With Halloween just around the corner I am reminded of my dear husband's charades of years past.
One of my favorites is when he found this stuffed, motion-activated, black cat that once it detected motion it gave off an eerie mix between a meow and a howl.
To set it up Roger tied fishing line around the cat's neck, then ran the line thru a eye screw and in thru our front door jam. Then he ran the line thru another eye screw and ran it down the side of the door and tied it off to one last eye screw. He made sure there was enough line to have the cat sitting on top of the rain gutter just above the screen door.
So... when we had Trick or Treaters knocking at the door, he would pull on the line from inside the house and the cat would come flying down from the roof toward the kids. That movement also set off the motion detector and the cat would start howling. Those poor kids about shit their pants - but they still stuck around to get their candy! Well, most of them anyway! haha.
I'd never laughed so hard in years! It was his best trick, but I wouldn't let him pull the string on anyone that looked really little... they were just too darn cute to scare!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Facebook Friends - "You can't like everyone!"
I have met some of the most amazing people on Facebook... To name a few: Sheri, Tammy, Denise, Prachi, Sarah, Jodi, Carolyn... Sorry, that's more than a few.... :)
But, there have been a couple that I have come across that I have found if not a complete dislike for - well, pretty close to that.
There is one that I am struggling with currently that is a good friend of Tammy's, I'll call her Ann (not her real name). I actually had Ann as a friend first but didn't talk to her much - she was probably just someone that one of us needed another friend to get further in a game, so we added each other. Then Tammy needed more neighbors in Farmville, so I gave her a list of people on my friend list and included her and Tammy actually got to chatting with Ann and got to know her and liked her, and brought her into our little group of gals.
At first all it was - was getting Love Potion to breed our sheep and pigs with from her. And that was fine. But as time progresses Ann started to infiltrate herself more and more into our group. She started popping up on chat and talking to me and then the conversations be-gain to last longer and longer and dominating all of my time. And while talking with her I would get other people popping up on chat to talk to me as well. I would try to tell Ann that I needed to go as other people were wanting to talk to me but she just kept talking to me as long as I showed "on-line".
And during this time I was suffering with more and more Headaches. And juggling two and three people on chat didn't help with my head!! Also, Ann's conversations brought me down... made me feel sorry for her. She would say things like "You and Tammy always get the best animals in your habitats and I never get any good ones." (boo-hoo) So I'd feel sorry for her and I bought her a couple animals from the market. Then I also sent her my mystery babies too.
But recently she and her husband went on a little vacation to visit her daughter and they were supposed to visit another relative as well but it turned out the 2nd person wasn't home. And Ann also mentioned that next spring they are going on a cruise. Well when they got home from their little trip she again mentioned about not having something nice from the market. I told her that the Farm Cash was 40% off, and this was the perfect time to purchase some. She was not interested at all! And I got to thinking about how Tammy and I are always the ones giving and giving to her, yet even when she can purchase things for 40% off she won't do it. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. I don't like mooches - and she is a MOOCH!
So I started keeping my chat off-line so I didn't have to chat with her. But I hated that cuz then I couldn't chat with any of my good friends! It didn't work anyway cuz she would send me messages asking how I was and telling me write back thru message so we wouldn't get interrupted by other people to cause a headache. (I found out later that Tammy had told her about the multi-chat thing causing headaches when Ann asked her why I wasn't online anymore)
So I put Ann on a chat list that shows me off-line. I'm not sure if it works or not, but I haven't been bothered by her for about a week - especially since I didn't answer her message and I'm not returning any free gifts she sends me in the games we play.
I still worry and stress about putting Tammy in the middle of this. And I've told Tammy how I feel, not only about Ann, but about putting Tammy herself in the middle of it. She keeps telling me not to worry. That she will try to keep both friendships separately, but if it comes down to having to choose between the two of us, that she would pick me. And that makes me both happy and sad. I would hate to have Tammy have to make a decision like that... but it would devastate me to loose her as a friend!
But, there have been a couple that I have come across that I have found if not a complete dislike for - well, pretty close to that.
There is one that I am struggling with currently that is a good friend of Tammy's, I'll call her Ann (not her real name). I actually had Ann as a friend first but didn't talk to her much - she was probably just someone that one of us needed another friend to get further in a game, so we added each other. Then Tammy needed more neighbors in Farmville, so I gave her a list of people on my friend list and included her and Tammy actually got to chatting with Ann and got to know her and liked her, and brought her into our little group of gals.
At first all it was - was getting Love Potion to breed our sheep and pigs with from her. And that was fine. But as time progresses Ann started to infiltrate herself more and more into our group. She started popping up on chat and talking to me and then the conversations be-gain to last longer and longer and dominating all of my time. And while talking with her I would get other people popping up on chat to talk to me as well. I would try to tell Ann that I needed to go as other people were wanting to talk to me but she just kept talking to me as long as I showed "on-line".
And during this time I was suffering with more and more Headaches. And juggling two and three people on chat didn't help with my head!! Also, Ann's conversations brought me down... made me feel sorry for her. She would say things like "You and Tammy always get the best animals in your habitats and I never get any good ones." (boo-hoo) So I'd feel sorry for her and I bought her a couple animals from the market. Then I also sent her my mystery babies too.
But recently she and her husband went on a little vacation to visit her daughter and they were supposed to visit another relative as well but it turned out the 2nd person wasn't home. And Ann also mentioned that next spring they are going on a cruise. Well when they got home from their little trip she again mentioned about not having something nice from the market. I told her that the Farm Cash was 40% off, and this was the perfect time to purchase some. She was not interested at all! And I got to thinking about how Tammy and I are always the ones giving and giving to her, yet even when she can purchase things for 40% off she won't do it. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. I don't like mooches - and she is a MOOCH!
So I started keeping my chat off-line so I didn't have to chat with her. But I hated that cuz then I couldn't chat with any of my good friends! It didn't work anyway cuz she would send me messages asking how I was and telling me write back thru message so we wouldn't get interrupted by other people to cause a headache. (I found out later that Tammy had told her about the multi-chat thing causing headaches when Ann asked her why I wasn't online anymore)
So I put Ann on a chat list that shows me off-line. I'm not sure if it works or not, but I haven't been bothered by her for about a week - especially since I didn't answer her message and I'm not returning any free gifts she sends me in the games we play.
I still worry and stress about putting Tammy in the middle of this. And I've told Tammy how I feel, not only about Ann, but about putting Tammy herself in the middle of it. She keeps telling me not to worry. That she will try to keep both friendships separately, but if it comes down to having to choose between the two of us, that she would pick me. And that makes me both happy and sad. I would hate to have Tammy have to make a decision like that... but it would devastate me to loose her as a friend!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
My Dogs. Part III - Pebbles
When A.J.'s health was starting to decline, I decided to get another dog. I knew I couldn't live without a dog in my life (not counting Tess... she was Roger's Duck Dog. Even thou I loved her more than even I knew) and I didn't want to lose A.J. and then immediately go out and replace him. So, for about a year we had three dogs.
I found Pebbles in an ad in the newspaper. The owner of was charging $20 for the pups. He said his female dog mix of poodle and shih tzu got under the fence again and he thinks the sire was schnauzer and chihuahua... What a mix!
Dale went with me to pick her out. She was the cutest thing when she was little... Not what happened as she grew up. Haha. But she was small enough to be a "lap dog" which is what I wanted... A.J. wanted desperately to be a lap dog as he was such a loving dog but he was just a little to big and he was jealous of Pebbles when we brought her into our home, so we had to make sure to give him extra attention.
Pebbles and Tess got along great as Labs seem to stay more playful and young for many years. But A.J. was getting on in his years... geriatric so to speak. He didn't want anything to do with this new fur ball that we brought home. He would snap at her and if Pebbles got into his bed he set her straight! So Pebbles picked Tess to become buddies with.
They were so funny together! This big huge yellow lab and this tiny black fur ball mix puppy. But they played and played. Tess loved loved loved to fetch and had multiple tennis balls around the house. Well we found out one day the Pebbles liked to fetch as well. So we would throw the ball and have Tess bring it back a couple times, then Roger would do his magic and lightly tough Tessa's nose and tell her to "stay" and he would roll the ball off and tell Pebbles to "go get it" and off she would go! She'd bring it back and the cycle would repeat about 5 times before Tessa lost her patience and would break the hold and go after it. Poor Tess! That was Her Ball!!!
About a year after bringing her home we lost A.J. and so it was just Pebbles and Tess... as I had planned. I was so happy to have Pebbles to cuddle & cry with that day we didn't bring A.J. home with us. She was a Godsend!
It didn't take long before we started referring to Tess & Pebbles as The Girls. At night when it was time to go to bed I'd want to put them outside one last time to I'd say to them "Come on Girls... Outside" and they both would jump right up and run to the door. Anytime we'd call for The Girls, they would light right up and come a running. People thought it was rather funny, but they were my babies... My Girls.
Even thou Pebbles was the smallest dog, she was the dominant one. She was the yappy dog... whenever anyone walked past the house she let us know, and she riled up Tess too. But Pebbles was the first to start barking and the last to stop. Tess was just kind of for show in middle. Ha!
If you read my previous story about Tess, you know there came a day that Roger came home and told me that he had put Tess down without talking to me about it first. After losing Tessa, I wanted another dog as we'd always had at lease two dogs. Roger agreed to letting me go to the animal shelter to look and see what they had. We both wanted a female.
During this the few days after Tess passed and we were looking for another dog Pebbles wasn't eating and just not herself. We passed it off as grieving. Well I found a couple cute little dogs at the shelter, and we picked one to bring home to see if it was a "good fit" with Pebbles. However, the shelter said we needed to make sure Pebbles shots were up to date. When I called to find out I was told we were a couple months late on her boosters. So I made an appt. to take her down that day to get them. The shelter said that was fine and released the other dog to us. So I took it along with us to the appt.
When we got to the Vet's before they gave Pebbles her booster shots they asked a few questions like is she eating/drinking etc. and we said actually no, but we were chocking that up to grief from losing Tessa. Well they must have seen something else because they said they couldn't give her the shots until she is better and to take her home and feed her baby food. This was on a Saturday. On Monday she still wasn't eating, so we took her back in to the Vets. They ran some blood work and did an x-rayabdomen and called to have Roger and I come back. They showed us the film and said it was cancer. We were devastated! To lose two dogs within a 10 day period was almost more than I could take. If it wasn't for that little dog that we brought home from the shelter to "foster" for a little while to see if he got along with Pebbles, I would have just shattered!
R.I.P. Pebbles!!! We Love You!
I found Pebbles in an ad in the newspaper. The owner of was charging $20 for the pups. He said his female dog mix of poodle and shih tzu got under the fence again and he thinks the sire was schnauzer and chihuahua... What a mix!
Dale went with me to pick her out. She was the cutest thing when she was little... Not what happened as she grew up. Haha. But she was small enough to be a "lap dog" which is what I wanted... A.J. wanted desperately to be a lap dog as he was such a loving dog but he was just a little to big and he was jealous of Pebbles when we brought her into our home, so we had to make sure to give him extra attention.
Pebbles and Tess got along great as Labs seem to stay more playful and young for many years. But A.J. was getting on in his years... geriatric so to speak. He didn't want anything to do with this new fur ball that we brought home. He would snap at her and if Pebbles got into his bed he set her straight! So Pebbles picked Tess to become buddies with.
They were so funny together! This big huge yellow lab and this tiny black fur ball mix puppy. But they played and played. Tess loved loved loved to fetch and had multiple tennis balls around the house. Well we found out one day the Pebbles liked to fetch as well. So we would throw the ball and have Tess bring it back a couple times, then Roger would do his magic and lightly tough Tessa's nose and tell her to "stay" and he would roll the ball off and tell Pebbles to "go get it" and off she would go! She'd bring it back and the cycle would repeat about 5 times before Tessa lost her patience and would break the hold and go after it. Poor Tess! That was Her Ball!!!
About a year after bringing her home we lost A.J. and so it was just Pebbles and Tess... as I had planned. I was so happy to have Pebbles to cuddle & cry with that day we didn't bring A.J. home with us. She was a Godsend!
It didn't take long before we started referring to Tess & Pebbles as The Girls. At night when it was time to go to bed I'd want to put them outside one last time to I'd say to them "Come on Girls... Outside" and they both would jump right up and run to the door. Anytime we'd call for The Girls, they would light right up and come a running. People thought it was rather funny, but they were my babies... My Girls.
Even thou Pebbles was the smallest dog, she was the dominant one. She was the yappy dog... whenever anyone walked past the house she let us know, and she riled up Tess too. But Pebbles was the first to start barking and the last to stop. Tess was just kind of for show in middle. Ha!
If you read my previous story about Tess, you know there came a day that Roger came home and told me that he had put Tess down without talking to me about it first. After losing Tessa, I wanted another dog as we'd always had at lease two dogs. Roger agreed to letting me go to the animal shelter to look and see what they had. We both wanted a female.
During this the few days after Tess passed and we were looking for another dog Pebbles wasn't eating and just not herself. We passed it off as grieving. Well I found a couple cute little dogs at the shelter, and we picked one to bring home to see if it was a "good fit" with Pebbles. However, the shelter said we needed to make sure Pebbles shots were up to date. When I called to find out I was told we were a couple months late on her boosters. So I made an appt. to take her down that day to get them. The shelter said that was fine and released the other dog to us. So I took it along with us to the appt.
When we got to the Vet's before they gave Pebbles her booster shots they asked a few questions like is she eating/drinking etc. and we said actually no, but we were chocking that up to grief from losing Tessa. Well they must have seen something else because they said they couldn't give her the shots until she is better and to take her home and feed her baby food. This was on a Saturday. On Monday she still wasn't eating, so we took her back in to the Vets. They ran some blood work and did an x-rayabdomen and called to have Roger and I come back. They showed us the film and said it was cancer. We were devastated! To lose two dogs within a 10 day period was almost more than I could take. If it wasn't for that little dog that we brought home from the shelter to "foster" for a little while to see if he got along with Pebbles, I would have just shattered!
R.I.P. Pebbles!!! We Love You!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Facebook Dog Lover? Not!!!
About a week ago I received a message and a friend request from a woman that I'll call Jane Doe. Her message said (and this is a direct quote) "Farmville...my son is one of your friends and he is getting a lot of good trees, that I want also...lol!!!"
I thought, hmmm - that's pretty bold, but as you all probably know, I'm a softy when it comes to helping people in FB games, so I approved her friend request and I sent her six trees. Some new - some were probably released May or June. She wrote back thanking me and saying that she didn't have any of the trees that I sent her.
Next thing I know I'm getting a friend request from her fiance along with a message saying "Farmville...my fiance is _________...i play fv everyday, well she does it for me...so if you need anything on fv just let me know and i will help ya out...thanks, _____"
Well... what could I do... I had to accept, right? I wrote a note back saying I could use Tomato bushels and Love potion and how to send those things to me. I did get about 3 potions from them. No tomatoes.
Well I sent him a few trees too. Then I received a request from the son asking for two specific trees. Wow... What have I got myself into??? Well the first tree on his list was fairly easy to get and when I sent it to him I told him the second tree he asked for - the Cupcake Tree wasn't easy to get, but I would do my best.
When my cupcake tree orchard came time to harvest I didn't get a seed from it... and I thought "darn" - then I came up with the idea to pull a about 3 trees out of it and put them in the next orchard to have another chance at getting the tree for him. Second orchard, still no seed. So I pulled the three trees out and put them in a third orchard and harvested. I got a seed! So I grew it to see if the seed was for a cupcake tree or for the other kind of tree that was in that orchard. Well I got lucky and it was a cupcake tree. When I sent him the tree in the message I told him all that I had gone thru to get him that tree. I waited about a day and a half and no "Thank you". I just thought - how rude!!! So I looked at his wall and the picture looked like a little boy! And I looked at our "Friendship" and I had no other friends in common with him except his mom and the fiance. So I couldn't figure out how in the world I would have approved a little boy as a friend that I didn't even know!!!
I wrote a quick note to the mom asking how old her son was and explained the tree situation and not getting any appreciation. She wrote back that he was 7 years old, and that he was so excited to get the trees that he probably forgot. I also got a note from him thanking me for the tree. hehe.
Well last night when I got a note from her that she was posting Love Potion I went to her wall to get some and saw a posting from her about some trouble she was having with a neighbor's dog. I was intrigued, so I opened up the comments and read them.
There were about 14 or more comments between her and a few of her friends. In them she self proclaimed herself as a dog lover and said that she used to work at their local animal shelter. That in fact she was working there when her neighbor's dog was brought in, and the previous owners of that dog had said that the dog should not go to anyone with children. And when her neighbors came in and wanted the dog - although they had kids and were warned about what the previous owners said, they took the dog anyway.
"Jane Doe" went on to say that the dog was a terror to everyone on their block and had just bitten her son. The friends comments were that she should call animal control and they would take care of it.
"Jane" claimed that animal control would put the dog down and as a dog lover she didn't want to be responsible for having the dog be put down - so she took care of it on her own.
Another friend chimed in that it wasn't a bad dog, it was bad owners. She said it wasn't the owners fault - as the dog was already like that when they got him. Then the friend asked how she "took care of it". She proudly said she sent her son after it with a base ball bat.
I couldn't take anymore. I had to get my two-cents worth in - as they say... I commented that I was an true animal lover - dogs especially. And that there was no such thing as a bad dog. That at some point an owner made that dog "bad" and the thought of someone taking a baseball bat to an innocent dog turned my stomach. I further said I thought it was irresponsible of the shelter to adopt that dog out to that family knowing full well that it didn't belong in a household with children.
Well apparently she didn't like my comment. She made some comment after that, as I can see that under my notifications, however I can't see the comment because she unfriended
But since she is no longer a friend of mine, I don't see any need to have her fiance as a friend and I have a personal policy not to have children as friends that I don't know and don't have the parents as well. So I unfriended both the 7 year old and the fiance. Good Riddance!
I thought, hmmm - that's pretty bold, but as you all probably know, I'm a softy when it comes to helping people in FB games, so I approved her friend request and I sent her six trees. Some new - some were probably released May or June. She wrote back thanking me and saying that she didn't have any of the trees that I sent her.
Next thing I know I'm getting a friend request from her fiance along with a message saying "Farmville...my fiance is _________...i play fv everyday, well she does it for me...so if you need anything on fv just let me know and i will help ya out...thanks, _____"
Well... what could I do... I had to accept, right? I wrote a note back saying I could use Tomato bushels and Love potion and how to send those things to me. I did get about 3 potions from them. No tomatoes.
Well I sent him a few trees too. Then I received a request from the son asking for two specific trees. Wow... What have I got myself into??? Well the first tree on his list was fairly easy to get and when I sent it to him I told him the second tree he asked for - the Cupcake Tree wasn't easy to get, but I would do my best.
When my cupcake tree orchard came time to harvest I didn't get a seed from it... and I thought "darn" - then I came up with the idea to pull a about 3 trees out of it and put them in the next orchard to have another chance at getting the tree for him. Second orchard, still no seed. So I pulled the three trees out and put them in a third orchard and harvested. I got a seed! So I grew it to see if the seed was for a cupcake tree or for the other kind of tree that was in that orchard. Well I got lucky and it was a cupcake tree. When I sent him the tree in the message I told him all that I had gone thru to get him that tree. I waited about a day and a half and no "Thank you". I just thought - how rude!!! So I looked at his wall and the picture looked like a little boy! And I looked at our "Friendship" and I had no other friends in common with him except his mom and the fiance. So I couldn't figure out how in the world I would have approved a little boy as a friend that I didn't even know!!!
I wrote a quick note to the mom asking how old her son was and explained the tree situation and not getting any appreciation. She wrote back that he was 7 years old, and that he was so excited to get the trees that he probably forgot. I also got a note from him thanking me for the tree. hehe.
Well last night when I got a note from her that she was posting Love Potion I went to her wall to get some and saw a posting from her about some trouble she was having with a neighbor's dog. I was intrigued, so I opened up the comments and read them.
There were about 14 or more comments between her and a few of her friends. In them she self proclaimed herself as a dog lover and said that she used to work at their local animal shelter. That in fact she was working there when her neighbor's dog was brought in, and the previous owners of that dog had said that the dog should not go to anyone with children. And when her neighbors came in and wanted the dog - although they had kids and were warned about what the previous owners said, they took the dog anyway.
"Jane Doe" went on to say that the dog was a terror to everyone on their block and had just bitten her son. The friends comments were that she should call animal control and they would take care of it.
"Jane" claimed that animal control would put the dog down and as a dog lover she didn't want to be responsible for having the dog be put down - so she took care of it on her own.
Another friend chimed in that it wasn't a bad dog, it was bad owners. She said it wasn't the owners fault - as the dog was already like that when they got him. Then the friend asked how she "took care of it". She proudly said she sent her son after it with a base ball bat.
I couldn't take anymore. I had to get my two-cents worth in - as they say... I commented that I was an true animal lover - dogs especially. And that there was no such thing as a bad dog. That at some point an owner made that dog "bad" and the thought of someone taking a baseball bat to an innocent dog turned my stomach. I further said I thought it was irresponsible of the shelter to adopt that dog out to that family knowing full well that it didn't belong in a household with children.
Well apparently she didn't like my comment. She made some comment after that, as I can see that under my notifications, however I can't see the comment because she unfriended
But since she is no longer a friend of mine, I don't see any need to have her fiance as a friend and I have a personal policy not to have children as friends that I don't know and don't have the parents as well. So I unfriended both the 7 year old and the fiance. Good Riddance!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
My Dogs. Part II - Tessa
Several years before A.J. left us, we got another cute blonde puppy... This one was a pure bred yellow lab. Her registered name was "Hey Look at Me, Tessa Marie" but we called her Tess or Tessa.
How she got her registered name was we bought "the pick of the litter" from my sister and brother-in-law as their male lab sired the pups and payment for that is the pick of the litter or first pick out of all the puppies and we bought that right from them. So when we went to pick out our puppy Roger was initially looking for a male so he would pick up a puppy and look at the "privates" and set it down if it wasn't a male and move on. Well he somehow walked past Tessa without picking her up and she let out a little woof... as in "Hey! Look at me!!" and so I picked her up and gave her a cuddle and talked Roger into a female... hehe. Then we had to okay it with the breeders as we had already told them we wanted a male, and they were making sales of the rest of the puppies with that in mind. But luckily we were able to change and we brought home Tessa. And shortly after that Roger named his boat Tessa's Taxi. And I'll tell you... He couldn't get that boat out of the yard without Tess going along.
When Tess was just over a year she graced us with 9 puppies. 8 males and 1 female. One of the males - the runt - didn't make it. That was so sad. But we had so much fun with the remaining 8 cute little puppies. And A.J. loved them too. Whenever Tessa took a break from them A.J. would go to into the birthing box and lay with the puppies to watch over them. It was so funny. A.J. was curious about the puppies right from the beginning but for the first few days Tess wouldn't let him near them, but after that I think she welcomed the help. And he was happy to do it.
We had a little bit of trouble registering the pups. The male that we bred Tess with was pure bred and we were told he was registered, but we found out after he did the deed that the owner never sent in the paperwork on him. So he had to contact an ex-girlfriend to get the paperwork, pay the registration fee wait to get his registration back before we could sell any of the puppies. What a nightmare! So we had them a little longer than we should have. And feeding these 8 hungry puppies was getting expensive! hehe.
Once we got the paperwork we advertised a couple weeks and only sold 2. So we decided to donate one of the pups to Ducks Unlimited and bring along the rest of the puppies with the hopes of selling them to the people that got out bid. And it worked! We sold every last one that night at the banquet. However, the guy that got the first puppy thru the bidding was a little tipsy and his wife wasn't with him at the banquet... so the next day when he traveled west 200 miles home with this new puppy his wife was less than thrilled. And that's an understatement. The man called us a week later and asked if we would take the puppy back. We said we would, but we couldn't refund him anything as his $$ had gone to the banquet, it wasn't one of the puppies we sold out of the back of our truck and he paid quite a bit more than we charged for the others. He said that was fine. So he drove the 200 miles east and gave us the puppy back. Tessa was so happy to see one of her babies again... it was kind of bittersweet as we knew we weren't going to keep him. We put another ad in the paper and got another hit from a man who lived........... 200 miles west of here! He came to see the puppy, decided he wanted him and took him home. That was one traveling puppy!
Tessa was Roger's hunting dog and best friend. He spent many hours training her to fetch. And she loved it. You never saw her without a tennis ball either in her mouth or near enough to reach it. She would fall asleep with the ball beside her front paws.
Roger took such pride in Tessa's tricks and training. He would show her off to everyone all the time. Didn't matter if we were at home or at the beach or a park. And people would gather around and just be fascinated by her. They would give Roger their names and numbers and said if we bred her again they wanted one of her puppies.
Some of the things she did were Roger would throw one tennis ball over the house and make Tessa sit until he snapped his fingers. Then she would take off to go find it. While she was gone Roger would hide a second tennis ball somewhere in the backyard. When she came back she would bring the first ball back to Roger and drop it right into his hands and Roger would give her hand signals and snap his fingers telling her to go find the other one. She would use her nose to try to find it... if she couldn't find it she would look back at Roger and he would give her hand signals on which way to go until she found it and she would proudly bring it back.
The other thing Roger taught her which he was so proud of was to dive in the water to fetch. As she was his "Duck Dog" and sometimes wounded ducks dive to avoid getting retrieved and not very many retrievers will get their head underwater to go after them. But Tessa did. And to keep her skills up Roger would always take a non-floating toy with us to the lake and play fetch with that. Again... People were fascinated with her - how far under she would dive to get that toy and bring it back not just to Roger but to anyone who would play with her.
We loved Tess for about 10 years... but we were bad parents... we gave her too many food scrapes and she became very overweight. Roger always said "She's not fat, she's buoyant!" The last few years of her life the Vet kept warning us that she needed to loose weight and we needed to stop feeding her table scrapes. But it was a hard habit to break... you love them so much and you know they love the food, so how do you not give it to them?
One morning Roger came home from work and woke me up and he was crying and was trying to tell me something and I couldn't understand him because he was crying so hard. I was scared to death. I finally got him to calm down enough to tell me what happened. He said that when he got home that morning I was still asleep and he called the Vet to find out how much it would be to put Tessa down - as she was really suffering from being overweight. She was having a hard time getting up from a lying down position and several other issues. Even walking looked like she was in pain. When he found out the price he decided not to put it off and just take her down right then and "protect me from it". I know he meant well, but I was so upset! He didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye to her! But she was his dog and I think he thought he needed to do this on his own. I didn't say anything about my feeling for awhile because he was so upset about loosing her. But later in the day I did and I told him to never ever do something like that again. That I loved Tess too and I would have wanted to be there not only to say my goodbyes but to support Roger thru loosing his best friend too.
How she got her registered name was we bought "the pick of the litter" from my sister and brother-in-law as their male lab sired the pups and payment for that is the pick of the litter or first pick out of all the puppies and we bought that right from them. So when we went to pick out our puppy Roger was initially looking for a male so he would pick up a puppy and look at the "privates" and set it down if it wasn't a male and move on. Well he somehow walked past Tessa without picking her up and she let out a little woof... as in "Hey! Look at me!!" and so I picked her up and gave her a cuddle and talked Roger into a female... hehe. Then we had to okay it with the breeders as we had already told them we wanted a male, and they were making sales of the rest of the puppies with that in mind. But luckily we were able to change and we brought home Tessa. And shortly after that Roger named his boat Tessa's Taxi. And I'll tell you... He couldn't get that boat out of the yard without Tess going along.
When Tess was just over a year she graced us with 9 puppies. 8 males and 1 female. One of the males - the runt - didn't make it. That was so sad. But we had so much fun with the remaining 8 cute little puppies. And A.J. loved them too. Whenever Tessa took a break from them A.J. would go to into the birthing box and lay with the puppies to watch over them. It was so funny. A.J. was curious about the puppies right from the beginning but for the first few days Tess wouldn't let him near them, but after that I think she welcomed the help. And he was happy to do it.
We had a little bit of trouble registering the pups. The male that we bred Tess with was pure bred and we were told he was registered, but we found out after he did the deed that the owner never sent in the paperwork on him. So he had to contact an ex-girlfriend to get the paperwork, pay the registration fee wait to get his registration back before we could sell any of the puppies. What a nightmare! So we had them a little longer than we should have. And feeding these 8 hungry puppies was getting expensive! hehe.
Once we got the paperwork we advertised a couple weeks and only sold 2. So we decided to donate one of the pups to Ducks Unlimited and bring along the rest of the puppies with the hopes of selling them to the people that got out bid. And it worked! We sold every last one that night at the banquet. However, the guy that got the first puppy thru the bidding was a little tipsy and his wife wasn't with him at the banquet... so the next day when he traveled west 200 miles home with this new puppy his wife was less than thrilled. And that's an understatement. The man called us a week later and asked if we would take the puppy back. We said we would, but we couldn't refund him anything as his $$ had gone to the banquet, it wasn't one of the puppies we sold out of the back of our truck and he paid quite a bit more than we charged for the others. He said that was fine. So he drove the 200 miles east and gave us the puppy back. Tessa was so happy to see one of her babies again... it was kind of bittersweet as we knew we weren't going to keep him. We put another ad in the paper and got another hit from a man who lived........... 200 miles west of here! He came to see the puppy, decided he wanted him and took him home. That was one traveling puppy!
Tessa was Roger's hunting dog and best friend. He spent many hours training her to fetch. And she loved it. You never saw her without a tennis ball either in her mouth or near enough to reach it. She would fall asleep with the ball beside her front paws.
Roger took such pride in Tessa's tricks and training. He would show her off to everyone all the time. Didn't matter if we were at home or at the beach or a park. And people would gather around and just be fascinated by her. They would give Roger their names and numbers and said if we bred her again they wanted one of her puppies.
Some of the things she did were Roger would throw one tennis ball over the house and make Tessa sit until he snapped his fingers. Then she would take off to go find it. While she was gone Roger would hide a second tennis ball somewhere in the backyard. When she came back she would bring the first ball back to Roger and drop it right into his hands and Roger would give her hand signals and snap his fingers telling her to go find the other one. She would use her nose to try to find it... if she couldn't find it she would look back at Roger and he would give her hand signals on which way to go until she found it and she would proudly bring it back.
The other thing Roger taught her which he was so proud of was to dive in the water to fetch. As she was his "Duck Dog" and sometimes wounded ducks dive to avoid getting retrieved and not very many retrievers will get their head underwater to go after them. But Tessa did. And to keep her skills up Roger would always take a non-floating toy with us to the lake and play fetch with that. Again... People were fascinated with her - how far under she would dive to get that toy and bring it back not just to Roger but to anyone who would play with her.
We loved Tess for about 10 years... but we were bad parents... we gave her too many food scrapes and she became very overweight. Roger always said "She's not fat, she's buoyant!" The last few years of her life the Vet kept warning us that she needed to loose weight and we needed to stop feeding her table scrapes. But it was a hard habit to break... you love them so much and you know they love the food, so how do you not give it to them?
One morning Roger came home from work and woke me up and he was crying and was trying to tell me something and I couldn't understand him because he was crying so hard. I was scared to death. I finally got him to calm down enough to tell me what happened. He said that when he got home that morning I was still asleep and he called the Vet to find out how much it would be to put Tessa down - as she was really suffering from being overweight. She was having a hard time getting up from a lying down position and several other issues. Even walking looked like she was in pain. When he found out the price he decided not to put it off and just take her down right then and "protect me from it". I know he meant well, but I was so upset! He didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye to her! But she was his dog and I think he thought he needed to do this on his own. I didn't say anything about my feeling for awhile because he was so upset about loosing her. But later in the day I did and I told him to never ever do something like that again. That I loved Tess too and I would have wanted to be there not only to say my goodbyes but to support Roger thru loosing his best friend too.
Monday, July 25, 2011
My Dogs. Part I - A.J.
I'm going to start off talking about one of my most beloved things in the whole world... my pets. Right now we only have one dog. We have Grizzy, who is the social house dog that I love with all my butt (I'd say heart, but my butt is bigger!!).
But I'll start out at the beginning... when I was still single I was living alone in a duplex on the old air force base and it wasn't the best neighborhood. One night - actually it was Christmas eve - I woke up to the sound of some guys yelling and fighting in my back yard. I was scared to death. I laid in bed just listening and thinking to myself that if they came thru the window of my back bedroom, I was going out the front window of my bedroom as it faced the street. Well it finally quieted down back there and I fell back asleep. Don't ask me why I didn't call the police - I don't know... but I decided then that I needed a "watch dog". So the next business day I headed to the animal shelter and picked out A.J. He was just a little blonde poodle mix puppy at the time and I fell in love with him immediately. I took him everywhere with me that I could. During the day the neighbor kids came down and played with him. He loved kids. But the funnies thing is he never grew up to be a watch dog. He would never bark at anyone and he loved everyone. So if I ever had another prowler he would have either run up to them and licked them to death or he would have cowered beside me. LOL
When I met and fell in love with Roger, I entered into our marriage with A.J. and he entered into it with a female cat named Fred. The two got along great. But A.J. was used to having me to himself, so he acted up a but by digging in Roger precious yard, and believe me - that didn't go over to well. Roger takes a lot of pride in his yard and threatened to "BBQ" A.J. numerous times. Finally Roger had had enough and said we had to get rid of him. Well I didn't know what to do. I loved my new husband, but I loved my dog too. How do you decide. I just told Roger "okay" and walked into the bathroom and started crying. When Roger finally figured out what I was doing in the bathroom he came in and consoled me and told me that we didn't have to give A.J. away, but we just needed to train him not to dig. I was so happy at that moment!
A.J. lived to be a ripe old age... when it was time to put him down, I only agreed because the Vet said he was suffering. Roger and I both walked out of that Vet's office bawling our hearts out. He was a good dog!
But I'll start out at the beginning... when I was still single I was living alone in a duplex on the old air force base and it wasn't the best neighborhood. One night - actually it was Christmas eve - I woke up to the sound of some guys yelling and fighting in my back yard. I was scared to death. I laid in bed just listening and thinking to myself that if they came thru the window of my back bedroom, I was going out the front window of my bedroom as it faced the street. Well it finally quieted down back there and I fell back asleep. Don't ask me why I didn't call the police - I don't know... but I decided then that I needed a "watch dog". So the next business day I headed to the animal shelter and picked out A.J. He was just a little blonde poodle mix puppy at the time and I fell in love with him immediately. I took him everywhere with me that I could. During the day the neighbor kids came down and played with him. He loved kids. But the funnies thing is he never grew up to be a watch dog. He would never bark at anyone and he loved everyone. So if I ever had another prowler he would have either run up to them and licked them to death or he would have cowered beside me. LOL
When I met and fell in love with Roger, I entered into our marriage with A.J. and he entered into it with a female cat named Fred. The two got along great. But A.J. was used to having me to himself, so he acted up a but by digging in Roger precious yard, and believe me - that didn't go over to well. Roger takes a lot of pride in his yard and threatened to "BBQ" A.J. numerous times. Finally Roger had had enough and said we had to get rid of him. Well I didn't know what to do. I loved my new husband, but I loved my dog too. How do you decide. I just told Roger "okay" and walked into the bathroom and started crying. When Roger finally figured out what I was doing in the bathroom he came in and consoled me and told me that we didn't have to give A.J. away, but we just needed to train him not to dig. I was so happy at that moment!
A.J. lived to be a ripe old age... when it was time to put him down, I only agreed because the Vet said he was suffering. Roger and I both walked out of that Vet's office bawling our hearts out. He was a good dog!
Me & My Sisters
My sister Sandi came to town from Lacy yesterday to do some cleaning on one of their Rental houses that came vacant and she decided to stay a couple days. She and my sister Carole brainstormed and want to go to Spokane tomorrow and gamble a little, have lunch and come back to Moses Lake same day. Usually when we go gambling we spend the night, so it will be a quick trip.
So it's going to be Mom, the two sisters I mentioned above and myself. I always have the best time with them. :)
I'll let you know how we did later...
So it's going to be Mom, the two sisters I mentioned above and myself. I always have the best time with them. :)
I'll let you know how we did later...
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