Texas Lady

Pepper at the kill shelter

Ronnie asked me what I wanted for our anniversary (December 15th), Christmas (December 25th), and my birthday (January 14th).  I had the same answer every time: “I don’t need anything and there’s nothing I really want”.  That changed when one of my rescue friends sent me this picture on Facebook.

Pepper Checking Out His New Home

Then I knew what I wanted

(not necessarily what any of us needed).  I wanted to get that little 4 pound boy out of the kill shelter before he was euthanized.  I picked him up on my birthday and it was love at first sight for both of us.  I named him Pepper (I have no idea why???) and he answered to it immediately.  He is the softest, most cuddly 4 pounds you could imagine.  Somebody loved this baby well; there’s no trauma in his makeup.  Someone lost their baby.  He was a stray and was turned in to the shelter because the people who found him couldn’t keep him.  Someone has lost their angel.  So glad we found him before he reached his kill date.  Welcome to the Lindsey home, little Pepper.  On Friday he was neutered, micro-chipped, updated on his inoculations, checked for heartworms and parasites (both negative), and had his remaining baby teeth removed.  He’s healthy and happy; what else could we ask for?

I took him down to see my mom last week.  Her dog is 14 years old and in failing health.  She is expecting to have to put him down later this year.  She agrees that Pepper would be an ideal baby for her when her dog goes away.  I’m going to be taking him to see her often so they can bond.  Maybe this is the reason he came into our lives.  Poetic justice.

November 16, 2013

Am I a little behind?  Only a month, I say.  Oops.  I’ve been going through my seasonal depression, currently coming out of the worst of it but haven’t been extroverted enough to try to share anything for a while.  Took pictures of Fancy celebrating her 13th birthday at Sonic Drive-In, her usual celebration place.  She was hyper and excited to smell all the food-related scents, going for a ride in the car and shopping at Petsmart.  She’s always loved to go and she’s a wonderfully well-behaved companion.  Now we have 2 13 year olds in our pack.  Like us the pack is chalking up the years and slowing down somewhat, but all of us are happy to just be here and love each other.  We’re so fortunate to have the pack we have.  They’re so loving and happy, gentle and playful, sweet and cuddly.

I decided today that I’m not taking anymore sleeping pills.  I feel like crap when I wake up, wake with a headache, and sleep awfully bad.  Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t, so it’ll not be a big loss, I’m thinking.  I’ve got to get my energy back and I think this may be sapping my strength so it’s worth a try.  Also, considering going back for another sleep study since I know I have apnea from the past two studies I had.  May have to go back to CPAP therapy again.  Time will tell, but I’m about ready to try anything to feel better.

I have all my xmas shopping completed, a few things to wrap but mostly finished for another year.  I’ll be glad when I can get it all behind me for another year.  Ronnie has been taking me riding to see xmas lights and I have enjoyed seeing them, for once.  Normally I just complain about the waste so I’m glad I’ve been able to enjoy just riding around looking at the pretties.  Tonight, on the way home from the grocery store, we went through an affluent neighborhood that we could see from the highway.  We could only see one huge home with white lights on every eave but once we got into the subdivision it was amazing all the lights.  We didn’t even know the subdivision was that big until tonight.  Other than xmas lights it was very dark and I finally dialed us up on GPS so we could find our way back to the highway to come home.  Some trip!

I’ll try to share more often now that things are slowing down around here.  All the babies that were imminent are here and all are healthy so that’s a relief in itself.  I haven’t gotten any sewing done lately and the xmas gifts are clogging up my sewing room but I’ll get there.  I have lots of projects, some started, some only in my mind.  As I said, I’ll get there……..

Monkey Quilt finished

After about a year sitting on the back burner the monkey quilt is finally complete!  Surprisingly it only took a couple of hours to finish on Sunday.  Today I completed a baby blanket with four appliques (frog, monkey, lion & elephant) to include in this gift package.  The baby shower is Sunday so I should be finished with everything by then.  I’ve been experiencing some depression of late so everything got put on a back burner for a bit.  Seem to be coming out of it some now and life is improving for me; I’m feeling more like myself but still have a way to go back to “normal”.  I’ll get there; I always do with the help of pharmaceuticals.  I made it two years this time before it recurred so I’m getting better with age evidently.  LOL

The weather is cooling down now in Texas, more rain and less heat.  Everything is still green, a lot of things still blooming, but the incessant steaming is over for this season.  I managed to swap out my summer clothes for my winter clothes the other day; all my tanks are back in storage for another season.  I really enjoyed my first summer of retirement since it was the first time in a lot of years that I could wear what I wanted, including short pants and tank tops, since I was a teen.  Much more comfortable than what I’d been wearing to work for the past 40 or so years.  I got to sit on the patio and watch the dogs play even in the middle of the day (until the mosquitos got too bad to be out at all).

Retirement has been a pleasant undertaking so far.  On October 29th I reached my first year milestone, and I still like it and am glad that I took this step upon myself.  It was a good decision.  Life is good.  Marriage is great.

It’s 2 A.M.; time to sleep but I’m wide awake.  I’m the only one in the house awake.  This is the only time the house is this quiet, only a few doggie snores and the faint sound of electrical noise heard.  I love this time of night; it’s probably the most peaceful time for me.  Nobody needs or wants anything from me and I can just enjoy the quiet and really relax.  It’d be a great time to sew but even if I shut the door to the sewing room I would still wake up the whole house, so I’ll just surf the ‘Net instead until my sleeping pill lulls me into a stupor.  LOL  “Tomorrow is another day!”

Miss Fancypants fresh from the beauty parlor

This is Fancy (AKA Lindseys Fancypants on her papers) at her favorite place, Sonic Drive-In.  She always loves going to Sonic because she can smell up all the smells from the other cars and from the food being cooked and served.  And no one will tell her “No!” or “Get down!” or “Stay out of that!”.  For a dog’s nose this is probably the closest they get to Nirvana!  Usually what she gets from Sonic is a treat after she’s done something good, for instance, was good at the vet or her grooming appointment, or a trip to Petsmart or Petco.  We take all the babies from time to time but since Fancy is the eldest she’s been more times and knows every time she leaves the house she WILL wind up at Sonic.  I don’t think she knows what it means to “be good” or to “earn a treat”, but she’s just a sweet baby and always deserves something nice.  Treats for her mean a cheeseburger plain and dry, vanilla ice cream, popcorn chicken, or tater tots.  She’s getting so gray now, my old lady doggie.  Next month she will be 13 people years old and she’s still the best dog in the house.  Nothing seems to bother her much and she doesn’t get into anything the other dogs might find of interest.  She is a barker and will wake me up most mornings before I want to get up, otherwise she’s just a quiet cuddler you hardly know is around.  We love you, Fancy!!!!!!!!

Happy Ending!

It’s a go!  Love!  Love! Love!  They’re so happy together!!!!!  I don’t know which one is the happier of the two.  Adoption complete; now working on the last health issues (dental cleaning, micro-chipping, etc.) which is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Big event for this weekend: Jolie attacked an Akita in front of our house on the way to the mailbox Thursday night.  She has stitches and a drain in her hip.  Thankfully the Akita only caught her with a passing nip so Jolie wasn’t even bleeding, but the skin was torn open bad enough to need stitches and a drain.  She’s in a lot of pain, still giving her pain meds every 8 hours and that’s helping a lot.  Friday she hardly came out of the crate all day because she was still coming down off the anesthesia they administered in the ER in order to install the drain and stitch her up.  Now she has begun  to follow me from room to room again.  Poor thing!  But she attacked the other dog, not the other way around.  Graphic photo:

Jolie’s dog bite injuries

Here’s how it happened: Every day (or most every day) I put Jolie on a leash and we walk across the street to the mailbox to gather our daily junk mail allotment.  Thursday was no different.  I had met Ronnie for dinner, came home, put Jolie on her leash and walked out the front door.  Immediately across the street she spied this Akita dragging his leash down the street; the owner was half a block down headed toward him.  The hair rose on Jolie’s back and she went into “Rottweiler mode”.  I pulled back on the leash while saying, “No, Jolie.  No, Jolie” which has never stopped her before but which came naturally into my conversation when dealing with canines.  She popped her head around and slipped completely out of her collar then charged the Akita at warp speed and me running behind her yelling “No, Jolie.  No, Jolie” to absolutely no effect.  The Akita turned around, saw Jolie charging toward him and looked like he was laughing at her ridiculous threat.  But Jolie is in Rottweiler mode so she doesn’t know he’s bigger/meaner than her and she never slows down, just charges him nipping at his ankles.  Of course, he nipped back but he picked her up in his jaws by her hips and then put her down (thankfully).  I could see she was injured but Jolie didn’t know she was injured; I was waiting for the blood which thankfully never came.  When he put her down, Jolie did an about-face and charged him again.  He circled her a few times now with me and his owner in the circle trying to separate the two of them before Jolie got hurt any worse.  I even had a moment’s fear that the Akita would jump me because I was too close, but I backed up a step and so did he out of respect for each other.

That was when Jolie realized she was hurt, put her tail between her legs and headed back toward the house.  Thankfully!  She was right beside me going through the front door even though she had no collar or leash on.  I shut the door then chased her in, turning on lights all the way so I could assess the damage.  One good look was all I needed to know she needed veterinary care sooner rather than later.  I could see the tissue under the torn, gaping skin on her hip and even though she wasn’t bleeding she would need pain medicine and antibiotics.  One glance at the clock told me it would be the veterinary ER because our vet was closed for the day.  Crap!

So, I called Ronnie, who had stopped to buy gas and told him to please come home as soon as he was finished fueling the truck so he could help me get Jolie to the ER.  I had her in a crate with a clean blanket; I just needed some muscle to get the whole shebang into the car (Jolie is a hefty little girl who bites when you push her the wrong way and, since she was in pain, every way was the wrong way).  He got home posthaste and off to the ER we three went.  Of course they had to keep her overnight, put her to sleep in order to install a drain where the skin was gaped open, then stitch her all up.  I picked her up at 7:30 Friday morning and brought her home.  She goes in to our regular vet tomorrow afternoon to get the drain looked at.  We’ve decided to put her in a harness full-time because she hates having the harness put on and tries to bite me when I dress her.  That’s why she was in her collar and not a harness (which she can’t get out of no matter how much she hates it).  That will be done today and she’ll just have to learn to like it…..or she will never go out the front door again in my (or her) lifetime.

This is the 2nd dog she’s attacked in front of our house on the way to the mailbox.  The first time it was a little, furry white dog on a leash walking with his mom down the street.  Jolie did the same thing: popped out of her collar and charged him with me running behind her.  She runs faster than I do, of course.  Thankfully the first time the lady had a stick and hit Jolie with it several times, so by the time I got to Jolie she had not hurt the poor little dog who was totally innocent and wondering what the hell was going on.  Jolie has chased (or offered to chase) the big dogs who live directly across the street who thankfully mind better than Jolie and came to their owner when he summoned them….or we would have had this scenario a couple of weeks ago.   If she didn’t need the extra exercise (she has COPD, a heart murmur and is very overweight) she would simply stop going out the front door but she does love her special time with me away from the other dogs.  She’s used to being an only child so the mailbox trip is something she does without sharing her mom-time attention.  But, from now on she doesn’t go unless I am in total control of her.  This shit sucks!

Freckles Too

Meet the next Freckles, hopefully the final Freckles.  I do believe it was love at first sight with this baby.  The human and the canine elements of this match seem to be in complete accord.  Picked this one up from a fellow rescuer on Sunday.  (I actually picked up 2 Chihuahuas, one a female who died yesterday at our vet of a pulmonary embolism that happened several days before.  I think I’m still in shock over that!  How did the owner not know that little sweetheart was sick?  She didn’t even live 24 hours after we got her.  I’ve never had that happen before!)  Mr. Freckles was neutered yesterday then delivered to his new daddy.  I saw them today and they are already joined at the hip.  Even though the first Freckles wasn’t a good fit the name was, so this baby who was originally named Angel is now Freckles…permanently?  Time will tell.  He is a sweet little dog, I know that much.  He only weighs 7 pounds, is very cuddly, uses the doggie door and slept in his own bed last night.  Got my fingers crossed!

I got the laptop with the new motherboard out of the shop, ordered recovery disks that didn’t end up working, ordered a new charger which did work, replaced the hard drive and upgraded the RAM memory.  Still loading it.  Today is the 3rd time I’ve reloaded the system.  First time I was waiting on the recovery disks and just played with what I had.  The second time was a corrupted file in the boot sector that I couldn’t repair.  I’m loading SP2 right now and hoping for the best.  This thing will go in the bin for the garage sale if I have to load it again.  With what I’ve spent on it so far I could have bought a new one, especially with the time I have in on it.  Time will tell whether I get a new travel laptop or not but I’m getting grumpy about this one.  This is the last computer I have to work on though.  The other two are finished, one waiting to be picked up but the owner has been notified that it’s ready.  Ronnie said one of the neighbors had a computer he wanted me to look at but we haven’t heard anything from him since.

I’ve gotten NO sewing done at all and have a stack of fabric waiting on me (including a blanket for Freckles with his name on it).  Found out yesterday we have another female baby to sew for who is due in November.  I’ve got to get some blankets, bibs, etc., churned out or I’ll have to buy gifts.  I really like sewing for the babies so I just have to come up with some TIME!!!

Bandit At Rest

Well, poor little Freckles (AKA Dawson) wasn’t a good match so we carry on our search for the perfect pet for our neighbor friend.  It was a hectic and busy weekend so nothing got accomplished on that quest.  Got other things done though and spent some time with Ronnie’s family so it wasn’t a complete loss, just in the dog-finding effort.  I haven’t taken any new pictures recently so here’s one of our Bandit laying on the back of the loveseat perfectly relaxed.  Such a sweet, happy and intelligent animal. I’m so glad we kept him; he’s been a great addition to our pack.  He’s every other dog’s big brother, protector, nursemaid, toy and friend.

I have undertaken learning to applique on my big machine this week and I have a couple of computers to fix (possibly 3).  One is at the laptop shop having its motherboard replaced that I will have to reload when it will work again.  I also have cooking to do and treats to make to send to work with Ronnie.  I have a carrot cake and a red velvet cake, both with cream cheese frosting, some cookies and some candy treats with cranberries, nuts and coconut.  Just need the time to put them together.  I actually had a sewing group to go to today but needed the sleep worse than the camaraderie.  I delivered one of the baby gift collections I finished and I have another baby multi-pack to get done by the January due date.  One was in blue; this one will be in pink.  I also have some blankets to applique for people and dogs (to sell) and a quilt to quilt together and hem for the January due date.  There’s no way I’ll get all of this done this week but I’m sure to get some of it accomplished and that’s what I’m shooting for.

We are back to positive thoughts and considerations.  On Saturday we volunteered at the 2013 Pet Fest in Friendswood, Texas, with our group, Tails in Transition (http://tailsintransition.org/).  Each of us had a job for which we had some talent; I was a dog walker since I had no talent in anything else (LOL) needed that day.  Toward the beginning of the day (from 12 to 5 P.M. inside a huge gymnasium type place called Jones Hangar) I had a few minutes to go across the room and say hello to a friend who runs another rescue non-profit (http://forgottenpetadvocates.org/).  After I purchased 2 t-shirts I told her that we were looking for a small, female dog for our neighbor, Buffy’s daddy, that was ready for a new dog in his life.  When I told her all the things we were looking for in a dog for him she pointed across the room and said that they had one like that.  What?  I had to go see!!!!!

Come to find out the little dog was actually a male not a female but he was absolutely perfect, in fact, better than we asked for.  We told the lady what we wanted and she told us more good things about him, and we were hooked.  Long story short, we took him to George yesterday and it was love at first sight.  They are so happy together; it was a perfect match.  I don’t know which of them is the most pleased.  If by Friday they are still happy together we will go ahead with the adoption papers.  According to the new daddy, “as far as I’m concerned there’s no more decision to be made.  I want him!”  The dog’s name was Dawson and he has already been renamed Freckles.

Freckles is about 3 years old and approximate 7-8 pounds.  He’s up to date on shots, HW negative, micro-chipped, happy, well-adjusted and energetic…and he loves to be loved.  He sleeps in his own dog bed, uses the doggie door and loves his new home.  He looks like a Chihuahua mix but has feet and legs like a Dachsund and a tail like a Pomeranian or a Pekinese.  Whatever he is, the combination is cute.  Welcome home, Mr. Freckles!

Freckles (AKA Dawson)

Yesterday we got Maximus’ maple memorial urn we had ordered. Even though we didn’t have Max cremated I wanted something to put his collar in that we could keep for eternity. It’s in this box now and stored on the shelf of my computer hutch. Also there is the little stuffed black poodle dog that Buffy’s owner gave us. His deceased wife saved these and he wanted us to have it to remember Buffy and Dee, his wife, with. It is also stored inside the same cabinet that contains Maximus’ memorial.

We went to see the movie, The Butler, tonight. It was very sad and I’ve been weepy ever since. So many sad/bad times for the United States and for race relations that occurred during the past 61 years of my life were brought back to me tonight during the movie. I think I cried about 5 times before it was over. It was an excellent movie even though Ronnie said it wasn’t "historically accurate"; it was close enough for me.

My blog was acting up tonight and wasn’t usable so I’m posting in a different way. We’ll see how this works.

All dressed up for the Rainbow Bridge

So today was the day Buffy went to the gallows.  The appointment was 1:30.  I went a few minutes early so I could have some time with her beforehand.  She was sicker today than yesterday, noticeably so.  She wasn’t able to focus on me like yesterday, was a little glazed-looking.  I loved on her, rubbed her ears, whispered sweet nothings to her and told her how much I loved her and how much I would miss her.  I listed some more people who loved her, too, and would also miss her.  I held her in my arms and smelled the uric acid on her breath from the failed kidneys and knew that euthanizing her was the right step because this baby was so sick, so miserable.

They injected a pink liquid into her IV which was to put her to sleep.  She had a look of panic on her face for a split second as she began to feel the meds course through her body, then she relaxed and lay down her head.  Then they injected a clear liquid which would stop her heart from beating.  There was a couple of exhalations of air from her lungs and then all the life was gone.  She was at peace.  I kissed her head and told her how much I loved her, just feeling her curly hair on her ears that I’ll never feel again.  The doctor checked her heart; I asked if she was gone; she nodded.  I kissed Buffy once more and rubbed the top of her head, told her “no more pain, baby…no more pain”.  I was already in tears and there was nothing more I could do but get the hell out of there so I could cry.  All of the  employees came and gave me hugs and their condolences.  I thanked them all for everything and hurried to my car.

I cried all the way home and I’ve cried off and on since Buffy died.  I’ll probably cry off and on for a while like I did with Maximus.  The bad thing about loving man or beast is that no one lives forever, and the loss is never pleasant, and the pain always feels like it’ll rip your heart asunder before it’s over.  I used to think “I will never love again because I can’t go through this pain again”, but that would be a lie.  I came home to seven 4-footed angels who love me and who I love with all my heart.  If I have to go through this again with them, I will.  I owe them that much just as I owed that to Buffy.  There was no one else to be with her today; I was it.  Even though it wasn’t something I’d arbitrarily choose to do on a bright, beautiful Wednesday in Texas, I was there with her, for her, and proud to be.

She will be cremated.  Her memorial will read: Buffy August 7, 2013 If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever

Now, hopefully we can all start healing–again.  After the tears (not so many today) I came home and did laundry, caught up on email, cleaned off my desk, then Ronnie took me out to dinner.  Since then it’s been fairly quiet, cuddling the dogs, watching TV, the usual stuff of a weeknight.  We received word that Buffy’s owner fell and broke his hip and is in the hospital, surgery tomorrow if he’s healthy enough to get the cardiologist to sign off on it.  Poor guy!  He’s having an awful summer; his losses mount.  Hope he gets through this trial as well as the ones he’s already experienced.  Sometimes life just sucks, simply the nature of the beast.  Sometimes life is so beautiful it takes my breath away.  We’ll wait and see what tomorrow brings.