chicken, dog bite, spider family

will you look at this? our city friends own this land and home in the wilds of mendocino and we were lucky enough to go spend time with them over the weekend again. we walked through redwoods and sequoias to the fairy corral, the kids gathered kindling and played many ball sports. we drank a lot of wine and ate delicious meals. it is so beautiful up there. the kids can just move around and make a lot of noise and throw things and we are not all on top of each other. i was sad to leave.

what was not so fantastic was that our little foster dog was attacked pretty badly. our friend's dog picked him up in his teeth and shook him like he was a rabbit. he is healing ok but had to get antibiotics for the big puncture wound. he was already fearful. it is hard being responsible for a tiny dog. maya was right there and i think it was traumatizing for her, too as we all screamed at the big dog and finally his owner had to kick him hard in the head to make him open his jaws..

we hit two libraries today. the first was the portola branch where i went down memory lane remembering my days working at e.r. taylor elementary. this is a sunny working class neighborhood with way less garbage than our hood. i see e.r. taylor has several school gardens going now. the portola library was full of people, kids lined up to play on the computers and lots of garandparents. we went to a separate room so the kids could participate in a storytelling theater type thing. i am always surprised that my son especially is so open to these unknown quantities, but in minutes they were in costumes and part of a spider family, miles as cushion and maya as see trouble, acting out a story from africa "why the moon is up in the sky" with the very talented storyteller sally davis.

later maya and i ventured out to the bernal library. she really really wanted to go because she had heard about this event and that there would be cookies and chickens at the library. she imagined the chickens roaming free, just as she imagined this morning that all the kids in china were sitting in the backseats of their cars listening to the same terrible katy perry song as we were "in their land". a wonderful author-illustrator and 20 year bernal chicken and duck farmer, jane wattenberg, showed us lots of different eggs, let us pet her chickens, read a book, took a wide variety of questions from the audience, and gave away postcards. maya was very impressed with the way the author's clothes matched the cutest chicken's feathers, and i was impressed by her life, making children's books and raising animals right up there at the most beautiful part of bernal hill north.

my kids are getting a good start to learning over the summer. i hope that other kids are too.

Dog Fest and school funding

my mom was in town and i wanted to do something fun with her that was very san franciscan, so we went to the mckinley elementary school fundraiser in duboce park, dog fest.

this is the best school fundraiser on earth, with tons of fun booths to win prizes (maya especially got a big old pile of booty while miles chose mostly perishable sugar prizes), jumpy houses, art activities good food, so many old friends and acquaintances i felt i was looking through some kind of time machine telescope, and lots and lots of dogs. the emcee was hilarious, and talked his hilarious way through various dog contests such as owner matches dog contest, best lap dog contest, and best ears contest.

you hear a lot about buying local, keeping money in our country, etc., but this is the REAL new local economy. we spent about 25 bucks and had a very fun, tasty, and entertaining afternoon--and all that money went right back into funding a very nice public elementary school. this was one step up from the usual school fundraiser, which is a fun event that has either entertainment or an auction--you get something for your money, but it is mostly within one school community. this was people from lots of different communities, different schools, dog lovers, neighbors. this should just be going on every weekend somewhere in the city. i guess it kind of is.

this is the way it is going to be until some kind of miracle happens and there is more money for kids and education. i will not get started on the equity issue because sooner or later all schools will have ptas putting on dog fests, right? right?

anyway, i am procrastinating getting to the main point of this post. at the end of the day, after being surrounded by dogs for four hours, and with a LOT OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM MY MOM, i was pulled, sleepwalker-like to the northern california family dog rescue booth, where, all kinda' dreamy-like i found myself holding a very small white dog, and then taking him on a walk, and then signing some foster papers, and then walking out of the park with the little dog, and bringing him home.

he was rescued from a shelter one day ago, and passed some kind of test proving he is kid-friendly, is neutered and has his shots. that is all i know. so there was a little furry stranger who needed a home, and now he is sleeping in the bunkbed with miles and maya.

did i mention my husband is in europe, touring with his band, and will be returning to this situation whether he likes it or not?

i explained to the kids that daddy and i may decide it is not a good idea to keep him, and that we are fostering him, and have not taken him home to keep, just to think about. uh-huh.

there is not rational way to decide to get a dog,at least if you are a busy, working, urban parent whose backyard is solid vegetable garden and whose kids are a bit loud and bonkers. but he is here, at least for now. and where to draw the line? who do we help and how do we decide? it is all mysterious. i hugged the rescue lady with tears in my eyes as i rushed off to the starr king fireballs soccer game (we won again--play bad news bear theme song in your head).

what do you think?