Friday, September 25, 2009

A condolence card

Yesterday we received a condolences card from the vet who has helped us with all of our sick dogs. Everyone from the office signed it. This one was for Thunder, and I assume we'll be getting one for Coco in the very near future.

Enclosed with the card was a poem on a sheet of paper with her paw prints. I found the poem very touching, so I searched it out on the internet to share with anyone who has ever lost a pet...

http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm

Anyone who is a regular to this blog knows that I'm an Atheist, so I don't believe in what the poem has to say, but it was touching, nevertheless...

Monday, September 21, 2009

Thunder and Coco

I've been wanting to post about the dogs that we've lost in the last few weeks. For those of you new to my blog, our dog Spike contracted Parvo, and we spent a lot of money to pull him through that. Shortly after that, his sister, Thunder, also contracted Parvo. Unfortunately, it hit her a lot harder, and we couldn't save her.

Then last week, our oldest's 17 year old Cocker Spaniel, Coco, had to be put down because of old age. It might have been kidney failure, or it might have been liver failure, but at his age, there was really nothing we could do for him...

This is Thunder...

This was taken on our way back from Texas when she was about three months old. She was a very smart dog. We'd bring treats over and put them up on top of something, and after she ate her treats, she'd run over to wherever we had the treats hidden and start barking.
She would have made a really good guard dog. Whenever we'd come over, she'd get down on her belly and growl at us, until she realized who we were. Then she'd start jumping all over us.
She learned sit and stay pretty well for a young girl, and she was always full of kisses for us.
She will be missed.

This is Coco...

Even though he was partially blind and partially deaf...or maybe mostly blind and mostly deaf, he was still a very sweet boy. Whenever he'd realize we were around, he'd come up to us wagging his stub. When he first met Spike and Thunder, he wasn't really happy with them, but after a couple of weeks, he was jumping around with them, and even trying to jump on us...despite the fact that he was 17 years old.
My favorite story about him was that he used to jump on the bed of our oldest after he'd been drinking, and if you've ever had a Cocker Spaniel, you know that there ears get very wet. She never liked his wet ears, so she'd push him off the bed. He, of course, would jump back on the bed with his happy expression, and with his stub wagging, like he was saying, "I know you didn't mean to do that, so here I am again..."
He will also be missed.

This is Spike...

This was just taken last week. For a four and a half month old, he's pretty big. He thinks he's a 30 pound lap dog, always trying to sit on our laps and then trying to chew on our arms and ears.
He's a really good dog, and loves to play with us, but I think he's feeling kind of lonely because all of his friends keep disappearing. We're just trying to make sure that he knows just how much he is loved.

And because the cat gets jealous if I talk too much about the dogs, here is a picture of Mosi with her Homer...

Saturday, September 19, 2009

We lost another dog

On Thursday, we had to put our oldest's 17 year old Cocker Spaniel, Coco, down. He'd been in their family for four years, and he was a very sweet dog. Unfortunately, time just caught up with him. The vet thinks it was kidney or liver failure, but there really wasn't anything we could do for him at that age.

The oldest was sad, but she took it better than her mom and I did...and she definitely took it better than I did when my dog was hit by a car when I was in third grade. I missed something like three days of school because I was so upset...

Saturday, September 12, 2009

I really have to wonder about people

I wonder whatever happened to common courtesy in this country. Because Rebecca's dad needed her van to go to Texas, we've been using his Blazer...which is a piece of crap. It has starter problems, the gas gauge doesn't work right, and I don't even know what else is wrong with it.

Anyway, on Thursday morning, we were taking the oldest to school. The Blazer stalled out at an intersection. For those of you familiar with Aurora, it was the intersection of Colfax and Tower...for those of you not familiar, this is a road with a speed limit of 55 and some very nutso drivers. We stalled in what would be the passing lane if people in Colorado actually observed the idea of a passing lane.

So, we sat there. Dozens of people drove by us, honking, yelling, and gesticulating. Nobody stopped. We couldn't even get the stupid car in neutral to push it off the road. Meanwhile, we're sitting in a car with people barely swerving to miss us as they try to get through green lights. How we didn't get rear-ended by someone doing 55 or more, I have no idea.

We finally got the car into neutral, and I managed to push us off the road...of course, no one stopped to help me. So we sat at the side of the road for a while, and still no one stopped. Finally, we realized we were going to have to get gas. So I walked half a mile to the gas station, bought a gas can, and lugged back a gallon of gas. While I was gone, one person actually did stop to see if my family was ok...but only one.

Eventually we got the car started, but it then died in front of our apartment. So, we have been without a car, which means that I've been taking the oldest to and from school by bus (which is expensive no matter what RTD might try to tell you.)

So, I have to ask again, whatever happened to common courtesy in this country? A family stalls out in a car, and they're more of an annoyance than someone who needs help. We often stop to help other people, but one has to wonder what's the point if no one else is willing to do this...

Because of all of this, I find myself once again way behind on work, and struggling to get caught up. It's really been a couple of crappy weeks.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Ephemeris Update

We've been hard at work on Ephemeris materials. A couple of weeks ago we released Critters & Pests by Ian Brazee-Cannon. This is a look at some of the creatures that make space travel a challenge...to say the least.

Yesterday we released the first of the Species Sourcebooks. These will be guides that give more info about each of the species. The first one released was the Althani Sourcebook (by me), which features info on two new sub-classes, two alternative species forms, some new equipment specially designed for the Althani, and a martial art that can only be used by the Althani.

All of these are available as PDF files at the Ephemeris website at http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/store.htm.

And all of the Ephemeris products are available as PDF files from DriveThru RPG at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2805

Friday, September 04, 2009

Puppy update

It looks like Spike has made a full recovery. He's back to his usual puppy self, jumping on everyone and trying to love on everyone as much as he can. He's already put three pounds back on, and we were able to return him home yesterday. Before we did that, however, we spent five hours spraying everything in the back yard with a bleach solution...hoping to kill any of the Parvo virus that might still be there.

Unfortunately, it's not all good news...Spike's sister Thunder also contracted it, and it hit her a lot harder and faster. When we picked her up, I held her the entire way to the vet, and she just stared up at me, struggling to breathe. When we got her to the vet, she was running a fever and had a pulse of 200. The vet was also pretty sure that she was septic. We had no choice but to put her down. It was my first experience with this, and it has been a rough few days in our household.

We're certainly happy that Spike made it...but we really wish he still had Thunder to play with...........