Wonderful Pets

I know I have talked before about my dog, Cheyanne, but it was a while back. I have had dogs my whole life, but this dog is something very special. Don't get me wrong, they are all special, but I suppose being the first dog that was really mine makes every memory more intense. I was thinking about all the stories I have about her. Kick back while I share a few...

The first day we brought her home she got wedged between the hot tub and the porch beams. We almost had to saw off the posts to get her out. A few minutes after that, Jay closed her ear in the sliding glass door and made a slice in the end of her ear. You can still see it today. Come to think of it, his other dog has a sliced ear as well. He has never been the most graceful person I know. Do you know he has broken almost every glass figurine I own? He even broke our cake top and then secretly took it to be fixed. Bunny trail - sorry about that.

One day I went into the back yard to do something and when I came back she was standing on top of our oak table.

Then there was the time Jay found a 50 cent piece in the yard in her stool along with MY WATCH. It was still ticking. Replaced the band and polished it up. Guess it is a good watch. If I could pin a slogan I would choose "Takes an eating and keeps on ticking".

She bounced off a hubcap of a car that hit her driving by the house. The dog was supposed to stop and see grandma - not run around her and into the street with excitement.

Now I can laugh about the three stairs of carpet, 2 couches, two tables, bras, and numerous pens she devoured. Oh, I can't forget the box of chocolate covered cherries and a whole solid chocolate Easter Bunny. The cherries were my Aunt's Christmas present. The Easter Bunny was shoved between my car seat and the console. She ate both within minutes while we were out of the car.

She is terrified of tumbleweeds when they roll by while she is in the car. She is also not fond of large trucks or the men driving them.

She attacks me when I cry. Also when I try to exercise in the house to a workout video.

We had to chop off 4 inches of her tail because she kept breaking it open and making the walls bloody when she got excited. She almost broke her tail a few years ago when she fell into the ice fishing hole in Gunnison on Valentine's Day. The hole was only about 8 inches wide. She has also had a bone scan, full body x-rays, allergy testing (and treatment), three sets of stitches in her front right paw, and gets chronic ear infections. Her insurance premium is only $200 a year and every year we have made our money back on it. She turns 7 in August.

Jay ate part of her birthday cake last year. He did not know that it was dog sausage and not human food on top of the omelet combination I had made with old eggs and moldy cheese. He didn't even get sick.

I almost had to carry Chey home on the back of Cody last summer after a 20 mile horse back ride. She also ended up wandering off and getting lost that day. My Aunt had to turn and go back up the trail after the ride because she thought they would be waiting at the bottom of the trail. She has never wandered off since.

She only howls at sirens.

She will eat anything except bananas and mushrooms.

She likes pulling a wagon filled with kids.

We competed in agility for almost 4 years before we had to bow out because of her health problems. She would run a perfect course but would be over time so we would be disqualified.

She wears booties and a sweater when we go ice fishing in the winter.

She passes gas and then looks around to see what the noise was.

She stretches in bed and pushes Jay and me off of the edge.

She sits up in bed and waits for me to tell her goodbye before I go to work in the morning. Then she lies back in my spot and sleeps in.

She will let the parrot sit on her nose and likes to lick the hamster. She would kill a cat.

She asks to get on the bed by bouncing her paw on the edge until someone wakes up. She has learned Jay is the only one that will wake up. She has learned not to piss me off while I am sleeping.

Okay, so I have gotten really carried away! Sorry about that but I hope it was as fun to read it as it was to write it. It is Friday! Have a great weekend! Take the dog out!

Africa Plans

Today I woke up thinking about Africa. I am planning a trip in 2008. The purpose of this trip is to visit my sponsored child (Miriam) in Uganda. I don't know how I did it, but I was also able to convince my parents to join me to visit their children (Paul and James) in Kenya. Since I have friends in Tanzania, I have to stop there as well. My friend Meg got back from her trip to Africa a few months ago. Visions of her pictures keep scrolling through my head and I found myself wishing I would have been there to share those memories with her. Her sponsored children are in Rwanda. I am the prayer group leader for Ghana, so I would like to go there as well, but it is conveniently on the other side of the continent. Since my job pays for me and Jay to go to Central America in 2008, we have to make up the difference if we upgrade to Africa. So we have been saving and actually doing a really good job so far. We are banking about $1800 and still have a couple years to go. This I find encouraging since we were never able to save anything in the past. Of course, I have been extremely blessed because we won $1000 right off the bat the last time we went to Cripple Creek. I also won $500 in playing BINGO on the cruise, so that went to pay for our cruise and other expenses. I am also hoping to accomplish a dream I have for my life... shark diving. Not any shark diving, either, but with the Great White! I could go to Cali or somewhere closer to go find these creatures, but the best place to go is Seal Island which is off the coast of Simonstown, South Africa. Have you seen the specials on television about "Air Jaws"? Well, this is the charter that I have been in touch with since 1999 - before they got popular. I have numerous photos and posters of their work and I get their newsletter monthly. It is great to know I might actually be able to achieve an encounter with a Great White! So, that means I will have to have enough saved up to visit: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. Sorry, Meg, you are on your own for Rwanda!
Anyway, I just thought I would let you know about my plans in advance. It also makes me feel like it is actually going to happen. Sometimes I think I get caught in a dream state and then I realize that I don't have the money or the right stuff to be able to go. I also need to get scuba certified. I really want to lose weight so I do not look so scrumptious to the sharks. Lots to do! I am sure it will be here before I know it. After all, it is already 2006!

Senor(ita) Fuzz

Now, I know you are all thinking. You are guessing by the title of this blog that I have brought home yet another beady-eyed fuzzy critter. Yes, I must admit you guessed correctly. Jay and I were at the mall waiting for Annapolis to start when we ventured into the pet store (which Jay should know not to let me do). After surveying the assortment of furry and scaly creatures I turned to the smeared glass aquarium that held a bunch of peach and white fuzz balls. There was the smallest (obviously the runt of the litter) being attacked by a larger sibling. My heart went out to the stupid thing and I looked over at Jay. He was thinking the same thing. I thought to myself, “No more rodents! They die so fast and leave pieces of broken heart all over the place.” Jay and I retreated with our tails tucked for the movie.
Of course, this little guy was on my mind all night as well as the whole next day. I washed the dog and then went to the mall to pick up my little runt. The little guy slept the whole way home and I was greeted at the door by Jay holding Peaches’ old cage from the basement! Did my husband really know without me saying where I had been? I was astounded. Turned out he had been online and had seen the charge go through. I think he would have known anyway by the huge smile on my face when I walked in the door. We both carefully arranged the hamster’s new home with pine bedding, toilet paper, an empty roll of toilet paper, food and water, a wood block chewy, and a folded cardboard box house. It was perfect. Seeing that the critter was too small to be sexed, we named it Fuzz. Jay calls “him” Senor Fuzz, but soon he may become Senorita Fuzz if nothing develops.
Anyway, things are coming along well with Fuzz. He is slowly getting used to being held and hasn’t bit me yet. He is a very sleepy guy and doesn’t really get active until maybe 12 or 1. By that time, I am asleep but I can hear the echo of his little wheel turning away. It is a nice sound and helps me fall asleep. I am hoping Fuzz will at least make it to see his 2nd birthday. I know that is a big thing to ask, but I do not want to deal with the grief for another couple years. I am sure after he is gone I will swear again not to have another critter, but I am learning that my own will compared to my heart is not necessarily a winning bet.

Hamster Chronicles Part 2 of 2

Years later I was in a pet store with my sister (who wants to adopt even the crickets) and we came across a cage full of hamsters. The largest one (guessing mom) was sitting peacefully chewing on a piece of corn when my sister found her. She promptly convinced me that this was a strict mission trip to extract the oldest hamster alive. It was that one, pure white with beady black eyes that she was referring to. I ended up taking the fat girl home and prominently named her Q-Tip. She was a sluggish hamster, only able to run in her wheel for a few minutes without stopping for a rest. When we put her in the plastic ball to roam the house she usually curled up and fell asleep. It was okay with us, really. “Like mother like hamster” I thought. Little did I know that a mere 2 weeks later she would pop out about 7 baby critters! What is worse is that I think she was in a cage with her siblings and was a victim of inbreeding… three of the babies came out with no eyeballs! So, I then went on a mission to find homes for my disabled hamsters only to find there were many that wanted a hamster with special needs but nobody wanted the normal hamster babies! It took a few weeks for me to adopt all of the little critters and I was exhausted. Little did I know that Q-Tip was having her own set of problems. She passed away a week later. Again, I vowed I would never have another. And I meant it.

Hamster Chronicles Part 1 of 2

From the beginning of time, my family has shown compassion to the beady eyeballs of many fluffy critters. My sister was the lucky one that had the hamsters. We had Dizzy who would fall asleep nestled in the crushed velvet sweat suit my dad wore in the 80's. Then we had a few nasty hamsters that bit me, so I don't even remember their names. One night during Dizzy's reign, I heard something scratching on my window. I was so scared that I called dad in to scavenge the room and outside my window for perpetrators. Nothing. Again I tried to go to sleep and I heard the scratching again. Dad had to come in again (and I think he realized he was not getting any sleep that night). He didn't hear anything and to say the least and he definitely did not believe that the boogey-man was outside of my bedroom window. As he sat on my bed convincing me that there was nothing to be afraid of, he heard the faint scratch as well. Making his way to the window, he realized it was not coming from the window at all. There was something in my clothes hamper! Opening up the lid, there hung poor Dizzy, our teddy bear hamster, clinging to the side of my wicker hamper in a desperate attempt to make it to the top of the tunnel of dirty underwear and socks. After a good laugh I was able to fall asleep. That was the beginning of my hamster chronicles.
When Jay and I were engaged he bought me a teddy bear hamster we named Peaches n Crème. We called her Peaches for short. She was just the most awesome critter ever! She came out when I called her name and since her cage was strategically placed in the kitchen, she always accepted gifts of various fruits and vegetables. Once she escaped from her plastic ball in my bedroom and she came to me when I called her name. She would curl up in my pocket and watch movies with me and even enjoyed a closely monitored adventure outside on the grass. Unfortunately, Peaches passed away at the ripe age of 18 months. I vowed I would never have another.

Sunshine Blues and Green Grass

I consider myself extremely blessed at work. I sit by the windows. All day I can turn around and have Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains nestled outside my 4th floor view. I remember sitting two rows over where the best view was of my co-worker's family photos. It was always exciting when he came to work with pictures of his kids. In fact, I got so attached to one photo that I asked if I could keep it when he quit. I am praying that the fading colors (from the digital camera paper) stay as bright as possible until I am fortunate to have a position where looking at photos is not such a priority. There is not much else to look at when you are on the phone all day. If I didn't have my pictures, I think I would have gone insane after a week. I think a lot of people that work in building such as mine get very depressed with the lack of sunshine. On the other hand, when I was away from the windows I was more content with being at work. Now all I want to do is break out and go fishing or ride my boys. People often compliment me on the view I have and it makes me a little sad. We all work really hard and we all deserve to sit where we would like. Sometimes I hear people talk about wanting to work outside. I have done that and in this state (especially in the spring) it is no picnic. I can remember days drenched in freezing drizzle wishing to be inside one of the tall comfortable buildings in the distance. There was nothing like taking a group of tourists from New Jersey on a horseback riding adventure during a lightening storm through Garden of the Gods. The people running that place were a bit greedy to say the least.
Anywho, it makes me think of the wonderful saying "The grass is greener on he other side". Isn't that true! If you are inside you want to be outside, if you are outside you want to be inside (just like an annoying dog). Other people's husband's or wives look better than yours, maybe you think living in another state would be nicer than where you are. We always seem to want what we can't have and things that are not good for us to begin with. Let me let you in on something personal...
When Jay and I had problems a while back I had the thought of being single. Oh, how the grass looked greener on the other side! There is a harsh reality I have come to know for this "green grass syndrome": The grass is green where you water it. For example, if I am unhappy in my marriage and I think all is dead and there is nothing to hope for, my grass is dead. Looking over the fence, my neighbor has a great life and husband. Wonderful gren grass! I want what they have. If I did get what I wanted, it would not be long until I am miserable and had killed the grass there as well. You see, it is all in the way you tend to your life. The grass is greener when you water it. So if you are unhappy, you can change that. Of course, there are exceptions. But, I think if you really uncover what most people covet, it is their watering can.