Down South and Dogs.

We've been down south lately, soaking up the family time and general goodwill of our favorite place. The downer, though, is that Aaron's older brother is deploying with his National Guard unit soon. He's going to train for 3 months and then embark on a 9-month of deployment. Here's a little education for you active folks: NG deployments are rough and tough, especially on families. The training starts up about six months ahead of time, with enough of a crazy schedule to just totally piss off whatever boss a soldier might have. Then, in that total year away, these guys (it's an infantry unit so I can say that) might get a weekend to spend with their families. Or they might get a 12-hour pass or two, but not a whole day. Since neither the training nor the deployment is long enough to warrant any real leave, they don't get it. There is also apparently/maybe a concern that since these guys are in such intense training the family is considered a distraction and therefore no family time for a year. I can't begin to articulate how completely angry this makes me feel. FRGs are sparse and rarely functional in these units as well, since everyone lives all over the state. The families which need the most support during deployment (don't flame me, I said during) hardly get any. Don't even ask about an adequate pre-deployment briefing. You can't order a bunch of families to drive hours to a meeting every month. I dare anyone to actually think Reserve and Guard components don't pay their dues when serving. In my honest opinion they and their families pay dearly when it's time to deploy. The NG isn't even supposed to deploy like it has been in the past decade- it is here for national defense, such as natural disasters. I'm not saying they aren't capable or needed to go to war, but some states have suffered because there weren't enough troops back home when they were needed. But anyway, if you're the praying/good vibe type, send some off to my brother-in-law and his family of wife and three kids. I just can't even imagine what they're going through.

Let's not even talk about how going to Afghanistan doesn't do anyone any favors and we should really just stop the nonsense all together. But hey, I'm just some crazy wounded warrior wife with only my own horrible experience to base my opinion on, what the hell do I know?

We have dog news. Before we left, we worked out a situation for our beagle, Scooter. We can't call him ours anymore, because the foster has agreed to keep him. Scooter has been running free on a horse farm for months now, living a dog's dream life. Our next stop out of the hospital barracks is an apartment, probably followed by a condo, then maybe in 3 years we'll have our house with our yard. I can not in good conscience take Scooter away from a farm, filled with children (the foster is a horseback riding instructor) and other animals to play with and tons of scents to chase to live in an apartment. (New York worked because there was affordable doggy daycare ($60/week!) when I couldn't get him out. We were also supposed to be out of there by the end of this year, and we weren't going to settle for anything less than a fenced yard for our next post). I cried about "leaving" Scooter at the farm and expected Aaron to hate on me for even bringing it up. It turned out, though, he had been thinking the same thing for some time. The foster loves Scooter and had already thought all of this as well, and I think she was trying to figure out a way to ask us to leave him with her. So it was decided. Our small dog, Charlie Buckles, will come with us when we can get him. He is pug/rat terrier/chihuahua, and can be any type of dog we need him to be. The foster also knows that Charlie Buckles just loves humans and won't hurt too much to change back to me us. So... there is that. I don't need anyone to point out to me that I am lucky to have a foster who loves Scooter enough to want him for herself and have that work out, or that people regularly don't "abandon" their beloved pets. A beagle is not the type of dog we're ever going to have again as a pet because of our new lifestyle, and I can't be selfish enough to take Scooter from a healthy environment into an apartment just to say I'm a good doggy mama. I know where he is and I can visit anytime, as he definitely remembers me. While it hurts, I know it's best. And yes- I do stress that much about the happiness of our pets. Dogs might not be people but they are certainly deserving of healthy, happy lives. Aaron and I do see a service dog in our future, and we will make sure Charlie Buckles receives the training he needs to learn to cope with having a canine boss. We also might go with a girl dog, just to quell any competition that might arise. So there's a little family news.


Alright, peoples. Hope everything is great and you're all having great weeks. Think a happy thought today- it's never as bad as it seems!