Spring in Excelsior and Canine Kleptomania

Featured in the Sun Sailor April 2017

It’s that time of year when we start to see our neighbors again. Winter hibernation has ended, yard work, gardening and outdoor fun have started. Every spring it’s like a reunion and I love it.

The true sign of spring is when Tommy’s Tonka Trolley opens for the season. At that point you know there is no turning back, only forward marching into summer. It’s the return of bare legs and unfortunately, Crocs.

The kids are out on their scooters, playing football in the neighbor’s yard, and we are all fishing for crappie. We grill year-round but this time of year almost daily if we can help it. I think we single handedly keep the meat department at Kowalski’s in Excelsior in business.

Last fall we expanded our family and added a giant schnauzer named Odin. This month he’s 7 months old and growing like a horse. He’s already close to 50 pounds and only halfway grown.

Odin loves people and animals. He is very friendly but sometimes doesn’t realize how big and strong he is, which is why we watch him closely around small animals and toddlers.

To Odin everyone is a potential friend. He loves meeting other dogs and people on the trail and even cries when they walk away. He likes to cuddle and is never far from one of his humans. In fact, as I write this he is laying on my foot under my desk.

Odin is as perfect a dog for us as a dog can be, there is just one thing that concerns me. It is also something that has been a source of embarrassment. Odin appears to be a thief.

While most dogs take your slippers, gloves, or shoes and chew them up, our Odin steals these items and hordes them in parts of the house. I just found a stash with two hats, a sock and a sleep mask, which he accumulated just this morning. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful that he doesn’t destroy them. It’s just odd.

Sometimes we have him at our store J. Novachis on Water St. We share a connecting door with Amore & Fede. When the door has been left open, Odin dashes over to Amore & Fede, goes straight to their dog’s Zoie’s bed and steals her stuffed rabbit. After he steals the rabbit he runs it back to our store and tries to hide it.

We have new neighbors at home. Yesterday, Odin saw a door open at their house. He took off into the house and escaped with a pair of their socks in his mouth. There is nothing like prying your new neighbor’s socks out of your dog’s slobbery mouth and handing them back to break the ice.

The other day I came home and Odin was wearing a pair of my underwear over his head, not sure how he even managed that. I checked one of his stash sites and sure enough, he had a fork, socks and a flute in his pile.

Again, he doesn’t chew up any of these things. He just puts them in piles in hiding spots around the house or our store like some kind of kleptomaniac hoarder. When I confront him about these stolen items he looks at me like I’m the crazy one.

Overall he is an incredible dog and addition to our family. We are all perfectly imperfect. This is probably Odin’s way of flying his freak flag, or maybe he is protecting our belongings from something. I have no idea.

Just know that if you meet Odin around Excelsior and go to pet him then find your wallet is missing, know we will make sure it is returned.

Can the Glass be Half Full Even if it's Cancer?

Featured in the Lakeshore Weekly News

Today more than ever we seem to be living in a world that is either viewed as a glass half empty or a glass half full.  We are also entering that time of year when we try to see the glass as half full, and be thankful that it is.

Lately my glass has been filled, emptied, dirtied, turned upside down, spun around, cleaned and placed back half full. For the most part I am for some, that annoying optimist who can and does find the silver lining in difficult situations.

I find beauty and opportunity in mistakes, I’m thankful for difficulties that force me down a different path, because I’ve been fortunate to learn that sometimes a late flight means you avoided an airline disaster. Sometimes road construction means taking a different route and discovering along the new route what becomes your favorite restaurant. The right time at the right place is often not where we think we need to be or when.

Simply, I try not to question challenges or things that appear to make my life more difficult, beyond evaluating them for what I’m supposed to learn from the situation. With my recent difficulty, I’ve been holding on to and remind myself of this.

October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I was due for a physical and hadn’t had a mammogram in five years. I’m 46 years old with a family history of breast cancer on both sides.

A few days after my routine mammogram, I was called back in for further imaging. This didn’t worry me, as it is fairly routine when you have what’s called dense breast tissue.

After further imaging I was told I needed a biopsy due to a suspicious area of microcalcifications and a mass. Calcifications in breast tissue are not uncommon as women age, but clusters of small calcifications called microcalcifications are sometimes associated with breast cancer.

The next day I had a biopsy. It was an agonizing five days before those results became available. Something happened at the Pathologist office and my slides had to be redone. Normally it takes two business days.

During those five days my mind of course went to high and low places.  What kept me sane during that time, was knowing that my worst case scenario was I had early stage breast cancer, something that is very treatable today.

My biopsy results came back not showing cancer but abnormal cell growth, often found around cancer. My next step is a lumpectomy, which is a surgery to remove a lump of breast tissue.

At this point the only way to know for sure if I have breast cancer, is to remove the mass and an area around it for further testing.  Here is the thing though, the likelihood of there being no cancer is higher than there being cancer.  The odds are in my favor. We just want to be sure.

I’ve met with my surgeon and we are in the process of scheduling the surgery for the lumpectomy. Once the mass is removed it should take two days for the pathology report to come back.

My worst case scenario is hopeful because of the men and women who came before me. My situation is hopeful because of the individuals who made research possible, the ones who made early detection possible.

I scheduled my mammogram in large part because I’m often reminded of the importance of having one by friends on Facebook. Because of local women like Judy Erdahl of Deephaven, who has openly shared her journey with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer. Because of women like Holly Raby from Shorewood, who shares her experience with Breast Cancer, who has spoken at local events in Excelsior. Because of these and other women being vocal, I scheduled a mammogram.

There are many others in our community who have been publicly open with their experience. I’m so thankful for that. My situation is a hopeful one because of early detection, because these women won’t keep quiet about what they are dealing with.

The odds are in my favor that my lumpectomy will not turn up cancer, but if it does my treatment options will be very effective, because of those who came before me.  My situation will be very different because it was caught early.

Never underestimate the influence one voice can have, or the difference a passing comment can make. Use that voice wisely. Women like Erdahl and Raby are examples of that, and yes, the glass can be half-full even it it’s cancer.  They are shining examples of that.

Imperfectly Yours,

Natalie