Selfies October 2024

While I ultimately did go ahead with perhaps the first “couples” costumes of my life, I saw this hair at the thrift store which was the wrong color for Ernie’s hair. I ended up becoming Bert and Shea was Ernie as you’ll see. Shea has his own hair to spike!

During a Fairfield Court visit, I took a bunch of selfies. You can see that the courts in our county seat here in Solano are on very pretty grounds!

HSNB Newsletter article on Bonnie

Today the Humane Society of the North Bay newsletter had an article on my adoption of Bonnie and her surgery this year after the fire that took the lives of five of my dogs in January. I’ll cross-post it here.

On January 18, 2024, Joseph Hayden’s home (back patio pictured above) was devastated by a fire, resulting in the loss of five beloved rescue dogs of the seven pictured here. Hayden was away helping a neighbor take her two dogs to the vet at the time. Two of Hayden’s dogs survived the fire, including a foster dog that is back with her original family (pictured on the ottoman near his leg) and Snoopy, the black dog with the white chest. Two of the dogs that died were blind. Most of them were seniors. Not getting to say goodbye to these souls that were lost before their time was what made this tragedy all the more devastating to a dog lover and board member of HSNB, on top of the complete devastation to the home.  

Hayden could not imagine what the future would bring after this tragedy, particularly as he had only been out of a ten-year relationship for nine days at the time of the fire that left him with seven dogs. As the rebuild takes place, he focused on finding silver linings. During a Zoom board meeting for HSNB, Hayden overheard that there was a “difficult to place” blind dog that had been languishing in the shelter for over a year. He was immediately intrigued, as this seemed like a sign. She was even the same size and approximate color as the two blind dogs he had recently lost, but she was only about six years old and needed many drops a day in her eyes to address her constant pain caused by two types of permanent blindness. She was human-selective, meaning she growled at every stranger unless introduced in a very specific way. The fostering went well, and she immediately bonded with Snoopy, who surely was missing his many lost companions.

Just a few months after fostering and then adopting Bonnie, the recurring ophthalmologist appointments took a daunting turn. Bonnie’s extremely limited eyesight was suddenly no longer there at all. The glaucoma was so bad that she was in constant pain, which the eye drops could no longer manage to stay ahead of, even though they had increased to 22 drops a day over three intervals, together with an oral medication.  Unfortunately, it was determined that the only humane way to proceed was to do a bilateral enucleation, which means both eyes should be removed completely. Hayden had experienced this with one eye of a dog he had years prior, so he was familiar with the process, although that dog continued to be able to see with the one remaining eye, even if depth perception was lost. While the cost of the surgery was many thousands of dollars, over time the cost of the customized eye drops and other medications were going to add up as well.  

Bonnie had her sutures removed a month after the surgery and is now pain-free and medicine-free. She navigates amazingly well, even up and down the stairs in the rental house, jumps on the furniture, and has a higher quality of life without having to sit for eye drop after eye drop, although she was admittedly very patient with the process because it was probably soothing for her. She gets to do all the fun walks and car rides while using her other senses. Fortunately dogs “smell in color” so she’s living her best life and loving her new family.

Vallejo Gay Network Halloween Party

Halloween costumes! Who was the genius who came up with this idea? Imagine a small tuft of hair at the top of my pointed yellow head. In hindsight, Shea should have had a rubber ducky. I couldn’t convince him to put on a red muppet nose (it would mess up his products I suspect), so I decided to forego an orange one.

Post-party stop at local gay bar:

End of Summer Glen Cove Waterfront Event 2024

Attended as president of Glen Cove Community Association a second annual End of Summer event at Glen Cove Waterfront Park here in Vallejo. Our board worked very hard to put this together. The turnout was decent even though the weather was unusually hot for October. That may have affected turnout, but we had more to offer this year with the jumpy house for kids, lots of games, free wine for adults, a food truck, and live music courtesy of Mike and Tonya from Tara Hills. Under the shade of the eucalyptus trees, it was pleasant with a breeze, but still a hot one.

These pictures are courtesy of Bill Yuen and Neal Zimmerman:

Bay Area Clean Air Talk

Attended a Clean Air talk with various organizations and concerned citizens about the air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area. This one occurred at the JFK Library in Vallejo, where I was a few days ago for a mayoral candidate forum. While not specifically about tobacco, I introduced myself as someone who volunteers in the area of commercial tobacco control and indoor air quality, although outdoor public, tobacco use is a huge problem as well.

Animal Shelter Talk at Saint Dominic’s School for Saint Francis of Assisi

Linda, Carlene, Mr. Wiggles, and I got to speak at this school in Benicia, asking for volunteers, donations, and foster/adoptions of the local homeless cats and dogs from Humane Society of the North Bay where we volunteer on the Board.

Saint Francis of Assisi is the first Friday in October. Chihuahua-Frenchie mix Mister Wiggles was a big hit!

Hello from Vallejo, California!