Christmas Dogs.....

      Every year I buy or borrow some type of Christmas collar or headpiece for my dogs. This is something they really don't appreciate. I've been taking pics for years and keeping them for my own enjoyment but I want to post them. I had a bunch with my Huskies that I will probably post later this week or next, but I want to post this year and last.

     Last year I bought some antlers and you can see how that came out!!!!

Tank is always up for it!!

    Tank is my bullet proof dog. Nothing really phases him. Whenever we take these pics he's the one shot guy, he knows it will be done in a second!!!

     Ah, the girls......not so much. For every out of focus pic I finally get there are 40 that get trashed. Well here is last year for the girls.....

     Lu on the top and Faith under......best pic I could get of either one!!!!

     So I was walking through Kohl's a couple of weeks ago to finish my shopping when I saw the next great Christmas accessory for the kids!!! I knew they wouldn't feel that way but.....so here they are Tank, Lu and Faith!!

    As you can see, same reactions, but you've got to admit that tree is cool!!!

    I was putting the tree away and found a collar I had used and decided to put that on Lu.....lo and behold I couldn't believe it!! At last I have one in focus Christmas pic for her!!!!

     Tomorrow a few more pics for the season....

     Have a great evening!!!!

Husky Haven....

     It's been two years since Pat has passed and I think a lot about Husky Haven. I learned everything I know about dogs from Pat (and I knew nothing) , made some great friends and really worked hard. My favorite part was taking a dog in tough shape, nursing them back to health and picking the perfect home!! I don't know if I could do all the work I did 15 years ago, but it was a great experience. 

     In January of 2020 , my friend Denise and I were trying to come up with a way to permanently celebrate both Pat and Husky Haven. Denise contacted the parks department and I took it from there. I bought/donated a bench from the parks department to sit in Bill Archer Dog Park. Denise wrote the remembrance for the plaque , we picked out a spot and it was a go. The bench was installed last summer but the party we planned didn't happen. Covid has taken over for the last two years. I have pics of the bench and if you go to that dog park maybe you will take a pic with your dog! 

     I miss my friend Pat today and everyday and hope she hanging with all her huskies at the Rainbow Bridge!!!!

 

Have a good afternoon and my dogs will be appearing in their Christmas finery in a day or two.

BLD

     I haven't posted for about four months.....been pretty ill and doctor appointments were taking over my life it seemed. Still don't know exactly what's wrong.....but I'm feeling better and I want to start again.....

     So I start with a sad entry......we lost our sweet boy BLD aka Trooper last week. I started this blog in 2012 which was the same time BLD came into Husky Haven. He came in with a terribly broken leg (BLD broken leg dog) and some of his teeth knocked out. When we went to the surgeon to have his leg repaired she told us he had no road rash or abrasions...so someone actually hit him with something to break that leg in so many places. He had major surgery and was really great about it......

     I posted a lot about his progress that year...he had a set back and had to have another surgery but handled it like a Trooper, that name was given to him in a contest I had on the blog, he healed quite well considering the extent of his injuries.

     By 2013 he was out of his apparatus and moving really well. One thing you need to know about him...he was not a speed demon...pretty sure if he escaped any of us could have caught him!! 

     He stayed at the rescue most of 2013, gaining strength and feeling better. In 2014 our director required major surgery and since BLD was an inside dog we needed to find him a foster. I got him to a friend and it indeed seemed like he might get adopted. Pat came home and recuperated, I found out the foster home was unstable, and a few months BLD was back as our de facto mascot.

     He stayed at the rescue for the next three years....to tell you the truth I don't think Pat wanted him to be elsewhere. One of those instances of spending so much time with him and nursing him back to health. He was a favorite on our volunteer days...he wanted love from everyone and they obliged!!

     One funny thing that he would always do, especially on volunteer days. On those Saturdays lunch was provided for everyone (Thanks Barb) and people would carelessly leave plates with food on the coffee table...easy pickings for BLD. When you would scold him for his bad behavior he would back up, sit down, fix you with his brown eyes and hold up his wounded paw. I have to admit , it worked, because we'd all start laughing. He used that trick all the time!!!!

     In 2017 when it was clear that we would be getting forever homes for the remaining dogs and shutting down the rescue we looked for a place for BLD. One of our volunteers, Charlene and her family stepped up to the plate and BLD went to his forever home!!!

    

     I went to see him last year and he looked so tired and old....poor boy. He just was so sick at the end...that was it. We never knew how old he was but probably 12 or 13 when he died....hate to think of his first few years before he got to us. I will so miss that silly boy, after he had his surgery I went over every day to help with him so I was pretty attached to him too!!!

     Hope he is chasing everyone around at the Rainbow Bridge.....

     Love and miss you......

Today Would Have Been Your 95th....

 Was thinking about my dad today....would have been his 95th birthday!! He got to a pretty good age, 92, before cancer so quickly took him out. For most of his life he was in great health but those last eight months were really bad.

My friend Denise and I put together a 90th birthday party for my dad, that's what this pic is from....he was a good sport!! 

I miss you a lot..........

And Once Again......

 It was so hard last year when I lost TJ in February.......Covid had just started coming around and I had a broken arm and I was broken hearted. I never expected that last year could get worst.....but it did when I lost Volga a year ago today. 

When Husky Haven closed in February of 2018....Volga was one of the last guys out. I always promised him he would come with me if no one else ever stepped up. He was with the rescue for a long time, he was deemed a bad dog when he bit someone once.....in his defense he has just been rescued from animal control and was in a noisy kennel, when some lady decided that pulling his tail as hard as she could was some kind of test, he freaked and bit the handler. Not a bad bite but yes. Our director was trying to decide to put him down or not...I said bring him to the rescue and I will help with him. I couldn't take him then....already had four...but took good care of him at the rescue. He didn't like many men.....loved my son...he would have gotten adopted soon if he did.

He was a really old guy when he died....15 or 16...but on top of TJ, by March I already had the worst year.....

It was always funny TJ and Volga really liked each other....no fighting, no hassles. I used to walk them together all the time and I like to think of the two of them together at the Rainbow Bridge.

I miss you boys......

One year ago today........

 I lost my beautiful, funny boy TJ.

To say I miss him is an understatement......I so loved that boy. He was with me for a long time....12 years...and was doing well until the last month of his life. 

He was one of three dogs that were picked for adoption 13 years ago. Only two of the dogs were adopted that day and I took TJ home then. Didn't know if he would get along with Lizzy but the two became fast friends.

I have a funny story to tell about our first Thanksgiving. I had put together a basket of homemade pumpkin bread and zucchini bread for my brother and his wife. Went to get a shower and came out to the kitchen...basket on the floor and a huge piece of pumpkin bread sticking out of TJ's mouth and a look of "What me?".  Luckily I had plenty and put a new basket together....couldn't really get mad and laughed about that for years!!

He was my son's fav guy and after he moved he would always ask how TJ was doing.

I miss you boy and hope you are having fun at the Rainbow Bridge with Miss Lizzy and all our other friends.......

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.....

Mr. Cherokee......

It is with incredible sadness that I write today of the passing of one wonderful dog, Cherokee. For those of you that spent time at Husky Haven....he was literally a fixture there for years. He was the sweetest , most loving dog.....always happy for a belly rub and always loving his summertime baths. We took that boy to every show. Basically because he was so easy going and loved interaction with people.

All these pictures are from different events...and I have a ton more...but even though he was a favorite with everyone he never got picked. The only thing I could ever think is that he just didn't look Husky enough, he really was only part Husky and a lot of something else.

At the start of 2018 there were just two dogs left at Husky Haven, Cherokee and Volga. Volga was a handful and I had always promised to take him and my friend, Barb, decided to come and get Cherokee and give him a chance at a real home after so many years in rescue. It took him a bit to get adjusted to his new situation....living in a house instead of a constant kennel environment. But he soon loved Barb and his new brother, Artica. He got to go on long walks everyday, run at the dog park and get spoiled like he should have been for so many years. I enjoyed going to Barb's to hang out with the boys and give Cherokee his much loved belly rubs!!

Monday night everything changed. Barb called and said he wouldn't come in....I wish I could have been there but was working. They got him to the emergency vet and found a melon sized tumor in his belly. It had already done irreparable damage to many of his organs and there was, sadly, not hope of coming back from that. So Cherokee went to meet his friends at the Rainbow Bridge. I will miss him so much....really thought he was going to be around for years.....

With his brother Artica

His happy first day home smile

Love you little man.......