Film Festival Report

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Until this year I have been at work when my little town’s film festival occurred. I’ve been to film festivals in big, medium and small cities. I don’t think population correlates to quality. A small town festival can sometimes risk showing edgier films, and the special guests are more unusual choices. The 16^th Annual Port Townsend Film Festival just ended. In three days I saw a dozen features, an equal number of shorts and hosted screenings with Beau Bridges, Chris Cooper and Marianne Leone Cooper.

Three Dogs at a Graduation

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I’m very, very busy, and full of fresh emotions. In what feels like a very short span of time we sent Finnegan (Goldendoodle superstar) off to college, accepted a unique, tiny Havanese female (Fresca) at the end of her training, and began work with the youngest pup so far, an energetic yellow Labradoodle I named Chili.

Indomitable Spirit

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It’s been some time since I’ve written here to celebrate the creativity and courage of people in my beautiful little town at the tip of the country. During the 2013 Wooden Boat Festival some members of our NW Maritime Center decided to sponsor a boat race from here to Alaska, the longest one of its kind ever attempted under (mostly) scientific scrutiny.

38th Wooden Boat Festival

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Goodbye, Puppy Boy

Next week our latest service dog trainee Finnegan will be returned for his final phase of intensive instructions. We will be finishing up the socialization of another dog for about five months. This puppy was raised with a very different regimen than Spice, our guide dog for the blind trainee. Spice, the yellow Lab, was strong and steady, with muscles like a gladiator. She’s been navigating for her new owner over a year now, and they are both doing extremely well. Having Spice made it possible for Jeremy to go to college, to fulfill his ambition of becoming a music professor.

Finnegan is strong too, but he’s a bundle of potential energy, like a coiled spring. He’s highly reactive, curious about any kind of novel stimulus, and whip-smart. Finn was originally considered to become a mobility assistance dog for a wounded veteran, but he didn’t grow big enough for that job. Now he’s going to be trained to be a therapeutic companion for a young autistic boy.

I can see how much better an alternative this will be for the dog and the boy. Finnegan has an expressive face and a wide array of verbalizations. It can help model correct behavioral responses for an autistic child. Though this pup is cheerful by default, you can tell right away if he isn’t. For the most part, the only thing that gives him the blues is not getting a new challenge every day. Autism provides new challenges. Finnegan is hypoallergenic, and his soft, curly coat makes petting him more inviting for a hypersensitive child. Having him will be a social advantage for the boy, because others want to approach if you have a cute dog.  It can also make walking easier.

Finn loves to solve puzzles to get food, play with any toy that makes noise, and he will retrieve anything you care to throw. It took him a few months to understand our old lady cat is NOT a toy that makes noise, and that she’s not interested in playing tag, even though she will greet him nose-to-nose. He has taken that lesson (go gently with little beings) and applied it to infants and toddlers, with hardly any encouragement from us. He accepts kisses, hugs and petting from small children very well, and doesn’t jump on them.

Ever since we took him to Seattle and gave him a successful big city experience, Finn has been more confident, calmer and easier to work with. His biggest challenge is a tendency to pull ahead if he gets excited, but using a “gentle leader”, which fits over his nose, prevents this behavior. If you put a kibble inside your hand, he stays glued to your hip, matching your speed even without a leash. He relieves easily on grass, gravel or dirt using the command “hurry”. In the year we’ve been raising him, he never once had an accident inside the house. Don’t you wish your child was that easy to toilet train?

Last week’s big activity was a visit to the local Rotary Club’s “Mutt Strut”. It’s an annual fundraiser to support their charitable projects, with products, lectures and assorted activities available for dogs and owners. There are many breeds I have no direct experience with, and I want to keep learning. They offered a long walk and informal contests including “cutest dog”, “most obedient” and “most unusual trick”.

The Rotarians provided water in buckets, and policed the area keeping the encounters positive and well controlled. Though dozens of dogs were present, I heard very little in the way of distressed or confrontational barking. Finnegan was there to practice self-control, and he enjoyed observing the contests. We made sure he had as many experiences with small children as possible.

Grand Marshall Hairy Putter, and his dad, Alan Ahtow.

(http://hairysreviews.com/)

I’ve become attuned to a different balance in the four years since we moved from El Lay, vortex of cinematic fabulosity, to this picturesque Victorian seaport of 9,000. Where we used to live, animals (aside from humans) were perceived as lesser beings, as property, or as a food source. But deer roam the streets and yards here, eagles swoop above the trees, and songbirds, squirrels and rabbits share our grounds. In this town, there is less of a hard boundary between domesticated animals, wild animals, and people. And residents are advocating to make more places pet-friendly. It comes from a motivation to live harmoniously in nature, instead of competing and trying to control it.

Seeing the different dogs and owners made me remember why we raise these dogs. It’s part of our “fix what you can” philosophy. I can’t solve the wars of the world, or make politics more civil. I can’t control humankind wasting Earth’s bounty, or find a vaccine for Ebola. But I can take good radiographs, making it easier for the doctors to diagnose and treat. And Mary and I can help train the right kind of dog to assist others in need.  Our next pup in training will be a little Havanese, like this one.

Getting Back in Tune

It’s a dangerous world, but when bad things happen I’m usually somewhere else. I don’t plan it that way by avoiding all risk, but I do try to proactively move toward the light.

For the Glory!

Our season of festivals ends each year with a contest.  You can’t win by being the best.  The results have no value except to amuse.  It’s a celebration of imagination, combining art and adaptive mechanics.  It’s a Kinetic Sculpture race!  No advanced degrees required.

Finnegan’s First Weeks

Finnegan, our new service dog trainee, has different virtues than Spice, our certified guide dog.  He’s a “designer dog” cross between a Goldendoodle and Standard Poodle.

Coexisting With the Deer

In my back yard

Welcoming Change

How would you like having to nurse your twins in a stranger’s yard?

People love habit.  Having the feeling of knowing what comes next is comforting.  But you can’t fix problems or grow from a place of complete safety.  You have to take risks, spend resources, embrace the insecurity of undetermined outcomes, and dream of better things that might be.

Graduation Day

The Visitors Center @2010 lindabenson.blogspot.com 

Our second guide dog puppy, Spice, was the first one to complete her work to become fully certified.  Guide Dogs for the Blind operates two campuses on the West coast, one in Oregon where we were going, and one in California.  Mary and I (the puppy raisers) and the Brodys (former playmates) drove down the night before.  We had the same kind of joy and anticipation parents get when their children graduate from college, ready to enter the working world.

Loud & Clear, Big & Fast, Slow & Just Right

A newsy, catch-up post

When the world is full of danger, fear and catastrophe, it’s a good time to plant.  At my house, we make improvements slowly.  We’ve been looking over our property borders for two years, considering what might make them more inviting to our senses, and to neighboring wildlife.

A Perfect Day Out

It was time to shake up my routine.  I decided to take a half-day off to do fun, unusual things my wife would also enjoy.  We began by arriving for the Grand Opening ceremony of our little town’s Farmers Market.  All the newspaper said was “9am Goat Parade”

Mikey’s Absurdly Geeky Oscar Trivia Quiz

In Search of Ancient Oscars

Did you know the word “quiz” originally meant an odd person?  That’s from the Oxford English Dictionary.  In the days before the Internet I used to read dictionaries and reference indexes while in residence upon the porcelain throne.  Some prefer magazines, I’m told.

A Story in 4,011 Words

“You’re Going on an Adventure!”

That’s what we always say as we’re heading out the door.

It’s our guide dog trainee’s last week with us.  I’ve been concentrating on that instead of writing.  On Sunday we’ll be driving Spice to Tacoma to meet the puppy truck.

Fear Not: For, Behold

The Gun Control petition I reprinted yesterday went viral.  It gathered more than 200,000 signatures in support, and the author, Staci Sarkin, will be going to Congress in person to present it.

There’s some current woo-woo about the world ending on December 21^st, because that’s when the Mayan calendar “ends”.  I wouldn’t put much stock in the prophetic abilities of the Mayans.  They stopped calculating their calendar because they were too busy dealing with the invasion of the Spanish, and two centuries of drought, both of which decimated their culture, neither of which they saw coming.

An Inclusive Border

Our front deck is 35 years old.  It’s been rained on often enough over the years to penetrate the paint and sealant and cause rot.  We considered how to repair and replace it, and talked with local carpenters over the past two years.

Puppy Club Day Trip

An important part of raising potential guide dogs is exposure to any kind of travel a blind person might undertake.  People who live in northern Washington use ferries.

Substitute Puppy

This little Lab is our guest for a few days, and our regular guide dog trainee Spice is staying with another couple.  Her name is Pippa.