Auntie Deen Is There

Mingus you lucky boy, Auntie Deen is in your zone now. She's probably out for a walk with Alfie, maybe you could surprise them on the trail ;-). She died while I was in Paris celebrating my birthday. I wrote this haiku for her:

Deen's Winter

My birthday, Deen dies
her betraying body still
blooming with kindness

kisses,
the bitch

copyright Christine Saulnier 2010

Earth Day ;-)

Dear Mingus,

That's an image of planet Earth, where you once lived with me (if we can believe in "reality" that is, sheesh, we don't even know where memory or dreams are physically located in the brain of humans, which makes me think that memory and dreams probably reside somewhere outside of humans so they have a better chance of thriving and surviving). How's Chase? How's swimming? Wish you were still on Earth with me but not if you were in pain. Miss you, love you.

The Bitch

Mingie, You've Been Dead a Whole Year

Mingus my love,
You've been gone for a full year as of tomorrow. Poopie. It's okay though because since there could never be another Mingus, I've just been coasting along with the company of other pooches who aren't TOTAL ALL-IN LOVE like you were ... sort of like the arrangement with men ;-). There are far more dogs than men amusing me at the moment.

What's going on where you are????

love and love and love and kisses,
the bitch

Your Buddy, Enzo, Is Incoming

Sweet Mingus and Chase, This is a picture of you lying on Enzo and Ferd's blanket when they stayed with us several years ago. Enzo has left Earth now and is incoming to your environment. Could you go meet his elevator? Don't bug him about his childhood Christmas sweater on that cold day when he was just a pup and visited us for the first time. We've all had terrible fashion faux paws in our day. Remember your hula skirt Mingie? You take him into your pack now and love him as you always did. You guys know the way around there now and I know you'll be your usual hospitable selves. Yeah, yeah, you can take him to "the baths".... sheesh! Help him send Jode and Ferd suitable postcards from the beyond so they know he's okay, and send love to us still here cause it is hard without you sometimes..... love you...

the bitch

Six Months of Grieving and Accepting

GORGEOUS MINGUS,

Today marks six months since you left for Death .... I feel a little deserted but accepting too... you put up a good face on your pain so you could stay with me for a long time... thank you Sweetness.... there will never be another Mingus...

love you,
me

Chaselove, Happy 15th Birthday

Lovely Chase,
Not sure you can celebrate a birthday once you are dead, but not being one for adhering to conventions, I will celebrate what would have been your 15th birthday. I'm remembering you in your sosoftsleeps and your peachy coat, and your snuggling beauty... thank you for sharing your later life with your half-bro, Mingus, and I.... you were one funny pooch, so sophisticated and wise

kisses,
the bitch

Happy 15th Birthday Mingusghost

Sweet Mingusghost,
It's your birthday! You'd be fifteen in human years if you were still here. Do you want linguine? You had linguine slurping down to a fine art. You really were the most beautiful soul, look at you taking care of Mew, making sure she didn't overcook in front of the fire..
And, not many dogs can sit on a lawn chair at the table like you could .... you never perfected the drinking out of a glass thing though did you? Paws!

Happy Birthday Sweetlove.

Love you so... hope you're happy where you are....

kisses,
the bitch

Concrete and Chasms

Look Mingie,

They finished the addition to the Convention Center and now there is a square from which to view all the luxury waterfront condos that T.B. needs to sell to pay for the vet bills you left me :-)....

There's a grass roof on the new convention centre but dogs aren't allowed to pee on it... go figure...

It would be your 15th birthday on Wednesday Sweetlove.... I'd like to stop missing you, but I keep falling into the huge chasm of your death and losing my balance ...
kisses,
The Bitch

Time Doesn't Heal... Or Heel

Sweet Gorgeous Love of My Life Mingus, did you reincarnate immediately? I met an almost 4 month old boy like you at the doggie beach today... I didn't cry.... he was so fabulous.... just like you.... Chelsea was a bit jealous ... it was like wrapping you up in my arms again lovely boy full of joy Mingus...

It turns out that time doesn't heel any better than you did... it's outpacing all of us, and boy is that a crock of shit notion that the passage of time heals ... sure, age and lose your memory maybe, but heal... PHHTTT! People say the most moronic shit!

You sure knew how to knock a gal out with your love baby.... miss you always... think of you always with a big smile on my face and love in my smashed heart.

Chelsea is becoming a bit more Labrador-like-- she retrieves that red warty ball pretty good now....

love,
The Bitch

Step Lightly On My Memory Please

Sweet Minguslove,

I'm walking lightly in your footsteps my sweets ... so is Chelsea. Sometimes I still catch a glimpse of you at the beach, in the rabbit thatch, on my pillow. Someone poetically, and strategically, scattered pink carnations (a funeral flower but also a Valentine flower) on one of the picnic tables in Jericho Park and there you were, larger than life in my feta cheese crumbly heart.

kisses,
T.B.

p.s. the other pic is Chelsea treading lightly on your garbage adventure trails by the beach xo

Marley and Me--The Non-Chewable Version

Dear M.,

I finally got up the courage to see the film version of "Marley and Me". You couldn't have chewed the film version like you chewed up the book version. I agree that the story was a lot thinner than the dog, but sheesh, Grogan is making a fortune on it, no matter what you thought of the book or the film, or how the dog morphed into a totally different-looking dog at each aging.... box office receipts darling, box office receipts..... They could have taken him off the corn diet crappy food that was giving him bloat too, but let's not get started down that road to nowhere.... It all ends in death in any case. Expect a rash of dogs named Marley ....

kisses,
T.B.

One Month Since You Died, Mingus

Gorgeous Mingus,

It's flaky here. I'm thinking about how you frolicked in the snow, and how you licked my face when I laid down to make angels in the snow after a big snow fall, and how we went cross country skiing together and you would run up and down the slope making sure I was okay.... remember our trips to Banff?

Can you still remember when you are dead?

Okay, you are haunting me. I'm sorry I said you weren't. I just don't really want to be haunted, like a house that isn't habitable or saleable because it gets locked in an historical event and garners a reputation completely attached to something other people can't cope with... like death....

It's Christmas again--yet it isn't without you.... you know the drill....

Thanks for haunting me; I miss you so.

kisses,
The Bitch

What's It All About?

Dear Mingus,

Are you having an identity crisis like I'm having an identity crisis?

Sometimes I look at your blog to see if I can figure out who I am without you.

I'm being a human. I'm hanging with humans. They talk, remember? A lot. Some bark. They have lots of opinions and say "I" a lot. The ones I'm around are nice ... They "diagnose" like all the others but if you call them on it they mellow out ... or not.... I'm one of them, remember?

Have you figured out this time continuum thing? What's the essence of where and what you are when you're alive, and then when you are dead? Besides all the MATERIAL BALLAST that humans devise to anchor themselves in "life" and attempt to make a dint in the erosive nature of time, what's the gist of the whole thing?

That thing that supports "the human enterprise"--the economy--is broken here. So far it is still free to go for walks though. Can you join me for one my sweet heart-breaker?

Your truelove,
Christine

Bad Acting- I Can Still Fake A Smile

Sweet Minguslove and Chasearoo,

Look, it took a few days but I can still fake a smile! Okay, so my teeth are a bit clenched, but, hey, that's my business face. It paid your bills for long enough! Let's hope it can pay mine!

More tributes and condolences for your "passing" (and they ain't meaning gas this time!), Mingus. Dr. Sue who moved to Arbutus West Animal Clinic, Dr. Tonya and everyone at Mosquito Creek Vet, and Dr, Michael and the staff at Vancouver Animal Wellness sent lovely cards that made me cry more, and Jenny and Harold sent their condolences, and Auntie Virginia will miss picnicing with ya, and Donna commiserated with me, and your ex-Dad of course who balled his eyes out on the phone with me right after you died, and Uncle Kaye was so kind and you might meet up with his truelove--Maxine-- and of course, Auntie Joy has been checking in on me twice/day along with Auntie Lousia who checks in on me five time or more a day, and Melanie naturally, and Patricia at the office ... so you see, we did manage to build a net of great humans during our years together my puppylove .... I think I could make a biz of this professional mourning thing.... managing the grief and the condolences is actually more time-consuming than the last several months of nursing you my lovely.

Hope you're digging holes in the sand bigger than the hole in my heart pumpkins.

kisses,
The Bitch

p.s. I forgot, my favorite new platitude, and it is utilized incessantly, is "time heals". WTF! Time erodes--not heals! Anyone with an ounce of consciousness knows this. I know, just smile and go deaf! kisses

p.p.s. I still don't know where tears come from. Somewhere in the solar plexus.... miss you!

Mingus and Chase As Urned Carbon Deposits

Dear Sweet Mingus and Chase,

You're side by each again, but in a very dusty version of yourselves. It's a little/a lot macabre, but I'm getting into it. I put you above some of this year's canning. Okay? I'm sorry Ming, they didn't have any black urns so you're in a pearly ivory one like Chasearoo, but I can't find a black lab on roller skates for the top of your urn yet. I will. The orchid spray is from David upstairs. He left a beautiful bunch of them at our door on Tuesday.

Chelsea is hanging out with me today. She came with me to pick up your ashes. Very weird. We took you to the dog park but left you in the car. Very weird.

Do I have to serve liver birthday cake at your wake? I don't think the humans will like it. Chelsea is the only pooch left. You outlived all your buddies Mingie.

I miss everything about you.

Kisses,
The Bitch

p.s. I posted some of our friends kind sentiments on your death day page: http://mingusandthebitch.blogspot.com/2008/11/hey-i-didnt-take-elevator.html

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

The Morning After You Died, Mingus

Hey, how come I can't be at my wake with you? I'm here. Where are you? Where's that demolecularizing/remolecularizing poodle, Benson, when I need him? I need him to show me how to walk through walls.... so I can get back to you. Here's a slideshow for you T.B.. You look like shit when you're so sad. I'm glad you have a hair appointment today.

love,
Mingus

Words by Pablo Neruda, as recorded for soundtrack for the film 'Il Postino'



Dear Mingus,

I slept with your thick black fur blanket from your downstairs bed cause it smells like you. Please don't be jealous. I thought Benson had taught you how to beat the confines of traditional physics--where are you?

Here's a cool thing that happened. I was having a hand massage from a masseuse who doesn't know me and after she finished my right hand and was just starting work on my left she blurted out, "do you have a dog?". I burst into tears of course and had to tell her that you had "died" yesterday, and she said she didn't know how she knew but the thought wouldn't leave her mind while she was working on my right hand--body memory baby, body memory. Anyway, she worked the kinks out of my right hand which is now deformed from carrying your fat butt down the stairs for four months. I'll be glad when you get that demolecularize/remolecularize thing beat Minguslove.

Did you have dinner with Chase? Love him for me. Any signs of Icy and Jenny and Woody and Chelsea and Shadow and Marina???? Is there an ex-pat Labrador Club? How's the food?

I look a little less like shit. I had a haircut and color and put some make-up on. I'm going swimming. Why don't you remolecularize in the pool but be invisible and we can beat Stupid Health Regulations at his exclusionary game. :-) They'll just think that a hirsuit guy was swimming in the pool.

Kisses,
The Bitch

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Hey, I Didn't Take The Elevator

MINGUS THE GREAT
APRIL 8, 1994-NOVEMBER 18, 2008


Sweet Mingus,

Don’t cry for me

RUN, SWIM, CHASE RABBITS, HAUL LOGS TO SHORE, BARK WITH THE VITALITY OF YOUR YOUTH,
and eat your peas.

Don’t cry for me

I know you won’t forget us. Who could?

I’m going to believe in something beyond your physical beauty.

I’m going to believe that your sweetness remains here on Earth.

I’m going to believe in something….

I’m going to believe in something sweet and not as salty as this deluge I’m leaking, so far only from my eyes and nose, but I think my mouth is going to join in soon.

By the way, you did pee again after you were dead.
How cool is that?
You didn’t eat the cookie I tried to give you for peeing though. I tried the kangaroo ones, then the buffalo liver….
I’m glad you ate some of that pot roast last night and didn’t save it for today or you would have missed it. Would you like to be cremated with the pot roast? I could drive back to the clinic and have it packaged up with you.

I’m going to throw up now and then I’ll get back to crying, and then maybe I’ll finally fall asleep. It’s been quite a few days since I slept, but I liked listening to you sleeping. I’ll miss listening to you sleeping I can tell.

Well, good-bye for now. We’ll commune again later in the day okay?

Your love,
Christine

p.s. You didn’t take the elevator. I carried you.


copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Christmas in November

I'm resting up for my big overnight adventure to visit AuntieLouisaMichel--WHO ARE THE SOLE PROPRIETERS OF THE BEST DOGGIE CULINARY BOUTIQUE IN THE WHOLE WIDE UNIVERSE!!!! Forget Urbane, I mean Urban, Fare, this is Top Dog Cafe! "Star Pets Only"

zzzzzzzzzzzz
Mingusindreamland

Wise or Just Old? My NIkes are wearing out....

So, I hippihopped down the stairs this morning in an effort to save T.B.'s back for a change and to impress her that I could go down on my own and she didn't have to carry me, and I did, and I peed, and I sniffed around, and then I had a damn seizure when I got back into our den. It was a happy seizure in My Bitch's lap, cause she saw it coming and caught me and snuggled me through it, but I'm pissed. My Nikes are wearing out as you can see in this picture, and yes, I realize I can't run anyway, but I liked the soft deep cushion of my younger feet. I know it is okay, T.B. loves me and fends for me no matter what. I wish I could still do the same for her.

Minguslove

Laryngeal Paralysis Next?

Will the indignities never end? We just get my hind quarter working a little better and now I'm likely to asphixiate! Who designed us? What moron gave us one big muscle and one long nerve to control such a long and important area from the top of my head, down my throat, around my heart and back up to my larynx??? Very f__king funny! I'm not amused, even if it means The Bitch strokes me most of the day and night. She looks like hell I might add when she doesn't get any sleep.

I'm breathing. I'm breathing. She said to consider it as doing Yoga together and practicing our deep breathing. Fact is, I can still do a better downward dog than T.B. can, so I can probably master deep breathing in a jiffy too!

Minguslove

I Had A Dream

Was I dreaming?

T.B.'s spirits have shifted. There's latent optimism surfacing, she says... "After a seemingly interminable period of havoc and darkness coming from that white house, it feels like HOPE can take a turn at setting the pace, not just for the United States, but for all of us. When the camera settled on the Rev. Jesse Jackson crying in the Chicago crowd--tears of exhaustion, hope, recognition, disbelief?-- a few hundred years of vicious solitude seemed unshackled at that moment. There is a sense that the U.S.A. has been delivered into the present tense and that there will be intelligent dialogue audible in the streets in my lifetime, Mingus, if not in yours."

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

The Human Credibility Crisis

It isn't just a credit crisis apparently. It is a crisis of credulity ... the loss of meaning in the language is just the tip of the Alaskan iceberg according to T.B.. She still believes in me though. Wholeheartedly. Unfailingly. Devotedly.

It's reciprocal.

Mingus

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

No Pork On The Election Day Menu

Can’t Beet The Blues Deep Dish Pie

Dark Mumbo Gumbo and Giant Shrimps

Where Are The Greens?

Garden of Eden Crumble with Proposition 8 cream


copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Green Contact Lenses For My Birthday

Minguslove! You put in green contact lenses for my birthday celebration!

Thanks for staying alive for another of my birthdays Mingie Pingie Pooporramma. It just wouldn't be happy without ya big boy.

kisses,
The Bitch

How To Find My Blog

So, in analyzing the data on the sources of my followers--and I use the term metaphorically of course--it has been revealed that one of my followers found me by googling: "Is foreplay dangerous?".... Yes, you read it right. Not, "floorplay".

We've stopped laughing now and are napping! But I'm sure we'll be laughing again soon... no, we are going to the dog park ...

Minguslove


copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

My Wife

It starts with a couple of sleep-overs, then, you aren't even allowed half of your own bed, then, the guarding and glaring at me when I'm checking out other bitches in the park, pushing them out of my eyeview, then, has to be filling more of the photo frame than me ....

No nooky of course, none....

Can I sue T.B.?

Mingus, man--oops--dog UNDER new wife's control

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

How Old Am I in Human Years

I'm only 73, not 103!

The formula is: 10.5 dog years per human year for the first 2 years, then 4 dog years per human year for each year after. I'm 14 years and 7 months old now, a mere 73 year old by The Bitch's standards.... Of course I'm going to live for her birthday, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years, Easter, My 15th Birthday .... just a little prostate problem with the arthritis, nothing geezer men don't have to contend with ....

I admit, I'm afraid to die, for a whole lot of reasons I've told you about here before, but mostly, what if being dead is boring.... Life with T.B. isn't boring. I'm afraid of boring, not death....

Mingus, the articulate

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Infamy

Of course she's painting me and not the landscape! Sheesh! Sometimes you are just so human, T.B.!
I'm famous worldwide now you know. I even have a fan in Mongolia who said I have a nice rumproast and thinks I'd be tough but tasty.

Mingus, the naive

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Affluent vs Effluent and My Girlfriend's Butt

I may not be Chelsea's stud, but I like calling her "my girlfriend" anyway. Hopefully, she has more age appropriate choices elsewhere!

I'm stumped by the words "affluent" and "effluent" at present.... as far as I can tell those humans always boasting about their affluence are just spewing more effluence..... but I'm just a dog!

Mingusdog

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Playing "Hard to Get"

That's me with Chelsea kindly sharing my bed in the car with her. I play hard to get with her to no effect. Like me, she's more into T.B.. I can see it now, T.B. is going to haul us off to the sex therapist for correction.

Oh yeah, I have more fans too! In India! Romania. Scotland. And another bloke from the UK from Stoke on Trent.... sure that isn't "Toke" on Trent? No one seems very stoked by the place but there are some ancient ceramics there.

Yawn,
Mingusstudded

The End of Affluence As a Creed

Look at the beautiful Fall colors on the trees behind me. T.B. and I are celebrating the end of affluence as a creed... I don't know exactly what that means but I think acts of random kindness that are not for profit are what she has in mind.

Love,
Minguslove

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Birthday

17 days until T.B.'s birthday, then 53 days til Christmas .... I suppose I could pony up and get enthused about more feasts and shenanigans AND LIVE! It doesn't cost ME anything! Is my presence present enough???

I'm reluctant about death... and life... maybe a few parties will shake my apathy!

Mingus

Thanksgiving

Yep, it was feast time again on Saturday night. I believe Auntie Robi was summoning, excuse me, channeling dog spirits, or maybe they were all just drinking dog spirits.... tough call... the men invented some code thing with the napkins whenever the camera came out... I think they didn't want their souls stolen by the camera, or maybe they were shooing away the spirits that Aunty Robi was summoning.... They blamed all their bizarre behavior on their buddy--B.C.
Melanie brought my young girlfriend, Chelsea, to dinner, but you'll notice that there are no pictures of us! There is turkey soup though.

Mingus

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

The Dynamic Duo

The Dynamic Duo

Stupid Health Regulations and Limited Offerings at the Therapist's

I know, the quality of the picture is awful! T.B. used the camera in her phone and Dr. Khan lowers the lights after she puts the acupuncture needles in me so.... this is the result.... T.B. wants to find a clinic that does both human massage and acupuncture and canine massage and acupuncture so that she can have a treatment at the same time as me.... however, Stupid Health Regulations will ensure there is never such a clinic. When T.B. and I rule the world things will be different!

Mingus the fur-bearer

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

I Only Wanna Be With You

Bitch, as I told my therapist on the couch, Auntie Deen, "Christine is the only bitch for me". It was thoughtful of you to set me up with pretty Chelsea for Friday night date night, and I'm sorry I wasn't very hospitable or into her but she's half my age, and I have you, I don't need a Friday night date, and you gave up on dating in February so what makes you think I should date?

Mingus, the celebate, to the sound of Hootie and the Blowfish

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

On Wealth

Charles Mingus is speaking here on wealth, but I agree with all he said.... except I've never had any pockets... that's why I take T.B. with me everywhere I go--so she can be "my dollars in my pockets". The food and drug display constitutes the primary reason I'm still alive... wild Coho salmon, free range eggs, organic boiled Yukon gold potatoes, free range chicken stock, turmeric, vitamins, drugs, AND LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.... (you can't see the love on the table but it's in all of me and in everything T.B. cooks for me and it's in the way we are together--it's too bad T.B. isn't a Labrador Retriever I guess even though she thinks it's too bad I'm not a guy--who'd wanna be a human??!!!! I lucked out when I attracted T.B.--though she was married when we fell in love. I guess I was supposed to be a furkid, not a furhusband .... ah well... what can I say? I'm charming, reliable, loving and yes, a bit of a gigolo :-))

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Mingus Is Love

Labrador Retriever Love

Sweet Mingus, If I could fill your deafened ears with music this would be one of the songs I'd broadcast, as sung by Laura Fygi... I love you big boy and will always catch you in your little heart-stopping collapses in the park, or anywhere... I don't look forward to your death, but I do look forward to being your stalwart companion as you walk (OR RATHER, STUMBLE) towards it

The Bitch

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

"In A Kennel In The Cargo Hold"

Airlines deserve to go out of business. Did you know that they have a policy of treating dogs like luggage and putting them in the cargo hold? Have you ever heard anything so blatantly ridiculous in your life? Maybe T.B. is making this up as an excuse for not taking me to Hawaii... maybe she has another Mingus in Hawaii that she is hiding from me ... that's impossible... there could never be "another Mingus".

Obviously, airlines are like despotic governements and Stupid Health Regulations. T.B. might have to put up with some dumbass human in the seat next to her instead of being able to buy the seat for me... there is no sense in how these humans organize regulations... well, she isn't going anywhere without me anyway, so it sounds like car travel from here on....

Mingus, the peeved consumer

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

A Trip Renewing Our Vows

T.B. and I renewed our vows yesterday. She took me to a fabulous waterfront retreat run by one of my favourite Labrador Retriever lovers and we all chilled out and enjoyed the bounty of the West Coast and slept to the lulling sound of the water and the deer and the bats and the ferries and each other. I admit, I do love T.B. as much as she loves me.

Minguslove

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Beware of Con Dogs In The Park

NEWSFLASH:
I am recovering in my red donut bed ontop of my freshly laundered flokati in the sun, and munching on warm poached organic chicken hearts with tumeric (a marvelous anti- inflamatory!), after enduring a shakedown by a black Labrador Retriever in the dog park. In my opinion he was part pitbull and testosterone-plagued and clearly not up on civil behavior with respect to ones elders.

He intimidated me until I had a smallish heart attack and collapsed, but not before I had a bowel movement. T.B. was getting set to punch him in the face or nuts when he wouldn't back off with her pulling him off me and yelling "OFF YOU STUPID FUCK", but his [un]professional dogwalker intervened and scooted him outta there. The Bitch bore the brundt of "the attack" since she was still in her fancy work clothes and laid down with me in the wet grass and mud to hold me until I came too. (BTW, I think she'd be a mighty fine mud wrestler! You can dress her up, but you can't stop her rolling a bully onto his back just cause she's wearing a suit.)

Mingus, and his Consigliere

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

I Am A Trip To Florence

If I understood properly, T.B. told someone on the telephone that I am her trip to Florence and at this rate, Barcelona, too. She listed off my various doctors appointments, medications, and menu plan like they were scenic stops along the Arno. She's such a romantic.

p.s. what's a cost benefit analysis?

Mingus, the holiday replacement dog

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

I Am Not A Voodoo Doll

I'm at the age where I spend more time at doctor appointments than I do looking for dogettes to play humpies with....

Yes, those are needles in my head and shoulders! Doesn't T.B. have anything better to spend her money on???? Oh, she does... I'd better STFU and be a grateful pin cushion.

Mingus (the grateful)

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Neruda Helps Mingus with His Love Threats

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Black Labrador Slideshow

Let me make one thing perfectly clear--this was not my idea! T.B. is playing with this slideshow thing and guess who has to be the subject matter?!#$%**!!!??? She thinks it is really funny set to Salli Terri's very romantic ballad "Black Is The Color of My True Love's Hair". I have fur, not hair! She actually does love me this much ... look, am I going to try to convince her to pour all this love into "a man"? PPPPLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEE!!!! (Well, maybe a rich man who will send us to Santa Monica for the winter where my feet might hurt less! )

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

I Caught Her Checking Out The Puppies

Not only are my feet broken, but so is my heart. I caught T.B. being overly-interested in some puppies at Kits Park. I'm not jealous because I know that she'll never, ever, ever be able to replicate what she and I have, but I'm hurt that I can't be a puppy all over again and relive my life with T.B. from beginning to end a few times more. I'd like to be a better diver on the second round and I'd sure like to go cross-country skiing with her again.

She says I'm not nearly as sad about this unfair aging thing as she is--does she have to make a contest out of this? We both lose no matter how you slice the . . . FISH BROWNIES. WHO KNEW? FISH INSTEAD OF LIVER (or maybe its liverfish brownies)!!!!
Mingus, with fish breath

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Don't Let Me Down

T.B. shrouds me, like this pear is shrouded and given dignity... Our friend, Tom Miller, painted that pear. He painted me too (see April 1, 2008).

I feel good until I have to move forward or go downstairs, but I fake it because T.B. cries whenever she thinks I'm in pain and that hurts more than moving forward. I'm pretty dreamy on Tramadol, and still hungry. I like going for drives and having the wind blow in my face while I'm snuggled in my bed in the car. Walking is hard though. My difficulty walking is harder on T.B. I swear. It makes her so sad; while it only makes me sore. I think sore is less sorrowful than sad, but I can't be sure since I can't cry. I don't really understand what she is afraid of when I won't be here anymore. She has to learn to let go and stop being so sad. Alone can't be that bad, can it? I know she'll never love like this again, but that should make her happy, then she won't ever have to be this sad ever again ....

Mingus, the problem-solver

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Stalled

Sometimes you just reach a dead end--no pun intended. Take this picture of me stalled at a log. Once I arrived at the log I had to make it look like I was mighty interested in the news that had been left there, by a bunch of poodles I think, but in fact I just couldn't determine the best way to turn around and get back to T.B. and the car and the safety of home.

T.B. says many relationships are like this and I'm fortunate it was a log stall and not an entrapment stall like humans have in their interpersonal relationships. Sometimes the things T.B. says are even more meaningless to me than others. We can still look lovingly into each other's eyes however and mean it.

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Headstand Mingus

I may not be running up and down the stairs, but with a certain camera angle I can do a head stand. This should avert any immediate talk of murdering me because I'm mobility-challenged. I'm not mobility-challenged lying down--T.B. appreciates this attribute in LESSER beings than I!

(She wouldn't want to go out to pee in the pouring rain either, but I don't threaten to have her murdered for it!)

Mingus, the great

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

Arsenica--Root Word "Arsenic"

So I realized around 6:30 that she's friggin serious about offing me cause of my feet. Here is a picture of her giving me one of the crazy concoctions my Homeopath prescribed: Arsenica. I note that the root word is "arsenic". Anyway, I decided I'd better start getting my sorry ass, I mean sore paws, up and down those stairs and stop playing up the free ride down or else I might end up killing both of us in a big fall down the stairs.... hey wait a minute... there's a good solution....

Mingus, the schemer

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch

I Need A Stay of Execution

I only weigh 75 pounds--how tough can it be on her to carry me down a couple of flights of stairs and to the grass when it's raining? Look at all I've done for her for the past 14 years and five months? She says she can have me executed because my feet are sore. She says "it's the best thing"... for who? is what I want to know? For you is it the best thing? It's not the best thing for me. What if I end up all alone out there dead? I'll be scared and I can't hear and I can't walk very well as you know.... We need to think about this execution idea a little harder, Bitch...

Mingus, seeking mercy

copyright 2008 Christine Saulnier, Mingusandthebitch