Happy Father's Day

I know this is late in the day, but the day is still here, so I'll write

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

to my Dad, who just happens to be the best Dad in the world!

I love my Dad so much, and I am so fortunate to still have him and he is in good health, and at almost 83 years of age, he still drives all over the place and is active.

I have learned so much from him, things like how to cook, how to fix things, how to be independent, how to be frugal, how to forgive and to always look to God no matter what.

Thanks Dad for being there for me. :)

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Sad Days

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you are aware of my baby girl Pekoe, my long hair chihuahua. I have had her since she was weaned, she was always a good dog, quiet, never a barkey or nippy dog, well maybe she was a nippy dog, especially to strangers (we just kept her at a safe distance, I was more worried about her hurting herself than hurting other people)... but she was still my sweet little baby,  I could go on but I won't.

About a month ago, she got pretty sick, I hoped she would spring back, but at 12+ years old, she just didn't bounce back like she used to. I took her to the vet and he said she had a heart murmur, by that time she had gotten pretty sick, the vet gave her a long acting antibiotic shot and said let's see how she does.

I took her home and watched as she got sicker and sicker each day, I took her back to the vet, he gave her another antibiotic shot and a cortisone shot. He prescribed a heart medicine for her and sent us home.

By this time, she had gotten so much sicker, she coughed constantly and had little strength, she wouldn't eat and had lost a half a pound over a long weekend, that's a lot for a little dog, I had always kept her weight around 5-6 pounds most of her life. When I took her to the vet the first time (on this illness) she was at 7.5, in the following week, she went down to 7.

She then started bloating, mainly her stomach, it really affected the way she walked and stood, so I called the vet again and he prescribed a diuretic. So now, on a heart pill and a diuretic, she still wasn't getting any better, in fact she was going downhill pretty fast. I had been debating if it was time to put her to sleep.

On Wednesday of last week, I was supposed to be going to town (3 hours away) with the lady I work for, but the day before, Pekoe's back legs swelled up 2x the normal size. That wasn't a good sign at all. She couldn't walk more than a few steps before falling down in exhaustion, I called my friend to tell her I wouldn't be going to town with her. I knew that I would be taking her to the vet for the final time. I spent the night in tears, praying to God, asking that He take her instead of letting her suffer. The following day, I spend the entire morning with Pekoe in my bed for the last time, we cuddled and napped together.

I'll not write out the rest of what happened in any detail, it's too sad, let's just say that I took her to the vet, what clenched it for me is when I let her on the ground outside the vet's office to let her take her last squat, she couldn't get back up. She passed peacefully, looking into my eyes while I talked to her, the vet and his staff were gentle and compassionate.

I am so glad I didn't have to drive either way, a good friend took me in and talked to me all the way home, it worked out the best way it could.

When I got home with Pekoe, PB had made her a proper casket, with little handles. We picked out a spot to bury her and PB dug the hole, he made it pretty deep, he was standing up to his waist in the hole. We put Pekoe in the casket, along with some food and water so she will never be hungry or thirsty, I also put in some Cheerios cereal, that was her favorite morning snack. I included a toy that PB's mom sent last Christmas. She is buried near the garden, under a stand of trees. PB is making a headstone for her.

This is very sad for me, for anyone who doesn't understand why or how someone can be so hurt by losing a pet, my reply is I feel sorry for you as it's clear that you never had a deep relationship with a pet, they have unconditional love, they are so trusting, to me she was part of my family and the pain I feel is a direct reflection of the love I felt for her, and she for me.

If you want to see the pictures of the casket, click on the "read more" below, if you do not wish to see the casket (with Pekoe in it, then don't click on it).

Giveaway

The contest is now over, congrats to the winner. :)

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Here's another giveaway from Patriots Against The NWO, this one is for a book Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management, go here to enter:

http://patriotsagainstthenwo.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-great-book.html

And stick around on the site, there is a lot of great info there. :)




All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Fire Update

As you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep last night, though I was confident that if the fire began coming back, the firefighters would let us know, they stayed at my church all night watching the fire, you just don't fight fires in the brushy wilderness at night, God bless each and every one of them.

Around 3am, the wind shifted, it wasn't a strong wind, just a couple of miles an hour, that brought the smoke into the neighborhood, (I just heard 4 airplanes go over, I didn't get up to see them, I know they are fighting the fire), I read that last night the fire burned another 500 acres overnight. I went to bed shortly after that, but had a hard time going to sleep with all the smoke in the air.

This morning the wind shifted back in our favor, (here's another airplane going overhead, this time I went out and looked, it's the spotter plane circling around the fire). It's an odd thing to hear so much air traffic, we might have a small plane a couple of times a month, and the occasional helicopter, it's quite the sight (and sound). The firefighters started back up fighting the fires this morning, a few friends sent me some pictures, the pictures are big, click on them to see the full size. The last one, if you zoom in, you can see how close the fire is to a home. I believe we are going to be OK, there are lots of great firefighters and equipment fighting this fire, the winds are light and the humidity is up.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

The Mountains Are Burning... Again

We had the promise of some rain, some much needed rain, but instead all we got was a lot of lightening, thunder and fires... that was a couple of days ago, and fortunately our wonderful volunteer fire departments were able to put those fires out before they got too bad.

Today I went into town with a friend, I was gone most of the day, we noticed that there were lots of vehicles with flashing lights passing us going the other way (toward where I live), we knew there was another fire but didn't know where it was... until we started coming home. It was easy to see the huge plume of smoke, we were hoping that it wasn't near our neighborhood.

As we were approaching the entrance to our neighborhood, we could see many vehicles parked around, mostly emergency vehicles, by then it was painfully clear that the smoke was very close by. Our first thought was that we wouldn't be allowed to enter the neighborhood, but it seemed that no one was there to stop us. I spoke to the deputy there who was watching the smoke, he said it was not in our neighborhood, yet, and the wind was in our favor (blowing it away) but they were there just in case, along with the sheriff and the deputy, there was a big truck with a trailer, on the trailer was a big bulldozer, there were a few other emergency vehicles there. We checked our mail and headed into the neighborhood.

Near my friend's house, we had a perfect view of the mountain ridge that was on fire, it looked very close, I later found out that the fire had indeed breached the boundaries of our neighborhood. Tonight I can see a glow over my mountaintop, I'm not too worried though, there are firefighters watching the fire all night, just in case things turn for the worse. I'm hoping there will be some rain tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.

I found some great pix of our fire on the internet, this might give you an idea of how difficult it is to fight fires out here.

We appreciate the hard work and dedication of our volunteer firefighters and all the volunteers who are flying the helicopters and airplanes who are helping us.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!