Happy Birthday, Babs

This is my sweet, loving and beautiful dog Babs.  When she was a puppy, she got into a bottle of Advil.  We rushed her to the vet but since she was so small, her little kidneys had already started to malfunction.  Over the course of a couple weeks, we were at the vet every day for IV fluids and we returned her to health. They told me that when she got older, she may end up with renal problems so I was (kind of) prepared for that.  About three weeks ago, I noticed she wasn't eating as much and was losing weight.  Last Friday, bloodwork confirmed that her kidneys were in trouble.  Renal failure set in and she declined extremely rapidly. Yesterday I had to make the heartbreaking decision to put her to sleep.  Today would have been her 11th birthday.

My daughter has been handling this situation with remarkable maturity and clarity.  She turns 10 next week.  Today, she decided that we still needed to celebrate Babsy's birthday and the fact that she is no longer sick and uncomfortable.  The child baked a cake.  All by herself.  She made chocolate buttercream frosting.  All by herself. I'm so proud of her, on so many levels.  Here is her masterpiece...

And, so, today we celebrate despite our sadness and our overwhelming feelings of loss and longing.  Babs was a very important part of our family and it will be a difficult adjustment.  We just take comfort in knowing that because we loved her so, we were able to help her and stop the sickness.  We had 11 years together and we are thankful.  And if she were here, we'd let her eat cake. 

Doh! Dog Biscuits

I'm here in front of my computer contemplating whether to write some witty entry on my blog, empty the dishwasher or take a nap.  As I am rolling all these options around in my mind, I offered my dog Babs a little dog treat.  

I mean, look at that cute little chocolate face!

As she was crunching away on her little biscuit, I continued my day-off reverie then realized I was slowly lifting a dog cookie up to my own mouth.  Just as it hit my teeth, I snapped out of it and rescued myself from a big disappointment and dramatic gross-out.  Good thing; there would have been lots of spitting, tongue wiping-off and profanity.

This all reminded me of a funny thing that happened a few years ago.  

I used to belong to a Girls' Night Out group.  We'd meet about once a month for dinner and drinks and to hang out.  At Christmas, we'd have a party at the Capital City Club and do a gift exchange, drink wine, eat....general Christmas revelry.  There was a girl named Stephanie who was a serious animal lover (not lover, just an animal proponent.)  She sent us all home that night with cute little baggies of homemade dog biscuits that she'd baked.  The bags had cute little labels inside and festive curly ribbon to keep the bag closed.  NOTE: The cute little label said "Homemade Dog Biscuits" on it.  Remember that.  It was clearly marked!

So, I arrived home and put my purse, Christmas gift, dog treats, etc. on the counter and went to change into comfy clothes.  As I came back through the kitchen, Neil is eating a cracker and says to me, "These are really dry and they could use some salt or garlic or something!"  That's right...I looked and the curly ribbon had been unfurled and my husband is chowing down and critiquing Stephanie's dog biscuits.

As you an imagine, before I could tell him, take it from him or otherwise act on the situation, I busted out laughing.   "What?" he says.  Since I'm coming completely unglued and cannot even speak, I just reached into the bag and handed him that cute little label.  Well, you can probably guess what happened next...there was lots of spitting, tongue wiping-off and profanity.  Of course, once he regained his composure, Neil relaxed as he realized they had been baked in a real person's kitchen out of real kitchen ingredients, not some animal "by-products" from the dog food plant in Redneckville.  Then, we could laugh about it together.  After all, it was clearly marked!