MutteringFool

My evil former dog.

(posted to Woot’s forums originally)
My husband and I rescued a beagle from the pound, after he had been hit by a car. We named him Humphrey as I thought it was a cute name.

When we got him home, of course he was nice and quiet, he was hurt. We took care of him, loved on him, got him settled in.

Now, at this time we were 22 and 23 years old, just engaged and first living together. We were broke and lived in a trailer

As he got better, he got crazy. Literally, crazy. First of all, he lived up to his name. If you sat still he humped you. I don’t me just playful humping, but wrapping his legs around your leg, and holding on so tight it would take two people to remove him.

We first tried him in a kennel in the laundry room while we were at work, somehow this small dog tip the kennel, tore the bars open with his mouth and was chewing on my husband’s $150 razor.

That was just the beginning though. Next we tried leaving him out, just picking up everything. Yeah right, he at my chair. My vintage red velvet chair. (see below

As I said, my vintage chair, he ate. I cried.

The next day, we tried putting him in the bathroom, and this is where he ate the wall. Seriously, he ate the wall. An area 3 foot wide and 4 foot up. There were shreds of paneling every where. Obviously, we couldn’t leave him in the bathroom.

If we left him out while we ate, he would jump all over us, trying to get our food, and then when he didn’t get it, he would eat whatever my husband had out, as Humphrey hated men. Seriously, he ate anything of my husband’s he could get a hold of: shoes, clothes, razor, hairbrush, CDs, movies, part of his Star Wars collection.

Now, we figured he was a hunting dog prior to living with us, and had been abandoned when he got hit. The vet was pretty sure that he had been abused prior to coming to us.

We kept on with him, trying to train him, nothing worked.

The final straw was when he tore down our Christmas tree and ate the lights, while they were plugged in. He ended up going to a rescue farm.

This organization took him after I called them and begged them to do so. My husband (who was actually my fiance at this time) was at the end of his rope, and it was either the dog or him. I choose him.

I still wish we could find the former owner of Humphrey and find out why he was so crazy.

Oh, I forgot that he also ate most of the carpet in our living room. And, a pile of styrofoam plates that we had for a picnic. I cannot even list the amount of money we spent on vet bills every time he ate something scary.

Humphrey was one crazy dog, but he settled in while on the farm, and lived many more years out there (we kept in contact with the organization until he passed about 10 years after he went to the farm.)

I’m 37, now.

Holy shit, I turned 37 last weekend, the 21st to be exact. It isn’t the age itself that is causing me to say holy shit, but the fact that when I started MutteringFooldotcom, or actually the precursor to MF.com I was not even 25.

Going back and reading some of the earliest entries from back in the Geocities days really makes me guffaw and wonder how I wrote all the things I did back then? My life really was an open book back then, not so much anymore. It isn’t so much the older making me wiser thing, but the I like the writing I do for the paper thing.

Hmm, I am not sure if I mentioned it. On top of the other freelance stuff, I am writing for the local weekly newspaper. My main focus is local government and politics, although I have done a couple other pieces. It is enjoyable work and gets me out of the house on a regular basis, which for awhile was a thing. It seems that when I don’t have to leave the house I will often not leave, at all, for days on end. With this writing gig, I have meetings to attend multiple times per month so I have to leave even when I don’t want to do so.

The name of the paper is the Westmoreland News. You can search for some of my stories under Susan Pietras-Smith, as that is the name I use for the paper. The site does not have all of my stories for them on there, but has a decent sampling, nothing prior to mid-January of this year is on there.

I need to get my butt off of here and to bed, as I have running to do, and also need to go see my new tattoo artist, since my old one moved. Onward and upward, see y’all soon.
Suzy

Whirling dervish

I am flying around, tomorrow starts dart tournament weekend here. DTW is the weekend, every year, that my Dad hosts his Moose tournament and people from all over come to shoot darts, drink (a lot) and see friends that they don’t see all that often.

While, I don’t actually shoot darts, as I suck, I love DTW as I party with my family and with friends, and spend most of the weekend at the lodge. Until two years ago, Tony and I volunteered at every tourney, now we no longer do, which makes the weekend so much more fun.

Off to run errands, more throughout the weekend.

February 28th

I did something today that I never thought I would do. My friend, Jenny, was going to the trailer she owned with Michael to clean out a bunch of things today as she is selling it. This was the place where Michael died, and the first time I had been there since his death.

Walking up to that door was one of the hardest things in my life, just because I know that he died in that building. That is the place where he hit rock bottom, thought things were as bad as they would ever get and took his life.

I did it though, I made it in there, sat in the room where he left us, and made it through. It has been 14.5 months since his death and it is still impossible to believe that he left us at 34 years old. The thought that he will never be 35, 36, 40, 50, 60, and beyond is so hard to comprehend.

Over the past year and two months I have said pretty much all I can say about him, albeit with it all wrapped up in his death, so maybe some day I’ll be able to write about him, without it being wrapped up in that day. For now this is enough. Enough words, enough sharing. I made it through something I never thought I would do and I am glad I did it.

Walking in that room seemed to make it real and make it so I can let it go, some, and move on more than I have in the past year.

Sidenote: Suicide hurts more than yourself, you hurt your family, your friends, everyone around you questions why they couldn’t save you. If you are feeling like you need to hurt yourself please get help. Call a friend, a family member, your doctor, the local hospital, or ER. Or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255.

Please, get help, don’t do it, you have no idea how many people love you and will be drastically affected forever, even if you think they don’t, they do.

The Movies

We took Tre, Charlie, and Timmy to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 3D. Holy cow, 3D movies are expensive. Three adult tickets, two child tickets were $64 and that was before popcorn and drinks. That is just ridiculous and reminds me of why we do not go to the movies often. I do believe we are about done with movie theaters, other than if they do the next two Star Wars movies in 3D as the kids never got to see them in the movie theater.

We took the Intrepid up (My Mom has been letting me use that car for 1.5 and she rocks for that) and fitting all five of us was tough. Tony is tall and a big guy, and Timmy, who is 19 is a giant. He is well over six foot tall, probably six foot four or so, and just wide. We put him up front, and Tony in the backseat with the two little guys who are in booster seats, still.

Tre is 53 pounds at 8 years old (and 3′ 11″ I believe.) He is tiny and while age wise he is old enough to sit in a seatbelt without a booster, his Dad and StepMom are absolutely doing the right thing by keeping him in a booster. Luckily, he doesn’t mind it as he understands how small he is.

Charlie is 55 pounds, 3′ 9″ at 7 years old. He is obviously in a booster, as well, and will be for quite a while yet. They got him a booster seat that has flames on it, so he is all for using it, because “It is so cool, Aunt Pooh!”

After the movie, we took the kids out to eat, luckily we had a gift card to cover most of that, as we spent a lot on the movie. Tre hadn’t been feeling good all day, and you could tell at dinner as he barely ate anything and he turned down vanilla ice cream. Tre never does that.

We finally got the two little guys home around 8:40, then Tony drove Timmy all the way home (Timmy has autism and doesn’t drive.) It was a long day, but so much fun that it was well worth it.