The Bridge is Love
A book of short stories.

Artmakers Worlds makes skins for
The Sims

My name is Jenny Mehlenbeck. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would bother with this page but I have to admit that I usually look at the "who is the artist" pages myself when I visit someones site. Must be sort of like looking when you pass by an accident. I'd much rather you look at my work but to satisfy the curious, (or those with really nothing better to do,) here are the boring facts.

Height: 5' 11"

Weight: eee gads, way more than I'd like! (Damn genetics!)

Age, well, lets just say I'm a child of the 60s and leave it at that.

Hobbies: Swimming, high diving, scuba, oh heck, anything to do with water.
Gardening, camping, hiking.
Raising tropical fish. In fact I'm a bit of an "expert" in this area. I love to share what I know whenever I can. Got a fish tank? Lets talk fish.

Other pets. Pet stories actually. Skip over all this if your not a pet lover.

And rather than list what I have, which changes more often than I update this page, how about a list of what I've had.

I have A Macaw named Max who loves pizza. I bought him back in 1970 something. He will probably outlive me! I had a small Amazon Lilac crested parrot for some years as well but an accident tragically killed him. He taught Max to talk before he left us though. Max talks up a streak now. Not typical for macaws.

I will always have dogs. I was raised with cats because landlords rarely allow dogs but as soon as I moved out on my own, I bought a great dane! "Basheba, Queen of the Night." She was my first baby. But she was only 4 years old when one day she just wasn't acting right. I was on my way to the car with her to take her to the vet when she dropped dead right there. Vet tells me it was a sudden, massive stroke.
I was a basket case for months.

After her, I tried again. This time I had pick of a litter of Great Danes again. Bought a gorgeous harlequin male named Bolregard. Bogie was so cool. And he could have been a champion. So smart. But he was only a year and a half old when he got bloated one day. And of course this was a holiday weekend. I thought it was simple gas but by morning he was dead.

Enough of the pure breeds for me. My next dog was a pure mutt. Some guy listed free puppies in the paper. He had a black lab and some neighbors shepherd jumped the fence and got her pregnant. All he wanted to do was get rid of the mix breed pups. Well, I told my husband we should clap. The first puppy up to investigate is probably the one we would want. Sure enough. One pup was up and untying my husbands shoes. This was the one. And a male too which we wanted. When we got home, we let our new puppy go in the yard. Duah, all it did was sit and stare stupidly. Then my husband picked it up and asked me, "I thought we picked a male." Oops! All the pups looked the same. Somehow we got the wrong one. We went back first thing in the morning, clapped and that puppy up and untying his shoes again was him. We grabbed him and "Rufus" was ours.
Some years later, Rufus got that same bloat. This time I knew how serious that could be and rushed him to the vet. He was there for three days but he pulled through just fine. I credit Bogie for teaching me to not let this go.
Without a doubt he was my best dog so far. Pretty well trained. I could walk him in Lincoln park in busy crowded Chicago off leash and he would walk right at my side. (As long as I had "THE BALL" in my hand! I had his complete attention.) Rufus went camping with us, was with us when we moved to Michigan. He was there when my son was born. He was my protector and friend for 16 years before old age finally got the best of him. I will miss him forever.

But life must go on. I learned when my first dog died to not wait. And in fact, before Rufus was too old, we got another dog. Snickers. Another lab mix mutt we saved from a shelter.

Now Snickers was a good dog too but he was an escape artist galore! THREE different kinds of door knobs and he learned to open each one! And unlike Rufus who was trained, now that we have a house and big yard, I got lazy in the dog training department. Snick was never trained and would NOT come when called. EVER!

Not long after Rufus died, a beagle mix mutt puppy wandered into our yard. She had a red collar and at first I thought she was our new neighbors dog. (He had a beagle but I only saw it a few times.) Well she wasn't his. I called vets, shelters, left notes in the stores, but no good. When one of the local store owners told me another guy found a pup just like her with a red collar and kept it, I knew a whole litter was probably dumped in town. Boy I would love to personally SHOOT someone who would do that! But.. now what? I can't take her to a shelter. So SHE adopted US.

We named her Peanut. She was spoiled as can be. And Snickers was such a gentleman with her. HE brought her toys, let her eat first, gave HER the bone and would watch her eat it. And outside? If a stranger walked by? Peanut would bark like my killer guard dog but only if she was standing UNDER Snickers. They were buds.

Sadly, while on a camping trip in the northern UP of Michigan, Snickers in his escape artist style managed to get off of a locking clip we had him tied up with. Oh he had a good old time running all over the camp ground. Until he found the highway! Someone gave us his collar and told us where he was hit. We all had to go bury what was left and say good bye. Peanut was in the car. She knew exactly what was going on. And she was every bit as depressed as all of us. We called off the vacation and went home.

A story of inspiration to anyone who has ever lost a pet or loved one.

On our way home from this horrible vacation, my husband and son were in the truck pulling the camper. I was in my car with Peanut in the back seat. Not long before this happened, my sister in law Carol had just died unexpectedly. She was a pet lover too. Now I am not a particularly religious person but in between crying I was talking out loud to Carol. I told her to please take care of our mutt. He was a good dog even if he didn't come when called. Then I said, I wish you could somehow let me know he's ok.
Just at that moment, Peanut gave me a lick on the ear. Snickers used to do that. It was the first thing he did when we found him in the shelter. He was an ear licker. He would stand in between the front seats and kiss my ear all the time. Peanut NEVER did that before, and to this day will not do it again. It was like Snickers was there. I smiled and said, Carol, that was my sign wasn't it? Yes, it was. I know that for a fact. I still miss Snickers, so does his buddy, but he is ok, and so is Carol. I know that.

We had a big orange cat named Oscar. He was cool. Not many cats come when they are called but he did. Sadly, he came home limping one winter day. I thought he just hurt his leg jumping out of a tree but he died at the vet two hours later. Apparently run over by a snow mobile in what is usually an open field behind my garage. (Every year someone ignores the trail signs. Our beloved pet was killed on private property. I miss him. I detest snowmobiles!)
In April of 2002 I adopted three orphan kittens while visiting a lumber yard. They were only three weeks old and huuuungry! Their mother had them in the rafters and vanished. Well they were known as the three terrible terrorists. THEY owned the house. We just lived with them. But it wasn't meant to be either. Only one year old, one took ill. Tests at the vet confirmed the whole batch had felion leukemia. Two died that year, the last made it for one more. All seemed happy and healthy until the end and all died peacefully at home.

That is it with cats for me! Sick of the cat pan thing, they eat the plants, puke all over, never listen at all. And no way to keep a cat inside. Then you have to worry about will it be killed. No, I've had enough cats.

Additional; as of Jan 2010.
No more cats I said? HA! We're up to three now.
First, after a trip to a local lumber yard one day, I adopted three orphans. Holy cow, three babies barely three weeks old were hatched in their lumber and the mother cat vanished. The guys were trying to feed them drops of cows milk from their finger tips. OMG cats need more than that. Kittens that young can't even pee without mother cat licking their parts. Of course I had to rescue them all. A little rub on their naughty bits with a wet paper towel got them to relieve themselves. Poor babies. I got some cat formula and a bottle and nursed them all. So we had THREE beautiful black cats. King Tut, A very catly cat. He had "catatude." Dumas, (Named after a TV commercial where some guy made fun of his potential boss on a job interview. Kept calling him "dumb ass." Only to be told "the name is (pronounced) Doo Mas." lol. This cat was pretty dumb so it fit. And the only girl, little squeaker.
Well another sad story for these three. One day Dumas got sick. Several days of antibiotics later the vet took some blood for more tests only to find felion leukemia. I had the others tested and sure enough. Oh it was real tough watching them go from healthy cats to weak. Tut was the first to go. Thankfully he wasn't sick long. Squeaker went next. Just wanted to sleep all the time. Till she didn't wake up. Dumas, the first to get sick, actually lived another year before the leukemia got him too. I realized this is probably what happened to their mother. She undoubtedly had it and passed it onto her litter. Then it got the best of her. All three are buried in my back yard.

Ok, so no more cats. Yea right. Well.... hmmm. One summer, we had to take out a huge tree behind our house. It was rotten and had become a home to bugs. So we hired a guy to cut it down. Well, he had hacked out chunks, too big to just cut across the base. After one chunk fell out, we heard the tiny meow of kittens! OOOHHH NOOOO! This big white cat with gray spots had been hanging around for the longest. Seems she got into the hollow trunk and had a litter. These guys couldn't have been more than 5 weeks old. Frantically we sifted through the sawdust and found three, dusty, ant covered babies. Sure we had them all he continued cutting. When all was done, I went out with the camera to take a picture of the tree that had kittens. (I should upload that. Soon perhaps.) Well... I heard a faint meow from under the rubble. OMG! I dug, listened, and dug some more. Under what had to be at least a 60 lb. hunk, and about 6" under the sawdust, I found number four. Amazingly all four kittens were fine. The mother cat came around and I can only imagine what she must have thought when she saw what was left of the tree. I took one of the babies outside, sat in a chair with her baby thinking surely she would come to me. But no. She was most certainly a stray and probably always was. Too afraid of people to come near me even though I had one of her babies. But she knew it was alive. I can only hope that was some comfort to her. She hung around here for a few weeks more but then vanished.

Meanwhile, my son and husband had begged me to keep the three. I was about to give in before number four was found. No way are we keeping four cats!!!!!! I'm SICK of cats!!! We kept two. THEY promised me THEY would take care of the cat pan, food, etc.... So far so good. A friend of mine took the two girls, we kept two boys. Both are grey and white. One turned out to be a long hair and one is short. How odd! The long hair, named PC (short for personal cat.) is a bit of a snob. I swear, he thinks he was once living in some palace and got reincarnated into our tiny house with three dogs! It's like what? I have to drink out of the dogs bowl? But there is dog spit in there! lol. His brother on the other hand, "Mega bite" (going with the computer theme this time.) He is a clown. He was my number four cat. The one who's big mouth saved his life. Mega is a cool cat. Much like Oscar was. So ok, I can deal with cats again. (oh and I got them leukemia vaccines too. Not doing that again.)

That was several years ago now. Well... last fall, (2009) I was in my yard, when this cute little buff color kitten wandered in. NO! SHOOO! I tossed a big stick in his direction. Not at all wanting to hit it, just make it think what a bitch and go home. But the damn stick bounced and bopped him right in the head. Awwwww. I felt terrible and had to pick him up. Immediately he started purring. Awwwwwww. Damn! I put him down and said go home. But nope. He hung around me like a shadow. Next, I came out with my three dogs thinking surely this cat would see that and head for the hills for whence he came. But no! He SNUGGLED with them all. No fear. Just pure love. Cute but AW SHIT! I have three dogs, two cats and all in a tiny house. NO NO NO NO.... He was very clean for a stray and way too friendly to be some wild born stray. Surely someone lost him. So ok, I started walking all around our tiny town. (that would be about two square blocks. Real tiny town.) No one knew anything about him. (or would admit it.) One lady knew someone who worked in a shelter and called. But nope. All full. She gave me a long list of shelters, and all full. I swear, I wish there were stronger laws against dumping animals. I'd personally like to DEBALL anyone who does that. This had to be such a stray. The only shelter that would take it couldn't promise not to kill. I just can't do that. So hell. Off to the vet I go. Had to keep this guy away from mine just in case it did have some disease. My two proved to be totally inside cats. I let their shots laps knowing they don't go out at all. Well.... our kitten had ear mites real bad. Got that taken care of. Got his first few rounds of shots done too. I was afraid they wouldn't get along, in fact PC had to lay down the rules a few times. But they do. Mega and our new kitten love to play together. And he's SO cute! Real loving cat. And we came up with a name. Still going with the computer theme, since he "hacked" his way into my heart and home, he's a hacker. And.... my son built his own computer, made it so it runs a mac os, called a "hackintosh" by nerds, and since my son also loves math and has 35+ digits of PI memorized, well... "hackentosh PI" is our new cats full name. Hacker for short. lol. I sure hope we don't find any more. Kid goes off to college next year and guess who will be doing the cat pan again!

After Snickers died, we found an ad for free puppies. Some guy only a few miles away. So off we went. He had a HUGE black lab male. And I mean huge! My first Dane wasn't that big! He got a female half shepherd half husky pregnant. Two of the puppies were all that was left. Both females. The "sisters." And being as insane as I am, we took them both!
Peanut smiled for the first time since Snickers died. She had friends again, and just her size. Well for a few months anyway. They quickly outgrew her and were NOT as considerate as Snickers was. No way anyone was going to let her do anything first! Poor Peanut isn't as spoiled any longer. But I know she is happier with other dogs around.
My son wanted to name them Hershey and Cocoa. I felt Hershey was too much like Snickers. Enough of the food names. But I compromized. We named one Cocoa, and the other Little Bear. Little Bear got most of the husky. She has a very eskimo type face. And FUR! Oh boy! Cocoa, otherwise known as Cracker head, is a nut! All Little Bear wants is to be petted. But Cocoa cracker nut head, (and various other morphs of short names) is my playmate. She will fetch. In fact she will fetch, bring back and fetch again several times before Little Bear catches on that a game is under way. Oh the light is somewhat dim upstairs with Little Bear. Sweet as can be but just a tad thick. Both love long walks in the woods though. All my dogs love that.

This is where the pets page ends. For now. As of this writing, Jan 2010, this is where we are. Three dogs, and a loud mouth chatty parrot and three cats.

This is actually a small list of pets. My first job was at a large pet store and I acquired lots of weird critters such as snakes, lizards, a variety of small animals, frogs, turtles you name it despite the disapproval of my mother who put up with my zoo. (To a point.)

While working there I was able to at least work with animals no city kid would ever see let alone handle. I regularly handled tarantulas, very large snakes, a llama, vulture, kinkajou, coati mundi. (A south American relative of the raccoon.) And even a cougar. That was a fun and very unique job. Not to mention the TV jobs I got to work with. Got to meet a few stars while I worked there. Pretty awesome I'd say.
So much for that.

I was born and raised in Chicago Il. I happily moved to Michigan with my husband in 1991 and had our son in 92. After a year of dirty diapers and daytime television I was about to go insane! I looked around at some old drawings of mine and remembered one of my friends telling me "your good, you should do something with this." I called a local community college and said "I like to make art, can you teach me how to make a living at it?" The art teachers looked at my very unprofessional, dog eared drawings and granted me a $700.00 scholarship. Wow! So, I enrolled full time in their graphic arts two year program and that's how it all started.

I must admit that the thought of going to college full time after being away from school since graduating HS back in, (yikes,) 1977 was a little scary. Everywhere I looked I saw pens and books and worried looks. As it turned out, Southwestern Michigan College was the best thing that ever happened to me. (Aside from leaving Chicago.) I can't rave about this college enough. Everyone there was just wonderful and in the process of filling class requirements, and learning this computer stuff, (quite a task for someone who's only computer experience was an Atari game,) I also took a few fine art classes. Painting for one. S.M.C. has a very gifted art instructor and I was amazed at just how much I learned from him.
Although S.M.C. is only a two year college, I signed up for extra classes, stretched my two years into four and and graduated with two associate degrees instead of only one. It's not that I wanted or needed the extra degree, this was just an excuse to take as many fine art classes as I could fit in. Now I actually work part time teaching computer graphics at S.M.C. as well as Purdue in South Bend IN. I am also working on this little business of mine and hoping some day, I can make a good living just making art.

Well that's about it.