The momma and I wanted to share the above article with you. It’s about a very special dog, Timmy. Timmy is a service dog for his owner, Neal A. Young who has narcolepsy. And, Timmy is a therapy dog who worked at Ground Zero and continues to work in hospitals, nursing homes and disaster sites. In fact, Timmy was the only therapy dog at Ground Zero and his work helped to console firefighters and volunteers.
“When people were coming out of the pit and they saw him waiting for them, that might be the only time they would crack a smile all day,” Young said. “People weren’t talking to the counselors or the social workers, but they’d reach out to Timmy, and then the counselors had a way in to make that connection.”
Timmy has recently developed hearing loss. Hearing is very important for dogs, especially working dogs, and bilateral hearing is important for sound localization.
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A battery of diagnostic testing at the University of Cincinnati’s FETCH-Lab (Facility for Education and Testing of Canine Hearing and Laboratory for Animal Bioacoustics) determined that Timmy has bilateral hearing loss, although his left ear is less impaired than his right. Fortunately, Timmy is an excellent candidate for hearing aids. Molds were made from both of Timmy’s ear canals to prepare hearing aids. However, hearing aids are expensive and Timmy’s owner is disabled. They need to raise money to pay for the aids. It would be great if you (yes, you!) can help with a donation! If so, please go to
Let me borrow that top- Now this one is definitely worth a gander. It’s a comedy/music video by Liam Kyle Sullivan. Actually, all of his videos are hilarious!
Back with a vengeance- This title isn’t informative of the content. Basically, it’s a list/video of common poisonous plants that pets like to chew on.
Still working night and day….- Part of series of posts about an angry/sad/funny story that happened to the momma and me (and the cats) recently.
Thirteen on the momma’s desk- Just a list of crap on the momma’s desk. Part of the NaBloPoMo list series. Maybe we’ll try that again in February (the shortest month!)
Insight out- A few videos (or links to videos) with insight to stroke, autism, and a sweet video of an Alzheimer disease patient.
Twin news- Just spreading the good news about OTC’s newborn twins!
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” -Ben Franklin
“Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” -Mark Twain
The momma is most definitely NOT an early riser. Me, I like to get up around 4:30 or 5:00 am, take care of my bodily functions, eat, then go back to sleep for a few hours. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
The author actually switched from being a night owl to an early riser (and yes, it is possible). It has helped him in so many ways that he’d never go back. I have modified a few of the benefits to fit better with the momma’s lifestyle:
Greet the day. Be able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. Create a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. Be inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “
Which is a better way to start?
Jump out of bed, late as usual, and rush to get ready, and rush to walk, feed and water the incredible whippet, and come in to work late. Walk into work, looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Not a great start.
A renewing morning ritual, getting a lot of things done at home and at work before 8 am, and having a head start by the time everyone else gets in to work. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early.
Quietude. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. Enjoy that time of peace. Think. Read. Breathe.
Sunrise. People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. Watch how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors. Walk the incredible whippet during this time, and look up at the sky and say to the world, “What a glorious day!” Really. The guy who originally wrote this really does that (so he says). Corny, I know.
Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. The fattier and sugarier, the betterier. But eat breakfast, and you are sated until later. Plus, eating breakfast while reading a book and drinking tea in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at the desk.
Exercise. There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but although exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be canceled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never canceled.
Productivity. Mornings can be the most productive time of day. Do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before checking email or website stats. Get so much more done by starting to work in the morning. Then, when evening rolls around, there is no work that needs to be done, and it can be time spent with the incredible whippet!
Goal time. One goal to accomplish each week. And every morning, decide what one thing that can be done today to move further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing the next morning.
Commute. No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and get to work faster, and thus save more time.
Appointments. It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, there is time to prepare.
OK, now here are the instructions:
How to Become an Early Riser
Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.
Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. . If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.
Put your alarm clock far from your bed. (This one will unlikely work for the momma) If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.
Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.
***Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.
Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason. Also, when I’m done with that, I like to read all of your comments!
Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of tea and read a book (but I’m sure that will make the momma fall back asleep). Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.
Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs or surf the internet. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on planning for the rest of the day, on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.
Ok, it’s Monday and our place is organized, just needed cleaning. A cleaning woman (Susan) who has worked for JD’s family for several years came to clean. The momma told me that Susan has a dog and 2 cats and loves animals! La madre gave the momma a really great idea. Put me in daycare (yay!) and board the cats for the day. Also, put the litter box and all cat toys in the garage at her house. So now there are no signs of cats! Ken showed up at 11 am with the terminix man. The momma told him that he was supposed to come at 4pm. Ken said that terminix needed to inspect my place for bugs and mice. The momma told him that there were no bugs and definitely no mice in our place but they should check next door since there is a strong odor over there. Ken then asked if he could come back at 3 instead of 4pm so that maintenence would have time to patch up any holes and fix my toilet. The momma told him that would be ok. So, Ken showed up at 3:30 and the place is spotless! Ken looked around for while the maintenence guy (Sam) is fixed the toilet. JD also showed up around 4 to give the momma some support. As Ken was leaving:
Ken: Well, I’m going to head back. I appreciate you getting the place cleaned up.
JD: Ken, I came over last week with a few other people and none of us smelled anything.
Ken: Well there was a strong animal odor in here that I smelled last week. And maintenence was with me and they smelled it too.
The momma: There’s no way an odor strong enough to cause Keith’s place to smell bad could have come out of my place.
Ken: Well, there certainly was a strong animal smell here.
The momma: Look! I’m a veterinarian AND a scientist! I think I would know if a strong animal odor existed here! There was no way my place is the cause of the odor next door!
Ken: Well, I’m not going to argue with you. Sam, are you almost finished?
Sam: Yes, I just need to get the new CO detector put in.
Ken: Ok, I’ll head back and let you finish up here.
Then Ken left.
JD: Sam, were you here last week? [to the momma] Sam is one of the good guys. He is honest and very trustworthy.
Sam: I smelled a slight musty odor, but it wasn’t as strong as next door. To be honest with you, it’s not that uncommon of a problem.
JD and Sam left a few minutes later. The momma wanted to wait until 6 before picking all of us up at daycare.
5pm, the momma’s phone rang. It was JD.
JD: You are going to love what just happened!
The momma: what?
JD: I ran into Ken after I left your place. He asked me if you still had 3 animals. I told him that they were staying at a friends until you could work out some sort of arrangement. But, I also told him that your copy of the by-laws didn’t mention a limit of 2 petsandif the new situation didn’t work out we would take it before the board to get a special waiver to keep all of the pets. He said, really? it’s not in her copy of the by-laws? Hmmmm. I guess as long as they don’t cause any problems we can always look the other way.
