Process Essay #9 Three Step Process to Attaining my Three Dogs

As previously stated, my love for animals is relatively new, probably within the past five years. We have three Maltepoo’s. A Maltepoo is a Maltese and toy poodle mix. They are only breed once, which means maltepoo offspring are not allowed to breed. The journeys of their arrival into our home are not more than 24 months apart. We do not have any children living with us now that help take care of the dogs. We are our own little family; we have certainly grown on each other, and learned a lot about each other’s personalities. The unconditional love they return to us far outweighs the demand they are on our time. For this reason I can’t be sure we aren’t going to go spontaneously go get yet another dog from our breeder. We seem to be old hats at it by now.

The first step in finding our first dog led us to finding our breeder. ATender1’s Puppies came highly recommended from the friend who also had the first Maltepoo we had ever seen. When people hear the word breeder visions of run down puppy mills and deplorable conditions in which puppies and dogs of all ages are forced to live come to mind. Just because she has a nice looking website, a license and she is an inspected breeder within the State of Maine does nothing to quench that vision in my head. So we took a drive to Norway one day in to see for ourselves. We found out a lot about our breeder that day, and have since become very good friends. Just an important though we found out a lot about the breed that day. They are do not have an undercoat so they are non-shed, they don’t usually get bigger than ten pounds, and they like to bark. They have great personalities and love people of all ages. Truly to this day I don’t know how we were able to leave her home that day without a puppy.

The second step was finding a good vet because of the intense aftercare we needed to provide, as stated in our signed contract from the breeder, which had to commence by the fifth day we had our puppy at home. This important step obviously had to take place before we had our puppy. We were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find a good vet that was taking new puppy patients. Yet again, upon a wonderful friend’s reference, we were able to secure a wonderful vet. We showed him our contract and set up the necessary shot appointments and mandatory spaying of our girl that was required by the breeder. We were not interested in paying an additional 200.00 for breeding rights.

The third step was picking out a puppy, a step that involved a little backwards planning. We had to wait for dog that met our qualifications to be born. We had a three stipulations we left the breeder with, we wanted her coat to all-white Maltepoo, the dog had to be a female, and if at all possible, the runt of the litter. We gave her a standing deposit to be applied when we made our final purchase. We began a two month wait, as many male dogs or brindle colored females were born. Finally, our Gracie was born on March 8 2008. She was the only female in a litter with two other males and she was indeed the smallest in the litter. We waiting 9 weeks after her birth to go retrieve her and brought her home on Mother’s Day!

The same steps were used in acquiring all three of our dogs as they all have come from the same breeder. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it, we always say.  The question of why three dogs in my even numbered world I live in, remains unanswered. However, we acquired the second dog, for a companion to the first, and the third because everyone deserves a home at Christmas time. I have to admit even though we are friends on facebook I stay away from our breeder friend’s website because I’m afraid of what will happen when I see the photos of the newest pups that are readily available. Although it would even up the numbers for me!

Effect Essay #8 What am I?

 I can effect your mood, relieve stress, lower your blood pressure, while being extremely contagious. At the same time I've been known to boost your immune system and even release endorphins to make you feel fabulous. I come in many shapes and sizes with too many motives to list. Due to my flexibility factors, I can be cracked with little effort and quickly widen to an almost breaking point. Don't underestimate my effects I don't have to be used all the time or last a long time to be as powerful as I am. I have no shame in who I use to accomplish my survival.

Today as I left a homeless man that was walking down the street, I remembered it was the first time he had used me in years. Deep inside himself he was completely convinced he was done using me. But I showed him who was boss when someone passed him a hundred dollar bill. He was using me again just like old times. As he walked down the street his head high for the first time in years. He passed me around and around like a cheap drug. I infected numerous people that day.


A recent widow walked by that day and saw my friend the homeless man. She had been married to her husband for 50 years and gave me to her husband every day without knowing how I was affecting him. He told her on his death bed, what sorrows had been drowned in me for many days of their married life, as a result of her always being ready to make sure he had me. Since his death she had stopped using me, it was no fun for her to use me now that she was alone, or so she thought. She walked towards my friend the homeless man who gave her such a contact high before passing him by, man it was good to be used by her again!


My reacquainted friend the widow, made her rejuvenated self into the hospital to attend to her duties as a volunteer. GASP! I love the hospital it is my favorite place to spread myself around. She rolled her flower buggy on to the cancer floor, the CANCER FLOOR! People with cancer love me! Slowly we rolled into room 805 where an eleven year old girl with no hair and a short time to live sat upright in bed. The look on the little girls face caused me such excitement, I knew soon I would change it for there is no immunization against me. As the flowers were passed from the widow to the little girl, their hands touched, and I leapt from the woman to the girl with no remorse. From my perspective my day couldn't get any better.


Is this an effect essay or an effective riddle? Do you know what I am, if you do, you know my effect on the homeless man, the widow, and young girl with cancer, and this essay makes perfect sense and deserves an A. If you haven't figured it out yet, then it's an awesome effective riddle. However, in the interest of a good grade however I'm sure I don't have to tell you I am a ____________.

Timed Essay #2 * describe the effects on your vehicle of the roads you drive

   I love my Yukon all 199 inches of it. It's white, it's sporty, it's safe and it's mine. It even has a nickname, Cornelius, as in Yukon Cornelius from the movie Rudolph and the Misfit Toys. I'm not ashamed to admit I have a passion concerning my truck. So tell me why oh why would I want to drive it on the roads in Downeast Maine? Can they even be classified as roads? Im pretty sure during the past five years the roads have reeked havoic on my truck.

    My new truck had brand new tires on it. The tires were so new the whiskers were still on the tires. I'm driving to work in a snowstorm in four wheel drive. I'm feeling safe and a little confident. The new car smell had barely worn off when suddenly without warning the front of my truck felt as if someone was pulling into the ditch. I couldn't imagine what was happening. I slowed to the side of the road and sure enough I had a flat tire. A flat tire on a brand new truck! How does that happen? A nail was found to be the culprit a one and a quarter inch galvanized roofing nail. Not impressed.
   My not so new truck with the not so new plugged tire, is tooling down the road on fine spring morning on my way to work. A black hole presents it's self in my distance line of site, wait a black hole? What is that? Before I could think swerve BANG! I hit it! I thought sure my bottom jaw wouldn't stop stuttering from the force of my teeth being slammed together. My cream colored coffee was on the gray ceiling and my truck didn't want to stop shimming. The rest of my ride to work my truck shook harder than a James Bond martini. One set of front end ball joints later my truck was running smooth again.
    My not so new truck with the not so new plugged tire, complete with a new set of front end ball joints and the cream colored coffee stain on the ceiling was without incident for the next three years. Then one day just like something off the pages of Murphy's Law I stepped on my brakes to slow down going around a corner and the peddle went to the floor board. So this is why we have bumpers on the front of vehicles, so when we no longer have brakes in emergency situations we can slowly come to a stop by gently nudging the poles on the side of the road. I always wondered what safety purpose the poles served. I would like to personally thank the Maine Department of Transportation for using the liquid salt slurry on the roads to protect me from icy roads. Unfortunately it also eats your brake lines and I just can't see using the salty mess as a safety measure.
    So there you have it, my not so new truck with the not so new plugged tire, complete with a new set of front end ball joints and the creme colored coffee stain on the gray ceiling with new brakes, is all geared up for more fun adventures on the Maine highways and roads or as we like to refer to them as, the salty nail beds full of black holes. Poor Cornelius will he ever be safe on the roads?

Example Essay T.O.E.

Terms of endearments have always been high on the list of things closest to my heart. Below are three of my favorite and the small history behind them. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing about them.

My husband doesn't refer to me as his old lady. The number one reason for this is beside the disrespect involved is because I am really am older than him. For all you math freaks out there that like to have numbers confirm a relationship will last. I am seven years, seven months, and fourteen days older than my husband. 7+7=14. Meant to be, see?  The first endearing premarital nickname my husband gave me was Baby. But not just Baby, he has a certain Southern-Downeast drawl to it, so to spell it the way it sounds would be something like ba yh bee. It made me smile to hear the first time and it sounded so original it just stuck. To this day it remains one of my favorite words out of his mouth. Of course once we were married, much like every other princess, I received my official title that he refers to me as "my wife" especially when talking with others about me and I'm in the conversations as well. Not my wife, Linisa, but just "my wife". Of course I balance that out nicely by referring to him as "my husband".

My husband calls me "my help meet". He shares with me that during his daily prayer time he thanks God for me. Me! This little phrase is in the Bible in Genesis 2:18 and it says "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him", It brings me a sense of honor to know that he pulls these little nuggets from the Bible and is able to use them in our marriage. Building strength in places that could go weak without reinforcement. He pays attention to even the smallest of details. He assures me in using this word "helpmeet" it means we are in this together. We will be there to help one another, to support each others decisions, and as a team not to be divided even by death. 

"My best friend." This one always makes my heart smile. You don't know my husband, but I can tell you that he has lots and lots of friends, relatives, acquaintances, customers, and people that know him he doesn't even remember. He was 29 when we met. He had a history path full of true friends, that he thinks dearly of, and they him. So for him to call me his best friend. His BFF takes my breath away! If you aren't friends first prior to being husband and wife, you can't expect a marriage of love, honesty, and faithfulness. But there is something special about really being best friends first before you are married. I can't really describe it other than I concur with him, I would give that title to no one else. 

So there you have it, three examples of terms of endearment that my husband uses for me. There are a few more but I don't want to have to wrestle you for your attention.Be complimentary and compliment your spouse. Don't be disrespectful. Thank you for letting share these three. I pray they have been an inspiration to you to treat your wife or your husband as your help meet and as your best friend.