Mary, are you saying that they make you mow the lawn on Mother's Day!? LOL Of course not. That would be cruel and unusual punishment. The Govenator finally declared a state of emergency for some counties south of here in Cali due to the rain. Luckily, most of the danger has been in agricultural areas and not residential...so far. I thought it was bad back in January... ...when this fisherman along the Sacramento River fell asleep while on sturgeon patrol. LOL Notice the toppled chair on the roof? That was probably from his wife high-tailing it out of there, like normal people tend to do. (BTW, no one was harmed in the taking of this picture.) Sorry to all of your allergy sufferers, though! :( Brenda

Soooooooooooo sorry your kitty died, Karen ! :-( There are good people / competent people in every profession.There are also people who should never be near anything living! If you have ANY doubts about what someone tells you, ask questions and DO NOT let them rush through their answers ! If you feel at all uncomfortable about a treatment suggestion (or attitude) WALK OUT and find someone you trust. This is your family member and they deserve the same respect and care as any one in need. I have found that many owners know what needs to be done in many circumstances and some times it does make my job a whole bunch easier because the major problem has been resolved, or nearly so. :-) You are right. No one knows their pet better than their owner. Oh sure we might know technical terminology like: "boo boo elbow" or other things but the bottom line comes down to ONLY YOU KNOW what is best for your pet! For example, chemo may be OK for some but not OK for others, no matter what the vet says and the decision you make for your beloved family member IS 100% right for you! My Mikey, my very best fuzzy friend ever, a grey kitty, had squamous cell carcinoma in his mouth. I knew as well as his oncologist, there was not really any hope to prolong Mikey's life. We did try 2 courses of chemo but most importantly his pain was under control. Mikey died 32 days after I found the bump on his gums that was smaller than the size of a BB pellet. One month later, Teeb, another kitty , had intermittent diarrhea. She went for endoscopy and we found intestinal lymphoma. Following numerous e mails and phone calls to human and vet oncologists it was determined that form of cancer was not painful. Chemo would buy her another 9 months of life. OK. We went for it and we got 22 more months with Teeb! I would say 95% of her days were good days. If she could wake up, get petted, eat and slug the other cats who got out of line, that was a good day! After all, Teeb was the kitty who was in charge of the rest of the kitty herd. :-) Bosco, the GSD, had a very guarded prognosis with his type of cancer. A very aggressive hemangiosarcoma of the spleen generally spreads and kills 80% of the patients within 1-2 months of the initial diagnosis. We were ~~VERY~~ fortunate to detect it early and remove the cancerous spleen in an almost bloodless operation (to decrease microscopic spread of the tumour cells throughout his doggy body) and we started chemo exactly 10 days after the surgery. He still had his stitches in his belly when he started his chemo! We **NEEDED** to try to prolong his life for a multitude of reasons. True, we are very fortunate that I am a vet and most things are either free (like x-rays, surgery, bloodwork) and the treatment was done at cost through the extraordinary generosity of the oncologist who cared for our Mikey and Teeb. Had I been a "real person" our cost for Bosco would have been just over $5000.00 total! WOW!! I don't know that we would have been able to afford that, even though the cost was spread out over 4 months. (That price does not include the follow-up met check radiographs and bloodwork after December 2005.) Thankfully all has turned out far better than anyone anticipated for Bosco. :-) This was the right decision for US. Had someone else been in the exact same circumstance and decided not to go further with surgery or chemo, that would be the exact right decision for them! Everyone is different and only YOU know and understand what your beloved family member can or should endure. They know only you and have complete trust in you caring and love for them. This trust can never be betrayed and don't let any one try to force you or your pet into anything with which you are uncomfortable! Mmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeee. (((BTW Semper .. the full colour photograph of the 3 pound cancerous tumour is available for your viewing when you request it. :\-) )))

Good morning! Yesiree, I'm meeting the gang for lunch today - wish you could all be there! A bit of excitement here yesterday: Lightening struck my neighbor's house and he came running over to ask if he could use the phone - he saw smoke coming from the basement. I called 911 and they called all the stations (we have 3 in town) - thankfully no fire. Just damage. The kids got a kick of having the whole fire department in their front yard, and thankfully it was not a true emergency. They did spend the rest of the afternoon chasing after the same sorts of calls, though, as the weather was wicked here :) My lawn has never looked so good in July. Ivy is growing leaps and bounds, and her big brother looks happy, too! Kenzie's a model in training, I see - Sarah went through the posing phase, too. We'd take one picture for mommy (au natural) and one with your best pose. The dueling bathroom models - much like dueling banjos, I guess? I love the idea of a quiet place to wind down the evening, Denise. And Liz, I'm glad you took the extra step to remove the popcorn - you could've gotten tired and left it :) I can't wait to see what tile you chose. I'm always dreaming of remodeling my bath, but I think I'll wait as long as I can since it's our only one (we have a powder, but that's not the same....). Ei, loved your fish story! Your new koi are cute, can't wait to hear their names :) Kathy, next year I'll add tithonia to the list. I'm really kicking myself for not growing the amaranth! I wanted it so bad and then ran out of spring. Yes, walating must be done several times....funny, now Sarah says, "while I was walating...." but I don't think she's always looking at flowers. I need to get moving - I've got lots to do before I embark on my lunchtime journey. Have a great day..... Saucy

You might want to check out Gerald Durrell's books, especially the memoirs/travel/animal collecting books. They are light nonfiction and most of them have a strong evocation of place. I especially recommend: My Family and Other Animals (about his childhood in Corfu, Greece) The Whispering Land (animal collecting in Argentina) Three Singles to Adventure (animal collecting in British Guiana) Beasts in My Belfry (working in a zoo in England) The Drunken Forest (animal collecting in Argentina and Paraguay) The Bafut Beagles and A Zoo in My Luggage (animal collecting in British Cameroon) Durrell wrote wonderfully (and often humorously) about places, people and animals. Other books that come to mind are Arnaldur Indridason's mysteries that take place in Iceland. At least three have been translated into English (Jar City won the Golden Dagger award). His descriptions of the people, land, weather and society are very true-to-life (although rather bleak, as the policeman protagonist sees a lot of the dark side of life).