Responsible Pet Ownership

I was checking in with my sister the other day to let her know how we were doing here in Colorado. You have to understand one thing about Janice. She loves animals, especially dogs. She has six, count them, six rescue dogs in her beautiful home. The last one she rescued is Savannah. They found her sitting my a freeway entrance not far from her home. When she went back to catch her, Janice crawled through the field with a dish of food. Crawled mind you, so she would not frighten the dog. That dog has fallen into the lap of luxury.

The other day Janice had taken two of the dogs to the park to play. All of a sudden she looked down and a pure bred Scottish Terrier was sitting at her feet. At first Janice thought it was Maggie and that we had arrived home and we were surprising her. Truth be told if it had been Maggie, she would have been running away fast and furious and would have made San Francisco by evening. She is not good at "stay Maggie!"

At this point Janice picks up the dog and notices it has no tags on it's collar. She scours the park for the dogs owner with no luck. In fact, another lady was there that had just caught a lost Yorkie and was looking for it's owner, also. Janice went to some of the houses in the neighborhood with no luck so she took it home. She would have kept it but it started attacking her dogs (I'm sure it was just scared) so she took it to her vets. He said he would keep it until evening. Finally, the Animal Shelter came and took the Scottie which worried my sister. The next day the vet called with news that the owners of the Scotty had come to the Animal Shelter and reclaimed their dog.

So a happy ending to a story that could have gone so wrong.

Now I get to get on my soap box. For heaven sakes people!!!!! If you go to all the trouble to get a pet and go to all the expense pet ownership entails whether it be a purebred dog or or a Heinz 57, for crying out loud get tags for it!!! Tags with the dog's name and your phone number. Get a city license for it so it can be recorded in your area. Get the tags from the vet. And for the love of God, get your animal micro chipped. It is not that expensive. Less than $50. If you truly can not afford to do all of that, and I realize that not everyone can, then you should rethink pet ownership.

Harsh you say? Sure! I am not apologizing for it, either. If I ever lost Maggie I would be devastated. But we have her tagged and chipped and the chances of getting her back are so much greater than a dog that isn't.

So....

**A note of addition: I am very sympathetic with the fact that the economy is in a terrible state. Many people, through no fault of their own, are losing their homes. HOWEVER, this is no excuse to dump you pets or leave them locked in your home and walk away. Call a friend, ask a neighbor, contact your local vet, no kill animal shelter or rescue agency. There is a way!!!

Greetings from Colorado

I thought I should check in with you all. We are still in the Denver area visiting our son. We drove in our van and brought everything with us, including Maggie. Even the proverbial kitchen sink but sadly, not the cord to my camera. So unfortunately I can't download any pictures until I get home.

The drive here was, let's say, interesting. Once we hit Needles, California the wind started up. Bad wind. Nasty wind. Then the further east we got the more I started getting nervous about the impending storm. We spent the night in Grants, New Mexico and didn't know if we could get any further. We trudged on, though. Albuquerque wasn't bad so we went on to Santa Fe. Not bad. So off we went. The main storm was the day before we arrived there, but there was still some flakes coming down. However, the roads were icy and slushy and curvy and"mountainy". I had a death grip on the steering wheel all the way from Santa Fe to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Check out a map. That's a long way!!! Whew!

We arrived safely, though. Monday I took our son back to Colorado Springs for his surgery on his deviated septum. All went well, thankfully. The staff at the hospital at the Air Force Academy are awesome!!! We were supposed to take him back for a follow-up on Wednesday but a new storm had come in. Basically, the road was either closed or dangerous from Denver to Santa Fe. So we sat here and waited it out.

Our little Maggie is quite the traveler. She did great in the car and in the motels. She's playing really well with her new friend Abby, my son's dog. She is turning into quite the snow bunny. When the snow was soft and deep, I had to give her a warm bath each time she came in. She was covered in little snow balls! Right now she's outside sitting in the snow waiting for an unsuspecting squirrel to wander by.

Sweety and I (and Maggie) are having a wonderful time visiting our son and enjoying the area. I'll check in later.

xo

Happy St. Patrick's Day and a Hiatus

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you out there. As they say, everone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

What does a pig have to do with St. Patrick's Day? I have no idea. But isn't he a charmer? Look closer and you'll see part of my collection of Irish Beleek china in the background. It's one of my favorite things to collect. *To answer a question, yes he is a cookie jar. I luuuuuuuurrrrre cookie jars. He's a reproduction of a vintage design.

We celebrated with corned beef and cabbage the other day at our local Irish pub. Yes, we're lucky to have one near us. Today we are getting ready for a road trip to Denver to visit our son. We're taking Maggie on her first long drive. Hopefully, the snow they are predicting will not be too intense as I haven't driven in snow in years!!!!

So, I won't be posting until I get home in a couple weeks. But don't worry, I can still check out your blogs from Denver.

See you when I get back!!!

xoxoxo

Grace

How does one survive the loss of a child? It has to be the most devastating thing a family ever has to go through. Go here to read about little Layla Grace. She went to "play with the angels" yesterday after a fight with neuroblastoma.

Some "here on earth" angels are collecting quilt blocks and are planning on putting them together as quilts to give to little Layla's family. Information on how you can participate can be found here.

If you don't quilt but would like to help, please pray for this hurting family.

Thank you.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I had a busy, busy weekend folks. How about you? Mine started on Friday with a class in the bay area. I turned out to be such a dunce and my apologies to the teacher. Sometimes when I take a class that is outside of my comfort/skill area I turn into a real mess. Let's just say I hope she lets me take classes from her in the future.

Saturday Sweety and I drove down to the Fresno area. He has his favorite winery and I have my favorite quilt shops. There was also a quilt show going on in Clovis that I attended. There is a really eclectic neighborhood in Fresno called the Tower District. I had seen this little restaurant for years but never went there. It's called Gradmarie's Restaurant but really everyone calls in The Chicken Pot Pie Restaurant. Sweety and I had lunch there and it didn't disappoint. Homemade Chicken Pot Pies and cole slaw. Wonderful!!! We were even able to bring some pies home which we ate for dinner Sunday.

The quilt show was small, but great had quilts and better than average lighting. That is always a big plus. I visited two quilt shops which were really busy as there was a shop hop going on. I was able to pick up the fabric I was looking for. It's for a secret project I'm working on. Nope, can't get that information out of me. I won't tell. Can't bribe me!

The quilt show in Manteca was nice, also. There was something there for everyone.

Something for Summer

Something for Fall

Something for Winter

And something for Spring

There was also something to tug at your heart strings. The above quilt was made by my BFF's granddaughter who is 8 years old. It is a present for her Daddy and she calls it Strippy Scraps for Dad. She picked out the fabrics from her large stash of fat quarters, cut them out and sewed it together on Grand Ma Ma's Featherweight sewing machine all by herself. Grandma helped her with the quilting on a long arm but basically she made this quilt by herself! Way to go little one!!! I'm sure Daddy, and Mommy, are very proud of you!!!!!

My weekend ended with the above mentioned Chicken Pot Pies and watching the Academy Awards. Go Sandra!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, also.

Progress!!!

On the last Sunday of the month, one of my sewing buddies hosts a quilting day at her home. She mainly does it as a few of the gals are making scrap quilts to use up some of their fabric stash. I come along to work on my projects (and to eat!). I don't do scrap quilts. I am just not a random kind of person. Everything has to have a plan and an order. Putting a scrap quilt together makes me nervous, "there is a blue next to a blue! OMG! Too many lights together and the darks are all bunched up in that corner!". Phew!

So, this past Sunday I took my Blocks of the Month to work on and I FINISHED the last three!!! Yea!!!!!!! Here they are!!!!








I only had a problem with one of the blocks. I had cut one of the squares too small. Since I didn't have hardly any of the fabric left, I had to piece it with a teeny tiny seam. If you can see it you are looking too hard!

Now I have to work on the sashing, quilt it, bind it and on to the next project!

Yea!!!