Wordless Wednesday-Our Version of a Push Me Pull You

She's At It Again...A Story

My Girly Girl always seems to have something brewing.  I was quite surprised to get the following email on Saturday morning from our dear friend Pat.  She has graciously given me permission to share it.

A "story"

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Patricia	Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 9:13 AM
To: Mumma
Two months ago, my sister and her husband adopted a 15 year old toy poodle who had been used for stud and lived most of his life in a small crate. They gave him a short time of knowing security and love before he died on Thursday. Frankie was a character and we watched him blossom from a grumpy old man to a mischievous little guy who was happy to be petted and cuddled. He will be missed. Hugely. We all fell in love Frankie when Kate first met him with him and are very saddened by his loss. But Frankie is not the story. Last night, trying to sleep, I was thinking of my sister, Frankie and all of the dogs and cats that preceded him in Kate's life. I was hoping that they would meet him and teach him how to live at the Bridge. I thought of George, Gretchen, Samantha, Leiber, as I thought of each of them, I could see them in my mind's eye. Then I thought about Daisy, my sister's heart dog. But no Daisy appeared, nope. Who came into my musings? Girly Girl. She was just there. She looked beautiful, strong and calm. But even though she was very still and quiet and I saw no movement at all, there was a sense that she was just pulsing with energy! Like she was going to leap -- um, I don't know where, just leap, I guess. And she "said", "Tell Mumma." That is all. I have spent the morning trying to figure out what sweet Girly Girl wanted, and am dismayed to have no more to tell you. Rick thinks she just wanted to let everyone know that she is whole, well and happy. I don't think that's it at all. Bottom line, GG is with you, thinking of you, loving you. I hope this "story" does not make you feel sad. In my thoughts (or dream?!?) she was happy, her gentle little self, but with a truly awesome energy. Perhaps it makes some sense to you. Pat PS: I remember you telling me that GG was going to come back to you in another houndie. But that grey is already born, right? And you know who s/he is? So her message is not about that. Hmmm. A puzzle from Girly Girl to her mom on this almost Spring Saturday. Sent from my iPad

 While I try to figure out what my girl is trying to tell me, I usually don't understand immediately what the message is.  But so far it has always unfolded with a little time.

Mumma	Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 9:52 AM
To: "Patricia
That story makes me cry but in no way makes me sad. I think it means something more as well but I'm not exactly sure of the meaning.  Two things immediately come to mind but GG sometimes has bigger plans that I don't get to know until after they have come to fruition. The adoption of Bettina immediately comes to mind! I was told by a communicator that GGs job these days is to help other dogs cross over.  I love to think about Frankie two weeks after coming to his new home with Kate her waiting for each dog as they open their eyes on her side.  Since you were thinking about Frankie and other dogs who have passed, perhaps her message relates to that. Or maybe it is to comfort me.  I have a tough time in February and October (her birthday and when she left me).  It feels like its been particulalry hard this year though I can't point to why. If she's coming back with the same ear tattoo she showed me in the dream, she has not been born yet, she'll be born in July of 2016.  I know exactly what she'll look like. In any case, I don't doubt that she had a message for me.  There is a reason she is sending it through you and that at some point we'll learn exactly what she means.  In the meantime I'm very comforted by your story.  I believe she is with me and she sends me messages all the time now that I am open to them.  She was probably sending them from the minute she crossed but I was too blocked by pain and loss to receive them even though a message from her was what I most desperately wanted. I'm also very sorry about Frankie's passing.  Your sister is a very special person to help him knowing that time with him would be short.  I'll be sending you and your sister positive energy. Would you consider letting me post  this story on my blog? Sent from my iPad Message from Girly Girl?  I believe so.  I'm sure some think I'm deluding myself but if that ultimately ends up being the case, I'm OK with that to.  I believe she has something up her sleeve and I am most interested to learn what it is!

Corn Dogs

I’ve mentioned before that Blue is a half-brother to Fox.  Fox is the elder statesman of Grammy’s two hairy children.  Fox and Blue share the same mother (dam), Royal Dream. 

As an aside we’ve searched all Blue’s life with us for a photo of Royal Dream.  She is (maybe was at this point) owned by Janice George.  We’ve tried contacting Janice a few times but she’s never responded.  We’ve searched for hours on the internet on the chance that maybe there was a photo of her posted somewhere, for some reason.  So far with no luck.  If anyone out there has a photo, or knows Janice, we throw ourselves on your mercy since living with this insatiable curiosity is killing us!  We hear that Royal Dream is/was a favorite of Janice.

A Fox Corn

But back to Blue and Fox.  Fox has suffered from corns for a number of years.  He gets them frequently and on just about all his feet.  We typically Dremel them down or pad them.  Various home remedies for corn removal have been tried but essentially without success.  Since they only seem to bother him from time to time, Grammy has taken a live and let live attitude with respect to the corns. 

Taking my cue from Fox, I watch Blue like a hawk for any of the maladies that have afflicted poor Fox (and the number of said maladies is not insubstantial).  Since they share so many of the same genes, and they’re so alike in personality, I’m very afraid they will also be alike with respect to their health.  One of the things I have always done is check Blue’s feet for corns.  So far we have been all clear but I always expect to see one someday since Blue is one of the lumpiest and bumpiest dogs I know. 

So it was with a mixture of surprise and a sense of “I knew it!” that I picked up Blue’s foot the other day and saw on one of the pads of his left front foot a fairly well developed corn.  I pressed on it and fiddled with it a bit.  It didn’t seem to be causing him any discomfort.  I hadn’t noticed a change in his gait. 

And so I had to face it.  The moment I had been expecting had arrived.  I have always harbored an absolute belief that Fox is the model for Blue’s aging patterns.  Blue is a year behind Fox in age but so far in much better shape than poor Fox at each stage.  Yet I still harbor the belief and fear that Blue will follow his genetic heritage and suffer all the things that have challenged our poor Fox.  I don’t let the fact that Blue has exhibited almost none of the issues that Fox has suffered so far get in my way.  I just know in my gut Blue is going to fall apart in the same way Fox has.

Blue's feet, corn and blueberry muffin free

And here was this corn.  The very first sign that the downslide has begun.  It’s a short hop, skip and jump from there to wasting away to nothing, a victim of Alabama Rot as Fox currently is.  I had been dreading it.  I had been expecting it.  I had been looking for it.  If you seek, so shall you find.  The implications of this turn of events were weighing on me.  I spent the afternoon pondering what was going to happen to Blue and how we would deal with it.  I was planning all sorts of medical and hospice type scenarios. 

With sad resignation I decided to carefully note the location of this very first corn.  This harbinger of doom.  This horseman of the apocalypse.  I got Blue in an area with good lighting and lifted his foot up.  I got right down in there and took a good look at that corn.  Only it didn’t look like a normal corn.  I fiddled with it some more.  It felt like a corn.  I looked even more closely.  It definitely did not look like any corn I had seen. 

I reached out again and began to scratch at it.  At first nothing happened but the more I scratched at the edges of it, the more it began to crumble away.  I finally loosened it to the point where it popped off in my hand.  What the…? 

The harbinger of doom apocalyptic corn turned out to be a dome of some unknown substance (my money is on blueberry muffin) that stuck to the bottom of his foot and hardened there.  Because of Blue’s newly developed concern about walking on our linoleum floors, I had begun spraying his pads with a product made for show dogs.  It makes their feet tacky so that they have a grip on the flooring of typically slippery show arenas. 

It has helped him with the floors and apparently also helped in cementing a blueberry muffin crumb to his pad.  So it looks like Blue is not dying.  He is not currently exhibiting signs of the creeping crud.  He has not started the same sort of slide that Fox has undergone.  Yet.

3D Thursday - Like Jaws, Only Cuter

To appreciate 3D Thursdays, you will need a pair of 3D glasses (the kind with one red lens and one blue lens).