Thursday, December 28, 2006

Blonde Extinction

A colleague told me one day that I was a dying breed. I thought she was referring to my infectious personality, but she was actually referencing my hair color (which is natural). I laughed, but she told me to check out the article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2284783.stm It kind of scared me, to be honest. The article says that natural blondes, are in fact, fading out. I guess I can understand this. In my own family, my brother, sister and I are all natural blondes. My sister's children are brunettes, a trait they inherited from their Asian father. There are more inter-racial marriages these days. I just never thought that blondes might die out. I was discussing this with my students and one of them said, "Well who are we going to make all the jokes about when this happens?" I had to laugh; very true- who will be the butt of so many jokes?

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas Traditions

This is written by my (almost) 10 year-old niece, Olive Oil.
My favorite Christmas tradition is going to my Grammy's house on Christmas Eve after church. We always have a little Christmas program and eat. Every year, Grammy has us choose a song and we get to make up a dance to it. My dance was going to be to "Santa Baby" this year, but I was sick. We also set up the mini-trampoline and jump to the music. Grammy showed us her Akido moves during our practices, too:) While I was sick this year, we got to have fun w/Grammy's present, Space Saver Bags (they really don't work too well).

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Things that make me smile...

- the first graders responding at Mass, in loud voices, unafraid and unembarrassed - my students every day- a dad biking with his kids- the Budwieser radio commercials where they salute random people (if you've heard them, you know exactly what I mean)- my 4 year old niece when she leaves messages on my cell because she always says, "I miss you, love you, call me back," as if she is an adult- "Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer" b/c for some reason, my mom loves that song- M & M minis

Saturday, December 2, 2006

So guilty

My poor, poor little Westie. I took her to the vet yesterday to see if her marking was health related before I put her on house arrest (or should I say crate arrest). They took a urine sample and she has blood in her urine! Poor, poor baby. So, her vet is treating her for a urinary tract infection. She is going to take an atibiotic for two weeks, but if that doesn't help she may actually have bladder cancer. She has gone from 15.9 lbs to 14.5 since this time last year. I really hadn't noticed any weight loss. She eats pretty well. She's never really been a piggy or anything, but I do feed her Solid Gold dog food and an omega-3 fortified egg every day. She gobbles it up. I also give her a glucosomine (I don't think I spelled that correctly) vitamin b/c when I rescued her, her joints popped constantly and that helps prevent arthritis.
If you ever think about buying a puppy from a pet store, search "puppy mills" on the internet and read about where those cute little puppies come from. They come from horrible places where dogs, like my sweet one, live in cages their entire lives with no names, very little food, and pure neglect- and are bred over and over again until they can't produce anymore. Many people who own those mills shoot their breeder dogs when they can no longer breed, but luckily, Westie Rescue of Missouri got my sweet thing out and I adopted her.
I'm not some sort of a PETA activist, but I will never agree with the practice of puppy mills. The Lord instructed the humans to take care of the earth, animals included and that means not abusing them. Like I said, I'm not an activist, but I do believe people should not be allowed to keep 800 plus dogs in a warehouse to make money. When my sweetie was rescued, she had 2 ear infections, horrible worms that didn't clear up for 4 months they were so bad, she was grossly skinny, 7 rotten teeth that had to be removed. She'd never been on grass and she walks kind of funny from standing on a wire cage bottom her whole life. Don't even get out the hose- she is terrified of them! They used to just spray out the cages w/out taking the dogs out.
OK, enough of the horror stories- just know to think twice before you purchase a puppy at a pet store.
Also, my sweetie is living a wonderful life now. She can sit, stay, shake, roll over, and fetch. She is one happy gal! Which is partly why it's so hard for me to know when she's sick. She just won't let me know. She's one tough cookie!

Friday, December 1, 2006

West Highland White Terror- Oops.. Terrier

Ok, so here she is... The love of my life, and today a thorn in my side. My beautiful Westie. She is sweet, gentle and wonderful w/kids (a huge plus for a teacher). However, lately, as in the past two weeks, she has been marking my place like crazy. I steam vaccuumed the carpets and it seems that since then, she's been marking. I found a spot or two and have cleaned them, but I could still smell a faint scent. So, this morning I got on my hands and knees and sniffed. Yes... I looked very much like the dog, while she sat on the rug and watched. Guess what I found- probably 20 spots!!! She is lucky that I love her so much. I cleaned them up, but had to get ready for work. In the crate she went, b/c she isn't getting free reign today after all of that. Does anyone know what might be causing this? She's 11, and I've had her 3 years. We've never had this problem before. I'm wondering if I should take her to the vet, I'm just dreading a huge bill. I think I'll do a little internet research.