I believe

In God, in angels and in the power of prayer. After much praying last night, this morning an angel came 6 miles to tell me my Rosie was hanging around her house.SOMEONE, we won't mention any names, was on the internet and the lady kept getting a busy signal.
I followed the lady back to her house, but Rosie was not in her yard. The sweet woman was mad at herself for not putting Rosie in her gated area.Hopeful, I shouted "Rosie,come!" a couple of times, and I heard the jingle of her tags. All four feet were off the ground at once as she came barreling toward me. My Rosie girl is back where she belongs. A little skinnier and a hell of alot tired and hungry.
The sweet lady would accept no money whatsoever, not even when I tolde her it was for gas for driving up to my house. Then she asked if I used to go to a bar called the Mudslide. I told her yes. She said "I thought so. I recognized your husband's face when he came to the door. I used to bartend there, and I remember how you spoke about your dogs. They are your little girls and I would no more take money from you than I would if I had found a lost child. "
Angels do exist on Earth. Thanks for the prayers. And thank you God.

Empty

The yard feels empty, the house seems empty. No sign of Rosie anywhere. I spent most of last night looking for her and making noise with her favorite toy, but she hasn't showed up. Sam is gone also. She had a collar with her phone number, and she loves everybody. She would walk up to people to say hi. Doesn't anyone care enough to read her tag and call me? Someone has seen her, they've had to. Perhaps they wanted a dog like her too. Please God, send my Rosie back to me. Her family misses her....

Lost

I'm sitting here with a massive headache and knots in my stomach. Last night we went next door to enjoy our nice neighbor's firepit. I went to bed around midnight and the guys were going to walk to the pub for last call. Rosie and the neighbor's dog Sam, were in my neighbor's backyard. When I got up this morning Rosie is nowhere to be found. Hubby said maybe the neighbor's put the dogs in their basement. My neighbor's have been gone all day and I don't hear any barking from their basement when I call her. I had to work today and tomorrow, so I couldn't go out looking for her and Hubby drove around a bit but couldn't find her. I've been to the pound twice today and filed a lost dog report. I also called the neighboring 6 police departments to put them on watch. She had tags on last night, so all I can do is hope and pray and wait until my neighbor's come home to see if she is next door. Roxie misses her already too.

not what i had in mind

Most of the time at work, I think about what I'm going to do when I get home. Yesterday was no exception.
It was a hot day in the greenhouses, and we had been expecting a shipment of plants for two days. They finally arrived a half hour before it was time to clock out. So I was all sweaty and stinky and really looking forward to a cool shower followed by a brief nap. Afterwards, I would cook the fajitas I had been marinating for two days, eat, and then finish up my weekly quota of halos.
Yeah, well it didn't go like that at all........
Upon pulling down my road, I spied Alan's car in the driveway ,damn! Hubby took one look at my tired, dirty face and decided that it was best if he and Al got out of the house for a bit, so they took off to the pub.
Alone at last, I cranked the A/C and poured a glass of iced tea and sat down to watch the news. It wasn't 5 minutes before the water department was at my door telling me that the contractor down the street had hit a water pipe and I would have to be sans H2O for about three hours. Double damn! There went the shower. And the toilet.
Thank God I have a bar at the end of the road. After an hour I had to "make water" so I toodled down the road to join my spouse at the bar.While in the restroom, one of the regulars bought a round for everyone, so I thought what the hell, might as well have a beer, I'm off Friday anyway.
Well, those regulars are a generous lot and 2 more rounds were purchased...doubl,double damn!
Now I don't feel like making fajitas, or eating, or making halos. I didn't have any water anyway. Might as well stay where I was.
Around 7:30, a particularly nasty storm rolled through town and pffffffffft there went the electric. Goddammit! I had five dollars in that jukebox playing some kickass music everyone liked, and now the place sounded like a funeral. But the beer was still cold, and there was a few hours of daylight left, so most folks stayed. The bartender manually jimmied the register and the owner called to say power outage pricing was in effect. Which is the same as happy hour prices.
The sun started going down, but that didn't stop this crowd. Out came the flashlights and the pool games continued. Someone said they need music, so I broke into Bobby McGee a cappela.
I sang every song I knew the words to, then shut up. In dark hour number two, the flashlights started dying, and folks were getting bored, so Hubby walked back to our house to get the camping lantern, qwhile I drove to work (which had electric still) and got my crank up radio.
We now had music and pretty good light. Wouldn't you know it those damn pool players hung the lantern over the table, then complained about the shadows. I asked them if they liked a half-dead flashlight better, and they shut up.
Six hours after my best laid plans, Hubby and I walked home to our dark house and went to bed. Nope, not what I had in mind when I left work, but it was fun anyway.

whew!

Finally got home from the art show, and I am car-less,dog-less and halo-less!. Hubby took my Blazer and left me his Dodge Ram1500 mile long thing to drive to work. (It damn well better have gas, I don't feel like stopping to get it in the morning.) He and Alan and the dogs all went camping, which I knew they would, and since the Blazer gets better gas mileage and can hold 2 dogs,2 people and camping gear, I told him to take it.
I also am halo-less. I thought I made enough to last for three shows, but all 80 sold out in one day! Not that I'm bitching, I enjoy the 160 bucks in my pocket. But now I get to spend every night this week making more because the next show is this Friday. No karaoke this week, also very little internet useage. So I'm off to cut wire and ribbon.........toodles.

friday

Awww another work week is ending. For some reason, this one seemed to last forever. I wasn't particularly busy, so I guess it must have been the rain that made it so long. I would love to stay home and clean and cook this weekend (no,honestly sometimes I enjoy the domestic life) but I promised sis-in-law I would go to Delaware Ohio and help her sell jewelry this weekend. It's kind of like a mini-vacation for me since we will be staying over tonight and Saturday. I really enjoy her company and watching people admire her work. She has tried to get me to start making jewelry, but I have neither the eye or the patience to string and knot beads together. I'll stick with making my princess halos for now. See ya Monday.

can't think of one, so pffffft

Rain,rain go away-
My grass is so long I'm calling it hay.

Crikeys- this is about the 12th day in a row I've awaken to damp weather. Everything feels sticky,the dehumidifier is about to blow up and when I take a shower, it feels like I can't get dry.
I wonder if kids are going to start asking "Why is the sky gray?" Or if Crayola will come up with a new crayon called "Steel sky"? Did I curse myself by turning over the garden 2 weeks ago so it could dry out a bit and get compost added? Maybe if I go to karaoke tonight and sing "Here Comes the Sun" that will help.
Ahhh Wednesday, volunteer day, my former co-worker's birthday. We'll all go out for lunch, but I never got her anything.......perhaps I will cheat and get her a Kroger gift card. Nothing says "I worked with you for 3 years, but since you were re-assigned I have no clue what you like anymore, so here's some food" like a gift card from the grocery.
Also have to spend most of the day in the office getting plant orders done that should have gotten to me 6 months ago.....that should be fun. I hate office work- GIMMEE DIRT OR GIMMEE DEATH!!! Then it's off to Sears to see if I can feminine wiles my way into some discounted tires. My 60,000 mile Michelins only have 35,000 miles on them, but they are 5 years old and the sidewalls are falling apart. The worst they can tell me is no deal, and I will go purchase one good tire from somewhere else that matches my spare then have them switched over.
It will no doubt be an interesting day, as is everyday I wake up and breathe.

i can hear clearly now the pain is gone...

"So why did you choose ear,nose throat?" I asked the doctor. "Well, it beats a couple of other body orifices," he replied. And with that the 15 minute session began.
Peek, peer
squirt,suck
peer some more.
"That should do it. pick up some drops at the pharmacy downstairs. You have a mild ear infection."
All done in a quarter hour.
I went to the nurse's station to get my paperwork and headed for the elevators.
387 dollar!?! Is that right? 167 bucks to talk for 5 minutes,117 to suck out my ear for 1 minute and 24 to stick an instrument in my ear to make sure he hadn't sucked my eardrum out.....
Now I know why he chose ear,nose throat........1200 bucks an hour! Yes I know med school and licensing are expensive,but this guy looked mature enough to have paid those bills years ago. Sure there's malpractice insurance but doing the math...let's say 3 patients an hour at 400 a patient x 7 hours a day ,thats 8400 bucks a day, x 5 days a week = 42,000 a week x 4 weeks = 168,000 a month. I know medical overhead is high, but this is an HMO where receptionists and building costs are shared by many,many doctors. So how much does this ear doc make a month?
This was a simple ear-douche- no tubes, nothing complicated, easy money. No wonder they tell you not to try to remove wax buildup yourself,best come in to have it done.
Next time, I'm using a turkey baster and the shop-vac.

huh??

Well it's Friday and I have the day off, but not really because I have to go back to the doctor's to have this stupid ear looked at.
It started clogging up about 2 weeks ago, so I tried the old ear drops routine,which worked temporarily. Yesterday, I was tired of feeling like my head was stuck underwater and sounding like an idiot saying "huh?" everytime someone talked to me. So on my lunch hour I called the HMO and asked if I could see an ENT dude. The soonest appointment they could give me was May 26, I asked if my own doctor could flush ears and they said probably, but his next open time was next Friday. I told the receptionist that at this point I was going stark raving mad and wouldn't mind seeing the lady in the cafeteria with the dishwasher sprayer, but I can't take it another day. She got me an appointment with the physician's assistant Charlie (whom I've seen a couple of times and he has a great disposition) at 3:45. So I went to see Charlie, who squirted my ear, peered around a dozen or so times and declared there was one flake of buildup at the bottom of my eardrum that was stuck on and wouldn't shake loose. The drum is also red and bumpy,whatever that means. I asked him if I should get out the shop-vac when I got home and he said no, I'll try to get you into ETN sooner than the appoinment I had made. Amazingly, when another doc refers you, you can get an appoinment the very next day, but when I make one myself, it takes three weeks.......go figure.

3 little words

That's all it took to make me realize that I am nothing more than another cog in this big machine called living. Oh sure, one missing gear can throw things out of whack for a bit, but soon enough another cog can easily replace you. What makes me special? What makes me unique? Who am I?
I sing - so what lots of people do, some are better, some are worse.
I care about people -but there are people who devote their whole life to helping others, I am not one of those.
I like to write - but I'm guessing I'll never be on the N.Y. Times bestseller list
I have tons of patience-but have a hard time dealing with those who are slower than me.

I can be on top of the world one day, and at the bottom of the shitpile the next. I can be self-assured, then self-doubting. I can feel like a somebody, then a nobody. I'm not striking, but I'm not totally ugly. I've never travelled the world-seen the Grand Canyon or the Outback or the canals of Venice, but my imagination has taken me to some wonderful places that might not even exist. I am not a Christian, but I am a child of God. I love mankind, but hate the cruelty that exists in this world. I like sunny days, but the sound of rain on the leaves soothes me. I like the innocence and joys of kids, but prefer not to procreate. I enjoy company, but relish in solitude.
And so three words set me on this thought process all day long. Who am I?

Rosie cont'd

This is one of my favorite pic's of Rosie, a.k.a Ro-Ro, Rodeo, Nut-job and Noodles.....

When I logged into Petfinder, I wasn't even looking for a new dog, I was browsing for a new kitten for a friend of mine. I came across a local cat rescue group that had a link to another group called Sheltered Paws. Being a button pusher (like someone else I know), I clicked onto the link. I scrolled through the various doggy pics until the one in my previous post caught my eye. Here was a pup that looked almost dead-on to Roxie! Seeing as my other two pets were black, and 99% of my furniture and clothes are dark and don't show pet hair, I thought another black dog would fit in well. So I clicked to see her profile.
She was cute enough, looked to be the right age and size, and was housebroke......bingo!

Since hubby did his Humpty-Dumpty act off the roof, we didn't have much spare cash to adopt a dog. I had seen some of the other rescue groups prices were way out of our meager budget, and hoped this one wasn't. I filled out the online adoption application, composed a lovely note from Roxie and sent it off.
I was approved! And they agreed to let Rosie go for 80 dollars, which is less than the usual fee. I don't know whether it was my sob story about how I would rather spend money on actually taking care of the dog instead of adoption fees, or the fact that Rosie's foster mom was moving in a week and she needed to find a home, but it didn't matter.
That weekend, her foster mom was kind enough to bring Rosie to my workplace so Roxie and I could meet her. When I saw her face to face, she sure didn't look like her picture. She had more of a Rottie look than Lab,and was older than she looked in her picture, I was a bit put off. Having never owned or known a Rott, I was a little apprehensive about the breed's reputation, but Rosie's sunny personality won me over. Roxie wasn't annoyed by her, so I guess she was acceptable to her also. I handed over my cash and signed the adoption papers. Rosie was now a member of the household.
That was 3 years ago, and I found out that Rosie not only loved apples, but just about anything you would find in the produce section-fruit or vegetable. This dog would eat raw onions, prefers bananas to a rawhide chew and I can't count the number of times I have almost nicked her nose while trying to peel potatos. I knew red grapes grapes are a no-no as they contain the same chemical as chocolate, but I wasn't sure about other produce. To be safe I looked it up on the net. Potatoes and onions and quite a few other fruits and veggies are not good for dogs because they can cause anemia and other health problems. Thankfully, bananas and carrots are safe.As well as tomatoes, which is a good thing, because the little bitch steals them from the garden before I get a chance to pick them. Nothing like waiting all winter for that first homegrown tomato and finding it in the yard with a bite mark on it. Worse yet, she has taught Roxie to steal them too. This year I am planting two gardens, one for the dogs, and one with a 4 foot high fence around it.


and those are all my critters.........

Rosie

^ Runaway ^

"Hello, my name is Rosie and I am a 1 year old Lab/Rottie mix. I get along great with dogs and cats. I love apples. I know my basic commands and listen well. I prefer a fenced in yard as I like to run around, but will settle down after awhile. Please let me be part of your forever family."

That was how the Petfinder ad read, and this was the picture that was posted.

After having our dog Mouse for 13 years, she developed a large tumor in her neck and had to be euthanized. Roxie was now an only dog, and like Mouse, she didn't take to it too well. We loved Mouse very much and it took us awhile before we were ready for another dog. But when the time came, we went back to the shelter where we had adopted Roxie. We found a sweet male pup, brought him home and he was christened Runaway.




He was a cute, lively pup the first day we had him, but the next day his personality took a 180 and all he did was lay around. It was Veteran's day weekend and most of the Vets that were on the shelters free health screening list I received were closed for the holiday. I did find one open finally and took him there. The vet diagonosed Parvo. It broke my heart, but I had to take him back to the shelter. Trouble was the shelter was closed. I went to the Sheriff's office next door to see if they could contact the dog warden. (I did not want to risk taking Runway back home and infecting Roxie.) But he was out on a dog bite run. Reluctantly, I took the poor pup back to the house and put him in a crate in the basement. The next morning, he had passed away. I loaded his body into my truck and returned to the shelter and got a refund.
The Vet said I needed to bleach everything that the pup had touched that couldn't be thrown away as Parvo can be both highly contagious and deadly. He told me that a hard freeze would kill the virus in the yard and to keep Roxie on leash when she went out until we got that freeze.

As my luck would have it, that was the week hubby fell off the roof and broke his heel. He would be laid up for at least six months and have to spend a boring winter indoors. I didn't think I could handle having to care for him and a new dog, so I thought a new family member was off the itinerary until spring at least. But Fate had other ideas......

Next - Rosie part 2

Roxanne cont'd

I have discovered 3 things about rescuing dogs from shelters

1) The sadder the eyes, the more likely they are to find a home
2) The sweeter the pup at the shelter, the more of a hellion they'll be when they get home
3) The low price of a shelter dog is offset by the price of replacing what said beast chews up.

Once Roxie felt secure enough about her ability to win us over with cute looks, she started getting into everything. Among the victims of her chewing exploits were the cable tv wire, my husband's battery -operated heated hunting gloves, and just one disk (but not both) of a brand new Sony Playstation game. And that was just in the living room.

Not soon after she I arrived, I had to purchase besides the usual collar and other puppy paraphenalia, a covered laundry hamper. This was to ensure that my socks would have toes when I put them on, and also that I didn't own crotchless panties not bought at Frederick's of Hollywood.

Roxie not only gave herself her own name, she also gave me the name I use on the internet. I bought my computer around the beginning of July one year, and soon discovered the wide world of chatrooms. Well, I had to have a nickname, but I just couldn't think of anything that wasn't already assigned to someone. (I hate when I think I have found a name I believe noone on Earth would think of and then, click, "sorry that nickname is taken" pops up.)
Being that it was the day before Independence Day, alot of folks in the hood were shooting off fireworks. At the moment I was down to my last idea for a nickname Roxie jumped in my lap, knocking my iced tea all over my keyboard. I told her what a fraidycat she was, then thought to myself, no she's a fraidydog.....and so here I am.

Next
The last of the 4 legged family members......Rosie