The Queen B

Good Girl

We lost our sweet dog, Heidi, yesterday.  

 

The illness that she contracted a few years ago flared up again last week and, this time, she was not able to rebound.  

 

The Palace is sad.

Especially her partner in crime best buddy, Ruby...

 

 

Losing a pet is so hard.

We explained to The Princess how you make the choice to risk heartache when you take on the responsibility of a pet.  

We thought through all of the wonderful memories we have with her and decided the heartache was worth it.  

Heidi brought us lots of joy.  She loved The King. He was totally her person.  She loved The Princess.  She would have done anything that she could to protect her. 

 

Poor Ruby has never eaten a meal without Heidi's permission.  She doesn't go through a door without Heidi having gone through it first.  

This picture is the only time in recorded history that Heidi took the little bone and gave Ruby the big one.  

We think she was just making sure Ruby's didn't taste better.  

It is going to be an adjustment for all of us, but especially for Ruby.

We were blessed to have Heidi for 7 years.  

She was an awesome dog. 

Plans

Hi.

So my plan for 2010 is to get back to the blogging.

Or to stop the blogging entirely.

Because this "oh, no I forgot to blog and I'm feeling some guilt" is for the birds.

(What the heck does for the birds mean?)

We'll see.

***

Thank you so much for your prayers and emails concerning La P.  This crazy, unknown journey would be so much more difficult if we were going at it alone.

Our faith has been strengthened by your faith.

Here's pretty much where we are today.

Which could change in, like, 3 minutes.  By the time I hit "publish" we'll seriously probably be working on another plan.

But at this moment....

La P is not adoptable.  Which is sort of a good thing.

Guatemala is soon to be re-opening adoptions.  If I understand things correctly (which is honestly not very likely) the new! improved! adoption rules will not allow a family to "choose" their child.  The next family on the list will be given the next child on the list. Make sense?  

The only way to go around that is to have an established & well documented relationship with a particular child.

Well, yeah.

We've got that.

But whose to say what an established & well documented relationship is by definition...?

So.

We are proceeding with attempting to obtain a medical visa.  We have letters from American doctors.  We have a letter from a Guatemalan doctor.  We have a judge who has seemed to look upon the situation favorably. But that judge will be retiring soon.  

And I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't seem to move very fast in Guatemala.

Once she is here on a medical visa and is receiving medical care, we will attempt to have her declared adoptable.

Hopefully, the fact that she has, um, lived with us and we've provided her medical care will be an established and well documented relationship.  You'd think.

The obvious ginormous risk is that it won't work.  That we'll have to send her back.

I cannot go there right now.

I know that it is a possibility.  That's as far as I can process.

I just know that we are willing to take the risk.

Please pray for any person that is making decisions regarding La P.  Pray that they will see past red tape and rules and laws and precedents and see the needs of this beautiful child.

***

Now.

Changing the subject entirely.

Does anyone need a cat for Christmas?

Y'all know I love my cats.

But we currently have FOUR CATS in our house.

And that's a few too many.

The Princess can't bear to give the kittens away.  Once the vet said, "they think you are their mother"...she was hooked.

Fat & Chester don't love being big brothers.

 

The Princess and I will only give them to families that will love them as much as we do.

The King's standards are somewhat lower.

They are declawed, so they need to be indoor kitties. 

They are fixed. 

I can't ever remember which gets spayed and which gets neutered. 

If you live in our area and are interested in one or both, or know someone who might be interested, let me know.

And please don't email me telling me I'm a bad pet owner.  I have an immense amount of guilt.  It will have to be a great situation for the cats for us to be ok with it.

(Read between the lines:  This is a decree of The King.)

Guess What Happened At The Palace...?

Oh yeah.

Friday was Fat's yearly trim.

He was delighted.

The Animals

I realize that I haven't shared much about our animals in a while.

You're welcome.

Here's a brief update:

Heidi had emergency surgery last week.  

Of course she did. 

(She'll be fine.) 

(And she's now worth more money than a champion show dog.)

Ruby killed 9 moles last week.  

Nine.  

And brought each and every one of them to the back door as a token of her affection.

Oliver & Chester exist in a near-perfect world.  

They eat, drink and sleep at will. 

They ignore everyone until they decide they'd like some affection.  

And they are beautiful.

This is how I found them yesterday morning...

Really.

I'm so glad that we can accommodate their needs.

How are your animals?

Bad Girls

This might be cute if they weren't in so much trouble.

Please Come Home

The King is traveling right now.

It seems that he may be traveling quite a bit for a while.

That makes me sad.

Not because of how much I miss him.  And I certainly do miss him when he's not here.

But mostly because I have to take over dog duty.

Oh, the dog duty.

The dogs sleep together in a crate.  I have to get up at the stinking crack of dawn to let them out.

The KIng can get up, let them out and easily fall back to sleep.

Not so much for me.

I'm wide awake.

At the crack.

Of course it is freezing outside, and I have to wait for them to go to the bathroom. And chase a few squirrels.  And smell things.  

This might not be so bad if I hadn't had to wait up until 11:00 the night before to let them out for the last time.

The dog food is another issue altogether.  

It smells.  

Heidi has to eat twice a day to take her medicine, so they both eat twice a day.

It is a production.

I have to fix both bowls with dry and wet food.  I must mix in a treat stuffed with pills for Heidi's bowl.  Then they have to be separated so that Heidi doesn't steal from Ruby.

Eventually, they finish and the first thing they do is go check out the other's bowl to be sure nothing is left.

Nothing has ever been left.

The worst part of it is that one of them has my number when The King is gone.

The King is most definitely her person.

I'm just in the way.

She does the opposite of whatever I want her to do.

This morning, she wouldn't go out and she wouldn't go back in her crate.  She would only sit on the floor by the couch.  

I had to sit on the couch by her for 45 minutes.  

I tried dragging, pulling and tugging to no avail.

When I tried to read, she would knock the book out of my hands with her big, humongous head.

After she decided to go outside, I was able to get on with my day.

Until I walked by the back window.

If you are unsure of what you are seeing, let me just tell you that it is not good.

Even worse.

This is really, really bad.

I know who it wasn't...

Poor, innocent Ruby.

So, pretty much I'm in for it until The King's return.

Which better be really soon.

And in other pointless animal news, look at these pictures of Chester that I took yesterday...

I need to get a life.

The Combination Of Which Nightmares Are Made **UPDATED**

Yep.  Me, a meme and pets.  That is the stuff of annoying posts.

Tonggu Momma is obviously a glutton for punishment.  She may be the only person left in bloggy world that isn't sick of me and my animals.

She tagged me for a pet meme.  

Here we go.

1. What is the first pet you remember?  

Well.  I remember a mama cat named Gray and her babies, Bert and Ernie.  I'm appalled to say that my parents may have left them in a cage in the garage at night.

That goes against all of my Animals Are People ways of thinking.

In fact, it may have been the cause of my Animals Are People ways of thinking.

Or it could be something that I saw on T.V.  I have no faith in my childhood memories.

2.  How many different kinds of pets have you owned?  

Let me think...

Gray, Bert & Ernie (cats:  potentially imaginary)

Teddy Bear (Doberman Pinscher)

Krinkles (Cocker Spaniel)

Digger (Basset Hound)

Socks (demon possessed cat)

Hamlet (pot bellied pig)

A cat whose name I can't recall (purchased for Hamlet.  He was struck by lightening and the beginning of Hamlet's end.  You can read about it here.)

Puff (Persian cat)

Murphy (Himalayan cat)

Chloe (Himalayan cat)

Heidi (Boxer/Lab mix dog)

Ruby (Retarded Schnoodle)

Oliver (Himalayan cat)

Chester (Selkirk Rex cat)

Gordon (dead Beta fish)

Hallelujah.  The list is complete at 17 pets.  

Unless I forgot someone.

3.  What was your strangest pet?

I think I'm safe in going with the pig.

4.  What is your dream pet?

I have always wanted a Border Collie named Lola.  Because she'd be show girl.

I would also like a fainting goat.  Just for fun.

5. What is your nightmare pet?

Hmmm.  It is a pretty close tie between Teddy Bear the Doberman and Socks the Devil.  

One day when I was 8, I was talking across the chain linked fence to Brent Michael Jones.  Teddy Bear jumped up on me and ripped off my yellow knickers.  I was then left standing in my undies in front of Brent Michael Jones.

Socks the Devil hated me.  He would hide behind my bed and reach his weapon-grade paws up over the mattress and grab my hair and scalp at night.  And once he went for my eyeballs.

6. Your best/ funniest pet story...

How could I ever decide?  The cats eating the fish is up at the top of my list right now.  But I don't dare mention it again.  I'd hate to wear it out...

7. Tell your worst/ saddest pet story...

Chloe's death wins that one.

8.  Did you ever have a scary animal experience?

Um.  Hello?  See #5.

9. What was your favorite pet?

Now, I can't hurt anybody's feelings.  I think I'll list my favorite things about my current pets, instead.

Heidi- She is very loyal.  Her most important job is just loving us.  She has fought her illness so hard this year.  She's also quite destructive.  But we'll overlook that for now.

Ruby- Bless her heart.  She's simple.  She's also clueless about 98% of the time.  She adores Heidi.  She has a sneaky habit of slipping up to the laundry room to eat the cats' food.  And she thinks she is the size of a St. Bernard.

Oliver- aka Fat.  He is a really strange cat.  He is beautiful.  But odd.  He finds me every single time I hold a piece of food in my hand and begs for food like a dog.  I could be eating in the top of my closet and he would find me.  

Chester- He really is the cutest thing I've ever seen.  He has a really different type of hair.  It doesn't mat and he doesn't shed.  He loves The Princess.  He tucks her in every night and wakes her up every morning.  I try to remind him that I chose him on the internet, but that doesn't seem to matter much.  He belongs to The Princess.

10.  What did you really want to tell us about pets that didn't fit into the other questions?

Oh, I think I've about covered it all.  I love my pets.  They are a lot of work.  And spontaneous travel is not an option.  And the dogs smell.  But they bring immeasurable joy to The Palace.

And immeasurable amounts of hair to the floor.

I'm supposed to tag 4 people.

Capri Kel

Jen @ Gordostyle

Debra

Jen @ Our Daily Bigtop

Now y'all have a great Monday!

Updated after being corrected by my mother...

The pig's cat was named Blackie.  Original.  

I also forgot several pets:

Sambo- the one eyed, one eared dog

Miss B- this one's vague.  Maybe a white mutt?

Devil Dogs - I remember that they lived close to us, but I don't remember details...Were they even ours, Mom?

Howie- Clumber Spaniel.  Given to me by a boyfriend.  I forgot that one out of respect for The King.

Bridget- Cocker Spaniel?  Howie's companion.  Those years are a blur.

Annie- Golden Retriever; my dad's; short term pet--gave to somebody for some reason that I can't recall.

Red- A dog that we thought was dying after he came back from a night on the town, if you know what I mean. He was breathing so hard and unable to move.  The vet made a house call.  Embarrassing.

Rebel- The Horse Spawned From The Devil.  LIFE LESSON:  When someone sells you a horse named Rebel for a bargain, QUESTION IT.

Thanks, Mom.  That made me feel every bit of my old age.

Guess Who's On The Naughty List...

Remember a few weeks ago, when Oliver had a little issue with Santa?

Well.

It is getting worse.

Let me show you the destruction.

These are just the occasions when I happened to find my camera.  

There have been more.

Santa is hanging on by a thread.

I'm beginning to think there may be an accomplice, though.

Somebody else was caught in the middle of a little Holiday Vandalism this weekend.

Care to take a guess?

I know he looks sweet and innocent, but he isn't.

Pure evil.

Look what he destroyed.

Wondering what that was?

Well.  Here's the rest of it.

That is a bad picture.  Let me try again.

Maybe I better just show you what it looked like before.

Now that was cute, wasn't it?

So.  In the interest of letting Santa know that the disrespecting is NOT the fault of the entire family, we are leaving him a little message.

With a reminder about the fate of Gordon.  Just, you know, in case there is any question about who deserves the lumps of coal.

It has got to be these two...

He Just Won't Cooperate

Oliver won't cooperate.  He is hiding and won't come out for his picture.

It is like he's embarrassed or something. 

Let me give a brief explanation as to why I'm celebrating his humiliation.

Apart from the fact that it is so stinkin' hilarious to see a shaved cat.

When I came downstairs yesterday morning, Oliver had done the unthinkable.

He'd taken down Santa.

I was more than happy to haul his furry tail to the feline version of Edward Scissorhands. 

We picked him up yesterday afternoon.  He howled the ENTIRE trip home.  

Let me stress the word ENTIRE.

Because I need you to understand that he howled the ENTIRE trip home.

When we got to the house, he immediately hid under the bed.

When he finally came out, Chester was a bit disturbed.

I tried and tried to get a picture.

He knew.

He was not going to have any part of it.

I reminded him that he'd destroyed Jolly Old St. Nick.

I mean, just look at the old fella...

Now he is Frazzled Old St. Nick.

Finally, I got a picture that seemed appropriate.

Stay tuned.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

There is a big event happening at The Palace today.

This was Oliver's reaction when he received the news.

Can you guess what it is?

If you are totally stumped, then here is your clue.

I'll post the "after" photos asap.   And with only a bit of glee.