Oh, my stars and garters!

New dog and a request

We adopted a dog a month ago through Austin Dog Rescue. He's a big, sweet, slightly clumsy guy who is calm, slow, and reserved--Willa's polar opposite--until you get him loosened up a little, and then he's this great, silly mutt who rolls around on his back and tries to lick the flesh of your face off and uses his rather alarming strength to to propel himself across the yard in pursuit of his red squeaky ball.

 

We named him Üter,* after this guy. We are in love already.

 

Nobody really knows where he came from, but we were told he was next in line, if you know what I mean, at the Bastrop shelter last summer. Austin Dog Rescue got hold of him, got him into a foster home, and paid for him to be treated for heartworms as well as a few situations he got into while in foster care, like the surgical removal of a sock from his stomach and stitches for a gash on his foot sustained while playing too vigorously around some metal landscape edging. (He has gotten into his share of scrapes** here as well--he's like the Anne of Green Gables of dogs.)

I am not so hot at fundraising myself, but Tyler, the lovely woman who fostered Üter before we adopted him, is raising money for Austin Dog Rescue to defray Üter's medical expenses through Amplify Austin, the 24-hour fundraiser for local nonprofits. Gifts made during March 5-6 are matched by corporate sponsors, and you can schedule your donation ahead of time so you don't forget.

You can read Tyler's story and donate on her sponsor page here.***

Please consider kicking something down to Austin Dog Rescue through her page; they do good work, and they got us this fantastic dog.

And of course there are tons of other worthy causes that could use support if you want to bop around the Amplify site and find something else you want to help out.

 

Now here is a picture of Willa, as awesome as ever.

 

Really, we're all doing pretty good over here.

*I am sort of regretting naming a dog something that requires an umlaut, especially since "Uter" looks kind of terrible. But I have the keyboard shortcut--Alt 154--memorized, so everything is going to be all right on the diacritical front.

**Just today he managed to get the top off a huge bottle of fish oil capsules; we figure he ate at least 150. On the plus side, his fur is gonna be so damn silky.

***Do not be alarmed! Üter was Rodger before he came to us and didn't have his new name by the deadline for the web page. And Rodger is a fine name. Dude is just such an...Üter, is all.

Things to do in Austin that are cool

I just finished my beginning improv class. I didn't uncover any hidden comedic talents or anything, but that's okay. It was good, hard work and a lot of fun. The class was eight two-hour sessions and culminates with a 20-minute set in front of an audience.

I wasn't going to tell anyone at all about it. Come on, it's a beginning improv class performance. The potential for embarrassment is pretty damn extreme. But one of the reasons I took this class was to try to shake this pointless and inconvenient self consciousness that's been dogging me throughout my adulthood. And it would be nice to see some friendly faces in the audience. So I'm telling everyone:

Wednesday, December 12, at 8 p.m.

The New Movement Theater

616 Lavaca Street

$5

My class, which is full of interesting, funny people, is opening for this act, which I have not seen but I'm sure is great. 

It might be hilarious! It will almost certainly be awkward! You should go! 

OK!

Now. I must pivot to the topic of whooping cranes. Whooping cranes, which are rare, huge, beautiful, and amazing, tend to winter on the coast around Aransas Bay. That's about a four-hour drive from Austin, but you can take a whooping crane boat tour and enjoy low hotel rates and walk on empty beaches and eat fresh oysters and all that great winter beachy kind of stuff. It's well worth the trip. But if you don't have time for that, this year there are a few whooping crane families that are hanging out at Granger Lake, about 30 miles east of Georgetown and an hour from Austin.

I read this article about them in the Statesman on Sunday afternoon, and twenty minutes later we were in the car heading north. Eric, who loves all creatures and giant birds best of all, had never seen a whooping crane in person.

We didn't get any pictures. The birds were either too far or too fast for that. But they are definitely hanging out around the lake.

We took the (lovely, largely empty) back roads from east Austin to Granger Dam, then parked at Friendship Park. The boat ramp was a good place to watch from, and we saw a group of whoopers in the distance from the swimming beach. You can't get very close, so definitely bring good binoculars or a camera with a zoom lens. (Our binoculars kind of suck, but a nice man there let us look through his scope.) Also, I'm not sure if they are spending the whole winter there like they did last year or just taking a break, so maybe look online to make sure before you head out. 

So, yeah. Some things to consider if you don't already have enough to do this month.