The Daily Q

Welcome to The Daily Q, a place to support Q for Qualifying in the face of Q for Quarantine.

Qualifying in what?! We are stuck at home, after all.

All kinds of things. Life. Stress. Isolation. Anxiety. Loss. And yes — eventually with our dogs. This is a TEMPORARY thing. Don’t forget that.

This blog will now be an everyday thing with a content mix designed to (hopefully) entertain, inform, educate, and connect us in the face of a global pandemic.

We will look at resilience, how to handle anxiety, discuss ideas for training dogs on our own, and just generally have a place to connect over the new reality that is Life with Covid-19.

We are living in a scary time — we should not pretend otherwise because that is dangerous to everyone.

Therefore, please remember that being anxious and worried and all that is normal — wouldn’t it be strange if we were blase in the face of a pandemic?!

But it is not useful, comfortable, or productive to drown ourselves in the fear and anxiety — Chicken Little is not one of those admired characters in literature, you may recall.

When (not if — when) you find yourself in Chicken Little mode, try these techniques:

First, acknowledge those feelings and invite them in to your mind and heart. Look at them, respect them, and just sit with them. After a few minutes, thank them and send them on their way; they are messengers, after all, and do not need to take up permanent residence.

Lucky for rePete, a stray cat is not an emotion; permanent residency was allowed.

Second, pay attention to how your body is feeling and when you notice tension and anxiety, do the following breathing exercise:

1. Put your tongue at the top of your mouth where it meets the front teeth, and close your mouth.

2. Breath in gently through your nose for a count of four.

3. Hold it for a count of seven.

4. Exhale with a steady whoosh through your mouth with your tongue in place for a count of eight.

Watch a funny show or movie — laughter can help with anxiety.

Expect to sometimes have to work at calming yourself — that is normal right now.

A third tip for today — petting a dog is calming to our bodies. Try petting your dog for sixty seconds while saying out loud things you are grateful for — and yes, it is okay to just repeat, “I am grateful for my dog” for sixty seconds.

A nudge for today — go outside.

If that is not possible, sit by a window and look outside. Notice and say out loud the things that are beautiful and wonderful.

That includes you.

We got this. Together.

I See Dead People

While I rarely shy away from expressing what I think, I tend to avoid being overtly political because a blog is not a dialog and therefore not conducive to productive political discourse.

And further, this is a blog about dogs — sort of.

Okay — sometimes.

But I find the Political and the Canine have now converged because of one tiny virus.

My true feelings about the current administration’s handling of the pandemic...

The lies spewing from the White House are literally killing human beings. That is not hyperbole.

By telling people to go on with their usual lives, that the virus is contained and so on and so forth — I have no words for all that nonsense. Luckily, there is an emoji for everything.

And to say coronavirus and hoax in the same sentence?!

Okay, regardless of whether you support the current president or not, we know he struggles with the truth — and if this is news to you, start watching more than Fox.

FYI — you can still think he is the Messiah and acknowledge the man is a pathological liar — knowing someone’s limitations is an important adulting skill that may — in this situation — LITERALLY save lives.

So we cannot look to the president or his minions for guidance or information because we cannot and should not trust that information.

Luckily, most state and local leaders of all political stripes are stepping up (with the possible exception of the Bozo Governor of Oklahoma) and they are canceling events, closing schools, and doing what they can to encourage people to help flatten the curve.

The CDC is also trying hard to regain/retain credibility, depending on how you see things, and has issued a recommendation that all events of 50 or more people be canceled for the next eight weeks in the US.

Let’s not split fur, people. If the event is a bunch of humans in a room — even if the room is big enough for social distancing and the number is 48 and not 50 — do the responsible thing and CANCEL IT.

And here is where the Canine and the Political merge.

Any dog group that fails to cancel events that clump humans together in a room, no matter how large that room, at any point in the next eight weeks is run by irresponsible (and a bunch of other unflattering adjectives that I just deleted) persons — and nobody should support said organization or event.

No excuses. No delays. No waiting for the virus to just disappear as a certain dangerous Liar-in-Chief suggested would happen. Cancel the damn event. Now.

Yes, I am so sad that this means the BMDCA National Specialty MUST be canceled. UPDATED: The Specialty IS canceled because we have outstanding people in charge. Kudos to them for making the tough decision.

But you know what is even sadder? Dead People.

THAT Was Quite the Week

Dear Daughter had surgery on Monday and we spent two nights in the hospital — the staff celebrated, I am sure, when I was safely gone. #momster

While we were watching The Secret Life of Pets one evening, all hell broke loose — the NBA shut down, all toilet paper vanished from stores, and Tom Hanks has Covid-19?! Watching this pandemic unfold from Dear Daughter’s kitchen table was quite something.

Sparkle preferred to watch from under the table.

Yes, Dear Daughter has a rescue Newfie! He makes Sparkle look micro.

And speaking of Sparkle — picky eating was the warning shot. A Berner that doesn’t eat well is never good news.

We drove from Utah directly to our vet last night and as suspected, Sparkle had Pyometra and was in surgery 90 minutes later.

Yep. Surgery for the dog and the daughter in the same week.

Dear Daughter is doing quite well…

Someone requested more photos…

And Sparkle is recovering well at home, and dreaming about HER gift box…

And because all that was not enough, I gave a presentation this morning at a conference — remotely because I am practicing social distancing.

Are you?

Uh Oh! Six Foot Social Distance Bubble Violation!