Publisher’s Points to Ponder: Lady Sings the Blues

“Lady Sings the Blues” was a movie that came out before I was born. The film was based on Billie Holiday’s biography and starred Diana Ross as Billie Holiday, along with Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor. While watching this movie again this past weekend, I was fighting with my Australian Shepherd mix, Blue. He wanted my attention and refused to let me watch the movie in peace. So, the lady who is singing the blues is not Billie Holiday; it’s me.

I want to start with a proclamation of my love for Blue. He has been a light in my life, and I am deeply grateful for him. But this past weekend reality set in, and I have accepted what others have been telling me. Blue is spoiled and sometimes a terror. Because I work a lot of hours, I tend to overcompensate for my absence. Doing so has created a donster (dog-monster). Yeah, I just made up that word. I wanted to watch the movie, but Blue wanted to play, so he stood on the remote, turning off the stream and ran away with it. Oh, Blue, why?

The day I moved to Olney, my new neighbors stopped by and offered to give the seven-week-old pup to me. I was excited because I would be alone in a big, lonesome house that could have ghosts. At least that is what I thought at the time. I was new in town and didn’t know anyone. A puppy sounded like the perfect solution. Or was it the perfect storm?

My life with Blue has been stormy and sunny. We’ve had to get to know each other. We grew to love each other through the holes in dupioni silk curtains, chewed shoes and ripped duvet covers. I’m sure his take on this would be, “We grew to love each other through tossed out shoes that I shaped to perfection, swats on my nose for expressing myself with creative holes and rips. These things are my best expression of my love for you, lady.”

Through it all, I would not trade him for the world. I had thought about life without him a few times before he got sick and almost died. He had all his shots, but he caught a new strand of parvo. With a dire future looming, I entrusted him with Dr. Keelan Lewis with Salt Creek Veterinary Clinic in Olney. She brought him back to life. After spending two weeks away from his craziness, I realized that a little crazy creates the right balance when motives are pure. And what could be purer than a dog’s motives?