Good News!!

So I wrote last week about my dog Mighty and that we believed he had cancer. We spent a few days discussing our options and had decided we would look into chemo for him after we did some research and found that dogs tolerate it much better with often better outcomes than people do (strange isn't it). Anyway, I had been giving him antibiotics since the lump appeared, even though we were told this was not an infection. My husband had made an appointment with the vet for today to discuss the plan. I have been away this weekend and when I got home last night he told me to look at Mighty. The lump was almost gone!! Hubby had continued the antibiotics through the weekend. So we took him to the vet today and explained what I had done and they did a second biopsy. She said that while we aren't out of the woods yet, this is good news!! There is a possibility that this is just an infection. She gave us 3 weeks of antibiotics and we will see her again in 2 weeks to check things out again. I am thrilled that there is a possibility this could turn out to be good! Thanks for any positive thoughts sent our way!!

Inspiration

As far as glass is concerned, I find inspiration nearly everywhere. Trees, foods, the color of a car that goes by, the outfit someone is wearing, and animals. Having three doggies of my own, they are an endless source of inspiration (and comfort) to me so today I listed my first attempt at a dachshund bead and named it after my own doxie, Mighty. Mighty came to us as a rescue about a year and a half ago and he has been through quite a lot. Just before Thanksgiving last year, his "brother" Chance (also a rescue) blew a disk in his back. We took him to a chiropractor that also works on animals and she said our only option was surgery which may or may not work. Being a holiday weekend, the minimum was going to be $3500 for something that may not work and a 10 year old dog. We were heart broken but just couldn't afford it. Long story short, we lost him. Sometimes in doggies the paralysis will move forward and that is what happened with Chance. I still miss him every day. So what does this have to do with Mighty? Well about a month later, Mighty blew a disk in his back too. We went through the same process, vet, chiropractor etc. This time the outcome was a little brighter in that they told us for him there was hope that he might walk again. We gave him meds and since he was unable to urinate on his own, we would put a catheter in 3-4 times a day for several weeks. We took him outside with the other two with a towel holding up his hind legs so he could keep up the strength in his front and carried him up and down the stairs every day. Finally, after about 3 weeks we decided he probably wasn't going to walk again so we found a pattern on line for a wheelchair for him. He was having NO part of that! He used it for about two days before he started really trying to pull himself around on his own. It took some time but today, you can't tell there was ever anything wrong with his legs. He runs and plays right along with the other two. It's amazing how much inspiration you can find around you if you just keep your eyes open. :)

I'm back! :)

After a looooong absence, I am back to blogging! There has been so much going on in life and such that I just haven't had time to update anything really but I am starting to realize that it isn't something that is destined to change anytime soon, so I may as well just "make time" for the things I want to do! Since I last wrote, I now have a new job that I am really happy with; working as a home health nurse at the local hospital. This is a "specialty" that I hadn't really considered before until someone suggested I give it try and I am really glad that I did. We are a very small agency with only a few nurses and most days we all get along great and that just makes for a much nicer working environment than where I was before. Plus now I get to work "normal hours" most of the time.
I wrote before about being part of a dachshund rescue group; for reasons I won't get into here, we have decided to no longer participate with them, however we have added two more doxies to our family....these will be the last as this puts us up to four! :)
I still make and sell beads via Etsy; and I still LOVE it! I have a few new listings up and more to follow soon!

Knew it was comming.

Apparently my whole family did anyway. I talked before about the two foster dogs that we got from AADR about a month ago and last week we were due to have their bios and pictures up on the site for them to be made available for adoption. Well, we were having a really difficult time with Chance. We were very afraid that if we were to let him go to another home that it would literally break his heart. He has "grown" so much in the short amount of time he has been with us, not only by putting on weight and gaining his strength; but also in that he is much more trusting of humans in general now. He is still very timid and hides when other people are around, but if it is just my husband and I at home, he is just as playful as the others. He grew just as attached to us as we did to him, so of course we came to the conclusion that the only choice we had left to make was to adopt him ourselves. :) My husband said he knew it was coming from the moment they handed him to me in the parking lot in Arkansas and his parents said the same thing so maybe it was just meant to be. He has put on about 4 pounds and has much more energy now than he did to start with, but he is still just as content to spend time napping on the couch with someone. I will try to get some updated pictures posted soon.

Pictures as promised!

Here are a few pics of the first few days with Zoie and Chance. Chance has filled out a bit, but still has a few pounds to gain. He is learning to play with the others and learning how nice it is to have his belly full! I will try to get a few more pics up in the next week or so. Anyway, here they are, Zoie is the red one, Chance is the darker one with the white "mask" and the smaller dark brown one in one of the pics is my Bobo.

Remember, if you are interested in adopting, check out the AADR website!

Dachshund Stampede!

For the past couple of weeks I have talked about joining the All American Dachshund Rescue and that we were to have some foster dogs coming to stay with us soon. Well, we picked them up on Sunday. Becky Ann (aka Zoie) is a 3-4 y/o red, smooth coat female who has lots of love to give and gets along well with other dogs. She had been staying with the president of the rescue and has been obviously well cared for (at least recently). The other little guy we got, was not so lucky. He came to us with no name. A whopping 11.2 pounds (skin and bones for his frame) we are fairly sure he has been abused, he has the saddest eyes I have ever seen on a dog. They estimate him to be between 7-8 years old and he has a heart murmur; he was a puppy mill rescue. We decided to call him Chance. The first day he hid a lot and walked with his tail between his legs. The second day I got a single puppy kiss and saw him wag his tail once. Now, by day 6 he has put on at least 1/2 a pound wags his tail when he sees us coming, he has learned to bark when he wants to sit in the chair with you and he has learned there is no need to hide from the humans in this house. I was not prepared for what we got in him, but I am glad we have him and I hope we can find him a wonderful "fur-ever" home when he is ready. I will try to get some pictures of them up in a bit but they are on my other computer right now. This has been a whole new experience for me this week but a good one! :)
If you are interested in adopting either of these two or another dachshund, please check out AADR's website for more information!

Busy as Usual

I mentioned before that we had joined the All American Dachshund Rescue and will be fostering dachshunds and the rescue has been very busy of late due to several puppy mill raids. I have been working on one foster member application myslef, unfortunatly the person decided that fostering is not for right for them at this time. We were to get a female doxie a week ago Sunday but she was lucky enough to go to what I am sure will be a wonderful forever home instead. This Sunday, if everything goes as planned, we will pick up 2 *somewhere* as a caravan makes it's way from TN to AZ. It is really amazing to see the way this all works, all of this transportation is volunteer and because there are enough members, usually each "leg" of the trip is no more than 2 hours or so. I have also been working on putting together some things to donate to the rescue to put in baskets to raffle at the picnic that will take place in May in TN. I don't think we will get to make it to the picnic ourselves due to work schedules and things but it sounds like fun!
In addition to all of that, I have been working like mad trying to make new things to put in my Etsy shop, no pics unfortunately as most of it is in the kiln still or hasn't been photographed yet. I took an extra day off of work this week thinking that I would get some of these things "caught up"...not so much. :) Hubby has been sick with a nasty sinus infection so has been home 2 extra days himself. So basically it's been a whole lot of busy but not a whole lot of actually getting anything done! But hey, that's just me! :)

Curiosity

A few days ago my hubby and I began putting up our Christmas decorations. For years now I have been painting little village houses to put out during Christmas, they take me hours and I am lucky to get one done per year, we have 3 put out. Anyway, I had some extra batting from the quilts I have been making and I thought I would put that under the village to look like snow. Our village is in our dining room/living room sitting atop a buffet given to us by my in-laws and I laid the extra batting on our table and it hasn't quite made it back downstairs to my craft studio yet. My husband is working nights right now so he is gone to work before I get home and tonight when I came home from work, I found a very funny picture when I opened the door. Bobo had made his way up on top of the table, "fluffed" the batting and was napping in the middle of it on top of the table! I wish I could have gotten a picture of it, but he was down before I got the chance. I laughed and went on. Finished up the second quilt I was working on and came downstairs to check my e-mail and such and got a very pleasant surprise from Debra Jennings, her Starburst Nebula tutorial was in my box as a "secret" Santa gift as a result of the amazing thread over on LE. As I was posting my thank you for the gift I kept hearing a noise behind me and I knew Bobo was in here with me, but when I turned around, this is what I saw.





See if you can spot the very curious doxie in these pics amongst all the scrap material, candle scents and other unfinished projects and supplies! :)