Thanksgiving 2008

A twenty pound turkey

all the other required fixin's

17 friends and family

wine and sparkling cider

Thanksgiving 2008 was quite a wonderful celebration at our house.  Grandpa was here from Tennessee.  Uncle Sky, Aunt Liz and Sarah were here from Kentucky.  Sue and Bob came with Ashley, Kaity, Kelsey and Kirstin.  And two of our international students from India, Sunil and Vikram, joined us as well.  With the 5 of us, that made 17 in all.

Sassy, of course, loved it.  She was sure that everyone here was only here to see and love on her.  It's so affirming to have Sassy around.  She will sit next to you and look into your eyes with such adoration.  

Ginger, on the other hand, did not have such a good time.  She spent most of her time shivering with fear and hiding from Grandpa.  Why she is so afraid of Grandpa is a mystery.  She has always mistrusted men she didn't know.  But she usually warms up to anyone that we treat as a friend.  With Grandpa, though, it's different.  She won't come near him.  She barks every time he moves a muscle.  And she hides upstairs most of the day.

I even had to carry her (remember, she is like 65 pounds) into the house one morning.  Of course I was in my red pajamas with the big white snowflakes.  And yes, people did drive by.  I just hope they got a laugh out of it.  Because it was really irritating at the time.  (My neighbor Cheryl saw me carry Ginger into the house the last time Grandpa was here.  She got a kick out of it).

All the guests are gone now and we have started to get set up for Christmas.  The tree is up and most of the other decorations are up as well.  We've got a few Thanksgiving things to put away still.  But it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here.  We even had a dusting of snow on the ground this morning. 

We are hoping the KY and TN folks will be coming back for Christmas.  I guess I should look into getting some valium for Ginger.

Sassy

Sassy wasn't at all a "throw-away" dog, but we were her 4th family in her first 9 months of life.  And that is not counting her birth home.  See, Sassy was first adopted by my husband's boss.  The family loved her and would have kept her, but the dad was allergic to her.  She is supposed to be a chihuahua mix and the dad was not allergic to their other chihuahua mix.  So they hoped he wouldn't be allergic to her.  But look at her picture.  My husband noted that if she had any chihuahua in her, she must have eaten one.

Anyway, since he was allergic, he gave Sassy to his secretary.  She would have kept her but her Jack Russell Terrier had other ideas.  So they gave Sassy to their neighbors.

The neighbors were an older couple who were looking for a small, calm lap dog.  Sassy was a puppy and it was obvious she was not going to be a small dog.  She weighs about 30 lbs now.  I guess that makes her officially a medium sized dog.  And she had all the energy of a puppy.  She was just too much for them.

So about a month before we were scheduled to move from Alabama to Illinois, my husband's boss asked him if we could take Sassy.  Her daughter was particularly worried that Sassy was having trouble finding a good home.  So we agreed to meet the older lady at a grocery store parking lot to see if Sassy might fit into our lives.

She jumped right in the car and pretty much acted like she'd been a part of our family all along.  Ginger accepted her pretty easily.  And the cat, who had just been captured and brought inside, really had no choice.

Now Sassy is the ultimate lover-dog.  Her favorite thing to do is sit next to someone on the couch, her head on that person's chest.  She'll look up into that person's eyes with adoration and sigh with contentment.  My friend Carole found that out when she came over one evening in October.  Sassy attached herself to Carole and adored her the whole time she was here.

This is Sassy.  She loves to sit like this on the couch or recliner.   Isn't she cute?

Hope

Yeah!  I have a follower!  Of course, it's my sister so she has to follow my blog. :)

Yesterday the kids were home from school for Veterans day.  So I took them and one spare kid to work at an animal rescue called Hope Rescues in Alton, IL.  I love that place.  The 2 co-founders are the sweetest ladies.  They care about those animals and do everything in their power to save them from the gas chamber or other horrible fates.  Anyway, the boys and I went to clean out litter boxes, scoop up dog poop, wash feeding bowls, feed animals, and love on animals.  My youngest especially enjoyed playing with the kittens.  And I was really proud of my oldest for cleaning up poop without complaining.  

I was sad yesterday to learn that Hope has a hard time adopting out their cats.  It's just that people don't want cats as often as they want dogs and most of the cats end up spending a lot of time there.  Not that it's so bad there, but they are in cages a lot of the time.  I'd love to be able to adopt one or at least foster one or two.  But I'm not sure what Spooky would think of it.  And our house is already a zoo (1 husband, 3 boys, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 leopard gecko, and 2 fish).  So, if there is anyone out there that is looking for a great cat, please consider adopting one.  And if you are close to Alton, IL, please get one from Hope Rescues!  (www.hoperescues.com).

And remind your friends to spay and neuter!

If I were a poet

If I were a poet, which I'm not, I'd love to write a poem with the title "There are dinosaurs in my shower".  The reason, of course, is that there are dinosaurs in my shower.  Two of them.  And there are also two turtles.  For some reason, the kids love to take a shower in my bathroom.

There's also an airplane on my dresser - it has a broken propeller I need to fix.  I guess that could go into the poem somewhere too.

Spooky, this fine looking fellow, is making it hard for me to write in this blog.  He wants attention and I'm the only one in the house he wants attention from.

Spooky has an interesting story.  He has been with us now for about 2 and a half years.  But the first time we saw him was in 2002.  We were living in Birmingham, AL at the time.  We saw a beautiful white cat in the neighborhood, but he wanted nothing to do with us.  The neighbors all assured us that he was a stray and they all referred to him as the sewer cat.  Then miss Ginger came along.  We noticed the cat hanging around more.  He was very shy, but would hang out on the deck with Ginger and would accept a hotdog from the grill.

Because he was hanging out with our dog, and because rabies is a big problem in Alabama with all the raccoons around, I caught Spooky and took him to the vet.  He'd already been neutered, so he apparently had belonged to someone, sometime.  We started feeding him and set him up some shelter on the deck.  

Anyway, when we found out we were moving, we had to bring Spooky with us.  He spent about a year hiding in the basement but he eventually made it to the main part of the house and will now hang out with the dogs and me.  He's still wary of the children, but he's getting better.  I assume he is happier here than in a sewer in Alabama.  At least I hope he is.

It begins with an ATC

"Sadly Blog-less" was a term I heard a friend use.  She was telling me that she started a blog so that she would no longer be someone's "sadly blog-less friend".  Well, I guess I am no longer sadly blog-less either.

This blog is named for my 2 canine friends Ginger and Sassy.  The above picture is one of an artist trading card (aka: ATC) I made of them some time ago.  I enjoy making ATC although I have only made a few and have kept all but one.  

That's it for my first post.  I'll be back.

Barb