21 June 2014
GARY L. STEWART'S SEARCH FOR BIRTH PARENTS TURNED UP A SERIAL KILLER - HIS BIRTH FATHER! A GREAT READ!
THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL OF ALL
by GARY L. STEWART WITH SUSAN MUSTAFA C 2014
is published by HarperCollins
THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL OF ALL was unexpectedly interesting, a good novelesque read, and exceedingly convincing; worth the time to read it even if you aren't that interested in the Zodiac serial killer.
I've helped a few people who were searching for their birth parents using genealogy research methods, and so when I first heard about this book I imagined Gary L. Stewart being the person who initiated a search for his. While he was interested in finding his birth mother, it was she who contacted him.
It was she who had eloped at 14 with a much older man or who had been preyed upon and molested by this man. (I'm remembering that in many places and times in American history a 14 year old bride was not uncommon but in this case the law was after them.) As a Christian he attempted forgiveness and love of his mother, but then Gary decided he may as well find his father. Maybe he wasn't as bad as all that.
Like many adopted people Gary L. Stewart loved the parents who raised him and were good to him but he felt there was something of a mystery about his past that needed to be resolved or in this case solved. His search included getting adoption records, trying to get his original birth certificate (he still hasn't gotten it from the state of Louisiana but at this point he probably already knows all the information on it), and reading old newspapers on microfilm. Eventually he was in contact with the police and offering his DNA to be tested against crime scene DNA.
His birth mother claimed there was a lot she didn't remember, and maybe she didn't, but as some of you researchers know relatives who don't remember but start remembering more when you present them with the evidence are not uncommon. In this case it was the old newspaper articles that revealed his parent's runaway romance as well as his abandonment in a New Orleans stairwell had been reported on but not connected. Imagine seeing yourself as an infant in an old photo in an old newspaper in a story about being abandoned!
I can say that the people I assisted in finding their birth parents "prepared" themselves for the usual scenario of an unwed parent or maybe a parent who became ill or that someone went to jail but the abandoned in a stairwell type of story is maybe the worst.
Stewart wondered if his mother had not just forgotten aspects of what had become an abusive and strange relationship and the loss of her infant son but was lieing to him. He confronted her, she denied it, but my guess is that she withheld information afraid she would scare him off.
Strangely, perhaps in a perverse but fateful way, his mother had remarried and to a detective on the San Francisco police force! If that police force ever did or is now hiding information they long held or holding up or preventing DNA analysis, well, it certainly sounds like it. Stewart donated DNA to compare to a match from one of the crime scenes long ago. Did they loose the crime scene DNA?
Earl Van Best Jr., Stewart's birth father, was the son of a popular minister and a sex addict mother who couldn't stop cheating. His father finally divorced his mother which temporarily hurt his career until he switched denominations. Van Best Jr.'s childhood was miserable. Early on he was considered peculiar - a nerd - but he did have a few friends. He developed his skill as a musician and played the organ semi professionally. He became an Anglophile and talked in a fake British accent. While he might have had some unusual interests or hobbies probably no one thought of him as capable of murdering a series of innocent people. Many other people have had miserable childhoods and overcome them so I always wonder "What makes for a serial killer?"
Some of the people who the Zodiac Killer murdered looked a bit like Gary L. Stewart's mother, as if his father was fixated on revenge because she did leave him. He most likely also saw the newspaper when his mother remarried the San Francisco Police Officer who became a Detective. More importantly, Stewart has proven that in San Francisco his father encountered and had some involvement with the head of the Church of Satan as well as a man who would become one of Charlie Manson's murderers! His father's income came from buying and selling old manuscripts and books and documents and so he traveled a route through California and into Mexico, where he eventually died. His father also had experience in writing and breaking code as well as forging signatures and new analysis of the Zodiac's taunting coded messages that would reveal his name do reveal the name Earl Van Best Jr.
C 2014 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights
14 June 2014
DO I USE THE ANCESTRY GENEALOGY DATBASES? YES BUT NOT TO THE EXCLUSION OF MANY OTHERS!
DO I USE THE ANCESTRY GENEALOGY DATBASES?
I was asked recently what I think of the ANCESTRY.COM databases. Well, I can say that I use that database and have over many years, but I also use Fold3, and many other databases, and resources that are local, city, state, county, and federal. I probably will never give up using "old fashioned" resources like talking to people at historical societies. I like interaction with other people too much to be isolated and computer bound at home all the time.
At the LATTER DAY SAINTS FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS around the country, volunteers and missionaries are very busy moving information that is presently on other databases and microfilms into FREE USE GENEALOGY DATABASES at their FAMILYSEARCH site. It's their indexing project.
Someone at one of the FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS told me that originally all these databases companies, non-profit and otherwise, once agreed to share all information. That is why you see information original to JEWISH GEN on ANCESTRY. I use JewishGen once in a while but must say that their constant begging for donations, which seemingly has increased significantly in the last year, has really gotten on my nerves. But why should they go begging when they have either turned over or sold all their information to Ancestry?
This person at the LDS Family History Center told me that the sharing as promised may not be in all cases two sided anymore, since there is a fortune to be made selling subscriptions, etc.
I've used FAMILY HISTORY CENTER RESOURCES FOR YEARS! I actually love spinning film and find it easier on the eyes and the hands than databases. I also have greatly enjoyed talking to other genealogy enthusiasts and have experienced some synchronicity in doing so!
I've also found information that was not microfilmed or microfilmed only in part on some of the databases I use. I know this because I have the photocopies OF THE BACKS OF INDEX CARDS that provided extra good information other than the fronts. Then there is the long time problem of typists who have produced misspellings despite their best efforts. As I understand it, at the FAMILY HISTORY CENTER when a volunteer comes across a questionable handwritten name, they will call in a couple other people to give an opinion, and they may also assign people who understand something about the language or names in that language to contribute.
I've had my fair share of encountering sloppy handwriting and misspellings in my years as a researcher, though I'm usually pretty good at making it out, better than most people I would say. Still, this is a good reason to obtain a copy of the microfilm so that you can go back and check.
Since I'm not associated with the ANCESTRY.COM company, I can't do them an advert.
HERE IS THE LINK TO FAMILYSEARCH.ORG
I was asked recently what I think of the ANCESTRY.COM databases. Well, I can say that I use that database and have over many years, but I also use Fold3, and many other databases, and resources that are local, city, state, county, and federal. I probably will never give up using "old fashioned" resources like talking to people at historical societies. I like interaction with other people too much to be isolated and computer bound at home all the time.
At the LATTER DAY SAINTS FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS around the country, volunteers and missionaries are very busy moving information that is presently on other databases and microfilms into FREE USE GENEALOGY DATABASES at their FAMILYSEARCH site. It's their indexing project.
Someone at one of the FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS told me that originally all these databases companies, non-profit and otherwise, once agreed to share all information. That is why you see information original to JEWISH GEN on ANCESTRY. I use JewishGen once in a while but must say that their constant begging for donations, which seemingly has increased significantly in the last year, has really gotten on my nerves. But why should they go begging when they have either turned over or sold all their information to Ancestry?
This person at the LDS Family History Center told me that the sharing as promised may not be in all cases two sided anymore, since there is a fortune to be made selling subscriptions, etc.
I've used FAMILY HISTORY CENTER RESOURCES FOR YEARS! I actually love spinning film and find it easier on the eyes and the hands than databases. I also have greatly enjoyed talking to other genealogy enthusiasts and have experienced some synchronicity in doing so!
I've also found information that was not microfilmed or microfilmed only in part on some of the databases I use. I know this because I have the photocopies OF THE BACKS OF INDEX CARDS that provided extra good information other than the fronts. Then there is the long time problem of typists who have produced misspellings despite their best efforts. As I understand it, at the FAMILY HISTORY CENTER when a volunteer comes across a questionable handwritten name, they will call in a couple other people to give an opinion, and they may also assign people who understand something about the language or names in that language to contribute.
I've had my fair share of encountering sloppy handwriting and misspellings in my years as a researcher, though I'm usually pretty good at making it out, better than most people I would say. Still, this is a good reason to obtain a copy of the microfilm so that you can go back and check.
Since I'm not associated with the ANCESTRY.COM company, I can't do them an advert.
HERE IS THE LINK TO FAMILYSEARCH.ORG
10 June 2014
THE GREAT INDIAN WARS - 1540-1890 : BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF AMERICAN HISTORY : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW
THE GREAT INDIAN WARS - 1540-1890 : BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF AMERICAN HISTORY : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW
This documentary film covers a few hundred years of Indian (Native American) and American history, beginning with Francisco Vazques de Coronado and his expedition to the Great Plains, and includes some of the great battles such as Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Battle of Little Big Horn, and the Battle of Wounded Knee. It includes the Buffalo Cowboys too. Perhaps most interesting to me was the way various tribes became experts at riding and using the horse for warfare in the years after the Spanish brought some to the America's, which is actually late when it comes to the occupation of the continent. There is a lot of what looks like old film footage, but I was unable to tell how much of this black and white film was truly historical or how much had been filmed for movies. Covered are the heros of battles but ultimately the defeat of the Indians.
The film gave me a deeper understanding than I had of the progression from east to west, as well as an understanding that certain tribes had themselves moved from one place in the country to another, before the expansionists pushed them elsewhere.
As a genealogist I've learned more about history from researching around the time and place that ancestors lived. I've found documents that don't always agree with the official story, such as places where the big slave holder was a Native American, and I think the most important question when doing Native American research is WHAT TRIBE!
Today there is a lot of controversy over who is or isn't qualified to be part of a tribe.
This documentary film covers a few hundred years of Indian (Native American) and American history, beginning with Francisco Vazques de Coronado and his expedition to the Great Plains, and includes some of the great battles such as Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Battle of Little Big Horn, and the Battle of Wounded Knee. It includes the Buffalo Cowboys too. Perhaps most interesting to me was the way various tribes became experts at riding and using the horse for warfare in the years after the Spanish brought some to the America's, which is actually late when it comes to the occupation of the continent. There is a lot of what looks like old film footage, but I was unable to tell how much of this black and white film was truly historical or how much had been filmed for movies. Covered are the heros of battles but ultimately the defeat of the Indians.
The film gave me a deeper understanding than I had of the progression from east to west, as well as an understanding that certain tribes had themselves moved from one place in the country to another, before the expansionists pushed them elsewhere.
As a genealogist I've learned more about history from researching around the time and place that ancestors lived. I've found documents that don't always agree with the official story, such as places where the big slave holder was a Native American, and I think the most important question when doing Native American research is WHAT TRIBE!
Today there is a lot of controversy over who is or isn't qualified to be part of a tribe.
C 2014-2025 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
03 June 2014
GHOSTS IN PRINCE GEORGE'S NURSERY AND IN YOUR FAMILY STEAD?
With the summer ahead - finally - it might not be the spookiest time of year to be talking about GHOSTS but a recent article on the internet suggested that Great Britain's baby Prince George is in a remodeled nursery that has been the scene of several sightings of ghosts - ancestral spirits.
Here is one of many articles quoting biographer Andrew Morton, famous or infamous for writing about Princess Diana.
IS PRINCE GEORGE OF CAMBRIDGE'S NURSERY HAUNTED? : O CANADA
EXCERPT " Andrew Morton, the famous biographer of Prince William’s late mother, Princess Diana, is quoted in England’s Mirror explaining that “Prince George’s nursery is in Apartment 1A of Kensington Palace, which has been a notorious spot for ghost sightings...The Mirror reports that apparitions of George II, Caroline of Brunswick and Princess Sophia have all been reported in the palace, with ghostly visions in “Regency dress” disappearing through walls.”
Another author mentioned in the article says there are ghosts OUTSIDE THE PALACE as well!
It's one thing to honor your ancestors (by, say, doing genealogy) and another to be visited by them as ghosts.
I believe ghosts exist though I don't claim to totally understand their technology. Some say they are souls who do not know they are dead and haven't moved on to a higher spiritual plane, others say that they are haunted because there is unfinished business. I don't know enough about the named ghosts to know how they died or when at this point. I think ghosts need to be cleared out though because this time on earth is for the living.
DO YOU HAVE GHOSTS IN YOUR FAMILY STEAD?
Here is one of many articles quoting biographer Andrew Morton, famous or infamous for writing about Princess Diana.
IS PRINCE GEORGE OF CAMBRIDGE'S NURSERY HAUNTED? : O CANADA
EXCERPT " Andrew Morton, the famous biographer of Prince William’s late mother, Princess Diana, is quoted in England’s Mirror explaining that “Prince George’s nursery is in Apartment 1A of Kensington Palace, which has been a notorious spot for ghost sightings...The Mirror reports that apparitions of George II, Caroline of Brunswick and Princess Sophia have all been reported in the palace, with ghostly visions in “Regency dress” disappearing through walls.”
Another author mentioned in the article says there are ghosts OUTSIDE THE PALACE as well!
It's one thing to honor your ancestors (by, say, doing genealogy) and another to be visited by them as ghosts.
I believe ghosts exist though I don't claim to totally understand their technology. Some say they are souls who do not know they are dead and haven't moved on to a higher spiritual plane, others say that they are haunted because there is unfinished business. I don't know enough about the named ghosts to know how they died or when at this point. I think ghosts need to be cleared out though because this time on earth is for the living.
DO YOU HAVE GHOSTS IN YOUR FAMILY STEAD?
28 May 2014
THE NORMANDIE " THE FRENCH LINE'S MOST LAVISH LINER EVERY BUILT"
These pictures are from the book "THE FABULOUS INTERIORS OF THE GREAT OCEAN LINERS IN HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS" which is published by Dover Publishing.
This French Line ship is just one of many covered. If you have immigrants coming by ship into the United States you may want to see this book to see if their ship is listed. It has information on the on-board life style, details like the menus, the service, and much more. It is one thing to see a post card of the exterior of the ship and another to see the accommodations. You quickly realize that the Titanic wasn't the only luxury ship!
24 May 2014
DNA AND INCEST - WILL FAMILY SECRETS BE DISCOVERED IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM ?
DNA is the most fascinating subject to me and I read articles that mention it in every category from True Crime, Animal Husbandry, and of course, Genealogy and Family History.
One night I decided to research DNA and incest. Some very interesting websites and news came up and basically, there are many companies offering the test. More often than an individual wishing to discover if they are a product of incest, a child is hospitalized and doctors order a DNA test to help diagnose the child who has a rare or strange disease, and up it comes that the child has double or missing DNA proving it is the product of incest! incest can increase the chances of certain diseases. (At the same time if a community that is free of certain illness, say a mental illness, intermarries, such as in the Amish, that community will stay free of that illness. In some communities in which there were cousin marriages and close village marriages over time, such as is the case with many Eastern European Jewish people, certain diseases are amplified. In order to no longer have those diseases some Jewish communities are actively testing for genetic diseases and avoiding marriages with others who carry it!)
In a college anthropology class I once learned that the subject of incest came under a theory of TABOO. At the time scientists didn't think that there was much else wrong with incest but that so many cultures around the world made it taboo for their own reasons. After all "primitive" societies were not savvy about DNA or genetics and attributed a lot of things to forces in nature such as Spirits or Gods. Whole social structures were developed to avoid intermarriage with brothers and sisters, first cousins, parents, aunts and uncles, though we know that brother-sister marriage was practiced to keep blood lines (and inheritances) "true" in other cultures. Such was the case with Cleopatra of ancient Egypt, for instance. I personally have met people living today whose parents were first cousins in Italy. Missing or duplicate Genes did result in one of the sisters in such a family being developmentally retarded.
There are many articles on the Internet that ask the question of what a doctor should do if while treating a patient he or she discovers they are the product of incest. What is the ethical and moral thing to do in 2014, this culture? What about the people who DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE CLOSELY RELATED when they met and have children, such is the case with children born of sperm donations or who were adopted. Makes you think...
Well, the scientists are also saying that SMELL has a lot to do with who we pick as a sexual partner, and well, we don't feel attracted to people who smell too much like us! There are also those who say that taking the contraception, "The Pill." cannot smell so well.
One night I decided to research DNA and incest. Some very interesting websites and news came up and basically, there are many companies offering the test. More often than an individual wishing to discover if they are a product of incest, a child is hospitalized and doctors order a DNA test to help diagnose the child who has a rare or strange disease, and up it comes that the child has double or missing DNA proving it is the product of incest! incest can increase the chances of certain diseases. (At the same time if a community that is free of certain illness, say a mental illness, intermarries, such as in the Amish, that community will stay free of that illness. In some communities in which there were cousin marriages and close village marriages over time, such as is the case with many Eastern European Jewish people, certain diseases are amplified. In order to no longer have those diseases some Jewish communities are actively testing for genetic diseases and avoiding marriages with others who carry it!)
In a college anthropology class I once learned that the subject of incest came under a theory of TABOO. At the time scientists didn't think that there was much else wrong with incest but that so many cultures around the world made it taboo for their own reasons. After all "primitive" societies were not savvy about DNA or genetics and attributed a lot of things to forces in nature such as Spirits or Gods. Whole social structures were developed to avoid intermarriage with brothers and sisters, first cousins, parents, aunts and uncles, though we know that brother-sister marriage was practiced to keep blood lines (and inheritances) "true" in other cultures. Such was the case with Cleopatra of ancient Egypt, for instance. I personally have met people living today whose parents were first cousins in Italy. Missing or duplicate Genes did result in one of the sisters in such a family being developmentally retarded.
There are many articles on the Internet that ask the question of what a doctor should do if while treating a patient he or she discovers they are the product of incest. What is the ethical and moral thing to do in 2014, this culture? What about the people who DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE CLOSELY RELATED when they met and have children, such is the case with children born of sperm donations or who were adopted. Makes you think...
Well, the scientists are also saying that SMELL has a lot to do with who we pick as a sexual partner, and well, we don't feel attracted to people who smell too much like us! There are also those who say that taking the contraception, "The Pill." cannot smell so well.
20 May 2014
WILL NATIONAL LANDMARKS BE UNDER WATER IN THE FUTURE : NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ON CLIMATE CHANGE
This summer many people will spend vacation time touring NATIONAL LANDMARKS. Will they be underwater in the next 20-30 years due to climate change, rising oceans, and so on? As I read about the flooding in Serbia-Croatia-Belgrade and the wild fires in too dry California, I worry.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - CLIMATE CHANGE - NATIONAL LANDMARKS
EXCERPT: "Along the Atlantic coast north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, sea levels have risen four times the national average, and historic downtowns face inundation. Boston's Faneuil Hall, where the Sons of Liberty plotted the Boston Tea Party, lies within the city's hundred-year tidal flood zone, which has experienced as many extreme high tides in the past decade as it had in the previous 80 years."
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - CLIMATE CHANGE - NATIONAL LANDMARKS
EXCERPT: "Along the Atlantic coast north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, sea levels have risen four times the national average, and historic downtowns face inundation. Boston's Faneuil Hall, where the Sons of Liberty plotted the Boston Tea Party, lies within the city's hundred-year tidal flood zone, which has experienced as many extreme high tides in the past decade as it had in the previous 80 years."
12 May 2014
WASHINGTON MOMUMENT OPENS TODAY AFTER YEARS OF EARTHQUAKE REPAIRS
WASHINGTON POST ON WASHINGTON MOMUMENT full article
Engineers have spent nearly 1,000 days on an extensive analysis and restoration of what was once the tallest structure in the world. A 5.8-magnitude quake in August 2011 caused widespread damage. It shook some stones loose and caused more than 150 cracks. From massive scaffolding built around the monument after the quake, engineers and stone masons made repairs stone by stone.
Engineers have spent nearly 1,000 days on an extensive analysis and restoration of what was once the tallest structure in the world. A 5.8-magnitude quake in August 2011 caused widespread damage. It shook some stones loose and caused more than 150 cracks. From massive scaffolding built around the monument after the quake, engineers and stone masons made repairs stone by stone.
06 May 2014
DOG GENEALOGY! DOG REINCARNATION! BACK FROM VACATION!
I'm back from vacation!
But like in the old Norman Rockwell painting of the family that leaves for vacation excited and comes back spent, I'm not so rested!
Oh it was so good to come home to my dog!
I had a neighbor walking my dog for ten days and was sort of torn up when I heard she'd cried for me for a long time! My poor dog! She doesn't want to loose me! I love her so much! When next we saw this neighbor my dog was so excited, I never saw such an exaggerated tail wag! I thought she was ready to go live with my neighbor and forget all about me!
Which reminds me of when I adopted her.
You see, I was out at the local city shelter looking for a cat for a friend when I first spotted her. But while I knew I wanted to get a dog, I was thinking in a couple months. I'd been reading dog training books and videos, trying to relate to the latest theories, and I believed that I would need to buy a fence and a kennel first. Well, instead of the cat for a friend I got a dog for myself. I brought her home and learned right away that she was totally housebroken and wanted to sleep with me. My dog has become my personal trainer, insisting that I walk her for at least an hour a day, which I usually do in two or three walks. I gave up the gym for her!
Ever since I brought her home I've known that I'm dealing with a soul that has incarnated into a dog this time around. Of course I know she's not a human - a person - but she does have personality!
Imagine my surprise when I went to pay her license fees in person after one year of ownership and the receipt print out was actually a RAP SHEET, or a kind of PAST HISTORY VIA DOCUMENTATION. In our city you must show that you've had the dog vaccinated for rabies, and I get her other vaccinations that are not required as well. To me these are a very good bargain if they prevent a dog who encounters all sorts of other dogs on walks and at the local dog park who have not been vaccinated from becoming ill.
I got home and looked at the three page receipt. It started out with a description of her that said she was a year and a half old and white. I called the City because this wasn't right. Oh yes it is, said the clerk, that's about her WHEN SHE WAS FIRST ADOPTED FROM US! I continued to read. At age 2 she'd been picked up by the DOG CATCHER! (Animal Control) and she was roaming, in her third trimester of pregnancy. It meant her first owner had dumped her at the City Shelter, paying a $20 fee. Her second owner paid higher fees so that she could take her out of there to be bred! My dog had then become a mother, at least once, before she was SPAYED AND MICROCHIPPED! That owner came and got her.
But when she was five, someone, a "possible owner" paid another $20 to dump her back at the city shelter for possible adoption. She'd been in DOG JAIL three times!
That wasn't the end of her story, because the day I got her, I really was determined to get that cat. I walked in fifteen minutes after the shelter opened to the public. When I walked past the kennel she had been in for 10 days (when they usually only keep a dog for 5 days) and her picture was down and she was gone, MY HEART SUNK INTO MY STOMACH.
"I want her!" I heard the words coming out of my mouth with a little squeak at the end.
"I'll go see if she's still available," the clerk said. I heard "If she's still alive!"
So the clerk went into the door of the room where the dogs are in cages waiting to be put to death. Came out fifteen minutes latter and said "You can have her!"
Luckily I actually had more than $20 on me that day. Her fees were discounted. I later learned that because she had such a sweet temperament and was so cute, they had actually done a lot for this dog. Her before pictures testifies to neglect. She was covered in dreadlocks. They had bathed and puppy shaved her. She probably had been roaming again, and had been eating garbage, because they had to deworm her. She came in at 15 pounds. When I got her to the vet a couple days later she was only 12 pounds. She wasn't eating. She was scared and crying. When we put her on the table she started to shake. They had given her a year's worth of vaccinations. She's still afraid of any metal table, any high table.
He said "A cat would rather die than eat something it doesn't like. But a dog, after four days, will eat anything - unless it's sick. Give her one more day."
So I did. I went to the grocer and brought back the hearts and livers of a chicken. When I started cooking these, my dog came running. She also came running the next day when I was steaming a cauliflower.
Once she started sleeping with me, I realized she had not been crying to be taken to the curb at 3 am. Once I started taking her to the curb I realized she need to walk a bit before she goes.
Sometimes I wonder about her other owners, what her life was life, if she ran away out of unhappiness or just got caught out chasing a squirrel, if they loved her, if they died, and I can never know, though I want to tell someone "it's OK I have her and love her now. She wasn't put to death!"
Sometimes I just tell her "I know you are a little person in a dog body this life. I know you've had it hard. I know you have children out there somewhere, and maybe grandchildren."
I can tell you that my dog listens. She moves her ears. She makes eye contact. She was never trained to obey commands in any language but since she's been living with me, she knows GO, WALK, TREAT, SIT, and GO IN YOUR ROOM.
I asked the vet if he agreed with her paperwork when it came to her mixed breed. He said "probably." I asked him if people who were more concerned with breed than me had DNA tests run on their dogs.
He said, "Yes, and you would be surprised. A dog the size of yours, just two generations back, could be from a dog like this..." He spread his arms.
But like in the old Norman Rockwell painting of the family that leaves for vacation excited and comes back spent, I'm not so rested!
Oh it was so good to come home to my dog!
I had a neighbor walking my dog for ten days and was sort of torn up when I heard she'd cried for me for a long time! My poor dog! She doesn't want to loose me! I love her so much! When next we saw this neighbor my dog was so excited, I never saw such an exaggerated tail wag! I thought she was ready to go live with my neighbor and forget all about me!
Which reminds me of when I adopted her.
You see, I was out at the local city shelter looking for a cat for a friend when I first spotted her. But while I knew I wanted to get a dog, I was thinking in a couple months. I'd been reading dog training books and videos, trying to relate to the latest theories, and I believed that I would need to buy a fence and a kennel first. Well, instead of the cat for a friend I got a dog for myself. I brought her home and learned right away that she was totally housebroken and wanted to sleep with me. My dog has become my personal trainer, insisting that I walk her for at least an hour a day, which I usually do in two or three walks. I gave up the gym for her!
Ever since I brought her home I've known that I'm dealing with a soul that has incarnated into a dog this time around. Of course I know she's not a human - a person - but she does have personality!
Imagine my surprise when I went to pay her license fees in person after one year of ownership and the receipt print out was actually a RAP SHEET, or a kind of PAST HISTORY VIA DOCUMENTATION. In our city you must show that you've had the dog vaccinated for rabies, and I get her other vaccinations that are not required as well. To me these are a very good bargain if they prevent a dog who encounters all sorts of other dogs on walks and at the local dog park who have not been vaccinated from becoming ill.
I got home and looked at the three page receipt. It started out with a description of her that said she was a year and a half old and white. I called the City because this wasn't right. Oh yes it is, said the clerk, that's about her WHEN SHE WAS FIRST ADOPTED FROM US! I continued to read. At age 2 she'd been picked up by the DOG CATCHER! (Animal Control) and she was roaming, in her third trimester of pregnancy. It meant her first owner had dumped her at the City Shelter, paying a $20 fee. Her second owner paid higher fees so that she could take her out of there to be bred! My dog had then become a mother, at least once, before she was SPAYED AND MICROCHIPPED! That owner came and got her.
But when she was five, someone, a "possible owner" paid another $20 to dump her back at the city shelter for possible adoption. She'd been in DOG JAIL three times!
That wasn't the end of her story, because the day I got her, I really was determined to get that cat. I walked in fifteen minutes after the shelter opened to the public. When I walked past the kennel she had been in for 10 days (when they usually only keep a dog for 5 days) and her picture was down and she was gone, MY HEART SUNK INTO MY STOMACH.
"I want her!" I heard the words coming out of my mouth with a little squeak at the end.
"I'll go see if she's still available," the clerk said. I heard "If she's still alive!"
So the clerk went into the door of the room where the dogs are in cages waiting to be put to death. Came out fifteen minutes latter and said "You can have her!"
Luckily I actually had more than $20 on me that day. Her fees were discounted. I later learned that because she had such a sweet temperament and was so cute, they had actually done a lot for this dog. Her before pictures testifies to neglect. She was covered in dreadlocks. They had bathed and puppy shaved her. She probably had been roaming again, and had been eating garbage, because they had to deworm her. She came in at 15 pounds. When I got her to the vet a couple days later she was only 12 pounds. She wasn't eating. She was scared and crying. When we put her on the table she started to shake. They had given her a year's worth of vaccinations. She's still afraid of any metal table, any high table.
He said "A cat would rather die than eat something it doesn't like. But a dog, after four days, will eat anything - unless it's sick. Give her one more day."
So I did. I went to the grocer and brought back the hearts and livers of a chicken. When I started cooking these, my dog came running. She also came running the next day when I was steaming a cauliflower.
Once she started sleeping with me, I realized she had not been crying to be taken to the curb at 3 am. Once I started taking her to the curb I realized she need to walk a bit before she goes.
Sometimes I wonder about her other owners, what her life was life, if she ran away out of unhappiness or just got caught out chasing a squirrel, if they loved her, if they died, and I can never know, though I want to tell someone "it's OK I have her and love her now. She wasn't put to death!"
Sometimes I just tell her "I know you are a little person in a dog body this life. I know you've had it hard. I know you have children out there somewhere, and maybe grandchildren."
I can tell you that my dog listens. She moves her ears. She makes eye contact. She was never trained to obey commands in any language but since she's been living with me, she knows GO, WALK, TREAT, SIT, and GO IN YOUR ROOM.
I asked the vet if he agreed with her paperwork when it came to her mixed breed. He said "probably." I asked him if people who were more concerned with breed than me had DNA tests run on their dogs.
He said, "Yes, and you would be surprised. A dog the size of yours, just two generations back, could be from a dog like this..." He spread his arms.
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