Now to the Panhandling… I am not desperate for money and very thankful that I can keep my own head above water. I had the idea of setting up a Fundraiser, otherwise known as a ‘give me money for no other reason than you have it to spare‘ raiser. I want to be able to pay for dinner and other misc. things when we go down to Portland and not struggle when I come home.
Yes, I am throwing my pride and ID to the wind and shamelessly asking for monetary assistance. Will I cry if I don’t get any…no. Will I go to the nearest Pet Store in Portland to buy Wicket goodies if there is some money donated…you friggen betcha!!
If you donate, with stipulations that I use the money for Wicket, dinner, whatever, I promise that I will do just that and take photo’s of what I buy. Keep in mind, I do not drink so if you say I must go out and party with it, my style of partying may be different than your style of partying.

Here is Wicket’s Cardboard sign. I tried to get him to say something about Vacation money but he refused. He stated something about snow and cold and he is fed up with not being able to play outside, at least I think that is what he was saying, he did have a toy in his mouth at the time.

Clicking on the picture will take you to the Fun-raiser site 

In a nut shell I will sum up the lack of posting and ask for some prayers and warm wishes to add to the mix.
As some of you know my Da passed last August, a month or so ago we found out my Fama (Mom) has cancer as well and was given 2-6 months to live. We don’t know the type of cancer yet, but should find out with the second liver biopsy that she had to do. The cancer is in numerous locations including, Lung, Liver, Lymph-nodes, Thyroid and Adrenal Gland.
But wait folks, that’s not all! My brother ended up in the ER with severe back pain and it ended up being Kidney Stones. During the Ultrasound or CT Scan, I don’t remember which, they found he had some sort of mass on his Kidney. He had an MRI, which they are waiting to see the Doc for, but reading the results says it is a Renal Cyst. That could be a really good thing or a bad thing.

In a previous post I explained by Carpal Tunnel surgery. I was still having pain at 3 months of healing so I spoke to the hand Doc at my last checkup. He poked around, did some x-rays and found that I have CMC Joint arthritis. Basically it is arthritis at the thumb joint, the joint that is connect to the palm of your hand. Kinda sucks and since it is early in the onset, there is nothing to do but support the joint when I’m going to over use it.
I also went to a Dermatologist and got a whole body check for all the moles and various spots I have. I had one on my upper wrist that would worry some Docs when I saw them for other things and it was starting to worry me a bit. Had it cut out and biopsied, turned out to be pre-cancerous so they let it heal for 4 weeks and I went back to have it frozen with Liquid Nitrogen. Since I have numerous other spots that are starting out the same way I have to wear 30 SPF when I go outside and I have to cover up, including a hat. AWESOME!! BUT, at least I caught it in time!

I’m trying to think if there is anything else…. Not like all of that isn’t enough! I pray that Wicket stays healthy, not sure how much more I can shoulder if I don’t have my little man to bring me out of it.

In good news… I have my airline tickets, hotel and admittance tickets for West Coast Haunters Convention that is coming up in June. The plan is for Mom to go down with me but if she is too sick or has passed, I will go alone. I will be down in Portland, Oregon for a week and while I’m there I’m going to look around Vancouver, Washington for locations to move to.

Other than that, I haven’t been in the craftroom since December.  I need to make stuff to sell, I need the extra money for the trip, but I am so tired when I get home from work I don’t feel like doing anything other than staring at the computer and TV.

Enough of all the drama… go get your Spooky on!!

In other importantay news: I’m fostering a pup for Polar Pug Rescue & Friends. Her name is Charlotte and she has a 98% chance of being related to my Wicket man. She is a Brussels Griffon/Italian Greyhound mix and boy is she a handful! She has been in rescue for roughly a year, mainly due to her fear issues. She is very fearful of men, since she was abused by two men for possibly her whole life, she is roughly 2-3 years old, she also doesn’t do well around new people.
She LOVES toys and is food motivated, she is learning Potty Training, which she really didn’t have much concept of. She doesn’t do well to harsh vocal punishment but does do well with a well timed AhAh instead of NO. She is very smart and it doesn’t do her much good at times. Every noise she hears she believes she must listen intently to, because after all Zombies can be sneaky. The only time I have heard her bark is when she see’s someone outside the house and once when I put on a big puffy coat in a different room, than she was in, and when she saw me she didn’t recognize me until I spoke to her. She kennels well, once you catch her, she is Italian Greyhound FAST and can bob and weave like you can’t believe. I typically have to corner her in a kennel and reach in and pick her up, to get her to wherever it is she thought she didn’t want to go. Luckily she isn’t fear aggressive and doesn’t try to fight back, at least from what I have seen.  I’m sure if you were a male Zombie she might try to take your arm off, but that would be totally acceptable behavior and awarded with yummy treats.

My Wicket man was not impressed with having her at the house and wanted her to leave. He would plead with me, by way of pouty Griffon face and sad teary eyes, but I explain to him that she is family and needs help to overcome being scared so she can find a loving home like he has. Honestly though, if I see it affecting him too much I will return her to the Rescue. I won’t risk him going backwards in his own ‘finding himself’ that he still seems to be doing.

**Update** I took Charlotte back to the Rescue. She is too energetic for Wicket and keeps hurting him on accident, trying to play. He started shutting down around her so I won’t risk him getting hurt worse, especially with a back problem.

Here are a few pictures of Miss Charlotte, or Lady Charlotte:

I was back in the crafting groove too!! Now I have to keep telling myself that I will get back to it, just have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s to be back in the saddle as fast as I can without causing permanent damage.

For those that don’t follow me on Facebook, well you should because I tend to update more over there, I have been busy before Christmas with creating a Jack Skellington and Zero for a Christmas Door Decorating Contest. There were three categories  Most Traditional, Most Original and Most Tackiest door, then there was a Judges Favorite award as well.  I toyed with the idea of doing a Scrooge with the three Ghosts but knew I didn’t have enough time to create 4 full sized bodies, heck I barely was able to get Jack, Zero and the Evil Wreath completed in time. The outcome of the contest? I won Most Original and the group that won Most Traditional also won Judges Favorite…even though numerous people came and told me that ours should have won.

I had thought about telling people they were for sale but didn’t know how well that would fly at work, didn’t want them to say I was moonlighting at work, etc. To my surprise, people asked me instead! So as of tomorrow, they both go to new homes. The lady that bought Jack wanted to buy both Jack and Zero but I had already promised Zero to someone else, so I told her that I would make her another Zero.

I paid the price by making these two guys in 40 hours. My Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is PISSED off. I need to go in and have Physical Therapy, I’m waiting on the Doc’s office to tell me that they faxed the referral over. My Doc’s office seem to take a very long time to do anything. It took them three weeks to get back with me on the results of the MRI on my knee. Good thing I wasn’t fighting cancer and needed to start Chemo right away! The only reason I keep going there is because it is where I use to work. The MRI results? I may have a partial tear of my ACL in my right knee. Have an appointment with an Ortho next week to get my knee evaluated.

Enough of that… Here are a few photos of Jack and Zero:

Because of all of the work going on, my craft room had been emptied into my living room, and not in an orderly type way. Months later, after having been rather not in the mood for crafting, I found myself aching to do something…anything. I bought some UV curing resin and started making doll eyes. Made a few sets, but then wanted to put them in dolls, ugh.

Saw some felted items floating around FB or other Blogs and decided I should give it a try. I can always make OTHER type items besides flowers and foo foo stuff right? Researched…researched some more, ask a few questions, found out there are a few dog loving ladies that felt dogs here in town. Went to Michaels, bought a kit and a few needles. I already had Wool Roving for making dolls hair, but the kit had everything I needed.
Below is a picture of the little Hug Monster that I made. Not what the kit called it mind you. I gave it to Sue at work, she was retiring after many many years of working at Dept. Public Safety. It took me about 5-6 hours.

My children that I have lost have been of the four legged furry nature. I have wanted for many years to build them an alter for the celebration, adding their favorite treats and toys, but have never done so. Instead I will honor them by making an electronic version today. Their may not be treats and toys involved but I will do my best to include stories of each.

I will try to put them in order of adoption. They were all rescue’s in some form or another. I typically gave AKC names to my dogs, not because they were AKC dogs, more because it gave me free reign to give them really long names, heh!:

Name: Shade
Full name: Gizmo’s Shadey Lady, Shades of Gizmo
Nickname: Zoomy Zoomy, Zoomy
Breed: Pomeranian

Shade was my first dog as an adult. Shade was purchased from a friend of my husbands, when she was three weeks old. This friend had taken two puppies and the Momma dog  away from his Sister due to the Sister being a drug addict and not taking care of the Momma dog, which in turn had stopped feeding the puppies. I only agree to pay for her to get her out of the situation.
Shade fit in the cup of my hand and only grew to be 3 1/2 pounds as an adult.
She was the first to pass, going due to congestive heart failure at 13 yrs.

Name: Smokey
Full name: Smoke Lass Hoppin Flip
Nickname: Moke, MokeMoke
Breed: Pomeranian

Smokey was adopted at roughly a year of age. Quirky story behind getting Smokey…my husband and I had stopped by a local pet store in the mall, which we did regularly to just ‘look’ at the puppies. One afternoon we were in the store staring at this adorable 8 week old Pomeranian puppy that was staring back at us while she chewed on the bars. We were discussing buy her just because she was so cute, but couldn’t afford the $800 they were asking for her. We fell in love with her but had to walk away. The next day my Mom calls me and tells me that they had broken down and bought my brother a Pomeranian. He had fallen for Shade and wanted a little bundle of fur himself. I asked where they got it and she stated from the Mall. I perked up and said, was it a little cream colored female that was 8 weeks old? She said it was and I squealed, telling her that we had seen her the day before and fell in love with her.
To shorten the story, they kept Smokey for about a year and decided to let us adopt her due to her and their German Shepherd not getting along. She was finally ours.
Smokey passed due to complications of Cushings Disease at the age of 14yrs.

Name: Quest
Full name: El Pelon’s Quest for Excellence (this was her previous AKC name)
Nickname: Qu’ety
Breed: Chinese Crested – Hairless

Quest was adopted from a local breeder. The breeder had purchased her from a puppy mill breeder in the states for $1500. The local breeder ‘purchased’ her to get her out of the situation she was in and because she wanted to start breeding Chinese Cresteds. Quest had one pregnancy and the puppy was severally  Hydrocephalic and died a few weeks after birth. The breeder had Quest spayed due to the potential of having more birth defects. I spoke to this breeder often due to the fact that she frequented our Vet Clinic with the puppies and adult pregnant dogs she had. I mentioned to her that I was looking for a Chinese Crested that I could adopt and she told me about Quest. I adopted Quest within a few days of hearing about her. Quest had many behavioral problems due to coming from a puppy mill. She was caged from birth, before the local breeder bought her, which wasn’t long, due to her being a year and half when I adopted her.
Quest passed due to Liver Cancer at the age of 11yrs.

Name: Whisper
Full name: Careless Whisper Caravelle N’Co (her previous AKC name)
Nickname: Woo, Woodees
Breed: Chinese Crested – Hairless

Whisper was bought sight unseen from Ohio. I always wanted to have four dogs total and really wanted another Crested. I started searching the internet for another hairless and how I came upon Whisper I don’t even remember. The odd thing was, I had planned to name a dog Whisper before I even found her and then there she was. I purchased her for $150 without even meeting her. She was a ‘pet quality’ 11 month old, that also had some behavioral problems. She was the only other dog that I truly set out to buy and not truly rescue.
Whisper passed of Liver Cancer at the age of 13yrs.

Name: Ashley
Full name: Ash a Lee Punk a Do
Nickname: Punky, Bug
Breed: Pomeranian

Ashley was adopted at an unknown age and was also a 3 1/2 pound adult. She was adopted with one other dog, Grizzley. The story behind Ashley was that she was living with the human owner of Shade’s dad, along with two other dogs. The other two that I also came to adopt where Shade’s brother Grizzley and Shade’s dad Gizmo, Ashley was unrelated. The trio of dogs fell on hard times when the humans that owned them split up. They suddenly found themselves in an abandoned apartment, not being taken care of or fed properly. The quirky thing about this story was that no more than a week previously I had a premonition about the dogs. I told my husband that if for some reason those dogs need a home we will be taking them in and he adamantly agreed. We were sitting in a restaurant having lunch a few days later and a friend that knew the human couple stated that they had split up and the dogs were living at the apartment by themselves. He said there was mention of the dogs going to the pound. The next day I looked up the phone number of the female, I told her that I had run into so n’ so and he told me the dogs were going to the pound. She started crying saying she didn’t know what she was going to do. I stopped her and said, ‘Your bringing the dogs to me’. She had already given Gizmo to someone else but he wasn’t doing well health wise. I told her to bring me Grizzley and Ashley ASAP and to tell the person she gave Gizmo to that if she couldn’t keep him or pay for his medical bills, she was to bring him to me. The dogs were brought in, I worked at a Vet clinic at the time,  covered in matted fur and feces, Ashley had urine burns and could barely walk because the hair had been matted so badly to her backend and legs.  The story goes on to their rehab and I did end up with Gizmo as well.
Ashley passed of congestive heart failure at roughly at 14yrs. She was the first dog I performed CPR on, I was successful until we got her to PET Emergency and ended up putting her down due to her condition.

Name: Grizzley
Full name: Gizmo’s Grizzley Boo Beer Bear
Nickname: Griddy, Boo
Breed: Pomeranian

Grizzley was adopted with Ashley and you can read how he was adopted in her story. Grizzley has more of a story though. He was actually supposed to be my first Pomeranian. The people that had Shade had a litter previously and Grizzley was the only one in the litter. The girlfriend of the human that had the Dad dog, trumped me on getting him. Grizzley had a bit of a drinking problem. When he was with the previous owners he would frequently steal sips of their alcoholic drinks that they had sitting on the floor. He quickly became addicted to them and would sit and stare at you if you didn’t give him any, occasionally growling. Since I am not a drinker, that behavior wasn’t a problem.
Grizzley passed at 16yrs due to Lung Cancer.

Name: Gizmo
Full name: Gizmo
Nickname: Gizzy
Breed: Pomeranian

Gizmo was the father of Shade and Grizzley. His adoption story can be read in Ashley’s story. When he finally came to me he was severally depressed. He had been separated from the dog family that he had known since he was one year old. He wasn’t eating and drinking very little. The lady that had adopted him surrendered him to me because she couldn’t afford to take him to the Vet to get him checked out. The day that she brought him to me I was working at the Vet clinic. I happened to have Grizzley and Ashley with me that day to have their dental’s done. When Gizmo first saw me he instantly perked up, he knew me since he was a puppy, but when I took him to the back to put him in with Grizzley and Ashley he turned into a different dog. He was so happy he was  yip whining and licking all over them.  The only thing wrong with him was he needed a dental and to be reunited with his family.
Gizmo died shortly after Shade, he never came out of his depression from her dying. He was 14yrs old.

No picture of Gizmo

Name: Bear
Full name: Prince Bear Von Charmy Charm
Nickname: Bubba, Boo, Charmy Charm
Breed: Pomeranian

Bear was adopted from a friend that fell on hard times, Bear was roughly 8 yrs old. I received a call one day from a friend, he asked if I still rescued Pomeranian’s, I told him I did but wasn’t looking for another dog at the time. Something told me to check it out anyway. He and his girlfriend and children had been evicted and was living with his parents. Bear was living in the garage. I had him bring Bear to me. At first I was thinking I would take him in to find him a home, the decision to keep him was quick in the coming.
Bear was put to sleep due to a condition called FCE or Fibrocartilaginous Embolism, it’s also known as a Spinal Stroke. There is no known reason why they happen, he had no injury to cause it. He was almost 14 yrs old.

I miss you all very much and carry you in my heart everyday. You were all awesome little Rock Star’s. Mama kisses…

We aren’t doing anything special around here. In fact I’m getting my furnace replaced today so it’s going to be a cold one!

The house remodel came to a stand still. Have many little projects to work on and just haven’t had the mind to want to do any of them. We are thinking about just selling the house ‘As is’ instead of futzing over it. With a new roof, new furnace, new windows, two new baths and a remodeled Master bedroom and kitchen, it actually would be a wash in the price with what is left to do.

We will see, much to discuss before we throw a sign out front, even though with the fast approaching winter that sign may come much sooner than anyone expects!

He didn’t win 1st place but he did come in 3rd! Woooo Hoooo! Third place gets a $50 gift certificate to Alaska Mill and Feed which is a local farm’ish type store that dotes on dogs. He will also get his poster on the website and at ACC within the building. He was rather excited when I told him the news last night. Ok… he was actually just happy to see me and goes crazy dog when I get home from work, but we can anthropomorphise a bit right?

Here is the website and Facebook link to the announcement with his picture:

http://www.muni.org/Departments/health/animal_control/News/Pages/2013PosterDogWinner.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151228342078395.492117.22776413394&type=1

But… this does not mean I cannot torture him with Halloween dressup!! Yes, I want to dress him as a Flying Monkey for Halloween and have yet to make the costume. I’m still contemplating the colors I want to use, will probably go with the original blue and red even though I dislike that color combo. While shopping yesterday at Walmart, ugh, I stopped in the pet section… actually the pet section stopped me, due to having an endcap of Halloween Pet sweaters and whatnots. I had to buy two sweaters, which I’ve been meaning to do since the weather is turning cold.

I let Wicket model his own sweaters and here is the little darling along with a picture of the endcap at Walmart…