Christmas 2007

Hello everybody! I hope everyone had a fun, safe and relaxing Christmas and will have a fun and safe New Years. (Above is Britches displaying his holiday joy)

John and Mom

Unfortunately, Mark and I have had a rather difficult month with Mark's serious flu (followed by a lingering cold), truck and plow problems, Roxy's unexpected death and, most recently, my bout with the flu during the Christmas weekend. However, with time and with love and support from our family and friends, we are slowly recovering and healing. This month has reminded us how we cannot take good health for granted and how much joy and pure love our animals give us. If you have an animal...love 'em up as much as you can!!

Mark playing with Mingo

Home in Rhinelander

Of course, our big news is that we just picked up another Llewellin Setter yesterday afternoon. Lily is the newest member of our family, but I'm jumping ahead of myself here.

Lily!!

My last day of school was Friday December 21. I worked some holiday parties Friday and Saturday night at the restaurant. By 4:00 am Sunday morning though, I became very ill and spent the entire day Sunday sick. I was worried that Mark and I would have to cancel our holiday travels to Rhinelander, but when I woke up Monday (Christmas Eve) morning, I felt weak but okay. We jammed our truck full of presents, luggage, dog accessories and Mingo and were off to the Northwoods. As the day progressed, I knew something still wasn't quite right. I went for a beautiful walk with mom and Mingo in the woods, but really struggled getting back. By the time we were opening gifts with John and Jim, I was entirely spent and really just needed to go to bed.

Mark and Crazy-Face Jojo

Dad, Mark and Mingo in the kitchen

Dad's tractor and garage

While he is finishing his research and hours and hours of Turkish translations for his doctorate, my brother, John, is also working this winter with my other brother, Bob, in Madison doing snow removal. As everyone is probably aware, there has been quite a bit of snow here (as I write this it is snowing again with an expected snowfall of 3-6 inches), so my brothers have been busting their tailends with all of the hard labor--and inconvenient hours--of the task. There had been snow and heavy winds the day before Christmas Eve, so John was still in the process from recovering from that...so we both said our thank-yous and goodnights to everybody and went to bed immediately after the gift opening. I guess Jim and Mark and mom and dad had a really good time though just hanging out and drinking a couple beers and wine coolers!

Dad shows us his dry-wall machine

Jim and Mark
Mom whooping it up

Christmas morning I was still ill and missed attending the mass with everyone. By Christmas afternoon I was able to sit up and have a very small plate of food, but it was another early night for me.

Jim reading the paper
Romeo bats around a gift

John and Jim left Rhinelander the morning after Christmas, and by then I was able to at least be vertical and perhaps not be as utterly repulsive as I had been. What a bummer! I couldn't really spend time with everyone, I was physically gross, I couldn't eat any of that good, naughty Christmas food OR partake in any holiday beveraging either!! Phooey!

Check out the distance that snow will fly!
Me, John and Mom

Mark and I did take a short day trip with mom and dad up to Mercer the afternoon of the 26th. It was snowing quite a bit that day, and the roads were still fairly snowcovered, so it took us awhile to get up there and it seemed like you really needed to have a snowmobile anyway to do what all the other people were doing up there. Lots and lots and lots of snowmobiles were being transported north that day. Lots. Sidenote: On our way back to Cross Plains yesterday, from Merrill to Wausau we counted over 70 snowmobiles being transported north!

The Mercer loon

Mom

We also learned a valuable lesson on this trip: Always check the expiration dates on any sodas you purchase at a gas station, particularly if that gas station seems a little dicey. Dad, Mark and I bought a few Diet Mountain Dews and they were absolutely rancid. We then observed that the expiration dates varied from October 2007 to April 2007 to January 2007! Gross!

Mark heading towards the cozy house

Mark and I said our goodbyes to mom and dad yesterday morning after one final, beautiful walk in the pines. What a great spot mom and dad have. I think Mingo appreciates this just as much as anyone else. He, like always, had a blast running and exploring the property. Much to our chagrin, he did chase after a deer or rabbit at one point, because upon returning from his adventure, he was panting heavily and had haunches covered in so much snow it resembled a pair of cottonball britches! (Snow collects in the long hairs that hang from his legs).

Mingo covered in snowballs
The Pines

My in-laws had checked on our cats while we were away and they were happy and healthy when we returned home. We unpacked our vehicle and spent a few minutes with Fanny and Britches and were off to Mounds to purchase a few necessary items before we picked up Lily.

Mingo on-guard

Lily is a 5-month old Llewellin and is the half-sister of Mingo and Roxy (same father). She is a beauty and seems very sweet. She's still very shy and doesn't always want to come out of her kennel, but we know she will adjust. Mingo also seems a little concerned, but once she starts playing with him, they'll become fast friends. The cats look at Mark and I with looks of annoyance, as if saying "good grief, here we go again."

Britches and Fanny observing Lily

Lily in her kennel

Last night we celebrated Christmas with the Valaskeys. It was a time used to introduce Lily to all her hound dog cousins and Van and Judy. We had a great dinner (like always) and drank some good wine (I was healthy enough to partake in both moderately). In the Valaskey household, the gift exchange and the unwrapping of gifts for the dogs is quite an event! My brother-in-law's yellow lab, Abby, is just adorable to watch at this time. She becomes so excited and really wears a smile on her face as she tears open different toy and treat packages.

Abby eagerly awaiting her gift
Greg and Renee with Sam

With the exception of my flu bug, we had a nice Christmas and were happy we could spend the time with family. We hope that everyone else had a great Christmas and we hope to hear from you all soon!

Mingo, Lizzy and Sam napping by Mark


Britches getting a closer look at Lily

Mingo smells something!

Thanks

Fanny rests in the sunshine

Thanks for all the kind messages...we appreciate it.

Roxy

Please remember our Foxy Roxy who died Friday.

Plague

I have not written (or for that matter returned phone calls) recently because Mark has been ill with some sort of virus. He is trying to recover, but it is persistent. Hopefully I can write more this weekend.

Enjoy one of the rejected holiday pictures of Roxy.

Turkey Day

Lots of play time (Mingo, Roxy, Lizzie)
Roxy chasing Lizzie

Lots of football watching

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. We spent ours at Mark's parent's house in Cross Plains. Although we traditionally have a large lunchtime meal, I think we had our big meal when everyone else in the state had it...AFTER THE PACKER GAME!

Sam, Mark and Abby playing ball

The meal was outstanding, as usual. I'm not just saying this to be a brown-noser, but my mother-in-law is really a phenomenal cook. I'm doubly lucky because Mark is such a fantastic cook too (he was in charge of preparing the bird this year).

Judy preparing the meal

Mingo sports his blaze orange vest

We spent the day with Mark's parents (Van and Judy), his godparents (Oscar and Karen), and his brother and future sister-in-law (Greg and Renee). Of course we all had our hounds with us too, for a total of 5 in the pack. The dogs had a great day, with 2 walks, a special dinner and ham bones. The three young ones (Lizzie, Mingo and Roxy) wrestled quite a bit and the two older ones (Greg's dogs, Abby and Sam) sat and received lots of pets and attention from the more sedentary people folk.

Fall fashionsSamOscar and Van Mark lounges with Lizzie and RoxyDinner

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mark and I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! We are thankful for having all of you in our lives...

Don't be fooled, this halo is not adorned by an angel...

Not an angel

Well, I think we all knew that it was just a matter of time for Roxy, our 8 month-old Llewellin Setter to do some sort of bodily harm to herself. She is a pistol, obstinate and energetic. This is a perfect recipe for an accident waiting to happen.

Tuesday evening I was at a class until 7:00 pm and Mark was home making dinner. Mark let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. Mingo stays in the yard ever since he somehow managed to wrap his tail around a tree (yeah, we still haven't figured that one out), but Roxy scampers up into the woods behind our house and does her poopin' duties up on the hill. Mark called the hounds back in, and they both returned without incident. Mark then went upstairs to finish dinner and about 45 minutes or so later I came home.

Sympathy?

I knew something was wrong when only Mingo greeted me at the door; but I just figured Roxy was in a room that she shouldn't be in or chewing something she shouldn't chew (such as the pocket of my new North Face jacket which she wrecked the night before). Much to my surprise, Roxy slowly came out of Mingo's kennel. When I went to pet her, she starting crying and shaking uncontrollably. For good reason: She had what looked like a huge gash on her front right side (bad enough where you could see the meat).

Caving in to cuddles on the couch!

Roxy had impaled herself on either a tree branch or stick in the woods when she went to the bathroom. The vet was absolutely amazed that Roxy had not punctured a lung or had not damaged internal organs, as the stick went in 2 inches and then down her side another 5 inches! The vet also couldn't believe Roxy's "toughness" when being examined before any pain medication was given to her (Roxy looked worried but was calm and hardly whimpered).

Gross

Mark and I couldn't believe it either. We knew she could tolerate a lot, especially when compared to Mingo...but it was hard to think that she would just come running in from outside, like she normally does, and just kind of "hang out" until we noticed. Oddly enough, an injury of this magnitude did not cause a lot of bleeding for there was no blood whatsoever on our carpet and only a couple spots on the bed in the kennel.

Roxy eating

Although our checking account would beg to differ (hello emergency vet care!), this could have been much worse. Little Fox Rox could have been killed! For the next 10-14 days we have to keep her and Mingo separated, she can only have limited exercise, she has to take pills, and she has to wear this darn clown collar...which she has already started to chew through! This is going to be a long 2 weeks for all of us!Concerned Mr. Britches