Goodbye Dumbo

Dumbo was my cat before I moved to Denmark. When I left, he stayed with my parents and became their cat. Last night my parents had to make the difficult decision to put him down. The vet that they took him to believed he had some kind of cancer. I am relieved to know that he is at peace now and not suffering.

You'll be missed, Dumbo. Not just by my parents. I will miss you and Molly will miss the chance to get to know you better. Molly never did understand why you wouldn't play ball with her or why you run away every time she tried to say hi.

It wasn't that he had big ears that I called him Dumbo. It was just that he was the only kitten of the outside cats that was stupid enough to let me talk to him. So he moved in and learned to use a litter box and share territory with our keeshond Shadow. We had to say goodbye to Shadow several years ago because of failing health. Now it was Dumbo's turn to move on.

He loved to lick out my dad's cereal bowl every morning. He was nicknamed "vulture" because of the way he'd wait for Dad to finish.

He is probably one of the few cats that had a stuffed toy with a squeaker. He didn't care about the squeaker, but he got his bunny to stop them from stealing my mon's stuffed sheep she had on her bed. As a young cat he would carry that thing all over the place and hug it. It was silly and adorable the same time.

Molly will always thank Dumbo for the origin of her bunny. She wouldn't have gotten him if it weren't for Dumbo and his bunny. She had the privilege of borrowing his bunny while she was visiting them in the states. She loved it so much that we found her a similar toy, although it lacks the bunny ears.

Sleep well, silly boy.

A New Toy

Molly hasn't gotten to play with Bunny very much lately. We are afraid that Shawnee will be a little too aggressive with Bunny.

So, when I saw this stuffed toy at a thrift shop the other day, I couldn't resist getting it for the girls. It was very inexpensive and has a Velcro tummy. When I got him home, I discovered that I could remove the bean bag in his belly. I replaced it with a couple of old socks----much safer for the girls.

So far Shawnee is treating him with a great deal of respect. We are only letting them play with him under observation. DH especially loves the non-squeaky feature, because he was often irritated by Bunny's squeak.

The pictures only show Molly, because Shawnee was taking a nap when I took them.

Edited to add: My mother pointed out that I neglected to tell you the name of the new toy. His name is Lamby and Molly is already learning to recognize him by name. So far, Shawnee does not seem to have learned any toy names. Maybe she is less adept at language by nature?

True Color Thursday -- Blue

I'm sorry about the possibly rerun pictures today, but my hands are hurting so I'm not up to much.


Here is Molly with her bunny on the blue rug in the living room. She is under the coffee table, one of her favorite spots to hide out.























Here we are in the US. Me, Molly, DH, and my mom. We are watching a sheepdog demo. Note the blue jeans (x2), my blue hat, and my mom's blue shirt. My dad took this picture.












I just love this picture of Nashville and it is one of the first I thought of for this theme. It just feels so BLUE everywhere. Blue sky, blue AT&T building, other blue building, DH's blue shirt and jeans...

We really had a great tour of the city but that was an exhausting day for me and Molly. For my DH too. My wheelchair is a little too short for him to be able to stand up straight and push. He finally figured out hwo to fix it after we got home.





Very blue mat. Molly and I are training with Erin and Ziva here. You can read about Ziva in her blog, the SAR dog one!




This beach and ball picture of Molly and her daddy is from a year ago. we don't get to the beach as often these days because I can't walk so well. But here you can see blue sea and blue sky.



Puppy Molly on the blue carpet with a blue football (soccer ball for us Americans). That ball didn't last too long, but she loved it while it did. Now she has a sturdier one, but it isn't blue...


Border collies also come in blue! This is Josie, a rescued blue merle that lives with our friends Brenda, JJ, and Jake. We didn't get to meet Josie, because she wasn't there yet when we visited, but we think she is awesome anyway! Picture courtesy of Brenda (aka OurBoys).

Molly Reports that All Work and No Play Makes an SD a Dull Girl!

Just like you peeple, a service dog needs to get some time off werk to play and relax. I spend a lot of my day lying around bein ready to help Mommy if she needs me. When I'm "on call" like that, I kan sleep n nap n jus be a dog.

Sometimes a gurl jus wanna haf fun! Wen I feel like dat, I play wif some of my toyz. If Mommy or Daddy is home, I like for dem to play wif me. My new fav toy is my bunny! I got da bunny on our trip to USA. Grandmom and Granddad's kat Dumbo had one and I luved to play wif it. So Mommy got me one of my own. It doesn't look quite da same as Dumbo's bunny, but we named im after it.

When I squeeze da bunny wif my mouth, he squeeks. It is really cute.






I like it when dey trow bunny for me, but if dey won't, I just play wif him alone. I likes ta make him talk n keep his fur clean. Bunny is de only toy Im lowed to take to der bed wif me! He likes ta sleep in Mommy n Daddys bed wif us.








Another toy I like wen Mommy or Daddy'll play wif me is "pindsvin." Mommy says dat means hedgehog. Dis is my third hedgehog. Da first two didnt say anyfing, but dis one makes a nice SQUEEEEK! I really like it wen Mommy and Daddy trow it so it squeeks da whole way. Den I bring it back to dem ta trow agin. I kan play like dat for HOURS n HOURS!











But Mommy doesn always feel good nuff to play wif me. Sometimes she needz ta rest or iz buzy wif somfin else. So at times like dat, I play wif my new nylabone or a nother chew toy. It iz good to chew on tings dat are mine.

So dats what dis border collie werkin gurl does for fun when she cant herd sheep or help Mommy.

A Fall

I fell today. My legs weren't working and I was moving around on crutches, being stubborn to get something done. DH was outside and there I lay on the floor. I wasn't hurt, but I couldn't get up. My legs wouldn't do what I said they should.

Molly proved her worth once again. First, she gathered up my crutches. Then I thought I'd wait awhile because I wasn't too uncomfortable, so she lay down with me to take care of me. After a few moments of that, she went to get her bunny to offer it to me to cheer me up. Finally I got tired of lying there so I told her to find her daddy.

Well, she can't go out when the door is shut. She kept running to the door and back to me. Then she started to bark. So I praised her and encouraged her and after a few barks, my DH came to see what was up. I told him she was finding him and I needed his help, so he came and helped me get up off the floor.

I'm very proud of Molly for her persistence and her desire to do SOMETHING for me even if I don't ask her to.

A Few Pictures from the USA

I intended to make a big post on the neat Endless Mountains Fiber Festival and everything else we've been doing, but time has flown and I'm too tired. So you'll just have to live with this selection of pictures from the trip so far.

The first three pictures show Molly outside here at my parents' place. She is very excited by all the new smells and sounds.

The next two show Molly in the car--a place she has already spent a lot of time and will be spending a lot more.

The second to last picture shows Molly playing with a very special toy. It actually belongs to my parents' cat (who used to be mine), but my mom said she could play with it. It is Dumbo's Bunny and it squeaks. She has never had a soft toy before and she seems to love it.

The last picture is one my DH took of me, my parents, and Molly. Molly worked really hard all that day (Sunday), but she was a bit excited and distracted by the working border collie demonstration. She was jealous that the other dogs got to herd the sheep but she didn't.

I will try to put up pics of the demo later. Right now I need to go to bed. Molly has been sleeping for a while now.