July...

So I had some things I really wanted to say in July.....but I also had a ton of computer problems. The computer is kind of working....hopefully my IT guy, my son, will be here soon to fix it up like it used to be.

Anyway, while things are stable, here were my stories for July. I , of course, lost my Miss Lizzy four years ago in July. I still think of that girl every day...my first baby so she left such a lasting impression. I hated to see her sick for the two years she had pancreatic cancer....but she was a trooper to the very end. She was still telling everyone what to do even though she was sick, loved how she ran my house for me, really miss that too!!

This picture was taken a few months before she headed to the Rainbow Bridge. I miss my girl terribly!!

Ten years ago I took in my first non-husky....Mr. Tank. He was literally pushed out of a slowly moving car on the Beltway here in Houston. For those of you who have been around here that's a scary, horrible place to be dumped...really being dumped in general is horrible. Luckily, Blake and Alicia, two of HH volunteers happened to see this and scooped him up. I wasn't really planning to take a third dog of my own at that time....but we took him to a show and he stared at me the whole day.....so I did!!

Tank when I first took him in....he has always been great about wearing whatever I put on him!!!

A slightly older and wiser Tank. A bit of gray but still my great buddy. So glad I gave him a home ten years ago!!

On a slightly different note....I wish everyone the best, myself included, living on the Gulf Coast with Hurricane Laura coming at us. I can't believe we may have to go through this again just three years after Harvey!!! Please take care....

Have a great evening.......

Two Years Ago.......

 I got that phone call around 4 am......you know, the one that notifies you that someone you love has passed. In my case it was my Dad. He had been ill for all of 2018....started getting sick at Christmas the year before and was diagnosed with a fast moving cancer in April of 2018. Through all of it he was in pretty good spirits.....lapsed into a coma a couple of days before he died. I know that the one thing he always wanted to do was go back to his independent living....but assisted living was the only option for those last 8 months. Sadly he couldn't get around very well and needed the help. I was there every day and helped keep him sane really!! I miss him every day and I think about it a lot now with the Corona virus. In some ways I'm very happy he didn't have to endure this. It would have been terrible for both of us to not see each other every day. In his case I think he would have faded faster.......

This picture was from late 2017, just before he got ill. Hanging with my nephew Jacob. I miss you Dad...thinking about you every day.....

Have a lovely evening and see you soon......

Throwback Thursday......

  I usually don't do Throwback stuff on my blog or on Facebook , but I thought I'd make an exception today. Last Christmas my son updated my dad's old computer for me. When he did that he also took all the memory cards from my old camera and loaded pictures that I forgot existed. I broke my arm in February before I had a chance to check them out and I finally got that chance this last week.
  I was looking through the pics and found some from the Reliant Dog Show from 2010. This was one of the first years we upped our game at the shows. Thanks to our great volunteer , Cyndi, we really looked exciting and were so organized. I have to give her all the credit for the shelving, team tees and everything that made us look so professional. I actually forgot all these people were there , and sadly I can't remember the names of the dogs we had with us. There have been a lot of dogs in the last ten years!! Funny aside here....maybe not so funny.....I was at that show with a broken ankle. Really don't like the broken bone stuff!!!

Oxana, Becky, Barbie, Cyndi and Ross at Reliant 2010

If any of you remember the dogs please comment....a feel pretty bad about that!!
Have a wonderful evening.....

Finally.......

So...a few days after I lost my sweet TJ...I had an accident. Probably wasn't thinking straight...was still very upset after he was gone.

It was really pretty stupid, now that I think of it....walking up my front walk, hit a wet rock with my flip-flop and basically smashed into the brick facade of my house. I realized immediately that my right arm wasn't moving and I wasn't going to be able to get up. There were contractors in my house and they didn't hear me screaming so I sat there for an hour till one of them realized I was missing!! Called 911 and they picked me up and we were on the way to the hospital. After some very painful x-rays found out I had broken my humerus....that bone between your shoulder and elbow...guess that was why nothing felt connected. After a night in the hospital and a determination that I would not need surgery I was sent home. The next week I was put in this.........

Had this on for about 15 weeks.....it keeps everything confined, that's for sure. I have to say when I finally got to take it off I thought my arm would move just great. Apparently it doesn't work that way!! Ten weeks of physical therapy and it's not fun. I guess if it was going to happen....the timing was ok. Due to Covid most of my dog walking clients were home anyway so things now are slowly picking up. This is an experience I hope to never go through again.....without my friends Denise and Barb to help those first couple of weeks , neither the dogs or myself would have eaten!! It was really hard to lose my boy Volga when all this was going on....

Starting to get back to normal....it's going to take awhile but I'm working hard to get there.

The moral to this story is don't break your arm when you are old.....especially the one you use....

Have a nice evening.....have some more stories now that I can use two hands to type again....

Volga......

I actually can't believe I am writing this right now. Not five weeks after losing my beautiful TJ I have now lost Volga.....

Volga came to live with me when we closed the Husky Haven rescue in very early 2018. I always told him if he was still around at the end he would go with me......and he did. He had a lot of issues and was deemed a "bad dog" so no one really looked at him. He had trouble with a lot of men but really if you got to know him he was pretty nice. When I got him to my house he was great with my son and everyone who visited me.

Not too long after he was here I noticed a small growth by his elbow area. Within two weeks it was huge and after tests we found it was cancerous. It was a very slow moving cancer and had not spread...and because of his age...13 or older....decided not to have it removed. Everything was well...never had any problems till Tuesday.

Took him out for a normal walk....did notice the tumor was a red color and thought I would call the vet later. They had breakfast, I ran an errand and when I got home I let him out back. Not ten minutes went by and I looked out and all I saw was blood. That tumor had literally exploded.....blood everywhere. Got my friend Denise to help me get him to the vet and was given only two options...amputation or euthanasia. His leg just couldn't be fixed at that point. Denise and I talked about it a lot but we agreed that amputation on a 15 year old dog would be a bad choice for him so I decided to let him go.

I am overwhelmed at the loss of my two boys in such a short period of time....barely had time to grieve for TJ.....and now Volga.

They were pretty good buddies in life....hope TJ has introduced Volga to Lizzy and they are all feeling good at the Rainbow Bridge.

Will miss you boys............

Mr TJ

I haven't written in awhile and didn't think it would be about this. Sadly my beautiful boy TJ went to the Rainbow Bridge today. He was literally my bomb proof guy...when I adopted him I already had Lizzy and my foster Zena. In the first three years I was with the rescue I fostered about 30 dogs and TJ got along with all of them... he was so sweet. I remember the weekend 12 years when there were three dogs up for adoption two couples wanted to see three dogs, I

told Pat I would adopt the dog left out. I really wanted a red and white but she got adopted first then another white dog and then TJ was there my baby.....one of the best dogs ever....
That baby had to be put down today....my hardest decision...he had been sick for a while... but the last two days I sat out in the cold with him when he couldn't relax. Today he wouldn't eat or walk so I had to make that horrible decision. I love you my boy....

Have fun with Lizzy on the Rainbow Bridge.....