Special Guest for Dogs on Thursday

While I was on vacation last week, I got together with a bunch of friends for a crab fest. No, I didn't eat any of them. You know my rule -- "no food with a face" -- and just look at those cute little crabby faces...
One very special girl at the party is today's special guest for Dogs on Thursday. This is Brandy, a sweet and lovable girl, who is crazy about corn on the cob.......and crab meat! This is a picture of mom feeding Brandy a handful of crab meat.
Of course, this was before the biting-of-the-finger incident. Mom is doing much better, by the way. She says the finger is much less painful now than it was before the surgery. Go figure.

Quick Mom Update

A big thank-you to everyone for your well wishes and healing thoughts! Mom went to the Orthopedic surgeon yesterday, and today had outpatient surgery on her finger. Everything went well, and the finger feels better today than it has in days. Of course, it was shot full of numbing stuff, and when that wears off....best not to think about it. That's what painkillers are for.

You're not supposed to bite the hand that feeds you...

...but I guess Sara thought it was ok to bite the hand that was trying to make her swallow medicine. Who would have thought that this sweet little girl would bite?

Not only did she bite, but she also passed along some nasty germs. Mom and dad were giving Sara her medicine on Wednesday, when Sara decided she would rather not take the nasty stuff, thank-you-very-much. By Thursday morning, mom's finger was red and swollen and very painful, and her arm was red and hot up to the shoulder, and her lymph nodes were swollen and sore. Time for a visit to the Emergency Room. After that, they called the Orthopedic Surgeon who replaced mom's knees, and he wanted to see her right away. You certainly don't want an infection to spread to the knee joints. That's bad news! Mom is now on an antibiotic and she goes back to the Ortho on Monday. If the finger isn't much, much better, they will have to open it up. Ugh. It makes me weak in the knees just thinking about it.

Hungry Dogs on Thursday

I'm a little late in the day for posting Dogs on Thursday, but it's still Thursday! I'm on vacation this week, so the days kind of all run together! Anyway, I found a bandanna for Cooper that matches the ones I got for Emma and Tara for Easter. Since it was dinner-time (for them), before I got around to taking a picture for today's post, I figured I would take advantage of the fact that they're hungry. The only way I can get them all in one picture is to bribe them with food.
Awww, just look how nice and patiently they are waiting for their food. Notice that Cooper refuses to take his eyes off of the food bowls.

I didn't torture them for too long...they did eventually get their dinner, along with lots of praise. They were mostly interested in their dinner, though.

Good News All Around!

Thank you everyone for the good vibes that were sent our way. My nephew (a.k.a. Pitchfork Boy) is home from the hospital and doing really well. Also home is mom and dad's sweet cat Sara. The results of her bloodwork show that she has Graves Disease. This is the better of the two things our wonder-vet was suspecting, so we are all thrilled with this diagnosis.

As soon as Emma, Tara and Cooper heard that their cousin Sara was home from her overnight stay at the Vee-Eee-Tee, they sent us to the grocery store to buy all of Sara's favorite things. Here is Sara supervising the unpacking of her "goodies":

Yum! Salmon, Tuna, and Shrimp!!! Sara is saying "Hurry up Mommy - I haven't felt like eating in days and days, but I'm so excited about my shrimp!!!"

Yum, yum, yum. Gotta love shrimp!
You might notice that Sara (all four pounds of her!) is sitting on the kitchen counter eating her shrimp. Sara is never allowed on the counter. Never! Counters and tables are strictly off limits. If dad sees Sara on the counter, he'll look at her and say "CAT....get down" and Sara jumps right down. Hey - no one questions my dad! Well, guess who lifted her up and put her on the counter? Dad! That just shows how close they were to losing this sweet girl.

Nobody likes being in the hospital!

Two dear sweet souls with close ties to BritKnitterville are hospitalized, and it's safe to say that neither one is enjoying their experience.

This sweet girl is Sara. She is my mom and dad's cat - a Japanese Bobtail. She is 15 years old (or maybe 16? I'm not sure) and has had "digestive issues" all her life. Poor thing was very lethargic over the weekend, not eating, etc. and when mom and dad took her to the vet this morning, she weighed in at only 4 pounds. That's almost half her normal weight. The vet kept her to do bloodwork and give her an appetite stimulant. Sara has had bad spells like this before, and our wonder-vet has always managed to pull her through. We'll have the results of the bloodwork tomorrow. I don't know how many of Sara's nine lives she has left, but I'm just hoping and praying there's at least one more for her.

This sweet boy is my 6-year-old nephew, hugging his baby sister and his mommy.
He put a pitchfork through his foot last week. Ouch! Needless to say he was rushed to the local Emergency Room, and after much too long a wait, and sub-standard (in my opinion) care, he was sent home again. The next morning, his foot was red and swollen and painful, so off he went to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. After days of spiking fevers and bouts of vomiting, he is thankfully doing much better now. He just might be discharged tonight, but if not, he will probably come home tomorrow. I can't say enough good things about this hospital. One of my nieces spent quite a bit of time there when she was young, and it's a wonderful facility full of caring professionals. In this case, though, I think some of the credit for healing his poor little foot should go to the Nintendo DS that his aunts bought him and took to the hospital yesterday. He told one of the nurses that his foot doesn't hurt so much while he is playing with the Nintendo.

How's that for proof of the healing power of video games?

Cooper on Thursday!

They say everyone gets 15 minutes of fame... well, today is Cooper's day! Yes, today's Dogs on Thursday spotlight is on my sweet, funny, goofy but oh-so-lovable Cooper! Head on over there read all about the newest addition to BritKnitterville!

Yes, I really am that stupid.

This morning I was told I would receive a telephone call at my work number at 1:00 pm Central time. I resisted the urge to say "What time is that on the east coast?" After all, I didn't want this woman to think I am from some back-of-beyond-hicksville-town-in-the-middle-of-a-bunch-of farms in South Jersey. Even though I am.

Now, I'm not exactly a world traveller. In fact, I have never travelled outside of my own time zone. How pathetic is that? I am, however, a reasonably intelligent human being. I completed high school and college, and even some post-grad work. Surely I am aware that the Eastern and Central time zones are right next to each other, therefore only 1 hour different. So, if it is 1:00 Central time, it is noon Eastern time, right? Right. Right?

Ok, noon approaches and I sit and nervously twiddle my thumbs. 12:10....12:15....12:30 comes and no call. At this point I get my cell phone out of my purse and call my work number. It rings. I hang up right away. 12:45 comes and goes. I think maybe I was dreaming the "Central" part, and the call will really come in at 1:00 Eastern time. 1:00 comes along, then 1:15 and still no call. Now I am sure that the call was trying to come in at the very same second that I was calling myself from my cell phone. What are the chances of that? Great. I've missed my call.

Why was I so uptight about this phone call? It was from the Gayle King Show - they asked me to be available to talk to Gayle on the radio! Me! Little ol' me from some back-of-beyond-hicksville-town-in-the-middle-of-a-bunch-of-farms in South Jersey!

Yesterday on my way to work, I was listening to Gayle (we're on a first name basis now, don't ya know) and she mentioned something about getting a new dog when she moves to her apartment in New York City. She said she is going to get a dog from a shelter or rescue organization. Yay Gayle! Yay for Rescue! I decided to go to the radio show's website and send Gayle an email. (I have never, ever done anything like this before, but I feel very strongly about rescue.) In the email, I just mentioned how much I enjoy the show, and that on behalf of homeless animals everywhere, I wanted to thank her for considering a rescue dog and for raising awareness about the many, many animals out there in need of a loving home.

Well, last night I got a message from Leslie at Harpo, Inc. (Yes, Oprah's Harpo!!!) asking if I could be available today during the taping of Gayle’s radio show. They would like me to be a caller. How exciting is that? I called Leslie back this morning, and she said that at 1:00 pm Central time, they would call me, and I would listen in on the taping of Gayle's monologue, and if time permitted, I would be one of the callers after the first commercial break. Exciting, eh? Now you see why I didn't want to miss that call.

Ok, fast forward back to today. At some point while I was feeling like the biggest fool in the world for telling anyone (my parents, my coworkers) about the radio thing, I came upon the brilliant realization that 1:00 pm Central time is not noon Eastern time... 1:00 pm Central time is 2:00 pm Eastern time. Now I really feel like a fool! I mean, stoopid with two "o"s. Dumber than a bag of hammers.

Of course, the Gayle King Show people did not know this about me, and when they finally called, I managed to hide the fact that I'm a complete idiot. They gave me some ground rules, and said they I would be able to listen in to the taping of the monologue, and then Gayle would come on the line. Well, it all worked like clockwork! Gayle came on the phone and I actually talked to her! How exciting! I’m not sure what I said, really, but I did manage to mention rescue dogs during the conversation, which lasted all of about 2 seconds! I hope I don’t sound like a blathering idiot!

So if anyone has XM radio, I'm the first "caller" after the commercial break. Of course, I neglected to ask what day the show would be on the air.

I told you I'm an idiot.

Brittanys on Thursday (and more contests!)

Yes, I know this is really Dogs on Thursday, but with so many Brittanys around, I had to take some liberties this week. Emma, Tara and Cooper recently had a visit from their cousins Ashley, Maggie and Honey. At one point, four of them were playing Merry-Go-Round around my sister. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that she was holding a jar of treats...
Try as I might, I could not get all six brits into the picture at one time. This is the best that I could do. (Notice the all-important jar of treats again.)

The senior brit of the group, Ashley, was content to lie in the shade with a nice cool drink.

What makes Ashley a Wonder Dog? Well, just a few short weeks ago she was in pretty bad shape. Apparently she had a blood clot in her spinal column which caused her back end to become paralyzed. I saw her the day after she came from home from her stay at the emergency vet, and I really didn't think she would survive, but she showed us all! Not only is she still alive, but she is also walking on her own! Her mom (who just happens to be a Physical Therapist - what luck!) and dad bought a custom-made cart for her, but this little old gal rarely uses it. She can get around on her own, and has even managed to catch a Robin in the backyard! Way to go, Ashley. But maybe next time you could just catch the Robin and let it go instead of killing it, huh?

With all of these Brittanys around, which dog to you think we will be cheering on in tonight's premier of the TV Show Greatest American Dog? Star, of course, and her human Bill! Go Star!!!

Also, a couple of my blogging buddies are holding contests. Click on over to PonyKnits and Nichole's Lapdog Creations blogs and enter!

Dogs on Thursday

Remember this little boy from this post and this post?

I have been obsessively checking the Atlanta Pet Rescue & Adoption website, waiting for news that little Murray (his name at the shelter) was adopted. This week, I was rewarded by seeing this picture.

Well, not that picture exactly. The faces of Murray's new parents are not blacked out on the APR website, but I felt kind of funny about posting pictures of complete strangers on my blog. Trust me, they are smiling from ear to ear, as is little Murray. Just look at that face.

Murray has found a new home, Cooper has found a new home, two happy endings. What more could you wish for? I hope I won't be struck down and sent straight to hell for adapting a bible verse to suite my own needs, but I can't help thinking "...all things work together for good for them that love...dog"! Hmmm, just switch a couple of letters, and it works for me!