tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89806752024-03-15T20:09:45.228-05:00REASONABLE PRUDENCEA blog by Todd PearsonTodd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.comBlogger1791125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-2536447993389521012020-05-30T23:44:00.001-05:002020-05-30T23:44:52.102-05:00Return of manned space flight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-22790579704851960312020-05-28T00:24:00.000-05:002020-05-31T00:26:31.907-05:00Riots in MinneapolisWhat a f*cking disaster.<br />
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-15640812926975624322019-12-18T23:47:00.000-06:002020-05-31T00:16:17.400-05:00Trump impeachedHistoric day. New York Times story <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html">link.</a><br />
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Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-74059894207416675452017-11-12T07:41:00.000-06:002017-11-12T07:41:17.559-06:00Honoring the U.S. service members killed this year<a href="https://www.axios.com/honoring-the-u-s-service-members-killed-this-year-2508821569.html"><b>Salute</b></a>. <br />
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-85926993364728214662017-11-11T00:07:00.000-06:002017-11-11T00:08:59.679-06:00Breitbart/Bannon is doubling down on a pedophileBelow is a screen capture from tonight (click on image to enlarge).<br />
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-51631667957999832432017-11-10T18:51:00.002-06:002017-11-10T23:26:00.690-06:00He may be a pedophile but he is our pedophileMax Boot (military historian, foreign policy analyst, and conservative) on Republican response to Roy Moore revelations (<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/11/10/roy-moore-response-shows-gop-doesnt-deserve-survive-max-boot-column/851640001/"><b>link</b></a>):<br />
<blockquote>
<i>This episode is the sorry culmination of two trends that have disfigured the conservative movement beyond all recognition: contempt for the facts and desire to win at all costs. Republicans are increasingly reliant on ‘alternative facts’ manufactured by the likes of Fox News and Breitbart, which claim that global warming isn’t real and neither is the Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee. The real scandal, they tell us, is the Steele dossier paid for by the Democrats in an attempt to uncover Trump’s Russian connections. Or is it the evidence-free claim that Obama supposedly wiretapped Trump?”</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>“In the final analysis, no indictment of their candidate will convince the faithful. As Trump once said, ‘I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’ Or, more to the point, Roy Moore could molest a 14-year-old girl and not lose votes. Because for Republican partisans, their opponents are ‘the forces of evil,’ and anything is preferable to that. Even Donald Trump. Even Roy Moore. So in ostensibly fighting evil, Republicans have become complicit in it.”</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>“This is a party that does not deserve to survive.”</i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-11162748501322782762017-11-10T08:51:00.005-06:002017-11-10T08:54:11.701-06:00It is "SAD" when parody = realityClick cartoon image below to enlarge.
<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/6/1712586/-Cartoon-Crisis-management"><b>Link</b></a>.
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-21068542635820044232017-11-10T08:38:00.002-06:002017-11-10T08:38:25.938-06:00Trump's carnage From The Economist - summary of opinion piece (<a href="https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21731132-presidential-tour-asia-cannot-hide-fact-america-has-turned-inward-hurting-itself?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories"><b>link</b></a>).<br />
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<i> For all its flaws, America has long been the greatest force for good in the world, upholding the liberal order and offering an example of how democracy works. All that is imperilled by a president who believes that strong nations look out only for themselves. By putting “America First”, he makes it weaker, and the world worse off.</i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-3172424680654005202017-11-09T15:35:00.003-06:002017-11-09T15:37:46.063-06:00Roy Moore is toast<b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_moore-art-1pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.3dd12224c527">Link</a></b>. Someone clever managed to suppress this story until Moore's name could not be removed from the ballot. <br />
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-77417823252988752072017-11-08T11:57:00.002-06:002017-11-08T12:01:13.627-06:00Virginia House of Delegates harbinger <div class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/wipeout-virginia-republicans-had-a-66-34-house-majority.-they-almost-lost-it-in-one-night./article/2010385"><b>Link</b></a> from conservative Weekly Standard.</div>
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<i>Put [it] in perspective for a moment: The Democrats began the night just one net loss away from giving Republicans a supermajority. They finished it one seat away from parity.</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/politics/danica-roem-virginia-transgender/index.html"><b>This transgender candidate beats 13 term conservative Republican upset</b></a> (and others like it in state and local elections across the country yesterday) will influence the future behavior of those seeking federal reelection in 2018. In short --<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Virginia voters elected the state's first openly transgender candidate to the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Danica Roem unseated incumbent delegate Bob Marshall, who had been elected thirteen times over 26 years . . .</i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-44367222726095330162017-11-03T11:05:00.003-05:002017-11-03T11:07:29.189-05:00Just another outrageTrump is threatening to fire his chief law enforcement officer if Sessions doesn't open an investigation into Trump's political opponents.<br />
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<a href="https://www.apnews.com/3baac97f79944378ab648cd7a8468fa2/Trump-pushes-DOJ-on-Clinton,-won't-rule-out-firing-Sessions"><b>Link</b></a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he is “disappointed” with the Justice Department and won’t rule out firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, if Sessions won’t investigate Democrats.</i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-6945601413945173122017-11-03T10:00:00.004-05:002017-11-03T10:20:28.583-05:00"I forgot"<b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/03/trump-responds-george-papdopoulos-meeting-244510?lo=ap_a1">Link</a>.</b> How is it possible for Trump to recover? Best case scenario for him seems to be maintaining the status quo, which is not good at all. <br />
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Quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>President Donald Trump said Friday that he does not “remember much” from a 2016 meeting attended by then-campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. . .</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>
The president’s claim that he did not recall much from the 2016 meeting comes nine days after he claimed to possess “one of the great memories of all time,” a defense he put forward to argue that his recollection of a conversation with a military widow was more accurate than that of the widow herself and a Democratic congresswoman who heard the call on speakerphone.</i></blockquote>
Donald Trump philosophy of life closely resembles Steve Martin's character from this bit from the 1970s. Trump started with millions of dollars from his father, and it seems more likely than not that (1) Trump did not pay all of his taxes and (2) at least turned a blind eye to some shady foreign dealings (financial and political). <br />
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Trump's "I didn't know" seems to be morphing into "I forgot". <br />
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<br />Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-71488772766846358042017-11-03T09:12:00.003-05:002017-11-03T09:14:44.298-05:00Why staff the federal government?<a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/03/561797675/im-the-only-one-that-matters-trump-says-of-state-dept-job-vacancies"><b>Link</b></a>. <br />
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<i>President Trump says "I'm the only one that matters" in setting U.S. foreign policy, downplaying the importance of high-level jobs such as the assistant secretary of state, which is currently vacant.</i></blockquote>
Moron.</blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-11092508126619342452017-11-02T10:58:00.002-05:002017-11-02T10:58:46.372-05:00"The end of the beginning"<div class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/patsy-white-house-090039059.html"><b>Link</b></a>. </div>
<blockquote>
<i>That’s not to say the media isn’t liberal or anti-Trump; I’ll grant you all that. But in a desperate effort to dismiss what Mueller has unearthed, conservative media has purposely conflated a bunch of things that, taken in context, aren’t terribly relevant at the moment . . . </i> </blockquote>
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<i>The only thing for sure right now is that Mueller has his talons into some Trump associates who would probably throw the president off a plane before they’d spend a single day in jail, so it’s fair to assume that whatever they know will be known to all of us before long.</i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-58606025152304960562017-10-30T16:01:00.002-05:002017-10-30T16:11:35.466-05:00Opening indictmentsFrom the analytical, scholarly, objective LawFare (<a href="https://lawfareblog.com/robert-muellers-show-strength-quick-and-dirty-analysis"><b>link</b></a>):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This is only Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s opening salvo.
As opening salvos go, it’s a doozy. . . </i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We will say this: Mueller’s opening bid is a remarkable show of strength. He has a cooperating witness from inside the campaign’s interactions with the Russians. And he is alleging not mere technical infractions of law but astonishing criminality on the part of Trump’s campaign manager, a man who also attended the Trump Tower meeting.</i> </blockquote>
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Any hope the White House may have had that the Mueller investigation might be fading away vanished this morning. Things are only going to get worse from here. </i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-40948869830847936612017-10-30T12:03:00.001-05:002017-10-30T12:03:24.635-05:00"John Kasich Is Already Running"Please. <b> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/john-kasich-2020-challenge-against-donald-trump.html">Link</a></b>.Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-55523377422893984782017-10-30T09:53:00.002-05:002017-10-30T10:34:21.372-05:00New chapter - first indictmentsNine months from inauguration, the first "criminal" shoe drops. The next year is going to suck worse than the last one for the country. Count 1: "Conspiracy against the United States". <br />
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Pdf of indictment <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015f-6d73-d751-af7f-7f735cc70000"><b>here</b></a>.<br />
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UPDATE: From Facebook.<br />
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Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-37512179140042158182017-10-27T07:08:00.001-05:002017-10-27T07:08:12.299-05:00Keep an eye on the ballFrom LawFare: "<b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/irrelevance-trump-dossier">The (Ir)relevance of the Trump “Dossier</a>” </b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"One important point is sometimes lost in the discussion. The dossier itself played absolutely no role in the coordinated intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in our election."</i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-59532488285834537082017-10-25T09:37:00.000-05:002017-10-25T09:39:49.758-05:00GOP reckoning<div>
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The reckoning within the GOP has momentum, thank goodness. Silent or otherwise complicit Senate Republicans are now all Trump Republicans. <b> <a href="https://www.axios.com/republicans-prefer-trump-flake-corker-2501215799.html?utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=organic">Link</a></b>. The crazies must be defeated. </div>
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Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-18860236817773830262017-10-24T15:50:00.000-05:002017-10-24T15:56:19.766-05:00Flake quits <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/24/flake-retiring-after-2018-244114">Flake announces retirement as he denounces Trump</a></b><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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If Flake's floor speech — and retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker's scathing criticism of the president earlier Tuesday — was any indication, Trump could be in for a long year of vocal opposition from prominent members of his own party before they leave the Senate. </i></blockquote>
Flake will be treated kindly by the history books. He never endorsed Trump, and later wrote a book repudiating everything Trump. Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-56529296345822026762017-10-24T10:05:00.002-05:002017-10-24T13:23:51.542-05:00More CorkerCorker <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/corker-trump-photo-op-tax-plan/index.html"><b>continues his assault</b></a> on Trump this morning.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"I think the things that are happening right now that are harmful to our nation, whether it's the breaking down of . . . relationships we have around the world that have been useful to our nation," he said. "But I think at the end of the day, when his term is over, I think the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth telling, just the name-calling ... I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for, and that's regretful."</i></blockquote>
"Debasement of our nation." That sums it up perfectly. <br />
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UPDATE: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/us/politics/trump-corker-feud-dog-catcher.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0"><b>NY Times</b></a>. "Mr. Corker, who supported Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election, told CNN on Tuesday that he would not do that again."Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-347021282206407772017-10-24T09:22:00.001-05:002017-10-24T09:38:31.480-05:00McCain and Corker v. TrumpSenator McCain and Senator Corker, both liberated of any reelection concerns, have opened a two-front Republican battle with Trump on terms that Trump understands - personal digs.<br />
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McCain essentially <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mccain-blasts-vietnam-war-bone-spur-deferments-apparent/story?id=50652450"><b>called Trump a coward</b></a><b> </b>with his recent comments about deferments during Vietnam for "bone spurs" without mentioning Trump by name. <br />
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Corker went further. <br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AlertTheDaycareStaff?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AlertTheDaycareStaff</a></div>
— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenBobCorker/status/922807083526914049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Now there are at least two in open revolt against Trump in the ranks of Senate Republicans. When will it be 10? 20? The sooner the better, for the sake of the country. Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-59340203096055399202017-10-24T00:45:00.000-05:002017-10-24T00:55:33.260-05:00End of blog hibernationMy last post here was more than 3 years ago. That post (just below) shared information about the incredible growing menace of ISIS. Just last week, the retaking of Raqqa marked the end of ISIS' territorial "Caliphate". A lot can happen in 3 years.<br />
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The next 3 years are going to have incredibly lasting historical significance. Trump is a runaway train and it seems to me that complete derailment is almost inevitable before 2021.<br />
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The blog is open again, and for at least the next 3 years.Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-84850427175500642392014-09-03T09:34:00.002-05:002014-09-03T09:57:10.742-05:00The enemy of our time<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XhPX9oQphdU" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Obama today said <b><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/216473-we-will-not-be-intimidated">the right words.</a></b> It is time for the full force of the United States to be deployed to eliminate this barbaric scourge.
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<blockquote>
<i>"We will not be intimidated," Obama said during a joint press conference in Estonia. "Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists. And those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget, and that our reach is long and that justice will be served."</i>
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UPDATE: I never thought that I would say this, but <b><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/03/rand-paul-time-to-destroy-isis-militarily/">Rand Paul is making sense</a></b>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Rand Paul is often labeled by his critics an isolationist, but the Republican senator from Kentucky is now calling on President Obama to outline plans to use the military to “destroy” the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“If I were President, I would call a joint session of Congress,” Paul told the Associated Press. “I would lay out the reasoning of why ISIS is a threat to our national security and seek congressional authorization to destroy ISIS militarily.” </i></blockquote>
Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980675.post-80778126375386757292014-05-22T09:39:00.000-05:002014-05-22T10:34:40.874-05:00Fenton - RIP (2005 - 2014)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOeW2zvuDwqwCaTO2OkyUdGCll-b_D7C7o9N_FxVI41C7nUMxQQlK0L3wOOWKKUwqDYKLxgfe8niZguRW8ZY4rTDThuvok0KnQcDt0yxGgXZaEolvbd1_7ChI6L5NCwc1yLWPNTA/s1600/Fenton.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOeW2zvuDwqwCaTO2OkyUdGCll-b_D7C7o9N_FxVI41C7nUMxQQlK0L3wOOWKKUwqDYKLxgfe8niZguRW8ZY4rTDThuvok0KnQcDt0yxGgXZaEolvbd1_7ChI6L5NCwc1yLWPNTA/s1600/Fenton.jpeg" /></a></div>
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As perfect of a dog as one could hope to meet, much less to own, has gone to dog heaven.<br />
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Fenton -- who was technically my son's dog -- got very sick in December 2013. We took him to the U of M Vet Hospital and were given a dire diagnosis (cancer) and two options: (1) immediate surgery, with a significant risk that he would die on the operating table because of his weak condition, or (2) immediate euthanasia. After soliciting the opinions of everyone in the family and because the dog was not in obvious pain, my son rejected the options presented and decided that we should take Fenton home and let him pass there. <br />
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For a few days at home, Fenton hardly moved or ate, and he was unable to go outside to take care of business so our floor was covered in rugs and absorbing pads. I bought 12 cans of soft cat food to entice him to eat, and my wife noted that I had probably overbought, a sad thought with which I could not disagree.<br />
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Then, something remarkable happened. Fenton got his appetite back, and ate 6 of those cans of cat food in a span of minutes. Soon, he was getting up to go outside. It wasn't long before I was headed to the store to buy another 40 pound bag of his regular dry food. <br />
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By mid-January, he was strong enough for us to reconsider surgery, and a six pound tumor the size a soccer ball was eventually removed from his spleen. He recovered quickly and, within a couple of weeks, he was back to his old self. But we were warned that the cancer would return eventually and probably suddenly, so we should enjoy every day with him.<br />
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Fenton did well for several months until one day in early May when he could not get up. Soon thereafter, he stopped eating. As predicted, the cancer was back with a vengeance. Within a couple of days, after he started showing signs of struggling with respiratory failure, we reluctantly decided that the time had come.<br />
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We made arrangements for a vet to come to our house for the procedure. Two hours before the appointed hour, Fenton pulled off a final remarkable feat: He got himself up to go outside. He struggled to the yard on a beautiful sunny day and laid down for the last time. For two hours my wife and son sat with him in the yard, enjoying final moments together.<br />
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When the vet arrived, he was very respectful as he went over the paperwork with my son, who bravely provided the signature authorizing the procedure. The procedure was done in our front yard and, when it was over, my son stood at attention while Fenton was loaded in the vet's car. After the vet left, my son had a private moment of silence at Fenton's place of death in the yard. It was all very moving. <br />
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All dogs are special in their own way, but Fenton was really special. He was regal, gentle, friendly, loving, and always so calm (unless another dog had the audacity to walk down his street). He is already deeply missed. Todd Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788285263635964397noreply@blogger.com