Living with Jazz (2 kinds)

There are two kinds of Jazz for me.

First there is the music. Jazz music is one of the few things in life I do that just feels so right. And it seems to be a constant craving because it's hard to come by. There are no Vancouver radio stations carrying jazz music (that I know of - tell me if you do) and not Kenny G soft jazz either. And then there is the fact that I don't know any other Jazz fans and I live way.out. here. so going to the odd Jazz club in Vancouver is a major event not something I'm going to do by myself.

My craving is even more amplified as we have the Vancouver Jazz Festival next week and people like the great Sonny Rollins or the wonderful Holly Cole are in town - so close, yet out of my reach. Which leaves me like a poor kid looking at the Toys R Us catalogue at Christmas time hoping for some miracle which will grant me a wish.

Instead I have to either listen to my CDs, my iPod or stay tuned into NPR All That Jazz over the internet.

Now the second kind of Jazz for me, is my dog. And now you know how she got her name! But this Jazz is a whole different story. She is a part Australian Cattle Dog and part - I-don't-know-what. She was a rescue dog who was given to me because no one else wanted her. And, the story I was told was that she was rescued from deplorable conditions. In our early years together she seemed to lack confidence. It took a long time to teach her how to play with my other dog Maxx. And if you accidentally hit her with the ball during a game of toss, that was it. She was done - confidence lost. She had been with me for about 1 year when Maxx suffered from a Grand Mal epileptic seizure that caused him brain damage. Maxx's brain was like a hard-drive wiped clean. We had to teach him everything all over again and somethings just never came back. I even had to house train him all over again - but Jazz helped with that. It was during this period that Jazz clued in the she was now Alpha Dog! And it seemed to be a great confidence boost.

However, another year after that I moved houses and the dogs no longer had the freedom of an enclosed yard while I was at work - they had a kennel. It was during this time that I suspect some neighbourhood kids did something to my dogs while I was away (until side gates were built) as I found odd objects in their kennel. Then Jazz developed Noise Phobia. At first it was just firecrackers - which were usually a couple weeks around Halloween and New Years and Canada Day. She would become frantic and would try to run - she would tear at the wire kennel and chew on the wood gates and do whatever she could to escape - she even snapped her canine tooth (the one that looks like a fang) in half! Now I won't bore you with all the details but let's just say that over the years she's added more and more things to her noise phobia list - and now at 11 years old - it also includes the Woodpeckers! We've tried a long list of medicines for her - including Prozac and Paxil and Valium but none stop her from panicking with certain types of noise. I've tried Tellington T-Touch and acupuncture as well. My vet has told me that I have done everything I could and that I shouldn't feel bad if I choose euthanasia. She is normally such a sweet dog but it's like a Dr. Jekyll story when the phobia strikes!

(She's the hardest dog to take a photo of, the pressure of a camera
pointed at her just makes her hang her ears,
her head and her tail, but I did manage to get this photo,
although her eyes are squinty)

So there you have it, Jazz that moves my soul and relaxes me and Jazz that sends me on a roller coaster!