Edith Ann Linsenbardt: ca. 2000 – 2017

We got Edie in early February, 2007 from the Humane Society in St. Louis.  We got Sam, our cat, about a year and a half before that and had a good experience with him, but being a cat, he didn’t really go outside much. We had just moved to a neighborhood in St. Louis called Soulard – a place with more sidewalks and yards available than we had in our apartment complex in Affton.

Brooke and I weren’t sure what exactly we were looking for in a dog (though if you want to read my thoughts on the subject on the day we got her, there’s a post for you…).  The dog we found was a small beagle, housed in the “puppy” room of the Humane Society, so they tried to charge us extra for a “puppy” they claimed was 5 years old.  With all the grey in her coat, I placed her at least a year older than that, but what do I know…

Back in 2013

Edie has been a good dog.  We went on lots of walks in Soulard, where she found more than a few turkey legs on the ground to carry around after Mardi Gras.  She’d carry home rawhide bones from Pets in the City, as passers by would smile at the 13″ beagle carrying a bone far too large for her. She didn’t like many other dogs and would get anxious around them.  She did pretty well with dogs bigger than her, but for dogs smaller, she’d try to exert her dominance and fight with them a bit more.

Iowa, 2010

In Soulard, Edie had to be on a leash, though in those early days, she also had a pretty strong case of separation anxiety.  There were a few occasions where she tore down screen doors in Hannibal and Columbia trying to get to us.  Another time, she tore through a metal dog kennel that used to hold my family’s cocker spaniel, Pepper.

By the time we moved to Iowa in 2010, however, we were in a more rural area where we could leave Edie loose more of the time.  Every once and awhile, we wouldn’t be able to find her for an hour or so, but she’d ultimately find her way home.  She also enjoyed walking among the chickens, while they mostly ignored her.

Marshall, 2014

Edie was never really “the kids'” dog, as we had her before Meg was born in 2010, but she’s always been gentle to young hands.  Even in her old age, Meg and Calvin’s cousin, Rowan, can sit next to her and tug on her ear slightly, barely eliciting a response.  Meg and Calvin have loved Edie, too, helping to give her water when she needed it, and eventually would take her outside on a leash (once they were tall enough and strong enough to do it).

In 2011

Recent years have been less kind to this aging pup.  For most of this year, she hasn’t had much control over her urination, causing me to get up once a night just to take her out, let alone me.  It’s gotten bad enough now that she doesn’t know where she is in the house, so she just goes wherever she wants to.  She’s been blind and deaf for at least a year now, though the problem has gotten progressively worse, as she now walks directly into walls regularly, not just after she wakes up and is still a bit groggy. She still eats and drinks water, but there are many occasions where it’s difficult to get her to stand up, let alone walk outside, causing me to carry her out.  She can go up a step or two, but stairs have been a problem for years.  I can’t remember the last time she was up on the couch, so jumping remains difficult for her.

We’re sad to see her go, but we gave her as good a life as we could and we hope she’s enjoyed her time with us, in her own way.  She was never a particularly “active” dog, but she was always sweet and happy to have a pat on the head.

Rest well, Edie.  We love you and will miss you terribly.

Over The River and Through The Woods…

Needless to say, this year marked quite a few changes for us.  The birth of Meg and our move to Iowa have complicated Christmas travels to a greater degree than they used to be.  Way back when, we would go to Hannibal/Louisiana for Christmas Eve and then rush back to Columbia/Lohman for Christmas lunch with the Plochberger side of the family.  As my grandmother passed away earlier this year, we will no longer be getting together for Christmas Day in the same way that we have in the past, likely doing something like a traditional “Family Reunion” once a year at some other time.  Therefore, we won’t have to rush back so quickly Christmas Day.  That part is a bit easier.  It’s the rest of it where things get interesting.

This year presents other issues.  Firstly, my buddy Andy S. got married earlier this year.  We were unable to attend any of the festivities, largely because Brooke was quite pregnant, so I didn’t really want to be out of town for an extended period.  He and his wife, Rachel, are hitting Columbia (and our mutual friend, Brett), but only for the week prior to Christmas Day.  Therefore, here’s how this is going to work:

  1. Meg and I will drive down to Columbia on the 21st so we can see some folks prior to Christmas  (~5 hr drive)
  2. Meg and I will drive to Hannibal on the 23rd; Brooke and Edie will meet us there (~2 hr drive)
  3. We spend Christmas Eve in Hannibal/Louisiana, get up Christmas morning, open presents at the Baumann house, and then head off to Columbia (~2 hr drive)
  4. We stay in Columbia through Monday and return to Iowa by way of Hannibal, picking up Brooke’s car (~5 hr drive)

So yeah, it’s gonna get kinda crazy…at least, crazier than it’s been in previous years.  It’s a good thing that we have a larger vehicle now so we can carry stuff with us between locations, but it’ll be nice having two cars in Missouri so we can load them both up to get everything back up to Iowa.

This brings us to another issue:  space.  As in, we have very little.  Meg, for all of the 17 lbs that she weighs, comes with metric tons of stuff.  As in, multiple bags of clothes, blankets, a baby cage (read: “pack ‘n play”), and toys.  And we still have Edie to take along, too.  And presents for 3 people for the ride home (but presents for 9 people on the way there).  We’re probably going to have to pick up a car-top carrier before we even consider going on vacation next summer.

Related to all of this, we probably won’t travel much in January/February, for a few reasons.  One, we live in Iowa.  Iowa is cold.  Really, really cold.  The 3″ of snow that fell today will probably still be here in March.  So yeah, we’ll probably stay bundled up and keep as warm as possible, without going anywhere besides work.  The other reason (the real reason…) is that Meg hasn’t been traveling well recently.  It just seems like we go places and she gets off whatever sleeping schedule we finally settled her into, then it takes at least a week to get her back to something semi-normal.  She also tends to get sick, in some fashion, shortly thereafter.  I’m sure a lot of this is related to the teething (that she’s finally showing some progress in!), but the constant traveling can’t help.  It just seems like we make some progress at getting her to a normal routine, and then it’s dashed within a weekend!  We have gone to Columbia, Hannibal and St. Louis a few times over the last few months.  She generally does fine in the car, and is great for most of the day, but overnight…eeeeeeesh…

So yeah, that’s this year’s plan.  Weather/sickness depending, as usual.  We’re just going to make a concerted effort to get through it all mostly unscathed, survive winter, and make it to Meg’s first birthday.  Mark your calendars for March 5th!

Five Years

June 25, 2005 was our wedding day.  I’m not going to recount that day in particular (besides pointing out how friggin’ hot it was…), and I’m not going to write anything sappy in this post (as that really isn’t our style).  But, instead, I’m going to highlight a few old blog posts here as a reminder of various important (or less important) events in our lives over the course of the past 5 years.

(I’m doing this partially because I’ve been going through a lot of old posts, “tagging” them to make it easier for me to find in the future.  So, I’ve been reminded of quite a few things over the past few days of doing this!)

…and then…there were two…

“Yup, I’m married…crazy, eh? Brooke and I have moved into our new place in St. Louis and are almost done putting everything where it needs to go…by the end of tomorrow, we should be mostly done…until the next volley of wedding presents arrives this weekend…”

…fun with turtles…

“…and on a side-note, I get to play with my new praise band tonight at Webster Hills UMC…those drums won’t know what hit ‘em…”

Al…most…there…

“Otherwise, Brooke and I are preparing to move to Soulard (neighborhood in the City of St. Louis) from our current apartment.”

…what a weekend…

“Arguably the most pertinent part of the weekend, however, came on Sunday… Brooke and I were wanting to get a pet, so we finally did.”

Miracles Happen

“The moral is that it seems that this thing would have happened no matter what Dad was doing or where he was, so it’s pretty amazing that he was at the fire station with capable people instead of anywhere else.”

Meet Edie

“Well, we found Edith Ann at the Humane Society here in St. Louis yesterday…”Edie” for short…”

Yay!!

“So, I had a spur-of-the-moment interview today with a company called Bridges Community Support Services. It went really well, and at the end of the conversation, the CEO/owner offered me a job as a Community Support Worker.”

Edie: Wonder Dog

“We go downstairs to check out how exactly she got the door open. Apparently, as the picture above shows, she didn’t get the door open – she tore a new hole in the bars…”

Meet Meg

“Margaret Jean Linsenbardt (or “Meg,” as she’ll be called) was born at 8:57 am on Friday, March 5th. At birth, she weighed 6 lb 13 oz and measured 19.5″ tall.”

Fin

“Now that I’m out of school, after 22 years, one could argue that I’m finally ready to join the ‘real world.'”

Happy Anniversary, Wife.  🙂


Transcript Follows

An interchange of text messages between Brooke and I are as follows:

Brooke: “Guess who broke her rope but didn’t run away?”

Andy: “Sam? Oh wait…you said ‘her’… Meg? ;-)”

Brooke: “Yep. When i said day care i meant tied up with a rope.”

Guess you had to be there… 😛

“Is it a PONY?!?”

DSC_0110

This past weekend, our landlord, Phil, brought over a few of his family’s horses to graze in the area just around our rental property for the next 6 weeks or so. The “painted” one is Buster (~24 yrs old) and the brown one is Pistol (a yearling). We’re told that Buddy is a relatively tame one, and Phil said we could probably put Meg up on his back. I think we’ll be waiting awhile before doing that, though. 😛

It’s the first time either of us have ever been this close to horses. We’ve certainly seen then before, but never for an extended period of time. Certainly, Edie is not amused by their presence and frequently feels like she must bark at them in an effort to scare them off. Pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than a swift kick from either horse to do some real damage to the beagle.

DSC_0106

In other news, Brooke (and I…) did some yard work this weekend. I mowed the lawn and helped turn the soil in the garden, while Brooke planted some stuff in preparation for the growing season. To my knowledge, there are tomatoes, green peppers, onions, peas, soup beans, and an assortment of herbs planted already, with more to come in the next few days. The weather this week seems to be pretty conducive to gardening, so I imagine most of it will be planted shortly. Phil did recommend that we plant tall-growing items further from the fence so that the horses can’t get to them.

Overall, it’s been nice being able to go outside and do things. Back in Soulard, there wasn’t much (productive) to do outdoors, aside from going on walks, etc. While I’m sure we’ll be tired of yard work shortly, it’s kinda nice to be able to go outside and plant things, mow the lawn, wash the car, etc.

Considering that winter starts in Iowa around, oh, mid-September, we may as well enjoy it while we can. 😉

The Plan

1. We’ll leave today for Hannibal and stay for lots of food and probably some shopping until Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Edie has an appointment with Rachel’s dogs’ vet Friday morning to try to get to the bottom of her chewing, but it should be pretty relaxing.
2. We’ll head to Columbia Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to spend some time with Andy’s family and to play at St. Andrew’s with Mike Will from Missouri UMC on Saturday night. Sunday, Andy’s aunts have a baby shower in Lohman planned for us, then we’ll head back home.
3. It will probably take us four days to unload everything that we’ll have accumulated over the weekend, so we’ll see you late next week!!!

Closest thing to a baby we could find…

edie_snugglie

Brooke had a 20% off coupon for Big Lots burning a hole in her pocket, so we went by to look up car seats and any other baby toys we could find.  We found one car seat that looks promising, but they certainly didn’t have much selection (not unexpected).

However, Brooke did find a Snugli, which she thinks I’ll be wearing eventually.  Brooke’s planning on using a Peanut Shell-style sling, but as I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing one, this Snugli thing will have to work.

Anyway, we aren’t having a baby until February, so how does one test out the new toy?  Well, we find the next best thing:  an unsuspecting beagle.

Needless to say, she didn’t last  long in the Snugli.  Maybe I’ll try it again using the pug down the street.

Conehead

edie_cone

So, we’d noticed for the last few weeks that Edie has been scratching her hind legs quite a bit, to the point where last week, we started locking her out of the bedroom so we could sleep through the night.  Two years ago, around this time of the year, she had a similar problem that the vet said was due to “hot spots.”  Last year, it wasn’t nearly as bad, but she did scratch a little bit.  Two years ago, the vet gave us some prednisone and antibiotics and they took care of the problem kinda rapidly…but cost us $150…  Since she “got over it” last year, we decided to let it go and see what happened.

Well, we got back from Branson, after leaving Edie at Kennelwood for the weekend, and she had scratched herself down to the skin…  Brooke took her in to the vet and, again, they gave us prednisone and an antibiotic…but this time, Edie got a cone…  🙂  She’ll have to wear it for 3 days non-stop, and then will have to wear it when we aren’t at home for a few more days.

Anyway, hopefully she’ll get better quickly, ’cause she’s having issues climbing stairs (again) and I’m all about having her back to normal.  Either way, the puppy dog sure is cute with a cone around her head.

Science Again Confirms What We Already Knew

Edie isn’t the brightest bulb on the chandelier, or sharpest tack in the box, or whatever…but she certainly isn’t the smartest dog around, either.

And now, science has proven it.

A group at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver found that dogs can learn and respond to around 165 words, which places them in the same league as the average two-year-old. Amongst the highest performers, you would find Border Collies, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. Heck, even the Poodle is up there.

Who’s at the bottom?

Well, among others, the Bassett Hound and the Beagle.

What’s Edie? Well, she’s mostly Beagle, but pretty sure there’s some Bassett Hound in ‘er somewhere, too…

I guess this explains a lot…