Thank You, Kind Strangers

The storms around here have been quite ridiculous.  Nasty gusts strong enough to knock trees down, fling patio furniture and move the BBQ grill several feet - even with the wheels locked.

Oh... and fling open the gate for the fence.

That wouldn't be so bad if I had actually noticed it.  But I was up around 5 AM fighting lower back problems and simply wanted to find the Ibuprofen.  For the most part, I adhered to my normal morning schedule - I let the dogs out, took my medicine, got something to drink, made sure the dogs had food then let them back in.

Well, at least I think that's how the morning went.  Nestle wanted in and out a few times which was driving me crazy since I just wanted to stay in one spot and let my back stretch.  I'm sure I let Glacier in once then she wanted back out later.  I don't know what time that was though.  The girls woke up earlier than normal, I read the paper while they played and somewhere in there I stretched out on the ground hoping the back pains would go away.  It's all kind of fuzzy since I didn't get much sleep last night.

Then shortly before 9 AM, I went into the laundry room to get something and through the window could see the gate to the back yard wide open.  I ran into the kitchen and told DH that the gate was open.  He called for the dogs while I waited to visually see them come to attention.  Nestle did.  Glacier didn't.

I ran through the house looking in all her usual hiding spots and had just walked out into the front yard when the phone rang.  The nice gentleman on the other end of the phone said "We have your dog."  He proceeded to give me directions and I was amazed at the distance she had managed to get in what I didn't think was a very long period of time.  Several blocks.  And when I say several, I mean a good few minutes drive worth.

I headed off to pick her up as the guy, Shawn, an employee of the City of Bettendorf and Debbie, the driver of a red minivan waited patiently on 53rd Street.  Yes, my Glacier had escaped and was running down the middle of one of the busiest streets in town.  Thankfully traffic was stopping for her.

It's a good thing the cars saw her because she had difficulty seeing.  She had a tumor in 2004 and had one of her eyes removed.  Her depth perception is totally off and she can only see things on the right side of her body.  What a sight it must have been for drivers on 53rd - a fluffy white one-eyed American Eskimo dog running down the road.  Thank you for not running her over!

But most important, my heartfelt thanks go out to Debbie who pulled over and coaxed Glacier into her arms and to Shawn who pulled over behind her and telephoned us with the good news that she was safe.  If you know Debbie or Shawn, please pass along how very thankful I am for what they did this morning.

Is a Goldfish Considered Bribery?

Yesterday at the gym, they had a table set up doing dental screenings for children.  My girls were quite excited to get brand-spanking new toothbrushes.  They act like they never get a new toothbrush!  I digress... As I was talking to the woman who set up the table, I noticed a stuffed Nemo as part of her display.  I laughed and as I recounted the goldfish story to her, I realized that I hadn't shared it on my blog yet.

Oh, where to start?

How about before Christmas.  Yup.  That's a good place to start.

Miss M wasn't even 6 yet and Miss K had just turned 4.  Our family dentist said that children can't brush their teeth effectively until they are much, much older.  So what I do is let the girls brush first then I follow up with my more thorough approach.

Brushing our teeth has always been a natural part of our bedtime routine.  But for some odd reason, probably chaotic schedules, morning brushing hasn't exactly been a priority.  Yeah, that's my fault but when I'm busy and running around trying to get Miss M ready for school while juggling getting myself and Miss K ready for the gym, I tend to get a bit flustered.  As many times as I would ask them to go brush their teeth by themselves in the morning, they seldom would.  "Tsk, tsk, Nicole.  They're only 5 and 4 - what on earth would compel you to believe they would do it on their own?"

In the meantime, someone besides me decided that the girls needed goldfish.  Probably because every time we went to WalMart they wanted to go look at all the fish.  Didn't matter what they saw in the tank, they always got excited.

Add another thing to my to-do list, but okay... if it will make them happy then I'm game.

Then came Christmas.  DH and I purchased matching beginner bowl sets for the girls.  They were cute and even came with rocks and a plant.  When we returned from Christmas out of town, the girls were allowed to go to WalMart and pick one goldfish each.  The were delighted. 
When we got home, DH set a few rules. 
One - the girls need to help clean the tanks once a week.  (He's been the parent in charge of cleaning every time except a few so hooray for DH!) 
Two - the fish cannot be fed until the beds are made and the teeth are brushed. 

The girls agreed without any complaint.  No longer do I need to beg them or remind them to brush their teeth in the morning... they usually remind ME!  Sometimes on weekends, I have to ask them if they've made their beds yet and brushed their teeth because "Your fish is waiting for breakfast."  That's not bad considering I don't usually have to remind them during the week.

Here we are in March and the fish are still alive. 

Basically, it cost us 40 cents to get the kids in the habit of brushing their teeth twice a day.  And the fact that they make their beds in the morning as part of the deal is just a bonus.

Have you bribed your kids lately?

How Much We Love our Dogs

Have you ever thought about walking out onto your 4" snow-covered back porch, barefoot, in the middle of the night in nothing but your pajamas? The origin of that question will be clear in just a bit.

DH and I are definitely dog people. Shortly after moving to California in 1995, we adopted Blizzard, a beautiful male American Eskimo. We fell so much in love with the breed that we decided to adopt a female, Glacier, so that Blizzard had another dog for companionship. Eventually, we found ourselves getting involved in animal rescue – helping rehabilitate dogs in our home until they were ready to move on to a permanent family. We were limited by the animal control laws to only three pets so we would foster a dog, work with it and find it a home before taking in another. One dog had behavioral problems; another was just a wanderer that needed to be cleaned up and fed before being placed in a home. A third, a female Chow whom we decided to call Nestle, was a special case. In 1997, she was just a puppy when we found her running as fast as her little feet would carry her - straight down the middle of a busy road in Palmdale, California. We had just headed out to hit some yard sales, so it was very early and thankfully traffic was scarce. We drove as close as we could to her and I jumped out in a feeble attempt to grab her. Being the spring chicken that I was (ha!), she totally outran me. DH managed to safely get the car in front of her, threw it in park and jumped out to scare her off of the road. She got caught in a bush on the side of the road and we were able to wrangle her into the car. She had signs of having been abused by the man of her prior home; she wouldn't go near DH for months. Whenever he would stand up or raise an arm to pet her, she would cower in fear. It was a sad sight because she's a very gentle and loving creature. I never will understand how people can treat such caring and forgiving animals so cruelly.

When it came time to take Nestle to an adoption event, I decided I couldn't do it. We had worked with her long enough that I realized that WE were the perfect family for her. Because of the three pet limit, our days of fostering and rehabilitating were over… but it was all for the best.

We've been through a lot with our dogs. After many years of dealing with infertility issues, we had finally come to grips with the fact that our dogs were the only children we would ever have. (That was before we were blessed with Miss M.) Later, in 2004, Glacier had surgery to remove one of her eyes due to a tumor. We lost our first four-legged child, Blizzard, in December 2006. I didn't realize how incredibly hard that would hit me; it is still a difficult subject more than a year later. A few weeks ago, Nestle started having problems with one of her hind legs. She couldn't manage the flight of stairs so DH and I began to carry her up and down. It gave me flashbacks to all the time I needed to do that for Blizzard. But we love our dogs and we do what we need to. Nestle must have hurt it on something because she's finally started to put some weight on it and only needs help with the stairs about once per day.

Then the other night, during our regular middle-of-the-night doggie restroom break, Nestle slipped trying to come up the three stairs to the porch. Her front paws were on the top pulling with all her might. She looked like she was falling off the side of a building – so helpless and panicked. Immediately, I realized that I needed to go outside… onto the back porch… barefoot into 4" of snow… in the middle of the night… in nothing but my pajamas to help her. As I opened the door to go outside, she mustered just enough strength to make it up by herself.

Without hesitation, I gladly carried her up the flight of stairs to the bedroom.