THE GRUMPY OLD MAN TURNS ELEVEN

Today Blue turned ELEVEN!
I took this photo just before leaving the house this morning.
I used a couple of apps to make it more like a painting-

Yep, He's eleven and he is a grumpy old man.

The grumpiness has been building.
The occasional ROAR of irritation when someone is in his way
or laying his spot.

He's just low on patience.
He'll do that bark growl that sends the other dogs into a tizzy.
They jump up and bark at him
and he storms through the herd of them like an angry bull.

If anyone really gets in his face,
he'll grab ahold of them and slam them to the floor and hold them there
until they stop fighting and are totally submissive.

Years ago when Jimmy Chew was very young, he challenged Blue
and Blue body slammed him to the ground and held him by the throat.
Jimmy was so terrified that his anal glands expressed themselves.
Jimmy was fine, just wet with saliva but he never challenged him again.

Sometimes when Blue is really in a mood and is stomping around roaring
I can tell that Jimmy thinks he needs to protect me.
He doesn't, I'm the Alpha dog
but Jimmy will stand in front of me and face-off with Blue.
He will  bark with all his might as his whole body trembles in fear.
Yep, Jimmy can push my buttons and sometimes really frustrate the Hell out of me
but I know he's got my back.

Lately though, Blue's fuse has been super short.
The other day as the little ones ran through the kitchen for the laundry room to get their dinner,
Blue decided to walk out of the kitchen and into the living room.
I always feed Blue first, so it wasn't like he was hungry but
all the little dogs rushing past him, must have annoyed him
because I heard that ROAR
and then a horrible little scream.

It was my little Poppy.

She doesn't even weigh a full 5 pounds
and he had her down.
Now if it was one of the bigger dogs it would have just been a moment
of catch and release
but in this case, he caught her head and left a little small cut above her eye from his tooth.
I was there in a second
and of course I couldn't yell at him to STOP!
because he's deaf.
But I grabbed ahold of his head and neck and pulled him away
and he instantly ran and hid up the kitchen table.
He always hides there when he gets into trouble
because no one can see him there....

or so he thinks.

I realize that he's just being a cranky ass because if
he really meant business, she'd be dead.
But... it has me on hyper alert now.

I talked with Doc and because we just ran all sorts of blood-work tests
and did x-rays and everything on Blue when he was so ill,
we know there's nothing physically wrong with him except as Doc says -
He's a grumpy old man. That's what happens to us, we get grumpy."
I told him about Poppy and Doc said, "She's just a mouthful!"
and then he just shook his head and said "that's what can happen with a pack".

Without going into extreme detail about pack mentality,
I'll just say that I'm aware of that and that wasn't it.
It wasn't the group of them in some sort of frenzy
or them trying to weed out the weak
or one or more trying to take over the group.
They know I'm the leader.
There's no doubt of that.
Even Blue knows, that's why he hightails it to under the kitchen table.

Nope, it's just Blue doesn't really care about the other dogs.
They just mostly annoy him.
He's a people dog.
And if he sees Lily or my sister he jumps up and down in excitement.

Yep, I think I'm living with a "Lion" (who I love with all my heart)
and a houseful of "Lemurs" who like to run around and play
and get in the way of the Lion who just wants to sleep.

So I'm making sure to keep the lines of visual communication open with Blue and me.
That's always worked before.
He has always watched me to see what to do and not to do.
I just have to stay very attentive to him when he gets up and moves about.

As I type out this post, he's at my feet.
Not on the dog bed
or my BIG chair that he loves but on the wood floor.
I do adore this grumpy dog.
I brought birthday cupcakes in his honor to work

and wrote on the medical board for all to see that today was his Eleventh birthday
and I thanked everyone who made that possible!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRUMPY OLD MAN!
I love you with all my heart
and I hope all the little ones just stay out of your way.

Today is ...MY BIRTHDAY!

Whatever.

Actually, I HAVE been thinking about the aging process a lot lately.
Who knows how long we have.
Someone could be 80 years old and have 15 years ahead of them
and someone could be 19, and die in a car accident that year.
We just don't know.
I've already lived past the age of my Mom's passing
and if I go for Dad's age, I've got slightly less than 20.
But seriously who knows?
and why think that way?!

I got news recently from someone I was close friends with in high school.
I was close with the whole family.
I practically spent all my spare time there.
Their family was polar opposite of mine.
It was loud and rowdy and everyone was on top of one another.
They were outrageous and made messes and had so much fun.

Last year I heard that the oldest daughter had passed away from a brain tumor.
Now I heard that one of the sisters that I spent so much time with, has pancreatic cancer.
She's younger than me!
I haven't seen her in more than 30 years.
She got married and had kids and we just lost touch and now....
Her sister tells me that there's not much hope.

There have been many people over the years that are now gone.
People I grew up with and now, BAM! gone.
Most of my relatives have passed and several of my old boyfriends.
Two years ago, a woman who was my sister's best friend when we were all little,
was posting photos of herself and her fiance on this fun grand vacation they were taking.
Everyday there were photos on Facebook.
They were having so much fun.
I even commented on how she didn't seem to have aged.
So they came home from the vacation and that Sunday afternoon
she had a headache and went to take a nap and when her fiance went to wake her,
she was gone.

Everyone was in shock.
So I was thinking about her again,
as I thought about so many other people who are now gone too.
You just don't know.

So why do we count the years?
I wish we could just live and never know how old we were.
My sister once gave me a birthday card that said pretty much that.
It said something like -
"If you didn't know how old you were, how old would you be?"

I think I'm 36!
Hahahahahahahaha!
No, seriously.
36.

I do know that I appear younger than my age.
I get that all the time.
I contribute that to three things.
#1. Genes. My Dad looked way younger than he was until one day he didn't.
and
#2. It's my nose. I have a Sally Field type of nose.
and
#3 Fat. Extra weight plumps out the wrinkles.

Also, I like things from NOW.

I think that helps keep a person young at heart.

To be open to new things.
I like the current music.
Sure, I love some of the old stuff but I like new stuff too.
I hate when people my age, scoff and talk about the good old days.
There WERE some really GREAT old days
but I hate when people act as though the good times are behind them.
I hate when I hear "I'm too old for that".
I've caught myself saying something similar to it.
But it's because I'm tired, not because I'm old.

OK, ok. Maybe my joints and things hurt a little bit more now but...
I work with young people who complain more than I do about their aches and pains.

So... I'm hating putting a number on myself.
When I hear my new number, I'm shocked!
How can this be?

I've decided not to put things off any longer though.
This year I'm going to try to push myself out of my comfort zone,
which is ironic since I've been working so hard at creating my own little private sanctuary.

But I'm going to start putting myself first, or try to anyway.
I'm going to do it in small ways.
Today I actually bought some nail polish that I wanted.
Of course it's the cheaper brand ($1.66) but it's this lovely shade of blue.

seriouslyswatched.com

Not really navy and with a hint of lavender.
and I'm not too old for it!
I also picked out some lip stain ($4.79) from Burt's Bees.
It all totally up to less than $10.00 but I felt so extravagant!

and finally, I'm going to share what I did for myself that is BIG!
Well, to me it's big.
When I first heard this news of my old friend being sick,
when the reality of mortality hit me again.

We all need to treasure the time we have

And to be Happy!
I started to think about what made ME happy in the past.
Maybe not what would make another person happy but Me.
I wanted to start enjoying my life.
Then I got an idea but I didn't have the cash and that's when The Universe stepped in!

I never get tipped at work.
Well, I used to... by two different ladies who boarded their dogs with me
but both of those dogs have passed away now.
There was one year someone gave my hand lotion and gloves for Christmas!
but I don't get tipped like the Groomer at work does.
She pulls in a lot of cash everyday!
She has a tip jar stuffed with $5 and $10's!
She doesn't even know some of the pets names and yet some of them I have cared for,
for several weeks and fretted about their eating and playing with them and .... nothing.
Oh well!

So when I got my idea, a sweet older couple returned to pick up their 3 little dogs who had boarded with me for a couple of weeks
and they handed me an envelope.
I get cards all the time but this one had CASH in it!
I was so surprised and HAPPY.
That set it in motion.
Then I sold 3 painting/photos at work and that decided it!

I took my Lowes giftcards that I got from my step-mom and my sister for Christmas.
(I wanted to buy a cool faucet for the kitchen sink with them)
but instead I used them to buy fence pickets!
I already had the posts and had purchased the cement last Fall but never put the posts up yet.
I just couldn't figure out where I wanted the fence.
But now I had a plan!
I put in the posts and built the fence.
Then I leveled the yard behind it.
That about killed me.
The heat index was close to 100 that weekend but I had to get it done.
I actually had a 3 day weekend off! The Fourth of July weekend
and I was outside working hard for most of it.

Finally it was done.
Then I used all my money.
My money from the card, the painting money
and I bought a pool that I found on clearance!!!!
It's not huge but it's not tiny either.
The water comes to my waist and I can float on a raft
and I can swim three strokes across it.
Or swim like a goldfish around the side.
I'm out there splashing and paddling and I'm loving it SO much that it's ridiculous!

The other night I came home exhausted.
I let the dogs out on the patio and they laid on their chaise lounges
while I paddled around on the raft reading my book.
Then I laid on my back and just floated.
I felt like I was almost meditating.
After a while I gathered up my stuff and went in and feed the dogs and felt so much better.

Yep, I'm going to concentrate on just being Happy
and believing The Universe will help me find a way!
and I'm going to forget this age thing.
Not because I'm denying it
or want to pretend I'm younger than I am
but because I don't want it to define me.

So yeah, it's my birthday
but Whatever!

TEN YEARS AGO TODAY!

Blue was born!

Here he is the day I brought him home.

8 weeks old and 20 lbs.

Here is the same night and then a comparison shot from not too long ago!

Lol!

And now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLUE

XOXO

58

Today is my birthday.

I'm 58.

How can this be?

I don't feel that number.

My soul feels young,

My body not so much.

I've started to write a post several times.

But each time I'd stop and save it on my laptop for later.

Today my laptop just up and died.

No clue as to why.

So I doing this post from my phone and I seem to be having trouble with this thing too! 

I'm still working a lot.

No short days as the people who said they'd help cover haven't...but I don't care because soon I will have weekends off.

I have lots of creative projects going on right now but nothing finished that I can show. I'm just doing bits and pieces in between work and sleep.

I've been thinking about taking a break from blogging for just a bit. Just long enough to finish some things.

Now I apparently am being forced to.

I want to come back and have some good photos to share.

And some good stories.

I will still be haunting around blogs.

Reading on my phone as the dogs potty most likely, but I'm not so great commenting with the phone.

( this post has already taken twice as long to write! Lol!)

See you soon, when I get some things done and the laptop fixed!

Xoxo

A BIRTHDAY AND A GARDEN

Just a quick post before I go outside to work in the yard!

Today is my baby girl's birthday.

PING PONG

She's only 2!

I usually talk about Blue and my other dogs don't always get proper mention

but I do love them ALL dearly.

To be honest, Ping has a very special place in my heart even though I haven't had her as long as my senior dogs.

Sometimes that just happens. Someone creeps in under the radar and steals your heart

and she and Poppy have done that.

(SSSSSH, don't tell the others).

Poppy is the second youngest,

only 4 years old but she refuses to play with Ping.

In fact she will close her eyes if Ping runs up to her to play.

I'm not sure if Poppy is trying to just ignore her

or maybe wish her away.

I know this sounds INSANE but I have thought about getting Ping a playmate!

The others will play with her for a couple of minutes but then just walk away

and Ping is still ping-ponging around the room until she stops and sees they have all left.

Anyway, I love this little one.

She is FEARLESS!

(This is a photo of Ping when she somehow jumped up on top of the cabinet

and got into one of the cat beds so that she could look out the window!)

Other news

Yesterday after working the morning at the clinic, me and my sister took a little road trip.

We try to go to Sunnyfield's Garden Center every Spring

and last Christmas I had given my sister a handmade "gift certificate" which said

I would buy her one flower/plant from there.

So I bought her a plant and she bought some more!

and I bought a couple for my garden.

Speaking of my garden...

I woke up to rain this morning

and when it started to let up I went outside and took a couple of photos.

Here's my Gerber Daisy that I kept inside all winter.

My Lilacs are in full bloom and are almost done.

All my Hostas are growing HUGE and I'm not done transplanting them!

And this is one of my birdhouses sitting on one of my wooden boxes that I have "collected".

It's surrounded by my Lilies, a burning bush and a clematis

(It cost me $2.00 and is sitting on a stool that cost me 50 cents.)

I have decided to use all my STUFF that I can in my garden.

I plan on painting everything different colors.

Yep, I'm going to use what I can and donate the rest.....

that's the plan.

OK!

It's not raining any longer!

I MUST get outside.

Have a wonderful SUNDAY!

XOXOXO

NINE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY CHEW!

It's my Jimmy Chew's birthday today! 

He's Six!

 

Yep, we've been together for more than 5 years.

He celebrated this morning by somehow getting my work hoodie off of the kitchen chair where I had just set it after taking it out of the dryer. 

I was upstairs brushing my teeth and came down to find him laying on it in the middle of the living room. I shouted for him to get off and shook it out.

Hmm, maybe it was OK to wear?

I put it on and then noticed he had peed on the sleeve.

He's very lucky that it's his birthday today!

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.

6 YEARS AGO TODAY...

...I was really bumming out. The next day would be my birthday and I was turning 49.

I felt depressed because that would be my last year in my forties.
As always, it was Hot outside. I hate having my birthday in the middle of Summer.
Being female, it's upsetting to try to style your hair only to have it frizz.
It's hard to dress up and be comfortable.

I always wished I had been born in October.
But six years ago I didn't need to worry about that.
I had no big plans.
I was working at the old boarding facility back then, separate from the vet clinic, so I'd be there alone.
Basically I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.
Then not much past midnight, on my actual birthday, my little dog Ruby woke me up.
She was barking furiously.
I sat up quickly and looked outside my window.
All I could see was ORANGE. All I could hear, besides Ruby, was the roar of fire.
It was my neighbor's garage on fire.
(I have posted some of this before, but that's what old people do, right? I mean repeat themselves? anyway...)
Our houses are very close. It's possibly only 3 feet away and their garage is right out their back door.
The whole thing was engulfed and her new car was ignited.
I always hated the aluminum siding on my house but in this case, I think it saved my house.
Her house's vinyl melted and the entire back had started to burn.
The ivy on my home was fried to a crisp and my Weeping Willow, whose upper branches always brushed my window had caught fire too.
The tree is what Ruby and I had seen blazing orange out my window and then looking down, the huge roaring ball of flames was the garage.
I sprung out of bed, pulled on some shorts, slipped on my flip flops and ran down the steps with the dogs.
I grabbed the phone to call 911 and the woman on the other end of the line told me that
"They are all ready there!"
So I leashed up Blue and tucked Ruby under on arm and Claude under the other and yelled to Griffin, my old Shih-tzu to follow.
At the door to my porch, a woman was pounding. I opened it up to see fire trucks, police cars and several neighbors standing outside in the darkness. I asked her to grab my dog Griffin and she said she lived down the block and would put him in her yard. I started towards my car in the driveway when Blue broke free. I apparently hadn't clipped his collar correctly and he ran to a fireman. A woman from the crowd ran over and grabbed him and brought him to me. I loaded the two little ones into my car as a policeman asked if everyone was out.
Back then, I only had 4 dogs. But my cats were inside still.
We turned and ran back in. I've always told myself that I don't have favorites but as soon as I stepped inside I screamed "Harry!" and off the banister he flew, into my arms. I ran out with him, shoved him in the car window and turned and ran back in and got Levi, Ghost, Fagan and Ivy. Then I ran back upstairs into my spare bedroom to get Kanga. She's my cat with no front legs, she could have never gotten out. The neighbor girl had called one of my nieces for me, so my sister and 2 of my nieces had arrived by then. The policeman asked me if I needed anything else out of my home and I said no, "I have everything".
I look back now and think about how I hadn't even grabbed my purse.
I was lucky. They got the fire out before it actually got to my house.

I sit here now and look at old Griffin, he was old then, now he's ancient.

and I have rescued a few more dogs.

Levi, Ivy and Fagan are all in Heaven now.
Kanga is back living at the clinic.
My neighbor has a new garage,a new car, new landscaping and a new kitchen.
I'm still doing the boarding thing but now it's at the clinic and it's an all new facility.

 So when I went to work that day, I was very tired but happy that I had a home and that my furry loved ones were safe.

I didn't even think about being 49.
So, tomorrow I will be grateful for all that I have and try not to think about the number 55.

When I don't even really feel 35.

But I have this damn neck that looks crepey when I turn my head a certain  way and jut out my chin.

I wonder how much longer I have until it's actually wrinkly?
I finally have my hair completely grown out to it's natural color.
It's not as grey as I thought it would be.
There's kind of a streak of it in the front and then grey highlights....
I think I will color it again.
I can't have grey hair AND a crinkled neck.
and maybe a tattoo?.....