Happy Birthday Tigger!

Tigger, my Dalmatian, turns 13 today. In Human years that is 65 years old.

I will recant the story of how Tigger came to be in my life. She came as a rescue and she was almost one year old. Actually, 11 months, 28 days, when we got her. Jim and I were running a Dalmatian rescue service for dogs in need of placement. Usually that was dogs from a kill shelter, but we took on all needs.

We got a call in early February. A woman telling us about her dalmatian that got hit by a car and can we help? I spoke to her and learned it was just a female puppy and she was holding her leg up but not in pain. I tried to get them to bring the dog to me and then in learning where they lived, it was a 3 hour drive. A little out of the normal range for our rescues. I gave her some suggestions and told her to go to the vet to have the leg looked at and then get back to us.

A few days go by and she calls back. She said they can't afford to go to the vet and they have to get rid of the dog because " the smell is horrendous". I will never ever forget that phrase and how she said it. We talked some more and she said that the dog was a pure breed from her brother and she was born on valentines day the year before. They said she was outside most of the time and got loose and got hit by a car. Jim and I agreed to go see her. We contacted a local vet ER surgery office and let them know she would be coming in later that day.

Her name then was Digger and they brought her inside (she had been living outside in a kennel) and hooked her up in the basement. Apparently she got bored and chewed a couple toes off - not feeling them because of the nerve damage. The husband wrapped them in gauze and then in duct tape to keep her from chewing the gauze. She had 3 layers of duct tape wrapped around her leg when we got there. We met her and she was happy, jumping around and licking our faces. She was craving attention. Jim got to work and cut the duct tape off and yep, the smell was bad. Her leg was gangerous and these people didn't even know it.

We got them to sign release papers and we got her out of there. At the hospital the doc said it would have to be an amputation. He would perform the surgery and see how she did. He said she had a great attitude and was already used to walking on just the three legs for the last couple weeks so he was hopeful. I had posted on a dalmatian message board about this and members there sent in donations. Ove the next week they sent them directly to the doctor with her name attached. It was amazing to get that help from people I had only known via online. See, the internet was all very new back then, but the friendship you could find was real.

When we were driving her to the vets her name got changed. It went from Digger to TIGGER. She was a bouncy bouncy bouncy gal. Her happiness just made me think of the real Tigger and how he was always happy no matter what happened.

Tigger came to live with Jim and I and our other new rescue adoption - Mercury. At first we had to keep them seperated because of her stitches and drains and such. They touched noses through the baby gates and got used to each other. We kept her in a room designed just for her. A big old couch, food bowls and toys. Jim would go in there in the evenings and just sit with her. He would have some comics and read and snuggle with her. She had no problems with the collar she had to wear to keep her from scratching. It is called the cone of shame, but she had no shame, for her it was just one more thing to deal with and she dealt.

She has been a strong dog even with having just 3 legs. She will pull you down the street on the leash or push you out of the way when she wants outside. She is a wonderful couch snuggle dog friend and loves to play tug of war with the rope.

I can't imagine the last 12 years without having her and Mercury around. They were a great dynamic duo.

Me, myself and I

To be totally narcissistic today.

I have a new smart phone. A Mytouch that has a camera and it has a FRONT facing camera. So I can take pics of myself without holding my arm way out and not knowing what I am going to get. I started taking a picture a day of myself. Just for fun. I am sharing them so they can be saved somewhere and you all can have a good chuckle.




This may be the first pic with the camera on the phone. I love my expression here. I was just learning how to look at the camera and not at the phone itself. There must have been 15 pics taken before I got to this one. It took some practice.















At home, after taking a dozen pics of Tigger. Those will come in a later post. She is a very good dog model.













Haha! I got this hat when the snow it. I love it but it is not very flattering for me. It is great however when walking the dog late at night in the 19 degree weather.
I look at this picture and I see my mom. Never noticed it before, but I have had others tell me that. I think my hair always thru me off because we did not have the same hair styles.


















Me at work. It was a good day. I like this pic. I wish we could take our favorites in to the DMV for use on our license.













Me at home, about to walk the dog. Notice the Super bowl champs THE PATRIOTS!!! hat. This pic is one that I see me as being very comfortable and relaxed.
















At work again. This was one of the first pics with the camera. I can see the screen shot of my great nephew in the background and it was a few days after that they I changed it to one of the dogs in the snow. Our computer backgrounds and our phone wallpaper all tell a tale about us.














At work again. I think this was on 2.7.11. I got my hair cut over the weekend and it was still in shock. It is better today.








An interesting two weeks of Betsy.

Hello, is it me you're looking for....

Heard this while playing "Glee" cd. Sometimes this stuff just happens. A trigger or a door opening to feelings and thoughts. Their presentation of the song is very nice, but it's the first few lines that get me.



I've been alone with you
Inside my mind
And in my dreams I've kissed your lips
A thousand times
I sometimes see you
Pass outside my door

Hello!
Is it me you're looking for?
I can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your smile
You're all I've ever wanted
And my arms are open wide
'cause you know just what to say
And you know just what to do
And I want to tell you so much
I love you

I long to see the sunlight in your hair
And tell you time and time again
How much I care
Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow
Hello!
I've just got to let you know
'cause I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely?
Or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart
For I haven't got a clue
But let me start by saying I love you

Hello!
Is it me you're looking for?
'cause I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely?
Or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart
For I haven't got a clue
But let me start by saying I love you

Sunday = Good day

Don't you love these days when things flow together nicely. I wanted to get some chores done, and yet was faced with this gorgeous blue sky and sunny 45 degree day. I decided to rearrange my chores and I went out in the sun, walked the dog, got the car washed and my hair cut. This gave me some outside time and now I am devoting time to cleaning up a room in bad need of it. Mostly putting stuff away that has been sitting patiently waiting.

I like it when things turn out like this.

It started with my neighbor knocking on my door. He handed me my lost glove. It was great. I lost one of my favorite gloves last week in the big storm while I was walking Tigger. And, I have a neighbor that loves to walk, and well, finds stuff. He is always bringing home something that he found on the ground - dog balls, scarfs, odd stuff. Anyway, last week I told him that I lost my glove and he if saw it in his wanders to grab it. I never thought he would find it. What a great gift this was. Okay, so it was just a $5.00 pair from Walmart, but they were my favorites and it was odd to only have one. Not like when you lose a sock in the dryer. I hadn't gotten to the point of getting another set of gloves, but now I don't need to! Yay for good neighbors!

Well, it's only 5pm here so I don't want to jinx the rest of my day up, but so far so good. We all need these once in awhile.

Maybe this will work after all

I may have figured out how to figure it out. Not exactly, but fudging it. I would still like to have it all coming from one source, but now I have learned how to transfer the pics into another picasa account and move them around that way. Those of you that follow the blog may have to resubscribe to follow it with the betts 4 name along with the betts4 one. Maybe.

Completely off the subject of that - I was looking my 2009 tax forms to help me fill out 2010's. I found a folder that had some things in it from a few years and then many many years ago. A photo of me as a newborn baby. And on the back of the pic was a little slip of paper with some times written down and a "start" and "finish" near them. I think it was my mom's contractions while she was in labor with me. It was definately my Dad's handwriting.

Then I found two sheets of paper that had both computer and hand written text on it, from my Mom. She wrote a few lines about each of us 4 children. My older sister, older brother, me and my younger brother. I remember her sending this to us all, but not exactly when. Well it must have been more than 11 years ago because it mentions my older siblings children but not my younger brothers boys. I read what she wrote about me and started crying. The second line - "When Betsy was born, I thought no one else had ever had a child, she was beautiful".

I was born natural childbirth and I was the only one of her children that was, she tried with my brother but he came early and had to be ceserean.

Interestingly enough, the last line my mom wrote on each of our info was "In her/his career she/he has managed people". And it is true, we all have/are. I cried a little when I read "they are all the joys of my life" in her own handwriting. I miss my mom. I wish I could call her on the phone to tell her how good a mom she was for us. This blog is the closest I can do.

She wrote about my artistic ability and things I did when I was younger with my drawing and photography. Reading it made me sad and feel bad that I never really got going with that and was stronger about doing it.

I am not sure if they still have their original copies or not, but I am going to copy and send this out to my siblings.

Google, Blogger and Aol!!

You may see a change around here. Or maybe not. I am trying to change my username from the one I had with aol to this new one with gmail. However, it won't let me without losing out. We will see.

See, I have this blog set up with my aol account as a primary username and I want to switch it to a special gmail account I set up. I want to just close out the aol account completely. I get nothing but spam and emails from places with special offers. No real email anymore. I have closed out the other two aol accounts.

I can blog on here using the new gmail account but it changes things a bit and it is not the primary administrator so I can't do everything that I can do with this username - the original one. Are you confused yet? I sure am.

Taxes are done and with the return I am getting I want to do them all again to see where I made the mistake. Haha. Money back? I never get money back. Well, I guess I do this year. Oh, don't worry, I will take it and run. I am going to a Star Trek Media Convention in a few weeks and some of the refund will go towards some fun there. Some will go towards finishing my backyard off and some will go...gasp...in the bank!!!