Well, Dick Clark died.  Not much more to say on that, only that he seemed to look the same forever. RIP.

On the crochet roundup, I made a red,blue, and white striped blanket in January or February. It'll go on the recliner in the living room.  The original pattern called for surface stitching, but I tried it and it looked terrible. I pulled out the surface stitching and found it looked better without it.


I made one pinwheel medallion on Sunday.  It needs starching.



And finally, yesterday I made a dahlia dishcloth. It's poppy and light green cotton yarn.

Scriber Lake had quite a bit of ice on Tuesday.  I took a picture of these cold, hungry mallards. I feel bad for them, but I had no turtle food or bread to give.

I finished making most of my Christmas stockings.  I have one other person that wants a large hunter green one, so that one will be next.  I intend to focus on amigurami animals and hopefully dog sweaters for January.  I just entered a Red Heart Yarn Giveaway on All Free Crochet.com.  They have plenty of free patterns and giveaways, so check them out!  I hope I win that yarn! 

Christmas was a lot of fun--here's my new Pinkie Pie Christmas ornament--it's the only figurine from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that is modeled exactly like the TV show.

Well, it's been a while since I posted and I've already noticed that Livejournal's formatting has changed. Hmm.

Anyways, I've been busy, busy, busy. I crocheted some doggy and kitty Christmas stockings as decorations for my workplace. I put price tags on them because, hey why not? To my surprise and delight, they are selling and in demand. Of course, this also means my spare times has been spent crocheting stockings for customer demand. I'm glad for the extra money, but I'll be glad when Christmas is over so I can relax. I'll start selling either pet sweaters or little stuffed animals next.

In the mean time, my two favorite shows are American Horror--the most insane, crazy-good, bestest show on television--and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. MLP just gets better and better. I purchased a Pinkie Pie Christmas ornament for the Holidays. This ornament also happens to be the most show-realistic model of the ponies out there on the market except for the McDonald's toys that I dream of owning at some point. As usual, I want to try and write more, but ponies and crochet dominate my time. In the meantime, I'll try to write what I can. I really need to get published somewhere.

I'm also re-reading The Mouse and his Child. I learned this week that Russell Hoban died. I've always felt that The Mouse and his Child was one of the greatest "children's" books ever written, both dark and lyrical.

Here are some pictures of the stockings I've crocheted.  You can find the pattern for the dog stocking here. And here is the cat stocking.

The Dog that Loved the Vet’s Office

It was in 2002 that I first glimpsed the medium-sized shaggy, off-white terrier. I had started working at Veterinary Services in Aiken, SC only a few months earlier and had started out my job there by cleaning and walking dogs in the kennel. It was the end of the day, and as I stepped out the back door to take out the garbage, I noticed two of my co-workers trying to hoist this 30 or 40 pounds of mutt over the fence (he was on the neighboring restaurant’s side of the fence) onto our side. He had run from home and the vet techs had seen him outside, and thus decided to bring him in and call the owners. I didn’t know it at the time, but this would prove to be a regular occurrence.

His name was Shivas. His owners lived on the other side of the large park that was across the street from our veterinary clinic. I saw that he wore an electric collar, but it seemed ineffective if he truly wished to leave his home. His motivations for running loose were not entirely clear. I noticed that he seemed to come on rainy days, and I wondered if perhaps storms somehow made his electric fence less effective, or if he was so afraid of thunderstorms that his fear of running the electric barrier was small upside the fear of fast winds, and terrific thunder. Whatever his reasons, Veterinary Services seemed to be his safe haven.

The first few times he showed up I wasted no time in putting him into a kennel run to wait for his family to pick him up. I had many dogs to walk and runs to clean, and had little time to think about him other than a few pats on the head. Later, as I learned to work quickly and more efficiently, and to understand the various dogs’ behaviors, I started letting a few dogs walk with me as I doled out food to the other dogs. I would only take out one dog at a time, and only one that was calm and agreeable to others; it would not get excited by other dogs or in turn cause other dogs to become excited. Shivas was perfect for the job. After all dogs were walked, and cleaning began, I would let him work with me. He followed me quietly, never trying to take food from the barrel or getting underfoot. He ignored other dogs and focused on our task at hand. After awhile, he would follow me everywhere. He was intuitive with commands, and would go anywhere with the point of a finger. However, he was not necessarily the perfect role model of a dog at all times.

Sometimes, if there was not much going on in the rest of the clinic, I would let him come up with me to the front of the prep room to fetch blankets and towels. He followed me dutifully, and waited in cages when requested. However, he was not a lover of all of humans--at least not all of the time. One of the technicians tried to pet him and was nipped! Shivas did not always trust everyone immediately. In addition, if the UPS deliveryman came by, he’d bark up a storm and make sure everyone knew that UPS was there. Incidentally, this was the same UPS guy that delivered to his own home. Shivas barked at the UPS guy no matter where he turned up. Thankfully, the UPS guy took it very well and in good humor. In spite of Shivas’s unpredictable personality towards strangers, he was a beloved and quirky character. He did not fetch or play ball as far as I could tell, but he adored being involved with whatever I did. He also got along with other dogs, especially if they were of a calmer disposition such as he possessed.

Eventually, his visits became more frequent. Since his owners took many trips, sometimes his visits coincided with his owners’ plans to leave, and we at the clinic just decided that it was Shivas checking himself in. I would come into work in the morning and find him muddy and ecstatic at the door, whimpering with happiness at being ready to get started and play at the vet’s office. At other times, he was so coated in mud and what appeared to be horse dung that he just stank. He would need to be washed before going into a kennel run for the rest of the afternoon or week. One afternoon, Shivas’s human mom dropped him off to board for the week and he immediately rounded the corner and bounded into my arms. She exclaimed, “He really does love you!” I suppose it was true—I certainly loved him in return. How can you not adore a chipper, peppy white terrier mix who often had a notion to go visiting friends on his own? Nonetheless, I often worried that a car running down the street would hit Shivas. Thankfully, this never happened.

I worked at Veterinary Services for four years before I moved to the other side of the country for better job and education opportunities. I would miss Shivas, and wondered if he would continue to run to the clinic on his own. I suspected he would, in spite of the statements of others that Shivas only came to the hospital to see me. I don’t doubt that Shivas came to see me in particular, but he had been running to Veterinary Services before I worked there, and I didn’t see any reason why he would stop. I was told later that when he ran to visit the clinic he would spend time sniffing under each door in the building, seemingly to try and find me. Still, he continued to visit. Shivas’s owners sent me a wonderful letter and photo of him when I moved and promised that if he ever needed a new owner they would consider me. This wasn’t necessary, however, and Shivas lived out the rest of his life with his rightful human family.

A few weeks ago, I received a call at work from a dear friend. She informed me that Shivas had passed away. I knew it was coming, but it was sad nonetheless. Though he was not my own dog, he touched my life and the lives of the people around him. To this day, I’ve never known of a dog that visited the veterinarian’s office of its own accord and volition. Shivas was truly like no other. I’m glad he lived a long and rewarding life. I still have his picture in my room beside that of my own pets. Shivas, you wonderfully silly dog, you will be missed.