Holiday Ready

Well, we've been missing in action for quite a while. It's been a very difficult year for us and we've been just spending lots of time doing nothing together. The Portie girls are old and they miss their siblings. Mackey has started having seizures again after almost a year and Syd just does her own thing all by herself.  But even if we'd like time to stand still for awhile so we can get our act together, it keeps racing on with or without us.

So we'll just jump in as if we haven't missed a beat.

Yesterday, late in the day I realized it was my holiday, the Winter Solstice. I don't know exactly when I started celebrating the Solstice as my own personal holiday but it makes sense to me. One doesn't have to follow a certain belief system or join with like minded people to acknowledge the Solstice. One only has to believe in science, which apparently has become an option these days.  As a teenager, I always thought I was descended from witches or Druids. Since getting deeply into genealogy, I find that I do have some of those folks in my background. It makes me happy.

 Tomorrow is a much newer, less serious holiday that I find amusing, Festivus. It
 appeals to me mostly because I don't have to do anything except complain. That comes easily. You can see that the people who lived here before us planted the Festivus pole in the ground, but it hasn't grown an inch since we've lived here.

It's not like we haven't done anything at all for the last few months. We've been somewhat busy, just not in a frantic holiday sort of way. First the Christmas cactus took only about a six week rest this year and is back in full bloom again.

 The older plant is still alive though it looks more like a tree with a thick woody trunk and only sends out a handful of flowers. I can't part with it because it's still alive and well.

I find it hard to throw out healthy plants when the flowering is over. In this case I have a couple Poinsettia plants that were given to us three years ago. After the holidays they dropped their leaves but the stems were still alive. I kept them in a cool bright window and watered them weekly. So here we are three years later and look what we have.

I've recently completed a Christmas afghan, all except the fringing which I'll tackle this week. It gets added to my small but growing collection of Christmas afghans.

 The red one I made for my Grandmother about 40 years ago. It's what started my collection and I've already chosen one for next year. I'll start it in the spring.

  I also made these little creatures just because I thought they were cute.

 This one is a reindeer.

This one is supposed to be a hamster. OK, I'm not sure why the designer thought it looked like a hamster but here it is.

 This one was supposed to be a bunny, but mine wanted to be a dog. Surprise! He's my favorite, surprise!

Norma Jean is practicing for Christmas Eve. She knows she has to sleep before Santa comes. Norma Jean is a very good sleeper.

This little kitty is also ready for Christmas Eve. She's in her jammies and has her blanket.

Notice that she's wearing her mousie slippers.

Today I'm thinking about making some cookies. So far I'm still in the thinking about it stage. Hopefully I'll actually get started.

 Mackey says we hope your holidays are bringing you joy and not stress.

Today

Happy Solstice, everyone. We'll be back tomorrow to catch up. Busy celebrating today.

What Does Obsession Look Like ?

When my boys died in the Spring, I became depressed. My girls are all pretty independent but my boys were my babies. They followed me everywhere and climbed on my lap and I miss them terribly. I knew I had to stay busy or I'd lose it so I picked up my knitting needles and a ball of yarn and got busy. It turned into an obsession. As soon as I finished one thing I started another. Want proof?

Those are only some of the items I made. I also made this couple who went to live with a friend.

I made a whole kennel of mini dogs.

My most recent pieces are these two, Oisin the Reindeer and his little girlfriend. I finished her last night.

This one is my favorite. I call him Boy. I started him the same week that Sebastian and Noah died. I incorporated their colors into him. His sad little face makes me cry but I adore him.

Now I'm ready to start another creature. I'm not sure yet what it will be, but I'm picturing a frog fairy.

Senior citizens?

Remember this?

This was the day Rob surprised me with two sweet little spotty pups.

Can you believe that those pups are seven years old today? They are officially senior citizens. It's been a rocky seven years. Aside from all the issues with the older dogs, Mackey and Sydney have given me a good amount of gray hair.

Mackey is a sweet little dog but she's suspicious of everything. If you call her, she'll come see what you want but don't expect her to come close. She only wants to be touched at bedtime when she demands a bellyrub. Mack doesn't sit on your lap or cuddle.

Mackey likes to destroy toys and relieve them of their squeakers as quickly as possible. She loves to bark at anything that moves or anything she imagines moving.

Mackey also suffers with seizures. They last 12 to 15 minutes and are really frightening. She has become aware of when a seizure is coming on and tells me. I have learned to recognize her signal and we've managed to get her some valium in time to ward the seizure off. It's been several months since she's had to go thru one.

Then there's Sydney. She's the total opposite of her sister. Syd loves to cuddle and sleep on a lap. She would love to be an only dog for someone who could hold her all day.

Syd doesn't care about toys or treats. She's a hunter. Every day she patrols the yard to look for prey. She's caught squirrels and rabbits, birds, mice and lizards. But her favorite are moles. She's caught a couple dozen moles.

Unfortunately, Syd is crazy. With absolutely no notice, she will attack another dog. The other dog can be sleeping or walking along totally unaware of Syd's presence. Suddenly Syd attacks and has to be pried away. She hurt Norma Jean badly.

Sydney now lives in the garage and back yard and is allowed no contact with the others. She takes Prozac daily and seems quite happy with her isolation. It makes me sad but the only alternative is euthanasia.

So today the girls will have a special dinner and lots of attention. Then we'll face whatever the future holds for them.

 The girls got new cars for their birthday.

 Mackey claimed them both.

Happy birthday, girls.

A Dilemma

 She's lovely and successful.

She's a dancer with the world renowned Safari Ballet.

Should she accept the handsome and fabulously wealthy Lion King who has asked for her hoof in marriage?

Or, should she run off to sail the high seas with her true love Captain Horatio Hippo?

Our Mom has gone off the deep end. Send help!  Mackey

Happy Boo Day

It's not our favorite holiday for some obvious reasons. First, we don't like strangers ringing our doorbell, especially strangers that look really weird.

Second, we don't want to dress up in silly costumes and thankfully Mom is too lazy to do that sort of stuff.

Third, we don't like everyone but us eating candy and other sweet stuff. We like sweet stuff, too.

So even though the day has three strikes against it, we'll show off some neat stuff. Here are some of our spiders that live on our porch. Mom carries a little stick to move their webs when she goes out. She only moves them when they're where she needs to walk.

  

  Sometimes she misses one and walks into it. That's pretty funny because she jumps around and waves her arms and looks crazy.

Mom has also made us some new Halloween friends this year. This is Batty.

This is Mom's idea of a witch and every witch needs a black cat. Right?

Tonight after our neighbor comes by to show us her costume and collect some candy, we'll turn off the lights and go to the basement to watch tv . We'll each get a tiny little biscuit because we're dieting and Mom will eat chocolate.

Hope you have a quiet and safe Halloween.
Keep wagging, Mackey

Birthday Splurge

Yesterday was a birthday, but it's been raining for three days, so we waited until today. It's a warm sunny day today so the birthday party was on. Lola and Norma Jean are 13 years old. It seems way too quiet to be a dog birthday celebration, but it is what it is. Instead of cupcakes we're having Frosty Paws. Don't tell Dr B.

When we were at the vet's office with Tess on Monday, I mentioned that Norma Jean has a sore foot. Dr B said to bring her in on Wednesday and he'd take a look at it. So Wednesday afternoon Norma Jean and I went to visit him. Of course, with her adrenaline surging Norma Jean's limp disappeared. He gave her a good check up anyway and when he came to her right front leg, she reacted. He says it's not the foot, but the elbow that's hurting. He prescribed pain meds for a week. If there's improvement we can assume that she has bone spurs in her leg. If there's no improvement he wants to take xrays.

But then the bad news hit! He said that Norma Jean has gained ten pounds since her last visit and needs to be on a strict diet. He wants her to shed five pounds in the next month. Her meals need to be reduced and her snacks cut out entirely.

 We've started. She's getting tiny little meals and no snacks, but for her big important birthday she can enjoy a cup of Frosty Paws. Then back to the diet. It looks like the pain meds are working. The limp is almost gone and she seems to feel a lot better.

Mackey was invited to the birthday party and enjoyed her Frosty Paws but she's also on a diet.

Syd had her treat in seclusion but enjoyed it anyway. Syd is dieting too.

Lola is the only one who doesn't need to lose any weight so she gets a slightly bigger dinner than the others.

 Dogs live in the present so they were all happy to have a party, no matter how small and sad the humans considered it. Maybe we should all take a lesson from them, enjoy the moment!

Missing Tessie

Today is Tessie's birthday.

My sweet, shy, gentle Tess. She was the first puppy born and arrived before midnight, so she had a birthday all to herself, though she celebrated with her siblings.

 Even with deformed front legs, she loved to run and could outrun all the other dogs. She was absolutely beautiful with her black curls and silver streaks, but she loved getting wet and dirty.

I have fewer photos of Tess than any of the other dogs . She was shy and when she saw the camera she would hide behind me.

Because she was unsure of herself, I originally crated her with Norma Jean at night. Tess adored NJ, but it wasn't a good fit. Norma Jean's strong personality made Tess even more shy. So I put Tess and Lola together and that worked better. Lola is quiet and patient and Tess started gaining confidence. They became good friends.

Tess was always a big healthy girl, so we were stunned when she was suddenly hit with vestibular disease. We all hoped she'd fight it off and she tried. For two days she struggled to her feet and took a few wobbly steps. After that she couldn't get up by herself. If we stood her on her feet, she'd try to walk but could only managed a few steps.

Then she gave up. She refused to stand even with help. Then she stopped eating. She just lay on her bed looking sad. We knew what we had to do.

Dr B says there may have been a tumor and that she wasn't going to get better. When we came home I sat on the floor with Lola and Norma Jean and showed them her collar. They both sniffed it for awhile, then they both licked my hand. They knew.

 I saw this online this morning and it says it all.