quote from husband

"i went to Michaels, that place is awesome"

January 2008

Mike the Dog Memorial

I just wanted to write you all to let you know that Mike the Dog passed away a little over a week ago. He had been getting sicker over the past couple of months and finally had a drastic change in quality of life so we knew it was time to put him to sleep. It was the most heart wrenching decision I think either of us have ever made. We got his ashes back today and they made us a paw print we can display next to his portrait.


I got Mike the summer after I graduated from college. My roommate, Jess, worked at a local vet and knew I wanted a Labrador. Jess came home one day and said someone had abandoned two dogs at the vet and the vet was in the process of getting legal custody of the dogs. The dogs had been there a couple of months and they were tired of the Lab howling for attention. I knew I wanted a dog.. never mind the expense and responsibility I was taking on fresh out of school.


I got Mike for $20 and a free neutering surgery. We also brought home the other dog Starlight. We walked the two of them from the vet to our house. It was clear Mike had some training because he would sit at each corner and wait for my signal to cross. We still thought Starlight was the brains of the duo and Mike was just the brawn. Mike was supposed to be an outdoor dog. It was southern California, so I figured he would be fine with that. He wasn’t. The first night Starlight got Mike all riled up so he ran back and forth from the gate to the sliding door banging so loud no one could sleep. I let them inside and both dogs and our 20 pound orange cat Smithers came into my room to sleep with me on my tiny futon.

On night 2 the same wildness happened but this time they seemed to quiet down eventually. The next morning we discovered that the quiet was because big brute Mike had destroyed the heavy duty wooden gate and both dogs were gone. I was distraught. My new dog was gone, no collar, and I hadn’t even had a chance to fall totally in love with him yet. I called all the local shelters and searched the area with no sign of them.


Later that morning, my roommate called from the vet. They found Mike. Poor Mikey… he ran away to the vet. He thought he lived there. When the first person arrived to work that morning, they found Mike sitting at the front door of the vet waiting to be let in. That must have been hilarious to anyone driving by to see a dog asking to go INTO the vet. We think Starlight ran to her previous home. After that, Mike knew he was mine and I was his.

He and Smithers the Cat became best friends, but always vied for the most attention. If I was petting Smithers, Mike would crawl up on the back of the couch and wrap himself around my shoulders like a shawl.

That summer I also learned that unlike a normal Lab, Mike was terrified of the water and didn’t have a clue how to play fetch. He never learned the fetch thing. Mike used to dig dirt baths to stay cool in the yard. He buried my stuffed animals in his dirt bath. He could also tell quality items from cheap ones. If my sunglasses and my roommates Oakleys were on the table, he chewed the Oakleys. My other roomie Lillian was waiting for her Noam Chompsky video to arrive for weeks. It arrived, and Mike ate it. She loved Mike enough to forgive him and figured out how to fix her tape.

Mike was there for all of the major events in my life. He drove across country with me from California to live in NYC. We camped along the way with my buddy Amy. Turns out he wasn’t a big fan of city living. He loved Riverside Park running off leash, but at $100 a ticket, that was a big risk for us. On one run, Mike saw a few other dogs off leash and started a game of chase where he led about 6 dogs weaving in and out of all the other runners and walkers in the park. Another time he saw a small animal, gave chase and disappeared. Another jogger stopped in his tracks and turned completely pale. I asked, “Did you see where my dog went?” He pointed to a 3 foot wall that guarded a 30 foot drop to the half-pipe skate park below. I looked over the wall and saw the skid marks where Mike landed. I called for him, but he didn’t come. Instead, a helpful homeless guy came out of his cave and pointed, “He went that way.” Just then, Mike came running back and looked 30 feet up at me like “reach down and get me mom.” The homeless guy told me were the stairs were and I got Mike out of the skate park. No harm done.

My ancient old lady neighbor (who made soup in her underwear in front of an open window) showed up to our apartment one day telling me I abused my dog. She said he cries all day “A wooo wooo wooo, a wooo wooo wooo!”. That was it. I felt so bad that Mike went to live with mom and dad. Mike fell in love with mom and dad immediately.

They taught him his manners and that if we gave him biscuits when we were leaving, that meant we would be back. Living with my parents helped calm Mike’s abandonment issues. Occasionally, Mike still took himself for walks in their neighborhood. My dad went looking for him once and had to drive slowly back while Mike trotted alongside the car because he didn’t want to get in.


When I decided to go to grad school, I lived with my parents for a year first. This was Mike’s ideal set up. Everyone he loves living together under one roof. When I left for Florida, Mike had to stay behind. But he took a road trip with mom to visit me at grad school. Mike loved a good road trip.


When I got my first Physical Therapy job in DC, Mike eventually came to live with me in Old Town Alexandria. Old Town is dog central. The other dogs at the dog park taught Mike to swim in the Potomac. He was still chicken to go by himself, and more often then not, he faked it by walking out on the jetty instead of going into the deep water. Mike was a regular at the Holiday Inn Doggy Happy Hour too. He took me running along the trails up and down the river. He fell in love with my roommate, Julie, one of my best buddies from grad school. I could count on her to walk him if I didn’t get home first. When Julie moved away, Mike tried to stuff himself into her car to go with her. He wanted everyone to live with him always.


One day our neighbors, The Coles, were having people over for a barbeque. Mike was invited too. Mike made a new friend that day. This really cute guy Henry was making sure Mike didn’t wag his tail into the flame of the outdoor stew pot. I’m pretty sure Henry was also giving Mike pieces of Keilbasa. Mike immediately liked Henry. He wasn’t protective or shy at all. If Mike could talk he would have said, “Hey, mom, this guy’s a keeper. Let’s date him.” So we did. Technically, I was dating Henry, but, Mike was a big part of everything we did together. We took him to the dog park, went on runs, went to Happy Hour. When Mike and I were in a car accident that totaled my X-Terra, Henry went out and bought him the best car harness available. Mike would never jump out onto the expressway again. Eventually, Mike got his own bowl at Henry’s apartment and commandeered an old blanket that came to be known as “Mike’s Blanket.”


When we got engaged, Mike moved to Groton with us. He was in our professional engagement photos. He was there for all the wedding planning, festivities and moving to Hawaii.


Mike liked Hawaii a lot. He spent most of his time basking in the sun on the lawn. He visited Lanaikai beach, hiked Tantalis, hiked to the lighthouse. His favorite place was Hickam dog beach on the air force base. He played with the other dogs and honed his swimming skills. He loved riding in Henry’s old beat up truck. When Henry deployed, Mike and I were regulars at Hickam. We threw water jugs and towels in the back of the truck and drove over almost weekly. Mike always rode in the cab. No one at the beach believed Mike was so old.


When the USS Honolulu changed home ports to Washington, Mike took a solo flight to Maryland to visit with my parents before I arrived on the mainland. Mike had a final cross country trek with my mom and I from Maryland to Washington. After a false start and a new timing belt, we were on our way. With that road trip, Mike increased his ownership of states to at least 44. (He peed on stuff – that’s doggy ownership.) Mike discovered that Holiday Inn Express is a dog friendly chain and highly recommends it to his doggy friends.


In Washington, Mike was an integral part of our search for our first house. Our Realtor, Norma, was sensitive to Mike’s needs and we got a great house. We bought Mike a designer bed (I never thought I would be one of ‘those people’), we bought him a new fence, and a new doggy door. Even to his last days, he LOVED that doggy door. He could get through it even when he was stumbling from weakness. Mike came full circle to his youth by digging a dirt bath in the yard behind the azaleas. This was one of his favorite resting spots. Mike had his own room too. He took over the guest bed as his own because it looked out of the best window in the house and he could watch the neighborhood in comfort.

Even though he seemed to be going deaf, he knew the sound of Henry’s sports car and would get excited as Henry arrived home each day. He was like Goldilocks. He moved around the house sleeping in all his favorite spots. Fancy doggy bed, guest bed, formal couch, casual couch, downstairs dog bed, garden, Persian carpet… over and over all day.


The most special thing Mike got to be a part of was finding out we were pregnant. We both wish Mike could be there to be the big brother of little Henry, but I guarantee our kids will hear all sorts of stories about the great Mike Roenke.


In his last month, Mike got to eat gourmet meals of homemade chicken, meatballs, bacon, cheese and whatever else we could get him to eat. His favorite was salami. He would eat it even with a pill wrapped inside. In his final hours we gave him water with a water bottle and kept him comfortable. The decision was so hard, but we have no doubt that Mike didn’t want to live unable to eat well and do all of his favorite fun doggy things.


We both miss Mike terribly. It gets easier each day. Mike was my doggy soul mate. I hope there are squirrels and salami in doggy heaven. I know that’s where he went. I just home some day they let me in too.

I just wanted to write down how great our dog was and share him with everyone. We have such great memories, I hope you enjoyed reading a few of them.

Love - Judy


Here is the link to Mike’s claim to fame on the Pill Pocket website. Scroll down a ways to see his testimonial. This is the artist who did Mike’s portrait (our wedding gift to each other was a painting of the dog!)

priorities

me: So, did you hear Donald Rumsfeld resigned?

hubby: No, he did?

me: Yah, I almost called you but I figured everyone at work would be talking about it.....
Oh, Rumsfeld resigned and Brittany Spears is getting divorced.

hubby: Yeah, I heard that.

me: You heard about Brittany and not Rumsfeld?

I guess hubby's job is secure.

Mike the Dog portrait

Excerpts from emails between us and artist Jackie Ehle, who painted Mike's portrait for us.

"Hi Jackie –

We definitely want to commission you to paint Mike the dog’s portrait. We would like him to be in a sitting pose. He tends to ‘side sit’ on his hip rather than sit directly on his butt. We tried to capture the look in the photos and would like the portrait to show this pose. He was a little excited during the photo shoot so please omit his wiener if it is showing in the picture you are referencing. J We included some facial photos to show his grey fur on his chin. The rest of his coat is very shiny and soft like a younger dog. (Mike is 11 but plays like he is 2. Arthritis does not slow him down.) Mike wears a royal blue collar which currently has several dog tags on it. Please do not include his harness in the painting. We would love the background to be reminiscent of the dog park on Union street near Wilkes. Mike misses that park.

We are really excited. This is our wedding gift to each other. Henry (my fiancé) has adopted Mike and Mike has adopted Henry. -Judy"

"HI –

We are excited about the portrait! We think we want his legs to show in the painting – we like the way he sits and he has a cute butt. He is graying on his chin and a little around his wiener, other wise he has a beautiful shiny black coat. (Henry is embarrassed that I mentioned Mike’s ‘you know what’ – but Mike could care less.) - Judy "

"Hi Jackie –

It was nice to talk to you tonight. We are looking forward to having the portrait displayed. One thing I forgot to mention is to please avoid any red paint in his wiener area. Our Navy friends are big jokers and will tease Mike if he is immortalized with any suggestion of immodesty. If this gets to you too late don’t worry about it. Our house was a mad house of toddlers, both sets of parents, sister in law, and Mike the dog trying to hump the kids.

Talk to you soon - Judy"

"Judy and Henry,

I had added just a dot of red, a small joke, but I will over paint it! I think you will be thrilled. he came out really nice. I hope your wedding is wonderful, soon mike may be having toddlers of his own to hump, I got pregnant on my honeymoon. Thanks Jackie"

Here is the rough draft with the red penis. Click the bars at the top for links to the final.

www.jackieehle.com

I thought I saw a sea cucumber

email to my co-workers

Today Mike the Dog and I went to the dog beach at Hickam. I saw this long skinny thing that looked like a snake. I poked at it with my net and then I scooped it up. It was like 2 feet long and red and black striped and very smushy. It looked like it might be sucking itself inside out. I Googled sea cucumbers, but mine didn't look like any of them, but I think that's what I found. I carry a red net from the NEX and scoop stuff up like a 5 year old. Catch and release only. I also scooped up a crab, a blue shrimp (I think that's what it was), and I almost caught a puffer fish hiding in the mangroves but he kept squishing himself under my net. Anyway, since sea cucumbers came up at lunch the other day, I thought you all might think this was funny.

-Judy PS - my Google search produced quite a few recipes for sea cucumber soup if you ever want to eat one.

Henry Underway

These are excerpts from emails to and about Henry during his short underways...

Hi – (to the in-laws)

Just writing to let you all know Henry was able to call from the boat the other night. He actually called twice, but the first call was:

Hello hello?

Henry? Hello?

Hello hello?

The second call was much clearer. Things seem to be going well on the boat. He was in good and said they got some things done that they needed to do. That’s good because that means they weren’t spending time fixing broken stuff, they actually made some progress.

Mike waits for Henry by the window each night.

Hi – (to Henry)

Went to the dog beach at Hickman today. The tide was low so we waded out past the banyan trees. I followed Mike all over the area. I wore my new wading shoes and carried a net, but I didn’t catch anything. Mike swam a little bit when the water got deep. We were there like 2 hours or more. Mike was heading back to the car when another dog showed up, so he took off thru the water back to the sand bar to play.

I had to pee so I backed into a banyan tree and squatted and peed in the water. Are you embarrassed? You married a gross girl.

Hi – (to Henry)

I broke down and ordered Papa Johns yesterday. This morning, I heard noise in the kitchen and when I went to check it out, Mike was carrying the garlic butter cup to his bed to open and drink. I am anticipating a greasy poop later today. Yippy!!!

I am off to recycle now. See you soon.

Hi - Mike is doing well. He found a Papa Johns box (that I stupidly set on the floor next to the trash can) and drank the cup of garlic butter, but he seems to have survived the fake butter influx.

(Sometimes I forget what I already wrote...)

The Mystery Box

The following is an email I sent to my in-laws about a mystery package I received in December of 2005. This is another post that has been sitting in my edit box waiting to get posted.

"Hank and Lois-

We received 2 packages today which resulted in one big mystery. According to the order invoice from Macy’s, we expected to get and have now received in completion the following items for Christmas:

Lemon zester

2 wine goblets

Oxo pizza wheel

Ice cream scoop

Calphlon stainless steel skimmer

Stainless utensil crock (came today)

The following is a copy of the email I sent to the USPS. The short story is that 2 packages came today with labels from Lois, but only one contained a gift…..the other box is a mystery box…..

Here is the story I sent to USPS……

“OK - this is a strange one. We have been waiting for a completion of a shipment from WeddingChannel.com ordered by Lois Roenke well before Christmas.

Today, I received a very mangled box that had obviously been retaped and bound with yellow straps. It had label from WeddingChannel addressed to me with a shipping UPC dated 1/28/06 and the note Purchased by Lois Roenke. Naturally, I was expecting the utensil crock we had been waiting for.

When I opened the box, inside I found some torn papers and a stack of binders and papers. Upon looking at them to figure out what they were, I found that they are legal and medical documents belonging to an individual person or the court system in Georgia.

Upon closer inspection of the box, I discovered that the piece of cardboard with my shipping label was cut off of my box (I assume) and taped to this box over the original mailing label. The box I received was truly addressed to US Attorney's Office in Atlanta Georgia with a return address from the Social Security Administration in Falls Church, VA. I did not read the enclosed material any further because I could tell it was likely confidential.

I will be contacting the SS administration and the intended recipient tomorrow. My concern is that someone at the USPS cut apart my gift box, took what was inside and then sent this box to me to maintain the appearance of a shipment being delivered..

The really strange thing is that I received a second package today that has the item that I was expecting. SO maybe an item was stolen and then re-sent to us by Macy's? Or maybe Lois sent us something more, and it was stolen. I don't know. I can't call Lois tonight due to the time difference, but I will call tomorrow to find out if any other items were supposed to be delivered to us.

Thanks for your help. I would love to know how this mystery ends.

-Judy Roenke 808-676-7650”

So, that is the weird story for the day. I CC’d myself, and Henry as well as my brother just because I was on the phone with Charles as the mystery unfolded. --Judy

PS – Thank You’s finally went out today before the mystery packages arrived!! PPS- I think I will bring the mystery box to our local post office to send to the rightful owner."

The end of the story is that I called the Georgia court system to tell them they lost a package. Then I delivered the box to the main post office in Honolulu. I never heard what happened to that box after I put it back in to the USPS system. The good news is that we got all of our presents, and that's all that really matters, right. Who cares about some dude in Georgia and his workers comp suit.

Flat Stanley (orginally written Feb '06)

My cousin's son Josh sent me a Flat Stanley when I first got to Hawaii. I didn't have any friends there,and Stanley was my first visitor, so he got me out of the house and touring the island.

We went in the ocean.

We saw the blowhole.

I made Stanley an Aloha shirt and he bought a puka shell necklace to match.

We went to the commessary where the baggers carry your groceries to the car. This guy got a big tip.

Flat Stanley learns about Poke.

We went in my hubby's submarine USS Honolulu. This is a photo taken in the ward room with a couple of the JO's. My husband is on the left of the photo.

Stanley went thru a re-lamination procedure at the local UPS store and got a big Shaka from from the UPS guy.

I got Josh’s Flat Stanley added to the official site. If you go to www.flatstanley.com and scroll to USS Honolulu you will find him.

Mike the Dog

This is our 14 year old black lab, Mike.
He is the best dog in the whole world.
He loves to lay in the sun, on the couch, on our guest bed.

I started this post when we were in Hawaii...
Now that we are in Washington, we snuggles up in the comforter and sits by the fire.









And since we moved to Hawaii, his favorite resting place is the guest bathroom.


Mike loves to go to Hickam AFB to wade in Pearl Harbor with my husband and I.

Kissing in the Dark, Big Island, Hawaii

This is my husband and I on the Big Island in the Thurstan Lava Tubes. We turned off our flashlights so it was pitch black. I set my camera on the ledge made by the lava and programmed it to auto.

Newbie Blogger

This is my trial post on Blogger!

I have a lot to say, so stay tuned as I learn the ropes!

-Judy