Thank you, a REVEAL and WTH?

First, before anything else.
THANK YOU for all your kind and compassionate words about Rosie.
They meant so much to me.
I have had, but not DIRECTLY said to me...
a few not kind people make a side remark, to others...
who then let it travel back to me that-
How can I care so much about all my pets?
The fact that I have more than the norm apparently makes them question how I can care
SO MUCH.
Well, I do.
And I feel very VERY sorry for those that can't understand it.
How awful to go through life with such a selfish hard heart.
Of course, I DO have some that will completely devastate me when they finally leave.
Truthfully, I hate loving some of them as much as I do.
Without question my Blue.
(Wow, even just typing out that sentence, filled my eyes with tears.)
But there's my cat Harry... oh god, he must live forever!
And my cat Ghost, he has to sleep as close as possible to me.
To say nothing of my little Ping and Poppy... but they are both young.
And my faithful Nora
and even irritating Jimmy Chew.
Yep, all the rest of them have my heart too.
So there.
It's just the way I am.
I was told as a child that I was too soft-hearted.
As I got older, I was told I needed to harden up.
Recently I was told that I needed to STOP caring so much.
I can't. I won't.
and why should I?

OK, On to a much HAPPIER topic!
My blogger friend Sharon, finally got the piece of Art that I did for her,
so I can reveal it now!
I showed some WIP's on Instagram but never the finished piece and here it is!

She wanted it to be of Jimmy Chew
and also the bag of dog food that he knocked over.
Here are some close-ups of the details.

I did it on art board in Inktense.
Then I did Jimmy, the bags of food and the kibble on paper and Inktense and ink
and collaged it on.
The kibble actually took the longest as I drew each piece, filled them in with Inktense and then went over it with my waterbrush and then relined it all.
But honestly, it felt like a form of meditation.
I went into a Zen mode!
LOL!

Then I made a few more "pieces" of kibble and collaged them on top of it to give it a more 3D feel.
I also extended the images over onto the sides.
Usually I don't do that because then I wouldn't be unable to copy it and make prints.
But I knew this was not to be copied, it was just for Sharon.
It meant so much to me that she wanted Jimmy and that she believes so much in me.
Yep, Definitely a GOOD THING!

And finally,
while I don't REALLY care...
the other day I noticed that my "blogger" Followers dropped from 98 to 95.
While I secretly had a little thrill that I was about to break a hundred,
I also know that there's many ways to Follow and that number doesn't mean much.
That and the fact that I really only care about QUALITY over Quantity
and my blogger friends here are THE BEST.

Then the other day the number dropped to 91!
WHAT THE HELL!
LOL!
but really, WTH?
I hope I didn't say or do something offensive
or worse, BORE people.
OK, letting it go...
Deep breaths.
(by the way, I have corrected the links to Follow my Art blog via email and subscribing. Thanks to Anne for giving me a heads up on that!)
I'm still thinking that's a lot to ask and maybe I just need to keep it all over here in one place....
Any thoughts or opinions?

Finally, my credit card got hacked! or whatever.
Luckily they text me immediately of possible fraudulent charges to a Walmart in central Iowa.
Yep, NOT me.
So they had to shut down that account and open a new one
and put a fraud watch alert on my credit reports.
Right after that, TWO people on Facebook,
both who used to work at the clinic but have moved on, had the same thing happen to them!
And none of us go to any of the same places or live in the same town!
Scary stuff.
But we all are questioning using our cards at gas stations.
I hate to go inside and prefer to pay at the pump but this has me thinking.
Have you dealt with fraudulent charges?
Do you think it could be the scanners at the pumps?
I hate to carry cash but maybe I should.

R.I.P ROSIE

My little Rosie, a 16 1/2 yr old Papillon, went to Heaven this morning.

In my avatar/logo, she's the little dog that I've drawn in the crook of my arm.

She had become frail, blind and only had one tooth left.

She didn't even weigh 5 lbs anymore.

BUT she was still sassy, barking for her dinner and wobbling to her potty pad afterwards to do her business.

She looked pretty bad but I vowed that as long as she was eating, I'd do nothing but care for her.

Squeak took a liking to her and against her protests would back himself onto her bed and eventually cuddle with her.

Yesterday I came home and found her very limp.
At first I thought she might have passed but after putting some cool water on her tongue that always hung out, she blinked her eyes a bit.

I sat her next to the water bowl and she was unsteady and couldn't stand but for a minute.

I gave her a bath, she smelled like she must have urinated on herself.

I dried her up and held her for a while.

I offered her some of her usual food but she had no interest.

I added warm water, still nothing.

I got out the canned food that she would normally gobble down and still, no interest.

Afterwards I gave Squeak a bath too and dried him until he was fluffy.
He's so tiny. I can feel his bones.
I feed him a big bowl of his special prescription diet canned food and when he was finished, he tiptoed over to her bed and cuddled up to Rosie.

I feed the other dogs and looked over to see that Squeak had moved to another dog bed.

That sight filled me with dread.

I scooped her up and held her and sat with her in my arms while I read things on the Internet and typed out comments with one hand.

Finally I returned her to her bed.

I put a towel in the dryer for a few minutes and then tucked it around her so she would feel the warmth and I went to bed.

When I woke in the morning, my head feared the worse but my heart hoped for a miracle.

She was still alive but....

I bundled her up and took her to work.

As soon as Doc arrived, my friend who is one of the head techs got him and he released Rosie from her tired body.

I thanked him for the extra 5 years he gave me with her after that accident in August of 2011.
He played a big part in saving her when others would have let her go back then.

He said it was definitely time, that her body was worn out but
that I had done a great job taking care of her.

That caught me by surprise as he usually doesn't say things like that.

So... It's still January and I have now lost 2 of my clan.

I hope that's it for this year.

Here's a photo of her from a few years ago.

I didn't want to post her photo as she was today.
I'd rather remember her like this.

She always enjoyed sitting on the heat vent and having the blower go on and blast her with air.

Like a little Marilyn Monroe on the street grate.

Funny how something that tiny, can leave such a big whole in a persons heart.

Sigh... Getting old sucks.

NO MORE DOGS! or CATS.

Thank god this week is over.

Of course it's just the beginning.

But Spring Break always hits hard at the kennel.

I had dogs and cats everywhere.

Friday morning as I was trying to get dogs outside and back in and feed and medicated,

several owners showed up to pick up their dogs early.

One of the receptionists offered to run the dogs up front for me.

She was racing back and forth and I was loading her up with their food and supplies 

and then another receptionist starting paging me.

She had more dogs coming in.

So the receptionist ran back more dogs and it was a mad house.

She finally stopped and looked at me and said

"I have no idea how you are able to do this every day!"

"Neither do I" I replied.

At the end of the day, my kennel worker showed up to take over.

She stated how tired she was of doing "all of this".

She does it four times a week

for 4 hours intervals.

I told her that I was tired too

and that I do it all week for 9 hours shifts.

But I reminded her that at least we worked with animals

and didn't have to deal with people.

She agreed, it was a better situation.

I left out what I was thinking,

That I'm 35 years older than her, so I didn't really want to hear how tired she was.

Yep, I hate to say this but it is REALLY getting to me.

Maybe it's the stressful situation happening here at home right now

that makes me so tired of it all.

I feel like my home has turned in a old dog nursing home.

I mean, I knew this day was coming but

I don't know...

Anyway, the other night as Ruby stood all wobbly at the water bowl,

she fell over

so I stood her back up.

and over she went again,

so I set her back up

and down she went.

I lift her up again and

finally she had her footing.

Later that night, after everyone had been out for their final nightly potty.

Claude just stood at the bottom of the three steps.

Staring at them and then at me.

It was like he needed a running start

and he just couldn't do it.

As I started to go get him, he walked away and circled around

and with great effort, hurled himself up the steps.

The next morning I let everyone outside and then when they were finished, I called them back inside.

Button was pacing back and forth along the fence.

She's totally blind now but usually knows her way around.

But she was confused out there and although I called out to her

she just turned around and listened, not sure where to go.

I went out and picked her up.

I reassured her and her tail was wagging like crazy.

And then there's Rosie.

Older than dirt.

Just two random snaggleteeth left on bottom of her mouth.

She's doing fine

but very quirky.

She has to walk against the walls

or along the furniture to go room from room.

She even squirms under the china hutch to get to the laundry room

rather than walk across the floor, out in the open.

Maybe she's not so dingy after all.

Maybe it's self-preservation.

After all, packs of dogs are known to take out the weakest link.

Although I would never leave her alone with the bigger dogs

where that could be a threat.

but she is very old.

So, I'm tired.

Which is why I recently turned down a Maltese dog.

I love Maltese's.

My first "little" dog, my first small rescue was a 10 yr old Maltese.

and this one is only 9 months old and deaf.

He's a boy dog. So there would be the potential of a leg lifting hassles.

Not all male dogs do that but some do.

But I don't have the energy

I'm trying to share info with them about deaf dog rescue.

So, no more animals are coming home with me.

Which reminds me

I need to do a post about my newest cat

that I got a couple of months ago.

Doppelgänger

Marilyn, Rosie

A DAY OFF

I have the day off today.

Perfect weather.

I'm trimming back the daisies.

Weeding.

Putting up flower boxes.

Planting flowers.

and finishing my raised vegetable garden.

I've come inside to cool off a bit.

I was relaxing BY the pool.

I would have gotten IN, but...

Rosie is hogging it up!