No potty training going on here. There's three feet of snow out there. Even if I were to attempt I'm sure the puppy-wuppies would be most unhappy...too unhappy to do their business, you know? They are Bearded Collie dogs. Tuffy is part Bearded Collie. Gabby's mother was Tuffy's full sister so Gabby is 1/4 bearded collie. Gabby is Mom to the puppies. Daddy to the Puppies is Whiskers. He and Tuffy are full brother and sister. These puppies are especially special Bearded Collies because their grandpa times three? four? was a famous Rodeo Dog named Hairy the Rodeo Dog. (this is a Dave Stoeklein photo). Harry traveled all over Idaho, Utah and Wyoming with a rodeo company. I can track these puppies back three generations. I know where they came from. My Dad had Harry's daughter, Top. Top was bred to a border collie named Tip and they had, among others, Tuffy, Afton (Gabby's Mom) and Whiskers. Cool, no? Holly AKA Achmed the Terrorist AKA Holbert AKA Holly Buns can't stand the puppies. She is certain they are taking her rightful place in the family and nothing I say will convince her otherwise. She is very jealous and somewhat afraid of them. Ruby doesn't care one way or another as long as she has her heating pads and a scoop of catfood with her senior citizens chow every day. I got Ruby the same day Jesse started first grade. Jesse is almost twenty one now and was six at the time. Ruby is almost fifteen years old. I keep waiting for her to go downhill but she's kind of at a plateau. In fact, I've justified getting the last three dogs on the basis that 'Ruby is getting old and will be passing away soon...' She's sure fooled me, huh? She also loves her ball, the front deck in the morning and barking at birds.She especially hates the ugly black birds that fly in and steal her dog food from her dish. Someday she WILL catch one and then they'll be sorry! She is a happy dog. Incontinent but happy. So happy she sometimes does not know the cats are sharing her heating pad. We don't tell her when this happens as it would upset her because, you see, she really doesn't like cats. LOL Lori

Vala, those are really pretty! My mom used to make crocheted roses. She gave us (her daughters) bouquets of long stemmed red roses, and also birthday cakes (totally crocheted and life size) with roses on top. I'll have to get a photo and post it one of these days. I have two of the birthday cakes on the settee in our downstairs office.

For me, 40 was too old to adopt a puppy! I tend to adopt older dogs these days because I lack the energy puppies require. On the other hand, I don't think that being older should necessarily stop people from having a dog. It just has to be the right dog for the situation. You might want to look into the Senior Dogs Project. It is active in many states and matches older dogs to older people. For those of us active in rescue, it is terribly hard to adopt out older and senior dogs, even the sweetest ones. It is very hard on a dog to return to a kennel, through no fault of its own, after living in a home, and many make perfect matches for retirees. Some rescues can, and will, even help out with temporary boarding and medical expenses if the match is right, and will help rehome the dog if the senior can no longer care for it. Good luck!

sjerin, he is just mean. He is one of the two guys who stole my pet pig, Piggy Sue. He also almost shot me twice....not on purpose but was shooting in the wooded area next to my house. The bullets zinged past my head. The first time, I didn't press charges. I did call out the sheriff deputy. The second time...a couple of years later, I did. His mother flew into a rage. She called me a liar....said I made it up. Believe me, I didn't. That is his main problem....raised by someone who never made him be a responsible adult. She actually paid someone to take him to Austin and put him out and told him not to come back. Of course, he called a friend to come get him and probably beat them home. She bought him a new truck....tried to get him to get a job and make the payments. He went to Houston, got drunk and tried to cross a railroad track, and something happened....I think the cross arm came down and hit the truck, and he bailed out and a train hit it. I found the dog running up and down on the highway about a mile from here. I thought she had been dumped out. I didn't pick her up the first day, but the second day I saw her, I did. I thought she was a boxer....she is probably half pit bull. I took her to the humane society and had her scanned for a chip. I could have left her there but they had so many dogs, I knew she would be put down, so I brought her home. Later I found out it was his dog originally. He was given her and she had puppies, and his mother didn't want them, so they killed the pups and threw them in the bayou. She killed a neighbor's chicken, so he gave her to his best friend who lives about a half mile from him and he was going to make a hog dog out of her. He didn't feed her and I guess she didn't do her job or something. She ended up on the highway. I kept her in the house and on a leash when I walked her outside but if she got loose, she would run right back to his house because she liked to play with his other dog. So, I think he thought it would be fun to take her off and dump her. She was found about 10 miles away....across the bayou. There are only 3 places to cross the bayou and she was not near a crossing. Some lady found her in the middle of the road and stopped and got her. That's a miracle, I think. Okay, going to do the links now. BTW, if you are already my friend on FB you can click where it says More under my cover pic, and scroll down to where it says Notes and they are all there.