The Saga of Tank

Where to start. I guess at the beginning would be a good place.

Stephanie decided that she needed a dog after Tyson left for North Carolina. So somehow she got Joey involved and got him to adopt a dog from the pound. Now Joey decides he is joining the army and Stephanie is moving in with Chris and they can't have a dog. Now, what do they do with Tank???? MOM will take him. Okemo had just died and we had room and the lease said we could have 2 dogs. And the big thing...Dani and Tank got along well.

Now we really don't know Tank's heritage but we think there is some lab, ?basset hound, pit bull, ridgeback, and heaven knows what else. He is a love. He just wants someone to love him. He has issues with his knees and we don't know how old he is so it is porbably arthritis. The vets says he is a good dog. Not too old, not too young.

Sue has him outside one day on a retractable leash (never use them). A woman strolling with her baby and Noofie ask if Tank is friendly and when Sue said no, she dropped the leash and the dog charged at Tank. Tank defended himself and had to be beaten on the head to release the Noofie's lip. With that the woman screams and takes her dog to the vet and wants us to pay the bill. Not going to happen, she let go of the leash. Tank also went to the vet and was put on antibiotics. This woman was not going to take no for an answer until we got the dog warden and our vet involved. They all said...not out fault.

Life is good for a while. Tank is charged by another dog and another altercation occurs. Okay, something is wrong here. We talk to our vet and he seems to think that Tank might possibly have been used as a bait dog in the pit. Poor Tank. He loves people but not charging dogs.

I was letting George, the cat, out the back door one cold night in February. Evidently. Tank had to go badly and the back screen door doesn't latch tight. While my back was turned let himself out the door to relieve himself. I was coming out the door when I noticed him glancing to the back of the yard and I realized that Someone was out there with Nicki, the dog next door. Sure enough, John was out there with Nicki, who was also off lead. I yelled to John to warn him that Tank was loose. At this point, before I could get to Tank, Tank started to go around the garage away from Nicki. He stopped to pee in our yard and then ran to John to be pet. I yelled to Tank and he turned to look at me. Just as Tank turned to look at me, John swung his leash at Tank and yelled at him to get out of here. This caused Nicki to lunge at Tank and of course, Tank had to defend himself. Now I am running across the yard. John took his leash and looped it around Tank's neck pulling him away. I grabbed Nicki's collar, twisted it (she was trying to slip out of it) and pulled her away from Tank. Tank had Nicki's neck and Nicki had Tank's head. During this John's girlfriend, Laura, had come out of the house because she heard the yelling. I told her to get a stick to hit the dogs with and to get Sue to help us. She got a half-inch pipe, about 18 inches long. John and I managed to pull the dogs apart without the help of the pipe and we both fell on the ground with each other's dogs. At this point I had my legs wrapped around Nicki's body because she was growling and trying to get to Tank. Both dogs were bleeding but not badly, thank goodness. Laura took Nicki in the house. John got up and picked up the pipe, threw it in anger and stated "If I had my gun, I would shoot that dog. He's no damn good.". Sue and I bring Tank in the house to look at his wounds when John burst into the kitchen (he did knock but didn't wait for us to open the door) yelling that we were going to pay the vet bill, etc. He left and Sue went to their house to check on Nicki. Nicki had some cuts on her neck but nothing life threatening. Laura asked John if they were going to take Nicki to the vet and John said "Not tonight. They won't do anything for her and I am not going to State Street. We will take her in the morning." John then said to Sue referring to me, "If she is going to own a dirty bag like that she should live on Congress Avenue with the rest of her kind.".

The police were called at 9:30 that night but didn't come until 1 in the morning. I had to go to work the next morning. Anyway, the police would not come into our home until we had locked up both dogs. I wanted them to see Tank's wounds but they wanted him locked up. Of course, they had looked at Nicki's wounds. The police talked to us and that was it. No tickets, just statements.

The next morning Sue went to talk to Laura and ask about Nicki and what we had to pay the vet. Laura said there was no bill, Nicki was fine and that she had gotten her shots which she needed. Laura said John was so angry because he couldn't control his precious baby. No problem, all was over. YEAH, RIGHT!!!!!!

About a week later, I am walking Tank on the sidewalk in front of John's house. John yells to me asking me if Sue and I were going to be home the next evening. He wanted to come over to talk to us. Okay, I'll bite....."Talk about what". About getting rid of that dog. That's all I needed to hear. John I am NOT gettin rid of my dog, end of conversation. Laura is telling John to Shut up, now is not the time. Now I am livid and when I get livid my disgusting mouth starts. And I couldn't control it. And I did not apologize for it. Now it was my turn to call the police for harassment. The police came and issued both of us tickets for not licensing our dogs. Ticket paid, dogs licensed.

Now, I get a letter, actually, I got 2 letters, one certified-return receipt requested and one by regular mail. They were from John's attorney!!!! I called my attorney and asked her to please get him to stop harassing me. She did that and sent me a copy of the letter.

Four days later, I have a heart attack. Do I think this altercation caused it? I don't know but I do think it was a contributing factor.

Thank you for listening and reading. I will definitely keep you posted on this saga. I will not get rid of Tank nor have him euthanized as the letter from the attorney stated. Tank has not bitten a human and dogs have issues with other dogs.

Our Garden

The garden has been planted. Sue dug me a little area next to the neighbors garage, with their permission of course. I planted some herbs...rosemary, basil, thyme, sage, oregano, parsley and chive. The chive I planted last year and it is just getting bigger and bigger. I have also planted 2 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, 8 peppers (2 varieties), zucchini and Steph's asparagus.

There is something gratifying in planting a garden and watching it grow. I check it every day. I haven't had to water it because we have had so much rain but I still check to make sure the rain didn't destroy my babies.

So now, I have my indoor and my outdoor plants.

I am also going to plant so morning glory seeds today along the fence so they can climb it and make it look pretty. And some shasta daisy seeds, just because I love them. Daisies are my favorite flower of all time. And maybe some nastursiums will be planted.

So there you have it. My garden!

Quilling

I have discovered a new craft. Well, new for me. Quilling. Have you ever seen those pictures or accents around pictures made of thin strips of paper that are curled? That's quilling. Iit is very easy to do and you need very little in the tool department. You can do it with a hat pin in necessary.

Quilling was started by the nuns in Europe centuries ago and it is now making a comeback. The nuns would tear of the gold edges on the pages of the bible to make these beautiful designs. Jewelery can even be made with this process. If you have an imagination, you can do it.

There are many web sited devoted to quilling. Anyone can do it, even young children. Paper is just twirled around a needle, like a hat pin, and then allowed to open to whatever side you need. Glue is applied to the edge once the size of the circle you need is reached. You the pinch these circles into different shapes. Flowers, leaves, baby footprints, trees, punpkins. All these and more can be made by gluing many shapes together. Snowflakes are beautiful. A great web site that I follow for quilling is www.quilledcreations.com . Take a look and I am sure you will better understand my meager explanations.

Until next time.

Have a great day.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a very nice Mother's day. I know I did. I heard from everyone whether it was a card, phone call or posting. I knew where all the chicks were.

It certainly was a beautiful sunny day but the wind was brutal. I don't care, there was no snow. I am really beginning to hate snow. But I hate extreme heat too. Thank god for AC. I would rather be cold than hot. You can always put layers on but you can get arrested if you take too many layers off.

This posting is going to be short because, guess what, I am exhausted and I slept good last night.

I will be back and soon.

Bye

These things only happen to me!!!

Everyone, you are NOT going to believe this....This is incredible. And, it could only happen to me.

Yesterday I decided to start a new blog site. Read previous post. First I had trouble posting it. Some of the items, in the blog, I didn't understand so I decided to save it and post it later when I had some answers to my questions. I figured out my problem but then couldn't get the body of othe blog to post. I wrote Sheryl who has been blogging for years and I read her blog religiously. She said to go to edit and then I could probably post it from there. Good thinking, I say. I do just that.....no go. posted it. Said it was successfully posted. Not so. Title was there but no body. I thought I could see a shadow of printing but I couldn't read it. Then, it dawns on me. Isn't the suspense killing you? I go back into settings and change the color of the print from pink to maroon and voila.....there is the body!!!!

I told you...this could only happen to me.

Why the new blog site

I decided yesterday to start blogging again. I know everyone is shocked but it is true. I want to blog again. So this morning because I was up nice and early (4AM), thanks to the dogs!!!! I decided to find my blog. Can't find it. What a surprise. Anyone who knows me, knows I have no sense of direction. Evidently, this applies to the computer also. Everyone I know can sign on to the computer, do their thing or do many things, all without a hitch. Not ME!!! So, unable to find my original blog and not wanting to get worked up about it (zoloft is a wonderful drug), I decided to creat a new one. Maybe I will be able to find this one more often. I hope you all enjoy this blog. I promise to write more often.



Okay, for instance, and maybe someone can answer this for me. At the top of this page, there is a space marked: Title....now is this the title of my blog site or the title of the the blog I am writing. I ask this because at the bottom of this page is an area marked: labels for this post:e.g. scooters, vacation, fall. So my question is this: Where do I put what????? Sheryl, come to my rescue, please. Do you see the difficulties???? This computer fights me. I have conquered ordering online. That used to be an all day affair just for one item. I think the computer senses the lack of computer confidence. I will master this and facebook and twitter. These things just come flying at me. I have to conquer them slowly. But conquer them I will.