I took three paintings into a local artists' co-op today, and helped hang a members show for the monthly gallery walk event in Old Town.

As I did this, the first time I have made an effort to show any of my work, it occured to me that getting involved in the showing and selling of paitings would probably spoil the pleasure I get from creating the work. I felt very uneasy trying to come up with prices for the paintings, wondering if I could really be compensated for the effort, and if I might rather keep the originals. I do have high-quality reproductions, but it might be hard to let go of these...



On the other hand, what if I really do relocte to Mexico or Costa Rico? What will I do with them all then?



I didn't select my best (and most recent work) for this show, instead hanging three older pieces where I was learning the materials and technicque.

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The pups are all gone to their new homes now. We got really attached to the little darker-faced guy, who was with us the longest (almost two weeks). If he wasn't already adopted, we would have been tempted to make him part of our family.

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I saw multitudes
to every side of me; their howls were loud
while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.
They struck against each other; at that point,
each turned around and, wheeling back those weights,
cried out: Why do you hoard? Why do you squander?'

Dante's Inferno - a visit to the Fourth Circle.

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Fostering three chihuahua/cairn terrier puppies for a week. A bit of a chore, but quite a joy, really.

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Good Paul Krugman Op-Ed in the NY Times today...

...Mr. Obama wanted to transcend partisanship. Instead, however, he finds himself very much in the position Franklin Roosevelt described in a famous 1936 speech, struggling with “the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”

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Another foster dog, Mya the Boxer. Boxers are not like any dog I've ever had around. Different personality, and the look! When she sleeps next to me on the bed at night, it is a a little odd to wake up eye to eye with that face (she likes to roll right up against you).

She will be going to stay with another foster family at the end of the week, and after several weeks with us she will be missed. A very sweet girl, who obviously appreciates the time she is spending with us. We have some travel obligations coming up, and sadly can't take her with us. Perhaps after we return we can resume fostering her until she is adopted, but I suspect she will quickly find a home once she is made available. For now, she awaits her spay and some minor additional surgery. We have had her here because she needed to get over a case of 'kennel cough' (bordatela), and finish what wil be her last reproductive cycle. She had just been separated from puppies before she arrived here as well - the Denver animal control people picked her and the pups up on the street and our local rescue shelterwent to fetch them for local adoption. Her ribs were showing when we got her, but she has gained about 10% more weight since being here.

Fostering can be tough, because you bond with just about any dog that comes into your life. I can see why foster families frequently adopt and make the animals a lifetime member of the pack. For us, since we have an unstable future for a while longer, fostering will allow us to at least enjoy the company of a dog for periods of time, and help out the shelter and their animals.

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It's been quite a while since I posted anything here. I have been posting regularly at facebook, which I have come to use as sort of a blog-lite.

For five day during the past week, we had a foster dog here from its regular foster home. She was a real sweetheart, and we grew quite fond of her. We were considering adoption, but she has a couple of behavior issues we weren't sure we could work out for her. Probably a mix of greyhound and shepard, she's a real cat chase, for one thing. We took her up to the ranch, and she was WAY to interested in the cats, who seemed to think she might be a coyote.



Over the past month, we've visited the local shelters for dogs, and made a few other friends as well.

There was Dora, a sweet but probably high-mainenance border collie mix...



Then there was Danaka, a mystery blend only about seven months old. If she hadn't been adopted the last time I saw her I would probably have adopted her myself...




Danaka gets her tummy rubbed by Pat.



While it was hard to see Maggie go home with her regular foster mom, having her here with us for five days really helped me get incrementally over the loss of Mommadog. It showed me that while Mdog was unique and special to us, much of what gave us so much comfort was in fact generic dog behavior - they are for the most part all sweet, all happy to see you and give you unconditional affection, and get you out of the house a couple of times a day for a nice walk. It was nice just to here the dog door swinging open and shut when she visited the yard and returned...

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