Alot to catch up on

I have quite a bit of stuff to write down. I haven't posted in a while because I have been really busy, tired, sick and stressed. I just couldn't bring myself to post anything.

First I will post some pics from the adoption event as I promised earlier.

Setting Up.

Chad the feral dog up for adoption.

Holding Greta who is up for adoption.

Daisy and Duke. Mother and son Cocker Spaniels who came
from a bad breeder situation. Both are missing one eye each and are
almost completely blind in the remaining eye.

Stinky, Kaylee and I at the adoption event.

____________________________________________________________________
We had a small birthday party for Kaylee and it ended up only being she and Kennis (my 9 year old sister). We went back to Deanna Rose and walked around and played with the animals. It was a good day and I enjoyed hanging out with those I love. Here is a picture of Kennis' very first ride on a pony.

The girls at Deanna Rose.

____________________________________________________________________
Kennis and I took a road trip to Springfield, MO to see our sister, Rachael, graduate high school and to see our aunt Jan who is in the hospital. Of course we also went to see our Mom, Grandma Judy and Grandma Leona. It is always a whirlwind trip because there are so many people to see. I didn't even get to see my god parents while I was there.

Rachael's graduation was at 9 o'clock at night and was a giant mess. There were signs everywhere that said "no cameras." We were searched and went through metal detectors. So of course we didn't take our camera with us. So we walk 15 minutes to get to the auditorium on campus and once we are seated we see hundreds if not thousands of cameras. I was really pissed because at 9 o'clock they locked the doors and I couldn't go to the car to get my camera. So we have no pictures of the ceremony itself. Here are a few pics from afterward though.

Kennis and Rachael.

Rachael and her diploma.

Mom and Rachael.

CK (me) and Rachael.

____________________________________________________________________
While we were in Springfield we went to see our Aunt Jan who has been in the hospital with a horrible staph infection. This is even more deadly for her because she has multiple myeloma, a rare form of bone marrow cancer. It was very hard to see her in the condition she was in but I would never have missed the opportunity to see her. We took her some fancy slippers to walk around the hospital in. She loved them but her feet were so swollen that she could hardly keep them on.

Aunt Jan's new slippers.

CK, Kennis, Aunt Jan and Mom.

____________________________________________________________________
Good news on the fostering front. Stinky was adopted last week. He was adopted by an elderly widow who is home all day. Perfect for Stinky. I am hoping he is happy in his new home.

I had seen a senior Cocker Spaniel named Abraham on the Animal Haven website. His story was that his family adopted him 8 years ago and now that he is old and very arthritic they no longer wanted him around. So they abandoned him at the animal shelter. Poor guy is cute as can be and very upset about being abandoned. So I had decided that when we got back from Springfield we would foster Abraham until he could find a home.

Laura at Animal Haven informed me that there is a woman who is interested in adopting Abe. She is elderly and works at a nursing home but she is moving and can't adopt him until June 1st. So we decided to foster him until then. We brought him home on Friday afternoon. He can barely walk, he is so arthritic. In fact, he looks like a baby elephant. He was the sweetest little guy imaginable. He loved Frank and followed him everywhere he went. He was scared of being left alone and scratched at the door and cried every time Frank left.

Friday night he was up the entire night. He paced back and forth, slept in 10 minute increments and panted the entire night. A thunderstorm only made matters worse. He pants 24 hours a day and sounds like a freight train so I slept with him in the living room so Frank could get some sleep. I in turn, only got 2 hours of sleep.

Abe is incontinent and pooped at least 30 times over a 24 hour period. He is taking Rimadyl for his arthritis which made him thirsty so he drank about 15 bowls of water which meant we were taking him out every 30 minutes to potty. Now we have 17 stairs leading from our front door up to our dining room/living room. He made it up and down the stairs the first couple times, although very, very, very slowly but after that he just couldn't do it so I had to carry him. He weighs about 30 lbs. It was very hard on both of us.

He had some sort of retina abrasion so the vet has sewn his 2nd eyelid over his eyeball. So his eye looks really funny and it bothered him. He constantly rubbed it. I was really scared that the stitches would come out and his eyelid would rip open but it didn't happen.

Anyway, on Saturday afternoon we decided to take him back to the shelter. We cried and felt so guilty but we were making his pain worse. He just couldn't handle the stairs. His hips were shaking with pain and he was really uncomfortable. Once we took him back to the shelter, he was actually more comfortable and happier than we had seen him. They have him back in the vet clinic just lounging on a comforter. He has free reign back there and everyone loves on him and spoils him. So that made us feel better.

I feel so badly for Abe. I think he would actually benefit from being humanely euthanized. He was just in so much pain and he was miserable. He was sweet and loving but every step hurt him. I haven't thought that about any other animal I have seen at the shelter before so this is extremely hard for me to say but he doesn't seem to be getting any sort of happiness out of life. Though he did love food and treats :) He looked like it too.

I certainly hope the lady who is going to adopt him is able to give him the love and attention he needs. He needs looking after 24/7 and needs total care. I guess if she works in a nursing home, she should be used to the kind of care he needs though.

Here are a few pics of darling Abe.

Abe

Cooper and Abe.

Cody, Cooper and Abe.

Abe with his eye sewn shut.

____________________________________________________________________
Last but not least...my husband is an amateur photographer. He is always taking pictures of stuff. Literally stuff. Not just the family or the dogs or whatever, every time we upload the pictures there are bound to be pictures of things I can't recognize as well as a few pics of himself. Those he puts on there to make me laugh :) So here are a few of his latest and greatest.

Oh yes he did surprise me with a picture of the boys in the freakin dryer!!!

Stinky is gone, an old friend is back and today sucks.

I haven't written in 9 days because things have all around sucked. We took Stinky back and he was healthy enough to stay there! That is good news but sad at the same time. We took him back on a Tuesday and I visited him at the shelter the following Friday. He was in one of the girls' offices with another puppy mill dog, a kitten and the girls' big boxer. Stinky lit up and started jumping when he saw me. He was really excited to see me :) His little ears were peeling and no one had cleaned his eyes. The girl mentioned that he was going to an adoption event the following day and would we like to come help. Of course we wanted to! I will post pics from home.

The adoption event was rather uneventful. It was an awesome event but thunderstorms rolled in and rained the entire thing out. So many animals were out there looking for homes. It felt awful to give up and take them back to the shelters. We did meet a potential adopter for Stinky though. Her name was Denise and it was she, her husband and her daughter just like our situation. They already have a papillon too! The way the event worked, the adopters had to go to the shelter to start the adoption process. So even though she said she wanted Stinky for sure, I haven't found out if they went to the shelter and adopted him. I should find out soon. They seemed like a really good fit.

____________________________________________________________________

The friend who I found on Facebook DID contact me! She was so excited to hear from me and said she had thought about me alot in the past 14 years as well. I was so nervous she wouldn't write me back but she did and we have been emailing like teenagers for the past week. It is fun catching up but depressing at the same time because every time I see how far my peers have gone in life it reminds me how my life is run by my disease.

Anyway, I am glad I found her.

____________________________________________________________________

My husband is trying to go back to school to get a bunch of different certifications so he can further his career so I called my Grandma to talk to her about it only to find out that my aunt is in the hospital and has been since Sunday. This is the same Aunt who was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma on Good Friday of this year. MM is a form of bone marrow cancer. A very rare form. So they told me that her pic line got infected and she let it go too long before she saw a dr. and now she has a staph infection. I guess that all of her blood is poisoned with the infection and they are giving her blood transfusions to try to get her stable.

Since she still hasn't told my great grandma (her mom) about the cancer, she can't tell her that she is in the hospital nearly dieing either. So none of us can see her. At her request, we are keeping this under wraps until she knows the extent of it. Then she will tell her mom. She already lost one parent and doesn't want her mom's health to fail even more when she finds out that her beloved daughter has terminal cancer.

Stinky's last day/Random things on my mind

Well, Stinky goes to the vet tomorrow morning for surgery. They think he is healthy enough to stay there and await adoption instead of coming back home with us. We picked him up on April 10th and he goes back May 6th. I have fallen in love with him and will miss him dearly. I have begged and pleaded to adopt him but hubby just doesn't quite get along with Stinky. Plus if we adopted him we wouldn't have the room to foster any more dogs and that is where our heart is.

Stinky got a big last meal (which he only ate 1/2 of). Tomorrow he can't eat until after the surgery AND they won't feed him the yummy, fattening food he has been getting here. He got a bath so he will smell as yummy as he possibly can with the stench of rotten teeth. He got a nice, big treat, which one of the other dogs sneakily took from him and now he gets to sleep with us for the whole night. :( I am so sad.

______________________________________________________________________

In other news, my sister Rachael turned 18 yesterday. Scares the crap out of me! Happy Birthday Sis! I hope you have a wonderful adult life. I will be here for you every step of the way.

______________________________________________________________________

Can you believe Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon got married? So freakin random! I just can't get over it. She seems so stuck up and he seems like such a player. I can only wish them luck but in the back of my mind I just don't think it will work out. But then again, there are people who say that about every relationship.

______________________________________________________________________

I have just started looking up OLD classmates on www.facebook.com and found a friend who I have thought about so much in the time since I have seen her. We lived in the same neighborhood when I was in 7th grade (if I remember correctly). She was 2-3 years younger than me and so much fun. She was my best friend. We shared Sweet Valley High books and loved when they came out with Sweet Valley University books. She moved away to CA to live with her dad when her mom got married. I have never heard from her again. One time, many, many years ago I sent her a letter. I never got a response but never got return mail either. I always wondered if she got it.

Anyway...I sent her a friend request and I am so nervous that she will ignore it. Stupid huh? I am so anti-social and don't give a crap about staying in touch with anybody (nice huh?) just from years of being left in the dust because of my illness. So why do I care? I don't know, but I do.

So is it better to leave things the way they are? Remember the good times when we were so alike? Or risk ruining the good feelings by finding out how different we are? The ball is in her court I guess.

I actually had a dream about her last night. I ran into her brother and asked how she was. He said I should look her up on facebook. Funny huh? So that's what I did. We'll see what happens.

_____________________________________________________________________

I love my husband. We had a good weekend and spent some much needed quality time together. I really enjoyed it. He really is such a great guy!