daily dose of dogs (aka cats with your coffee)

Two Lives Worth Saving (Are There Any Other Kind?)

 

Last week, I introduced you to a little Boston Terrier named Frannie.  She was so horribly beat up that we actually thought she might be a bait dog.  Yet, she is so small that if she had been used as a bait dog she never would have survived it.  Her face, ears, neck, and front legs have been bitten over and over and over.  Scar tissue and scabbed over wounds, along with swelling and fresh punctures tell the story of months of torture for this little girl.  Upon coming into the shelter, she was immediately seen by a vet.  She came to us with pain medication and antibiotic.  And she was starving.  She is in one of my runs at the kennel.  Still a little skiddish, Miss Frannie has come a long way.  Whereas she started off cowering nearly continuously, she now runs to us (still doesn’t use one of her front legs) and she gives tiny little kisses when you look her in the face.  She sits very still for any positive attention she can get, but put a food dish down and she’s off to inhale its contents.  What a little jewel. 








From all of this . . .

                                                                                         To this.

I also introduced you to Vinca.  She is the solid black dog that we plucked from the pound on her last day (before euthanasia).  She is a complete joy - a high-energy dog who jumps, bings, turns circles and runs in circles.  She is still nervous about new people and new situations.  But she has grown to love us, and I would love to adopt her out straight from here.  Older Daughter tested her for heart worms and we were shocked that the results were negative.  No heart worms makes Vinca more adoptable.  However, even if I can get her into the shelter, I fear she would regress in that setting.  I am completely in love with her and need to find the perfect home for her.  Prayers and positive thoughts welcome.


                 From this . . .


                                                                                 To this . . .


And this.



See you tomorrow.

Second Round of Kittens

But first . . .

Many of you sent your best wishes for Gideon.  Thank you.  We had a rough weekend.  He seemed better for a while, and then worse again.  There are still NO symptoms other than fever.  He had high fever and then he had a temp for a while that was too low. This made me worry that Dr. A might be onto something when she suggested that whatever brain damage Gideon experienced when he was young might be flaring up and affecting the hypothalamus.  She said it sort of looked as if there was a problem with temperature regulation (which the hypothalamus is in charge of).  Another observation that might lend credence to this theory is that Gideon’s wobble has been quite a bit worse since the high fever hit on Wednessday.  First, we assumed that his wobble had worsened because of the high fever.  Then, at the clinic, he was given a Valium when the IV port was put in.  So we assumed for the next 24 hours that the wobble had been affected by the Valium.  But his current wobble is still more pronounced than his normal wobble.  At least he doesn’t seem to be getting worse.  We love our bobble-head beagle.



Facebook.  Well.  I have a Facebook page.  It has my name on it and that is all.  I am still trying to figure out how this will ever help me with my book.  And still trying to find out how to get anything else on the page in addition to my name.  I’ll keep ya posted.

Yesterday I posted pictures of the twelve kittens (from two moms - Beatrice and Paris).  They received their first vaccinations last night.  (Remember - nobody goes back until after the first vac.)  We will give those vaccinations a couple of days to kick in, and then this first large batch of kittens will go to the shelter to hopefully be adopted into wonderful homes.   Good timing.  It won't be long before I'll need those bigger cages for the second crop.  Twinkie and Naomi are in the maternity ward with their new families.  When those kittens start romping, they will need the added space in my office.

On Saturday morning, we discovered that Naomi had her kittens overnight.  Four white and a tabby.  Meet the Newbies.

                                                                         Naomi's Newbies.

And finally - an update on Twinkie’s litter.  Remember Twinkie only had two kittens of her own.  Then along came two motherless kittens only a few days older than Twinkie’s.  She took them right in and the four have been hers ever since.  We have eyes now.  Take a look at the dessert tray.

                                                                           The Dessert Tray.

See you tomorrow.

Blog News

I am going to have to temporarily post to my blog less often.  It sounds strange to even be saying this, but I am now engaged in some “marketing” activities in connection with the book.  Crazy.  My publishing company is keeping me busy.  I won’t be able to focus on those tasks, post every day to the blog, continue to work my busy season at the kennel, and care for the five hundred seventy two extras (the fosters) around here (smile).  So I will be blogging three days a week instead of five, at least for a while.  I love my connection to all of you, and there is always an endless supply of homeless animals to write about (and brick stories to tell) - so no way will I stop blogging.  It’s just going to have to be a bit less often for a while.  I have noticed in my stats that Mondays and Fridays are the days with the fewest visitors to the blog.  For me, that really works.  My Mondays are always hectic and it’s hard to get back into the groove after busy Saturdays and Sundays.  By Friday, I’m sure lots of you guys have set your sights on the weekend.  So the (tentative) plan is to post on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.     What I’m going to do for the rest of this week is post pictures.  There are now SEVENTEEN kittens and two moms in my office.  There are four dessert kittens with their mom in the “quarantine” room, along with Naomi With Newbies (yep - we have another litter of newborn kittens).   We had a litter of puppies that I got some pictures of before they moved on.  Pickles is still in the downstairs bathroom.  All of this makes for more cute than any one person can handle all alone.  So I’m going to force you to go through this torture with me.  Here’s your first dose.  Kittens and puppies - can you handle it?

The puppies we fostered for a few days.

And now kittens.  Here are pictures of The Twelve.  These guys will receive their first vaccinations this week and before long they will be on their way to the shelter, making room for the next two litters to move into my office.

Paris has one little package that checks in with her regularly.  He looks like our Suds when he was a baby.

                                                  Beatrice sharing a dish with one of Paris' kittens.









                    Look in the background.  I never noticed that when I was taking the picture.




And then there's Pickles.  He is living in our downstairs bathroom.  But he comes into the family room to play.  His two favorites are Younger Daughter's Hansel and Samuel.  I wish someone would see him on the shelter's Facebook page and adopt him straight from our home into theirs.

There’s news about Gideon.  News about Facebook.  News about the feral five.  News about Twinkie’s desserts and Naomi’s newbies.  News about Vinca.  News about sweet little Frannie.  And unfortunately NO news about a stray kitty that has been suffering for too long, but whom we still hope to bring into our care.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week I’ll share the news along with pictures galore.  Tune in tomorrow for another dose of cute.   

Busy Weekend Ahead

Mindy Slimmer who now has THREE Winnie’s Wish kitties (!) celebrated Luna’s birthday on Monday with a commentathon.  I just reported on April 6 that we were the recipients of a commentathon she threw for her Jack Flash kitty.  Well, we are the recipients of Luna’s commentathon, too!  YAY!  She donated (again) one dollar for every comment that came in and that donation ended up being another $45.  THANK YOU MINDY.  THANK YOU LUNA.  And thank you to everybody who went over and commented.


Polar Engraving (the company that does the bricks for the Walkway) emailed me a couple of days ago with this:

Your bricks would have been done yesterday but we noticed the brick quality is not
good enough.  We should receive new brick blanks in 10 days.
I am sorry about this delay.

Ten days plus engraving plus delivery time puts me very close to vacation in May.  So the newest brick stories will probably begin in June.  My apologies.  But don’t worry - those stories WILL be told!  (I love the brick stories.)


Our sweet, sweet Gideon is doing better.  I’m heading into the weekend armed with medications.  Still no diagnosis.  Still no symptoms other than fever.


There are SO many amazing animals here right now that I can hardly wait to show them to you.  My goal for next week is to post lots of pictures.  My goal for this weekend is to get on Facebook.  Oh, dear.  I hope I can figure it out.  If you are one of the people who has been telling me to do this, you are in good company.  I’m now being told by lots and lots of folks that this is a must to increase exposure for the book.  We’ll see if by Monday I am reporting that I have a Facebook page.

Have a good weekend. 

P.S. There’s also a rescue plan in the works for a cat that is in really bad shape.  This is OUR rescue - not a foster from the shelter.  So this one, if she can be nabbed, will eventually be a Winnie’s Wish kitty.  Keep your fingers crossed that we can get her.  She desperately needs us.

WorkLoad vs WorryLoad

I had a lot of really nice, really supportive comments on yesterday’s post.  I finally got to read those late last night and it was just what I needed.  Because as trying as Tuesday evening was, yesterday brought a new problem.

The update on the chaos here is this.  We located another shelter volunteer who had a nursing mom cat.  The five-day-old kittens were delivered to her last night.  Almost immediately, two of the four started nursing.  What relief!!  The feral five are still as feral as ever.  I spent a little time last night trying to hold each one.  They cower and panic and pop and spit.  But I held each one (briefly) and told them I would not hurt them.  Paris is still with her packages.  Beatrice with her babies.  Twinkie with her desserts.  Naomi with no newbies yet.  Rascal is doing great and is such a good dog (and handsome).  Vinca is becoming a circus dog with her jumping and circles.  And little Frannie is learning that we won’t hurt her (a more scarred-up little dog I’ve never seen).  My own Jane and Miracle have their meds and are doing OK - no real improvement yet.  But . . .


We’ve got a new problem.  Yesterday at noon we noticed Gideon, our bobble-head beagle, lying on the couch shivering.  Older Daughter was home (day off) and we had some rare plans with my parents for the afternoon.  Gideon shakes all the time, but this was definitely not his normal shake.  This was a shiver.  Older Daughter felt of him and he seemed too warm.  She decided to take his temp just to be sure.  106.0 !!  I nearly freaked.  It was almost time for us to leave AND it was lunch hour at our veterinary clinic.  We couldn’t call for another 50 minutes.  We gave an adult aspirin and started talking about what to do.  I knew I couldn’t go off and leave him for the afternoon.

My sweet husband said he would stay home, call the vet as soon as they were back in the office, and take Gideon in at whatever time they would let him come.  We couldn’t re-schedule so I left Gideon in my husband’s hands and we left.  He and I stayed in touch by cell phone all afternoon.  Gideon still had fever when they arrived.  He was hooked up to an IV and Dr. A wanted to keep him for the rest of the afternoon and possibly overnight.  At one point, I talked to Dr. A via cell phone myself.  I told her if there was any way we could bring him home that’s what I wanted to do.  He doesn’t stand well on slippery surfaces.  I wanted him home on his couch.  She did an exam and a blood panel.  There weren’t any symptoms except the high fever.  My husband stayed in the town (had to kill about an hour and a half) and then went back for the verdict about 4pm.  The fever was down.  No diagnosis.  She would let us know the results of the blood work.  Gideon’s IV port was left in place in case his fever was to come back up during the night.

I received a phone call from Dr. A about 7:30pm.  She said liver enzymes were elevated.  Nothing else was out of range.  She was stumped.  We had a plan in place for fever overnight, but no real path forward.  I don’t know what we’re facing, and it is wearing on me.  If I was given the choice between extra work and added worry, I'd choose more work ANYTIME.





Tomorrow - not sure.  I’ll keep you posted.

Overwhelmed

I had a post written up for today.  I wrote it yesterday afternoon before Older Daughter came home from work.   However, alot changed after I wrote that post.  Last night was “trying” to say the least.  I guess I can say that things are less chaotic today than they were last night but I am still overwhelmed.  So I will give the bare bones information, and then get back to work. 

You might remember me mentioning something about hearing that this year’s “kitten season” was predicted to be worse than normal.  The extremely mild Winter followed by very early Spring has made for gorgeous flowers and trees, early bugs and snakes, and tons and tons of kittens.  I am truly broken-hearted by the news from the shelter where Older Daughter works.  People are calling by the dozens wanting to bring in kittens that their unspayed cats are having - in their bathrooms, under their houses, in their sheds and outbuildings.  These aren’t feral cats.  These are pets - allowed to roam around outside, unneutered and unspayed.  The shelter cannot begin to take all of the kittens that are the result.  There are too many adult cats in the shelter.  There are too many kittens at the shelter.  And there are kittens in various places being fostered - ours is one of those places.

I knew Older Daughter was coming home with a litter of feral kittens.  The wonderful volunteer (LC) who does alot of bottle-feeding and fostering for the shelter is dealing with a family crisis right now.  She was supposed to take this litter of ferals and start working with them.  When her father became suddenly critically ill, I told Older Daughter to tell her we would take on the feral litter for as long as she needed us to.  As YOU know, we’ve dealt with feral litters before.  I knew we could start working with this group of five.  It was a great relief to LC. 

Then during the course of the day at work, Older Daughter received (at the shelter) a little Boston Terrier, maybe 8 or 9 months old, injured and starving.  This little gal looks like a “bait” dog.  She has fresh injuries and old scars - LOTS of both.  She is also greatly underweight.  Older Daughter called me as she locked up for the day and told me about the little Boston.  I asked how she was doing.  She’s really scared.  I told my daughter to bring her here for a while.  She went back inside and loaded up Frannie.

What I DIDN’T know was that Older Daughter already had a carload.  She had the five feral kittens (about five weeks old).  But she also had four five-day old kittens.  They were brought into the shelter and remember?  LC is not available to take them.  Older Daughter knew that if she didn’t bring them home, they wouldn’t survive at the shelter. 

I could feel my stress level go WAY up as we started trying to get animals settled into various places.  A run for Frannie.  A cage with a box to hide in for the ferals.  And the teeny tiny babies?  We tried ALL three mothers.   Without going into the long details of the evening, let me just say we struck out.  Three mom cats.  Three strikes.  Older Daughter is feeding them with a syringe.

The workload was already steep.  Fourteen felines in my office.  Mom Twinkie and four kittens in the “quarantine room”.  Pregnant Naomi in there as well.  I have Vinca the dog (from the pound) and Rascal the dog (from rescue friend Mere Lyn).  My own Jane and my own Miracle went to the vet on Monday - possible snake bite or spider bite for Jane (on meds) and an infected anal gland for Miracle (on meds).  Pickles is still in my downstairs bathroom.  Now Frannie the dog is in yet another run.  Five ferals are in a cage in my office making the total count in there nineteen.  And there are four little babies only days old. 

Yep, I’m overwhelmed.

                                                                                      Frannie.

                                                                          Feral Five.

                                                                                   The infants.

I'm completely dedicated to giving each and every one of these sweethearts everything they need.  But do please keep these tiny infants in your thoughts.  We're still working on the perfect solution for them.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to post what I had planned to post today.

Unexpected Desserts

I reported to you that Twinkie gave birth to only two kittens.  Twinkie had been locked in a house for several days without any food when she was rescued.  She was pregnant at the time.  We believe this could be why there were only two kittens.  Actually, it’s hard to know for sure.  Anyway, she had the two, and we expected more overnight.  There were never any more.  So we had our little family in the maternity ward - Twinkie and her two little desserts: Vanilla Wafer and Gingersnap.  I hoped that all would go well, but you never know.  The little desserts were born last Tuesday, so by Friday I was beginning to feel some confidence that these babies would survive.  On Friday, they were four days old.  And on Friday evening, they suddenly had siblings.  Uh-huh.  You heard me right.  Two little desserts doubled to four.  I’ll explain.

Only a couple of days after our Wafer and Snap were born, someone brought two little abandoned kittens to one of the shelter volunteers.  Now this particular volunteer is wonderful with tiny kittens.  She has done alot of bottle feeding over time and she immediately started with these two because they were only a few days old.  However, her job takes her out of town for days or even a week at a time.  She called Older Daughter - You have a nursing momma kitty with only two kittens right?  I need to see if possibly your momma would take these two babies.  I’m headed out of town.

Older Daughter brought those two kittens home on Friday evening.  I was horrified.  These babies were just about two days older than the two Twinkie gave birth to.  We’d never done anything like this.  What if Twinkie rejected them?  What if there wasn’t enough milk?  What if the two slightly older ones kept the two younger ones from nursing?  Mom cats (and dogs) DO nurse babies that are not their own - successfully - all the time.   (Jeanne at Random Felines has just recently had success in this area.)  But we had never done anything like this.  And I knew that if anything went wrong, and we had to start syringe feeding, things could go downhill fast.  I was a little nervous. 

Well, our wonderful, WONDERFUL Twinkie took those babies like they were her own.  She has been nursing them right along with her own two since the moment we introduced them.  Oddly, one of the two new ones is nearly identical to the two biological kittens - an orange stripey.  The other is solid white.  Honestly, it looks like a family meant to be.

See the extra orange?

                                                                     And the solid white?

We had a Vanilla Wafer and a Gingersnap.   They’ve been joined by Orange Marmalade and Marshmallow.  Couldn’t you just eat them up?  Fingers crossed that all four thrive.  I’ll keep ya posted.

Suddenly Slimmer

Saturday morning was like every other morning here - packed with work.  Got up early and started taking care of cats and dogs all over the place.  But all morning, as I went about my work, I knew that this morning wouldn’t be exactly like every other morning.  Saturday morning was the day that Mindy Slimmer and mom CJ would drive right up into my driveway. 

They arrived southwest of where I live on Friday night and checked into a motel.  (I told you I live in the middle of nowhere.)  The plan was for them to drive to me on Saturday morning, visit the cathouse, view the Walkway, pick up their TWO newly adopted kitties - Percy and Golden, and then start the long journey home.  They found me without getting lost and arrived about 9am.  I had met Mindy and her mom once already when we delivered Luna to them on a parking lot somewhere in Missouri.  Saturday was especially nice, having them here, getting to show them around.  We went in the kennel and I introduced them to Vinca (the pound dog saved from euthanasia), new pregnant mom Naomi , Twinkie and her two cookies (more to that story tomorrow), and then to the office where two cages house FOURTEEN felines.  Beatrice, Paris, and twelve kittens.  The kittens are incredibly cute, but Mindy says it’s adults she wants to provide a home for.  Kittens need good homes, too.  But adults get chosen so very little over tiny cute kittens.  Besides, the kittens at our place are fostering here, and it is not my responsibility to find homes for them.  The cathouse cats, however, ARE my responsibility - and two of those were going home with Mindy and her mom.

We walked over and I introduced Mindy and CJ to donkeys Radio and Jenny.  I pointed out the “shelter dogs” and described the plan for those guys.  Then we went in the cathouse.  Lots of kitties scattered.  Tulip and Frosting stayed and tried to convince the Slimmers to take them instead.  Glitter and Circe made appearances.   Halo nearly broke her neck at one point trying to dash from one room to the other to get away from the “strangers”.  Percy and Golden actually did NOT hide, but they didn’t come right over either.  I had to take care of some kennel business for a bit, so I left the Slimmer women in the cathouse.  When I returned, we visited a few minutes longer, and then they loaded up their new family members and I walked them to their car.  Percy and Golden were on their way to a forever home.

This was a special adoption because of the joy of having Percy and Golden go together.  They have been inseparable for months.  It’s all rather ironic, really.  Percy and Golden were part of the Fantastic Fifteen from last Summer.  Luna was part of that group, too.  Ninety nine percent sure that Luna is Golden’s mother.  And we think Percy is probably somehow related as well.  Golden was extremely attached to her mother initially.  Now the three will live together forever.



                                                             Golden loved her momma Luna.


Percy and Golden have been side-by-side for months.



As if that wasn’t enough (!), Mindy and CJ have assigned Luna (the first kitty they adopted from us) a birthday.  And that day is TODAY.  It probably won’t surprise you that they have decided to have a commentathon to celebrate.  Winnie’s Wish is the beneficiary.  So do please stop over to the *Slimmer Place and leave Luna a happy birthday comment.

Mindy and CJ - THANK YOU.

Updates (and some Cuteness for your Friday)

First let me say how wonderful it was to read your comments on yesterday’s post.  Wow.  You guys are great.  If only I had about half a million of you . . .     Thank you for your encouragement.  Many of you have said you are ordering the book - please let me know what you think once you’ve read it.  And as always, please spread the word.

My wonderful parents brought me a cake yesterday.  I, of course, do NOT think of myself as an author.  It was weird dealing with the publishing company and having them talk to me as if I was an author.  Then my parents gave me this cake, and well . . .    I’ll let you see for yourself.


(I have wonderful parents.)


Updates today.  Vinca, who was saved from the pound just before her euthanasia day, is just amazing.  She is sweet, funny, bouncy, energetic, . . . .   happy!  She makes me smile.   From cowering in a corner at the pound, to barely letting us touch her, to running to us for attention now.





I wrote on Wednesday that Twinkie had given birth to two kittens the night before.  After posting Wednesday morning, I raced down to the maternity ward to see how many more desserts had been delivered.  None.  Twinkie had two cookies and no more.  That is a really good thing in a world full of too many unwanted cats.  We have orange Twinkie, little orange Vanilla Wafer, and little orange Gingersnap.  Perfect.

My office is now a nursery.  A kitten nursery.  I can truly say that we have never had this many kittens all the same age at the same time.  Paris’ Packages and Beatrice’s Babies make TWELVE kittens spilling out all over the office floor.  The cuteness factor is off the charts.  Sunny and Bright Eyes are still not eating food.  Older Daughter is still supplementing them with formula.  They are getting stronger, and I hope nothing changes.  I know it always can.  But right now, I have a lot of hope for these two little bitties.  (Pictures coming below.)

Pickles is now officially old enough to be adopted.  We would love for him to go directly from here to his forever home.  The Facebook volunteer at the shelter is posting him, so hopefully someone wonderful will grab him up and give him a home. 



Mindy Slimmer and her mom will be here TOMORROW MORNING!!!  They are coming the entire way from their home to mine.  They will see the cathouse, the Walkway, the Packages, Babies, and Cookies.  And they will load up Percy and Golden and take them to their forever home.  Of course, I’ll be telling that story next week.



Now let me leave you with something that will flood your brain with lots of lovely endorphins.  Kitten pictures!  I took tons of pictures yesterday, and when I started going through them, I found TWENTY that I wanted to share with you.  I don't even have time to upload that many pictures this morning.  I'll pick a few for today, and sprinkle them throughout next week, too.  Since this is "update day", pictures of Sunny and Bright Eyes are a must.

                                                             Paris, surrounded by kittens.


                   Floor Full O' Kittens

                                                            Bright Eyes (left) and Sunny.


                  Bright Eyes.

                                                                                          Sunny.

Have a great weekend!

I Did It!

There are a handful of you guys who have been reading this blog for quite a while.  You know I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I wish I would write a book.  I sort of launched this blog (over two years ago) in lieu of writing a book.  For years, the various rescue stories had tinkered around in my brain, and I knew I needed to get them in writing.  The thought of sitting down to that task seemed overwhelming.  When I started blogging, I was able to get the stories written down a small chunk at a time.  During that first year of blogging, I was so glad to finally be telling the stories.  During my second year of blogging, as I constantly tried to think of ways to bring in dollars, I wished to myself that I would turn that first year of blogging into a book.  When I would consider the task, it would paralyze me.  Could I even do it?  Even if I could, how in the world does a person get a book published?  I bought a couple of books about self-publishing.  They were great except that they were WAY over my head.  I really don’t think I  could have worked my way through that process.  I knew a book would probably never actually happen, but still I wished I would do it.

Then about six months ago, I started putting my first year of posts into a form on WordPerfect that I could play around with.  I chipped away at this new project during the Fall and into the holiday season.  The more I worked on turning my stories into a book, the more I wanted to go for it.  But I was still at a loss as to how to get a book published.  About three months ago, as I was surfing around trying to figure out how to do this, I discovered some companies that take on books that obviously WON’T be taken by the mainstream publishing companies.  I investigated some of these, and I was able to speak live to a person at the Xlibris company.  This sounded like everything I needed.  Over the course of a few weeks, I learned more and more, kept working on the book, and all of a sudden I was signing a contract. 

Well.  That meant deadlines.  And thank goodness for those.  Even though I was burning the candle at both ends for weeks during this phase, it was because of those deadlines that I worked and worked and worked . . . .    and finished.  Yep.  I finished the book. 

All of you know that I am constantly trying to find ways to bring in dollars.  I realize that writing a book and selling a book are two different things.  But honestly, I am sort of still in shock that I actually accomplished the writing part.  I did it.  I wrote a book.  It still seems weird.

So that’s the announcement.  I’m announcing that I wrote a book and that it is for sale.  It is a book with the same title as my blog because it IS the first year of my blogging life.  It’s a BIG book.  When I got my copy in the mail (this week), I was really surprised at how big the book is.  It’s hard to know how a book will look and feel until you have it in your hands.  I wrote a book.  A big, thick one. 

My publishing company tells me that in this day and age, you can’t sell a book unless you have a website or a blog.  We live in an age which requires that books have homes where people can visit.  So I have put a link to my book in my sidebar.  This takes a person to the publishing company.  They sell the book directly from there - each sale earns me over $4.  I am told that the book is also available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online store - each sale from sellers other than Xlibris earns me $2. 

Once again, I'm asking for your help.  Would you spread the word?  Tweet?  Facebook?  Share It?  As I said, I'm always looking for ways to bring in income.  Thanks.

If this book should somehow actually sell, I will absolutely have to do another book someday.  During my first year of blogging, I was just discovering all the wonderful people in the blogosphere.  I have met SO many additional wonderful people since that first year.  There are only a couple of adoptions in the current book.  There have been so many more since then. . .





Tomorrow, some updates.