Good-bye to my little editor...

   This is a very difficult post to write, because I hate saying good-bye. Especially when I know it is forever.

   We lost our little Foxy to old age on August 13th. She passed away quietly at my feet under my desk. Still keeping up her job as editor to the end.

Ms. Foxy at work.

   Good-bye Ms. Foxy. You are still loved and will be missed.

U is for Useful...

   I couldn't help but post this. I want a useful dog  just like Jesse. That would sure be useful in my daily life. How about yours?




   Now if you will excuse me I am going to gather my mob and sit them down to watch Jesse. Hopefully something will rub off.
 
   There I go dreaming again... but some dreams do come true. Don't they?

Lightning plus tree equals....

   What happens when lightning like this...

Image via Wikipedia

Meets an oak tree like this....

You get this....

Here is a closer look..

The bark just exploded off the tree on one side from the top to the roots....

This poor oak tree is just out side our back gate.  The whole inside of the house lite up at the same time there was a loud explosion.  We couldn't see what happened, because as we opened the door and looked out...the dogs knocked us over coming in.
   They decided they had enough nature for the night.  Not that I blamed them.  I cowered with them    calmed them in the corner of the room till the storm passed.

I am an Exceptional person...

   I have discovered something about myself and my life.  I am an exceptional person.  I don't know how I was chosen to be exceptional and sometimes I wish I wasn't, but that is my life. 
   What makes me such an exceptional person you may ask.  It is this...I am the exception to the rule.  I know you have all heard the saying there is an exception to every rule.  For good or bad, that's me. 
   When we started to build or add on to all of the houses we have owned, we would go to the hardware store to get something we need.  The “expert” would tell us 9 times out of 10 this will do the trick.  Guess what ours was the ten. 
      When I started getting short of breath and having cramping in my chest,  the doctor assure me that most of the time it was a panic attack brought on by stress.  I should just try to lessen the stress in my life.  (Just how do you do that????  Life is stressful.)   When it kept up, he sent me to a Cardiologist, who told me I had an irregular heart beat and a possible hole in the anterior heart wall.  He said it is nothing to be concerned with most women develop an irregular beat after 50.   Uh, I was 40.
   Now that I am over 50 everyone has decided that I need to get a cardiac cauterization to check the possible hole.  By everyone I mean 3 different Cardiologists.  Not to worry most of the counties around here have agencies that will help out with payments on the test.  (Did I mention because of the problem I can't work so I have no insurance.)  Guess which county I live in... That's right the one that doesn't.  I have spent the last 2 years trying to find away to get this done.  Hey I know I will eventually find the exception, but man the hunt is wearing me out.
   But before you start thinking we are the Murphys, let me tell you.  There are the good exceptions too.  I was a pain therapist at a doctor's office.  After the patients where operated on the Doctor would send them to me for therapy.   He told me afterwards that my patients got more range of movement back than he ever thought was possible.  They were the exceptions to the rule.
   We had been told our dog would not survive Parvo.  The Vet said 17 out of 20 puppies he saw did not make it.  Chance lived to be almost 17 years old.  He was the exception.
   Our dog Bear disappeared one day out of our yard.  We looked for him daily for months.  Everything we heard was that after that long, we would probably never see him again.  Then one night there was a noise outside the door in the yard.  Our other dogs ran out the door and Bear ran in.  After 8 weeks he returned very skinny and with heart worms but he was back.  After a couple of weeks of treatment for the heart worms.  He was back to his old self and stayed around for another 10 years. 
   Our plants don't like the area or pot we put them in they will not survive, so say the experts.  Just don't tell the plants will you, apparently they don't know they are exceptions to the rule.
   Oh, and did I mention we have gone through 2 hurricanes.  One in a mobile home and one in the shell of the home we are building.  There was no damage to the structures.  The trees all missed the houses, some times by mere feet.

   So you see, every time I hear someone say 9 times out of 10 or most of the time its...  I just remind myself there are exceptions to every rule and good or bad, WE are exceptional.

from Wilimedia Commons

                          “Nature provides exceptions to every rule.”
                                  Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850)

My editor....Miss Foxy....

                     I would like you all to meet my Editor.  Miss Foxy. 

                             
                            She is always watching everything I type.
 

   In the mornings, she gets out of bed and leads me to the computer and waits for me to sit down and get started.  If I take too long she will come and get me.
   She is a slave driver.  I am not allowed to leave the computer for long than 5 minutes or she starts yelling loudly for me to get back to work. 
   While helping me work on the blog on Dogs the other day, she feel asleep.  I published it before she okay-ed the pictures and the final copy.
   Believe me she was not happy when she looked on line and found out that not only did I not give her editorial credit, I did not include her picture.  She is still giving me the cold shoulder.
    You have never really been snubbed until you have been snubbed by a dog.  They follow you around and sit right in front of your feet with their back turned to remind you just how wrong you are.  I was tired of tripping over her, so I gave in.
   To make up for that faux pas I had to promise her her own blog with pictures.  Hopefully I will be forgiven soon.

                  She takes her job seriously.... She even edits my dreams.




Edited by Miss Foxy....okay, am I forgiven yet!!!!

Dogs are NOT people... their better than that...

   I am a dog person... no I am a animal person.  We just have dogs right now,  because our dogs are not cat friendly.  All of the dogs we have had we found or I should say they found us.
   I have only had three purebred dogs that I know of in my life.  None of which I paid for from a breeder.   The first was a poodle named Coco that my family got from an Aunt and Uncle who were moving and couldn't take him with them.  The second one was a white shepherd named Polo that I got when I got my first home.  The couple who owned his mom and dad where not going to bred them when ... surprise, they were a little too late getting the male fixed.  And now we have Foxy a Pomeranian.   I first saw her from my office running along a feeder street of a busy freeway.  When I left the building she was trying her best to get past the security guard and into the building.  She was scared and wouldn't go to anyone.  I had just bought some dog food so I got a small bowl and put it down for her.  She ate it then sat on my foot and refused to leave me.  She followed me to my car and jumped in before I could say anything.  So even though we already had 5 dogs, Foxy moved onto the farm.  You give her 5 minutes and she will have any man wrapped around her little paw.  I have seen her do it over and over again.  The little hussy.
   I have lived with numerous dogs through out my life.  I can tell you one thing for sure, purebred or mutt every dog I have meet is more honest, loyal and loving than most people.  They worry about us when we don't feel good.  They are always there to greet us when we get home.  The love us even when we don't seem to deserve it, like the times we get mad over something and blame them.  They protect us from harm without thought to themselves, even when we don't want them too.  They know better than we do just ask them.  And yes they can communicate if you learn to listen and read them.
   Some people just don't get it.  They will tell you dogs can't dream.  So have they ever even seen a dog sleeping.  I guess the wagging tale, running feet, muffled barks and whines are gas right.  They say dogs can't smile.  Wrong, I have seen my dogs and others change expressions when someone they like enters the room.  They say dogs don't have feeling like we do, okay maybe on this one they are right a dog's feelings go deeper.  You will never feel more loved, excepted and protected like you will with a dog.
   Then there are the people who will tell you a dog is dangerous.  A dog will fight when cornered, yes.  But then all living things will do that, even some plants.  I have yet to see a whole breed of dog no matter what, that is all bad.  Every generation has their so called mean breads.  You know the ones that will turn on their owners.  First I heard it was German Shepherds, then Doberman Pinschers, then Chow Chows, then Rottweilers, and now its Pit Bulls.  Yes, there are some bad dogs, I'm not naïve.  But most of them are made that way by being mistreated, or in breed for aggressiveness.  In other words made that way by people, not nature.  The in breeding part does the same thing with people, look at the history of some of this worlds royal and high society families.
   So next time you come across one of those people, you know the ones who look down their noses and inform you that a dog is an animal not a person.  Look them straight in the eye and tell them your right they would never lower themselves to be a person.  They are better than that.

This is our boy Chance...We miss you...

A dog or cat is the only time you can ever really buy love.  Check out your local pet adoption agency or pound and find your own special little lover.
Don't know where to look click here.

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The Unexpected Visitor...

   Today I had an unexpected workout.  I was in the house when I heard the dogs barking out front.  If you have dogs you know you can tell the difference between a play bark and a warning bark.  They were warning.  I figured someone had gotten lost on the trails in the woods and wondered onto our property again.  So I go to check it out.
   They first thing I see is our dog Blondie staring at the front of the truck.  Okay, people usually come from the other way.  It might be that wild piglet or a rabbit trying to get my garden again.  But no she is not looking straight ahead... she is looking down.  Now what on earth can she be ... OH MY GOSH.

This is what she is looking at...

               A  6 foot long Timber Rattlesnake.  No I am not exaggerating.

      Now I am barking with the dogs, but my bark is more like... SNAKE...  SNAKE .... SNAKE.  Poor Jack is in the office and knows somethings up but can't make out what I'm shrieking.  He is yelling what is it. And I'm yelling Snake.  Then I see the rattle.  I really yell then ... GUN... SNAKE... RATTLE.
   Luckily he has lived with me long enough to be able to understand my shorthand.  He grabs his gun and heads out the door.  Yells at me to keep the dogs back.  Nooo problem, I'm not going in where near that thing and the dogs are trying to protect me.  So while he is going forward, I'm going back.  Carl Lewis couldn't  have caught me.  I'm pretty sure I could have set a world record.
   The snake was dispatched before it got into the house....  But the dang thing keep moving, even after his head was blown off.  I was jumping around trying to keep up with dogs and out of the way of the headless snake chasing us.  Yes I know it couldn't bite with out a head but I didn't want to test that out.  Needless to say my heart got a real good work out before everything settled back down.
   Hey ... someone call Steven King or Dean Koontz I got a great idea for a book.

    Oh and by the way in case you are wondering,  I did not take a picture of the snake.  The camera was inside and I don't have a telephoto lens.  And I really didn't want to see it smile at me anyway.


 

Kodak, power cords and Shakes...

   We finally got our Kodak digital camera charged and working again.  After almost 2 years, yes 2 years, of looking for the power cord. I found it the other day.  I knew we had packed it when we moved from the farm.  I just could think of where I put it.  Then I found it in last place I expected it to be.  In the camera case with the camera.  Yes, there it was in the outside pocket. I know I looked there at least a dozen times.  I think Deb and Barbara are right, it must have gone on a secret mission and just returned.  If I spoke power cordese I would ask it, for a future blog of course.  That to find out if it had seen the printer cord.  Yes, I looked in the box...again.
   But now I have a camera to use again.  So in honor of this occasion I have been playing around with the Kodak picture gallery site and taken a picture of our dog Shakes. 

   Look at that sweet face.  I dare you to look into those eyes and not fall head over heals in love.  Is it any wonder she can charm me out of being mad at her.  Now if she would just stay out of my peppers.