Eddie & the trail
For the past couple of weeks, I've been walking Eddie separately from Turtle. I take him on a 15 minute loop around the neighborhood that isn't as physically challenging as the trail, then I leave Eddie at home and take Turtle on the trail. Today I felt badly that Eddie hasn't been on the trail in a while, so I took both dogs. As we neared the end of the trail, the dogs heard some noise off in the forest and ran after it. This isn't unusual. Turtle was gone for 3-5 minutes, then reappeared. I leashed her up and proceeded to call for Eddie. Eventually I heard some rustling and could tell he was trying to make his way back to us. It took him a very long time, but he eventually made his way out of the thick underbrush on the side of the trail.
The rest of the walk home was slow going. He was breathing very hard and walking slowly. I cringed each time we walked on cement because his back paws drag a bit along the pavement. I try to keep him walking on grass as much as possible. When I unleashed him in the garage and opened to the door to the house, he barely made it inside and then collapsed in the dining room. I brought him a bowl of water and Rimadyl. It took probably 30 minutes or so for the panting to stop and his breathing to return to normal.
I think this might finally be my acceptance that he can't handle the trail anymore. Even before he took off after with Turtle into the underbrush, he was struggling up the trail more than usual.
He still seems quite happy most of the day. He doesn't seem to be in much pain when we take the neighborhood loop (vs. the trail) for his walks.
Despicable Me and sushi
The three of us went to see Despicable Me yesterday. I would rate it a C simply because I didn't find it very funny, nor did Avery. Even the scenes where they tried to make the youngest girl adorable couldn't pull off what Monsters, Inc did with Boo. Also contributing to my general dislike of the film was the adoption aspect of the movie. I certainly don't expect a movie like that to cover adoption in its true form (that would be nice, but highly unlikely). And I'm not even fired up about the lack of any sort of truth or sensitivity about adoption. It was more a feeling that I don't want Avery to think that she can be returned. I shuddered to think of what message might be planting itself in her as she watched the movie. She didn't seem to like the movie much, nor was she interested in talking about it. That, however, is not unusual after we watch a new movie. It takes a few days before she mentions anything she saw, so we'll see.
After the movie, we tried a new sushi place near the theater. It turned out to be one with a sushi track. I've never eaten at one of those, but we decided to give it a whirl. Avery LOVED it. She easily at 10 pieces of salmon on her own. She loves salmon, cooked or raw. She also loves trout. Fish in general is great, unless it's fried. She turns her nose up at fish sticks. Good girl!
I didn't occur to me to think of D.E. that way. I am used to the majority of Disney/Pixar flicks having moms that are killed or dead when the movie begins. I took away the "love conquers all" aspect of the story - SPOILER ALERT - because he does take the kids back. I didn't find it particularly funny, it's sort of one of those movies that seems to put its best stuff in the trailer, but I definitely found it entertaining. Given what I've read in reviews, though, I'm not sure I'd have liked it as much as I did if I had seen the 3-D version.
ReplyDeleteIt probably wouldn't have occurred to me to think of DE in the manner I did if we hadn't adopted Avery. As a result, I'm more aware of language and how it can be misconstrued in a child's mind. For example, I've read that a lot of adoptees hated it when people would say, "Oh, what a lucky kid!" as if the child was some charity case and should be grateful to have been adopted. Or
ReplyDeleteI think I find it much harder to simply see a "lover conquers all" message in movies now. I kept thinking, man, if three children were in an orphanage, adopted by some strange man, then returned, then he came back for them - that would be a lot of therapy, they would have an extremely hard time learning to trust and to attach, etc. Of course, I know this is just a movie and to expect the complexities of adoption to translate in a children's movie is an expectation that will likely never be met. So I don't have a huge problem with it, I just was acutely aware of the pain that some children/adults might have while watching it. Imagine being a foster child and hearing the eagerness in the voices of the girls asking if anyone had asked to adopt them today. Likewise, I would imagine it is difficult for kids who have lost their mother's to watch Finding Nemo. As with all things, the baggage you walk into the theater carrying affects your enjoyment or interpretation of the movie.
Ultimately, I rated it what I did not because of the way adoption was handled, but because it wasn't very funny and it wasn't overly cute. I think Pixar has set the bar really high and rarely does a non-Pixar movie even come close.