Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

Lilly and I apologize for the sudden, unexplained absence from blogging these last two weeks. Due to a new and difficult stage in our eldercare responsibilities, we cannot promise it won’t happen again, but we’ll do our best to keep afloat and provide some entertainment.

If you’ve not yet LIKE’d our Champion of My Heart Facebook Fan Page, where we sometimes report on such life events, we’ll catch you up on the backstory behind our absence:

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In spring 2011, I bought Tom 19 goldfish for our pond out front. Their numbers quickly dwindled to 6, maybe 8. Our best guess is that birds or maybe a raccoon got them since we never found floating bodies. Due to wild moss overgrowth in late summer, we haven’t seen the little sweeties since August. Then, the pond froze.

The valley experienced some early, sub-zero temperatures for about a week, and the ice blocked our chances of getting the fish out. Our plan had been either to (a) overwinter them at the humane society pond or (b) overwinter them in a tub in the house (as we did in the past, with our first batch of fish that lived 3 years).

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Thanks to my work, writing pet industry and pet consumer articles for magazines and online outlets, I interview lots of amazing people and pioneers. The latest one to catch my fancy? A cat named Bug, who hikes, canoes, and sometimes oversees events at her human companion’s veterinary practice (Westside Family Pet Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin).

OK, I might be a tad partial to Bug since that’s one of Lilly’s nicknames, but she is an awesome, awesome kitty. Observe. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday morning Bobbye, my friend and neighbor for more than a decade, died. Bobbye gave lung cancer (non-small cell) one heck of a fight for nearly 5 years. Diagnosed in March 2007, she used cutting-edge treatments to stretch the horizon again and again. So many times, we fielded calls with dire news. Yet, Bobbye came out the other side, beating the odds in innumerable ways.

I told her a few weeks ago, after she’d come home in hospice care, how bummed I was that the preemptive radiation the doctors did on her brain didn’t “work.” In other words, the cancer still spread to her noggin. She replied, “It got me 2 more years.”

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Starting in spring 2009, life around here got increasingly complicated with medical / health worries and looming grief on several fronts. The changes to my daily reality often feel beyond grim. I wade through life with a conscious bubble of gratitude around me. Yet, while tossing and turning the other night, I compiled a list of things I miss.

1. Read the rest of this entry »

File this under Entirely Off Topic, Foodie Tangent Edition. Congratulations to my friend and colleague Brette Sember on the publication of The Parchment Paper Cookbook. It features 180 fast, healthy recipes perfect for busy moms, solo or duo cooks, people with small kitchens, new cooks, or anyone who hates to do dishes — no pots or pans required. Seriously. [We have a copy to give away.]

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Unless you’re a dog girl or guy who also likes to garden, feel free to ignore us today … because we’re going Entirely Off Topic. Here’s a quick overview of our high-altitude gardening successes and failures this year.

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Allow me, please, a quick brag about that darling, darling husband of mine … who for the second time in his second try WON the first in class ribbon at the Colorado English Motoring Conclave (one of the biggest British car and motorcycle shows) for his custom 1951 Triumph Thunderbird.

They call the black ones “blackbirds.”

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Using my 10 x 12 hobby greenhouse, I do my best to garden at least a little from our high-altitude home in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Living at 8,200 feet above sea level, with such a short growing season, growing vegetables isn’t easy.

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Carole Moore, my friend and mentor, wrote a powerful, deeply researched account of missing persons and the people who look for them. In some 200 pages, Carole thrusts you into the heartbreak when a loved one disappears.

In clean, direct prose, The Last Place You’d Look tells many real-life stories from the view of a:

• Former police officer
• Modern journalist

She pulls no punches in descriptions of where law enforcement might fail and where families make irrevocable mistakes (like having 1,400 of their own volunteer searchers tromp all over a possible crime scene).

The stories of missing persons and unidentified bodies are gritty and sad, but I never felt a sense of reader despair. I certainly hope with all my heart that I never face a loved one vanishing, but after reading Carole’s book … at least I know some of what to expect … including how Amber Alerts and various crime databases work .

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As I mentioned last week, the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine held its annual forum in Denver recently, and I got the chance to attend one of the four days. Here is a brief overview of some of what I did, saw, and learned.

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While using our riding lawn mower to cut the grass at the historic family home, he nearly rode face-first into this swarm of bees. Too bad, we weren’t ready with a bee hive set-up like at Frugal Kiwi.

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Truth. Writing is hard. Greater truth. Primary research is harder, especially when the subject led an elusive, often-desperate, carousing sort of life. That’s one reason (among many) Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist is such a triumph.

The details dug from scraps. The real-life characters interviewed. The piecing together of biographical bits astound me nearly as much as Tahoma’s life story and artwork.

Authors Charnell Havens and Vera Marie Badertscher, a couple of sorority sisters going way back, weave the various narrative threads with skill I doubt I could manage on my best day.

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It. Won’t. Stop. Snowing.

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Today, I fly to New York City so that I can speak at the upcoming American Society of Journalists and Authors conference. My topic is finding and maximizing your blogging niche. But, first I have a long travel day ahead.

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