HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

From our family to yours...we hope that everyone has a Happy & Safe Thanksgiving!

Jo....

Yesterday was such a sad day...Jo hasn't been feeling well lately & I took her to the vet & had to put her down. A few weeks ago she killed a possum - yes a possum, yuck! She was so proud of her prize! Well she immediatley got sick. She started loosing weight, drasticaly loosing weight. I took her to the vet & he said that she had hook worms. So I gave her the medicine & we kept her in the house. We caged her in the house during the night & day if we were gone. Well we thought that she would get better & she didn't. After a week I called the vet back & he said that she was probably still getting rid of the worms. Well another week went by & she was weaker & it she didn't have much control over her back legs. She kept falling over. So I called & took her to the vet yesterday. He took an X-ray & he had Jo & I wait in the waiting room while the film developed. Then he called Jo & I back into the room & he shut the door behind me - my heart sank, my stomach turned upside down. He showed me the X-ray (like I had a clue what he was showing me). But he explained that her liver was enlarged & that her poor heart was 3 times the size it should be. He said that it was possible that she got something from the possum, but there was nothing that could be done about it at this time. He said that we could put her on pain meds to help with the discomfort, but the end result was the same.

The whole time & I holding poor Jo & the tears were streaming down my face & dripping off my nose & sweet Jo held her head up once & even lapped up a falling tear.

I didn't want to put her down, I just wanted to bring her home & hold her until her last and final day on earth, but I had to think about my kids. I didn't want them to see her die or suffer.

He went to get the shot. I held her & she looked at me with her sad eyes like she was saying goodbye. I bawled & sobbed like a 2 year old. Blubbering I asked him if I could take her home with me? I wanted her back at her home. He then left the room and came back with a garbage bag. I know why he did that but I sobbed & blubbered even harder when he put her in the bag. I then wrapped her up in her baby blanket & he escorted us out the back door - I guess I looked like too big of an idiot to go out the front door.

I sat her in my lap all wrapped up in her blanket & drove home crying & sobbing the whole way. I got home & Ron and I sat on the back porch with her wrapped up in her blanket & sobbed, bawled & cried like babies.

We had gotten Jo just 3 short years ago for Chrismas & even though she was very hyper we loved her. That Christmas Zach got a race car track & a train set & guess what she destroyed both. She ate the cars & part of the track up & she chewed through the cords to the train set - it's amazing she didn't get die then.

If she got ahold of a stuffed animal she chewed the eyeballs out & the nose off & started to pluck the stuffing out. One time I thought I'd give her a tennis ball - well she chewed the fuzz off of the ball & had fuzz everywhere.

Her favorite game was chasing Zach. She would only do it if I told her to sick him & she would go running after him & would jump up & nip at his butt. She would only do it to Zach too.

Kiersten took her to Dog Obedience through our local 4-H & she taught her to sit, heel & lay. One of the judging catagories was to get her to lay & stay for 2 minutes. None of us thought that Jo would do it. We worked & worked with her. We walked her & walked her that day thinking that would tire her out & that she might just make it for a minute - well that smart little dog stayed for the entire 2 minutes.

Jo will be greatly missed & we loved her dearly! It is amazing how attached a person can get to an animal.

Soo Busy..

Life has been so busy lately. Kiersten wrapped up Cross-Country & she did great! Did she win any races -no, but she did improve her time greatly & she I truly believe she enjoyed the sport.

We had a couple of weeks of down time & then Zach started with Basketball tryouts & he made the team & he has practice 5 nights a week. His first game will be this Tuesday.

Kiersten decided that she wanted to be the 7th grade girls basketball manager. I can't blame her - the majority of her friends play basketball & her bff is also a manager. She too has to go to practice 5 sometime 6 days a week & of course the games. She seems to enjoy it.

Needless to say the practices are at different schools. Kiersten's at the Middle School & Zach at Morgan. No big deal huh - well only when they both have practice after school & both finish at 5:30. Thank goodness for a small community - so far Kiersten has been able to get a ride home or Zach's dad will get him from practice.

It is a crazy scheudle right now, but it is working out. I'm just glad that the kids are getting to do what they want to do & they are having fun while they are doing it & they are making more friends at the same time.

Zach's Deer...

Well as most of you have read on Kiersten's blog Zach "got" his first deer. He was very excited. You ask did he field dress the deer...umm no - his cousin Will did that for him. I can only imagine that Zach stood watchin with the ooo yuck look on his face.

If you haven't seen a picture of the poor deer, here it is...


Was I overly excited that Zach killed an animal - no, but he does like to hunt, just like his dad. And yes I know that the deer population needs to be kept under control & if not the farmers like us will loose more & more crops to the deer.

I asked "Zach don't you feel bad about killing that poor guy?" "Nope". What kind of kid am I raising? Will he kill animals for the sport of it? Will he actually aquire a taste for the meat? Well....Kiersten & I went on about our day, Zach wanted to stay at his Dad's with his deer to show it off. A few hours later I get a call from Zach. Mom can I go hunting with dad this afternoon. I can be such a pushover at times & I said OK. However, I did what any good mother would do "Zach you know you already got a buck today & you know if you shoot a doe that their could be a baby out there waiting for its mommy to return & it will have to live all by itself for the winter & it won't have her to teach it how to stay warm." He said "yeah mom". Well I thought that my BIG guilt trip fell on def ears until I went to pick him up & I asked him if he saw any mommy deer (nope I didn't stop the guilt trip). Zach said "I left my gun at the house mom"...ahh I saved a mommy deer :), but Zach did go on to tell me that at this time of the year they are mateing & that there wouldn't be any baby deer out there without a mommy. Hmm, what could I possibly say to that? "Well what about if there was a mommy & daddy that were really really in love & had a baby deer when they weren't suppose too?" "What if the mommy deer was already pregnant with the baby deer". I know I'm a mean mom & I shouldn't guilt my children, but I just couldn't help myself - I have a soft heart, well parts of it is soft. Anyway, my whole point of putting my kid through this is to help ensure that he doesn't just hunt for the sport of it. If he chooses to hunt & doesn't want the meat to make sure the meat can be processed & given to someone that would want or need the meat.

And yes Zach is going to have the head mounted & thank goodness it will hang at his dad's house. I don't think I could handle that poor deer looking at me with his glass eyes.