Happy Fathers Day All

In the mail yesterday we received a paw print and a card from Chloe's vet.  All the vet techs and kennel people wrote personal things about Chloe and they took a print of her paw for us in plaster. 


They have done that for all of our dogs. 

Oh my sweet girlie, I miss you, it is so empty in that corner where no one wants to lay yet.






Carrie and Andrew and the baby came spent the day here yesterday and we ate and talked and
laughed at the silly things the baby was doing.  He is totally aware he is the center of the universe. 


From Europe, I brought  him back a real soccer uniform from Scotland and he had his soccer shoes on.  For all he was worth, if he had any hair he would have looked all the part of a soccer player!




I have been working with a Facebook group you might be interested in looking at. 

100 Days

If you want to get better at something, do it for 100 days.  I am working on making Faces using the book Making Faces In Fabric by Melissa Averinos.  The group has been going for about a week but I am on day 3 and people are continuing to join this week. 

So if you are interested, jump on in.  No police will take you away if you miss, it is a positive group of supportive artists and quilters who are looking to work together in harmony and improvement and idea generation and support.

You are capable of great things.......but only if you try.

This Was the Other Phone Call I Got

While we were gone, I received two phone calls.  Then I will get to the photos.

You all know about the one horrible phone call I had with my vet about losing Chloe on the cruise.  That was pretty bad, dealing with the guilt of being away and knowing my girl had to spend her last moment alone.

I always have held them in my arms.  Each and every one.  Chloe was just stubborn enough to want to do things her way though.  She certainly walked a different path.

We knew Chloe had that cancer, we bought her a year with the surgery last August.  Neither the vet nor I thought I would bring a dog home from that procedure.  He called her the Miracle Girl and kept her chart out to show the vet students as they came thought the clinic. 

The other phone call was not unexpected either.  But blindsided me with the timing.

We have known Chuck and Patsy for years, traveling with them since we met in Alaska across a

dinner table on a cruise way back in the 90's.  It was a great friendship that spanned continents, you could say.  We would laugh and play games and drink local beers, but Chuck was the only one who ever ate the termites.  Minty, he said. 

Patsy had a beautiful voice.  She would sing in the talent contests and she would always win.  The prize was invariably a bottle of champagne and they would come to our room and we'd drink it sitting out on the balcony while Chuck smoked. 

I told the story once about saving Chuck's life when he was driving his rig through Baton Rouge and had a heart attack.  He ended up having open heart surgery and staying with us till he was able to get back on the road.  He talked to Patsy every night.  

First Chuck got cancer and surgery, then Patsy got pancreatic cancer and died suddenly 3 years ago.  Chuck was devastated.  He fell in with the first woman he met at the next truck stop.  I use the term woman loosely.

We met her when we were in North Carolina, my opinion didn't change.  I would get phone calls from Chuck, lifeline calls I termed them.  Just to know someone cared, someone loved him.  Well, he made one of those calls while we were gone.  I didn't answer.  And I didn't call back for a week.

And then he gave up. 

When we got back I called his phone and a social worker answered.  She assured me they have his truck locked down and he is in the hospital where they are caring for him.  Yes, The woman bled him dry, used him, tossed him. 

I had known this call would come too, like I said, but it blindsided me just like Chloe did.  And if I had been home, it might have gone another direction.  Sometimes just a word will make that difference.  You know.  You just have to listen.

Chloe

I had to show you these photos.

I came across them when I decided to look in a file that looked empty.  It was not.  Good thing I didn't just press DELETE, right?

This is especially sweet because of the sarcoma in her back leg now that is letting me know she will not be with us much longer.

Here she is, all brown and looking bright and alert.  This was in 2010. 








 Here she is as a young pup.  She was  born in 2004. 

George W was President, it was simpler times!

Chloe Report

I brought Chloe to the vet this morning after our walk.  I cried all the way home.

I don't know if I was imagining this or not, but her haunch looked like the swelling was not as bad as it was yesterday.  Maybe it is my brain playing tricks on my emotions.

Dr Lee just called.

He said she made it through surgery but.

The tumor has devoured so much of her muscle that he can see all the way to her hip joint.  The place where the original tumor was has been filled with scar tissue, which he took out.  So it is no longer pressing on her colon.

But it may also have affected the nerves that make her leg work.  They will assess that when she wakes.

He  said we only bought time, and the quality of it will depend on how the leg functions.

But we knew we were only buying time.  If it is as fast as the last bit of it flew by, it won't be more than a few weeks.

I guess my brain was playing tricks on me.  Too bad, I really wanted it to be different.

Rollin' Again; Sewin' Again

My CRV is now fully chrarge with a new battery and has no nails in the tires.  I am still miffed at Frank for not paying attention to that tire thing. 

When I got home, I sent the bassets out into the rain.  McGee doesn't get his toes wet so he hugged the house under the eaves on the patio.  A bevy of birds flew out of the bushes and startled him.  So now it became a game to catch one.  Even DiNozzo got interested. 

In and out they went for the next 3 hours, trying to catch themselves a sparrow.  They never did, but it was not for lack of effort!

Chloe is out there right now, with her head stuck in the bushes wildly wagging her tail.  Silly dogs. 

I want to start my River City Challenge Quilt, taking a block and making  secondary pattern appear.

I have the winning quilt!  But of course!  And I can't show you pictures just yet.

So I
will leave you with these ones.

Jack and Gourdy Quilt

Jack and Gordy Throw A Party is now the headline photo!  I have three Halloween quilts now.  Every year Carrie does this fabulous Halloween display, with flowers and hay bales and pumpkins.  So I took all three quilts to her house on Sunday to photograph them with that fabulous setting.........only to find out she didn't even buy a pumpkin this year!  (sad smiley face)

So I took them to the Park behind my house and did some photos on the fence around the baseball field.  It had that great yellow-y orange-y rubber piece on the top of the black fence.   It really didn't work so well, the wind was pretty strong and I couldn't keep them straight, or even on the fence.  And of course i didn't bring any clips or pins or anything!

Better than nothing though!

Chloe on duty

And I have a story about my brave and fearless little girl.  Chloe the Smelly Basset, as she is affectionately called around here, loves to sit outside all night long and watch stuff.  We live in the city, but on the farthest street out to the city line.  And until about 8 or 9 years ago, there was nothing behind us but a large amount of trees and snakes and deer and turtles and opossums and armadillos.  No alligators though, sorry.  Oh, yes, and the peacock.

But Chloe still loves to sit out and watch the nightlife.   And tonight she was rewarded with opossum.

We heard lots of barking and Frank gets his spotlight (it is a large and very dark yard) and his hiking boots (not really THAT large) and leash and heads out to find her and bring her in.

He realizes she has the opossum cornered and when he reaches out to put her leash on, the opossum breaks and makes a run for it.  Right toward Frank! 

Chloe goes into action, she lunged for the critter and rolled it.  Frank pulled her away before she could actually get it.

Bonnie Doon

My big girl Swissy, Bonnie Doon (1998-2010), was responsible for killing 3 opossum in her job as protector of the family.  Chloe learned from the best.  Not the least of which is laying out in the yard at night, making sure the family is safe!

Basset Boy snoozing while Chloe keeps us safe

And hey, you don't see any of the BOYZ out there, protecting the yard, do you?

Better Today

Yesterday was such an emotional day for me.  I was exhausted.

Mom in 2007

I called my brother about the hospice thing, and checked in on his family.  They have their own thing going on and are in another city, and you know.  I rarely hear from them.  But we had a nice conversation and we are both on the same page, and it is OK.

I dealt with the health insurance crisis.  In January they changed the details of the reimbursement stuff and we no longer have a co-pay or deductible.  But no doctor's office or pharmacy understands this.  We are constantly overcharged and it is difficult to get your money back from the pharmacies and doctors who ARGUE with you when you show them the policy wording even!  It took me a week of calls to the benefits office at Frank's home office in Houston just to get a call back.  And when she did, she told me her child was sick and I should be more understanding!

And all the intake nurse and social work visits are being done through the Hospice and everyone calls me to discuss my mother.  Yesterday I explained to two pastors about our religious views and why we were comfortable with them.  I ended up just saying, go visit her, she has no idea you are even there.  Say what you want to her!  Make yourself feel better.

And on top of all that, I have 4 books on tape from the library and my Bose unit decides never to play CDs again.  I called Bose and they are willing to replace the guts of the machine for $99 plus shipping.  Frank won the unit at a Sales Meeting in 2008 so that is actually a good deal.  It will get shipped off today!

Chloe

And after listening to me for a while, all Frank said last night was:  do you think we can go get some more Klondike bars - I ate the last one last night?

And you wonder why I have dogs??????????

"Hole" Earth Dogs - Week 16 52 Snapshots of Life

Since my 52Photos Project with Bella is ending I thought I might try another venue.  I found a great site that promotes dogs, duh, it is where I need to be!  At 52 Snapshots of Life the people look fun and I can see the love they have for dogs and dog rescue.  Right after my own heart as President of Capital Area Animal Welfare Society!

They are already into Week 16.  The theme is Earth.  So let me introduce the Bad Basset Boyz to the people of Earth!

I took these guys in a year apart, as cruelty cases.  They both came from the same owner but in a parish that has no Animal Cruelty Laws, and therefore we could not prosecute like we usually do.  Sad.   DiNozzo was emaciated but McGee, the white one, was pretty bad off.  His experiences made him a bit wacky in the head.  He is obsessive about eating stuff.  Fabric, plastic, metal, wood, you name it, it is NOT safe!

The first year we had him he ate a 6 foot silk scarf I was dyeing for the Habitat For Humanity Art Sale.  It cost me $1200 in vet bills to have him x-rayed, sonogramed and bariumed to get it through his inner twists and turnes.  It worked out in the end......LOL (a bit of a joke there!)

But I look into those eyes, and know he was worth it.....even though I was pretty mad at him.  The Habitat people were not so happy either.

DiNozzo is so laid back, sweet and loving.  He sometimes gets pushed to the back burner because McGee is so needy.  But he is never more than 10 feet away from me at any moment of the day. 

When we first got DiNozzo, he would refuse to go for a walk with Frank if I didn't come.  After 4 years he still drags down the driveway, stopping several times waiting for me to appear.  What a loyal guy!

And being bassets, they have this need to be earth movers and dig.  We can see China sometimes!  They are tracking the moles that tunnel through the yard on their way to grubs.  Every time we have one of the holes, we fill it in and add some sod to make it less appealing. 

And don't think they are couch potatoes!  They are heavily muscled, tough guys, who walk at least a mile a day and have a huge yard to run and chase squirrels or each other.  We keep them moving!  The vet always calls about 8 people into the exam room to see the "Basset Body Builders" !!

Oh, yes.  Chloe the Smelly  Basset.  She came to us in the middle of my Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs via the Boyfriend From Hell.  That was 10 years ago.  She moves when she wants to, sleeps where she wants to and commands the best sun rays in which to bask.

She claims Frank as her own.  Her very own!  And that is OK.

Dec 26th And I Am Already Behind!

But would you expect any less of me?  I have to complete entry for Quilt the Swamp 2015 due first week in January. 

 Complete?  Did I say?  Ha ha!  I need to totally make it!

(I am linking to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays)  Click here to see what amazing stuff the others are doing! 

She talks about consummating.  Ohhhhh!  Ya gotta go check her out!  LOL.

 So I actually started my Swamp piece today.  I want to make an oil derrick.  So here is my little derrick.  I just love them, this will be my third.  They are so structural, so black and white, so linear.

I need to find several good pictures of the Jack Horse Pumps so I can design one for the quilt as well. 

I have another idea that I want to do for the exhibit but may not get done.  Time, time, time.

I wonder what the theme will be for next year?  I wonder if I can make it early enough to actually do a good job on that piece?  I wonder if I will get my butt in gear (since I will have that Roomba keeping the dogs entertained) and actually get it completed early for once?

Da-Dum, De-Dum

Probably not.

I know me.

Leave me alone, I am cogitating.

I will leave you with some great photos of what the dogs were doing Christmas Day while I lay dying. 

Oh, hey mom!

Squirrel to the Left!

I did manage to pull my bacterial ridden self up and walk around the yard for about 20 minutes before I collapsed back into bed.

I am better now.  Still, I have no voice.

Ok, I heard that, my hearing is still good......

My Day Was A Mess!

She couldn't get on the lift

But at least I can vibrate my frustrations away in my newly arrived bed!!!

Today has been frustrating most of the day.  Frank went out to trim some bushes and it got the stuff together to wash the dogs.  They are pretty easy to wash, they mostly obey what I say, but I do need help holding each one while I wet, soap and rinse.

When Frank was ready, i suggested McGee first but he caught DiNozzo and we got him done.  Off he went to roll in the mud and whatever other yucky stuff he could find.

McGee was easy to catch, he is pretty much clueless.  He got bathed without a problem.  Again, the rolling in mud and crud was going on.

Chloe was the problem.  First off, she was hiding in the iron plants and we had to search for her.  It as difficult to get her out and on to the dog sacrificing bench.  She submitted to the bathing, complaining every few minutes with a menacing low level growl.  She just wanted us to know that she was not happy.

Poor baby was hurting

When I let her go to roll in the mud and crud she was hijacked by DiNozzo who thought she looked clean and sexy.  He ran at top speed across the yard and rammed into her side, rolling her about three times.

She was screaming.  I couldn't move fast enough with my leg to stop him from hitting her.  She was not walking on that front leg whe she got up.

An hour later at 11:30 we were at the vet getting x-rays.  Her shoulder bone was chipped.  Bad DiNozzo!  She is still not putting weight on it now even at 5 pm.

Then my soap dispenser stopped dispensing so we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got another.  I swear this is the last one!  I do like it though.  It is very convenient to get soap just by sticking my hand there rather than tipping the dawn bottle over.  This is the one, I know it.  And I things that this one might have gotten a bit wet.......

So between being at the vet most of the day and BBB the rest of the day.......I lost a whole day today.

But Chloe will be better in a few days.

And that is the best thing about today!

52 Photos - Gallery 21 - Star

This is Chloe the Smelly Basset.  She came to the family in the usual way.  Well, not really.  My daughter was angry at the world and she had moved out of our house after graduating from high shcool.  We bought a condo apartment near LSU so I always knew she had a roof over her head.  We also paid for a lot of things for her, but she was in her Angry Phase.

She was dating the Boyfriend From Hell.  And she tried breaking up with him a couple of times and always ended up going back.  She said she was through for good and he brought her this pup.

Chloe was cute.  And she held them together for just a short time longer.  And the BFH was angry when they were no longer together.  She ended up placing Chloe with us for safekeeping for a while until things passed over.

She fell in love with Frank!  And Frank fell in love with her!  for 10 years now, they have not been parted! And Carrie now has Hugeaux the Cavalier King Charles, which she implicily states is HERS AND WILL BE GOING HOME WITH HER when he stays here with his grandma for a few days!

Back to Chloe. she wouldn't look at me.  (She was kinda grouchy I made her get out of bed to take this picture of her.)  She has an attitude in her old age.

Here is Frank's little girl, Chloe the Smelly Basset AKA Star!

52 Photos - Gallery 19 - the Dog Walker

This last week has been lost.  I meant to get up every week and take a photo of my own dog walker.  And of the dogs he walks.  Up  until my knee got bad a year ago, we walked a mile each morning and again at night.  Those walks kept everyone slim and trim. 

When my knee got worse,  we cut our walks to half mile, then I  stopped going in the morning, and then the evening.  Now it has been 2 months since the knee
replacement and I am not quite ready to start walking my 2 miles again, but it I am getting close to easing back into walking again.

I offer you, Frank and the Basset Boyz  -  DiNozzo and McGee.  NCIS characters.  DiNozzo was a 10 month old rescue from a really bad situation where he was starving to death.  A year later 10 month old McGee came in  even worse shape.  I saved them both.  And McGee repays me to this day by eating whatever he can get his mouth on when  I leave the room.

DiNozzo just looks at me with total adoration and love.  He exists only to please me.

So different from the same backgrounds. 

I actually have three bassets, Chloe the Smelly Basset is the 10 year
old matriarch.  What she says goes.  And when she wants to join the walk, she does.  When she wants to sleep undisturbed through the walk, she does.  And when she wants to go on a walk and sleep half way around the block, she does that too!

But I love all three of them.

Cold Heat

I thought you needed to see what cold weather does to Smelly Bassets.  It drives them together, tightly!

 

They are outside sunning because I am inside cleaning up in my sewing room.  If I am going to get all these quilts quilted, then I need space to make more!  LOL

McGee Had a Great Day -- The Bird, Not So Much

I awoke to the sounds of African Wildebeests being slaughtered by packs of cheetahs, tigers and hyenas all at once.

The human voice amidst the sounds of carnage was loud and authoritarian; though it garnered no obedience.  I raced out as fast as my sleep-interrupted mind and cartilage-less knee would allow.  Which isn't all that fast.

The scene in the den was one of total chaos and destruction.  Frank had retreated into the kitchen to get a paper towel, DiNozzo was attacking Chloe.  Chloe was grabbing McGee's face. And McGee was trying to swallow something that was obviously larger than his throat.

Of course, Frank offered no answers to any questions I shouted.  I grabbed McGee and separated him from Chloe's grasp while Frank grabbed DiNozzo.  We moved them to opposite corners.  I finally understood from the guttural native grunts and pieced together words that McGee had a bird.  The bird had innocently decided to weather the blinding storm raging outside on our porch.

I was able to open McGee's mouth and shake out a fairly large fat sparrow.  Maybe it was a large fat wren.  I don't
really know, because it was immediately grabbed up by Chloe who was waiting just out of my peripheral
vision for this exact chance.

It seems she had gotten the bird first.  It commenced to fluttering in her mouth, surprising her.  So when she opened her mouth, McGee was right in there to grab it from her.  She was not happy and retaliated, hoping to slash his throat and gain back her prize.

DiNozzo was just not happy he missed the whole beginning and he had grabbed a piece of McGee's haunches and tried to make him give up the bird by making him yelp.  It wasn't working until i got there.

Chloe is much more difficult to make open her mouth.  Being 9 years with us and having eaten her share of poop, she was very used to me trying to get that out of her mouth. She had developed rock solid jaw clenching muscles that served her well in this case.

NOT!

But somehow the bird was released to the floor (at least it was not on my new expensive oriental rug) and Frank grabbed it gingerly with his Select A Size Bounty paper towel (he had selected the smallest size, you understand, he is pretty cheap).  But the bird must have touched his finger and he yelled like a girl and dropped it on my new expensive oriental rug.

Right into DiNozzo's waiting maw.

I was pretty sure by now the bird was fairly well dead.  It had gone through all three dog's mouths and probably commited suicide in Chloe's poop mouth.  I know I would have.

DiNozzo was divested of the bird after I grabbed his upper jaw (don't ever grab the lower one or you could break it) and pried his mouth open.  Amazingly, the bird fell out on my new expensive oriental rug.  Quickly and without thinking -- much --I grabbed it barehanded.

I had won the coveted prize!  Never had I dreamed 15 minutes earlier that the question of what to do with a bird in hand would be my driving focus.  "They" who say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush never woke up with bassets.

Everyone was fine, not a mark on anyone.  Well, except for that bird.  I am pretty sure he didn't make it.  I put him outside over the fence just in case he made a miraculous recovery as an Elijah bird.  I doubt it, but one never knows.  I have seen opossums return from the "dead".

I, of course, did not return to sleep.

No Sew Saturday - Bad Bad McGee

Tonight we are off to a dinner party at the Donahue's beautiful home.   It will be good to see that group again, it has been a while.  Carrie and Andrew are off to Natchez to celebrate their anniversary #4.  We are grand-dog sitting.

Chloe - the good one

Hugeaux - look at his hair sticking up!

We worked in the yard today because it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  I bought marigolds, begonias, coleus and zinnias to mix in with the caladiums that were so prolific last year.  I know most will come back but some were rotted to mush.  So there was some space to put the new beauties I planted.

I do container gardening because of the idiots dogs I have running around.  Even so, I am not sure the ones I put out today will not get up earthed by the idiots  dogs.    I can't find where the photos from today went in my computer so you get my lovely pansies I just pulled up.

Frank bought me a little sit upon stool that rolls along the flower beds.  It is too cute.

After doing all that work we chilled on the deck for a while.

McGee and DiNozzo w Frank

I went to take a bath, Frank vacuumed, then bathed.  When I came out to the kitchen, McGee had struck.

Hugeaux

We keep their dog food container wedged under the microwave stand so they can't get into it.  For 28 years we have had that there, with never a problem, until McGee.  He works the box out from under the stand, opens it and fights anyone off who tries to enjoy his efforts with him.  I mean, he works to get that out of there.  So I changed the way I put it in there.

And he looks so innocent here

Today, he MOVED THE MICROWAVE STAND to get to the food container!  He is like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of Basset Hounds.  Gotta admire his tenacity and the ability to keep thinking of ways to get at it.

Oh, and see my Japanese rock garden behind me?  I love it.
One day I will have to show you how we use grass to make it look like the water falling over the dam and rippling in the pond.