Just Jack, being himself

Christmas Eve, while Tom and I were busy in different parts of the house, this little miscreant realized a dining room chair pulled out from the table was a perfect opportunity, and he always has motive. A few minutes later, Tom spotted him on the couch in the office with foil near his mouth. The kind of foil that would be on Hershey’s Chocolate Bells if the chocolate bells weren’t in Jack’s stomach (along with the rest of the foil). First Tom induced regurgitation of chocolate, then he called the emergency vet (because it’s always at night and most certainly a weekend, and BONUS points if it’s Christmas Eve).

But they were helpful and advised us to first call the ASPCA Poison Control Hotline and get a case number started and after the hotline had all the details, they’d advise on whether Jack needed to go to the ER.

Tom gave all the info to a really great staffer; we were told what to do over the next few hours and what to watch for; and the end of the story is that Jack was fine, and we just lost sleep and peace of mind for about twelve hours. Foolish dog.

Today, I spent a lot of time updating my doll inventory in this Moleskine. It can be a laborious process, because though I do try to photograph any dolls as they come in, I don’t always get all their details down (the model of doll, the year released, the source of the doll, etc.). Since more dolls came to me at Christmas, I knew I should put aside some time and get things up to date. I photographed new dolls since my last inventory push (I think in July?), then I printed black-and-white photos of everything new and added their details to the inventory.

During that process, my laptop and printer stopped communicating, and at one point, Tom and I were both in the office trying to figure it out. When I returned to the sanctuary to get back on my laptop, Jack had maneuvered his way through the gate, where he was next to a doll. A new doll. A cute little teenage doll with flat feet who was wearing a cute pair of pink sandals. Was wearing, because one of the sandals is missing. Again, Jack is back to going outside on a leash with a flashlight on him tonight and into tomorrow, until we see that mangled pink sandal and know he’s okay.

I finally finished updating the doll inventory, despite leaving one out and having to print it and the printer being difficult again. Then I was putting everything away and promising I would not publish the total number of dolls I have (and a certain family member who lives far away and I talked for over an hour today on the phone, and she said IT’S FINE, I’M FINE) when I noticed a shallow container about twice the width of a shoebox and wondered, What the heck is in that?

Well, here is what was in that: uncounted, unphotographed, unresearched.

Lynne rescued these from her friend Margret, whose children had outgrown them, and brought them to me a few weeks back (along with another red Barbie car like the one Nurse Lisa gave me years ago, and maybe something else, I can’t remember, I’m tired). The dolls are a mess because they’ve been loved, and all dolls are welcome here. They’ll get cleaned up and their hair groomed. Their faces are all familiar to me, and despite not knowing their original fashions while in the box, I’ll have a relatively easy time connecting them to their decade and possibly exact year. That middle doll is almost certainly Barbie’s friend Teresa, and she’s missing half an arm, bless her heart, and the Ken head I’ll have no trouble identifying, but it’s very unlikely that’s his original body.

This is actually a fun part of dolls, figuring out who they are. They’ll continue to be loved here. And kept away from Jack.