Jackson the Labradane and other stories

When you've been active in dog rescue (and on rescue mailing lists) for a long time, you build up a network of online buddies whom you can call on when you need help with a rescued dog. I had the pleasure of getting re-acquainted with my friend Katie in Cairn Terrier rescue this past weekend, all while helping Jackson get to his new home.

Jackson is a black Lab/Dane mix (a new designer breed which I've christened "Labradane" :-)). He's huge and strong like a Dane, but with a Lab's head and ears on the rangy Dane frame. He's a very handsome, sweet dog. He was very unhappy in the Bangor shelter, so a network of great people helped get him to a Dane rescuer in NJ on Saturday. I picked him up in Kennebunk from his first "ride" and brought him down to northern MA, where Katie took over. He was wonderfully behaved, only looking up occasionally to see what was going on. Katie and I didn't get to hang out for very long, since she had miles to cover and a schedule to keep, but it was nice to see her. We caught up on the news for a little while before she brought Jackson to the wonderful lady in Dane Rescue who would be taking him in. Good luck, Jackson! You're in good hands now.

Dogstuff

It's been snowing for most of the day today, though we only have about 2" out there. Greg and Charlie took another romp in the swamp, and both came home happy, soaking wet, and panting. Charlie's completely conked out in the bedroom and is probably having happy dreams of snowflakes and biscuits.

Speaking of biscuits, I need to get baking this week, as soon as I can get away from work long enough to do so. One of my few Christmas traditions is to bake up a bunch of homemade dog biscuits (from the recipes on my Web site and bring bags of them to all my neighbors for their dogs. In particular, I owe a huge batch of pup cookies to my wonderful across-the-street neighbor, who always plows my driveway for me and won't accept payment... but he will accept a big bag of goodies for his Lab, Kodiak. Kodi has never forgotten that I give out homemade treats, and he's been my buddy ever since the first Christmas after I moved here.

Musicstuff

My copy of Verdi's Requiem came from Amazon today, along with the latest U2 CD. I was surprised to poke through my CD collection to see that I have three copies of Mozart's Requiem, but none of Verdi's. If our organization gets the grants and can raise enough money next year, we're going to perform the Verdi. If we can't, we'll do John Rutter's Magnificat and some other pieces of his instead. Musically, it's a win for us singers either way.

The major expense for a production like this lies in the orchestra. We don't pay the musicians all that much, but we need a fairly good-sized group to play the Verdi. (Our director is friendly with the conductors of a few of the orchestras around here, and maybe she'll be able to finagle a collaborative effort between two or three groups, so that we can all perform without having to hire anybody.)

No rehearsals till mid-January; I feel so free!

Greg's in the living room practicing Vince Guaraldi's "Peanuts" music for Christmas again -- "Linus and Lucy" this time. My friends love to call when he's practicing because they enjoy the background music we offer. (Glad to be of service.)

I updated Greg's Web site and the Maine Composers' Forum sites today, as well as my own.