{"id":542,"date":"2015-03-24T04:04:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T04:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=542"},"modified":"2015-03-24T04:22:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T04:22:46","slug":"marla-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html","title":{"rendered":"Marla and Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hear a rumbling in my garage. No, it’s more like the pillaging sounds of a two hundred pound man.<\/p>\n

It’s late and right now it’s just my chocolate lab Hazel and me at home. Suddenly I am quite aware of my soon to be divorced – there is no one, but me to ‘check out the intruder’ status. Of course, I am divorcing a man who once threw me in front of a doberman so that he could pass by it safely. So it might be fair to say that perhaps I was on my own before.<\/p>\n

Still…at least then there was another person in the house brave or not so brave.<\/p>\n

I should mention that I live on two acres. I should also mention that I am surrounded by fifteen acres of common ground behind my house and another fifty acres off the end of my cul de sac. Hence, I am pretty sure that what I will find in my garage is not two hundred pounds of human.<\/p>\n

I look at Hazel. She’s not really much of a fierce wingman (wing-dog). She’s more of the ‘Marley and Me” variety. All charged up and not sure where to focus. She is too cute for words (at least to this mama), but she is also chock full of ‘how bad can I be’ not ‘who can I guard.’ <\/p>\n

She digs, she steals food, she gets into trash, she decorates our yard with it, she forgets her name when she’s called, she opens doors and that just scratches the surface. Of course, she also knows how to shut doors so I will give her bragging rights to that.<\/p>\n

There was also the time we came downstairs to find her on the kitchen bar top. We were never entirely sure how she got up there without flying off the other side (guessing it would have taken quite the running jump to get up so high). We thought she might have had her way drinking down and eating ‘Michael Vick’ the fish, but he was safely intact. It’s a long story, we don’t like Vick since we are animal lovers – then he got signed by the Eagles making it a dilemma for my boys. Somehow the fish got the nickname.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the intruder. <\/p>\n

I look at Hazel and realize support or no support I gotta open the door. <\/p>\n

I inch the door open. The bulldog sized raccoon that has been enjoying a progressive dinner between me and my neighbor’s house flies back towards the wilderness.<\/p>\n

In a moment Hazel squeezes between my legs.<\/p>\n

It is a fury between the two of them. Lots of scrambling. Lots of noise. I panic, but as usual Hazel forgets her name. It seems the two hundred pound raccoon who doesn’t fear Hazel enough to enter our garage doesn’t necessarily want to hang out with her either.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later, Hazel drags herself towards the door. She is exhausted my little raccoon hunter, yet still with enough energy to seek a treat for her bravery. <\/p>\n

I sigh relief at my wing-dog’s safety. I am happy to not ‘truly’ be alone – even if Hazel does make our lives the “Marla and Me” variety.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0368\"<\/a>
\nFollow me on Facebook @Colleen Sheehy Orme
\non Twitter @colleenorme
\non Pinterest @colleensheehyorme
\nE-mail: Colleen.Sheehy.Orme@gmail.com
\nwww.colleensheehyorme.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hear a rumbling in my garage. No, it’s more like the pillaging sounds of a two hundred pound man. It’s late and right now it’s just my chocolate lab Hazel and me at home. Suddenly I am quite aware of my soon to be divorced – there is no one, but me to ‘check…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-2"],"yoast_head":"\nMarla and Me - How Great Thou Part<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marla and Me - How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I hear a rumbling in my garage. No, it’s more like the pillaging sounds of a two hundred pound man. It’s late and right now it’s just my chocolate lab Hazel and me at home. Suddenly I am quite aware of my soon to be divorced – there is no one, but me to ‘check…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-24T04:04:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-24T04:22:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/03\/IMG_0368-225x300.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen Sheehy Orme\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Marla and Me - How Great Thou Part","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Marla and Me - How Great Thou Part","og_description":"I hear a rumbling in my garage. No, it’s more like the pillaging sounds of a two hundred pound man. It’s late and right now it’s just my chocolate lab Hazel and me at home. Suddenly I am quite aware of my soon to be divorced – there is no one, but me to ‘check…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html","og_site_name":"How Great Thou Part","article_published_time":"2015-03-24T04:04:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-24T04:22:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/03\/IMG_0368-225x300.jpeg"}],"author":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html","name":"Marla and Me - How Great Thou Part","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/03\/IMG_0368-225x300.jpeg","datePublished":"2015-03-24T04:04:22+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-24T04:22:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/03\/IMG_0368-225x300.jpeg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/03\/IMG_0368-225x300.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/03\/marla-and-me.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Marla and Me"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/","name":"How Great Thou Part","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Colleen Orme","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15","name":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","description":"Born and raised in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., I often call myself a southern New Yorker, much to the dismay of my true New Yorker buddies. Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}