Monday, April 14, 2008

It has been a while since I have been on here. Life hasn't been much fun lately.

We had a thunder storm during the day last Thursday and when I got home from work at 4:30, our Yellow Lab, Sam, had dug out from under the gate of the back yard and was not to be found. He is utterly terrified of thunder, but has never dug out before. Usually he just gets really jumpy and stays in his dog house. No sign of him on Friday either. He got out one other time a few months ago, but came back on his own. On Saturday morning when we left to do some shopping in town, we put up two signs, one was a mile from our house and the other was about a half mile the other direction. We arrived home about 4:30 PM and there was a message on the anwering machine from a lady that said she had picked up a large male Lab on Thursday afternoon as she was coming home from work. She said he appeared to be pretty scared. (He is a very gentle, mellow dog.) Someone stopped to help her lift him into her truck and she took him home with her, keeping him in her garage. She took him with her to work the next day as she has two dogs of her own and couldn't keep him. (She works at a vet clinic in the next county.) After work on Friday she took him to the Humane Society. It was after they had closed for the week end that we found out about all of this. Ed stopped in at the Humane Society today, after work and it was our Sam! After posting bail for him, they let him have him. He was glad to be home and we were sure glad to have him back!
A couple of weeks before this incident we had to put our Chow, Penny to sleep. She just stopped eating, and would drool constantly. She wanted to eat, but if fed a teaspoon of broth, (at the vets recommendation) she would almost immediatly throw up. We tried everything the vet suggested, and were giving her meds from the vet. But she couldn't keep anything down, yet she was mostly bright eyed and was eager to be petted and loved on. I took her to the vets on Wednesday and we did what the vet suggested to treat her. But it wasn't working. She couldn't even keep water down. I took her back to vet on Friday morning and she rehydrated her and gave her more meds, for nausea, antibiotics, and I don't remember what else, also additional examinations. I took her home and we followed vets advice. I took her back on Monday and she had lost 5 pounds. I left her for the vet to try whatever she thought was best. But nothing was working. On Thurday morning I went back and we put her to sleep. The vet suspected stomach cancer, but wasn't sure. Enough of her blood work came back normal to puzzle the vet. I gave the vet permission to do an exam after her death, and she called me at home to tell me that Penny had advanced stomach cancer. It came on her rather suddenly. A month before this she was her usual happy, eager self. She was only 8 years old.

During all this going on with Penny, I went to the local clinic to have a mole checked out and they refered me to a dermatologist in Bloomtown. After a biopsy, I had a Basil Cell Carcinoma removed from my head. It was in the hairline, at the top of my forehead. It stood up from my scalp and I would hit it with a hairbrush or whatever and it would bleed. One of the little boys I take care of bumped it and made it bleed, so I just thought it was time to get it checked out. So now it has been removed. The Dr. said she got it all, even the roots, and it shouldn't come back. I am happy about that, to be sure! Thank you, Lord!

We purchased some railroad ties to use around my garden, and I can hardly wait for some warm weather so I can scratch up the garden! I want to try Lasagna Gardening. We have lots of stuff to add to the ground to make a rich planting bed. But it is way too wet to do anything with! I have onions to plant!! among other things!

Here are a couple of photos of our new babies. They will be a week old on Friday.
Here are a couple of Sam and Penny.



This one of Sam was taken several years ago, he is 12 years old now.

And here is the second of the quilt squares that I had made for the quilt raffle for the horse rescue in Maryland.

The horses had their feet trimmed for the third time by the new Barefoot Trimmer and I'm liking his work more all the time. Their feet will take some time to get 'right' again, but there is already improvement. he is prompt, and gets done in a reasonable amount of time. The last guy would take 3-5 hours to trim three horses!! EEEK!!

Well, I'm all talked out now, so this will have to do for those of you that are yelling that I need to update, so here it is!