SNEAUX

Yes, that is snow in Cajun Country!

This is what we look like this morning at 6:30 AM.

Ohhhh!  Sorry.  That is the mendenhall glacier in Alaska........it is hard to tell us apart.



Here is Baton Rouge Sneaux!

As it is getting lighter the flakes are getting larger.  They are predicting abour 4 inches this morning.

Of course, the entire city shuts down.  Yesterday they cancelled school and government offices at the suggestion we would have snow.

The last time they thought we would have snow was last year when I was living in the Camper From Hell.



 The last time we actually had snow was 2008 when we had 4.5 inches.  It was Christmas Eve.

We had gone to Carrie's for present opening and were walking the dogs around the block.  I had my two beautiful Swissys, Bonnie Doon and Dutch, and Chloe.

Dutch was not impressed with the snow, even though he came from a long line of alpine dogs who were bred to herd and draft in the Alps with the nomadic shepherds.

Bonnie Doon on the other hand, loved to be cold.  She is buried n the far corner of my back yard, and loving the snow.  My most favorite picture of Bonnie Doon is of her standing back there while the snow is all over her strong black back.

MGee seems totally unimpressed with the weather, which he considers to be an extension of rain.  He doesn't get his feet wet.  DiNozzo went out, slipped on the icy stepping stones, and sniffed the white stuff. 

Halloween Party to Benefit CAAWS

This is in Baton Rouge, LA.  One of my pet peeves is that blog people don't realize that they are international!  They say, come on down and go to this event/quiltshop/lunch with me.  But I have no idea where they are.  If they tell me they are in a nearby city, or one that I will be in on vacation, it would really help me a lot!

 My dogs have always been put in costumes and humiliated.  We do the Mardi Gras Krewe of Mutts Parade, Santa Photos, The Jones Creek Christmas Parade, Halloween at BREC Parks.  You name it, we dress them up and go!

Bonnie Doon won a $100 basket full of doggy stuff for her portrayal of Bonica Lewinski in her blue dress with the paw stain on it.  She also won a plaque that says she was the Best Dressed Dog that year.

Chloe HATES to dressed in anything, including her beautiful sherpa coat for cold days.  This is as much as she will do.  The Swissys were perfect, they were big and easy going and willing to do anyting for me.  We shall see about DiNozzo and McGee.

And don't forget the Wicked Blog Hop, I will be setting my post out on Oct 30.

Bonnie Doon as the Easter Bonnie

Bonnie Doon as the Queen of Hearts

Come out and play with your doggies!

Raising Cane's Dog Park at Forest Community Park and BREC invite you to the annual Halloween Trick and Treat event for all dogs on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.  CAAWS will have a PR and Education Booth at the event!

Everyone loves to be a part of the Halloween season, dogs included. Think your dog has the best costume? All dogs in costume will be entered in the Best Costume Contest. Booths from local pet organizations and treats will be on-site to create a fun Halloween atmosphere that your dog is sure to love.

The event is free and open to the public.

Dutch as Jimmy Buffet

Pissed off Chloe

Raising Cane's Dog Park at Forest Community Park is located at 13900 S. Harrell's Ferry Road in Baton Rouge.

For more information, contact 272-9200 ext. 570 or facebook.com/brecdogparks.

Come out and see us and play.  I am sure my stalker will be there too!

glen

Design Wall Monday 7-9-12

Aloe - Can I eat this?

Can you imagine it is coming up on the middle of July already?  I guess I should have gotten the idea from the mercury in the thermometer!  July is one of the two or three hottest months we have here in Louisiana.  Although last night was cool in the 70's for our walk.  After the rains cooled things off we were in the low 80's during the day even.



My garden is still going strong.  Except for the leaves that Hugeaux peed on, the caladiums are still incredibly beautiful.  Charlene and I sat on the patio and enjoyed them for quite a bit before the last meeting.

Here is an old project so I will have a picture for Judy's wall.  I am going to make some watermelon rind preserves this week so I thought to pull up the Watermelon quilt!  This one went to cousin Karen, who obviously does not read this blog!  LOL.


My design wall is one I cannot show you.  I am working on the Paint Chip Challenge.  I have all the blocks squared and placed and I am working on the border.  Most people are having trouble coming up with the name, but the name on mine was pretty easy!  the name is supposed to be pulled from your color names.  My colors are perfect for this name and it fits the quilt wonderfully.

Dutch

Bonnie Doon

I am going through fabrics to do a duffle bag for the raffle at the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog National Specialty.  I usually donate a quilt and some other things, but this year it will be the duffles.    We will see how many I get done by then with my dog fabrics.  I will have to piece them to get a large enough section for the outside.  So that will be another wrinkle in the mix.  I am also thinking about a denim duffle with dogs as the pockets.  Recycle some old jeans in the mix.

 I am off to do some errands.  And I have a lot to do this week, next week I have a week long retreat!  So much fun!

glen

He was walking on all four feet when he crossed that bridge

  Bonnie Doon confirmed it, Dutch was walking strong on all four legs as he crossed the bridge tonight.

His leg had swelled and I just couldn't let him hurt any longer.  It was time for him to find Bonnie Doon.  And she waited for him with Pepsi nearby.

He celebrated his 10th birthday a week ago today.  And surprised every vet at the office.  No one thought he would make it this long.  He stayed with me for 6 months past what the vets gave him.  Osteosarcoma is painful yet he never showed pain until two days ago.  I knew it in his face.  He could no longer get up by himself and he started slipping on the patio on the way to pee.  Amazingly, that dog never messed in the house all though this, he always made it outside.  He was that good.

He never wanted help, if I touched him he would stop and move away.  So I let him maneuver on his own as he could and just made sure he was steady.

He was my Champion, he was my protector and he was my baby boy.  What, oh what will I do without him now?  Bonnie Doon, take good care of him, he is sometimes afraid and needs your strength to help him. 

I love you all, my beautiful dogs, my life.  Bonnie Doon and Pepsi is there with him.  Bonnie is the one in charge and Pepsi is the quiet girl on the sidelines.  I feel her in the wind that blows my cheek tonight. 

Walk strong, my boy, walk strong.  I love you with all my heart.

An Amazing Thing Happened Today



Dutch turns himself
green somehow



Something happened today I thought would not have a snowball’s chance in you know where. It is the most amazing thing.

Dutch turns 10 today.

He cannot walk more than outside to pee or to come to the kitchen to eat. He sleeps most of the day. But he does not appear to be in much pain. I know he must hurt but he does not give indicators that he does.

He appears to be happy, as happy as a Dutch can be. He never was a happy or demonstrative dog. But he is still alert and watchful. And protecting his family. He had a serious growl fit from across the room when the photographer from Santa CAAWS delivered the photos for me to sort and mail out. He was definitely not happy with her.



Day he won his
Championship in Houston



Bonnie Doon
 taught him that



He eats well, drinks and pees a lot, and sleeps well.

What more can a dog ask at 10 with terminal bone cancer that should have killed him 5 months ago?

My Dutch made it to his birthday. That is an amazing fact.



Bonnie Doon and Dutch playing



glen: and I still cry

Organizational Wednesday

I want to promise myself that I will not come out of my quilt room without organizing something.  Anything.

Here it is nearly 11 am, and will be by the time I complete this, and I have not yet achieved that goal.

But I did sit with my dog a bit.  And I made myself a cup of coffee to sip with him.  And that was a good use of my time.He had gone out to sun a while and came in frantic about something.  Not sure what it was.

I am preparing for a paper piecing class I am teaching.  It is the precursor to a project I want to do and thought my group would like to learn a new technique.  I am going to do tessellated cats with them and then turn it into a baby quilt.  A sneaky way to get a project done from my stash! 

But they will be pleased I think to "donate" their blocks to the cause.  This is not the pattern I am using but it is a cute cat tessellation!

To the right is a quilt pattern by Jan Miller called Sawtooth Cats.  I want to make this soon.  If I get the people interested in making cats, maybe it will be sooner than later!

glen

PS:    See, I am doing anything to get out of cleaning up the quilt room.......

Biking in the heat, quilting in the cool

Whew!  Things have been so busy lately.  I feel like Charlene!  LOL.

Even though the weather has not been cooling off like Frank says it is, we have gotten back into the swing of biking again.    Last week we did 9.1 miles one day and this weekend and today we did about 4 miles a day.  Even though it looks cool in the photos, it is not.  However, it is much cooler riding in the tree forests than on the asphalt roads so we stick to the Forest Park or White Oak trails.  

It feels good to be riding even if we are sweating!  The last few days has pushed the mercury very very close to 100 degrees, and by our 10:30 PM dog walk it is still in the upper 90's.  This morning at 6:30 AM it was actually cool, we walked 1.5 miles with the dogs.  Then by the afternoon it was 101! 

Dutch has been walking 1/2 mile every morning and again at night.  He trots a bit when he forgets about his leg.  But I am glad he is even attempting to trot.  He took off after DiNozzo a few days ago, totally forgetting about his leg.  If it were a muscle pull, I would think he was getting better.  But I know it is just a matter of time before the cancer takes over.  He still is on rimadyl twice a day and I have upped the tumeric to 3 morning and night.  I know the turmeric won't help with this kind of cancer but I am hoping it helps as an anti-inflammatory and thus with some pain.  I still have moments when I sit and cry.

You probably can't see the perspective in this photo, but Dutch is about 108 lbs and that is a big dog bed.  He just barely fits.  But since I won't let him step up to the cooleroo bed he so dearly loves, he has taken over this one.  He looks so silly!

Wednesday I am going to meet Charlene in Lafayette and we head to Ami Simms Twisted Sister class.  Ami Simms is the brain of AAQI (Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative) http://www.alzquilts.org/

I have contributed several quilts over the years for auction, the proceeds go to research.  I have three of them there right now for sale.  Check them out #7145, 7146 and 7184 (http://www.alzquilts.org/15miplgrnyon.html)  Hey, bid on one! 

Over the weekend I brought cookies, chocolate bars and chips for my mom's stash.  Today I brought some drinks for her mini fridge we got her for her birthday.  She loves the chocolate Yahoo! drinks so I loaded her up with those.  Red drinks and blue drinks fascinate her as well.  and those little coke cans.   Hospice checked her in and approved the application based upon her Alzheimers diagnosis so she is getting another level of support from them.  Of course my brother has yet to even call me about her.  You would think he would be interested. 

I am teaching a class on an LSU tote bag in two weeks.  Ann and I spent two days gathering the fabrics.  I spent a day and a half doing all the cutting and making kits for everyone.  I included a pouch as an extra since I had some fabrics leftover.  It should be a good class, I will make up a sample this week.

All that, and I am writing an article I hope to have published soon, we shall see.  But that is for another day.

glen

Catching up

I have been catching up with the blocks that need to be tested for the Vol 4 of 100 Blocks for Quiltmaker Magazine. I can't show those to you yet, but one is so adorable it will make you want a whole quilt out if it. 

I also have mailed off all my Virtual Bee Blocks for the 2 bees I participate in over at 15 Minutes Play. 

And I finished the baby quilt for Frank's counterpart last night.

Since the diagnosis with Dutch, I have not had much energy to do anything but just look at my dog.  Wasn't he the cutest puppy?  He loved being on his back.  When he was about a year old, there was a big joke going around at the dog shows when someone noticed he had those zebra stripes on his private parts.  He thought they were admiring his studly attributes.  So that is when he began showing off.

Sometimes it just takes a lot of effort to do what I need to get done in a day.  But now that the quilt show is no longer my responsibility, I will have more time to get involved with the other groups.  I do the Mystery Quilt at River City each month and will bring the Christmas Bag Project to either River City or Remember Me.  

glen

Dutch update - The boy is home

I want to thank everyone for all your posts and well wishes for the Dutchman.  I don't have the time right now to personally contact you all, too many things are going on today.  It piles up and piles up and piles up and I struggle to handle it all.  Valerie is helping me this morning with Dutch while I take Frank for his colonoscopy.  Like we couldn't have rescheduled that? 

Dutch is home and after 3 hours is finally resting. When they shaved his leg you can see he is gray underneath but still see his patterns of color.

I was not prepared for him to not be walking on his leg at all. I thought he would only be limping. the incision is only about an inch and a half on the side of his back leg just below his knee. It is all swollen and I have been putting an ice bag on it when he lets me. He doesn't like the cold.

It looks like he has been shot or something. I'll bet he feels like a tractor ran over him. He has not gone to pee yet. I am sure that will be fun. we have to literally carry him at
his full 98.8 lbs! Yes, fun.

We should hear from the biopsy end of this week or beginning of next.

Like I said earlier, let it be the fungal osteo myelitis....please!!

UPDATE:  he moved around last night several times by himself, but his leg is still not working properly.  This morning he peed and feels a WHOLE lot better!  LOL. 

My sweet boy...glen

Design wall Monday 7-25 - 11

I am busy this morning taking Dutch in for a biopsy to see if he has either bone cancer or fungal osteomyelitis.  I am hoping for the osteomyelitis because it is treatable.  The bone cancer is just to horrible to think about.

We just have to wait for 5 days for the results.  Cross your fingers for my boy, send positive thoughts for me and him!

But I am working on this as a last item for the show.  This is all hand quilted with lime green crochet thread and follows no pattern.  I started a year ago at a retreat and am just now finishing up.  The quilting stitches are large, and I wanted that effect.  It looks wonderful and I am very glad it is nearly done and ready to hang.

We hang the quilts from the ceiling this Thursday and Friday at the Jones Creek Library.  So come see them in August.  They will hang the entire month.  Open house is August 6 from 10 to 2 pm with demos and people there to talk to about the quilts.

I will have pictures of that, and I am sure a few stories too!
glen

Vet report on Dutch tonight

Vet called tonight. Report was interesting.

There was two possibilities offered up.

One of course, is that it is a tumor and thus osteosarcoma or bone cancer. Two vets at the vet office both had gut diagnoses that it was bone cancer.

The other possibility is fungal osteo myelitis. Most osteo myelitis is bacterial but there is some reason they think it is fungal instead. It is rare. rare indeed. Vet said osteo myelitis mimics cancer so that would make sense. But it is treatable. And that is a big big big deal.

Monday I will bring him in for a bone biopsy and we will have the final answer. I am crossing fingers and toes for the fungus to be the final diagnosis. That is what I want to happen.

They also said the found the the fibula has a hairline fracture. One of the ways you can get osteo myelitis is through a break in a bone. Another way  is through a cracked or open tooth and he does have a crack in his tooth.

But there is still the strong possibility that he has bone cancer.

It is exhausting dealing with this.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. For those who thinks he is "just a dog". You are  missing the joy of pure love filled companionship with no strings ever attached. He is so much more than just a dog.

glen

Bad morning

Well, I had a bad morning.  I took Dutch to the vet for his annual physical and had the vet re-xray his left rear leg from when DiNozzo ran into him 4 months ago. 

The x-rays are going to the LSU Radiologist because he suspects Dutch has osteosarcoma.

I felt like he knocked the air totally out of my lungs.  And I still find it hard to breathe. 

Of course he says we can't get upset about it until the radiologist has made his statement.

But I still can't breathe

glen

The Dogs of Quilts and Dogs

DiNozzo has been on a wild tear this morning.  When Frank left early and I fed the dogs their breakfast meals he knew something was different and he reacted.  He bothered Dutch so much that my mild mannered, totally tolerant Dutch laid him down.  He bothered the moody Queen Chloe the Smelly so she attacked him fairly quickly. 

In retaliation, DiNozzo emptied the trash can in the bathroom.  Then he found an ink pen on the kitchen counter and luckily ate it in his bed and not the carpet.  Then he began to chew on whatever was handy including the baby gate that separates him from one side or another of the house.  That way he can only eat half the house at a time.

This is what gets him into most of his troubles.  His nose.  (See the dog hair on my carpets?)

Since I was losing patience with him, I leashed him up for a walk rather than killing him.  We walked a mile and a half past the school, met 3 people I have not seen in a while, and headed home.   

He really is turning into a beautiful boy.  Hopefully he will live long enough to be a well behaved boy. 

Dutch was always a quiet and introverted dog.  He was my show dog, and as pick male from his litter he brought home a ribbon from every show.  He retired after winning his championship points because he really did not like being in the ring.  As Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs go he is pretty laid back and quiet. 

Chloe the Smelly Basset Queen is anything but laid back.  She decides which way we walk each night and how far she walks.  When she reaches her limit, she throws herself to the ground and that is that.  We go no further until she decides she is ready.

She tolerates the new guy, just like she tolerates Hugeaux the Grand-Dog.  This is a rare photo that will go into the Smithsonian one day of Chloe the Smelly Basset sharing her bed with Hugeaux.

I am off to bring my mother her clean clothes and to find a new iron.  I thought it was the power strip, but sadly, it was my iron.  It lasted for 5 or 6 years of really hard work.  What I liked about it was that it has no automatic off switch so it stayed hot for me for hours and hours each day.  Can't say that about anything else around here.

glen:  I may get some sewing in today