Walking with Willy

One of the reasons why it's been so tough losing Argos is that walking him was part of my every day routine. I don't think that there were many days out of the year when I didn't take him, and I knew when I lost him that I would definitely feel different if I stopped going for walks. After all, when he was out of commission after getting his toe removed, I continued to go on walks all by myself. Still, those walks didn't feel quite so depressing because I knew that eventually he'd be rejoining me.

Of course, one of the things that I've considered is getting a new dog to be my new walking partner. I haven't completely (just mostly) ruled that out due to the fact that I still have a dog, and that's Willy. I've actually written about him before on this blog, as it was a bit of a trial getting him and the cat, Oliver, to get alone. (They're still best buddies, and you can often find them making out with one another as the Westboro Baptist Church protests their unnatural and ungodly ways.)

The thing is, Argos was the outdoor, walking dog, and Willy was the indoor dog. Kirsti and I had to keep them separate after Argos was about two, due to the fact that they got in a really awful fight with one another. Since it took too much time going on two separate walks, Argos became the default walker since Willy got to hang out inside with us all the time. Not only that, but Argos clearly enjoyed walking more than Willy. Willy's a bit of a nervous walker, and he would sometimes bark hysterically if he saw another dog. (It wasn't an aggressive bark. In fact, he's really eager to meet new dogs, as he would always do when I'd take him to the groomer to get his nails trimmed. He'd just get frustrated when he wasn't allowed to check the other dog out.)

(Special note: Oliver is licking Willy's face as I type this sentence.)

With all this in mind, I figured that I'd still try and give Willy a chance. After all, I have had a bit of success with another supposedly difficult dog, Molly. I was told by my in-laws that it was impossible to walk her, but I actually got her to heel and walk better than I even could with Argos. I also have had pretty good luck walking the two little poodles of my in-laws. In addition, when my friend Jeff leaves his dog with me while he's out of town, I can get her to walk and heel just fine. If I could handle all of these, why not Willy, too?

The first few attempts met with the typical results. He'd bark hysterically when he'd see other dogs. He wanted to pull ahead and go off into five different directions at once, feeling the need to sniff out everything he saw. If I tried to give him a correction using the prong collar (which worked like a charm with Argos) he'd start to get even more panicky and protest even louder.

This just wasn't going to work, and I had to try a new tactic. I mean, going for walks isn't exactly fun when it's such a stressful ordeal. He gets stressed and it psychically goes right through that leash up to me. I figured that I'd do a little research, and I found one site that was pretty even-handed when it came to the usefulness of prong collars. Sure, you get some people trying to tell you how "inhumane" they supposedly are. Well, if you put one of those on a person, it would be pretty awful. Dogs, however, aren't built like us, and it doesn't feel the same on their necks as it would with ours. Not only that, but it only looks draconian, and it does a lot less damage than a choke collar - or if you just attach the leash to their regular collar and let them pull on that like crazy.

So, this site acknowledged that it was foolish to call the prong collar inhumane. At the same time, it noted that the prong collar is not the right solution for every dog - especially nervous dogs like Willy. It suggested using the collar but turning it inside-out. I gave that a go, and he'd protest much less when I'd correct him. Still, I wasn't quite satisfied, and then I remembered that I had long ago bought one of those "Gentle Leader" collars for him. The basic premise behind this one is that if the dog does something he's not supposed to do, you just gently lift up and it forces him to look straight ahead instead of off to the side.

How's that working? Well, he still whines a little, and when we came face-to-face with a couple of dogs that were barking hysterically at him, he went crazy. Also, he tries desperately to get the thing off, and starts to wear himself out pretty early. Still, we've passed by other dogs, and with a gentle pull, I got him to look the other way and not bark like a mad dog. Also, when he starts to whine, a gentle pull gets him to stop and redirect his focus.

It's still early to say, but I'm noticing a bit of slow, but steady progress. If things go well, maybe I'll take him on a hike in the Crockett Hills. Argos loved it up there, and considering that there aren't a whole lot of distractions with other people, cars, and other dogs, I think that Willy just might love it too.

Comics Roundup for 3/10/10

I'm starting to notice that the bulk of the comics I buy come out at the end of the month. I went two weeks, and I only walked away with five books on my last visit. What did I get?

Criminal: The Sinners #5 (of 5) - This was a satisfying conclusion to a pretty good story. It's probably my third-favorite storyline from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' crime/noir comic series. There were quite a few subplots being juggled around, and they all got resolved rather well. Even better, there's enough stuff still dangling that could be followed-up on for future stories.

The Amazing Spider-Man #623 & 624 - Paul Azaceta might be a pretty good artist for certain comics out there, but he's definitely not a good match for Spider-Man. The storyline involving yet another new Vulture was pretty good, but Azaceta's Spidey often looks like he's suffering from a debilitating hernia while swinging through the streets of New York. Now, this isn't as bad as whoever the heck drew that crossover with Deadpool issue, where I had a hard time following what was going on. Azaceta's storytelling skills are pretty good. Like I said though, his style just doesn't work for this book. Anyway, this storyline gave ol' Peter Parker even more troubles, and what's better than an angst-filled Peter Parker? (The good news is that I've read that Michael Lark is going to be drawing some more issues. Huzzah!)

Astro City: The Dark Age- Book Four #2 (of 4) - As I've stated before, I'm waiting until this whole thing concludes to read the entire "Dark Age" storyline.

Batman and Robin #10 - This was a surprisingly linear story for Grant Morrison, and it's starting to set up for the return of Bruce Wayne. I was telling myself that I was going to wait for the trade paperback in order to pick up the Return of Bruce Wayne limited series, but I'm a bit too intrigued with the idea of Batman traveling through the centuries in order to finally get back to the proper time period, so I'll probably get the first issue when it comes out. Anyway, this issue really has me wondering how they'll handle the new status quo. I'm starting to really like Damien Wayne as Robin - maybe he'll stick around as Bruce's partner.

So closed for ever faithful Argos' eyes

I've written about my dog, Argos, quite a few times on this blog. Last summer, I wrote about how he had to get a toe removed due to a cancerous growth. We had hoped that would be the end of it, but it turned out to be a melanoma that would eventually spread through his body and kill him. For the past seven months, he's been doing pretty well, and I've been able to take him not only on his regular walks but on some pretty rigorous hikes through Mt. Wanda and the Crockett Hills.

Last week I reported that a lump on his leg was starting to bleed, and we had to take him to the vet to get it checked out. Basically, the deal was that if it was bleeding due to him chewing on it, then he would probably be okay. If it was bleeding due to the nature of the tumor, then the only thing to do was put him to sleep before he started to suffer. Unfortunately, the result turned out to be the latter explanation.

While at the vet yesterday, I made the last-minute decision to keep him for one more day. When we took him there yesterday, it was right after work, and I didn't get to take him on his nightly walk. I wanted to be able to take him not only on his nightly walk but on his Saturday morning extended walk to the park where I play fetch with him. Keep in mind that aside from the bleeding wound on the back of his leg, his spirits and energy level were both really high. Obviously the leg caused him some pain, but it wasn't the type of pain that prevented him from being able to walk, run and even jump.

The plan worked out pretty well. He got his walk last night, and he got to hang out with us until it was nearly bedtime. He wasn't too fond of his bandage, and he would sometimes whimper while he laid there. This morning he got down to the park just fine, and while he's been known to want to play fetch for much longer periods of time, he certainly did a lot of running before he finally laid down to call it quits.

The only thing that went bad is that about three hours before we were scheduled to have him put down, he started to have some really painful dry heaves. I've never seen him do this before, and it was really hard to watch it happen. He'd lie down and his body would convulse as he tried to cough out something while his mouth foamed up. He eventually stopped, but all he wanted to go do after that was lie down in his dog house.

Basically, Kirsti and I didn't want to just sit and watch him do that for the next few hours, so we called and managed to get an early appointment. It went as well as this sort of a thing possibly can go. Sure, there was a bit of difficulty finding a vein, but once it was in he was ready to go. The vet said that she noticed a change in him, and Kirsti and I were even more convinced that it was time to let him go. (The vet pointed out that his lips and tongue were both very pale. Not only that, but he had a hard time breathing unless he was standing up. Most likely he was starting to have some internal bleeding.)

If you have a dog, I cannot recommend it any more that you be there for him or her when you put your pet down. Argos had his head in my lap while my wife scratched his back. Not only that, but my sister-in-law and her boyfriend were there, and they too were petting him as he went down. It was very peaceful and very quick. Basically, he just got really tired and plopped his head down while I petted him behind the ears. Within moments the vet told us that he was gone. I could only hope to have as good of a death as that when my time comes.

I know that everybody loves their dogs. Shoot, I still have Willy, and I love that guy too. I've also had two other dogs in my life, and I really loved them. Argos was special to me. Maybe it's because I walked him every day and went through training with him that gave us a special bond.

Other people got a kick out of him too. Obviously, both my sister-in-law and her boyfriend loved him enough to want to be there with him. (Both of them were visibly sad as well.) The woman at the front desk at the vet remembered him when I simply mentioned his name over the phone. On more than one occasion, I've had people pull over their cars just to tell me what a handsome dog he was. He was also really good with little kids. Sure, he could be a bucking bronco with adults, but for some reason he'd always tone it down quite a bit when a little kid was around. One time, two little kids - both at eye level with him - walked right up to him and put their faces right up to him while putting their hands over his ears. What was his response? Gentle little kisses.

I don't know who, but somebody once said that when you get a pet, you just got yourself a tragedy waiting to happen. Nothing could be more true, so long as we're talking the literary definition of the word. I just finished Cyrano de Bergerac with my freshmen, and I feel sad every time I read that play (and then watch the movie with them). Still, that's only part of tragedy. Tragedies, at their best, also inspire us and remind us of the great potential that exists within our lives. When I think of Argos, I think of how he never let anything get him down. He'd always enjoy every moment for what it was, and even when he was in pain he never sat around feeling sorry for himself. (Of course, these are universal attributes for dogs.)

And of course, when I think of Argos, I'll always think of his namesake. For those who don't know, he was named after the dog of Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey. Essentially, Argos' tale is a mini tragedy unto itself. After twenty years of being gone from home, Odysseus returns to find that his home has been overrun with a bunch of suitors who make the moves on his wife and have no respect for the laws of the gods. Waiting for him this whole time is his faithful dog, Argos, who nobody bothers taking care of since Odysseus has gone missing. The dog is old, flea-bitten, and lying on a dung heap, but when he hears his master's voice, his ears prick up and his tail manages to barely wag. Odysseus is unable to go up and pet his dog (he's in disguise and petting an old, flea-bitten dog would give him away) but he manages to wipe away a tear when nobody is looking. As for old Argos, he lies down and dies. Sad? Obviously. But the dog dies happy because he's once again in his master's presence.

Thousands of years ago, people understood just as well as we do now how great a dog is. The story of Argos is the story of how faithful and instantaneously joyful dogs can be. My Argos couldn't have had a more fitting namesake.

So they spoke. And a dog, lying there, lifted its head and pricked up its ears. Argus was the hound of noble Odysseus, who had bred him himself, though he sailed to sacred Ilium before he could enjoy his company. Once the young men used to take the dog out after wild goat, deer and hare, but with his master gone he lay neglected by the gate, among the heaps of mule and cattle dung that Odysseus’ men would later use to manure the fields. There, plagued by ticks, lay Argus the hound. But suddenly aware of Odysseus’ presence, he wagged his tail and flattened his ears, though no longer strong enough to crawl to his master. Odysseus turned his face aside and hiding it from Eumaeus wiped away a tear then quickly said: ‘Eumaeus, it’s strange indeed to see this dog lying in the dung. He’s finely built, but I can’t tell if he had speed to match or was only a dog fed from the table, kept by his master for show.’

Then, Eumaeus, the swineherd, you replied: ‘Yes this dog belongs to a man who has died far away. If he had the form and vigour he had when Odysseus left for Troy you’d be amazed by the speed and power. He was keen-scented on the trail, and no creature he started in the depths of the densest wood escaped him. But now he is in a sad state, and his master has died far from his own country, and the thoughtless women neglect him. When their masters aren’t there to command them, servants don’t care about the quality of their work. Far-voiced Zeus takes half the good out of them, the day they become slaves.’

With this he entered the stately house and walking straight into the hall joined the crowd of noble suitors. As for Argus, seeing Odysseus again in this twentieth year, the hand of dark death seized him.

Comics Roundup for 2/24/10

I read through my entire stack as of Wednesday night, but with this whole thing going on with Argos, I haven't had time to write until now.

Blackest Night #7 (of 8) - I think that Ivan Reis might be trying to beat George Perez's record for the sheer number of characters one can squeeze into a double-page spread. I don't know if he's succeeded, but he sure is good at getting lots of multi-colored Lanterns on a page. This was another solid installment in a storyline that's been building for a few years now. Hopefully they can wrap it all up in a satisfactory manner, as I certainly like some of the big revelations that came along with this issue.

New Avengers #62 - Steve Rogers gets to tell the Avengers to assemble once again, and that was cool to see. Other than that, not too much happened, as the main event is in Siege. Still, this was a fun issue with more Spider-Man/Spider-Woman team-up action, and the art was really nicely divided between Stuart Immonen and Daniel Acuna.

Batman and Robin #9 - This was a decent issue, and it finally answers the question regarding the corpse of Bruce Wayne at the end of Final Crisis. In short - that wasn't Bruce Wayne; it was a clone of some sort. I wonder how things are going to change once Bruce gets back to the right time period?

Thor #607 - What could this issue possibly cover in between the kicks and punches that Thor is getting over in Siege? Not too much, but we do get to see Volstagg try and restore his good name by going on Youtube, and some of the unresolved issues from Straczynski's run on the series get addressed. Overall, a pretty good read, but it wasn't quite as good as the last issue.

Spider-Man: Clone Saga - This definitely has a better ending than the original series did. Basically, you don't know whether Peter or Ben is the real one, and Ben goes off into the sunset. That would have been better, because fans of either one could simply tell themselves that their guy was the real deal. Not only that, but future writers could go ahead and either completely ignore Ben or bring him back without having to do the really lame resurrection story that is bound to come up sooner or later.

The Amazing Spider-Man #622 - The main story with Spidey battling Morbius was decent, but the backup that focused on Flash Thompson was a bit more gripping. This series has been a little hit or miss lately; here's hoping we can get some better issues like the last one.

The Flash: Rebirth #6 (of 6) - It's official. I'm not anywhere near as stoked for the new Flash series as I was for the new Green Lantern after Green Lantern: Rebirth reached its conclusion. I might still pick up the first few issues, as I do see a lot of potential with the character. Maybe I'll be nicely surprised.

The latest with Argos

Last summer, I chronicled the saga of my dog Argos and the need for him to have his toe removed. In short, he has cancer, and even though the toe was removed, the cancer is eventually going to get him.

Since then, Argos has been doing really well. I've taken him on his daily walks with even a few adventures up to Mt. Wanda and the Crocket Hills here in Martinez. He has lots of energy, and he's still going strong.

The only real issue is that the cancer is spreading up his leg. His leg is pretty lumpy, and he has one really bad lump on the back of it. He's been chewing on it, and it's gotten more and more bloody. So, today Kirsti and I took him to the vet, and we're going to try a little something to stop the bleeding.

Basically, it's bleeding for one of two reasons - either it's because he's been chewing on it, or that's the nature of that particular tumor. If it's the former, then we can probably do something about it. If it's the latter, then it might be time to consider putting the big guy down - an option that I dread, but I'd rather do that then watch it get worse and wait for him to start suffering.

Right now, we have his leg all bandaged up, and the vet recommended a treatment where you put some honey on the bandage. Now, before you think I'm doing some kind of New Agey homeopathic bullcrap, let me assure you that the vet explained to me the science of the process. I'm sure that I'd do a crappy job of re-explaining it, but it didn't involve a bunch of vague language about water having memory or some crap like that. Essentially, the sugars in the honey overwhelm any bacteria, and it allows for it to start healing. She did warn us though that it's going to look a bit worse before it looks better - again, I'd do a lousy job of explaining why.

So, that's where we're at. The not knowing is always the worst thing, but I'm starting to mentally prepare myself for the eventuality where he'll need to join that big roundup in the sky. Here's hoping it won't come to that just yet.

Skepticism versus denialism

Don't call yourself a Global Warming skeptic, even if you are one. That is, don't call yourself one unless you're happy with getting lumped in the same boat as all the Global Warming deniers. I learned this recently when I posted a Facebook status update about this, and I got people "agreeing" with me about how they didn't think that there was much to it either.

Why do I call myself a skeptic? I do so because unlike a lot of people, I'm willing to admit that I don't completely understand the whole thing. Also, I don't know if I can believe everything that I hear from those who are saying that we human beings are having an impact on climate change. Don't misunderstand me; it's not that I don't think that we're having an impact. I just don't believe EVERY SINGLE THING that they say. Getting back to the whole bit about me not understanding it completely though, I think that's the most important reason why I consider myself a skeptic.

The thing is, I'm a skeptic about everything else, and I think that should be the default position when it comes to anything that you don't feel as though you completely understand. Still, I've realized that you can't use that word without being lumped in with the deniers. And let me tell you something, if anything ever makes me a true believer, it will be the lame-ass arguments of the deniers.

No doubt you may have heard of some of this "climate-gate" stuff that's been going on. Much of it is deafeningly stupid, consisting of arguments like, "Global warming can't be real because it's cold right now!" As I said, I don't completely understand the whole thing, but anybody who makes that sort of an argument knows even less than I do. Since when was "it will never be cold again!" part of the whole Global Warming process?

Then there's a matter of certain scientists fudging (or supposedly fudging) data in order to make things look more dire than they really are. From what I can tell, some scientists have indeed screwed up. However, that hardly means that the entire science behind Global Warming is now completely debunked! Honestly, this reminds me of the anti-evolution crowd, where they point to a few hoaxes in the fossil record as a way of completely debunking the entire fossil record. It's like finding a typo in the dictionary and declaring the English langue to be a hoax.

I guess what I need is another word. I can't be a skeptic without being thought of as a denier. How about "Only Mostly Convinced"?

Comics Roundup for 2/17/10

Batman #596 - This is really one long, winding story with a lot of subplots, and supposedly it's all going to wrap up next issue. I think that I should definitely take the time to read the entire story again in one sitting when the next issue comes out. There was a pretty cool moment in there where Dick shows off that he can plan ahead nearly as well as his mentor. Also, I must again mention that Tony Daniel's art has never looked better.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #9 - Well, crud. I remember enjoying the last issue by fill-in writer Mike Benson, but I didn't remember what the story was about. I basically read through this and was kind of confused. I guess there's one more comic to add to the "go back and reread" list. Still, Dustin Nguyen's art was looking really good, and I'm still enjoying the "Manhunter" backups in this series. That said, I'm still eager to have Paul Dini come back to continue on with some of the threads he's been building on in this series.

Spider-Woman #6 - This was a pretty fun issue, as it pits Spider-Woman against the Thunderbolts. I don't really know much about the current team of Thunderbolts, but this issue addresses what my first impression of them was - a bunch of "who the hell are these guys"? Jessica had the same attitude, and she did a cool job of humiliating them without it seeming like it was too easy. While I've been able to follow this story issue-by-issue just fine, I think that this is yet another one that will read better in one sitting. Shoot...I don't have much planned this weekend. I should do just that.

The Amazing Spider-Man #621 - As much as I was looking forward to this whole "The Gauntlet" storyline, where all the old villains came back, I have to say that it was nice to see this issue devote itself to a more recent villain - Mr. Negative. He's getting more and more interesting, and in the spirit of old Spidey villains, he seems pretty unstoppable as of right now. I would also like to point out how much I loved Michael Lark's pencils in this issue. While I really enjoyed his stuff on Daredevil, I wouldn't have thought of him as a good match for Spider-Man. Well, that's a load of crap, because this was really well-done, and the man is great at storytelling. Everything rolls along from one panel to the next rather smoothly, and the image of Spidey getting punched through a building sticks in my head after only one reading.

Blackest Night: The Flash #3 (of 3) - Yeah, this is mostly filler, and the story with the Rogues Gallery was more interesting than the one with the title character. Oh well, three issues wasn't a big commitment, so that's all good.

The Astounding Wolf-Man #21 - This is yet another title where I don't find myself having much to say about each issue, but I definitely know that I enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure that for the past few months, I've commented on the fact that the series is going to be ending soon and how that disappoints me. Consider it said yet again right here.

Green Lantern #51 - Now this is how you do a crossover issue. Between this issue and the last, you have a complete story that also fits in nicely with the larger context of "Blackest Night". Basically, you've got Hal Jordan deliberately joining up with Parallax in order to defeat a Black Lantern Specter (or is that Black Lantern The Specter?) Considering that Parallax was the thing that made him fall from grace in the first place, it was cool to see him show no fear of the entity that represents fear itself. I guess there's a reason why he's considered the greatest of the Green Lanterns.

Dark Avengers #14 - This is another good way to do a crossover issue. Instead of taking place in between issues of Siege, this one fills in some blanks of what happened before. In particular, it goes into what exactly the deal is with The Sentry. Considering what that guy wound up doing to Ares, I'm pretty curious as to what his deal is as well. I guess there are probably only a couple more issues left of this series, and while I definitely think that it should conclude with the end of Siege, I'll have to say that I will miss it.

Captain America #603 - This continues the story that started (and riled up the Tea Party types) last issue. Nothing too special happens, but I definitely have to say that I'm glad that Ed Brubaker is using The Falcon as much as he is. I always liked him, and he's used quite effectively here. I never read the original appearances of the character, so I can't comment on those, but I definitely don't feel as though he's just some sort of token African American character. He definitely brings something interesting to the story, and Brubaker does a good job of neither ignoring nor focusing too much on the fact that he's black.

Daredevil #505 - I think it's pretty safe to say that I have no intention of dropping this title anytime soon. Andy Diggle continues to run with the story of Matt Murdock now being in charge of The Hand, but now it seems as though he's not playing them as much as he thinks he is - and it very well could be that they're playing HIM instead. I also like the new artist.