Why I pick up Thorn Locust Seed Pods

Why I pick up Thorn Locust Seed Pods

September 21, 2012


By Julie Kay Smithson

While there are perhaps a dozen thorn locust trees in my rural west-central Ohio neighborhood, only one directly impacts my September yardwork. It is located two yards over in an empty lot, and when its prolific annual seed pod production is ready to fall to earth -- depending on the prevailing winds -- the pods fall in my yard, flowerbeds, or the street out front. On days when the weather is changeable, the pods rattle down in all three!

Photo Caption: October 7, 2008, beloved Wiggles Blue Heeler and some of the thorn locust seed pods gathered that autumn day.

Photo Caption: Good Boy ACD (Australian Cattle Dog) with a few of the thorn locust seed pods)

Good Boy is a petite cattle dog whose nose and ears are very keen, but he relies on me to be his vision, so keeping his world as hazard-free as possible is my blessing (as it was when beloved Wiggles Blue Heeler trod these same places). The seed pods number enough to have filled seventeen large lawn/leaf bags (crammed full) last year; they're not as numerous this year, but this week alone, I've filled four such bags!

Photo Caption: Thorn Locust Seed Pods, which can grow as large as sixteen inches in length and can be almost straight (uncommon) to corkscrew-shaped.

This is great exercise, especially considering that the curvy, twisty, hook-on-end pods are a nightmare to rake, so most of the pod pickup is done by hand -- a lot of bending and twisting, and surely a great cardiac workout! The time involved is usually 60-90 minutes, the results, a green-again lawn and/or a fresh sweep of asphalt, and last, but not least, a happy Good Boy! The photo of him represents the few pods that fell in the past five hours with no wind at all. 

 

 

Photo Caption: Not something desired for a bracelet, thorn locust seed pod.

Happy autumn, we welcome its arrival!

With ev'ry beat of your heart, ev'ry stir of your soul ...

With ev'ry beat of your heart, ev'ry stir of your soul ...

Here I am, Person O' Mine! Right here with you,
When my heart stopped beating, I didn't leave you.

I'm inside your heart, helping it heal;
Inside your soul, helping it feel.

The tears are of love, that you shed for me,
I am not gone; I'm hereinsideyou, see?

Look in our yard, look 'round our home;
I didn't go, I didn't roam!

Far from you? There is no way!
I could go, not for forever, or even a day!

God knows our love as He knows our hearts;
He loans us the bodies, but we never part!

When things wear out, as on earth they do,
He tucks us inside the other's "soul shoe."

There to live, comfy-cozy we are,
ALWAYS near-n-dear, never far!

Tonight, as you lie down to sleep,
Feel my paw on your arm, my breath on your cheek.

"Seeing" me isn't just the old way,
It's seeing with our hearts, where we always stay!

Fresh as the day I came into your life,
New as our love, old as the knife

That cuts our hurts and pain away,
And leaves our love, forever 'n' a day!

Where am I? In the love that makes you whole,
With ev'ry beat of your heart, ev'ry stir of your soul ...


By Julie Kay Smithson, forever Wiggles Blue Heeler's mommy, and now Good Boy ACD's mommy, too propertyrights@earthlink.net 


Inspired by this photo of Henry, Shari Reinesto Tyler's beloved dog, who lives forever in her heart and soul: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1325863979#!/photo.php?fbid=1942996657696&set=a.1268183427787.2036487.1325863979&type=1&theater and by the great and endless love of Wiggles Blue Heeler for his mommy-me, as evinced by his and God's gift to save two lives: mine and Good Boy's.

God and Wiggles Blue Heeler: Dual Lifesaving Duo

God and Wiggles Blue Heeler: Dual Lifesaving Duo


September 19, 2011


By Julie Kay Smithson propertyrights@earthlink.net


People meeting Good Boy -- energetic senior Australian Cattle Dog / ACD / Blue Heeler that God and Wiggles Blue Heeler set on course to join me on March 2, 2001 -- tend to view me as some kind of hero. I am anything but!

The glory for this lifesaving belongs to God and Wiggles Blue Heeler. Like Good Boy, I am a beneficiary in this miracle, but not the worker of the miracle.

It makes me uncomfortable to be cast in such a role when I deserve no such honor. Over and over, I try to communicate that it was not only Good Boy's life on the line in late February, but also mine.

The dozen and more years that Wiggles Blue Heeler graced our home and my life with his physical presence, were proof positive that God loans such souls to those of us in such terrible need of them. My need for Wiggles was beyond my puny ability to describe. Only God, Wiggles and I understand that in its entirety.

When Wiggles' health waned -- and no matter how much effort was put into helping fix whatever was going awry, nothing could stop the march of time -- I knew in my heart that his physical body was wearing out. The best care that could be given, could not stay the inevitable. On Sunday morning, December fifth, 2011, Wiggles could physically remain with me no longer. His fourth paw joined the other three in Heaven.

Life required my continued presence and my time (and still does), but there is no measure of the depth of our love. For some time, I could barely breathe. "Going through the motions" of living is not the same as living.

God and Wiggles put their all into saving not one, but two lives.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a small, abused and/or feral, blind heeler dog two hundred miles to my south, whose life was filled with terror and fear. He was on his own -- for how long, no one knows -- when an animal control officer in Franklin County, Kentucky found this little fellow standing, frozen in fright, next to a flooding stream. It was late February, and that part of Kentucky has very little level real estate; it's mostly Appalachian hills. Factor in the slipperiness of winter, no eyesight with which to navigate -- only the grace of God and this dog's instincts kept him alive. Fearful injuries to his tongue and mouth, eyelid and ear, paled when compared to his terrible toothache. He was having to drink cold water and eat, with at least two completely broken teeth, not counting the few he was already missing. An infection behind his right cornea made his eye not only red, but also sore. How his mind was able to keep him going, is part of the miracle.

The evening of March first, I returned home from visiting a family member. Tired beyond description, I signed in at Facebook. Someone had posted a photo of a cattle dog / blue heeler in need of saving -- not the first cattle dog whose photo I'd seen posted with a plea for help -- but this time, I felt an almost tangible urging from 'somewhere' to help this dog. It was too late to speak with anyone at the shelter, but I phoned and left a message, then called back as soon as it was feasible the next morning. I could come visit the 'small girl' whose photo was posted, I was told, and adoption would be considered.

The details of the next days/weeks/months have already been chronicled. Suffice to say, that dog in need and this woman in need, were melded.

I ask that people not look at me as a hero or miracle worker. Here is where the credit belongs: God still works miracles, and my beloved Wiggles Blue Heeler helped with this one. Good Boy and I are living proof!

It's personal

It's Personal


May 11, 2011


By Julie Kay Smithson propertyrights@earthlink.net


I took Wiggles' life personally, made every effort to give him the best food, the freshest water, lots of great places to play and walk and sleep, and yet ... time took its toll. The ravages of age crept up on him, and although I didn't want to see it, looking back now on the many photos I took of him over the years, it's clear that he wasn't feeling 'up to snuff' as early as midway through 2008, more than two years before he returned to Heaven.

From the first time we laid eyes on each other, we were a pair, a team, a match made in Heaven. Wiggles and I knew each other so well, were so attuned to each other that we often felt like one rather than two. We enjoyed life immensely, loved to work and play, walk and run, dream and sleep the sleep that comes from days well lived.

Wiggles Blue Heeler lives within me still; he always will. There is no doubt in my mind that a big part of me lives in his soul for all eternity. Here of late, Wiggles comes to me in a new way, through the life of Good Boy, the blind senior blue heeler (Australian Cattle Dog / ACD) that God and Wiggles sent me to rescue on March 2nd, 2011.

As I work in our yard and do springtime things like scrub and refill birdbaths, replenish topsoil, pull weeds, etc., I'm keenly aware of  Wiggles' presence. He is looking out for me as he always did -- as he always will -- and the sweetness of his love and loyalty still knocks me to my knees in prayers of thanksgiving!

Good Boy is learning to trust and become my dog, and Wiggles has a paw in this process. It's clear that Wiggles is guiding Good Boy in his antics, and sometimes I can almost see Wiggles in his old spot on the other couch, quietly watching me with eyes of utmost love and affection, letting me know that he is glad my heart is healing. Still, at some time each day and night, the lump rises in my throat and tears sting my eyes as the tsunami of grief comes washing o'er me.

For all the well-meaning, kind folks that try to understand, there are no words to offer them that sound anything but strange, even to me. They cannot know -- how could they know? -- the bond, the love, the two-halves-of-one-whole, that Wiggles and I were, are and always will be.

Good Boy is here in our home, going places with me in our lil truck, and enjoying our yard. He has come so far from his first days and weeks of pain and abject terror. Wiggles has helped me to help Good Boy, shoring me up when fatigue and frustration threatened to overwhelm me. Wiggles has been always with me through family issues, ever loyal and loving, no matter how strained things have been.

It's personal, this love of ours, and yet, I must write about it, because writing about it is like giving Wiggles another 'hugabug,' a way to wrap his dear self in my embrace and drink in his sweet fragrance (never, ever 'doggy') and hold his silken paw in my hand. As his book is written, and the chapters come out to meet the world, I will still take it personally, because no one else can share the miracles of Wiggles but me. For that, there are no words to encompass everything, but I will personally share fifty sweet memories of him. Each will be a gift from him, through me to readers, to soak into hardened or broken hearts and heal them. Wiggles lived every moment to love me, and he needs for me to share as much as I am able, what he was about during the dozen years he trod this earth as my-dog-but-so-much-more.

Stand by, world! Distilling the love of Wiggles cannot be rushed, though I know it is needed by so many. As I take it personally, it will be his to give the world, one heart at a time.

Four Months Today, Good Boy & a Healing Heart

Four Months Today, Good Boy & a Healing Heart


April 5, 2011


By Julie Kay Smithson propertyrights@earthlink.net


Four months have passed since Wiggles Blue Heeler wore out his earthly body and returned to Heaven, leaving me with his soul sheltered always in my own heart and soul, my grief unlike anything I've ever known.

Wiggles was on loan to me from Heaven and I always knew that with certainty. When his dear furry self was no longer in our home for me to touch, play with, sleep with, brush and pet and listen for his 'feetsteps' on our floor, my loneliness was profound and devastating. Other family matters only increased this need for my baby, the child of my soul, to be here in the flesh, but it could not be. Hours became days, days became weeks, and weeks stretched into months. I truly believed that any other dog in our home would be nothing more than a trespasser, and though I tried to put out feelers for another dog -- and dear friends also tried to help me -- nothing mattered.

Then, upon returning home from my dad's house late Monday evening, February 28th/early Tuesday morning, March 1st, I got on Facebook. Someone had posted a photo of a blue heeler (Australian Cattle Dog / ACD), with a caption like, "Someone please help this poor soul." The details described this terror-stricken dog as a small female, blind and about to be euthanized at an animal shelter in Franklin County / Frankfort, Kentucky, two hundred miles south. As soon as my eyes saw this animal, something happened inside me. Having never rescued a dog before -- and not wanting a female dog, having always had males and being comfortable with them -- my brain told me to sit tight and not go ... but God and Wiggles had other plans for me, and other plans for that shelter dog.

I phoned the shelter and left a voice message -- two voice messages -- expressing interest in learning more about that blue heeler. When the shelter opened at noon, I phoned again, asking if it would be possible for someone from out-of-state (I'm in west-central Ohio) to adopt. The people at the shelter were so kind, so understanding of our plight: mine as a brokenhearted mom of Wiggles Blue Heeler, and 'hers' as a blind dog picked up in the county by Todd, animal control officer. There's virtually no future for blind older animals once they arrive at animal shelters. Very few people want older animals; fewer still want blind animals.

Somehow the shelter staff heard the need in my voice, knew the tears were real, and when they checked my Facebook page and saw the photos of me and Wiggles Blue Heeler, realized that this was meant to be. They said yes, that I could come and meet 'her' on Wednesday, March 2nd at noon. All the way down to Frankfort, I kept wondering why I was going to rescue a female. Hadn't I already seen other ACDs available for adoption (both males and females, all sighted), and turned them down? Why was I on this journey? Would I leave the shelter and return home alone? God and Wiggles Blue Heeler smiled quietly. They knew. They had planned. The right moment -- the right dog -- had come.

When the shelter volunteer brought the small 'girl' out for me to meet, I broke into tears. 'She' was literally scared stiff, flat as a pancake in fright in the young man's arms, stiff and shivering uncontrollably as he held her while sitting on a bench. I sat down beside them and touched 'her,' feeling the terrible fright for myself and knowing that I could offer 'her' a quiet, peaceful home that was already blind dog friendly, a nice yard that was already safe for a blind dog's eyes. After twenty minutes, the shelter director (or one of her employees, I don't recall which) asked if I might like to 'foster' the 'little girl.' My answer came unbidden and quickly: "No. I want to adopt her and take her home." The half-price adoption fee I'd been quoted, was changed to no fee at all. The small 'girl' -- that seemed to have never known either a leash or harness -- began to be put into a new blue nylon harness. That's when I learned that 'her' size and fright had masked her gender: she was a he!

Please visit my Facebook page -- Julie Kay Smithson -- to learn more about Good Boy and his new life. In the past month, we have had experiences like barely sleeping for the first two weeks, getting his health issues fixed (one of which was dental work that involved, not only cleaning terribly tartar-encrusted teeth, with two teeth already missing, but extracting two more teeth, both of them already fractured under all the layers of tartar), getting to not be so shy about 'doing his business' while on-leash, clearing up a bacterial or fungal infection under his right cornea, and much more. We have emerged, bonded and so glad to have each other -- and thanking God and Wiggles Blue Heeler for their actions, so perfectly timed to heal both Good Boy and me.

Sunday, April 3rd, I took Good Boy to a local Metro Park, and that afternoon, for the first time in such a long time (since knowing in my heart in early 2010 that Wiggles' health was going to lead to his physical death, which came on December 5th), I smiled, and the smile came from my heart. That smile came from Wiggles, who helped find Good Boy for me!

Wiggles and God knew that I'd have to put my words -- "Blindness should never be a death sentence" -- into action. They made it possible for this miracle: Good Boy -- to happen!