Little buddies

We met my friend Jen and her son Aiden at the park the other day. The boys used to play together all of the time until they both started pre-school last year which made it a little more challenging to see each other. They always enjoy each other's company, which is great since I always enjoy Jen's company too.

When we took a walk along the trails, the boys held hands and walked ahead of us. All I had was my cell phone to catch the moment. It is a cute picture regardless of the size and quality.

Misha, May 1994 - July 2008

Today was the day that we had to say farewell to another one of our dogs, Misha. With as many times as I have killed her off in my head, only to have her snap back and shock us all, I was beginning to think that she was never going to give up - she was a fighter like that.

She started struggling with dehydration on Friday but was still eating. Thanks to Milly, we were able to get her a bag of IV fluids/electrolytes and perk her up during the weekend while Grandpa was out of town. She is technically his dog and all we wanted was for her to be comfortable while he was gone for the weekend so that he could have the chance to say goodbye, which we were able to do.

I am relieved for her but sad for us. She has truly been the greatest, strong-spirited dog that we have ever had or that I have ever known of. I knew her well enough to know that she was over it and ready to move on before she was unable to wag or lift her head, and for that I am glad. She left us after chowing on the some seriously stinky wet food and eating as many of the vet's dog and cat treats she could inhale and was surrounded by familiar faces. It was peaceful and definitely the right thing to do. She will be missed.

Is it what it seems?

I never quite remembered to ask Holly or her cousin, Karen, if it was okay for me to post some of the "other" pictures from our weekend in Chesapeake. Hopefully they will not mind......



Hmmmm, I did not mention police interaction in my previous post. What could they have done?










Could it be due to Karen and her sweet little land shark jumping on this vehicle with this festive parade participant and riding a short distance?











Or could it be that the Shriners were not to pleased that Karen and Holly jumped up on this float as they politely asked for a ride?










Truth be told, it was none of the above. This cop is a friend of the family driving by after the parade. He did not care in the least that we were drinking beer at 10:30 in the morning.

We got him.

This is the second Monday in a row that I have had to deal with taking an ailing or injured animal to the vet. Last week it was the freshly hatched baby birds that we heard in our fireplace when we returned from our trip that we built a nest for and fed through the night until we could get help for them. This week it is a feral orange cat that we have been trying to get our hands on for a good month or two. He is very injured and has been lurking around trying to get a meal here and there.

With the help of a humane trap borrowed from a spay/neuter clinic, we got our man last night.....just in time too. He has a huge, wide open wound from his neck to his shoulder and another one on his front leg on the same side that he can hardly bear weight on. I cannot imagine what happen to the poor guy, but he is clearly suffering and would have died without our help. Unfortunately, we trapped him on the wrong day - the clinic is c.l.o.s.e.d. on Mondays! Luckily my vet is right down the street and they were willing to take him in for a day/night until he could be fixed up. Wonder how these homeless, injured and helpless animals keep finding their way to us?

Troy Boy!

Do you think Troy misses his previous owners? Not that they were not nice people, but he has not destroyed one piece of *our* furniture, eaten any of *our* doorways and we never come home wondering what kind of trouble he has been into while we were gone. I think his behavior in the lively home speaks volumes, especially when you compare it to the stories of his destruction in his first home. They were going to have him put to sleep because he was so bad. I can't imagine....

He loves it here with us. He wants to be part of every little bit of excitement that goes on, which is not always a great thing, but he thrives on action, which we have plenty of. Holly and I were watching him play this morning with a little frog who always seems to be swimming in our pool on Thursday mornings. He runs around, paws at it, sticks his face in up to his eyeballs and swishes his head around or just tries to grab it with his mouth. This is also what he does to the kids when they are swimming. Holly and I agree that if there is one thing that would improve Troy's existence, it would be the ability to swim. He wants in so bad but will not go beyond the top step. Maybe we should build him a ramp.

We really wanted to change his name initially, wondering who the hell names a dog 'Troy.' Since we are really into rhyming these days, 'Troy' has become 'Troy Boy' which sounds even more ridiculous but whatever. This dog could care less what you call him.

Doesn't he look right at home lounging on the rafts?

Camp Time!!

Evyn is in camp this week at our local botanical garden. Initially, I was all set to enroll her in art camp at The Virginia Museum of Fine Art, however, when I heard about the garden camp and its theme "Flowers, Fins and Feathers" I quickly changed my mind. Evyn is quite the little environmentalist these days and loves to soak in every little detail of the great outdoors, even noting the trash along the roadside that people "should have thrown in a trash can." She has been known to pick up trash at the park. She has helped with our garden, helps water our flowers and was solely responsible for picking out the flowers that we planted around the pool. Throw in her love of most bugs and interest in weather and "mother nature who lives in the sky and takes care of the earth" and you have one completely interested little camper. She is having a blast and is learning some neat things.

Our Little Getaway

We headed down to Chesapeake, VA for a long weekend and to celebrate the 4th with Holly's cousin, Karen, and her husband. They are lucky enough to have a parade travel right through their neighborhood, right in front of their house. Evyn was much more impressed by this than Reed and had to be told at least twice that it was time to get up from the curb because the parade was over. I really cannot blame her for wanting more since many of the groups in the parade were throwing out fun things like candy, fireman hats and pencils.

We also managed to spend three days lounging on the beach which was absolutely wonderful. Reed was happy as long as he was in the water. The rest of the time, he was either trying to get the sand off of his feet or trying to strip off his trunks and streak across the beach. It got to the point where Holly and I started alternating chasing him down. If there were not so many freaks in the world, we would have just let him be "free." After all of the explaining about how sand is what makes a beach a beach and how everyone has sandy feet when they are on the beach, he still was not too thrilled with the sand. I think his favorite part of the beach, other than collecting shells, was the shower we rinsed off in on our way back to the car. Evyn, on the other hand, loved all of it.

Holly also arranged for me to go with Karen and have a facial while we were there at The Virginia Institute of Esthetics in Virginia Beach where the students perform services super cheap. It was my first facial and will probably not be the last. At the very least, it made me realize that I should probably be nicer to my face and use a facial cleaning system rather than whatever bar of soap is in the shower.

Other than the terrible traffic, we had a great time with Karen and Boone, meeting their friends and not even knowing what time it was for the majority of the time we were there. I do have some other pictures and stories that are quite entertaining, however, I must make sure I have Holly's permission before I post them.