![\"\"](\"https:\/\/feedingandrew.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Gazpacho.jpg\" "\\"Gazpacho\\"")
<\/a>\n\tAll the goodness of summer in a bowl<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Update:<\/strong> My mother is \u201calmost\u201d fully recovered.\u00a0 She does get tired in the afternoon and has a few lingering antibiotic needs.\u00a0 Also, she is starting to act like a 50 years old lady and not the 30 years young lady she did before she got sick.\u00a0 Although she is more than 60 and less than 80 (you\u2019re welcome mom), she still refuses to act her age and that makes all of us happy.\u00a0 She will be visiting Los Angeles in the fall and if you see a couple of (should I say \u201celderly\u201d) woman running through the fountains in some public place, you will know that at least one of them is my mom.<\/p>\n ________________________________________________<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Truman?\u201d I suddenly wondered as the disappearance of my four-legged shadow dawned on me through the black hole of stillness his absence had created around me.\u00a0 Like coming out of a deep sleep to realize you aren\u2019t in your own bed, I quickly ran through the possible causes and ramifications of the moment.\u00a0 Although not a sign for immediate panic, in the early days with Andrew, silence was rarely a good thing.\u00a0 Add a year old Labrador puppy into the equation and silence usually meant trouble.<\/p>\n Andrew had gone into the backyard and was playing with Katherine from down stairs.\u00a0 A tomboy at heart, she had found a ready and willing fencing partner in Andrew and they were knocking each other about with Nerf swords.\u00a0 They had not seen Truman and I started to move quicker.\u00a0 Checking every corner of the house and calling his name, I was about to run outside when I heard a muffled canine yelp coming from Andrew\u2019s room.\u00a0\u00a0 I looked into the room and all I saw was a sea of Lego across the carpet.\u00a0 No Truman.\u00a0 Then the armoire started to bark.\u00a0 I found my tail wagger scared and waiting like a fairy tale slave to be saved from the tower.<\/p>\n Fright, relief, anger, then concern: the constant sequence of emotions that had become my daily life since I had become Andrew\u2019s father.\u00a0 I called Andrew in and went through the dance steps that were quickly becoming second nature.\u00a0 Lecture, consequences, lecture, consequences.\u00a0 With most things, he learned quickly, but with animals it was a never-ending battle.\u00a0 I was sure I would eventually win, but friends and family suspected a Vietnam quagmire or worse.<\/p>\n The problem was that Andrew treated all animals very badly.\u00a0 They were squeezed, pulled, smothered, and even a Michael Jackson moment of terror for my parent\u2019s little mop of a canine when Andrew dangled him over the guardrail of their balcony.\u00a0 I know friends and family read into each act some sort of opening scene to Silence of the Lambs III, but I immediately recognized the profound need he had to connect with the very animals he tortured.\u00a0 Each horrible interaction with furry friends was really his inept attempt to get them to stay by him and hopefully love him.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t help that our own dog had deeply bonded with me before Andrew came onto the scene and had to be coerced with mega-treats to go near his bedroom.<\/p>\n Of course, I counseled Andrew on how to work kindly with animals and I really tried to instill in him the \u201cleave them alone and they will come to you on their own\u201d approach that is a key life lesson all on its own.\u00a0 But that takes patience.\u00a0 And when your desire to be loved needs immediate gratification from a cuddle or hug, it is the hardest lesson to learn.\u00a0 I clearly saw the ramifications for his love life later down the road and wanted to help him get a handle on this before he mistook a barrage of unwanted attention as being the best way to \u201cget the girl.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 These were abandonment issues 101 and if he were ever to have healthy relationships this was the place to start.<\/p>\n It was the Michael Jackson balcony scene that was the turning point for the animal issue.\u00a0 The consequence was that he was not allowed to touch, pet, or even look at Truman for a week.\u00a0 This was torture for Andrew and worked precisely because it was affection he was looking for and not a darker purpose of animal cruelty others worried about.\u00a0 Slowly he got access back to the Truman, but with even a little mishap would go back to d\u00e9tente where each party would be kept in neutral zones.\u00a0 Sure enough, his interactions grew gentler and within a short time he could be trusted (as well as most 9 or 10 year olds) with animals.\u00a0 Truman would remain weary of him for a few more years and even though he remains \u201cmy dog\u201d to this day, he now has clear affection for and loyalty to Andrew.\u00a0 We have even worked out an arrangement where Truman sleeps with me one night and Andrew the next.\u00a0 Both of us hate our nights alone.<\/p>\n So when I got \u201cthe call\u201d a month or so back, it seemed like the right thing to do.\u00a0 \u201cThe call\u201d was from a long time neighbor, Donna, who wept as she told me that her brother had just passed away and was survived by three dogs and three cats.\u00a0 Her brother was a trucker who lived in Salt Lake City and had been collecting strays for some time.\u00a0 The burden of finding them all homes had been passed to Donna who was also frantic with funeral arrangements and closing up her brother\u2019s home and affairs.<\/p>\n She had heard from our downstairs flat mates that I was interested in Red Heelers.\u00a0 Her brother\u2019s favorite was a Red Heeler named Teddy.\u00a0\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t imagine a better home and wondered if I would adopt him.<\/p>\n My sister has Heelers and, yes, I do like them.\u00a0 More importantly, I gleaned from a conversation a silent nod from my neighbor\u2019s below, that a second dog would not break our friendship of 25 years.\u00a0 I had been dreaming about a second dog for a while, but had held off for their sake. \u00a0Perhaps they thought it was a better alternative than the chickens I\u2019ve been dreaming of for even longer, but that\u2019s fodder for another post.<\/p>\n Between the green light here at home and the news of her brother\u2019s death following on the heals of my mother\u2019s near death this summer, I told her that I would take him.\u00a0 Actually, I had been experiencing a reoccurring nightmare the last six months where I was searching for a red dog that needed to be found.\u00a0 We both agreed that this could be the little dog that I was searching for.\u00a0 Andrew was very excited about the news.\u00a0 He had badly wanted a dog to call his own; one that would want to sleep in his bed without coercion.<\/p>\n A week later, on a Sunday morning at 6:30 am, Donna and Teddy pulled up to the house.\u00a0 Teddy greeted me like he had known me for years.\u00a0 Donna and I sat on the front lawn and talked as she threw the ball for him.\u00a0 Just like my sister\u2019s Heelers, he didn\u2019t need a leash to stay at your side or near by.\u00a0 He made sure that he kept us properly herded right there on the lawn.\u00a0\u00a0 Truman seemed to like him too and when Andrew met him, he fell in love.\u00a0\u00a0 Everything seemed to have happened for a reason and with just a few tears Donna was ready to leave.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n Part 2 and 3 to follow soon!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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