TGIF!

TGIF... its been a long week... happy Friday Fill-Ins!

1. When will I have a chance to sit down and do nothing but relax?

2. Fringe was the last good book I read or movie I saw or tv show I watched... can't wait for the second season to start!

3. Everything has its beauty but sometimes you have to look hard to find it.

4. Leftover ribs from the yummy place in CT is what I had for dinner.

5. I'd like your opinion on things... even if I don't always ask for it.

6. On vacation... relaxing is where I want to be right now.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing Collective Soul at the beach, tomorrow my plans include errands... lots of errands and catching up and Sunday, I want to hang out with family and see Matt win another race, although I'd prefer if it didn't get as hot & humid as its supposed to!

Doggy Day

A quick doggy day post... I had planned a dog related review for today, but work is getting in the way, so stay tuned for reviews coming soon!

Tut & Sophie playing with their wubba...

Zeus enjoying some fresh air (with his sister Lola licking the door in the background)...

Speaking of Lola, here she is lounging and hanging with Tut...

Sophie reminding everyone to "adopt not shop" and working on stealing that wubba...

3 years later...

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

This past Saturday marked 3 years since Zeus had his first TPLO surgery (wow, if you click back to that time you'll see that I had cast on my first sock and there was some major news going on). He was such a stubborn good patient, even if he looks a little pitiful in this pic...

He waddled his way around to be as close to Mommy as possible the day after, even though he should've stayed in bed. I placed one of the dog beds in the hallway between the bedroom and living room so he could stay close to either room without moving... I'll never forget when I looked over shortly after to find that Teutul had started bringing his big brother lots of toys to try to cheer him up!

Handsome Dan Goes Home

Please excuse your regularly schedule blogging while I run around acting like a social butterfly ... work way too hard at my day job ... try to catch up. I have a few great reviews coming shortly and have plenty of WIPs on the needles to show off... but in the meantime, I wanted to share another happy tail about the Vicktory Dogs!

Handsome Dan goes home

Handsome Dan, one of the Vicktory dogs, has left the building! And he couldn’t have landed in a better home. Heather and Mark from New England run a kenneling service, doggie day care, animal rescue group, and more. They specialize in rescuing and placing pit bulls, among other breeds.

By law, the screening process is super intense for this group of dogs—way beyond the already detailed adoption process at Best Friends. For any Vicktory dog, there’s a huge checklist to go through, including background checks and everything. Says adoption coordinator Kristi Litrell, "I do have to admire anyone who goes through all this!"

You can find the full story and more pictures here.

Lobster Days of Summer...

Happy Doggy Day... and more importantly, almost Friday! Before I share the usual doggy pictures, I just wanted to take a second to say RIP Sam. Sadly Sam, the 4-year-old Koala who became famous after he was injured and rescued from the historic Australia wildfires, died today.

In happier news... the kids have truly been feeling the heat of the dog days of summer this past week.

Tut & Lola ~ "Go outside? No thanks... I'll just lounge here for now."

Sophie & Zeus ~ "Mom... its hot... we don't like it!"

Sophie showing her dog lobster days of summer spirit...

The heat and humidity seem to have gone away today and we're expecting "fall-like" temps through the weekend... woo hoo!

Rescue, Rescue!

Happy Wordless Wednesday! So, everyone knows that I'm very involved in dog rescue, but lately it seems like the word has gotten out to other creatures...

I stopped on my way to work Monday morning to help this slow little guy cross the road safely...

A couple weeks ago I was out shopping and noticed an icky cobweb on my back windshield wiper that had what I thought was a dead ladybug attached. I was on my lunch hour and in a hurry, so I just left it. When I got home later that evening, I went to clean it off and noticed the lady bug's legs were moving. So of course, what else does this rescuer do but, well... rescue.

Yes, that's right... I can now add Lady Bug to my list of rescues! I very carefully removed it from the web and set it down, only to realize it really couldn't move with pieces of web stuck on its body. So, again carefully, I picked it up and began working to remove all traces of the cobweb... and am happy to report the little guy fluttered off happily!

On a sadder note, I went downstairs to the basement last night and found 2 tiny dead field mice (yes, we get the field mice in our basement/garage... usually not when its this warm out however). To those who'll think negatively of me, please forgive the photos, but I wanted to show just how tiny they were. This is the first one I found...

After I removed this one, I went back to get what I originally went down for and discovered another who was not at all in photographic condition. I suspect they were either stillborn or died shortly after birth. Sadly, there was no rescuing possible with these furry ones...

Friends of Emma

Friend of Emma (click that link to be brought to the group's page on Ravelry - feel free to join if you haven't already!) sent our first batch of hats off to the Special Care Unit nursery last week!

What you see there is 95 hats and 2 pair of booties that were knit and crochet with lots of love from some wonderful women all over the country! Thank you to each and every person who contributed to this wonderful assortment of preemie & baby hats. I hope you can all find your hats in the pile!

Teutul stood guard of the beautiful hats while I took photos...

Here's a couple more group shots...

Since Emma's Mommy and I couldn't quite nail down a time to deliver them, I decided to mail off this first batch. We'll plan to deliver the next batch in person, as I hope to be making quarterly donations from Friends of Emma. Please feel free to join the Ravelry group and/or send in hats whenever you get the urge.

Here's how stuffed the box was (you can only see the top row of course)...

Thank you again to everyone who helped

make this huge box of comforting hats possible!