Meet Cypress

After our last successful weim fostering experience, Matt finally caved and let me get a new foster dog. 

I talked to the area foster coordinator for Weim Rescue and had to choose between two dogs - Gaylord, a sweet, well-socialized male, or Cypress, a younger (and more energetic) female who had been kenneled since September due to lack of foster homes.  I was initially leaning towards Gaylord, but we chose Cypress since she needed a foster home more.

Boy, was I in for a surprise!  In a lot of ways, she's is completely different from Charlie.  She's sleek,  high-strung, graceful, very energetic, and likes to antagonize Tyson and Ace.  In other ways, they are a lot alike.  Both are stubborn, sneaky, and quite affectionate.

Even though she has about 100 times more energy than Charlie, I think she's actually a bit easier to handle.  For one simple reason... she's crate-trained!  She goes right into her crate, lies down calmly, and often falls asleep.  We can put her in there while we eat dinner, vacuum, or when she gets too excited.  She's definitely got the potential to be a bit more destructive than Charlie ever was (he could be left alone inside all day with no problems), but it's nice to be able to put her in the crate and not worry about what she could be destroying while I'm at work.

Cypress, like Charlie, came into rescue heartworm positive.  The Southeast is one of the worst places for heartworm infection.  I don't know why people don't use heartworm prevention!  It's so easy, and fairly inexpensive.  The treatment is not.  It's also very hard on the dogs (they have to be confined with no physical activity for two months).

These two spend most of their time wishing they had the other's bone/chewie/toy/etc.

Cypress's heartworm infection is the only reason I can think of that someone might have turned her into a shelter (a kill shelter, no less).  Someone has obviously spent some time with her.  Besides the crate-training, she also knows sit, stay, and go away.  She's been a pleasure to have around the house.  She's a little bit alpha, and tends to harass "the boys" a bit, but she's still a very sweet dog.  She's also beautiful.  I could watch her run for hours, she's just so gorgeous.

Come over and meet her!

Be Still My Soul

I've been humming this tune in my head for days now.  I finally had a free minute to look up the lyrics, most of which I couldn't remember. 

My favorite line(s): "Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change, He faithful will remain."  Sometimes we just need a nice reminder that we can't do everything ourselves and it's best not to try. 

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Runnin' Shoes

Who knew that picking out shoes could be so complicated?   

Before last month, I always bought my sneakers based on which ones were the cutest and on sale.  Not again.

For the last year or so, I had noticed an increasingly common occurrence... my feet hurt during Amanda's Body Attack classes.  The arches and balls of my feet would ache through all of the countless rounds of plyometric lunges and jumping jacks.  Manda took me to Fleet Feet last year to get some inserts for my gym shoes.  They made a difference... but only for a little while.

Finally, I went back up to Fleet Feet for one of their "fittings".   I haven't had someone measure my feet since I was a kid and my parents bought my shoes at Stride Right (where if you wore a hole through your shoes on the playground before you outgrew them, they'd replace them for free), and wasn't sure what to expect.    I don't normally like someone touching my feet unless they're giving me a pedicure or foot massage!

They measured each foot multiple times and talked about arch settling and foot shapes.  Then, they had me run on their video camera-equipped treadmill and recorded me.  They played it back very slowly, analyzing my gate, foot placement, and all sorts of other intricacies that I've never considered before.  I just sat there wondering, "What the heck is pronation, anyway?"

Finally, they brought out several different pairs of shoes that matched my foot type and gave the support I was looking for.  I picked the ones I liked best, a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspires, and held my breath as I checked out.

Several weeks later, I am still in love with these shoes.  I've done several of Manda's classes, run on the treadmill, and not had a moment where I thought about my feet.  In fact, I think that I went a little too hard the first day and wore out the rest of my body because my feet weren't hurting.

This kind of thing is probably a no-brainer for serious runners, but it was all a new experience to me.  I can't say enough good things about Fleet Feet; I think I'll be buying my tennis shoes from them from now on.