Showing posts with label happy birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happy birthday. Show all posts

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Happy 3rd Birthday, puppies!


Three years ago today a magical litter was born.


My dear friends Jim and Sue let their wonderful Maggie Mae come and stay with me long enough to give us eight darling, precious gifts!





Happy birthday to (top L to R) Topper, Lindy Loo, Emmett, Nearly and Rexie,
(bottom L to R) Katie, Champion Simmer, and Elijah.


Yup, Simmer finished her Championship last week, handled to every single point by her owner, Laurie. (Same Minnesooooota Laurie who's taken all these magnificent photographs.) Here she is nowadays



Congratulations to Laurie and Simmer, and thank you to every wonderful puppy home! YOU are all champions in my world.
hug my babies for me today, please!








Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Happy 12th Birthday, Mama Pajama and Fat Charlie!


Mama Pajama and Fat Charlie, photo by Laurie Erickson in May '09

Two of the most wonderful dogs in the world were twelve years old yesterday.

My long time readers will know that these birthdays are more special to me than one would expect. (How could any dog's twelfth birthday be any more special, you could rightly ask, but hang on ...)

Fat Charlie had a freak accident at a field trial in April of 2000. His Achilles tendon was severed. That he has all four legs is a testament to the veterinary care (including two surgeries) he received. He even got to race one more time. Watching him chase toys as he wears an I-dare-you-to-catch-me smile on his twelfth birthday face, is oh so good for my heart.

Most readers know that Mama Pajama was scheduled to be euthanized on May 12, 2003. She had a horrid autoimmune disease, neutriphilic vasculitis. She lost most of her ears, a lot of her kidney function, and one of her lungs to the illness. After six years of managing the disease with steroids, she has at long last been able to go without prednisone for the past three months.

She is silly again. She now does whippet spins (just picture a top - if you're old enough, or a speeding bicycle tire gone horizontal if you're not) out in the yard, purely for the fun of it. She takes the time to chew her food, no longer feeling starvation brought on by the corticosteroids.

And, after six years, she's continent again.

The little whippet who was once the #1 AKC Lure Coursing whippet in America, who can tell a story with the best of them, and who is the inspiration for the main character in my novel is twelve and she feels great!

To celebrate, I took Mama Pajama and Fat Charlie, and Easy and Spice (both of whom will also be twelve in October) out to the Kennel Club property to run. No young'uns! Just the four old friends. The weather gods were respectful of the importance of the day; they lowered the temperature by eight degrees and the humidity by 40%, and even threw in a cooling breeze to show their magnanimity.

Nice.


There were games of keep away. (Easy, left, Fat Charlie with toy)


Easy: "My toy!"


Fat Charlie: "I got this one!"


Spice: Zooooooooom!!! Too fast for you!!!


Summer time, and the livin' is Easy

Easy and Spice stop for a drink

When Mama Pajama was very ill, she wrote this:

My human Patience is a terrible worrier. She worries that she’s not doing enough to make me comfortable. They tried another new medicine, but it started to mess up my kidneys like the one that almost killed me, so they stopped it right away. I have Patience lift me into her lap – I can’t jump even into her lap anymore – and I try so hard to make her listen. I tell her it’s not the length of a life that’s important; it’s the living of it. I tell her how much I have loved every moment of my life, even now. I tell her that those of us souls who are highly evolved enough to have been dogs, know that worry is a sinful waste of energy and life.
And I tell her, as best I can, the Good Universe gave her to me and that I love her, and that I know she loves me, and that is enough. The rest we must simply accept as it comes, with courage and dignity, as all the worrying in the world won’t change a thing.

And then I lick her leaky face.


Mama Pajama: Was there not some mention of steak and ice cream?


Hug your hounds




Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Adventures in Walking

These days whippets are joined on their walks by their sweet, spunky neighbor, Francie. That means I am joined on my walks by Francie's sweet, spunky human, Tracey. Francie is just adorable. She's an accidental mix between a romantic Corgi and a determined Yorkie. She looks like a Benji with big, fringed, stand up ears and sawed-off legs. I think today is her first birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Francie!!!
Tracey looks nothing at all like Benji, but is tall, and glamorous. She is a gifted writer (I try not to be envious) and a talented artist. She is so funny, that I often have to stop at the public rest rooms down by the river, because at my age laughing that hard out in the cold is a hazard. Tracey is also deeply and honestly religious. So much so that she is kind, generous, and non-judgemental of my heathen ways. She walks the walk.

Okay, so we were walking in the bitter cold. We passed an empty building on the edges of downtown. Two young men were standing on the corner; not a corner where folks usually hang out. The younger one spoke.

"Djoo ahh phun nomburrr sexy?"

I'm pretty good at deciphering heavy accents. It's one of my talents. It came in very handy when I worked in the O.R., only I would think in a Filipino accent when I went home. But I knew I hadn't gotten that right. I stopped, and looked puzzled, so the young man repeated his question.

"Djoo ahh phun nomburrr sexy?"

Tracey and Francie kept on going, and she turned and spoke firmly to me, "KEEP WALKING!"

I said to the young man, "I didn't understand. Try again."

Tracey, with a look of panic called to me, "No! No! No! No!"

The young man repeated, "Djoo ahh phun nomburrr sexy?"

Now, I thought I heard 'Do you have a phone number, Sexy,' but I also knew that I looked like this:

If he had been directing his question at Tracey, that would have made sense, but he was talking to me, and in no fantasy land would I be remotely considered sexy. I asked him to try one more time. Tracey, distressed at my idiocy and worried for my virtue, pressed on, urgently crying, "Walk on, Patience! NO! Keep going!!!"

The young man tried once more.

"Do joo hab phone number of TAXI?" They did have suitcases and were a block from the Greyhound Bus station.

"HEY, Christian woman!!!!" I called to Tracey, making my hands mimic the opening of a book. A certain Holy Book. "They need HELP!"

Well, luckily we had just stopped to pee, because we laughed so hard over the notion that the handsome visitors could find anything remotely SEXY about this old dog walker!!! And as soon as I translated for Tracey, she rushed back to help them and apologized profusely for the misunderstanding.

The dogs just enjoyed the hilarity.

*********************************

Oh and in addition to wishing Francie a happy birthday, please join me in wishing our neighbor Cooper a happy sixth birthday! Cooper lives with the whippets' Auntie Karen, who also walks with us when her work isn't as busy as it has been lately.



Happy Birthday COOOOOOOPER!!!
Happy Birthday to YOUOOOOOOOOOOO!!!





hug your hounds

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Happy Birthday to YOUUUUUUUUUUU!





Dearest Elijah, Simmer, Katie, Topper, Emmett, Rexie, Nearly, and Lindy Loo

I can't believe you are already two!

I hope you enjoy your special day,

Your family and I just want to say:






hug your hounds and give them some ice cream to celebrate!

Monday, June 30, 2008

Birthday party photos, as promised!

I did not get a photo of the plate of nine grilled hamburgers, or of their consumption, but they were nonetheless enjoyed. It took a lot longer to prepare them than it took the dogs to gulp them!

Then the humans ate their meal. Our dear friends Lee and Dee joined us (and oh what a greeting they got from the Waggle - ah-wooos long and loud all around!) and our brand new neighbors, Xan and her dad Michael. Xan took most of the photos for me, except the one of her. We had grilled Italian sausage, grilled veggies including the first corn on the cob of the season, sliced tomatoes with fresh basil and olive oil, home made bread which came in the mail from the grands, and Xan brought delicious roast potatoes. Lee and Dee brought wine.

The dogs helped do the dishes, and then:


[L to R - Fat Charlie's nose, Swede William, Giacomino, Lindy Loo, Sam I Am and Mama Pajama]

"Is she getting out the whipped cream?"



[Mama Pajama on Lee's lap]

"I can reach it from here!"



[Fat Charlie]

"Mmmmmm. Nyummm!"




If you click on this photo and enlarge it, Maria's eyes might give you nightmares.



Seconds... or thirds... for Mama Pajama




Then Swede William went from lap to lap all the way around the table, starting with Bill.



Our fun new neighbor Xan gets a turn.

Maria had too much partying.
Fat Charlie ended the evening with a face full of stinky foot.





Hug your hounds

Sunday, June 29, 2008

More on Thunderphobia be Gone, and more...






Jean wrote:

Some clarifying points for questions you had and those of some of your
readers: I completed the two year certification program in Donna Eden’s modality
of Energy Medicine http://www.innersource.net/ . The work
with Giacomino was not about massage, but about working the appropriate
acupressure points. In this case the key points were the sedating or calming
points on Triple Warmer, or more traditionally called Triple Heater, meridian.
We also did some other things to rebalance the energetic charge he developed
around the sound of thunder storms. Someone asked for a resource for animals.
The best one I’m aware of and the one we were given in my class is the Tallgrass
Animal Acupressure Institute http://www.animalacupressure.com/index.html
-- they have videos, charts, courses etc. They are where I got my charts and
video from.


Thanks, Jean! (Oh and BTW, Jean, after you left today, Giacomino had a nap while I sewed, and then when we went outside at around four thirty, he galloped around the yard! Galloped. He was being sooo silly! And he ate all his dinner.)



**********************************************************************


We got an award!!!








Which we totally do NOT deserve!!! But the Zoo Crew were nice enough to give it to us. (I am pretty sure they felt sorry for the whippets, seeing that they have such a slacker servant.) I do think about the blog everyday, and I'm a daily blogger in that I visit my favorites every day, so maybe that's worth something. The Zoo Crew have a very sweet blog, and they have a white puppy named Willow, how amazing is that, so be sure to go visit them. (This Willow is a smidgen bigger than our Willow was.)




I am going to pass the award on to The Lurchers (maybe it will bring more good energy for Lurcher #1's blood work) and iList Paducah Blog, (you remember how much Mary has done to help the dogs around here) both of whom actually deserve it! Oh and to Gus and Teka who also deserve it and have just moved from Arizona to Memphis which is QUITE the move.


Thank you Zoo Crew!




************************************************************






And today was Fat Charlie and Mama Pajama's eleventh birthday. The weather gods smiled on us with a generosity of spirit unheard of around these parts. It was simply glorious. We had a nice little dinner, and all the dogs got hamburgers from the grill, with whipped cream from the can for dessert! I will post the photos tomorrow.

That Mama Pajama is here, celebrating her ELEVENTH birthday is purely a little miracle. At least to me.


hug your hounds




Monday, June 23, 2008

Happy 2nd Birthday, Swede William!






Then..




Now!!!


We celebrated his birthday by taking formal photos for his Nana Lisa in Sweden.




Swede William was so impressed!




Hug your hounds

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A Big Day

Happy Fourteenth Birthday, Very Old Dog.



Sweet old dog running in the sun last fall.

and

Happy Sixth Birthday, Sam I Am


Sam I Am is a joy and my buddy.


Asta sent Sam this darling card:



I'll write about their special day tomorrow.

hug your hounds