Wolf's Den

From snopes.com-


A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Finally getting around to posting the photos from Caena's first official vet visit.

She's met Dr Eick and her staff before, about a week after we first got her, when we dropped off her shot records. This was basically a check up and injecting of her microchip.

I know it's cheesy, and that they do this for every pet that has an appointment that day, but it's still sweet.



I have never been able to remember to get this vet tech's name. He's the only guy there though, out of 3-4 vet techs, and 3 Vets.}:P Basically, Big Lick does internships with the students at the vet school at Va Tech, I believe, so it's not surprising to see new vet techs every year or so.



Mom! He's sticking something in me bum! I know! I'll sit down, despite Dad's best efforts to keep me standing. (The tech was trying to get her temp.)

We ended up waiting about an hour as Dr Eick, who was the only vet on staff at the time, had a couples of emergencies come in (a 17 week old GSD pup with a piece of bone in her intestine, nothing big you'd think, but something about it was making her extremely ill, so Dr Eick was leery of cutting into her. I think she got some cooked bone and it splintered, possibly puncturing her intestine.}:/ She was sent to the vet school at Tech. A couple cats came in with paw injuries as well.) WE didn't mind, as neither of us had any plans for the afternoon anyway.



So we played with Caena. And I performed emergency sewing on the Loofa Dog, as she managed to split the belly along the seam and was trying to destuff it. Kudos to the Receptionist for having a sewing kit handy. Heh.



Unfortunately, no amount of sewing would have saved the poor Loofa Dog's tail. Yes, Caena 'detailed' the poor thing.



Did I do that? (You can see the tail in my right hand, heh)

Eventually Dr Eick was able to come in, apologizing profusely, to which we kept saying don't worry about it, it's no biggie, emergencies come first over a regular checkup anyday.

At 7 months, Caena now weighs 30.4 lbs. Her heart and lungs are clear and sound great. Ears and eyes
are clean, eyes bright, gums pink, teeth pearly white. Overall, other than the Chrondro, she's the picture of health. Dr Eick agreed to doing 4 month check ups for the first few years, to keep tabs on the Chrondro, just in case. She doesn't think it'll get any worse that it has, as it hasn't progressed any further than a mild curve to the right front leg and almost imperceptible curve to the left.

Naturally, she was spoiled rotten. She LOVES the Butler Lean Treats.}:P




Dr Eick is, in our opinion, THE best Vet in our area. We won't take our pets anywhere else, and highly recommend her to anyone.

(Coincidentally, this was the same exam room Dante passed away in. I believe that was the same quilt she was wrapped in too. Full circle and all that jazz.)