500! And A Giveaway

This is my 500th post on this blog, which started April 2006, and I'm showing a few pictures from that era. The blog started as a collection of my random thoughts, to reflect bits and pieces of my past and current lives. Over the years, other contents slowly filtered out and knitting stayed. Now Fiber Arts Friday keeps me and my knitting organized, and I'm grateful for all the friends I met through the blog, Ravelry, knitting, dogs, and life.

Bucky was 10

Trinket was 11

Frode by Elsebeth Lavold

Henry was 6

Now the fun part. The GIVEAWAY! Since the blog has been around for awhile, and I have been using this format for awhile, I'm thinking about making some changes. Last time I picked a new template I spent days editing older posts. I hope this time it will be less painful. I want to hear from you in the comments: is there something in particular you like about this blog, either content or format; is there an entry you particularly like; any tips and tricks you want to offer.

A few guidelines:

1. Entry starts when this post is published, and ends next Thursday June 28 at noon California time (PDT).

2. Each comment generates an entry, unless otherwise specified, namely for Ravelry China group since some members can't access Blogger thanks to the Great Fire Wall.

3. Please have something concrete to say in your comment. Just telling me "Nice blog" so you can have an entry would not count.

4. Leave your Ravelry ID or email address in the comment, and the country you live in if not US. If we are Ravelry friends most likely I will be able to find you.

5. Prizes include yarns, books, magazines, patterns and possibly more. Sorry I didn't have a chance to take pictures, but I do have things set aside for this giveaway, I promise. I have been knitting and stashing for a long time, there is plenty of good stuff to go around.

6. Drawing will take place next Thursday afternoon.

7. One, two, or three names will be picked, and I will decide what to send you based on how well I know you and your geographical distance. 

8. Winner(s) will be announced in next Friday's entry.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Henry in the Press

Humane Society's eNewsLetter came out yesterday and Henry was featured in the Two Paws up section. Click here to see the newsletter, and scroll all the way down to the bottom to see the boy with Dino the big bionic dog.

Humane Society Visit, End of 4-40

Last Friday we went to Humane Society to drop off our huge collection, and meet a few people. I had emailed back and forth with the volunteer coordinator previously, and she wanted us to meet some folks in Marketing. They even arranged a volunteer photographer to take pictures of Henry.

Here is Henry with Dino the socialization mascot in front of the donation center. Dino had hip replacement done by the good doctors at the Humane Society, and of course Humane Society covered the costs too. Henry never had close contact with big dogs before (they are right about the same size, 75 lbs), so Dino was quite a new experience for him. Dino's foster dad let Henry walk Dino for a bit and give him treats. Henry recorded the experience on the 4 Weeks, Forty Blanket blog.

Next to the donation center is a door that leads to the surrender counter. Every time we went to donate someone went into the surrender door with a crate. If you are thinking about bringing a new pet home, please consider the shelter.

To wrap up the 4-40 project, we reached the target on Monday when we picked up from three separate locations. A woman lives in Los Gatos mountains offered to meet us in town, so we met her in the high school where her child was in band practice and which Henry will be attending in three years. Then we went to a home in Almaden for our second pick up. This was through Henry's post on lmtrade, a Yahoo Group I started years ago for Las Madres families to buy/sell/trade household items. A woman responded to Henry's email and offered a big bag of blankets and towels. In the afternoon, we went to our third pick up of the day in Los Altos. This was through Henry's post on a Freecycle group, another big bag of blankets and towels. I think these people really like Henry.

Back in July I told my mom about the 4-40 project, so she collected a bunch of stuff from her friends and neighbors. On Tuesday we went and picked these up. Our final total was 55 blankets, countless towels, sheets, and lots of toys. I'm very happy with what we've accomplished, very happy with how Henry managed the project and made his summer meaningful.

Operation Blanket Update

We are in week three of 4 Weeks Forty Blankets and things are going very well. To date we received 28 blankets, some pads and small rugs, bags and bags of sheets, towels, and even more bags of stuffed animals. We have a visit scheduled for Humane Society tomorrow morning when we, hopefully, might be able to hand some of these items directly to the adoptable dogs.

Now the question is, how am I going to fit all these in my little car?

(Bucky is not invited on the trip, although he certainly would enjoy a romp on the big lawn and the playground that Humane Society set up for exercising the dogs. He was here to supervise our photo shoot.)

Four Weeks Forty Blankets

Henry and I have August off from camps and work, so we are going to collect 40 blankets for the Humane Society. Henry is mostly in charge of the project, and I'm helping him here and there with ideas and most importantly, driving. So far we have collected eight blankets and tons of stuffed animals. Yesterday we did our first drop off at Humane Society and visited some of the adoptable dogs.

You can follow our progress on our blog: 4 Weeks, Forty Blankets; or our Facebook page in the same name.

DOT Spotlight Rerun

More than two years ago Trinket and Bucky were featured on Dogs on Thursday, and I just realized that I never ran that post here on our own blog. Shame on me. So here it is in full. Remember this was written in January 2008.

Trinket

Trinket is my first dog, the first new member of our little family. Trinket is Chihuahua and Fox Terrier mix; he’ll turn thirteen on January 30th.

Couple of years into our marriage, my husband and I still felt like newly weds, but looking at each other across the dinner table every night was getting a bit dull. We needed something to jazz up our lives.

A local rescue group, CARE, was holding an adoption fair on a Wednesday evening, April 6, 1995. It was love at first sight. The foster mom was showing Trinket to other people, and I followed her around like a puppy. When she got good and tired of that she handed me Trinket, “do you want to hold him?” I held Trinket and Bill signed the contract.

At first we were pretty determined to bring up a presentable good citizen; we changed our minds within twenty four hours. Although we tried very hard to be good doggie parents, our little puppy denied the fact that he was a dog, he insisted on eating with us (our food) and sleeping with us (on my pillow). When we left him home alone in a playpen, he chewed up the lanolin floor.

Trinket used to run circles around the kitchen every night, or leap a few feet into the air and land on a big deck in the back yard. He had so much energy and only had these two big humans to play with. We told him he deserved someone to bug the hell out of him.

Oh did he get what he deserves! In twelve years he endured two rescues, a pug brother, and worse of all, a little human brother. Being the smallest in size, Trinket insists on being the pact leader. Sometimes teeth are shown to enforce the leadership.

Bucky

Bucky is a black pug. He turned twelve on November 5, 2007.

The following “How We Met” story has never been told before. You see, pug people are very protective of their beloved little apple heads and big ears, and we were fearful that someone might consider us traitors of the breed and retaliate.

We met Bucky in the flea market. It was January 6, 1996, first Saturday of the month and we were happily strolling along in De Anza Flea Market, as we did almost every month. 

Someone had two little puppies in a playpen, the boy, the little black one, was still available. The little guy had been lying on the cold hard parking lot for the entire day; all he had was some blue tarp for comfort. Yet he was playful nonetheless, tugging on the tarp, and when someone picked him up, he licked and chewed on girls’ hair. I looked in those big googly eyes and couldn’t put him down.

They were asking for $325, as is. Since it was the end of the day they lowered it to $300, and we took him home, with a flea.

We soon found out his energy level was simply out of this world. He ran around so much in the first two years, we could hardly take a decent picture of him. He was our perfect answer to Trinket’s puppy hood, ha-ha. They are about ten months apart, so Bucky has almost never spent more than a few hours alone in his life. He looks to the big brother for the next action. If Trinket thinks he hears a car is in the driveway, he starts to bark, and Bucky follows, and Bucky doesn’t know why Trinket is barking, and he doesn’t care.

Our four-legged children helped us proof to ourselves that we are indeed capable of keeping small creatures alive; in return, they got the human brother, Henry.

I Don't Have A Wooden Heart

I have taken so many pictures and video clips of our dogs over the years, they slowly scroll through my screen every day, like a random review of our lives together. I grabbed some of our favorites to put in this little video, to capture the spirit of Trinket from his bright eyed innocent babyhood, to a bouncy teenager, to an intelligent pack leader, to a playful goof ball, to our elderly sweet cuddle bug. They say a picture means a thousand words; a thousand pictures maybe a life time for a little dog, what's more, is the warm little spot in our hearts, and yours.

Trinket Thomas: January 30 1995 -- June 2 2010

These are the last pictures of Trinket.

This afternoon Trinket decided it was time to go, and he did. Our first born passed away around 3:30pm, on the living room floor with my hand on his chest help him breathing. After 15 years 4 months, his heart gave out. Trinket lived a happy healthy life. In human years Trinket would be about 80 years old.

We never thought Trinket would be the first to go. He's been very healthy and active, occasionally taking on a hunger strike to keep his slim and agile figure. He had first degree (lightest) mast cell tumor in 1998 when I was pregnant with Henry. I thought gain one lose one, but he pulled through the surgery and recovery, and the tumors never came back. In the last couple of months, despite his enlarged heart and refusal of his medicine, I still thought he's somehow pull through and live out his golden years as our only puppy, like he did when he first joined us at eight weeks old with sharp little milk teeth.

This afternoon less than an hour before he passed away he climbed up and down the stairs to follow me when I did laundry. Then he had some trouble breathing so I held him and tried to make him feel comfortable. It didn't seem to help much and I had to let him go and stumble away. I turned around a few minutes later and he was on the floor, looked like he just collapsed. He was very happy to see me, gave me a good wag of the tail. I helped him through the last moments.

Trinket joins Macie, our rescued Westie who passed away five years ago while with another family, and they so enjoyed playing tug. Bring it on.

Trinket Is My Sweet Baboo

Between this picture and the one from couple weeks ago, you see all the humans that Trinket would allow to hold him. He's all Chihuahua in that regard, two people dog, no more. Our faithful pup he is.

The Pill War II

Let review what we've tried for Trinket so far for his pill taking:
1. Provolone cheese (too strong)
2. Pill pockets (too doggie)
3. Turkey deli meat (too whatever)
4. Liver treats (gag)
5. Plain toast (too crumbie)

Here is the latest routine (it's been working for the past couple of days, so keep our fingers crossed it's going to stay working):
1. Dad gets a vanilla wafer cookie and break it into four pieces -- one half and two quarters
2. One quarter goes to Trinket
3. One quarter goes to Bucky because by now he knows Trinket gets treats and he can't miss out on it
4. Dad puts a dab of peanut butter on top of the half cookie and quickly sticks the pill in the middle of the peanut butter
5. Trinket gobbles it up
6. We wait and make sure he swallows, cause sometimes that rascal does spit out the pill and we have to start all over.

Bucky says he'd prefer the pill pocket, thank you. Wait, with some of that turkey please. And liver treats. On a piece of toast. Might as well have the cookie and peanut butter. With cheese on top.

The Pill War

Trinket has been very healthy all his life, so we never learned his pill habit -- as in, how difficult it is to make him take pills. We know he's a picky eater, even has to sniff test his water every morning, as if from day to day the filter might just change a bit, well I guess that could be true. When he was a baby I used to hand feed him kibbles, or give him table food when he refused his meals. He's our first born, what can I say.

Last week Dr. Larsen prescribed couple of meds for Trinket -- Enacard for the heart, twice a day, and Torbutrol for breathing, as needed. That's at least two meds a day. First we did fine with cheese, good Provolone cheese. Did that for four days until Trinket turned his nose at it -- too strong, I'm a little dog after all. We ran out and bought pill pockets, which worked magic for Bucky. Did that for another four days, until Trinket started spitting the little balled up pocket out, no like it, want real food, this is for dogs.

Trinket's Dad is a big guy at six foot four, I mean he's A LOT bigger than the little dog. When Trinket gets nasty about things like taking pills and I don't feel like fighting those sparkly little canines, we bring out the big gun. Trinket and Dad settled on a pill routine something like this:

1. Dad brings out a pack of deli meat and offer Trinket a little piece.
2. Trinket: Yum, turkey, good stuff. Can I have more?
3. Dad gives Trinket another piece.
4. More?
5. Dad quickly wraps the pill in a piece of turkey, before Trinket figures out what's going on.
6. Trinket happily eats it.

Stay tuned.

Little Dog with a Big Heart

Trinket turned 15 in January, that's pretty old. He still acts like a puppy for the most part, runs up and down the stairs, stands on his hind legs and begs at the table, chases away cats and squirrels in the back yard. He doesn't hear nor see very well any more, which just makes him a bit more reasonable.

In the last couple of years his breathing has been getting noisier, especially at night. Sometimes he hacks as if imitating a cat coughing up a hairball. We thought we should consider sending him to the circus. He doesn't like visiting the vet, and we let him be.

Last weekend Trinket started hacking on and off rather loudly, more frequently than before, and worse at night, much worse than anything we'd seen. We called the vet and she said it might have to do with his heart since she detected heart murmur before. We took him in right away. Dr. Larsen managed to get couple of X-rays of his chest without any drugs, just a little cat muzzle. (Did I mention Trinket doesn't like her? He really shows it, physically.) The X-rays show Trinket has enlarged heart and collapsed trachea, both problems that we had a sense that existed, but now aggravated by old age. We got medications to help his breathing.

It's been three days since we started the medications and so far so good. We are all getting some sleep. Trinket is rather liking the pills routine, which involves a piece of cheese and some scratches behind the ears. 

Keep your fingers and toes crossed Trinket will maintain his health and snuggle with us for many more days and weeks and months.

Trinket Is 15

Fifteen years old! Our first born turned 15 years old last Saturday. Quite unbelievable if you ask me. We had a little cake to celebrate, and Bucky had some baby food from the jar.

I made a little video with some pictures of Trinket and us to honor the event.

Puppy Sandwich

On rainy stormy cold winter nights, Trinket likes to bury himself in a pile of pillows or the doggie bed to keep warm and hide from the nasty monsters. He flips up the cushion in the doggie bed, and makes himself a little sandwich.

Merry Christmas!

Twas the day before Christmas

When all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a mouse

Pups Update

Since Bucky's birthday a few weeks ago, the weather has suddenly turned cold, and Bucky started having a lot more trouble walking. One day he simply stopped walking on the hardwood floor in the kitchen. He has severe arthritis in both hips. When he can't get a good foot hold, the hips just give out and he sits down, legs stuck under him, and he can't move at all. This gives him a bad temper and he hollers till someone picks him up and unstuck him. He can still walk around on the carpet in the living room and bedrooms, or outside on the stone walk way. But I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and he always wants to be with me. Lately we got in sort of a routine -- we carry him to his food bowl, to the water bowl, to the big potty outside, to his bed. As long as his humans are within eyesight he's fine, within ear shot is not good enough.

Some days he feels well enough to enjoy the sunshine in the garden.

With all this going on with Bucky, Trinket becomes the much ignored big brother. As they say, sometimes no news is good news. He will be 15 in less than two months and we are all happy that he's gingerly chugging along.

More Childhood Picture

Another oldie but goodie. Henry was about two, Bucky five, Trinket six. Henry called basketball B Ball for a very long time, his beloved sport at Gymboree. Bucky just started getting a gray chin. Trinket didn't get along with Henry very well, it was a precious sight to see all three of them sitting together on Henry's bed.

Trinket's Childhood Pictures

When we were both 14 years younger.

The other dog was Lucy, a rescue we fostered for a few days, until she bit Trinket in the nose and we sent her packing.

Trinket Gets Wild

Trinket is a hot tempered little guy. When he gets excited, he loses his mind. This was what we had when we got home yesterday. He was jumping and barking all over us. When Dad picked him up, he was panting so hard we thought he might have a heart attack. Took a few tries to get a clear picture cause he was wiggling so much. What does he look like here? An ancient wild dog? A fox? A coyote? A hyena?

Trinket on Friday

Why does food taste better when they are on the floor? Every meal Trinket tosses some of his kibbles and rice on the floor, eats what's left in his bowl, then polishes off what he tossed out.