Mandy Girl

Mandy is one of our two dogs. Mandy is the good dog. The kind, gentle, I-Love-You-No-Matter-What dog. Our other dog, Molly has turned to the dark side (hee,hee). But that is a story for another day. Mandy is a six and half years old Labrador/Golden mix. When she was a puppy and I took her to the vet for shots, I learned a deep truth about Labs; as long as you keep their mouth busy, you can do whatever you want to them and they either won't notice or won't care. I am positive that Mandy has no idea she has ever received shots. She is convinced we bring her to the vet's office yearly just so she can eat a handful of doggie snacks. Whatever works.
Since my Sweetie has to earn a living and the children are back in school, I have a shortage of photography models to practice on. So I broke out the doggie snacks and bribed my Lab to "pose" for me. I know Mandy looks sad in these photos. Its all a lie, folks. She just wanted snacks for her modeling services. A lot of snacks.
Mandy: "What are we doing? I know I heard you say 'snack'. Can I have a snack now?"

"Wait. I see the snacks. Can I have one?"

"Sigh. This is tiring work just lying here. Can I have a snack to keep me going? Please?"

"You're not going to give me a snack, are you?"

"Ah, (chomp, chomp) the sweet rewards of  hard work!"

Patches

It's a bad morning when you start at the vet's office.

For about 4 years one of our family pets has been our guinea pig, Patches. Helaina used to call her our "Benny Kid" when she was too little to say guinea pig.

We returned home from our trip North on Sunday and Patches greeted me with the usual happy squeeks. Her cage is in our laundry room so Patches became my "laundry buddy", frequently chatted with me while I washed clothes. She has been getting older and lately I whenever I walk into the laundry room, I head over to her cage and ask, "are you dead yet?" in typical sarcastic style. She always perks up and squeeks at me as if to say, "not yet!"

I have had the usual mountain of laundry since returning home so I began to notice on Monday that Patches was looking very tired. I didn't think much of it until Tuesday night. At that point I realized she was lying in the same corner since the day before. I checked her food and water levels and they were oddly full (they are called pigs for good reason). I tried picking her up and she moaned.

Let me just add here that getting Patches was not my idea. All I can say is I love my kids and allowed them to have her.

You know you are a Mom when you find yourself cradling an ailing guinea pig at 12:30 AM and calling the after-hours vet line. And then giving her water through an eye dropper at 1:00 AM. Then not sleeping well wondering about the fuzzy creature all night. Then calling the vet again before 8AM and taking her in a half hour later.

I know she is only a guinea pig. I was sure I could handle the trip to the vet. But after talking to the vet about all the possibilities for Patches and coming to realize it was time to say good-bye, I cried.

I patted Patches softly on the head, told her she was a good little pig, and she could go to heaven now. Then I asked if I could sit in the room for awhile after they took her away so I could pull myself together.
I realized that a life, is a life, no matter how small. And saying good-bye even to a guinea pig is sad and hard.

On the drive home (alone) I thought about how my children would feel once they knew. I decided it's okay if they cry.

Bunny Torture?

Note: Is is not a deep post. It is about a bunny. I'll forgive you if you aren't interested in reading about her, but she is part of our household and so I am documenting her existence for posterity.

We have a bunny. She's been in the family for several years. When we got her there was a debate on her name. Some (dear Husband & the kids) wanted Foo Foo, while others (myself) in a nod to "Watership Down" favored Hazel Ra. Being as this was a pet for our children, we (I) compromised and her name became...Can you guess?? Her full name is "Foo Foo Hazel Ra" of course! But most everyone calls her Foo Foo now.

She is a good bunny as bunnies go. Foo Foo is a mini Australian Rex. Our first year of marriage, dear Husband and I took a trip to Vancouver, BC. While there, we toured Stanley Park. At that park was a petting zoo where we were introduced to our first mini Rex. I have never felt anything softer on earth. At that moment, we knew that if we were to ever own a rabbit, it would be a mini Rex. Besides their softness, they are handsome creatures and really do remind me of the rabbits from the animated movie "Watership Down". This was/is one of my favorite movies and I still tear up in some parts.

Did you know rabbits have a winter coat? Yep. Foo Foo was shedding and looking fairly shabby so my girl and her neighbor friend decided to give her a serious brush out.

Foo Foo was not excited about this. So we bribed her.

Foo Foo, who loves carrots, barely batted an eyelid at them. Hmm, does she ever blink?

Regardless, the "torture" commenced

When it was all over, Foo Foo showed us what she thought of her pampering.

I guess bunny spas will never take off.

Holy Cow!

This is what was in our friend's backyard in Anchorage: A moose cow! I really enjoyed snapping pictures of her. I can not convey her largeness in these photos. I can say that my head would have only come up to the bottom of her shoulder.