What a Week!

This past week has been a tough one for me. On Tuesday night, my best friend called me around 10:15 pm to tell me that her standard poodle, Capri, was sick. After talking with her, we both set off from our houses to meet at the emergency vet clinic. Capri had bloated, and her stomach had twisted. (The appropriate and technical term for what happened to Capri is gastric dilation and volvulus.) After dealing with one of the worst vets I have ever encountered, we made the very hard decision to have darling, beautiful, wonderful Capri put to sleep.

Desi (my friend) got Capri about nine months after I got Spenser. Spenser was born in April, and Capri was born in October of 1996. Desi and I became friends because of these two dogs. When I needed help grooming Spenser and showing him, she stepped in and helped me out in a big way. When Capri came along, we fell into a team rhythm with the two of them. I bathed and brushed and learned how to put topknots up; she groomed and handled. We had so much fun in those years of showing the kids, as we've always called them. We lost many more times than we ever won, but win or lose, we enjoyed going to the dog shows. Our lives have moved on now, as lives are wont to do, but we both look back fondly on those days.

In 2006, my last litter of puppies was born. Capri was utterly captivated and fascinated by the puppies, and my girl Rory (the mother of the puppies) seemed to be pretty content to let Capri observe the puppies and sometimes even climb in the whelping box and hang out with the puppies. In this picture, Capri was lying on the couch, and we put one of the puppies up on the couch with her so that she could snuggle with it and love on it. She never had puppies of her own, but she loved those little guys of mine as well as any aunt anywhere. When they got older and got too rowdy, she would look at them as if to say, "Whew! I'm glad I don't have to take 'em home with me."

On a brighter note, I got some stitching done this week. On Friday night, I finished one of the Mill Hill ornaments I just bought. I always think these are fun stitches. I like the beads! I use little things like this as stocking stuffers for friends. Today, I'm going to start stitching on Emma's Garden. It won't be finished in time for Christmas, but I do want to get it going. And with that said, I think it's time to head into the living room, find something totally without merit on television and start stitching!