Fragging: A Whole Lot of Happy, a little bit of sad.

Friday already?! This week has flown by!

But I'm not complaining.

If you visited on Sunday, you saw that Elayna injured her thumb this weekend. She went to the orthopaedic doctor on Tuesday and they said that it was a minor break. They put her in a soft splint, and she goes back next Thursday for a recheck.

It was broken while she was practicing soccer. She decided she wants to try soccer this season, which is great because she and Andrew will be on the same team. We were at the park practicing, just me, John & the kids, when she hurt her thumb - the season hasn't even started yet! But the good news is, she will still be able to play. I'm excited! I think it will be fun - and less hectic! - to have both of them in the same sport, on the same team.

On a sad note: Yesterday, our old dachshund girl, Suzie, passed away. You may remember me posting about her in January. It was sad, but at the same time a relief. Her health was failing and we were struggling with whether or not to have her put to sleep; she didn't seem miserable but she wasn't 'right', either. Thankfully, the decision was taken out of our hands as she passed peacefully in her sleep during the night. It's just going to be so hard to get used to not having her around.

On a happier note: It looks like I will be going to work soon! A friend of ours from church is expanding his business and wants me to handle the new portion of the business. So far it sounds like it's perfect for me right now. I'm excited about that, too.

Last night we got to see the Harlem Globetrotters. I won four tickets from a local TV station. We had a blast! I'll share pictures later. I love winning stuff like that!

We had my FAVE, Chipotle, for dinner afterwards. I LOVE me some Chipotle!

I have gotten some of the most wonderful, heartfelt, supportive comments this week, and I want to thank you all. Most of you I thanked in email, but some of you don't have your email enabled, and I wanted to let you know that I appreciate each and every one of you!

That's all from here! We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend with gorgeous weather. I wish you the same! Join in the Fragging Fun at Mrs 4444's place.

P.S. I added Twitter & Facebook share buttons - feel free to use them! ;-)

Putting the FUN in Canine Cognitive DysFUNction

a.k.a. Doggy Dementia.

This is about our oldest dog, Suzie. She is a miniature dachshund and she is somewhere around 18 years old. Which puts her somewhere around 126 years old in dog years.

And her mind, it is a'slipping.

This about.com article describes Suzie's behavior so well, I am suspicious that they have been peeking in our windows.

She stands at the hinge side of the door, wondering why it doesn't open and she can't get out of the room.

She randomly walks in circles. Over and over and over.

She gets stuck under things like end tables and Sofia's feeders. She wanders into the closet and stares at the walls.

And we laugh hysterically.

Because truly, these things are funny! She's cute. It's endearing. When you see her running around the house trying to get the little metal decorative table off of her back, what else are you gonna do?

Besides help her, of course. Once you contain your laughter.

She also does things that are not fun. Not funny. Not even a little bit endearing.

Like, her "loss of housetraining". Sigh.

She doesn't respond to commands. We thought she was going deaf, but it appears that she can still hear, it's just the dementia. But the sleep irregularities and barking for no reason? They are the ones that are going to drive me completely off of my rocker. She has combined the two, to save herself trouble I suppose. So when the house is quiet and she should be sleeping, she randomly decides to bark. Except that it's more of a "yelp". It is extremely loud and piercing and makes me want to rip my ears off of my head.

Alternately, I have considered putting Suzie in the washing machine and setting it on SPIN.

(I'm kidding, PETA, and stay off my blog, ya freaks.)

I honestly have no idea when I've slept for a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes, we can quiet her by wrapping her in a blanket and sort of tucking her in to her doggy bed. Sometimes, there is no consoling her. She doesn't like to be petted, picked up, or touched at all, really.
Sometimes, she wakes up the other dogs and they start barking, too. We can't keep her outside so that we can sleep, because I'm afraid she'll wake the neighbors. Even though we are a good distance away from our nearest neighbors. She is LOUD.

She is not in pain. She's just cognitively dysfunctional. The dysfunction is taking over!

There's not much we can do. And I don't feel guilty about laughing at the funny parts, not for a minute. When we were fostering for the dachshund rescue group, I picked Suzie up from the shelter. She had been dumped off by her former family because she was old and they wanted her put to sleep. They weren't willing to pay for it, though, so they just surrendered her to the shelter. There was nothing wrong with Suzie except for untreated worms, which were quickly cleared up with meds. We kept her, thinking she would probably not live long and we didn't want her to be put through the trauma of going to yet another home. And I was attached.

That was about three years ago. She has basically been spoiled rotten for three years, because we figured she didn't have much time left and wanted her to be comfortable and happy. She had her own bed and her own blanket, and she was kept away from the other dogs a lot because they annoyed her. She has lived the good life. And we will continue to keep her comfortable for whatever time she has left here.

I just wish they made Ambien for dogs.

A former foster, Honey, with Suzie.

Friday Fragments

I am so glad it's Friday. Not only for the obvious reasons; I'm off tonight, the weekend is almost here, etc. But also? My brain is so totally overflowing with Fragments! And now it's finally time to empty my brain here, for Friday Fragments. Whew! What a relief. It was starting to hurt!

~ So, I mentioned earlier this week that I've won some cool giveaways recently. I thought today, I'd show you my winnings!

I won this lovely jewelery from Mary Mac of Pajamas and Coffee fame. I heart her.



Aaaaand I won this DVD from Tiaras & Tantrums. I heart her too, and now my kids do as well!



~ I actually survived Shelbie's 14th Birthday party! The girls were actually wonderful. I particularly love a couple of her friends who came over. Awesome kids! And Tim did not bother the girls at all. Except for one little thing. The girls were playing volleyball in the garage, and they suddenly came running in shrieking, saying they had heard something outside. It was probably a cat or something, who knows. Anyway, they all went into Shelbie's bedroom after that. So Tim just HAD to go outside and knock on the bedroom window. Seriously, it was just too great of a temptation for an older brother to resist! I wasn't mad, in fact I told him I'd have been disappointed in him if he hadn't done it! The girls were appropriately terrified and it was really funny.

~ Something terrible happened this week. I lost a wiener. Seriously. I lost one of my dogs, my 16 year old little dachshund, Suzie. I have never, ever lost a dog before and it was terrifying. And here's the part where I admit to being the worst doggie mama EVER - I took her out to pee (for her to pee, that is, not me), and I forgot about her. I always stay outside with her so that she doesn't wander off. Well, I was getting a box fixed up that was full of Christmas decorations I was giving away on Freecycle (I promise I really was, I'm not just throwing that in to make me sound less awful). And when I finished with the box, I went inside. Totally forgetting that Suzie was outside. Then, we all LEFT!! We took John to work, all the way in another town. We got home over an hour later, then I proceeded to fix dinner, STILL forgetting about my sweet old lady. It wasn't until the kids were eating and I started to feed the dogs that I realized she was missing, and then it hit me....Oh.My.GOD. I forgot about Suzie!! I went outside with a flashlight, searching frantically. No Suzie, but I swore I heard her barking off in the distance.
The kids and I jumped in the car and started driving around. I saw a man in his yard and as I stopped to ask if he'd seen her, an SUV was driving by and she stopped and asked me if I'd lost a dog! She had my Suzie! She'd seen her wandering the streets (sniff, my poor baby), picked her up and took her to her house. Suzie was in a kennel in this lady's backyard, barking her poor little face off! She was SO happy to see us. She was cold, shaking and so scared. She licked my face off! And I? Still feel awful. I gave her people food when we got home to try to make it up to her a little bit. Needless to say, I will no longer take my eyes off of her when she is outside doing her business! I never want to lose a wiener again; it's quite traumatizing.

This is Suzie, only she has a lot of gray in her muzzle now, she's at least 16 years old. She's a shelter rescue and my little shadow.


~ Tonight on the way to work, John and I were worried about something. The song "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley came on, the one where he says "Don't worry, about a thing. Cause every little thing, is gonna be alright." I said to John, "See honey? Don't worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright." Shortly after getting to work, I found out that the thing we were worrying about was fine. So, Bob Marley really was right! I've been listening to reggae on Pandora all night, there's just something so peaceful and relaxing about this music.

~ We'll be finishing our Christmas shopping this weekend! I started really early (for me) this year and actually don't have much left. Which makes me VERY happy!

Whew! I think my brain is now officially dumped. I hope y'all have a great weekend and can keep the Christmas spirit, even if other shoppers make you slightly homicidal!

Visit Half Past Kissin' Time for more Fantastic Friday Fragments!

Monday Memes

I'm catching up on a couple of Memes today. Here we go.....

This first one is from AllMediocre, the blog promotion site that lists the web's BEST blogs!
This is the One Word Meme.

1. Where is your cell phone? counter

2. Your significant other? husband

3. Your hair? straight

4. Your mother? quirky

5. Your father? kooky

6. Your favorite thing? sleep

7. Your dream last night? strange

8 Your favorite drink? water

9. Your dream/goal? travel

10. The room you’re in? cluttered

11. Your hobby? blogging

12. Your fear? loss

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy

14. What you’re not? pushover

15. Muffins? no

16. One of your wish list items? camera

17. Where you grew up? Florida

18. The last thing you did? bloghop

19. What are you wearing? comfy

20. Favorite Gadget? camera

21. Your pets? spoiled

22. Your computer? outdated

23. Your mood? sleepy

24. Missing someone? yep

25. Your car? minivan

26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes

27. Favorite store? Target

28. Like someone? yep

29. Your favorite color? purple

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? forgot

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was tagged for this meme by my local friend, Irregular Tammie.

Six unimportant things about me:

1. I am in need of a hair trim & highlights.
2. I love taking pictures, and wish I had better skills and a better camera.
3. I'm extremely sleepy right now!
4. I don't usually like the stars that most people like. I'm not a Brad Pitt or George Clooney fan, at all.
5. I love Pixar films and can't wait to see Wall-E.
6. I never watched Sex in the City and you couldn't pay me to go see the movie.

Now, according to the rules I have to tag six more folks to play along. I'm not usually one to tag people, but what the heck. If you don't want to do it, no problem!

1. Chel How about a meme for me?
2. Krissy Take a break and do a meme!
3. Groovy Mom.......You have been MIA lately! How about a meme?
4. Lunanik......do you do memes?
5. Rock and Drool.......have time for a quick meme this summer?
6. Sue...how about you?

The rules are as follows:
1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your entry.

**A couple of updates:
~We ARE keeping Suzie! I read all the comments and knew that you all were right. She is already where she belongs!
~The other foster puppy, Spikes, is being adopted - by the guy who adopted Tebow! The brothers will be together forever.
~I have now lost 77 lbs. Please check out Weighting for Change for my updates!

How About You Just Rip My Heart Out, Instead?

As most of you know, we foster dogs for a rescue group. We've done very well about not getting attached to the dogs, for the most part. In fact, the only foster dog we've kept is one that Dysfunctional Dad got attached to. It wasn't my fault! Other than him, we've been able to take these dogs, help them get healthy (in some cases, take them to heartworm treatments, have major dental work, etc), and then lovingly pass them on to forever homes.
Back a couple of months ago, I got an urgent call from a rescue member, asking me if I could pull a dog from my county shelter that day or she'd be euthanized. I got the message too late to go that day, and I panicked; but fortunately she'd talked them in to waiting until the next day. So first thing the next morning, I picked up Suzie.
Suzie was skin and bones, and had liquid poops. She was in terrible shape.
We took her to the vet, and treated her for whipworms, which were causing her bowel problems and her inability to put on weight. She now looks and feels so much better. But she's still very old, around 14 years old. She's frail. And she's very, very attached to me. She sleeps right next to me. She follows me everywhere. She doesn't care about any other person or dog; just me.
Just last week, I said to hubby, I think we are going to have to keep Suzie.
She probably doesn't have a whole lot of time left on this earth, and I don't really know how she'd handle leaving our home at this point. Hubby agreed with me ('cause he's awesome like that).
The only issue is her adoption fee; while it's not much at all really, every dollar right now is going to the down payment for the Ladybug's braces. But I figured, well, nobody's showed any interest in her so far, so we'll probably have time, after we get the braces out of the way next month, to get the adoption fee paid.
What I didn't know was that the rescue group hadn't gotten her bio up on the website yet. But just this week, they put Suzie's bio on the website. And already, TWO people have shown an interest in her.
Oh.Crap.
I know the rescue group would hold her if I asked them to. But I'm so torn. I want what's best for Suzie. What if these people would give her a happy, comfortable forever home? I try SO hard to remember that we are fostering these dogs, and the goal is to let them go. And I've never had a problem with that.
Until Suzie.
I just don't know if they'd understand her. One of them said they're looking for a companion for their other dog. Suzie doesn't hang out with other dogs. Suzie likes people. (Suzie likes ME.)
The other one asked if she plays with toys. Suzie mostly sleeps. She wakes up to eat and go outside. She's not into toys. She's not into playing. She's a feeble old lady. And I love her.
I just want what's best for Suzie, and I want to do the right thing as a foster.
Why does it have to be so hard?


Here's a puppy picture for your viewing pleasure. This is Spikes, the 8 week old pupster. Apparently he likes to sleep while inhaling the lovely aroma of Dysfunctional Dad's toejam.