IN MEMORIAM of Charmin July 7, 2009

The Last Battle
If it should be that I grow frail and weak

And pain should keep me from my sleep,

Then will you do what must be done,

For this -- the last battle -- can't be won.

You will be sad I understand,

But don't let grief then stay your hand,

For on this day, more than the rest,

Your love and friendship must stand the test.

We have had so many happy years,

You wouldn't want me to suffer so.

When the time comes, please, let me go.

Take me to where to my needs they'll tend,

Only, stay with me till the end

And hold me firm and speak to me

Until my eyes no longer see.

I know in time you will agree

It is a kindness you do to me.

Although my tail its last has waved,

From pain and suffering I have been saved.

Don't grieve that it must be you

Who has to decide this thing to do;

We've been so close -- we two -- these years,

Don't let your heart hold any tears.

-- Unknown

from http://www.petloss.com/poems/poems.htm

Today we all said our goodbyes to our trusty companion, Charmin the Wonder Dog. Although we're all very sad and now have a hole in our hearts, she let us know it was time and gave us the permission we needed to help her over that Rainbow Bridge. Our daughter posted a wonderful picture of Charmin while she could still stand up in the yard on her blog here, so go take a look. Mike and Matt dug a grave in our back yard that serves as her final resting place and next year will bloom beautifully with flowers to remind us of all the joy she brought to our lives.

My trusty companions

Here is where my little kitty brother hangs out when my cousins (or are they actually a niece and nephew?) come over. They are two rather large and rambunctious dogs and little JC is a tiny kitty (adult, but really small) who would just rather hang out on top of the kitchen cabinets than be chased by the dogs. Mama master was nice enough to put his food on top of the refrigerator so he could eat. That seemed to make him happy!

Below you can see how worried Katie was when I stole the washcloth from Daddy when he was trying to clean my face up after I ate. She's such a worry-wort!

Here's a close up of me with the washcloth. Mama wasn't too happy because it was a hand knitted gift from someone, so I promised not to destroy it. Yeah, like with the few teeth I have left I could REALLY do much damage!

Do you think my sibs are a little over concerned about me or something??? Here I was trying to eat and they were ALL hanging out around me! I mean who wants to eat with all those eyes staring at them anyway??? Daddy usually puts me in the bathroom with my human food and shuts the door, then the others can't get in, but this time I was trying to munch on some hard dog food. Daddy rushed me to the vet the other day because I wouldn't move or eat or anything. She told him to try baby food and let me eat WHATEVER I wanted! Hey, every gal's dream, huh? Eat anything anytime and everywhere!!! Since I'm losing weight there's no problem eating too much, but usually I only eat a couple of ounces at a time. Daddy found out that I love salmon so he's cooking that a lot now.

Today I actually walked across the kitchen floor, then veered sideways as usual and fell, kirplop! Later Daddy took me outside and came back in telling Mama how I pooped! He was so proud of me! Gee, doesn't take much to make those humans happy does it?

Worn out today

Well I haven't written for awhile because truthfully, I'm really worn out and haven't felt much like sitting up to type. Yeah I know that you know it's not me typing, but anyway, as you can see from these pictures, I'm not much in to passing words along to mamma master to type them. Daddy master took me to see the doctor the other day and she assured him I haven't had a stroke, but then what's causing my drooping face and inability to walk much? My one back leg just plain doesn't work anymore and now I can't stand at all, so they just carry me around and try to help in the back yard. I overheard Mamma and Daddy masters talking about, well I don't even want to say it..... but you know what I'm talking about... Mamma says she can't type it, so we'll move on....

So my masters are dog-sitting for their two granddogs this weekend. They keep coming over and sniffing my butt, then when they're closing in on my face I snap at them. I wish they'd just leave me alone, but really they must know I don't feel well because they don't stick around long. The picture below shows my little sis Katie trying to keep her toy away from her little sis (long story) Daisy. Funny thing is, Katie has absolutely zero interest in that toy until Daisy comes along! Daisy finally got it, then started hitting herself with it, shaking her head from side-to-side. Funny girl!

My brother Charlie was kind of sulking with his head to the back door. He really doesn't like it when strangers come to the house, even if they are his cousins.

Little bro Tucker promptly threw up right after the cuz's got here, then he hibernated in his little bed under the tv the rest of the morning. Guess he was a little upset, or maybe he's just getting old like me and wearing out.

Here's Daisy laying on the futon. Silly little girls keeps trying to bite those cats! Doesn't she know they're not real???

and then there's Buddy.... king of the hill... well he's a real sweetheart, just doesn't know how big he is. Sometimes he forgets and knocks things over, then masters aren't very happy. Luckily he likes to sleep alot as long as nobody is moving, or there's no loud noises (or quiet noises), and there's no cats around.....

Well that's all I can find the energy for today. Hope to type more again soon!

I'm a biting machine!

So this morning when mamma master was trying to shove that nasty plastic thing down my throat an insert those even nastier pills I accidentally got her finger while trying to shut my mouth. She wasn't very happy with me at all... see her poor finger ... guess I showed her, huh? It's not my fault that she got blood all over her shirt and was trying to get out the door to go to work and had to change her shirt and wash the bloody one and put a bandaid on to stop the bleeding... well hey, what can I say? Sorrrrryyyy!!! She sure was yelling at me!Then when daddy master got home from work and tried to give me the rest of what I didn't get this morning I bit him too!! He still has his bandaid on though so there's no picture to show. Oh and I yanked that badge off that he wears around his neck too!!! So he put me outside where it was all muddy and I got stuck and got all worn out, then slept the rest of the day.

The Great Escape!

Tee hee hee, they thought they could keep me corralled in the kitchen by putting up a gate, well NOTHING can keep this old girl stuck in a room with no windows to look out! I knocked it right down and well, then promptly got stuck under the chair again, but at least I wasn't stuck in that room! See....

I nabbed a Cricut!!!

Hey, I nabbed a cricut... well not exactly the bug kind with the irritating chirp, but on top of this blue rolling cart is my momma master's die-cutting machine and it's called a Cricut, so I thought I take it for a little ride!

You see, if you come around from behind the cart and get your front legs up over that bar at the bottom, then "accidentally" get your back legs stuck on the other side of the bar...
well, when you start moving your front legs forward the cart just kinda follows wherever you go!

Momma didn't think that was such a good idea. She kept saying that the Cricut cost too much money to be broken if it fell on the floor, but I was really having some fun here!

I tried to go forward, but just got all tangled up, and my back legs couldn't lift over that bar, then I ran in to the futon and well... as you can see below I just kind of ended up in a real mess, then momma lifted my back legs over the bar, but my head was all tangled in the other bar... Oh WHY did I have to try this anyway???

There! Finally I'm free! ... and I'm OUTTA here!

... well drat those back legs anyway!!!

Mush and Walking!

This is the mush that Momma made for me yesterday since I haven't been eating the dry food that's out for all of us canines in the household (and an occasional hungry feline!) She put some leftover turkey in a bowl with homemade vegetable broth, nuked for a couple of minutes, then added some farina (cream of wheat) and some yellow lentils and cooked for about five minutes. She thought I'd be too weak to chew, so she got out this thing called a magic bullet, added some ice cubes and whipped it up to a drinkable solution.

Wowser was that ever YUMMYLISCIOUS!!!!! I went through two whole bowls of it in no time flat, well everything except those lentils that weren't cooked enough to be ground up and I didn't have any chewing energy. As you can see below, I still couldn't stand up, so did all my drinking laying down (sounds like a song, huh???)


After a bit, my little bro Tucker though he'd come get some of that great smelling stuff too, but Momma kept him away, then finally let him lick the big bowl when it was empty. If you zoom in on the picture below and look carefully up above his shoulders you'll see two bright circles. Well those are our little feline sister's eyes! She was really interested in the food too!
NOW comes the GOOD part..... Momma put together a really cool hip harness so she could help me walk!!! It's made out of two old collars that are hooked on to a leash splitter, then the leash hooks on that. The two collars hooked around each leg so she could hold me up to provide support. You can see that my little sis Katie was very interested in this strange contraption!
Now the fun part was falling down on my face and playing like I couldn't get up. I KNEW that Daddy would come and rescue me, which he did. Momma said next time she'd put a collar around my neck and use a second leash to help me up. She has a little trouble bending over and picking me up without saying "OUCH!"
Phew, all that walking sure made me thirsty! ps.... today I'm walking on my own, so I guess all that nutrition gave me back some strength. AWESOME!!!