Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

The dogs are not doing anything interesting (Looks of horror from Axe and Freya: What could she mean? We are always absolutely fascinating! Even when we are just lying around looking cute!) and nothing much happened today (well, that’s not quite true, but I don’t have photos yet of the fix-up to our front-yard planter bed). So just a few comments from me on a couple of current news items.

First, the sad and horrible story of grave desecrations for profit at Burr Oak Cemetery. Four former cemetery employees were involved in a scheme where existing burial plots were re-sold and the rightful occupants were dug up and dumped elsewhere on cemetery property. To add to the nightmare, this is a very old cemetery, records are in disarray, and it is possible that not all remains can be positively identified. Following are some links to coverage from the Chicago Tribune over the last few days:

Burr Oak court document paints gruesome picture
Cops: Cemetery Workers Dug Up Bodies, Resold Plots
FBI Sets Up Command Center At Burr Oak

I would like to say I can’t imagine this happening to our family, but the truth is that I can. My maternal grandmother is buried in a very old municipal cemetery in Honolulu. The quality of upkeep by the city and county has deteriorated over the years, even though like Burr Oak, the cemetery has occupants and monuments of historical significance. The cemetery where my Uncle Ted is buried has gone through a bankruptcy. I have to wonder what might happen in the future at both places.

Some lawsuits have been filed and while I am not usually a fan of lawsuits as the solution to everything, I really object to some of the stupid comments I’ve seen on those stories, mostly accusing the people suing of not caring about their families, just about the money, since they “obviously” hadn’t visited the gravesites recently. Forget about how unspeakably rude it is to judge how someone else remembers their deceased loved ones. Practically speaking, as someone who lives far from where my deceased family members are buried, I go to the cemeteries once or twice a year. If something like this happened there, it could easily happen between my visits, and not because of my perceived lack of caring.

EDITED 8/19/09: Since there are still visits here searching for information, I’ve just added this link to the Cook County Sheriff’s Burr Oak Cemetery Information website, where a searchable database of headstones is now available, as well as other information for those who have family members buried there:
http://www.burroak.net/

Next item: Chicago police dog Bear goes missing again

K-9 Bear escaped from his yard during a thunderstorm a couple of months ago and was found and returned within a few days. Awww, good deal, feel-good and all that. Not so cute and no good feeling to hear that he escaped again.

Now some of you might think that since Axe got out of the yard a few days ago, I must be a big giant jagoff to criticize someone else for their dog’s escape.

Well, I am not a professional dog trainer or handler. My dog was off our property and out of my control for about a minute before he was back in my hands, because I was out there with him. He did not jump over a fence that was known to be too low; he charged through a gate that someone else had unclipped. Know that since that night, I have not gone out the door with him without checking that clip first.

Is it that hard to put a top on your dog’s outdoor run, or for that matter, just to stand out there with him, if he has an escape artist history? There are supposedly other issues, like another dog in the household that doesn’t get along with Bear. Sorry, been there too. Jake and Oscar had to be kept separated for all five years that they both lived here. They were both house dogs. When one was loose, the other was crated. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but we made it work. They both lived long and mostly happy lives and never did get the opportunity to harm each other.

I do hope Bear is found and returned, and I hope his handler does the right things this time to keep him safe in the future.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 13 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 170 of 274)