Coincidence?

Poor Miss Paris has a ton of hair. The humane thing in this heat is to get her a military-style haircut, which is to say, do our best to make her look masculine. She gets everything shaved! Her groomers in the past would always try to affix a bow despite the lack of hair but this groomer puts a bandanna on. Here she is after her last trip to get beautified:

Do you notice she's wearing a Breast Cancer Awareness bandanna? Do you think the groomer noticed she is "different"? She's seen vets who haven't even realized she's missing all her nipples until I point it out. After her double mastectomy last year, she is wearing this bandanna with pride!

Rough Weekend

I have been trying very hard to adapt the mindset that complaining is entirely unacceptable. The theory comes from the book I'm reading, which essentially tells you that complaining is detrimental to your psyche and it does more harm than good. I am not perfect (obviously.)

Sorry for the delay in not posting much. My weekend was awful. On Saturday I came home from running some errands with my mom to find my beloved Paris having a Grand Mal seizure. We rushed her to the vet and the vet was a very cruel, unkind woman. I am honestly surprised she works with animals for a living.

Paris was so bad off that we planned to have her euthanized on Sunday morning. We were under the impression she was paralyzed, and she would not eat or drink. Long story short, in typical diva fashion, she was waiting for something more delicious, I suppose, because she proved to us she could walk when offered an omelet.

I know some people think it is silly to get so worked up over a pet, but honestly, she has been more loyal and loving to me than many of my human friends. I had her before I had Mr. Case! She has helped my entire family (as individuals) through hard times. Both my brothers left work and came home to say their goodbyes, and my parents spent hours holding and petting her, too. Not one person didn't shed a tear.

Thankfully Paris has been rebounding. Another doctor from the vet hospital called to check on Paris and I relayed to her the treatment we had received during emergency hours. She insisted I speak to the owner of the hospital and when I did he was the kindest man. He had me come back in and he wrote a prescription for anti-seizure medicine, which is what I had been hoping for,but has been denied by the mean vet. He also went to great lengths to assure me he had reprimanded the other vet. In all, he really went out of his way to rectify the situation and ensure my animal received proper care.

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I have received a couple of emails and just wanted to mention that yes, I will be announcing the baby's gender but it won't be here. Still trying to keep this a relatively baby-free blog. The announcement will be on my family/pregnancy blog either tonight or tomorrow.

Paris

I think if looks could kill, I would be dead. She appreciated the belly rub up until I had Mr. Case take her photo. Paris is like me and doesn't like to have her photo taken!

Paris

So I had all these grand plans to follow Nablopomo this month as inspiration to get this new blog off the ground, only to discover there is no theme for this month. Go figure. 

But then I started noticing that "the cool thing to do" is to list 1 thing you are grateful for each day this month. Sounds like a grand plan to me! God has bestowed upon me more blessings than I can count. It would be foolish of me not to take advantage. 

This is Paris:

6 years ago I was living alone in California with my family a thousand miles away. The boy I loved had left me high and dry. I asked my mom to get me a dog. I don't know what on Earth possessed me to make such a request, considering I wasn't even allowed to have a pet at my apartment. But the planets aligned and in December of 2004 I flew to Oregon to pick up the best dog I've ever had: Paris.

I'm not one of those crazed people who thinks a dog replaces a living child, and I'm not quite obsessed with her. But still...

To be honest, Paris is the best friend I've ever had. She is loyal to a fault and always happy to see me. She has comforted me on days when I didn't think it was possible to get out of bed. At my lowest points and during my darkest days, she has given me comfort. 

Her love is unconditional. In fact, when I think of models of healthy loving, aside from The Man Upstairs, Paris gives the love I aspire to give. She keeps no record of wrongs and she loves with all her heart. Shouldn't we all???

So today, I am thankful for Paris. When she had cancer a few months ago, I felt destroyed inside. I know that pets aren't meant to last forever, and I definitely think that God teaches us lessons through loving and losing so many in a lifetime. Thankfully, she was able to have a curative surgery that should extend her life. When she boards a plane Saturday to live with my parents, my heart will ache each day till we're reunited. And even though I didn't select her from the litter, and even though I had my doubts since she is spunky and I "wanted" docile, I know she was always meant to be my loving friend.