Dear Mama,
While you’re out pampering yourself, getting a pedi with the bestie…
…don’t worry about me.
I’ll just be waiting for you, like I always do, looking my cute self…
Don’t feel guilty, or anything.
Just remember that I’m here…waiting…patiently…for you to return.
Love,
Gambit
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My poor dogs. With me being so sick, I haven’t had the energy to snuggle much.
My rear has been so sore that leaning over to love on my little guys has been too uncomfortable.
I haven’t been getting up and about much, but I have tried to pet them as I walk by.
Thus, my babies have been coming to me. I believe that animals know when we are sick, and they try their best to cheer us up.
Gambit, in particular, is an attention monkey. He absolutely thrives on it.
He’s impossible to resist.
I took the following picture of him, modified it with Instagram, and now have something I’ll probably frame.
Doesn’t that bring a smile to your face?
I’m taking care of myself…resting like I’m supposed to and taking my medicine as prescribed. I’m eager to resume my busy life…one that includes lots of furry baby play time.
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Last week, I took Aubie and Pele for their yearly shots.
I’ll admit that I am somewhat cheap as far as pet checkups go.
I only go for the shots…no “examination.”
I’m their mama, after all, and very attune to their nuances. I take them in when they need attention.
The dogs had no idea what they were in for. Aubie eagerly jumped into the car.
Pele did his thing…put his front legs on the seat and turned to look at us with an expression that said, “Is somebody gonna give me a lift?”
He’s lazy like that.
His excitement turned to anxiety, however, when we got to the clinic, and despite his large size…a whopping 99.9 pounds (up almost five since last year)…he whimpered like a baby.
Thank goodness Rooster had gone with me to help me out. I don’t think I could have managed both dogs on my own.
Pele turned to mush, though, when the techs grabbed hold of him in the room and clipped his nails. He also loved the vet and didn’t even tighten his butt cheeks when they gave him one of his shots.
Good boy!
Aubie was her happy-go-lucky self and licked everyone to death.
When we took them out to the car, Pele was so excited to be going home that he jumped in all the way…on his own.
Turd.
Yes, I just said that.
😀
I snapped these photos of the dogs while waiting in the Starbucks drive-thru (a reward to Rooster and myself for surviving the appointment)…
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This past week has been so sad.
I’m so grateful that I have this blog to pour my heart into. Thank you for all of the supportive comments and prayers. We have definitely felt God’s presence!!!
For today’s post, I decided to be more whimsical…a little random.
First, I thought I’d share a picture of my latest shoe acquisition…
I found those at Kohl’s. My cashier was a real piece of work, though…rude to the hilt…wouldn’t let me use my coupon…nasty to the lady behind me in line too. I put the shoes back, found a coupon online on my phone, and walked to the other set of cash registers across the store where one of my former students was working. I mentioned what had happened, and he and a manager rang up those shoes for me, using the online coupon code. I suspect the other cashier got an earful from the manager after I left.
The next picture is one that I drew in the game Draw Something. I’ve got a long game running with a knitting friend…almost 400 drawings thus far. I am not an artist, so I was a little surprised and, yes, proud of myself when I wound up with this little sketch…
I got the stitches out of my mouth this week…thank goodness! It felt like I had hair growing in my mouth! I’m pleased with the results. The skin is still growing, but I’m so thankful for medical advances that allow little things like teeth to be saved!
Now, it’s time for pictures of my pups. How dearly I love these four-legged critters. Throughout the week of tears and sadness, these little ones never failed to bring smiles and joy to my heart. They are so affectionate and always up for a game of ball or tug of war. They always wait anxiously for us to wake up…their little tails wagging when they see our eyes open. I sure don’t know what I’d do without my fur babies!
Sweet Aubie…old girl that she is…hearing on its way out…still happy-go-lucky…
Comfy dog…he thinks that rolling on his back, looking cute, will get me out of bed…
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I thought I’d treat you to some recent photos of my fur babies!
Here’s Aubie, old gal that she is…
Poor girl. I think that she’s sprouting more white hair every day! Her hearing is not super-great these days either, and she’s starting to have some problems when she gets up from the floor. Still, she’s full of energy and can still take down the younger pups.
Pele’s next.
He’s the most serene of the bunch, but he is occasionally bitten by the naughty bug. In the above picture, I think he was trying to tell me that he misses Chicky, his mama, and how dare I allow her to spend the summer at college. I hear you, Big Guy.
Molly’s up next.
She’s the most skittish of the crew. I have no idea why! We’ve had her since she was only a few weeks old. She was itsy bitsy when we got her from the pound and very, very young. We think she had to fend for herself early on after being left by her mama. She doesn’t come out from under the bed very often. We have to bribe her with treats and then close the bedroom door just to prevent her from becoming too anti-social. She’s loveable, though, and she’s my baby.
Gambit is next, and he has quite a few pictures…
He’s about the happiest-go-luckiest dog I’ve ever seen and very affectionate. He does not, however, like new people and is very scared of them.
He’s also quite the snuggler…
I tried hard not to let this little guy work his way into my heart…at the beginning when we weren’t sure if we were going to keep him after he’d followed me around the neighborhood on New Year’s Eve. Once the Mr. gave the green light to keep him, I opened up my heart, and he jumped right in!
Scary eyes, eh? heehee
I am a blessed gal to have so many loving critters around me!
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Grrr…
Anyone who has to wake up before dawn to head into work will understand the anguish of being woken up early when you’re on vacation.
My alarm goes off at 5am on school days. Hence my love of weekends and vacations when I can sleep in.
A little something happened, though, that has changed my happiness.
Don’t let his cuteness fool you.
He’s a young pup with tons of energy…
Granted, he has settled down quite a bit since his earliest days in our home, but still, this dog is one who NEEDS human interaction.
Thus, when he sees even a sliver of light coming through the blinds in the morning, he’s awake.
And he’s not alone.
I think he’s at the head of a conspiracy to not let me enjoy my summer mornings!
It’s as if the dogs have a meeting of the minds, telepathically of course, and then, as if they practiced all Spring for it, they POUNCE…
Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but it’s the best I could do given my sleepy state and the way in which I was pinned to the bed by the subjects in the photo.
Gambit is not merely content with waking me up.
Oh no.
He has total disregard for personal space and doesn’t recognize that what he’s stepping on, lying across, or jumping on is my body…which in comparison to the ratio between his body size and weight is quite small.
Being grumpy doesn’t help.
The guy won’t take no for an answer, despite all of my attempts to turn my head this way and that to give him the silent treatment.
He nudges his head under my arm…finds some tiny opening…and squeezes in…
I really oughtta wallop him.
Instead, I cave and give him the love he so desperately wants and needs.
This is my baby from the streets…finding me when he had nobody else.
I find him extremely difficult to resist.
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Thursday night, I took this picture of Gambit…
As I was going into school on Friday morning, I had an idea.
I put this picture on my Smartboard and added the following information…
First of all, please forgive the handwriting. Somewhere along the line, I missed the “Teacher Handwriting” class.
For 3rd and 4th periods, I modified my instructions to tell students to 1) Write one complete sentence that 2) Uses one figurative language device from the list and then 3) Identify the device used.
Had I completely had my act together, I would have skipped step 3, had my students exchange their papers with someone from another table, and then had the students try to identify which figurative device their partners had created.
But I didn’t.
Still, the kids had fun.
I told my students that because Gambit is Rooster’s dog, I would allow Rooster to select a winning caption from each class and then a GRAND PRIZE WINNER. I told my students that I would give each winner a prize.
A little motivation never hurt, eh?
😉
Rooster had a lot of fun reading the captions, and he had a difficult time selecting “winners.” All of my students were winners in both of our books.
But winners were selected, and I thought I would share them with you:
1st Period – Two students tied!
“J” – I think he is as crazy as a werewolf. (Rooster liked this because Gambit IS a little crazy.
“C” – “Get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” (Rooster liked this one because it hit on the stereotypical male mentality of telling a female to get him some food.)
3rd Period
“S” – Gambit was snoring as loud as screaming jets flying across the sky. (Gambit is a VERY loud snorer!!)
4th Period
“S” – “Why is she bothering me. I can never get any peace in this house!”
The GRAND PRIZE WINNER was…
“C” from 1st Period!!
Here’s the picture with the caption…
“Get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
“C” will get a super-size candy bar in addition to the small one I bought him as a “class winner.”
Filed under: Pets, Teaching | Tagged: figurative language, Pets, teaching | 1 Comment »
This past weekend was full of excitement…
The movie…
New phones…
Gambit getting sick.
Um, yeah.
Gambit decided not to eat all day Saturday. His tummy was rumbling too.
I figured he’d gotten a hold of something outside, so I wasn’t too stressed about it. I did put him in my room to sleep because I wanted to keep a closer watch over him. He slept like a log.
The next morning was a little different.
He still wouldn’t eat, but again, I wasn’t overly worried.
However, when I started to put him in his crate so I could go to church, I noticed blood on the floor.
It had come from him.
He’d been having loose stools the day before.
Oh gosh, it was awful!
I knew that my local PetSmart had a veterinary clinic, so after checking the internet for office hours, I decided to skip church and take him in.
Quite honestly, I was afraid he had Parvo.
See, I’d done a bad thing and never gotten him his shots after we “adopted” him.
Bad, bad, bad.
I know.
I kept thinking about making the appointment but life got ahead of me.
Sigh.
I figured he either had Parvo or some other intestinal parasite.
Chicky went with me to the vet, and we waited nervously for the results of the stool culture to come back.
The vet, a lovely young lady, came into the room smiling from ear to ear.
The tests were NEGATIVE!
The vet told us that he probably has a case of Colitis…that he ate something that created small perforations in his colon (hence the large amount of blood).
Time, soft food, and lots of medication will help him heal over the next two weeks…
He’s getting probiotics to restore the flora in his colon, and I’m also administering anti-diarrhea medicine to the little guy to help him get back on track on that end of things (pun intended).
Oh, and before I walked out, I made sure he’d been given his immunizations! We’ll go back in three weeks for a booster.
Once again, I am so grateful to God for tending to even these kinds of crises and for allowing my sweet little Gambit to be okay.
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Don’t mind me, Mama. I’m just waiting patiently until school is over…five instructional weeks plus a few days for final exams and cleaning up.
Then you’ll be mine…
ALL MINE…
And we can spend our days sleeping in…
Snuggling…
Throwing the rope and ball around…
And generally, just being together.
I.
Can’t.
Wait.
Filed under: Pets | Tagged: Pets | 2 Comments »
Grrr….
That’s how I felt when I was awakened this morning by this little guy…
Oh sure, he may be cute and all, but not at 6:42 on a Saturday morning.
Rooster had slept over at a friend’s house. Gambit sleeps in Rooster’s room, and he usually stays asleep until Rooster decides to crawl out of bed, which certainly ain’t at 6:42 in the morning.
With Rooster gone, Gambit only had Aubie to keep him company.
Obviously Gambit missed his boy.
Hence the whimpering wake-up call…from all the way across the house.
Now, you’ve never heard Gambit’s whimper.
It’s annoying.
And pathetic.
And annoying.
Yeah. I already said that.
I tried putting the pillow over my head, but he persisted.
Finally, I got up and let Molly and Pele out.
I left Gambit where he was. Sometimes Molly gets all grumpy and likes to take a nip or two. Heck, I wasn’t going to take a chance. After all, it was 6:42 on a Saturday morning. We’re usually asleep until 11. She was probably going to be a little grumpier than usual.
Don’t sue me.
I’m a teacher who begins each day at o’dark thirty.
Anyhoo…
When I got them inside, I didn’t hear Gambit crying, so I figured he’d gone back to sleep.
Oh, he did.
For, like, twenty minutes.
Then, he started up again, and this time He
Would
Not
Stop.
I had to get up.
I was not happy, and I told him so, mincing no words.
After feeding him and the rest of the crew, I was more fully awake.
I decided to do what I’d planned and began working on next week’s stations for my classes.
The kids are ASKING for stations. They WANT stuff to keep them occupied in class.
Victory.
Sort of.
So, I worked.
And worked.
And worked.
The Mr. got up, left, got a hair cut, worked out, picked up a veggie burger for me from BK, and returned, and still, I was working.
I got almost everything done in about three hours.
After I ate, I showered and then drove to my classroom to finish printing what I needed. I set up my station baskets, tested a couple of websites my students will be using to make sure they weren’t sites that had been blocked by our network’s security software, and returned home a while later.
Now, I’ll admit that a small part of me was happy that the little four-legged booger woke me up.
If he hadn’t, I would probably STILL be working on lesson plans.
As it was, I had time to meander through Target, Books a Million, Best Buy, and Walmart, doing nothing much but chillin’. I even had time to complete this week’s Reading Endorsement assignment.
So, little Mr. Gambit’s whining turned out to be a blessing.
Even at 6:42am.
Filed under: Pets, Teaching | Tagged: Pets, teaching | 1 Comment »
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