Cyndi Takes Charge

Cyndi:  All right, everyone, listen up!  Today is going to be a good day around here. There will be no bad behavior, no knocking things to the floor for Jan to not pick up, no breaking anything, no accidents, no arguments, definitely no fighting, and no backtalk!  Understood?

Buddy:  Don't you think you are overstepping your place, Cyndi?  You aren't in charge here!

Cyndi: I am snoopervisor for today!  So pull up your britches, slap a smile on your face, and try to behave for just one day!

Buddy:  What's the occasion?  Are we expecting a visitor?

Cyndi:  This house is a mess!  Marcus, roll the vacuum out of the closet.  No, never mind, you'll just waste time chasing and biting it.  Instead, grab the broom.  Buddy, can you reach the sink to wash the dishes?

Buddy:  What?

Cyndi:  Merci, tie a duster around your tail and dust the low furniture, such as books and bookshelves.  Taylor, find the small duster and do the taller furniture.  Percy, since you and Rusty knocked many of the small items off the desk onto the floor, you can pick things up from the floor and put them back where they belong.  Micah, you can stand by and use the dishwater Buddy splashes to mop the kitchen floor.  There's a brand new mop near the sink.

Buddy:  And what will you do?

Cyndi:  I will supervise.  Otherwise, Marcus will play bitey with the broom and the rest of you will goof off.

Buddy:  What's the occasion?  Are we expecting guests?

Cyndi:  I hope not! The house needs a good cleaning.

Buddy:  Cleaning is Jan's job.

Cyndi:  But Jan has been sick for over a week and someone has to whip this place into shape. It's looking more and more like a used tissue factory.  Do you want Jan to get well?

Buddy:  Of course I do.

Cyndi:  Then let's help her so she can concentrate on getting well.  Then we can go back to being slobs again and Jan can return to being our servant.

Buddy:  Okay, when you put it that way.  I'm tired of listening to her coughing and honking.  I haven't had a decent night's sleep since she got sick.

Cyndi:  None of us have, so let's surprise her.  The idea of Marcus wielding a broom and Micah mopping the floor makes me laugh.  Perhaps it will have the same effect on Jan.

Buddy:  And Jan keeps saying laughter is good medicine.  Cyndi, you're brilliant.

Cyndi:  I know. But remind me of that when Marcus sweeps the dirt under the washing machine, or Percy yells "lawsuit" because Merci hit him in the snoot with her duster, or Micah claims he should be on Disability because he slipped on some soapy water.

Buddy:  I guess your job is harder than mine.  I think I'll go wash some dishes so Micah can swab the floor.


Many of you know our old friends Dezi & Raena - service cats to their mom Audra, who is disabled but spunky.  Back in January they did a post on some expensive dental work Audra needs to alleviate pain and infection.  This is not cosmetic; it is a serious health and pain issue.  We decided to share a link to their first post on the subject - Put That Finger In My Mouth and See What Happens.  The post contains links to their youcaring fundraiser and to their paypal.  If you could spare a few dollars, it would really help toward the first step in the journey.  And please pray for them and their needs. 

Cotton's PSA and Decision

Hey, I'm Cotton. Sorry, but I fell asleep while waiting to use the computer. And it's been a long wait, but Jan finally made a decision.

First though, a Public Service Announcement from Zoolatry. Ann has a very good post on why many blog readers would appreciate it if the the word verification found on many blogs would be disabled and why it can be a hardship for those with a disability. Jan has health problems that are affected by her computer time too and she has been glad to be spending more time away from the computer lately.

We can't speak for other blogs, such as Wordpress, but Blogger has been doing a terrific job of filtering out spam for quite a while now. It has become rare that a spam message gets through and has to be deleted from a post or that a good message ends up in with spam. But bloggers have to do their part. It's easy. Just go to comments in your dashboard (check them occasionally if you choose not to receive email notifications) and check/clear your spam folder.

An easy way to keep up with what is posted on your blog and what is not is to have Blogger send an email for each new comment. If the email asks whether permission to post or delete, that comment has not been posted, so you just delete it from the Blogger spam folder nest time you think of it. But you have to keep your email address current. Just go to -

Dashboard.
Comments.
Scroll down to "Comment Notification Email" and type in your email address.
Click Save Settings.

But before you save your settings, you might want to change "Who Can Comment" to only registered users. We used to allow anonymous comments because we have non-blogging friends, but since many spammers try to post a comment as Anonymous, we finally had to change the setting.

We understand why many of you use word verification but as Ann points out, there is also the problem of time, often having to do two or more verifications, as some are almost impossible to read. A big problem for us is that we have the slowest DSL and way too frequently, there is such a delay, we think our comment went through, but as we are already leaving the site we glimpse word verification appearing. So we either wasted our time making the comment or we have to go back and do it again.

We thank Zoolatry for her Disable for the Disabled graphic and for the post. We don't know that all of you will be able to disable word verification for one reason or another but we hope at least many of you can.

Our last post was to let you know where we were with our blog at the time, but so many left advice on what to do with stolen content, which was not the problem, so we took the post down.

We were trying to warn you about a site using hundreds or thousands of bloggers RSS feed posts to steal your traffic - not steal your post - to boost their own traffic in search engine rankings - and to get visitors to download a program. All bloggers should be doing a periodic Google search of your own blog name. Don't search for this company, as you will only increase their their "popularity," but if you see brokencontrollers.com/yourblog name, you might want to ask them to remove each of your posts and links from their site. Which they will do but you have to notice them and make the request.

Their are many reasons a blogger needs or wants a domain name. But we will never own JFF dot com again. It wasn't because Jan didn't try to pay them for the domain names. They just kept refusing to accept her payment.

As long as we keep posting on JFF, our old dot com will be following us and can be resold. Today it is owned by a foreign company and it's all ads. Tomorrow it could be purchased by a porn site. Jan really wants to end JFF so this can't ever happen, but she just doesn't have the time or energy to start over and try to build up a new blog, a new zazzle store, Twitter, and everything we're signed up with. And Jan has been busy trying to downsize as we might have to move.

Reluctantly and with trepidation, this blog stays open, but we're going to have to find a new heart for it.

Stop right here. And read the last line again. The way it was written, not the way you are expecting it to read. Please.

Merci Intros Summer the Sheep

Hey, Merci here today. Yesterday was the first warm, windless day in a while, so Buddy, Sam and I had a bath. Buddy's lampshade ... sorry, Buddy's cone collar got a bath too.   Sam got scrubbed cause he's had a big dirty patch on both sides of his white coat for months that just wouldn't wash off.  It looks better but whatever he did, he sure ground it in.

I have a neat video for you today. For months, Summer was unable to stand or walk on her own due to neurological damage to her spinal cord caused by a parasite.  Without treatment she would have died.  Still, she might never walk again.  So this is a video of Summer the sheep being fitted with a special wheelchair designed by Eddie Grinnell of Eddie's Wheels in Massachusetts, who has helped dogs, cats and even farm animals with mobility issues.

We'd take our hats off to Eddie but we aren't wearing one at the moment. However, Buddy has volunteered to take off his lampshade ... uh, cone collar.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Hey, don't forget to go by The Furry Bambinos. Meerkat and Panda Bear are celebrating their 4th birthday and for every real (not spam) comment they receive on their post by this Sunday, May 22, they will make a donation of $0.50 to the Cleveland Animal Protective League (APL)"

There isn't much time left, so how about all of you kitties and woofies and even humans who put off dropping by there go leave a comment and help the Cleveland APL.

We commend them and all those who do a commentathon to raise money for a cause. It doesn't cost the reader anything so none can complain they can't spare a donation. And it means even those with empty pockets can participate. So don't pass up this opportunity to help some furries. Go visit and leave a comment.

**Sam, you can stop looking under the furniture for lost change now.**

Cotton Meets Can Do

Hi, Cotton here.

We have a happy video for you. It's hard to believe this peppy, happy Jack Russell, appropriately named "Can Do" (possibly spelled differently - Kandu or ...?) was turned in to be euthanized because he would never have any quality of life.

UPDATE: Aha, we were right!  When we originally found the story and video on this dog, all we knew was his name is "CanDo " but no spelling.  We prefer Kandu and we have finally found that this is the correct spelling.  **Breathes on paw and wipes on chest to congratulate self**

This video is called "One Brave Little Dog." Personally, we all think "One Bouncy Little Dog" would be a better title. He's got as much or more enthusiasm for life as a dog with four legs.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Bark It Furward Commentathon

We have never done a commentathon before because much as we would like to donate to a worthy pet cause, we just don't have a piggy bank to break open.  But today we're going to do our first one on Milk-Bone's Bark It Furward dollar.  Yes, you read that right.  Each comment left on this post will be worth $1 US. 

For 12 years, Milk-Bone has donated a portion of the proceeds to help Canine Assistants.  In 2010, Milk Bone created Bark It Furward, a program created to raise awareness and funds for Canine Assistants, a non-profit organization that trains and provides service dogs for children and adults with physical disabilities. Founded in 1991, Canine Assistants has provided 1,000 service dogs to people across the country, giving them the chance to have more independent lifestyles.

Canine Assistants has their own breeding program at the Milton, Georgia facility, primarily Goldens or Labs, but they occasionally adopt from local breeders or organizations. Puppies begin training at two days old and training lasts about a year and a half. Some of the tasks the dogs learn to perform include turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, pulling wheelchairs, retrieving dropped objects, summoning help and providing secure companionship.

Many people in need of a service dog depend on Canine Assistants to pay for the lifelong care of the dog. Without the help of any government funding, Canine Assistants relies on the generosity and private donations made by philanthropic partners like Milk-Bone to help pay for the training of these special needs dogs.

We hope you will leave a comment to help raise funds for Canine Assistants. And if you are interested in participating with a blog post of your own, just send us an email or include your interest in a comment.  Bark It Furward will run through January 4, 2011.

Before you go, take a minute to meet young Zoe and her canine assistant.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Learn more about Canine Assistants and the Milk Bone Bark It Furward program..


And we hope you will check out our Zazzle store if you haven't already.

Tavi and Rowan

We are sad because Tavi needed to be helped to the bridge today. He had a good long life but it's hard for a family to say good-bye. You might want to stop by Camie's Kitties if you haven't already.

We had a post with a video all set to go but Jan wanted to use the computer for just a second and poof! So we're starting over.

Fortunately, we found another video for you. Rowan the wonder dog was born without eyes and has learned to get around by echolocation. He barks and listens to the echos to know where he is in relation to nearby objects. And so he can get around and play as just one of the dogs.

Buddy and Roo

Hi, I'm Cyndi and I get to introduce the after Thanksgiving post.

Jan says Thanksgiving was a very good day. Well, maybe it was for her but we were left alone for most of the day and she still hasn't shared any turkey tidbits with us. She says they're coming as soon as she can catch her breath.

But we might forgive her.  We did have a bit of excitement here this morning.  We cats watched from inside the screen door as Jan raced outside.  If anyone reading this drove by early this morning and was shocked awake at the sight of Jan bent over, back to the road, in her pajamas, we hope you didn't spill your coffee.

She opened the door and the 3 dogs charged down the steps as usual.  It surprised her because Buddy stops dead and refuses to go outside if it's rained or is too cold first thing in the morning, but then she realized Buddy was in trouble.  So, cool-headed and clear-thinking as ever, she started to run through the house to pull on a pair of jeans, realized it would take too long to get dressed, grabbed a jacket on her way back and ran outside to comfort Buddy who was having his first seizure of the fall/winter season.

He generally takes a few minutes to come out of it, gets to his feet and has to make an emergency trip outside (this is the first time he has had one outside) to empty his bladder and bowels.  But before any of this could happen, Merci suddenly ran for the fence, barking, Squirrel, squirrel, squiirel!.Buddy, who was on his side with his legs rigid, shot straight up in the air, came down on 3 legs, nearly fell over, and kind of hopped, staggered the few feet and stared, probably not seeing anything.  At least not a squiirel, which had disappeared. Then he turned and started staggering, stumbling along the fence toward the house.

Sam gets upset when Buddy has these episodes. He usually races around barking in Buddy's face.  When this was over, Sam went crazy racing around, barking at Buddy, slapping him in the face with his tail, body slamming him with his brick butt (Jan's nickname for him), and trying hard to get Buddy to play. We're all glad Sam decided not to be a physician. His bedside manner could use some work.

We're happy Buddy is okay and things are back to normal.  

We'd like to share a happy video with you this morning.  Roo is a Chihuahua mix puppy born without front legs.  He had a happy Thanksgiving - he went to his new home.  His new mom drove 2 1/2 hours to fill out the adoption paperwork and it was her handwritten letter that singled her out from the other potential adopters: She said she wants to let the puppy just be a dog and do doggy things. 




If the video doesn't play, click here.  You can read the story and watch a short news story here.

Jan is cleaning today so we're going to go hide out from the noise machine. Mr. Doug is supposed to come by today to turn on our heat because it's supposed to be COLD tonight!  And it's wet out too so as much as Jan is grumbling about the price of gas, it is time.  If she really wants to be cold, we can just lock her outside.

Fainting Goat Cats

No, the title is not a joke. We never heard of myotonia congenita, or fainting goat syndrome, in cats. It's rare in dogs and cats.

The kittens can walk but cannot run or jump - and we assume they can not play. At the slightest sound, they fall over in a rigid paralysis which lasts about a minute.



The cuties in this video are Charlie and Spike (black and white). Sadly, Spike died today from respiratory failure.

We are incensed that YouTube comments had to be disabled for this video because of insensitive comments. That is one thing we dislike about many web sites, the quality of a number of the comments. The ability to be nasty seems to outweigh common sense for too many. This makes us even prouder of the pet blogging community, which is known for uplifting and supporting one another.

If the video doesn't play, click here. 

To Charlie and Spike's human:  If you ever run across this post, we'd like you to know how sad we are for you loss. 

And thank you, Evelyn, for introducing us.  We know you have a great heart for kitties with a disability.

Callie Mae, Fragrance Free and Miri

We want to introduce you to a beautiful special needs kitty who is looking for a very special home. She was nursed back to health after having all four legs amputated. And be sure to note, despite her disability, she once caught a mouse.



If the video doesn't play, click here.

Today, August 13th will be unlucky for chemical fragrance! Clean+Green by SeaYu has founded Fragrance Free Day (#fragrancefreeday), a social media event by which people are asked to tell the world via their social networks that they’ll go “fragrance free” for one day. 

Animals have faster metabolisms and smaller lungs than humans, so not only are they processing harmful chemicals used in the home more quickly, they are also breathing them in at a faster rate. Because animals are closer to the ground, they are more often in direct contact with these harmful substances making Fragrance Free Day of special importance for pet owners everywhere.

Fragrance Free Day gives concerned consumers a chance to help spread awareness of the dangers associated with fragrance/chemicals in personal care and household cleaning products. This awareness campaign comes at a time when, according a recent report by ABC News, “Congress and the cosmetics industry are both calling for tighter regulation of the chemicals used in cosmetics and other personal care products due to concerns over possible carcinogens and other toxic ingredients.” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/toxic-cosmetics-draw-congressional-attention/story?id=11228491

According to the report by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and Environmental Working Group, “Not So Sexy, the Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrances," they found 14 secret chemicals not listed on the labels that are associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions, and many substances that have not been assessed for safety in personal care products. The study also notes that numerous other products used daily, such as shampoos, lotions, bath products, cleaning sprays, air fresheners and laundry and dishwashing detergents, also contain strongly scented, volatile ingredients that are hidden behind the word "fragrance." The Environmental Protection Association (EPA) has weighed in, too – they state that fragranced products – like air fresheners, fabric refreshers and traditional cleaning products -are one of the leading contributors to poor indoor air quality, which can lead to health issues. 

As part of the event, the company will host a live Q&A on Twitter, featuring SeaYu’s CEO Quincy Yu, organic chemist Dr. Stephen Ziman and veterinarian holistic pet health expert Dr. Carol <http://www.drcarol.com/> Osborne, DVM (http://www.drcarol.com/). Anyone with questions on the safety of products they’re using for personal care can Tweet them with the hashtag #fragrancefreeday on Friday, August 13 from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST and have their question answered by one of the experts through SeaYu’s Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/seayu ).

**We hope you will join Clean + Green in celebrating this day.  Jan was surprised to read that air fresheners contribute to poor indoor air quality.  She did know they put out the pilot lights on our gas space heaters in the winter.  

This week Furriends of the CB Auction are offering sketch drawings by Katie Kat. Miri has improved but is still having trouble breathing. There are still many vet visits to follow. One hundred percent of the money raised for Miri will go to her vet bills. There are a limited number of sketches, ten, that will be offered to the top ten highest bids this week. From your photo Katie Kat can make sketches of kitties, doggies, ferrets, bunnies, hamsters, parrots and other little furries. The sketches are 5 x 7 and can be yours for a donation of $9.00 plus mailing.

Stop by and check out the auction. A Nonny Mouse announced that they will match all bids on the sketches to help Miri!!!!!

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

Two-Legged Lamb and Bear Bear

There's a little disabled guy with a real will to live.  Born with only 2 legs, one lamb's determination won the heart of the owner who would otherwise have killed him at birth  Funny thing is, he's the only one who doesn't know he's disabled.

Sheepish Cui, 38, says she would normally have killed the youngster at birth, but was so impressed by his struggle to survive she began to hand-rear him.

‘He was so determined to live he pulled himself up onto his own two feet and started drinking his mother's milk. I couldn't let him die,’ said Cui at her farm in Shangdong province, eastern China. You can read the rest of the story here.

For those of you who haven't heard the story of Bear Bear yet, stop by Khyra's or Meeshka's  to read his story. And then while you're all hot under the collar, get your humans to use the contacts listed to help get Bear Bear justice.  There are too many law enforcement officers of one type or another who are trigger happy when it comes to animals, often killing a pet in front of family members with no provocation or remorse.  They should be held accountable!  The investigation was reopened after a "flood of outrage" over the shooting.  You can read that story here.



Don't forget to stop by the CB auction for little Miri.  The anonymous donor who matched the bidding total for Maxie's last auction has offered to match the winning bids for Miri also. You can visit the auction here.

Up the Hill and Bionic Feet

Percy
Well, it's about time I get a turn to host a post again.

As a quick update, we do have water and we don't have to boil it any more.  Hurray!  We can all go back to flopping around the hot house and napping without feeling guilty for not helping Jan haul water.  

It's Jan's birthday today and since she's huffing and puffing up the hill (getting old, in case you wonder which hill), we thought we would give her a day off to rest and catch up to her age.

But we wanted to share this amazing story with you.

A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.The new feet are custom-made implants that "peg" the ankle to the foot. They are bioengineered to mimic the way deer antler bone grows through the skin.The operation - a world first - was carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Surrey.

Read the rest of the story and even watch a video of Oscar taking his first walk on his new bionic feet --
Bionic Feet for Amputee Cat

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

Frankie, Walk 'n Roll Dog

Hi, this is Cyndi and today I get to do our post.

We are still without our computer, photos, links, etc, and we can't do much online. So when today's mail brought a package, we thought this a great time to do something we don't need our own computer for -- read. 

We recently did a book review on Almost Perfect. This led to a request to review a couple of books for children on an "almost perfect" dog named Frankie.  Both books are by Barbara Gail Techel with illustrations by Victoria Kay Lieffring.

Frankie: the walk 'n roll dog is the true story of a miniature daschund that at age six suffers a spinal cord injury that paralyzes her hind legs. But life goes on. And so does Frankie. She is fitted for a canine wheelchair and continues living life with zest and enthusiasm, even chasing butterflies and bees in the yard. She can do anything she wants with her new "tires" -- even ride in the basket again on her mom's bicycle with her ears flying in the breeze as they go to market.

Frankie: the walk 'n roll therapy dog visits Libby's House. In this book, Frankie and her mom become a certified therapy dog team and they become regular visitors to a senior assisted living facility where some residents are in wheelchairs, some use walkers, and some have Alzheimers or dementia. There are many joys associated with visiting a senior facility, both for the residents and for the therapy team, but inevitibly there is the pain of losing a friend.

Our Jan was an avid reader as a child and she says she can picture herself reading these books in school had they been written several centuries ago.

Uh-oh, Percy, you need to correct that typo before Jan reads it. She said several decades ago, not several centuries.

"Barbara hopes Frankie's story will teach children that no matter what challenges we face, we can still give back to the world." Frankie is a good example of this. And so is Barbara. She could have had Frankie euthanized when she was injured. There are those who would have made that decision, and we're not trying to judge them because they might be either physically or financially unable to care for a disabled pet. But Barbara and Frankie became a team teaching others to have love and compassion for the disabled.

We recommend both books. Even though we're not children, we enjoyed them.  You can purchase a book here. A portion of all proceeds from books & products is donated to disabled animal chairities.

Stop by and visit Frankie on her blog and also follow her on Twitter - www.twitter.com/walknrolldog.

Have a purring and tail wagging day.  We hope to be back soon.

PS -- I forgot to mention that we were not paid for this review, although the books were provided. Any opinons expressed are purely our own.

Almost Perfect

It's my turn to do a post. I'm Merci.

Back in February we posted about Rewards of Disabled Pets and Mary A Schafer left a comment, so we went by her website and found she'd written a book called, Almost Perfect: Disabled Pets and the People Who Love Them. We then posted Perfect Pets about disabled pets who are just perfect for some special human. Mary contacted us and asked if we would like a copy of her book.  Of course!  But she got busy and forgot to send it until late April.

We finished reading it last week and we want to tell you we enjoyed reading the stories of the wonderful pets and the humans who adopted them. We cried through the very first story of Tux and his one happy day of freedom in a volunteer's back yard -- something we healthy pets take for granted.

We met Colbi the blind husky-shepherd mix. And Grover the kitten with Cerebellar Hypoplasia, a subject we've written a couple of posts on in the past. And Arrow the rescued dog that was there for his human when she really needed to know she was not alone. There was Idgie the miracle cat. Krieg, the malformed and underdeveloped shelpherd whose four months to live blossomed into four years.  And even Cagney the pet rat. There are eleven essays in all; each one will touch your heart.

Each story is unique, but each story has the same underlying theme. Basically, each animal had a special need and each human who set out to provide that need ended up being blessed as much or more than the animal was. 

We think any animal lover would enjoy this book.  Those that aren't yet animal lovers can learn from it.. The stories are inspiring. And you can be laughing one minute and crying the next. You can find information on how to order the book here.  Or visit Mary's blog Almost Perfect Pets.

We were not paid to review this book. Any opinions expressed are purely our own.

Also, we would like to share a video with you. It makes us sad that so many animals are turned in to shelters because they've gotten old or have become imperfect. Humans like this guy really know what commitment is. And you can tell he is getting back as much as he is giving.



If the video doesn't play, click here.

Oh, and for those of you who missed our Dr Tweety & the Fab Five Appreciation Day post the other day, we would like to share a comment left by them:

Dear Jan & da funee farmz & to all our frendzez oldee & newz:
We lovez you!!!!! Tanks you fur dis day. We justee lovez da CB & missez it terry-bully. What's wouldz we doez witout our frendsez??
Da dadee iz recoverin' (not da furny-ture). He still facez anudder operashun but iz through two of dem in two monthsez.
Poor dadee. He still can't liftee or do much but we iz keepin' him compaknee.
When he haz his radyayshun, we can'ts be aroundz him. But fur now, we justee pilez on tops of him!!!
Tank you fur all your well wishez. One of deze dayz, we WILL haz a partee & I promisez to roastie a 987 pound ham!!!!!

So sharpen your appetites. One of these days, the Fab 5 will be throwing a PARTY! 

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

Sunshine and Olive

Christopher gave us the Sunshine Award Friday and although we received it on February 1st, we are very pleased to receive it again, especially as Christopher left us this message: Thanks for your write-up about the disabled pets book. Since I am disabled myself, you are like a ray of Sunshine!

He is referring to yesterday's post on disabled pets. We titled it "Perfect Pets" because each one is perfect for someone. Christopher was born blind and is obviously a ray of sunshine to his family. How do we know? His nickname is "Mamma's Little Boy."

"

The Sunshine Blog Award

Thank you, Christopher. We won't pass the award on to other blogs again, but we will value it. You can visit him at Christopher's Groove.

Oh, when we stopped by Christopher's, we noticed he is on Catster. This reminded us that we kitties recently joined Catster. And the doggies joined Dogster. We joined so recently we haven't even had a chance to build our pages yet. That's kind of a daunting task, to consider doing 8 separate pages. We wish we had taken the time to join before Crystal died so he could be on there with us. He was part of the Funny Farm since long before we started this journal. It doesn't seem right to leave him out.You can click on any of our photos in the Catster/Dogster widgets in the sidebar to view our basically empty pages.

Have a great weekend. And don't forget to visit Ollie's birthday party this weekend. Click on the graphic at the top of the sidebar or click here.

Perfect Pets

A few months ago we posted Rewards of Disabled Pets and Mary A Shafer who wrote the book Almost Perfect about disabled pet and the people who love them.left a comment, "It's so important that we take the time to realize the value of all life, and special needs critters sure do have a way of helping us do just that. We have a whole book about the rewards of sharing your life with a disabled pet:" We intended to check this book out but time got away from us, so we're just now getting to it.

We stopped by her blog today, Almost Perfect Pets. She writes about different species of disabled pets, not just cats and dogs -- including a duck named Sebastian.

We are intrigued by Mary's book but Jan says we're in emergency only spending mode, so she won't let us buy it. But we find the subject intriguing. It does take a special heart to adopt a special needs pet. But we hear each of these animals greatly enrich the life of the owner. That's why we titled this post "Perfect Pets." Each one is just perfect for someone.

We don't know Mary and she has no idea we're posting this. But we figure anyone who devotes a blog and a book to animals with disabilities has to be a kind, loving person. Stop by Almost Perfect Pets and meet some of the animals she posts about..

One of them is Chase. A bad beginning but a happy ending. Ignore the part of the video that asks you to vote for Chase. The voting evidently ended and Chase didn't win but according to the Hope for Paws page, Chase Bank donated $25,000 to Chase. (Hmmm, think it might have anything to do with his name?) So we assume Chase is having or has already had the surgery on his hips so he can be pain free.



If the video doesn't play, click here.

Buddy: Jan says Sam and I should chip in to send her toe on vacation, that perhaps a little sand and surf would help it. (We checked the trash for a wine bottle but evidently she was sober.) When we asked how we're supposed to pay for it, since she won't give us an allowance, she said, "Get a job!"

Sam: Since she insists much of the problem is our fault, we're thinking of singing at passersby and passing a hat for donations. Only problem is we don't have a hat, so we'll have to steal .... uh, borrow one of Jan's baseball caps. It shouldn't take long to raise the funds to send her toe on vacation. The rest of her -- well, she'll have to pay her own way.

Don't forget to attend Opus' surprise birthday party for his sister Ollie (Olive). Just click on the graphic at the top of the sidebar to get there. The party will be going on all weekend.