Thankful

Well I have survived my first couple of shifts "on my own" at work. I am grateful and thankful that those that I work with are easy to get along with, after all I went through with the last job, it really means a lot. Also, Mighty had his follow up appointment at the vet and she told us that because his improvement was so drastic, we will "write this off as an infection"!! We went from thinking we were going to loose another pet before the end of the year to having one who it seems feels much better than he has for a while.

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!!

Sadness

So some of you may have read my post a few weeks back about my dog Mighty; he is one of the three dachshunds who let us live with them. Last night we noticed Mighty has a lump on his neck, I had a pretty good idea what it was, he was not showing any signs of pain...but I was hoping it was just an infection. We took him to the vet this morning and they did a biopsy...it's cancer. :( He has been through so much already it's just heartbreaking for us to go through this with him. We had to put our boy Chance down the week after Thanksgiving last year and I just can't make that decision again. They told us there is really nothing that can be done and that he has 1-5 months. He seems ok right now. I just hope he lives out his life peaceful and happy and goes to sleep some night and wakes up on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge where his "brother" is waiting.

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!

Doxies in Need

So I know I haven't posted in a while, frankly because I have been quite busy. We have a house full still with the 3 doxies, though Zoie is (we hope) close to being adopted. I have several new "business ventures" going now. I began selling with Inspiranza Designs, Monet Minerals, and Gold Canyon all wonderful companies if you are looking for sterling silver jewelry, mineral makeup or THE best candles you have ever smelled in you life! :) Anyway, to get to the point today's post has a very important reason behind it. Our vet called us yesterday because someone brought in two female doxies around 2yrs old, both are heartworm positive. :( They were going to put them down yesterday but one of the technicians that works there asked them to call us first knowing that we work with AADR to see if we could help. The good news is, I got ahold of the intake coordinator for AADR today and they have agreed to let us help these two girls in serious need of attention; the bad news is, the rescue itself is in serious need of attention. We are in need of donations to help us help more doxies in need so if any one has even $2 to give, please click the AADR button you see here on my page and click the donation button, you can even donate via paypal. :) Also if you ARE in search of the products I mentioned above, for the month of May I will be donating my profits from all three of these companies to AADR. Please help me to help these doxies! ;)

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!

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! :)

Best Friends

It was 66 degrees outside when I got off work tonight and frequently when we are both home together, my husband and I go for a ride in his Jeep with our best friend....Bobo. Today though, we had the top off the Jeep because it was really a very nice day. When it is that cool and the top is off the Jeep, a long sleeve shirt is a must; Bobo however doesn't like the cold one bit. You see, Bobo is a mini wiener dog and he doesn't have much fur! So, we turned on the heat and he snuggled with me and our drive was a bit shorter tonight...and no, he is NOT spoiled I don't know why you would even think such a thing! :)