Bragging Rights

So today the report cards came in the mail. Riley got straight A's! We also got the results from her state tests back & she scored at the high end her grade level for reading/writing (just 2 pts away from exceptional), and scored exceptional in math & science. All good news for Riley.

I'm going with Doug had a good report card too. He got a 3.33 gpa, 4 A's, 1 B, and 1 D...not too happy about the D in English, especially since he got an A in Spanish 2. But he was taking hard classes:Chemistry (A), Trig (B), Computer hardware/networking (A), Oceanography (A). He also got college credits for the Chemistry & Trig, so in overall view I'm going to overlook the D this time.

Adoptions

So, Thursday a rescue group came from Lane County and picked up Cody. He went to a foster home & apparently they like him so much that they are already talking about keeping him.

Flashback, Tuesday, the only day we could make it to the shelter this week. Bittersweet day as we lavish some attention on Cody & say our goodbyes. We walked him & loved on him & snuck him a BUNCH of his favorite beefy biscuits. He'd jump up on Riley, one paw on each shoulder, head level with hers & just lick her face. I told her she probably should stop him from doing the jumping up thing, but she just let him anyway. I emailed Nicole, employee at the shelter, a copy of the biscuit recipe & she forwarded it to his foster family, so at least he won't be without his treats hopefully.

Back to Thursday...another favorite of mine, Hemi, also got adopted. Hemi is half Australian Shepard/half New Foundland...at 7 months old he's already almost as big as Cody, is brindle and striped like a tiger w/a perfect circle on his forehead & just the sweetest guy ever. Walks very well on a leash & knows "sit".

Flashback further & there was Fluffball, Penny, Daisy, Ruger, the foster puppy...all favorites, all adopted.

Don't get me wrong, it's great when they get adopted. I want them all to have good homes & happy lives. I also want visitation rights, I want to be able to check in & make sure that they really are happy & in good homes. Of course this is not realistic, but there's an emotional investment in these little guys & girls that insists that I KNOW for SURE that everything is perfect for them. Not gonna happen, I just have to trust in God to look out for these little friends of mine...they all deserve happiness & security with good families.

Now, on to getting my Precious & Gil adopted...anyone looking for a female Boxer/Terrier mix that's a complete goofball, or a male 18mos old Rott/Mastiff mix whose got a head the size of a basketball & some growing yet to do, but doesn't pull me around on a leash and sits real pretty for a biscuit?

I Love My Dog

Balto is a total goofball. I got woke up today when the kids came home, so figured since I was up, someone might as well benefit from it. I grabbed his ball & we played ball for about 30 minutes. He was a shaggy mess & really needs a bath, but it's not warm enough yet for him get one, so a good brushing would have to do. As you can see from this picture & the ones that follow, he treats getting brushed like a game too.

And of course he must stay on high alert, ever vigilant in the protection of his ball, so that the "evil" Joshua, eater of balls, doesn't get his ball & destroy it.

He was worn out from all the running, but that didn't stop him from playing with the ball himself while I attempt to brush the dead hair from his coat. I swear I brushed enough hair off him today to start a new dog.

Ahhhhh, now that's the spot, brush that one some more.

See how handsome he is once the brushing was all done. Such a pretty boy.

And happy he's still got his ball.

Ready for his close up, this is his good side.

Lady Bugs & Drag Racing

So we were drag racing today when Riley & I picked up this little hitchhiker. Little lady bug rode around on Riley's & mine hand for quite awhile.

We eventually transported the lady bug to a safe place & released the little one.

Gregg got first place in Pro division:

Riley was the only JR that showed up today, so got the trophy for first by default:

Doug broke a motor mount in the 50 pickup-no engines are not supposed to lean towards the passenger side. Fortunately, Papa loaned Doug the Subaru wagon & Doug still got third place in Sportsman. Gregg & Doug are working on getting his Mustang ready to race tomorrow. He would've been racing it today anyway if he hadn't blown a head gasket while out on a test drive last night.

Pictures

Okay, I used to have an online Yahoo photo account. Then it became Flickr, which I never have liked as well. Then I found Webshots, which is so much easier to use that I started using it & ignoring my Flickr account. Big mistake! I went looking for a picture & couldn't find it on Webshots, so went to Flickr & couldn't access my account. Suddenly, I have to pay $20 a year to have an account with them. So I paid it to get to my pictures, but I can't download them off there or do much of anything other than order prints. I've been doing this a group at a time. As soon as I have them all, I'm just deleting them & will eventually clear out the account.

So, then I've got these new envelopes of pictures, I've got a cabinet full of envelopes of older pictures, half full photo albums & had a couple that were empty. I decided to put all our pictures into albums. I started Saturday night & worked on it most of the day Sunday & had to go buy some more albums, but I did it! Over a decades worth of pictures are all in albums! They're not labled or sorted or in any kind of order, but they're in albums. And I'm going to have to buy some more, because I'm almost at capacity & still have pictures coming from my Flickr account.

Riley is happy though. She was convinced that we had no baby pictures of her. She has been told repeatedly that there's lots of baby pictures of her, some on the computer disks and some regular pictures, but there was no belief. Well, I found a lot of her baby photos while doing the albums. She's quite happy & has spent actually a lot of time looking through the pictures. For some reason, I got Doug's baby pictures into albums right away, but Riley's just didn't make it into albums until now.

The flip side of this project is that it has been a lot of fun looking at the old pictures & remembering things that I had forgotten about. I'll also be able to provide some pictures to my nieces of their childhood, they don't have a lot if any.

Garfieldpalooza

I love Garfield. I have since I was a kid. Somewhere I have scrap books full of the original strips that I cut out of our newspaper. I also have the original books, again somewhere. I still read him 30 something years later. Here are some good strips that were out recently.

I'm sure this is a slogan on Broadway.

I don't drink coffee, but I understand from others that this describes my husband's coffee.

It's so hard to find good pizza toppings these days!

In Memory of Alexandria

Alexandria was a feral kitten that was found on Ocean Blvd in front of K-Mart during the 9am rush hour traffic in Spring 1994. This is one of our busiest roads & she was in the middle of it. She was picked up by Officer Darrell King, now retired, who is a BIG man w/an even bigger voice. She was put into a paper grocery bag as that's all he had handy. Did I mention she was feral & had probably never been handled by a person before? Officer King came on the radio advising that he'd picked up a wild kitten and was enroute to the animal shelter with it. At that time our shelter was not a no kill shelter & this was late April/early May & kitten season was starting. They just put down the wild kittens right away since they couldn't even get the tame ones adopted out. I was working in dispatch and told him to bring her to me.

She was this tiny ball of fluff, covered in burrs & sticks, and fleas. She hissed & spit to beat the band, but never once bit or scratched me. I took her home & gave her a bath & brushed her fur out. The whole time she hissed & tried to get away (who could blame her), but she never once bit or scratched me. We figured she was about 8 weeks old, and we had just rescued another abandoned kitten a week before who was about the same age (cute marmalade male we called Bob, cuz half of one ear had been torn off). We also had a wonderful dog at the time, Buffy, who mothered anything baby. Buffy & Alex bonded right away & Alex became Buffy's kitten.

Alex never really did tame down & I couldn't catch her to take her to the vet. She would hang out with Buffy in the backyard. When she was about a year old of course she got pregnant. That changed everything. I knew she was preggers & was prepared to deal with the kittens & then live trap her & get her spayed. I hadn't wanted to do that because I wanted her to trust me enough to let me catch her-I know, that's silly, but I was younger & not as educated about feral cat populations. Well, anyway, after she had the kittens she showed up at the back door & was demanding attention. For the first time she came in the house voluntarily & while she was being loved on by my nieces & son, I went out to find the kittens. I couldnt' find them anywhere. Buffy was following me around the yard whining at me. I finally just asked Buffy where they were & she took me straight to them. They were really well hidden in the bottom of a stack of tires at the edge of the yard. There were five of them:two tabbies, one black, and one marmalade. Alex and her kittens lived in the house while she was nursing them & Alex thrived on the attention she got. When the kittens were old enough they were adopted out to very good homes and Alex got spayed.

After this she wasn't quite feral again. She'd get attention & loves when she wanted it, came into the house to hang out occassionally, and just generally stayed with Buffy. She liked me & the kids & would hang out with Gregg while he worked on cars & kept him company. She wasn't super friendly & no one outside immediate family was allowed to touch her. After Riley was born she decided that she really like Riley & would sit with her, even when she was a baby. After Buffy passed away, Alex decided she needed her own bed on the front porch. We provided one for her that was comfy & secure.

As she got older she wanted more attention from me & Riley. She occassionally wanted some from Doug & Gregg, but not as often. One day about a year ago, I was talking to a neighbor in our driveway & Alex was rubbing on my legs. I picked her up & was loving on her. The neighbor was shocked as she'd never seen Alex be so affectionate before. As soon as that was pointed out, Alex got this comically surprised look on her face, jumped down & sauntered off. It was like she hadn't even realized she had been demanding attention.

November 29, 2009, Alex had a stroke or something. A neighbor came and told us that she was laying the yard not moving. She was barely conscious. Gregg, Doug, and Riley wrapped her in some towels & brought her in the house. I was at work. I came home to see what was going on, and knew that she was near the end. I kissed her & loved on her one more time & had to go back to work. Riley stayed with her until she passed away. We buried her on top of Buffy's grave, and I got a marker for the both of them. Alexandria was almost 16 years old when she passed from this world.

It's really strange, it's been months, but I still expect to see her get out of her bed in the morning when I come out to feed the cats. Cassie has taken over her bed, but I think sometimes Cookie uses it now too. I really miss the little fluff ball & I hope she's happy in Heaven with Buffy.