Have I told you what a good dog Cosmo is? He was house trained fairly quickly, and would go into his crate willingly. I don’t crate him any longer because he just doesn’t need it. I trust him implicitly.

He is not a whiner, he has never chewed on a shoe or the furniture, never destroyed my favorite anything, and never ever licked the wall or wood molding least of all chew large gaping holes into the drywall. He has never destroyed a book that I was reading or a piece of clothing that I wore.

Cosmo does not throw up in the car, and he eats his food slowly and precisely so it doesn’t upset his stomach and cause him to puke. He likes to sit very still and watch the world go by. His favorite place is the bed in the guest room which is close to the window where he lies watching his little corner of the world go by. He likes to sleep the night away at the foot of my bed or on the floor next to my bed.

Cosmo has never dug a hole (in my yard), never caused a fight at the dog park, and on the occasions that I forgot to take the garbage out … he has ignored the trash with disdain.

Dont’ get me wrong. He is not some Stepford dog its just that the difference between Cosmo and Clover is so remarkable to me. He would like nothing more to curl up next to Clover and sleep with his head resting on her. She, however, will only snuggle with me and only if SHE wants to.

Oh, and did I tell you, he can bark, too?

Cosmo doesn’t bark in the frantic, crazy, loud, insane ways that Clover does. Cosmo’s barking is planned and diabolical. If something spooks him, he will stand very still and at attention. Tail up, Head down. Looking over his shoulder to find Clover, he makes a small quiet sound that I call a “woofle.” Sometimes, you can hardly hear it if you’re not paying close attention. Not quite a bark and not really a growl either. Its a low sound that sounds like “errrr woooooof.”

There is method to his maddness! He woofles to get Clover’s attention … and then the big mouth takes over the real job of barking, and he backs up and let’s her take the lead. Its kind of like he’s saying, “Hey, Clover … check it out!.”  Its the dog equivalent of ringing the neighbor’s doorbell and running off and hiding in the bushes.

Casey and Kelly were litter mates. I was living at home when my sister’s dog had a litter of puppies. For some very strange reason, my dad said, “Let’s get a puppy.” He told me to choose, and I grabbed up the “moose” of the bunch – Casey. A few weeks later, dad came home with Kelly. They were mostly outside dogs … sleeping on the patio and spending countless hours in the backyard. For some strange reason, my mom never really liked them much (or so it seemed to me anyway). I think she hated the idea of two big dogs messing up things around her new house.

Casey loved to swim. Kelly not so much. I used to take Casey down to the Intracoastal to swim in the Indian River … I would float out on a tube or mattress and she would swim around in circles barking at the birds. A couple of times, I thought she was headed for the inlet with a plan to swim to China. She would dive down to inspect the riverbed and on occasion would come up with an oyster!

I took Kelly to the river a couple of times. She liked to wade and dig holes in the sand. One time, she went out a little too far and sank like a lead balloon. After that, she stayed close to the shore.

My favorite story about these two dogs goes back to when they were about 2-years-old. It was about 3 a.m. and I woke up to the sound of frantic barking. You know, the kind that sets your hair on fire. Both my mom and I jumped out of bed and met in the hallway … she looked as concerned as I was. Back then, the dogs slept on the screened patio with the door to the fenced yard open so they could go out when needed. Mom opened the door to the patio, and Casey ran in the house. The yard light showed Kelly in the back yard acting very strangely. I went out to see what the problem was and I noticed she had a tail hanging from her mouth. When she finally stopped dancing around, I was able to grab her, and pry her mouth open. I shook her head to get her to drop whatever was in her mouth. Shake, shake, shake. Out popped a wet and slimy baby opossum. At that point, Kelly went a little nuts again, and I grabbed her by the back of the neck and tossed her into the patio and slammed the door. Picked up the little guy on a shovel and tossed him over the fence. A few minutes later .. he shook his head … and ran for the bushes.

Both dogs have been gone now for a few years now. Casey (the yellow one) had some severe medical problems and had to be euthanized. About a year later, Kelly (the red one) died after being given a steak bone (by a neighbor). We think that the bone was just too brittle and sharp and pierced her stomach or intestines. They were about 9 or 10 years old. Kelly was dad’s favorite and even though he has Misty now, he still misses that old red retriever.

What can I say? This guy loves to play in puddles, too!

Cosmo here. Thought I would give a shout out to update you on the latest news. I am sad.

Just when I let my guard down … she did it again. Up at the crack of dawn, dry yucky kibble and a bowl of water for breakfast and I’m not even awake yet … a quick run around the backyard … and we were scooped up and tossed into the back seat of the truck. Damn. I knew something was up when all of our stuff started coming out of the closet and piling up in the garage. Then, the pile in the garage, including the bag with my favorite pink octopus, disappeared when I wasn’t looking.

Clover seems to be taking all of this in stride. I am upset. I can’t think straight. I love my person, and I love my Clover, but I really like the old people and Misty, too. The weather is really nice here and the yard is so big! Plus, the old guy slips me the occasional tidbit under the table when no one is looking.

The only comfort is that all of our stuff .. including my octopus and stuffed penguin are in the truck with us. Thank goodness it all fit in the back back because I did not want to sit on top of all that junk for two days. I hope she forgot the kibble.

Update: We stayed at a hotel in North Carolina last night. It smelled strange, but it was clean. I ate a baked potato for dinner and drank a big bowl of water. Walked twice around the hotel a couple of times. Pee’d on some strange looking bushes. Can’t poop in public with an audience so I’m holding it until we get home. Clover slept the whole night on the other bed all by herself. Not sure why. I had a really hard time falling asleep, but eventually I nodded off. The people upstairs were noisy clod hoppers. Slept on the bed with the person and my blankie. I have the stinkies. Clover and the person snored.

Up before the sun. Water. Passed on the kibble. Pee’d on the bushes. She tried to poison me with something called Corn Flakes. Bleck. Where’s my potato?

Next stop – home.

My dad and I have just spent the better part of an hour arranging and rearranging, packing and re-packing the truck with all of the stuff that I bought over the last two weeks.

My original plan was to bring more stuff to my parents than I was going to take back. Yeah, well that worked out well. Not!

The only things I have left to load into the truck are the computer, my purse, and, oh yeah, two very large labrador retrievers. Not a bad job if I say so myself.

They have both been pacing back and forth between the garage and the living room to the bedroom. They definitely know when a road trip is in their future, and I don’t imagine I’ll get much sleep tonight, either.

Family of Sand Hill Cranes hanging out at the lake down the street.

In keeping with the theme of family pets from the past, I thought I would post this picture.

This photo was taken in 1965. I am on the right ( age 8 ) and my sister on the left ( age 4 ) with Cleo in the middle ( age 4 months ).

Eventually, Cleo became my mom’s dog, but we loved her anyway.

She liked to sit on the window sill (like a cat!) and look out the window. She also loved to play with balloons knocking them around with her nose.

She loved car rides, and later in life, she took great satisfaction in barking at me when I tried to sneak out of the house or into the house after curfew without being noticed.

I just bought a scanner, and have spent the better part of the day going through old photos that I want to preserve digitally. I have a stack of photos of babies, weddings, christenings, and family pets. (I am finding it very odd that we don’t seem to have any pictures of my sister as a small infant or toddler. That story about the gypsy is starting to make sense.) There are a lot of photos of vacation places and people that no one can seem to identify, too.

I thought I would share this photo of my dad’s dog, Spotty. Dad said that for about 5 or 6 summers when he was young, his mom would send him to stay with the Dougherty family in Long Beach (New York). At the end of one summer, he brought Spotty home with him. So, by doing some calculations, this is a picture of Spotty as a puppy in 1937. The location is Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights (Queens) New York. Dad said this empty lot was across the street from their house.

Spotty was mostly Boston Terrier, and my dad said she was a great dog. She loved to do the terrier thing, and was a wonderful rat/mouse catcher.

Update: I just found a second photo (on the right) of my dad with Spotty which looks to be taken winter 1937 or 1938. Now, am I the only that thinks its strange that even the tilt of the photo is the same as the other? with the same background? it looks like both photos were taken in the exact same spot!

Cosmo was a very unremarkable (in the destruction department), totally wonderful, easily trained, and extremely lovable puppy (still is). He was such a welcome change from the puppy period known as “Clover Crazies”. The big difference between Cosmo and Clover as puppies? I crate trained Coz. For the first year, his home was the big crate in the kitchen. He stayed in the crate when I was out of the house, and at night when I slept. He went willingly into the crate and I really do believe that this made the difference between calm and normal, and strangely crazy and anxious.

He is a picky eater but as long as I mix a “little something” into the food, whether it is vegetables or a teaspoon of cheerios or wet dog food, it doesn’t matter. He thinks its special and therefore it gets eaten. Plain old dry food is usually passed up with a modicum of disdain. And, if I don’t move quick enough, Clover will swoop in and eat what Coz doesn’t. He is a very slow eater, too. He takes the dry food out of his bowl .. spreads it around on the floor .. then eats one piece at a time. All the while, Clover paces back and forth whining and worrying whether he’s ever going to finish, or if he’s going to leave something behind.

Cosmo’s contribution to the barking decibels in my house consist of things I call woofles … kind of a low woof … and that is more than enough, really. He woofles, gets Clover’s attention, she goes nuts, and he sits back and let’s her make most of the noise. Don’t get me wrong, Cosmo knows how to bark, and when the German shepherd across the street is out playing frisbee, Cosmo wants the whole world to know. When he finally does let loose his bark rattles the windows.

Mostly, he just likes playing with Clover. He will nibble at her heels to get her to chase him .. ahh, the joy of the chase. Cosmo likes to do the chasing or be chased as long as he can run. And Clover will happily oblige.

I made this garden totem for my mom with some old chipped teapots found at either the thrift store, a church rummage sale, or out in the garage. Both parents liked it a lot and when the glue dried, I put it out in the back yard. Cosmo pee’d on it. And, Clover barked at it. It now resides in the front yard out of the sight of the dogs. (Total Cost: $2.69)

I’m working on another one for my own enjoyment, and will try and post a picture very soon.

Click on the link to see my new Rosie the Robot Garden Totem!

Man-o-Man do I miss these fresh veggies at this time of the year in Virginia. It will be months before we can find tomatoes that look this good at the local farmer’s market. Here are some photos from the local vegetable stand on US 1 in Wabasso, Florida. The Jong family has run this stand for as long as I can remember. The matriarch, affectionately called “Mama San” is not around much these days. Mom told me she had a stroke a couple of years ago. But, as also told by my mom, who really does know pretty much everyone in the area, she put all of her children and subsequently some of the grand-children through college all funded by this wonderful little fruit and veg stand.

The bottom photos are from the newly-reopened Hale’s Groves. There are apparently no Hales involved with the grove anymore, but it looks like the business is back picking and packing fresh citrus. A couple thousand acres of oranges is preferable to a couple hundred more McMansions, in my opinion. And, as you can see, they are still squeezing fresh juice, too. When we were there, the juice was Valencia oranges, and the samples are still free.

When we got home from shopping, I shared a navel orange with Clover. She loves oranges, but not so much grapefruit. Cosmo licked it, took it from my hand, and promptly spit it out. Clover scooped it up! Should have named her Hoover.

Here you have a close-up photo of Misty – also known as The Hairy Beast!

This lovely Golden Retriever belongs to my parents and she is Clover and Cosmo’s best friend.

They bark, they run, they play.

Good dogs.

Below is a very common sight. Cosmo and Misty playing with one of the 1,000 stuffed animals that my mom has collected for the “kids” to play with. They’re everywhere. Looks like a toy store exploded in the living room.

Did I also mention that while Misty and Cosmo play … Clover Barks!

We were hauled out of our nice warm beds Sunday morning before the sun came up. It was cold and rainy and I really wanted to go back to bed. The person left us in the back yard while she put a bunch of stuff in the truck. When she was done loading everything, she came back for me and Cosmo.

We were held captive in the back seat of the truck for hours and hours. My head hurts from the pounding of the rain, and I just knew it was going to start with the thunder and lightning any minute.

Hmm. Love the smell of coffee – but she wont’ let me have any. She did give me a piece of her biscuit sandwhich that the nice lady under the yellow arches gave her through the window. Like those ladies at the window a lot!

Cosmo stretched out in the back seat and he took up so much room. I hate that. Why can’t he just stay on his side of the truck and let me have my side? Noooo. He had to stretch out and no matter where I sat, he had to touch me.

I sat up for a couple of hours looking out the window. I just knew it was going to start thunder and lightning any time. I stayed awake and alert so I could bark at the storm if I had to.

I was so sleepy, but I couldn’t close my eyes. Stayed alert in case SHE stopped the truck and I got a chance to get out and walk around. I sure needed to stretch.

The person’s favorite place to make a “pit stop” is a restaurant called Cracker Barrel. She says the bathrooms are usually clean, not that I would ever know because I have to stay in the truck. They always have a nice patch of grass around their restaurants and there are always a lot of people around too. Cosmo gets to go for his walk first because he is so impatient. When he gets in the back seat, then I get to go. Sometimes, he doesn’t like to get back in the truck, so the person has to pick his ass up and shove him in. He doesn’t like that, but I think its funny! We repeated this exercise a couple of times during the day .. always in the rain. There is a funky smell in the truck … you know … a wet person smell. Ugh.

I finally was able to push Cosmo off to the side and get a spot of the back seat for myself. He was snoring. The person was singing along to some song on the radio, and it was still raining. Stayed alert.

Usually when we make a road trip to visit the old folks and my friend Misty, a.k.a.: The Hairy Beast, in Florida, we stay one night in a hotel in South Carolina or Georgia. I don’t mind it much as long as it is quiet and clean. If it is noisy then I get nervous and bark a lot. But this day, it seemed like we weren’t stopping and were going to drive all the way. Oh my gosh! What was she thinking! It was still raining and we wanted out of the truck!

Hours and hours passed and we were still in the truck. It was dark out by now, and of course, it was still raining. I was so hungry and tired of being in the truck all day. I couldn’t sleep a wink because I just knew it was going to start with the thunder and lightning any minute.

What do you know? She finally slowed the truck down and it looked like we were getting off the highway. Hmmm. She rolled the window down and I could smell the Florida air. It smelled very familiar. It was still raining, but not that bad anymore. I could tell – we were almost there!

Ahhhhhh. We made it. Door flung open. We jump out and run to the front door of the house where the old folks and the Hairy Beast live. The rain was still coming down and I could hear the frogs chirping all around us. I didn’t care. I was just so glad to get out of that damned truck.

Clover & Cosmo’s Favorite Dog Biscuits

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup low sodium beef, chicken or veggie broth

1/2 cup dry (powdered) milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 large egg

3 cups whole-wheat flour

Directions:

• Combine all of the ingredients except the flour in a large bowl and mix well.
• Mix in the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Mix well until a dough ball forms.
• Take the dough ball and knead a few times.
• Use rolling pin, and roll out dough to about 1/4″ thickness.
• If you have a cookie cutter in the shape of a dog bone – great! But any shape will do (dogs won’t care) and if you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can use a knife to cut the dough into any size that you want.
• Spray the cookie sheet with Pam or another type of cooking spray — don’t load it on — just a nice light quick spray.
• Bake in preheated oven at 325 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes. Then turn the oven off, but leave the dog biscuits in the oven for another couple of hours. This will help dry the biscuits out and make them crunchy!

Substitutions:

• I have substituted olive oil for margarine with ok results. Measure out the amount and add it gradually untill the dough comes together.
• If you don’t have whole wheat flour, you can use white flour. And, if you are cleaning out the cupboards, you could mix any combo of white, wheat, or rye flours. Just leave out the corn meal (allergies and digestion issues).
• Bisquick or prepared packaged biscuits or pancake mixes WILL NOT WORK.
• You can always make these even more healthy by using organic!

Before my own rescue of Cosmo took place, I talked to one of the coordinators for the rescue events sponsored by the local Lab Rescue group. Nice lady – she suggested I bring Clover along to their next event in case I fell in love with a puppy or dog at the event, that way we could see if they were compatible. Their event is always well attended and very organized. This one was in the back of Weber’s Pet Supermarket in Fairfax, Virginia.

They like you to go and check in at their welcome table and talk to a coordinator who can point you toward a dog that might be what you are looking for. With Clover in tow, I walked around the parking lot and talked with a couple of foster parents. What an amazing group of selfless people and some wonderful dogs, too.

As we walked around and stopped to talk with folks, and meet the dogs up for adoption, I spoke with a couple of other people that were there looking to adopt also. One couple kind of walked with me from spot to spot asking me questions about Clover. Her age, her temperment, etc. They thanked me for answering all of their questions. Nice people. I then noticed that they were over at the adoption table talking to one of the volunteers and pointing at Clover. It took me a minute to realize that they were trying to adopt my dog! The coordinator came over and asked me to bring Clover to the adoption table so they could fill out the papers as this very nice couple wanted to take “my dog” home with them.

I looked at the woman and smiled, smiled to the nice couple, and told them she was my dog and she wasn’t for adoption. I explained that I brought her with me in case we met another dog that WE wanted to adopt. The couple was only mildly annoyed, and the woman laughed, and they went on to talk to a foster parent with a nice black lab.

The kicker? The coordinator blasted me in front of about 20 people and asked me to leave! Now, this was obviously not the same person I spoke with on the telehone who told me to bring Clover with me, and I explained to her that I was told to bring my dog with me. She got all huffy with me and told me that I had a heck of a nerve bringing such a beautiful and well-behaved dog to their event …. Because Clover made their dogs look bad. What the hell?

I felt like Steve Martin in the scene from the movie “The Lonely Guy” when he goes to the restaurant and asks for a table:

• -Hi. Do you have a table for dinner?
• -Certainly, sir. How many in your party?
• -I’m alone.
  
• -Alone?
• – [Nervous chuckle]
• - Follow me, sir.
• – This way, sir.
• – Thank you.
• – Would you care for a cocktail, sir?
• – Yes, i’d like a “todka and vonic. “
• – A todka and vonic?
• - Yes.
• – [Laughs] Very good, sir.
• – Oh, and, captain?
• – Could you turn out the spotlight, please?
  
• - Certainly.
• – And could everybody go back to talking?

Their loss turned out to be my gain because if I had adopted that day, I would never have found my wonderful little guy Cosmo.

I wonder if that woman worked for Sears? (See post called “Bad Sears, Bad Bad Sears.”)

Lisa Ling investigates Puppy Mills on the Oprah Show today, April 4, 2008.

Check it out. You will never look at that puppy in the window the same way again.

Not for the faint-hearted. Here is a link to Oprah’s Web Page or click on the icon to the left.

This entry is a little out of order and really doesn’t have anything to do with my dogs. Sometimes, a person just needs to vent!

It all started before I moved into the new house. I spent a small fortune at Sears for new appliances. A new range, microwave with vent hood, refrigerator, washer/dryer combo. I measured all of the spaces for the new appliances and went to Sears where I spent hours running back and forth from each department to choose, check availability, pay individually, and then back again to line up deliveries. It seems that the washer/dryer people, the range people, and the refrigerator people are all separate sales “floors” and I wanted everything delivered the same day so I wouldn’t have to pay multiple delivery charges. I ran back and back and back and forth to make sure that I could get the same delivery date for all of the appliances. Why the hell you couldn’t just walk around with one sales clerk and say, “I want that one, and that one, and that one, and I want them all delivered on Thursday before 2 p.m” is way beyond me.

When the delivery came a couple of weeks later, the delivery guys took out the old decrepit washer/dryer and hauled it to the truck and then proceeded to unload my brand new washer/dryer combo. When they took it off the back of the truck it was obvious there was a problem. The box was squashed on the top! Now, you can’t tell me that that was done en route because something had obviously fallen on top of the dryer to squash it that way. Why the hell did they load it for delivery in that condition? It had to go back. They also didn’t want to take the old one off the premise but they didn’t want to put it back either. They finally loaded the old appliance on the truck and told me they would call with a delivery date/time for a new (unsquashed) washer/dryer.

About a week later, they deliver the new washer/dryer and it doesn’t fit. Even though I had given them the space dimensions to the salesman, when he measured the new washer/dryer he didn’t take into consideration the space needed at the back to run the dryer hose so it wouldn’t kink up. So with that added couple of inches, the 2nd w/d didn’t fit. So, back it goes to Sears.

Up to this point, I had not moved into the house yet and every time I had a delivery scheduled I had to get my ass out of bed and spend 45 minutes or more in traffic to get to the empty house and wait for the delivery people.

They brought me the 3rd washer/dryer a week later (now almost three weeks later. I am now moved into the house and its Christmas and I have a house full of family and we’re washing our clothing in the bath tub and its too cold to hang anything to dry unless you want frozen clothes.

The refrigerator? I paid for them to install the ice maker, but never could get them to schedule a plumber. $100 down the drain.

The stove? They installed it incorrectly with the plug/power cord bent over itself when the stove was pushed into place. It caused an arc in the power cord which promptly melted and eventually burned. The stove was only 4 months old when it went kaput! I asked SEARS to replace it, but they said no it was covered under the warranty and they would send out a repairman. The first visit of the repair man took 2 weeks to schedule. Guy came out and said, “don’t got the part, got to order it.” So he did, it took another 2 weeks to get the part, and another two weeks to re-schedule the repairman to come out and fix it. So, NO STOVE for over 6 weeks.

The microwave hood? It was back-ordered (even though I had been told it was in stock) and took about 6 weeks before it was installed.

And not once did the appliance department(s) manager(s) return any of my calls. I didn’t make a pest of myself, but I called each department’s manager and left a couple of calls over the course of more than 6 weeks. I even went down to the store twice to try and get someone to sort out the washer/dryer & stove problems. No one was ever available to talk to me …. “sorry, they’re all busy.” A totally miserable experience.

I got a call about six months ago from Sears wanting to sell me a maintenance plan for my appliances .. I laughed so hard I couldn’t even form a sentence. I hung up.

If you don’t believe me on how badly Sears Sucks … Google it. You will be amazed! And for some strange reason, I feel an odd kinship with all of those people who have blogged about their Sears experiences. I get great enjoyment in the fact that I have talked three five different people from buying new appliances at Sears. They shopped at Best Buy and were extremely happy.

I had been thinking about getting another dog for quite some time. Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to help Clover with her anxiety issues. But really? It was for me, too. I went to adoption events sponsored by local rescue groups, including the local Lab Rescue. I came “this close” to adopting a “really cute lab mix pup” from a group in West Virginia. This little guy had been found in a ditch near the golf course and the lady trying to place him said he was absolutely the cutest thing in the world. (Aren’t they all?) Kind of glad I was not able to get up to West Virginia that weekend, because that cute “little” lab mix turned out to be a full-blooded Newfoundland Dog. I heard later that at 6 months he weighed almost 80 lbs! Don’t get me wrong, I think Newfies are wonderful dogs, but I just don’t have the space for a dog that big.

I found Cosmo on Craigslist over the Christmas/New Year Holiday. It appeared to me right off that the woman who placed the ad was totally clueless about dogs/puppies. She told me that she had purchased the puppy for $300 as a gift for her little girl for Christmas (Hello! Big Mistake!) and that over the holidays she had to move into a new apartment that didn’t take pets. The second time I talked with her she told me her little boy was allergic to the dog. Third time I talked to her she told me she wanted to recoup the price she paid for him and would “give” him to me for $300. It was obvious to me that there was a whole lot of lies being told, but each time I talked with the woman, she sounded more frantic. The thing is, I kept thinking that this woman was scamming me somehow. Did she have a basement full of puppies that she was trying to unload? or did she steal it? Or, was she as totally clueless as she appeared?  

I told the woman on the phone that I had no intention of giving her any money for the puppy, and I was very surprised when she said I could just have him. “Well, you don’t take him, I’ll just dump him at the Pound.” I agreed. My first thought was to get a good look at it and see if it was healthy and help find it another home (yeah, right). We agreed to meet and within minutes Clover and I were off to look at the little guy. The woman pulled into the parking lot in a very beat up Ford station wagon that looked like it was held together by some spit and a whole lot of prayers. She practically jumped out of the car, reached into the back seat, took out a small animal carrier, opened it, and grabbed this cute little black puppy and thrust him at me. The pup was only 6 weeks old and he weighed about 7 pounds. He felt like a little bony thing, and his coat was very lackluster. But the cutest face! I was hooked.

She was very surprised when I reached into my pocketbook and handed her $80. She jumped back in the car, hit the gas and took off for places unknown. I took the puppy straight to the veterinarian.

The rest is history.

I read this article by Ellen Knickmeyer in the Washington Post when it was first printed on December 26, 2007. Its still on my mind, and it still annoys me. I reiterate – some people should not have pets.

Here is a link if you would like to read about Wiley’s adventures from Senegal to Baghdad to Oklahoma.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/25/AR2007122501133_pf.html