My dear friend Jack sent me the link to this one, thanks Jack!

On a related note:

CBO BOMB: 'Deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels'...

Cost of debt skyrocketing...

Defense Dept. can't account for $8.7 billion...

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College...

And, if that weren’t enough, the next time some lefty in your midst starts ranting about the GOP being the party of the rich and disconnected, remind them of these:

$11,000 cake for Chelsea's $5 million wedding...

Sen. Kerry to pay $500K tax on yacht.

Just got back from visiting The Anchoress and with her post “Echoing Love in Eternity” she’s going through what every loving dog owner never wants to think about — that time when it might be time to say goodbye.

Dogs are such perfect beings of unconditional love it’s hard to believe that heaven is not full of them. With no poop-scooping, because it’s heaven.

I am not at all anxious to find out about heaven or eternity or infinity; our lives are blink-brief in the scope of it all. But is it so bad to think about burping fish and romping dogs and cats on the periphery of all that infinite “gathering in” that Christ is about?

That got me thinking about June 25th, 2007 — six months before Christmas — the day that we finally had to let our beloved Annie go. Here’s a repeat of that post as it never hurts to remember and sometimes hard lessons need to be re-learned.

‘Life With An Old Dog’ — Hard Lessons Learned Hard

Originally Posted By: ‘Okie’ | 3:53 pm — 6/25/2007

There’s a lot to be learned in the tending of the needs of an old dog. But, to get to the end of a story, first there must be a beginning.

Fourteen years ago on Memorial Day, the SoCal wife and I went looking for a dog. I hadn’t had one since two disastrous tries at dog ownership with Okiewife #2, and the last time I had bonded with something canine was during my childhood, my boxer named Bosco, so this was going to be almost a new adventure. Actually, the first real conversation that the SoCal wife and I ever had was the morning that she had dropped her lab/poodle mix off at the vet to be put down — the dog had lost the use of its hind legs and was in constant pain and frustration. Tough way to start up a friendship — significant way to begin a two-decades and counting love affair.

     Annie, aka Annie girl, aka Lil’ Orphan Annie — Spring ’07“Annie”, aka “Annie Girl”, aka “Lil’ Orphan Annie”, was a Wheaton/Chow Chow mix [we've since figured out that she was actually a Tibetan Terrior/Chow mix] , a little blond puff of a 4-1/2 month-old pup with a curled-over-pompom of a tail, the chow part that she got along with plenty of attitude as well as a hatred of other dogs when she was on leash. She had been an Amanda Foundation rescue, an animal saved from euthanasia after it has failed to be adopted at the animal shelter. Why this dog got to that point I could never figure out. There was quite a crowd at the vets where Amanda had set up to show the available adoptees on that Memorial Day, and the little thing that was soon to be named Annie was drawing a lot of interest. The wife took her out on leash and we both thought that the girl would make a great companion, however the wife wanted to also take a miniature border collie out for a quick spin, an older dog that might have been lower maintenance as Annie did seem a bit high strung. I held onto the lil’ blondie just in case, as I was convinced that if we took her back to the cage someone else would grab her up in an eye blink. I heard several inquiries as to “where is that cute little dog?” I felt like saying to them the words from The Princess Bride’s Man in Black, “Get used to disappointment.”

Annie came home with us that day, and has been a wonderful canine companion ever since. As a pup, she only chewed up two things. A wee-wee pad that we had left for her the first time we went out for an evening — obviously she was letting me know that, “Hey bud, I’m house trained, I don’t need no stinking pee pee pads!” Second thing was the wife’s address book — another schooling from the dog for our having the temerity to go out in the evening without her. But, that was it. No mangled shoes, no munched couches or chairs, no-nada anything else.

Another thing that impressed us about Annie, and everyone that spent any time around her, was how smart she appeared to be. Dogs supposedly have an understanding-vocabulary of a little over 200 words, but this dog for all the world understood context — and, she held grudges for days, even weeks! The first time we went on vacation and boarded her, on our return she treated us like pariahs for over ten days. Little snubs would get you ignored for hours. Crazy little dog, this one. But, like I said above, she was a smartie.

If you told her to go and get her red-devil baby, she did. Get the “new” baby, and she’d get the last one brought into the house, even if she had to dig into her toy basket to find it. Same with “dino” baby, hedgehog baby, duck baby. One day I decided to see if I could teach her some parlor tricks, and literally ten minutes later she was hopping across the room on her hind legs, rolling over on command, sitting up, begging, giving her left paw on “Left” and right one when you called out “Right” and falling on her side and laying her head flat if you pointed your finger and yelled “Bang”! She would do this, that is, as long as you had a treat handy. Without a treat — fugitaboutit! “No treats, no tricks!” There’s a life lesson for ya.

For a little dog, 35 lbs. or so, she had a huge bark. If you came to our door and knocked, you thought there was a German Shepard or larger animal on the other side just waiting to make you its next meal. We also had a little game that we played to freak out our friends the first time they would meet Annie. If you got on your knees and told her to “Give kisses”, the dog would jump at you, barking and snarling, for all the world looking like she was going to tear out your neck — with that pompom tail wagging all the way through the performance — then she’d give up the kisses. Well, it was funny to us. Annie never bit anyone, ever. She loved everyone, except for those among us we would meet on her walks that were obviously-not-quite right. Those she would growl at. Come to think of it, there’s way too many of them on this block!

But, getting back to the gist of this post, experiencing life with an old dog. Pups grow up, young energetic, frenetic younger dogs turn into mellower middle-aged ones, which, if lucky and cared for, become “old dogs”. At 98 in dog years, Annie is one of the canine ancients. The difficult part has been that she doesn’t look old — eyes are clear, no gray on the muzzle, still a full-healthy coat, although her hearing has become ever more selective and her deteriorating spinal condition has kept her from running for over a year, and from not being able to get on or off the bed or couch for longer than that. As long as she had a good appetite, could walk around the block to get her business taken care of, enjoyed being around company and wasn’t in pain, I was good to go with the extra time and care necessary to maintain a pet this aged. However . . .

The last two weeks have been kinda rough here at Okie Manor, and this last weekend was an absolute disaster. (Why do these things always happen on a weekend?) The most difficult problems that she has been having reappeared, and this time the meds given to us by the vet, which had worked within hours the last two times, were not helping after three days. Also, sometime Saturday morning her back legs decided that they’d finally had enough.

Making the decision to let Annie go is a hard one, but drugging her down to the point of living this way for what, a few more days or maybe a week, would be a supremely selfish act. I don’t believe in assisted death for humans, as my Terri Shiavo blogging and my posts about the Groningen Protocol illustrate. In a previous Okie post, Life — Death — Pets — Misunderstanding the Meaning of it All, I made my thoughts on this matter crystal clear in my reaction to a signed Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times in favor of assisted suicide.

I don’t believe that any animal has “rights”, for that is something that the Creator has given to us humans as intellectual beings, or at least according to our Constitution. I don’t remember reading that a dog, cat, sheep or cow has an inalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But we as self-aware humans do have “responsibilities” to our pets and food animals to treat them humanely, as opposed to humanly, and not letting an animal suffer is one of those responsibilities. It’s not an easy decision, either. I realize in hindsight that I let our 14 year old kittyboy, Gallagher, live about 18 hours too long. Up to that point, although he was weak and frail and needed a lot of care, he wasn’t in apparent pain and still loved to sit in your lap and give you loves. I would have done better for him to have spared him that last day and a half before having him “put down”.

My Mother, on the other hand, was trying to die, by refusing medication, from December 26th until she finally passed on the following January 10th, a couple of years ago. The night of the 26th I spent at her bedside, not-quite sleeping across two chairs, listening to her constant prayers to God to take her. I cannot imagine doing anything active to help end her life earlier than what the good Lord decided it to be. But Kenneth Swift certainly doesn’t see it that way.

“Life is a precious gift. Yet when a life turns tragic through disease or injury and the joy of living yields to the pain of interminable suffering, surely an enlightened society such as ours can accept that from death there can be peace.”

“Life is a precious gift”, but if it gets a bit ugly, “an enlightened society such as ours” should just stick a sock in the mouth, put a pillow over the face, or just plug a nine-millimeter into the brain, so that “from death there can be peace”. I keep writing that this generation of ours, the Boomers is going to take its infantilism to the grave, and if the good Kenneth and his ilk have anything to say about it, probably sooner rather then later!

I am constantly amazed at how politicized life has become for me of late. I’m not sure if its because with getting older I’m getting wiser, or if it’s just that as the personal hourglass has less and less sand in the top section I have less and less attention span to waste on the insignificant flotsam and jetsam of life in the modern world. As the wife and I try to decide just how many MRIs and CAT scans to have, when to have life-saving surgery that could also be a life-threatening procedure in and of itself and how to learn to accept ever increasing losses as a part of being one of the ones still on this side of the great divide — if it don’t affect life, love and Western Civilization in profound ways, it just don’t seem to matter much anymore.

Now, I’ve got to go and try to make a doggie-diaper, so that I can give Annie one last ride to the vet. It could turn out different, and she might make the trip back home — I want to have a consult with him first. However, as much as I want to deny what needs to be, in my mind, and heart, I know . . .

Our appointment is at 4:30. I have about 1/2 hour to spend with my little dog before we need to go. Those that prattle on about quality time mostly haven’t got a clue. This half hour is going to be quality time to the max. Not much else to write . . .

[Addendum]

Walking back into the house I heard, “How’d it go?” The empty collar I held in my hand said it all. We pretty much had a liquid dinner last night, with stories told about and toasts given to the ol’ girl. When I checked-in I had an IM from a client/friend that I deleted but can paraphrase here.

“Sorry brother, but she certainly knew how much you guys loved and cared for her. Sometimes dogs just hang in there because they don’t want to let you down.”

That sounds about right. Today, the cats are totally wiggy and it sure is quiet and empty around here. About those “lessons”, they are the same each time you suffer a loss, be it the loss of a family member, a friend or a beloved pet — still, they always bear repeating. You get a stiff dose of realization that life is much too short, that every minute of every day is precious, that we are not really in control.

I love the old adage, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.”

[Arresto Addendum]

Life — it certainly does go round & round . . .

“Same as it ever was . . .”

It was only a matter of time before the Obama administration tossed his Executive Order banning use of federal funds for abortion under the bus.

(CNSNews.com) – If you want proof that President Obama’s Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).

Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.

He’s lied about almost everything except for his promise to fundamentally change America, so why not about his EO on abortion? The article continues with some quotes from “Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council’s political action arm.”

“For our efforts to remove the bill’s abortion funding, we were called ‘deceivers’ by President Obama and ‘liars’ by his allies. Now we know who the true deceivers and liars really are,’ McClusky said.

“This action by the Obama Administration also exposes the worthlessness of President Obama’s Executive Order that supposedly would prevent federal funding of abortion, but which both sides, including Planned Parenthood, agreed was unenforceable.

{…}

McClusky noted that the new health care law also includes $12.5 billion for community health centers, and $6 billion for co-ops, both of which can fund abortions. And some people will use tax credits to help them pay for plans that cover abortion.

In November, vote like innocent lives depend on it — ’cause they do!

Watch Megyn Kelly devour Kirsten Powers over the Black Panther voter intimidation slight-of-hand over at Justice!

What do they put in the water over at Liberal-Land? Geez! Allahpundit at Hot Air called this exchange Nuclear War! And Megyn’s not the only conservative woman with teeth bared and on the move. Michele Bachmann is up by “up by 9″ in her re-election campaign, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman are both leading in the polls — OUT HERE IN CALI!!!! — and Allahpundit again asks of Sarah Palin’s current fund-raising & spending, “What kind of ex-governor-turned-commentator spends several hundred thousand dollars developing a direct mailing list?”

Uh . . . the kind that has some big plans, maybe? I ask, you decide. Now to ice this cake, get all funky wit’ yo’ groove with Zoe and his croonin’ to his Right Wingin’ Women.

Peace. Out.

Isn’t there anything about America that this guy isn’t ready and willing to screw up?

According to Bryon York’s article in today’s Washington Examiner, we are going to suffer through some more rounds of lowered expectations in regards to our space program, which by the way, will no longer be focused on “space”. Don’t ya just love these Orwellian Dems?

In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.

I like Ed Morrissey’s take on the Muslim self-esteem directive part of this mess:

Hey, maybe that’s why Obama hasn’t taken the Iranian effort to build a nuclear bomb all that seriously until now. He just wanted Iran to make the Muslim world feel good about their achievements in science! And it’s hard to do to that unless you talk a lot about outstretched open hands — and ignore a freedom movement that wants to depose the brutal tyrants who are trying to give the Muslim world a new “historic contribution.”

When I was a kid, we were going to the moon, and dreaming about colonizing Mars and the asteroid belt. Now, what can we expect? Bolden had something to say about that too:

We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can’t do it, China can’t do it — no single nation is going to go to a place like Mars alone.

We’re now so pathetic that we can’t even begin to dream about it, let alone have the courage to try? To rub more salt in this wound, Bolden made these statements to al-Jazeera during a recent trip to the Middle East.

Let’s recap — Secretary of State makes domestic announcements in Ecuador before they are announced here, and NASA administrator Charles Bolden tells the Muslim world our “space” plans before we are informed?

Guess it doesn’t really matter all that much — ’cause NASA isn’t interested in “space” anymore, as Bolden puts it, ““NASA is not only a space exploration agency, but also an earth improvement agency.”

Gotta stop all that pesky Global Warming don’t ya know — and make those poor, misdirected Middle Eastern Muslims feel good about themselves. That otta keep them from flyin’ anymore jumbo jets into American skyscrapers, or keep Iran from nuking Israel, or keep the Taliban and al Qaeda from trying to use a WMD over here.

What a stellar Pres we got ourselves — Oh, ya betcha!