Canines, Beads and Wind...

What do they all have in common?

Me!  Of course! 

The dogs have been up my butt since I got home, the wind is whipping so hard that I am envisioning my house leaving the ground soon and ending up somewhere in or near Oz (dogs in tow, naturally)...
 and my lovely litte beads and buttons came out of lovely my little kiln this morning.....

And if I do end up in Oz, you can be darn sure that the clay and kiln will be with me!!!

Those white buttons with the crawl glaze look much better right-side up....

Closer view of the upside down cool buttons....

Some of you may remember the story about my toy poodle Mikito.  One morning last summer he wouldn't come when called.  He always had quirky behavior so I thought it was normal for him.  Well.... what I didn't know was that he went blind (literally overnight!).  After many trips and too much money at Cornell Animal Hospital, he eventually ended up having his eyes removed.....  eeewwwww....  I know!  But, look at him!  His health and behavior changed almost immediately after the surgery.  The poor little guy was in pain with the pressure build up that was not coming down to normal levels.  He now runs around outside, even has jumped on the couch a bunch of times, goes up steps by himself and of course.... no matter where I go in the house, he is at my feet...  or on my leg asking to get on my lap like you see in the picture.  He's amazing really....

The Adventures of Mikito...

I said that I would post pics of Mikito when his hair grew back in front of where his eyes used to be, but I couldn't resist taping him when he was running outside. His behavior of jumping in front of the big dogs was typical of what he would do before he lost his eyesight. So, needless to say, he is back to his old self despite the fact that he is blind. Six weeks ago, I was sure that he was not going to make it. I'm sharing this story just in case anyone else ever experiences something similar with their pet. If you love your pets like I love mine, you know that it is devastating when faced with life or death situations that can come up.

I'm enjoying him more now that I probably did before. He has become dependant on me since this has happened and knows that I'm his eyes when need be. I'll keep you posted.

Oh yeah....a couple of notes about the video. The heavy panting from Jake is not because he has been run too hard, but he had laryngeal paralysis a couple of years ago. He had to have tie-back surgery which has left his larnyx partially opened so that he can breathe, but the hole is small so that he doesn't get water or food in his lungs causing him to aspirate. I do love my two purebreds, but both have experienced health problems related to their breed even though both came from good breeders. In the future, I will always get dogs who are in need of being rescuing like Buddy, the one who just gets a little bit excited about catching the ball...



**Please don't think of this as bad photography...INSTEAD pretend you are on a rather rough simulator ride taking you on this adventure ;o)

Fresh From the Oven...

Before I show the group that I came home to today...I just want to put out a little reminder that we have a giveaway happening right now on our brand new Love My Art Jewelry Blog.   While there, if you are not already familiar with one of our members Barbara Lewis, read about her in today's post.  I haven't felt too great for the past few days....I've caught a cold from one or a few of the little boogers (no pun intended, of course) that I spend my weekdays with.  They are also known as middle school students. 

I did get a little pick-me-up when I got home and checked out the kiln.  I used some new glazes on some of these so I wasn't totally sure what I was going to find. 

I loved most of them. I've learned not to try to guess what others will love

 because it is almost never what I expect.

One of the news glazes has a bit of a matte finish.  That was unexpected, but they look pretty cool.

And some fall faves.....

That's all for today....other than a Mikito update.  If you are concerned about a dog without eyes...perhaps you shouldn't go any further. 

This has been an amazing experience.  I wrote about Mikito in a prior post.  I opted to have his eyes removed because of the pain.  He has been incredibly happy.  He's sitting on my lap as I type this, resting his little head on my arm limiting my movements, but when not on my lap, he runs to me when I call him.   Bill was out throwing the ball for the dogs when I arrived home and he literally ran up to the car because he knew it was me!!   It's unbelievable!!!!  He's barking just like he used to (a tad bit of an annoyance) and I almost thought he was going to jump up on the couch a little while ago!  I'm sad that he went blind, but I'm happy that he is no longer sick and seems to be adjusting to his new life without eyesight!

Once all the fur grows back in, I don't really think it will be that noticeable.....  He just looks like he is sleep walking ;o)  I'll post in a month or so when he has had time to grow his shag back!

A STORY...

Here are the beads (most of them) that are from the firing that I did yesterday. I've also made a bunch of connectors, pendants, etc., but have to decide which to list and which will turn into jewelry.

Decisions...decisions....

Guess, if this is as tough as it gets in the decision making world...

then I've got it pretty good....

On a personal note:

I've recently has a crazy experience where my little 8 year old toy poodle suddenly went blind in both eyes. I took him to the vet who referred me to Cornell. You get referrals there often when you live close by. Anyhow, off to Cornell we went. $1000 (hello credit card debt) worth of testing and drops later, they didn't know what was wrong with him. He kept getting worse. Next choice: the Neurologist. I felt terrible by this point and also did lots of searching within myself. I've been working on listening to my intuition the older I get.

We really should do that more often.

I made the decision that I was not going to go any further with this and I was going to just give it time. He was very sick and his eyes were a mess. Well...it's been about 2 weeks and although he is blind, he is almost back to his old self. He's up walking around, barking (which was very annoying and is now great to hear), eating and just being an ordinary dog. He is still getting drops to relieve the pressure pain and lots of drops for his VERY dry eyes (no tears at all). I have also had to make, yet another decision, and that is to have the eyes removed. It sounds kinda crazy and my guess is that he will look a little off (the Vet tells me it won't be as bad as I think), but it will take care of the pain.

Poor little guy....

So...why this story? Enjoy the times in life when decision making is as small as, "do I use this bead or do I use that one?" Even my Mikito the toy poodle story is small in terms of decisions that I've faced throughout my crazy life.

(It is pretty calm right now with my wonderful husband, 3 dogs and cozy home in the country

....do I dare put this down in print?)