2022, animals, Family, Gatherings, pets, Uncategorized

Puppy’s First Pow Wow

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Last Saturday we drove 70 miles to Twin Buttes, a small community on the Fort Berthold Reservation to see dear friends there at the pow wow. It didn’t go well.

Our friend, Linda, was back home and ill. Her husband was there in his camper, so we could hang out with him and his extended family. Unbeknownst to us, Puppy had ingested a whole bunch of grape vine bark from our deck before we left, and hurled in the van on the way to the pow wow. He was terrified of the drumming, even though we were in the campground and fairly far from the arbor where the drums and dancing were. The dancers in their regalia frightened him. (He is Czech, you know and was expecting polkas.) There were lots of clumps of mowed and dried foxtail grass where our friend had his camper, and Puppy started to devour them in an attempt to hurl up the remaining grape vine bark. The grass stuck in his fur and in his throat, and he coughed and gagged, and he was not receptive to the attentions of our friend’s great nieces and nephews who wanted to pet him. He continued to hurl grape bark and foxtail grass for a couple of days after we got home. I am still combing fox tail burrs out of his fur.

What frightened you as a child? What frightens you now? What kind of dancing to you like?

38 thoughts on “Puppy’s First Pow Wow”

    1. I’ve never been sure who was scarier in this movie, the monster or Walter Pidgeon. A society completely destroys itself but this one man has enough hubris to believe that he and he alone can keep the destruction at bay.

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    2. I always wonder what my ancestors in covered wagons thought if they heard the drums and singing wafting over the prairie. It is a powerful sound.

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  3. Thank you for this story, Renee. I’m sorry it happened that way on the trip, but it relieves me of the desire to acquire a puppy that has been growing from cute photos and heartwarming puppy stories.

    I remember being afraid of “gangsters” from a dream I had after hearing some radio show my parents had on… I can still vaguely conjure up the image…

    Now the most frightening things are the fact that conspiracy theories are believed by a vast number of voters, and number of despots that have risen to power worldwide.

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  4. I remember being afraid during a heavy rainstorm when I was a preschooler, as I had just heard the story of Noah, and I afraid the river would flood our town. I also remember being afraid of birds after seeing the movie “The Birds”.

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    1. I never worried about that until some inexperienced friends put me in charge of their hay harvest. Not terrifying, but extremely worrying now that I was responsible.

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  6. Poor puppy overload! Sounds stressful for everybody. Except for the klieg lights thing, which I think I’ve mentioned, I’ve never been crazy about snakes. And I know you all will think this is funny since I traveled for a living for 35 years, but I’m not crazy about flying. I know the mechanics. I understand about lift and drag but every time a plane takes off down the runway, while my brain knows we’re lifting off, my heart is absolutely sure that the tail is going to scrape the runway. Every single time.

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  8. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    When I was a child, the TV show, Lassie, scared me into tears. Timmy in the well, Lassie being chased by wild animals was just too much for me. What scares me now is the latest news about #45 and what he was and is up to. And then there are the jumping worms. I don’t want my garden destroyed by those buggers, so they scare me, too.

    I have not been dancing much the last years. That was another activity COVID social isolation really set back.

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  9. OT to all Twin City baboons. Jacque just emailed me and we’ve discovered that the punch bowl invites to the retirement party may not have gotten through to everybody, may have gone into junk mail. But there is a party and it’s tomorrow from 1 to 4. My place. Everybody welcome but you’ve got to come hungry!

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  10. I was most afraid of my father’s anger when I was a child. We were well-behaved kids but we were very sheltered and somewhat isolated from other kids and families. I saw other kids’ fathers goofing around and playing but our dad was aloof and kept himself apart. When he was angry, he was really angry.

    These days it’s the people who support 45 that scare me most. There are a lot of them in this county. I don’t understand this phenomenal change in our society and I feel helpless to change or correct it. I’m much more cautious about where I am and what I say in public these days.

    I love to watch ballet. It’s so incredibly beautiful. I’ve never been much of a dancer although I took some ballet lessons as a young girl. Dancing is great exercise. I watched the video Jacque posted and thought about all the aerobic exercise the dancers are getting, and how their steps for the day will be way over 10,000!

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  11. i used to be afraid of beings in my closet or under my bed
    today it mostly the grey unknown of the future
    lots of option for major concern of the moment
    snoopy dancing

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    2. OK, you just triggered a memory for me. When I was 10, Senator Percy’s daughter was murdered. It happened when everyone was home and she was asleep in her bed, stabbed to death. I am not sure why I even knew this about this at the age of 10 but I did and it scared the bejeebers out of me. Up until that time I had always slept on my back but after that I made sure that I slept on my side because I thought it would keep me safer if someone came into my room and stabbed me. To this day I still sleep on my side. Haven’t thought of this in years and if I have bad dreams tonight, it’s on you, tim!

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    1. Perfect timing on one of Steve’s favorite groups. I just heard from Molly and she wanted to thank the baboons for keeping her fathers memory alive and to let us know that they are tentatively planning a service for mid September. She promised more details as they unfold.

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  15. I wasn’t going to answer the dancing part of the question. I like to watch a lot of different kinds of dance but didn’t think that I had any kind of dance that I preferred for myself. While I was in the kitchen cooking just now, the Ant-Man came on the television in the other room. In the very beginning of the movie there is a fabulous two minute salsa bit. And suddenly there I was in the kitchen dancing. Guess that makes salsa my favorite!

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  16. OT-my self indulgent sheets arrived today, after going right past my town after leaving Fargo, going to Billings, 300 miles west of us, and then back east to us.

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  18. Any kind of dancing if the music is good. I remember in college I thought I couldn’t dance at all, but if some song came on with a great beat, it changed my whole perspective… I could get in a groove.

    That said, folk dancing is a favorite, because I’ve delved into it the most. And like several of you, I love watching all kinds of really good dancing, including on skates.

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