A Warning, kind of

Saturday night I was on the computer and I look over into the kitchen and Ruby has her front leg sticking out at a weird angle and her head is leaning back.

Twinkle and Louie are sitting in front of her. just looking at her.
At first I thought they were all playing with one another but then I realize they are just staring at her.
I get up and walk into the room and pick her up. Her eyes are BIG and her tongue is "rolling" around in her mouth and it looks grey. Something was VERY wrong.
I call my sister and urgently ask her to come right away, that I thought Ruby was having a MAJOR stroke!
(Doc had told me to start giving her a 1/4 baby aspirin a day because she's been having mini-strokes.)
So I'm on the phone with my sister while I'm trying to get my finger in Ruby's mouth and hold down her tongue so that I can push a piece of aspirin down her throat and all the while I am FREAKING out.
Suddenly I noticed something black poking out behind one of her back teeth.
I get my finger in there and scoop around and pull out of her throat a thin twisted piece of plastic!
Suddenly she's acting normal. She was choking! OMG!
My heart can't take this stuff.
I shoved the 1/4 aspirin down her throat and go take 2 for myself. 

I had no idea where that plastic came from. I am very careful about that sort of thing.

If a dog toy gets chewed, I toss it.

If I unwrap something with a twist tie, I immediately drop it in the garbage.

I didn't have a clue.

I thought about it over and over. What could have it come from?

Then it hit me. I let Jimmy chew on empty 2 liter bottles and also water bottles.

They actually make dog toys where you can stick an empty water bottle inside of them to make a "crackling" noise, so they must be OK to use, right?

And I always first throw the caps away...

So I went over and picked up one of Jimmy's "toys".

Of course he immediately sat up excited. I looked at the tops and realized that there is a plastic "ring" left on the top of the bottles where the caps were attached.

But if someone chewed on it... yeah, it could come loose.

The thing is, they were all white!

Still, I threw them all away. Jimmy followed me around and bounced up and down and then stopped.

Why are you throwing out my toys?!

I went and got his monkey off of the top of the dryer and threw it to him, then he was happy again.

I still don't know where that black plastic came from.

But I'm happy that I discovered those "rings" on the plastic bottles

and even happier that I was home when Ruby needed me.

I'M INSANE

Yep, I've done it again.
Over and over again.
Every year.

I'm so mad at myself.
All that time, energy and money spent on my yard.
And it's gotten out of control.
Weeds everywhere and I am sick sick SICK of it!

I spent the my whole day off weeding and hating my yard.
I'm digging up the boulevard.
Moving the plants to another flowerbed or into pots.
I have plenty of potting soil.
I'm using the soil from my raised garden.
The only thing that was growing in there was the lettuce.
I cut some for a salad
and it was BITTER!

Who knew that lettuce could be bitter?!
I Googled it and apparently too much heat and not harvesting it early enough makes for bitter lettuce.
I'm so done.
I have SO MANY other things that I need to be doing other than pulling weeds.
I'm tempted to get my weed-whacker out and hack everything down
and then drown it all in weed killer.
Jeez, what is my problem?
So...here's my NEW inspiration photo.

This style would flow with the look of my house.

AARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!      I could just kick myself.

So, last Thursday was my Birthday....

Thursday was my birthday

and you know what? it was fine.

I had to work and the temps were around 100 degrees and I'm not even sure what the heat index was.

The boarding kennel is full, more than full, which means little dogs in cat kennels...

It was exhausting. Lots of rowdy drooling big dogs that refused to listen 

and little dogs that kept peeing on their bedding.

But actually it was a good day.

Good because although I can NOT believe the age that I am.

I'm OK with it.

I realize that it IS only a number.

because I don't feel like what I envision when I think of someone my age.

And I'm basically pretty happy.

I have a job where it's pretty much my own show.

I run it and I make sure the work gets done and I'm not micro-managed by my boss.

He lets me do my thing.

I write the schedule and if it's slow, I can leave.

Of course if someone is sick or needs the day off, I have to work it but it all evens out.

sort of.

And I've been working on my Art.

The Mid-Coast Art Gallery put out a Call for Entry and...I'm going to try to get in.

I'm still working on my kid's book.

I was watching a video of Dallas Clayton the other day (LOVE HIM)

and he said he wrote his first book in a HALF HOUR!

But it took him 6 months to illustrate it.

That made me feel much better.

It took me much longer to write mine and I'm not sitting down and illustrating it full time like he was.

I'm doing it in fits and starts. Which means scribbling and crumpling up paper and tossing it.

I haven't got it right yet. But I know in my "mind" what I want it to look like.

I'll get there.

I've been working a lot inside my house, although nothing is done.

The yard, well... I'd rather not talk about THAT.

It's scary out there and Hot and Humid.

There is a battle going on out there between the flowers and the weeds

and I just go out nightly and hose them all down.

Which brings me to my raised vegetable garden.

Stuff is green and growing but I'll be lucky to have anything by Fall except for the lettuce. 

THAT is looking good.

I must agree with Robin (super fabulous artist).

Next year I will just do the Farmer's Market thing and buy fresh.

And supporting local farmers, (always a good thing).

I can use all those cinder blocks that I framed the garden with to make

this cool succulent garden wall thing that I saw on Pinterest!

Oh, and that reminds me.

I went for my annual check-up.

I don't know if you remember about the last time I went in and I had lost a good amount of weight

and all I got was grief and was told that my blood-work "numbers" were too high.

Well. I had my blood-work run again and several things had dropped.

In fact the only thing that didn't go down was my weight, that of course was UP.

I had a different doctor from last time and she said I must be doing something different, maybe exercising more?

I said that I was..."active".

I'm not sure what made the numbers drop, the only thing I had been doing different was NOT dieting

and eating a bowl of ice cream every night.

So, Life is Good....

and I feel like I'm 34.

PHOTO OP'S

I had a very nice brunch with my sister and my nieces today.

We try to do a breakfast once a month.

This month we decided to do something different and do it over a my sister's house instead of the cafe we usually go to.

I didn't bring my camera because I didn't want her to think that everything I do, I view as a photo op.

On Friday she asked me what my "menu request" was.

I said "Thick Expensive Bread with Nuts and Seeds and Blueberry Jam served with Strong Coffee."

I didn't really expect her to serve that but I figured if she was asking, I'd tell her what sounded good...

I wished I had brought my camera because DANG! that's what she served.

It was lovely, served on little yellow "bee" plates.

If I had my camera I could have also photographed her backyard, the flowers, the landscaping.

I could have zoomed in on what I thought was a dog in the wooded area.

I could have followed my niece down into the trees

and taken pictures of what turned out the be a small group of deer.

If I had my camera I could show photos of the awesome "tree dolls" my eldest niece is making to sell at the Fairy Festival that she's going to Oregon.

Sigh...yeah, no photos make for a boring post.

But brunch was a nice break from working on my bathroom.

I've been spending all my spare time redoing it....on a ZERO dollar budget.

I do mean ZERO. I'm only using what I already have.

I did take some "during" photos of that

but I'll save those for when I'm done and do a before and after post.

..................I do have a photo to show of Poppy though.

I took her into work the other day to get her groomed and her rabies vaccination updated.

I wasn't really thinking about how stressful it must have been for her.

She hasn't been to work since her previous owner dropped her off to give her to me.

She's always been quiet and timid, although she's come out of her shell here at my home.

I was carrying her around and showing off her haircut to everyone.

The vet techs were all around her and oohing and aahing over her when she suddenly

projectile vomited on two of the vet techs.

A lot of vomit for such a little dog.

We apologized and I took her back to my work area.

I made her a little bed and she laid down.

When we got home, she instantly ran around and went back to her usual routine of things.

She was fine.

I think she just wanted to be home.

BE MORE DOG

Have you seen this yet?
I love my cats but...yeah, I gotta agree.
I need to be more dog!

FINALLY...I've finished the Painting

A co-worker/friend commissioned a painting from me of her rescued collie, Kelly.
I did a post about it HERE.

Then this May, Kelly had to be rushed to the University when she suddenly could not walk.
It was all very unexpected.
Once there, it was discovered that she had a blood clot in her leg. 
My friend was constantly on the phone, conferring back and forth with the Veterinarian.
They were running various tests and Kelly's "Mom" was struggling with the decision on whether or not to approve the removal of the leg, if that was what would be needed to be done in order to save her life.
She was torn between all that Kelly had already been through and whether or not to do the surgery.
If she approved it, she wanted to do it for the right reason.
To make Kelly happy and healthy and not to make her suffer because she could not bear the thought of losing her.
She was agonizing over this decision as the hospital tried to stabilize Kelly and bring her to a point where she would be able to handle such an amputation.
During this frantic time, another blood clot to her heart, took her life.
Startling and heartbreaking news.
Everyone was devastated and the veterinarian was in tears when my friend's husband made the trip to go get Kelly and bring her home to her final resting place.
Kelly had touched the heart of all those who had tried to help her.
Thankfully she had a loving home in the final months of her life, a home where she was with other dogs to run on an acreage and to know true love.
My friend commissioned another painting of Kelly from me.
At first she wanted something exactly like the first painting, to give it as a "gift" to the veterinarian.
I told her that I wasn't sure if I could reproduce it and then after talking, we decided on a different pose but still the same Starfish story.
I wanted to do this one also as a Mixed Media and I asked if I could include a rainbow in the painting to represent the Rainbow Bridge.
My friend liked that idea.
For some reason, I had a difficult time with this painting, I just could not seem to get it "right".

Finally I have finished it.

My friend was very happy with it and my other co-workers liked it a lot.
I'm glad.
Of course, being me. I'm very critical of it but if she's happy, I'm happy.

Happy 4th of July!.....(and Jimmy hates his new Do.)

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

Jimmy is rockin' a new Do for the FOURTH.
He's handling it fine NOW.
But at first...OMG! He was NOT happy.

I think the whole gang was irritated with me for coloring his hair.

I told them that it washes out, but they were disgusted.

Everyone tried to tell Jimmy that it looked good.

Ruby said "It's cool and very patriotic!"

but behind his back, she expressed her displeasure.

Button tried to talk to him about it.
"It's very HIP and those colors were very flattering! .

That is, after her first initial shock of seeing it.

Even Twinkle came over and tried to make him feel better.
"Jeez kid, why did you come to her when she called you?
That's why I always run like crazy in big circles and under hard to reach places!"

Jim was just depressed about the whole situation.

Then Nora ran over to him and showed him that she had the ball!

Nora just could NOT believe that he didn't get excited even over THE BALL!

Finally we all went inside and I loved on him
and told him how handsome he was.

I think he's fine with it now.

It's just very hard to get used to a different hairstyle/color sometimes.