Well what a great report from you, pitimpinai!! The last I heard you were still very low in energy and still on a ton of medication and little appetite, and listen to you, helping the neighbor till up a lawn! LOL What a nice neighbor you were to plant tomatoes and Dahlias. :-) I am happy to hear that you've also benefited from a shorter work day. Great that you had all that time off saved up. I bet you really needed it to get your energy back. We have gotten pretty much back to what is normal for us here. The weather has been stupendous in the past month! I have never seen the cover crop in the veggie beds so high. We've also gotten all the leaves mowed and collected in bins, ours and three neighbors. [g] We have gotten somewhat cleaned up for the year in the garden, but I keep adding to my list of what I want to get done before the weather turns. Still have a small amount of bulbs to plant and three shrubs to get in the ground, some pots to clean and put away and that will just about do it. I am actually looking forward to a break from the garden. Not that we don't get outside and enjoy it, but it's nice this time of year, to focus on other things. During the gardening season, the garden seems to push out other priorities. [g] I enjoy the winter garden and by the time spring comes, I am just itching to get back to a new growing season. Glad you are able to enjoy gardening again and hope you stay well this winter! :-)

I didn't just come across this article I actually googled "i'm sick of people telling me their dog is a rescue" and this article was the first to pop up! That being said, "i'm sick of people telling me their dog is a rescue"! Here's why... probably 75% of the time when I ask an owner "what kind of dog is that"? they answer "its a rescue". It drives me crazy because they know I have asked them what breed they have but they insist in on first letting me know that they are a wonderful person because they have rescued a dog. Wait.... the question wasn't did you get your dog from a breeder or did you get your dog elsewhere (naturally if it didn't come from the breeder you have rescued a dog from somewhere, hence making most dogs rescues). But the actual term "rescue dog" is very misleading so I always ask them to clarify with the following question.... "Wow, a rescue dog, that is incredible, you must be so proud of him/her... I just read about this rescue dog that pulled a little baby out of a burning building.... what exactly did your dog do?

Nice stories, great doggies and kitties, too. We lost our beautiful chow mix, Toby on February 16 (he was 14 years and 7 months old), almost 2 years after losing his dear, sweet litter mate brother, Tibby (he was 12 years and eight months old) We've been heartbroken, sad and both of us are just mopin' around this too empty house. We got Tibby and Toby when they were just 10 days old... we bottle fed them, round the clock, their eyes were still closed and we instantly fell in love with them. It's still hard for me to believe they are gone. We had both of them cremated and they are in beautiful wood boxes with a great picture of them sitting on one and their tiny little first collars with heart shaped name tags, sitting on the other. We knew we would want to save two more litter mates and give them a wonderful life. We found the 2 new pups at a rescue in Mississippi... we are in Boston.... lots of phone calls, lots of pleas for transport help and finally everything came together. They are now, at this very moment, on a flight from Mississippi. They will get here, in Boston, at 7:30 tonight. They got a bath this morning and I'm told they are very, very excited to meet their new Momma and daddy! The rescue was wonderful to work with... not all of them are, most are. This is a pic of our Toby.. I wish I had one for Tibby. Not on this computer. You can see how old he looks, but he was still happy. These pictures were taken in December on the same day. And these are the new babies.. they are 8 weeks old, born on my dearly missed mom's birthday. I'm sure she had a hand in this. My mom's middle name was Bridget... she loved it. But everyone of her kids did not! Not 1 girl grandchild was given the name of Bridget! I don't have any kids.. but I, too, told her ixnay on Bridget if I did! tee hee. Funny how now I think it's such a lovely name. sigh. Her maiden name was Flanagan, so I decided to give her 2 grandkids bearing her name! She would have been thrilled. I'm sure she is! She helped us with the bottle feedings of Tibby & Toby.. she proudly told anyone who would listen, that they were her newest grandkids! We might name Bridget, McBridget...my last name, my Dh (dear honey of 30 years) last name both begin with MC. Still thinkin' on that, though. Bridget is the adorable black girl and Flanagan is the adorable cream colored boy. They weigh 9.6 pounds for Bridget and 9.5 pounds for Flanagan. Sorry these pics are so large. I'm very happy for the Op! Silly

Moonie this thread has confused me and shocked me. Its always been my belief that having a pet, how the pet is cared for and treated (excluding abuse), how much time or money is spent on the pet, to who or where and how much is given to charity, whether a person wants, likes or loves animials, has them doesn't have them, yada yada was part of our freedom of choice. None of us should be judged on these choices. Yet all of us have been in this thread or at least its felt that way. LOL.