical and mischievous in style. Not surprisingly, she told me to go for it.

Menina Paz's Dog
Menina with glasses

Two portraits Cadeau Paz's dog
Two portraits of Cadeau

These are just a few of the entire set I made, which will all soon be posted on my Flickr portfolio.

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Confession of a Fig Thief.

by mischief mari on August 31, 2010

Figs. From a fig thief.

It was a cool, sunny, breezy August afternoon. So cool and so nearly crisp that it felt more like a fine Autumn day than the last week of August. Mimi and I sat on the swing on the front deck for a few moments until she begged to be set free to crawl on the lawn. Once I liberated her, I noticed the neighbor’s fig tree was covered with luscious, ripe fruit. Dark, plump figs that were waiting to be picked.

Waiting to be picked by me.

No neighbors in sight. Just me. Mimi. And the figs.

I plucked six in less than a minute.

Ran into the house with my load and dropped them off on the kitchen counter.

The husband asked: “Where’s the baby?”

Oh. The baby. I ran back outside.

Mimi was crawling rapidly toward the pavement. The though of scraped knees gnawed at me. I picked her up and casually walked back toward the front door. Looking around occasionally to see if anyone had noticed that Mimi’s mother had stolen from the neighbors.

No one in sight.

Would you have done any differently?

Some interesting fig facts:

The fig tree is the symbol of abundance, of fertility, of sweetness. Birds love figs. You can cover your fig tree with netting to fend off the birds. But probably not me. Fig trees thrive in temperate climates. Temperate = hot and sunny. Norway = no fig trees.

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Not going postal. Going Slater. It’s a bit less dangerous.

August 17, 2010

Do you know where the term “going postal” originates? According to Wikipedia, it was born in the previous century: “The term derives from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public. Between 1986 and [...]

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Cocoa Brownies so good, you’ll feel like you died and…

July 28, 2010

…you know, went to Heaven. The first time I saw these brownies was on Patricia’s blog, when we were going through a heatwave that could best be described as flattening. The mercury bumped over 100 degrees for nearly seven days in a row, and worse, it was humid! Southern California is almost never humid. Hot, [...]

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I procrastinate. By staring at fonts.

July 27, 2010

Albemarle ‘m’ cookie. Everyone has their own little procrastination thing. You know, when you’ve got a nice big pile of work to finish or some errand you have to do before the day’s end but you just, don’t, wanna, do, it, now. Mine: font-staring. If it were a sport I’d train for it. A few [...]

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Old Gas Station Now a Tiny Restaurant.

July 19, 2010

In my previous Ruby Tuesday post, I featured a shot of a pair of vintage red gas pumps that were no longer in use. The station looked like it had been abandoned. A few days later, I passed by the same place – it’s on Green Street in the heart of Pasadena – and noticed [...]

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Northanger Abbey. Hey, Austen loved gothic romance! Yah!

July 16, 2010

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, gothic romances were the rage. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, written before her masterpieces Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, is a kind of humorous, sweet little satire of that genre that tells the story of Catherine Morland, a young, innocent tomboyish country girl with a passion for [...]

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Friends. Meet the baby cook.

July 13, 2010

Mimi was only two months old when my mother sent me this little gizmo, the babycook by Beaba. I guess she wanted me to be ready when it was time to start feeding the little monster “real foods.” This machine is really small (11″ x 5 1/2″ x 8″ high; 2 lbs. 3 oz). When [...]

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Weekend Reads: Harlan Coben’s Caught.

July 2, 2010

Yesterday afternoon I read the Prologue of Harlan Coben’s latest novel, Caught.  Oh boy. I sure hope I can pull my nose out of it when the baby needs diapering or feeding. Did you know that Coben published this book only a year after publishing his previous novel, Long Lost? How does he do that? [...]

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Red Vintage Fueling Stations.

June 28, 2010

I’ve passed this little fueling station many times and wondered if it was about to disappear. No one ever stopped there for gas, no one was ever inside the little cubby-hole station managing the place, and when I took this photo (as well as a few other close-ups), it was clear the pumps hadn’t been [...]

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