Column moving to Friday pages

By Lethbridge Herald on July 14, 2023.

LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald Managing Editor

I’m back. And it hasn’t been intentional that this column is running sporadically lately. For the last few years, it’s been printed on Saturdays but with tight space, I’ve been holding the column back and occasionally just deleting it when the content gets stale.

So I’m switching things up by making an effort to print it on Fridays where my column ran for years.

I’ll see how this works moving forward.

The last few weeks have been extremely hectic between work, the cataract surgery recovery and of course, the new puppy. And right now we’re in full vacation mode here in the newsroom with someone off virtually every week all summer. This is putting more demands on me and my new role here as managing editor.

In this role, I need to devote my time to helping my staff come up with story ideas that matter to this ever-growing community.

That staff has increased with the hiring of two Local Journalism Initiative reporters. Steffanie Costigan, as I wrote last week, has taken on a new position as crime/homelessness reporter. This will allow us to look indepth into the issues impacting our community. And doing that takes time so I’m having Steffanie take the time she needs to do all the interviews, get all the angles and get the stories that matter.

Our LJI position focused on Indigenous issues has also just been filled. Theodora MacLeod, a southern Alberta native who now lives in Edmonton, will be taking on that duty. For now she’ll mostly be working remotely out of Edmonton but will soon be back in here in Lethbridge.

Now speaking of that puppy, Izzy in many ways is the second coming of Rio now that she’s discovered her bark and wagger. For the first couple of weeks our Humane Society girl was extremely quiet and timid as she became accustomed to her new surroundings.

She didn’t let out a single sound for the first week she was in her new home, and only tentatively gave a lick.

She did, however, make herself quickly at home on both ottomans, any and all beds, and she destroyed in a few short days the stuffed toys Rio and Benson had for years. Neither dog was – or in Ben’s case, is – a toy fan but Izzy hasn’t found anything yet she hasn’t wanted to shred. Including socks and ties so I don’t dare leave anything tempting in her reach. She also has quite the nose and is regularly leaping up to get a sniff and view of whatever is on the counters. She hasn’t yet seen a wayward dog cookie she hasn’t wanted to snatch and cobble up.

Among Izzy’s shredding victims was my favourite Toronto Maple Leafs cap and a cap from Oregon my cousins Penelope and Tanya brought me as a gift when they visited recently. And silly me, I didn’t admonish Izzy for chewing a stray sock and now she thinks those are fair game, as well.

And she’s comfortable enough around the house, she’s letting her bark out at any dog or person who passes by the living room window. She’ll run to the fence and strut the perimeter growling and barking like Rio when something passes by on the other side, her hearing which is clearly as excellent as Rio’s was.

Izzy has alerted me on a couple of occasions to people walking past the house late at night when normally there hasn’t been any traffic since the nearby drug units were evicted and new tenants moved in.

She hears everything and like Ben she knows when I’m trying to sneak in a snack behind closed doors. Like Rio she’ll also just body slam open any closed door to see what she’s missing.

And Izzy now licks faces constantly with her stumpy tale wagging a mile a minute. She’s home and she knows it. Increasingly I’m wondering if there was some sort of divine intervention at play here – she seemed destined to become part of the family. While other people considered adopting her, none did until me and I think it was fate. She has so many similarities to Rio and Ben I really believe our connection was meant to be.

Like Rio, she’s not a fan other other dogs – at least not yet, although she adores Ben who she is constantly bugging to play with her. And like Ben, she is always happy to meet a new human being on our walks. She is so gentle even with little kids that I shake my head in disbelief and awe. 

No dog I’ve owned has tolerated little ones until she came home and now I finally don’t have to walk across the street and make excuses why smaller children can’t pet the dogs. Because with her they can. And even Ben is being less aloof.

Rio had so much personality that when he died, a huge void was left in the house. He was always present even when not seen because he could always be heard chewing, barking, snoring or in his final days just panting.

He’ll never be replaced and will always be missed. But Izzy is filling that void left by his departure with her own vibrant, engaging personality. And providing balance to the quiet, sensitive Ben who is finally eating again after several weeks of avoiding food and showing no interest in anything. 

Rio’s loss hit him hard but now with an energetic little sister, he’s becoming his old self again, snapping at me for attention and pushing me over so he can have his side of the couch or bed. He’s back to normal and Izzy is the reason for that.

His soulful eyes now have life in them again and while Izzy is the puppy, I’m making sure that Ben knows that he is still my baby. 

I can tell he is a bit jealous of the attention Izzy gets but she’s doing her own thing, which every morning at 4:15 means jumping on the sofa beside me, slapping my arm with a paw and snuggling tight as I check my  fantasy baseball pool, Twitter and now Threads, the newest social media app to devote time to – as if I have enough for my other apps. 

And speaking of which, I have just started a Herald Instagram account so if you have any events that we aren’t able to cover, or you want more exposure to, email us a photo and we’ll try to put in on the page to promote this fantastic community in which we all  live.