He is beautiful and it is amazing that he is doing that. Was it difficult to get him in there? I have gotten to the point where I feel soooo bad everytime Caleb goes in for follow-up because he gets so scared and I feel like such a meanie. He actually had to go back for an extra treatment because he got attacked just a block from our house by a pit bull dog who got loose from his owner accidently. It messed up Caleb's stitches so he needed to have staples put on but he is mending nicely now. The stitches came out a few days ago. The owner felt very bad and I didn't say anything to him and just paid the additional vet bill. At this point I am just trying not to think about the cost because I have my baby back. Quinton looks like he might be part Newf and quite large too. I love his face. Where did you have to take him for the rehab? My youngest daughter had all kinds of alternative treatments to suggest for Caleb but I was afraid to take the chance with things like tumors. Nice to see your post too, Penny. I was thinking about you today because I noticed my pipe vines have buds already. Apparently, they are as anxious for spring as I am.

Loretta, FORTHERGILLA - you got it - at least one of the syllables begins with a "g"! My children took my car away and only returned it late last Saturday night. Since then, I've not been out of town but today took the plunge and drove to the garden center - and I'm still standing. Not too bad for an old lady. Thank you for asking - I'm feeling fine, except for suddenly becoming extremely tired once in a while - it was a piece of cake. The hospital - Morristown Memorial, was fantastic - even the food was good! It was great fun being the oldest patient on the maternity floor - you ladies might appreciate that and get a laugh out of it!

I would have sympathized with you totally if I had read this in my arachnophobic past. I almost became apoplectic every time I was startled by a spider. I would be surprised if no neighbor was ever tempted to call the police to come rescue the screaming woman who must surely be being killed somehow. Even the tiniest of spiders would elicit this overblown response. What changed me? Immersion therapy you could call it; Years ago I moved into a house that had lots of spiders both outside and inside. I try to be in harmony with nature, so with some mental gyration, the outside spiders didn't bother me. I was gardening in their territory and they had to excuse me for terrifying them. Little by little I made my peace with the inside spiders also since I don't kill things and had to catch them to put them outside. Last summer I moved a piece of ivy clinging to the foundation next to my garage door and the biggest holy-cow Wolf spider ran out. I left it alone and went about my business. Later, I came back from somewhere and my husband greeted me with eyes as big as saucers raving about the spider "as big as a Laborador!" he had "found" by the garage. Where was it? In the living room in a screened top aquarium! A pet! We kept it for the rest of the summer, absolutely fascinated by it. We let it go when we realized that it had an egg case and I didn't want hundreds of little baby spiders running around my living room. I have to say I was sad to see it go. My old self wouldn't have recognized me! HereÂs hoping that you make peace with your phobias. Think of spiders as helpers in your garden. Yours was almost surely a wolf spider. It is better karma to let them live  especially a creature in her own element. Deb

Ok, Grrrr. It seems not only did I exceed the bandwidth of my photo sharing site (until tomorrow when my month is over I think), but it appears that I may have crashed the Ft2Garden.com server bandwidth as well. I was posting about the photo site when it gave me an error when I tried posting. After checking Judy's blog and the Ft2Garden.com forum, they were all down. I can only assume the two are related. Who knew my 15 minutes of fame would have such unintended consequences. Oops!