FUNK

I'm in a funk.
I thought I had pulled myself out but... truth be told, no.
It's not because of Squeak, although his passing didn't help.
It's just...............

I need a change.
Or maybe just some sleep.
Or maybe just a new approach to life.

I seem to remember an episode of Seinfeld where George, whose life was always a major fail, decided to do the opposite of his natural instincts and suddenly everything started working for him.
Although I can't remember how it ultimately turned out for him, something must have gone wrong as he was back to his never-do-well life by the next episode.

But...
Yesterday when I got home from work it started to storm.
Really high winds, over 50 miles an hour and then hail.
The weather people on TV were intense.
They had their jackets off and their sleeves rolled up and they were showing diagrams on where to seek shelter in your home.
Last year we had a tornado in our region, something rather rare here
and they told us to seek a safe place.
At that time, I went to the basement door and walked down a couple of steps and sat there, holding 2 of my little dogs, Poppy and Ping.

I had motioned Blue to the doorway, I knew he'd never go down the steps, so he sat there along with Nora and Jimmy. I called to the others, I called to my cats...but mostly I called my cats Harry and Ghost.
Strange how I made my Sophie's Choice....
I remember that I had thought if I heard a "train" noise as they predict, I would just set the two little ones down on the icky basement floor and tug Blue as far down the stairs as I could.
I would think if I did that, some of the others would follow him down too.

But last night, curled up in my big chair covered in critters,
I watched the Tornado Warnings and thought about my Dad.
When there would be storms, he liked to open the garage door and sit in his lawn chair and watch.
He never ever was concerned. He never told us to go downstairs.
Of course, the downstairs in my childhood home was nicer than the whole of my home is now.
And MY current downstairs is dark, damp with cinder block walls and it's filled with stuff.
Stuff being old furniture, cat carriers, Rubbermaid containers full of more stuff.
I really didn't want to go down there.
So I pulled up my ottoman and stretched out my legs and more little ones crawled on top of me.
Blue was laying on the sofa

and Nora was pacing.
Nora was the only one that seemed concerned so I called for her to lay down next to the chair.
I figured we'd just wait and see.
I was so tired that I started to drift off to sleep.
I remember thinking just before I drifted off that I hoped the hail didn't dent my car
and that if nothing happened to us, that I needed to pitched the stuff in the basement
and repaint the walls, maybe put down a piece of sheet vinyl flooring...

So, I woke up and the threat had passed.
Apparently 5 tornadoes had touched down in several areas.
Down on the far end of my street, a tree had come down and brought down power lines and people were trapped inside a restaurant.
I was lucky that we still had power in my section of town.
I got up and threw a load of laundry into the washer.
I let the dogs out to potty and the night sky seemed eerie.
They hurried back in and we all went to bed.

I got up this morning and went to work and I cried.
Nothing big really happened or anything but I just cried.
I don't think I'm alone though.
Many people that I work with feel the same way.
And there's other people I know, outside of work, that feel like crying too.
About different things
Maybe it's just the time of year.

Maybe it's that I get home and only have a couple of hours
to clean the house, sort through and get rid of the clutter,
do the laundry, feed the dogs, groom the dogs,

scoop the poop and clean the litter boxes,
read the blogs and the books I want to read and
oh, create Art
and I need to get to bed and get some sleep.
Seems like I never have time to do what I want or the energy.
Maybe it's just that I feel overwhelmed.

Do you feel like that too?
Is it the weather? The time of year?
The horrible things in the News and on social media?
See,  I told you I was in a funk.
Sorry.

It's NORA'S Birthday today!

So! I got a birthday greeting from the vet clinic that I work at, wishing Nora a Happy Birthday today.
I text Kitty, who's working today 
(yes, that's her name! and she gets SO much grief for it, working at a vet clinic! LOL!)
to double check how old my Nora is. Kitty said she's 9!!!
I asked her to make Nora 3 again and while she's at it, make Blue 2. 
Kitty said she'd take care of that for us.
So, here's a big Happy Birthday to my Nora! 

She's absolutely wonderful and would protect me to the death. I'm so happy she's mine.

She certainly doesn't get the credit she deserves, living with such characters!

I'm so grateful that her previous owner was such a stupid selfish idiot, otherwise I wouldn't have this perfect dog in my life!
Xoxo to my Nora!

LET"S TRY THIS AGAIN.... BLUE WAS SICK

OK, let's try this again.
Although it has become kinda of a mute point, seeings how Blue is now doing well.
But I did have some cute photos of Jimmy AND there's a part of me that just wants to fix this darn post!
At first I couldn't load my photos.
Then the post didn't post, just the header I guess.
But some people got just the words of the post in an email.
Jeez, I have no idea what was going on.
Now I think maybe it was a blogger problem because when I went back and read this morning's post
I noticed that the font was all wonky.
So of it was big and some small and while I was super tired and had not had my coffee...
I don't think I did that.
I'm thinking something was/is up with blogger.
SO, here's my final effort for my post entitled -
"BLUE WAS SICK"
I just thought some fans of Jimmy Chew would like to see how his guilty little face gives him away every time!
OK, here it goes! I hope this posts as it should. (Fingers crossed.)
* and Thanks again for all the kind words and concern over my boy Blue*

Wednesday night Blue didn't want to eat.

That is NOT normal.

Then he started making a deep "humming" noise.

A couple of times he made a little gagging noise and then back to the humming.

I felt his belly. It wasn't swollen or hard.

If it had been, I would have loaded him up and driven like a bat out of Hell to get him help.

A swollen hard belly accompanied by drooling, pacing and the inability to get comfortable are all signs of bloat.

Dogs very rarely survive bloat.

But nevertheless, I spent most of the  evening just staring at him and trying to get him to eat some bread or just poking his tummy.

He finally hid under the kitchen table, to get away from me.

Sometimes his upper body trembled and wouldn't stop when I stroked his coat.

He went outside and had a loose stool.

I Googled all his symptoms and posted them on Facebook as most of the vet techs that I know and one of the doctors, follow me on there.

Everyone seemed to think he was just having an "off" night and most likely be better in the morning.

So he and I had a restless night and he had to go outside once at about 2:30 am.

In the morning he was sluggish and still would not eat.

I took him and Nora and Jimmy to work.

He didn't have the strength to pull himself up onto the van seat so I had pick up his hind end and shove him in.

I strapped the seatbelt over him and the other two bounced happily in the back.

When I got to work I went in said that I knew it was surgery day but - these were his symptoms.
Then I said that this was THE reason I worked there and that someone needed to look at him ASAP.

They took his temperature right away, drew blood and ran several tests and...
found nothing.

That's when we decided to do an X-Ray.
I knew something was really wrong when we lifted him to the table and he just laid there without moving.

As they positioned him I held his head. The vet techs remarked how good he was and I said that I really worried because he had to feel horrible if he didn't move at all.

So the X-rays showed some opaque objects in his stomach.

I had no clue what it could be.

They gave him some injections for pain and some pills for the loose stools and special canned food.

The vet said that whatever it was could remain in his belly for sometime but they were small enough that they should eventually pass.

Thankfully he's so big that it should TRAVEL out...

I kept running through my mind what he could have gotten into.

He's just not the type of dog to eat things he shouldn't.

Then it dawned on me.

Last week I was going through things in the spare bedroom where Blue, Nora and Jimmy stay during the day while I'm at work.

I had a big retro shelving unit in there that I cleared off and took to my booth.

I had a lot of art/craft stuff on those shelves and I suddenly remembered how I had moved a bag of little pebbles that I had bought at the dollar store.

I had gotten them to use in my little fairy garden (and of course, never did).

After I had moved them, I came home to find the bag off the top of the dresser where I had placed it and ripped apart and scattered all over the floor and over the bed they sleep on.

I had gathered them up and for a moment worried about the dogs possibly eating some.

But then I thought NO, they wouldn't eat rocks!

The pebbles were small dime-sized in brown, tan and white colors.

Now I suddenly I thought 

What if Blue just slurped some up?

I went to the vet and told him about the pebbles and he said - Yep! That could be it!

I was very irritated that someone had gotten those pebbles off the dresser and made Blue so sick.

OK. I hate to blame anyone when I can't be sure but...

I'm betting it was Jimmy Chew!

Grrrr

Later in the afternoon Blue started to perk up.

He wasn't a 100 % but he was much better than before.

I took all three dogs out to the play yard.-

Hey Jimmy! Come here!

Blue isn't feeling good.

He slurped up some pebbles.

Do you know who ripped open that bag?   

Jimmy? Jimmy? Was it you?

I think it was.

And Nora? No, I doubt that it was Nora.

She doesn't care.

She's busy looking for sticks.

Yep, she's just happy with her stick.

I might be joking now... but I tell ya.

I was a basket case.

Truly, I hate loving anyone this much.

NO ONE GETS IN TO SEE THE WIZARD...

So I'm working in my backyard today and two men come walking up.

They were selling siding.

One of them said they liked my sign on the front door

which reads: "No One gets in to see the Wizard. No Way, No How."

I wanted to say "And yet, here you are" but instead I just kinda smile.

My dogs were going crazy in the enclosed patio area.

One of them asked if he could go over and pet Blue, "If he's friendly".

I say "He is, but the border collie will rip up you."

They both looked over towards her and she wasn't barking but just watching them intently.

The other guy said  to him "Yeah, don't go over there!"

Sigh, I REALLY need to get my privacy fence put up and

I think I need another sign that reads

"Solicitors will be Shot"

but in the meantime, Thank God for Nora.

SUMMER IS HERE.

and it's HOT.
but I am NOT complaining.
I said if it would only warm up, I'd be happy.
So...
I've got the fans going and I made some new screens for my front storm door.
A very nice girl at the hardware store told me how.
I'm usually ignored at those stores or else talked to condescendingly. 
It was so very nice to talk to a helpful sweet person.
That motivated me, so she helped me pick out a screen door for the back of the house too,
and the hardware to go with it.
What I really liked about her was that she said to me - "You can do it!".
Yep, really nice to be treated with cheerful optimism instead of bored dismissal.
So today I will cutting down the screen door and sanding the edges and painting it.
This coming week is suppose to be more bearable, only in the low 80's.
I really hate to stick the window air-conditioners in if I don't have to.
But on THAT note, my gang was been getting their summer grooms.
Ping-

Vera- 

Louie-

I always take my Poodles in to be done because I want them to be pretty.
Sadly I do the rest of my little ones myself and it ends up looking like a real hack-job
so therefore, no photos!

I even got Nora shaved down.

She doesn't appear to be too happy about it
and she's terrified to be up on the chair where I put her for this photo.
I'm thinking her previous owners must have not allowed her on the furniture
because she was very afraid sitting there.

None of my other pets have that problem.

Then I gave Blue a good bath. 
I use that bluing shampoo to keep his coat snowy white
and I finish up with a creme rinse that I massage in and it makes his hair drop out in hand fulls.
Then I gave him several good rinses and towel dried him and then blew him out with the high-power blowdryer.
He doesn't mind the dryer like a lot of dogs but I suppose that's because he can't hear it.
I bet it feels good too, all that air blasting his hair free.

He feels SO SOFT!

So, everyone is done except Ruby.
I washed her face the other day and she went into a huge seizure fit thing again.
Her eys bugged out and her mouth and tongue went grey and she was drooling.
I really thought that was it. I thought she was passing as I held her in a towel.
She couldn't walk afterwards, so I just laid in her bed with her paws curled in.
Of course this happened just before bedtime and I sat with her until I couldn't stay awake
and then finally went to bed myself realizing she could be gone in the morning
or if she couldn't walk, well... I would probably have to have Doc release her from her little body.
But in the morning, she was trotting around the room like nobody's business.
Yeah, I might not shave her down
or if I do, just do a little at a time.
Maybe later today I will shave my long haired cats Harry and Charlie.
That's always fun.

Doppelgänger

Elizabeth Taylor, Nora

Nora's Smile

I love her smile!

BARE NAKED

Bare Naked Dogs

Summer Cuts

Do you even recognize Nora?

before photo

I was so startled when she was done being groomed
that I almost thought I would cry

but I quickly recovered and told her how "Beautiful" she was.

That's important to do.

Never laugh at a dog after a haircut!

When my sister and I were very young, we laughed at my Mom's poodle when he came home

with Pom-Pom hair and painted nails.

He immediately went and hid under the end table and refused to come out.

Speaking of Nora, here's an update on her.
She has put on some pounds. (That tends to happen in my home.)
She no longer needs her medicine. I'm doubting if she ever did and 
she now has good firm stools.
Yeah, I know TMI.
But that's what the expensive medicine was for, chronic worms.
By keeping her on regular Heartworm medication and good food, it's been taken care of it.

She is VERY protective. She goes crazy in the van at ANYONE she sees.

She bounces off the van windows and totally freaks out.

When she's at work with me, she will bare her teeth at some dogs until I tell her to stop.

Then she's OK.

She was barking at the neighbors over the fence where it is lower

but I told them to just call her by her name and then she stops.

Apparently she realizes that if you know her name, there must be 

no STRANGER DANGER.

And... she has taken to herding the little dogs.

Especially Mimsy.

Nora "nips" her on the back and guides her through the house.

I was feeling very sorry for Mims but then I took Mimsy to work with me and let her run full out in the big grassy play area.

Mimsy was racing around, and suddenly I think she felt overwhelmed by it all.

She ran to Nora and sat close to her, pressing her body against her.

So, apparently all is well between those two.

I just wish Nora wasn't SO protective.

She never acted like that when she used to belong to those other people and would board with me.

Everyone thinks that she's just so bonded with me that she's ready to defend me no matter what.

After getting Nora shaved down for Summer.

I decided to do Jimmy myself.

The groomer doesn't have a lot of patience and while I knew Nora would be good and just sit there

I wasn't so sure about my Jimmy.

(before)

Being a terrier he can be frantic.

But he sat quietly on the counter and let me buzz him.

I think I actually did a very good job!

I'm proud of myself.

So I came home and shaved little Ruby.

She has a very thick dense coat.

(before)

With her heart condition, she can't get over-heated.

I have never shaved her before and was worried.

The last two baths I've given her, she's twisted herself into a little mini-stroke!

She was bent in a weird angle and her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth and she was unresponsive

until I screamed RUBY!

and then she came back.

After doing that twice, I've just been wiping her down with a wet washcloth.

So....I shaved down Ruby

and afterwards set her in the pool and scooped the cool water over her.

She loved it.

Must have felt so refreshing.

Ah, Summer.... Life is Good.

SNOW DOGS

Yep...it's snowing again!
Here's three quick videos of Blue, Nora and Jimmy at work with me.
Notice when Nora hears something and barks, Blue looks at her barking and starts barking too.
He turns around looking, not sure what he is barking at.
(Also, I don't know what happened to my voice. That's NOT how my voice sounds!)

Update on Momma Dog

First before I give the update about Momma dog I must thank Anne for emailing me and offering to adopt her.

She helped renew my faith that there are still good people out there.
People who care and love animals and are willing to go the extra mile.
She and I exchanged several emails and while I know Anne's would be a wonderful home, I had become very attached to Nora. I emailed my thoughts to Anne and she felt like I was the perfect home for her.
Nora? well, Momma dog's name was actually Mya. But I started calling her Nora.
It might sound silly but I wanted her to feel like she got a new life, so I gave her new name.

I call her "Nora" now and she comes racing to me. I think she really likes her new name.

Ok, at first I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that all of this happened at the start of my vacation.
But during that time we really bonded.
Blue sleeps on the sofa ALL day. I know he's a senior but he just loves sleeping.
He turns 7 this November. I had someone tell me recently that a lot of Danes only live to 7.
I listened and then talked with the vets about that and they see no reason for him not to have many years ahead of him. Although they did say that Giant breeds don't general live as long as smaller ones.
I secretly dislike people who feel the need to always point out the possibility of something awful happening.

Anyway, Blue likes to nap a lot and my little ones like to run after each other and play.

In the past if Jimmy would jump in, they would scatter.
He's just too rowdy for them and too big even though he's not even 20 lbs.
So now with Nora, Jimmy has someone to chase and take toys away from.
Nora likes to run and retrieve non-stop.
I will sit at the computer or be cleaning a room and throw and throw and throw her rope toy.
I've even pushed back the kitchen table so that she has a clear shot through the house.
And Jimmy sits and watches.
Every now and then he leaps forward and grabs the rope-toy or whatever.
So the other night I was throwing the toys over and over and over again and Jimmy started taking them ALL from her.
She would let him take the toys and then go search for another.
Finally Jimmy had himself quite a pile.
Then Nora figured it out and when he went to get the latest thrown toy, she ran over and grabbed one from the pile.

I didn't mean for this to happen but it's working out awfully well although it was never my original plan.

I know this sounds insane.
But when I think about the fact that several of my pets are elderly....
 

Then there's the thing she did the other night.

She doesn't bark, or so I thought.
But in the middle of the night I woke up with a start.
She was barking like crazy and had pulled the bedroom door open and I could hear her racing down the steps.
I sat up and of course Blue was still sound asleep, but given the fact that he's deaf, that's pretty understandable.
But everyone else was sound asleep too.
As I sat up Jimmy jumped up and looked at me like "What's going on?"
So he and I ran down the stairs and found Nora in the kitchen.
My cats stay downstairs during the night (and when I'm not home) but I guess I didn't "click" the door completely shut when I came up from doing my nightly "scooping". One of them had pushed the door open and everyone was in the kitchen munching on the plants.
Wow. How had she heard that?
So I got out the kitty treats, made sure everyone was back downstairs and went back upstairs.
Blue was still asleep and the little ones blinked at me and as if to say - "Turn off that damn light!"
OK.
I've always felt pretty safe in my house, mainly because I think it's kind of obvious that there's not much to steal and also because I'm surrounded by much bigger nicer homes probably filled with "good" stuff.

And also anyone casing the joint would see the HUGE dog.

and Blue would take someone DOWN....
if he was awake.
I don't know but Nora really did make me feel more secure.
 

She's been so sweet and mellow. She paces in the kitchen when she has to go potty and she runs out and does her business even in the pouring rain. I must admit that some of my little ones have to be shoved out the door into the rain and then there's Poppy who just refuses and instead goes to her "pad" and squeezes out a tootsie roll.

Nora sleeps under my chair while I'm at the computer unless I'm throwing her toy.
But if I tell her "Enough. Go lay down" she does.
She gives me kisses while I bathe her and she let me cradle her in my arms as I trimmed hair on her belly where there were some mats.
She doesn't bother the little dogs and tiptoes around Blue. If the cats walk past her she backs up and if they approach her, she turns her head and looks away.

So I was surprised Friday morning.
I arrived at work and was walking up to the clinic in the drizzling rain with my boys and Nora when one of my co-workers who had just gotten out of her car, came walking up to us. It wasn't really light out yet and my co-worker had her shoulders hunched in the rain and wore a big coat. She started calling a greeting to Blue (even though he can't hear... but everyone always does that) and Blue did what he usually does. He took a firm stance and I braced myself in case he decided to leap forward. He looked at her and then at me, still undecided. Meanwhile Jimmy was bouncing at the end of his lead "Hey! look at me! look at me! look at me!" and she started to laugh when all of a sudden Nora raced forward and I had to pull back on her lead. All the hair on her back was UP and she was barking with all her might and she meant BUSINESS.
My co-worker backed away and went in her door.
I took my gang inside my boarding door and told Nora what a good girl she was. She ran around my office in happiness. I went up and apologized to my co-worker, who replied "Boy! She REALLY wanted to get me!" I told her it was probably the coat and the fact that she didn't know who she was.

Later in the day when it stopped raining, Nora and Jimmy raced in circles around the big play area. I had to wake up Blue and he just followed me around. Maybe I will start leaving him at home, since he sleeps all day and my bed is most definitely cushier than his bed in the kennel run.

So there you have it. I'm insane.

I always adored her when she boarded with me and now after spending all of my vacation time with her...
and she's so good. Only barking those 2 times. Both times as protection.
At night she sleeps at the end of my bed, but when I wake up, she's next to me.
How stupid were all those other people?
and how lucky am I?