Strike Force Hera

Yesterday I took my hounds to the vet to weigh them, get their toenails clipped and buy some glucosmine.  The first thing that I had to face was the vet assistant asking me her name, so I  gulped and said".........................."

First I want to tell you that she weighed 56 lbs.  I knew she was smaller than Fleur!  Her shoulders and hips are much narrower than Fleur and Power, which gives her a dainty look.  Her head is dainty also, and due to her small size in general, the head is shortened in comparison to Fleur and Power!

She's mostly a quiet dog, but does whine a tad when looking out the windshield of the motorhome, and twice she's growled at Power in the car.  Time will tell if this will be a problem.

She's been a very well house trained dog so far!  When she pees and poops she doesn't stoop very low so I wonder if it's due to her injured leg!

So, in light of all this, I introduce her as 

Hera!

Delivery Day!

This nice lady is a new volunteer with the adoption group that I use in western Arizona!  I wonder if she knew that she would be delivering a dog so far so soon!

Judy drove her to me

Judy and I had LOTS of paperwork to go through

While Judy ad I went through a ton of paperwork, my neighbor Patty (bluish outfit) played with the dogs!

Strike Force Hero checked out  my yard

She checked out the pool

Now she likes the pool!

Do you think she will stay?

And what shall her name be?  I'd like suggestions for a name fit for a very dainty female!

Strike Force Hero

I contacted my adoption agency yesterday to let them know about Fleur, and while they were commiserating with me about Fleur, I asked them to be on the lookout for a greyhound which had the wonderful characteristics of Power.  Monica said that she was fostering a wonderful female named Strike Force Hero!  This female is red fawn, and 3 years old, is cat safe, and likes people!  Monica says that she's a quiet lady and very sweet.  Monica says that she has a foster mom coming my way this weekend to visit her daughter in Albuquerque, and is willing to transport this female so that I can keep her for the weekend to see if she is compatible with my family.  (This seems like it is meant to be!)  The distance to the adoption agency would be 450 miles, but lo and behold, there is an adoption
foster mother coming right by my doorstep!

I am going through so many emotions right now, and am wondering if it's fair to my memories of Fleur to even allow this greyhound to come visit and/or possibly stay in our home!  After all, I cannot talk about Fleur with out tears, and Power hash't eaten since Fleur died!  I haven't washed the blanket that I carried Fleur on (She eliminated on it).  I haven't finished cleaning up the little bit of fecal stain on the door frame of my car, and I haven't washed the blanket that she laid on in my work office at the state park!

It's a slow process trying to get through the death of Fleur, and I know that I'm probably rushing to get another greyhound to have something new and fresh to concentrate on rather than going through the very empty feeling that is all I can feel when I am thinking about not having her to rub on the head when she puts her head in my lap, or looking on the sofa to see if she is taking up more than her half of the sofa.  Or, wondering if she is stealing Power's food again!  Or scolding her for growling at the cat, Chica!  Today, I waited for her to jump down out of the car, after Power jumped down, and how shocked I was to realize that she wasn't there to come out of the car!

So, regardless of all my moroseness and grief this dog needs  home, and so tomorrow the lady will drop her off for the weekend!

Pictures coming tomorrow!

Chica is missing Fleur, too!

Fleur always liked to put her head on the little cushion that is on the floor right now.  Since she is no longer here, Chica decided that she would lie on the cushion, but on the floor, near her special Power!

I'd like to welcome Amy Boyer to my list of followers!  I truly hope that I'm able to get the name correctly, since the blogger program doesn't add the names in a chronological order or in an alphabetical order.

Power hasn't eaten since Fleur's illness, and his stomach was rumbling and bubbling like  crazy.  This morning, he did decide to eat after going outside for a pee!  I was glad to see him willing to eat, and hope that he is feeling better.

Quilting fabric, part 2

If you recall, I showed this piece of deteriorated fabric a few days go, and showed the two fabrics that I was considering appliquéing over the old piece.

This fabric was one choice.

This fabric is the second choice.

After I got encouragements from several readers about this project, I decided which fabric  to use and did replace the original with the new fabric.  

I promised to let you see what it looked like so here it is!

Thanks everyone for encouraging me to risk this quilt fabric!

Shocking emergency

Last night at 11:30 pm I heard a whimper and a thrashing sound, woke up, went to the living room, and found Fleur lying on the living room floor with her head twisted around, her eyes open, her legs unable to work, and generally looking very sick!  

I called a friend to help me lift her to the car, and he was not answering his phone, so I called a ranger, woke him up, and he helped me lift her as far as the gravel outside.

Waiting for ranger, lying on my homemade quilt

I was unable to go further due to my own spinal problems, so we ended up calling a second ranger, and he then helped us get her into the back of the car!

Fleur on gravel, waiting for the second ranger

I  drove her 35 miles to the vet's hospital, where he did a complete neurological examination, and he said that we could do a neck X-ray to look for fractures.

Fleur on the X-ray table    

She had no fractures, but was paralyzed, so we gave a large dose of cortisone, and pain medicine!

The vet put her into a soft bed with blankets and etc to keep her warm and as comfy as possible,  He stayed through the night with her and about 6:45 am she passed away.  He said that it was a type of stroke that caused the whole thing.  So this morning I will go to the vet to pay the bill and thank the vet again for her care!  I asked him to cremate her remains, so that he will care for her one last time!             

Goodbye, loving and lovely Fleur!

I had to make a list!

Today I found another new follower!  My goodness...two in  a week!  This has never happened before!
Did the moon forget to shine, or the sun rise in the north?!  Wow!
After making my list, I decided to name Chris Amon as my newest follower, since this name seems like I've never seen it before.  I could be mistaken, so please let me know if I'm wrong, and after this the list will keep me straight! There was no blog listed in Chris's profile, so I can't tell anyone about it...but I can still welcome you , Chris!

Yesterday, a nice lady knocked on my door wanting instructions on how to find the watering station for the park, and when I stepped out of the motorhome, she said..."I know those greyhounds!"  As she continued to talk, she decided that she had read my blog, and that that was how she knew the greyhounds!  She had three lovely chihuahuas in her vehicle, and she was towing a casita travel trailer.  I was very surprised that she recognized my dogs!  She doesn't blog herself, but likes to read them!

These little trailers can be towed with any car!  They have all amenities needed and are very easy to live in!

!

I don't think my two big dogs would fit in it as well as they do in my motorhome!  I see quite a few of these in my ramblings, and sometimes it is a single/solo RVer, sometimes it is a couple.

Quilting fabric

I went back to the Chevy dealer in Gallup yesterday(to get the headlight fixed that they forgot last week).  After a while the gentleman came back to tell me that they found a wire had "jiggled" loose and all they had to do was "jiggle" it and it was fixed!  I drove 100 miles round trip for nothing!

When I left the dealership, I went by the Walmart to get some groceries, and also looked at their fabric.  In this part of the world, fabric is hard to find, so the store in Gallup is about the only place.  I was looking for a black background with some bright colored dots or splashes of color.  I was afraid that I was going to have to appliqué a totally different fabric onto my quilt.

Notice the piece of fabric in the center of this quilting...see how it is disintegrating?  Note that it is black background with colored dots on it?  I had a terrible time trying to find a similar fabric!

New followers!

I noticed that I have a "41" on the list of followers, so I went through the list to try to ascertain who the newest follower is.  It's been a long time since the number changed to "40", and so I was a bit confused as to which name is the newest.  I think I have it figured out, and I believe it is "Cheeseheads4theroad".  If I have this right, then I want to welcome you warmly!  If I goofed, please tell me!  I have to admit that it is a bit of confusion to me to figure out who is the newest, especially if there is no photo!

Today we welcomed a new volunteer at the park!  Her name is Judy.  She's been working at a very large park in a more southerly region of New Mexico.  She's been there for five years, during the busy seasons.  She has a cute small dog, and he has one eye that is a marble light blue, and it gives him a very weird look ( in my eyes).  As a retired nurse, I want to grab him and take him to the vet for eye care!

Now that it is after Labor day and also after Sept 15, the park is much more peaceful.  The Sept 15 date is about the reservation system, so we don't have to argue with campers about them using a reserved site!

The horses have been staying in the camping area a lot more than normal, and some have been allowing the children to pet them!

The horses find edible grass in the craziest places!

As you can see, they are not afraid to be near the RV's

Fatigue

This is Fleur after 10 hours sitting in a Chevy dealership waiting room!

I'm not showing you a photo of me, because I looked infinitely worse!

If you could see her tongue you would see that it's hanging out!  The closeup I took is out of focus, so here goes!

A Day.......

Today, I drove an hour to the nearest Chevrolet dealer, and got lots of needed maintenance done on my old Tahoe.  I arrived at 8 am, and didn't leave till 5 pm!  I took the greys with me because I knew it would be a long day and they wouldn't be able to get outside if I left them behind!

This is Navajo reservation, and the Chevy dealership is in the "capital" of the Indian world, because there are Zunis just to the south, Hopi's to the northwest, and Lagunas and Acoma to the east.  The major part of the area here is Navajo, however.

Most of the employees of the dealership are Navajo, and most of the rest are Hispanic, almost no whites!  These fine folks worked on my car all day long, from changing oil and filter, rotating tires, fixing two electric windows, changing transmission fluid and filters, etc.  The bill was $722!

The waiting rooms there are very nice, and we made use of two of them.  The first one was carpeted, so the dogs were nice and warm lying on the floor!  The first one had very upright chairs with no padding and no arms, however!  The second waiting room was in a building with very shiny marble floors everywhere, and Power decided that he was terrified of the floor.  We had to walk about a hundred yards on this floor to get to the nice comfy chairs.  The shiny floor was very cold for the dogs so I put my jacket down for one dog and invited the other into a nice chair!  Power could not bring itself to get into the chair, so he took the jacket, and Fleur took the chair!  Fleur acted like the chair was made for her!  Power was happy with the jacket!  We stayed there for about two hours and I actually napped for ago u an hour, with my head on my hand leaning to the right arm of the chair!  After the nap, I took the dogs outside for the second walk of the long day and we enjoyed being
outside, but the entire area is asphalt, not a bush or gravel or grass for the dogs to pee on!  We walked a good ways and never saw a natural surface for the dogs, but the finally peed on the asphalt!

They laid down on the carpeted floor in the first waiting room, and enjoyed eating a bit of lunch, greeting ny visitors who came in, and napped some.  Most of the people coming in were Navajo, and they had never seen a greyhound, and also had some very interesting life stories to share with me!


As you can see from my photos, I took my quilt and worked on it some!

FUN!

The lady is Carol (one of our campers), and the man is Gene (one of our volunteers), and the dog is Genes's (Honey).

The greyhounds are running loose on the beach to enjoy themselves after Mom picked up trash!

They sniffed every fire pit!

They went as far as the beach went!

The difference between trashers and campers who pick up trash

After a big weekend, there's always a lot of trash, so different workers are contributing to the pickup. Some wonderful campers are helping as well.  As for me, I cannot take too much sunshine at  once so I wait till late afternoon and go out with a plastic bag and a reacher.  My dogs go with me of course, and their main job is to count rabbits!

Sometimes my friend Carol goes with me and she is a very good trash picker!  She likes to carry on a conversation with me as we go across the beach or the hillside.  She's a good conversationalist, and a very smart lady.

Sometimes another camper goes with me.

Sometimes when I am out I come across a group of children, and I encourage them to walk with me and help me.  I have the idea that the children are not learning go be trash pickers in their homes, so I hope to make friends with them and teach them a little bit!

These guys are allowed to drop whatever they want to, and never pick it up!  They are so loved and welcome!

I never argued with this fellow!

Fleur waited patiently in the car!  ( Patiently, my eye!)

There were no humans on the entire beach area, so when the trash pickup ended, I let the dogs have their fun!

Trash pickup

We had a very good weekend and it turned out to be a peaceful time and a safe time.  Yipee!  Our lakeshore had many more folks than on a usual weekend, and every single campsite was filled, many by a very large group!

Our horses took off to get away from the people!

Now that the hoards of people have left, the trash pickup has begun.  Last evening, I went to the lakeshore and then filled a trashbag inside 30 minutes.  After that, I quit, because the trash pickup made my back hurt.

When people let their trash blow around and clutter the land, I think that they must have had a very different upbringing than I had!  When I still lived with my parents, we picked up trash on a regular basis!

When I lived in Texas, I was an adult but I still picked up trash along the country road where I lived.  Not one other person picked up trash, and many were the trash contributors!  Strange!

It never makes sense to me that people want to live among the trash!