Rob answers five questions (YES THAT ROB!!)

The post on Rob is HERE and HERE. In all honesty I should have contacted him before I wrote the post. But, better late than never.

And now, the man himself, he speaks.


ONE: When you got married, did you write your own vows?

We did not and I wish we did. We got married in a very small church in the middle of nowhere up here. Even my wife's friends, who were from that state, had trouble finding it. It was very conservative, but it was part of her family and the wedding was on the cheap and they let us do it there for next to nothing; so we were trying to cause as little waves as possible. He did a quick read thru the day before with us, but I guess we were so nervous that we didn't pay attention.

I do remember giving each other uneasy glances. The vows were very misogynistic and all about the woman being obedient to the man, not being an equal partner, which is how we viewed ourselves. In a joking way I was like "Yeah, I rule!" It just seemed worse during the actual ceremony though, other stuff that we didn't seem to catch the first time. We regret not writing our own vows. Conservative fundamental Christians have a lot in common with fundamental Islam, or any other radical fundamentalists.

Ugh. Just love everybody. Equally.


TWO: Can you give an example of something you did in your work with animals (either as a nutritionist or rehab specialist) that made an impact on an animals life?

They weren't always the best of times, but the most impact I had was when I worked at a veterinary rehab clinic/holistic vet. We were also the in-house vet clinic for a large dog hotel. We did a lot of geriatric care and care of animals with limited mobility. We were working intensively with an old Rottweiler named Zeus. His owners would drop him off for the day and he would stay on a matt covered in blankets and towels near the reception desk. He would bark and whimper as other patients came in for the day. His little tail stump would wiggle and he would lick them and the small dogs as they came near to say hello.

We had to carry him with two specially rigged slings. He was a heavy boy. Zeus was a sweet dog and I loved him, but man, was he a stubborn cuss. We swam him in the underwater treadmills three times a day, trying to get a pattern to his legs moving, get him to relearn to walk again. My back would be screaming in pain afterwards, because as the big guy at the clinic, I did most of the heavy work.

After a while, he wasn't making much forward progress and his quality of life was pretty poor. He wasn't eating much to keep his energy up. His owners were about ready to make that fateful decision. They'd been dropping him off so that he could stay at the attached dog hotel and we could get him and do work with him first thing in the morning, plus they needed a break from the home care. I went to get him one morning.

I opened the kennel door and he looked up at me. Then he proceeded to prop himself up and push up off the floor. I was in shock. He got himself up and then trotted out the door and down the hallway into a big play room area. He just did circles, showing off his energized legs. The doctor couldn't believe it either. She was the eternal optimist, but even she had decided in the last couple days that it just wasn't going to happen. Zeus had picked the prime moment to say,

"Don't give up on me yet. Watch this. FU!"

Zeus started the slow recovery climb and got better at walking every day. He was bouncing back.

Reality says that as old as he was - he still didn't have a lot of time left, but he was going to spend it fighting and enjoying some freedom and independence. That was a triumphant moment for me. Zeus showed me spirit. He confirmed that tough persistance pays off sometimes when common sense says the success point is long past.

Every day I help people get their pets on proper nutrition and it feels good. I'm not making the impact I did with Zeus, but in small ways I'm able to help a lot of animals and in the long term, improve their quality of life so they can run around for a lot longer.


THREE: How many push ups can you do?

Less than I could in the Army, beyond that, I don't want to try to find out.


FOUR: What is something you do every day that makes you smile or that you look forward to?

Spend time with my daughter and my wife. No question that's what it's all about.


FIVE: And last but not least, any comments, questions or concerns with the post written about you? Anything you would like to add?

Nothing I could add, other than like I told you before, you paint me with a rosier color than I deserve. We were both on the road to figuring ourselves out and getting to this point here.



BONUS: um, have you read anything else from la blog de senora hall?

Yes, good stuff. I like the hardware store trip, that was funny.

(click here for the post he is talking about)

Rob is still an awesome guy with an awesome life. Thank you Rob, for reading my post and saying you liked it. Thank you for being so nice about all of this. And thank you for answering the five questions. :)

OK GOOD!
Now you! GO! Write something very wonderful and gutsy and honest and emotional. Because this is what we do here in the bloggerhood. Tell our stories.

Take care everyone and thank you for reading :)