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Adios to my buddy Echo

Posted in Current Events on June 15th, 2021

I had to put down my old friend Echo today. No. I didn't "have" to. I elected to. His hip had been slowly going out on him for years to the point that doing anything (getting up, laying down, walking, and pooping) became a real struggle for him. He NEVER complained and always gave it his all, but his all was running out. So I had to make a call. Do I allow him to continue to live life suffering or do I play God and end his pain? And who's pain is worse? His physical pain or my pain watching him suffer? If I play God, who am I doing it for? Him or me? It's a tough call to make but I made an appointment for the following afternoon which to me was like setting an execution date without telling the "victim." ...and the next 24+ hours fucking SUCKED.

Echo was a 14 year old pure bred standard poodle that I've had since he was 9. He came from a woman that showed him and for what-ever reason, couldn't keep him any more. He was a winning show dog in his younger days. A very handsome fella. Proud of himself. His shit didn't smell.

What I never considered when adopting a former show dog, is that some of them apparently never get to be dogs, at least that seemed to be the case with Echo. He didn't really know how to play or romp around and have fun. No matter how hard my other dog tried to show him, he never understood it. Fun to him was being loved on and admired. If there's such a thing as a narcissistic dog, it would be Echo.

In his mind, he was in command. The el heffe, the alpha dog, but it was alright with him if I pretended I was in charge, probably because I knew how to drive and let him snuggle on the bed.  He was a couch hog, a truck seat hog and a bed hog, ALWAYS taking his half out of the middle. Always. He was proud and thought other dogs should respect him, stop playing and look up to him. He didn't give a shit about other humans until they demonstrated to him that they were worthy of his attention, then he may allow you to pet him. One time at a dog friendly event in town a little girl put his freshly cleaned and fluffed tail in her mouth like a lollipop while her sister petted him. He loved attention.

He was "head shy" from day one and never got over it. Neither did I. Every time I reached down to pet him he would flinch as if I was going to beat the shit out of him and it tore me up every time. He yelped (squeaked) once when I sat down on the couch with him to pet him, afraid I was going to hurt him I guess. He DID get over that and in fact learned to enjoy it.

He couldn't bark. The previous owner had his barker removed. In fact, the more I think about it, I bet it was removed just before I got him because he coughed a lot at first and hardly at all the last couple years. Because of that I always kept an eye on him especially when he was off leash because he couldn't howl, yelp or growl either if he got into trouble. His bark sounded like a cough, his yelp was a squeak, and his growl was silent but highly visible. ;) I'll tell you something about standard poodle jaws. They are fast and will whack you 3 times before you realize the first one hurt.

I sure do miss that funny dog. RIP mi amigo.

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Who were the Huguenots?

The Huguenots were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term has its origin in early-16th-century France. It was frequently used in reference to those of the Reformed Church of France from the time of the Protestant Reformation. By contrast, the Protestant populations of eastern France, in Alsace, Moselle, and Montbéliard, were mainly German Lutherans.

In his Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Hans Hillerbrand said that, on the eve of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, the Huguenot community made up as much as 10% of the French population. By 1600 it had declined to 7–8%, and was reduced further after the return of severe persecution in 1685 under Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau.

The Huguenots are believed to have been concentrated among the population in the southern and western parts of the Kingdom of France. As Huguenots gained influence and more openly displayed their faith, Catholic hostility grew. A series of religious conflicts followed, known as the French Wars of Religion, fought intermittently from 1562 to 1598. The Huguenots were led by Jeanne d'Albret; her son, the future Henry IV (who would later convert to Catholicism in order to become king); and the princes of Condé. The wars ended with the Edict of Nantes, which granted the Huguenots substantial religious, political and military autonomy.

Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s resulted in the abolition of their political and military privileges. They retained the religious provisions of the Edict of Nantes until the rule of Louis XIV, who gradually increased persecution of Protestantism until he issued the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685). This ended legal recognition of Protestantism in France and the Huguenots were forced to either convert to Catholicism (possibly as Nicodemites) or flee as refugees; they were subject to violent dragonnades. Louis XIV claimed that the French Huguenot population was reduced from about 900,000 or 800,000 adherents to just 1,000 or 1,500. He exaggerated the decline, but the dragonnades were devastating for the French Protestant community.

The remaining Huguenots faced continued persecution under Louis XV. By the time of his death in 1774, Calvinism had been nearly eliminated from France. Persecution of Protestants officially ended with the Edict of Versailles, signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, Protestants gained equal rights as citizens.