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Thursday, June 9, 2016

Pet-Tribute: How I dealt with the loss of my furry family member.

Spooky in the garden

For many of us, our pets are like our children. They bring us joy, companionship, good times... and unfortunately, break our hearts when they leave us for a greater place. I just lost Spooky... aka Spooky Bear, Spookers, Fat Daddy, Spooky James this past Sunday. My heart is breaking, but I did make choices that are helping me cope with  my loss and heal, and as hard as it is to share my personal and precious last time with my little buddy, I thought it was worth sharing if it might help someone else deal with the pain of their loss.

Spooky was nearly 15 years old. This automatically makes some choices for you. Pretty much any required surgery is not an option because they aren't likely to make through a surgery, especially if they are already weak. Spooky probably weighed 25 pounds at his prime. He was a huge, fluffy long-haired boy. He died of chronic kidney failure. Organ transplant was out of the question, and as much as I loved him, I would never do that with an animal anyway. Over the past three or four years, he has dropped significant weight at times, but until this last time, always managed to make a come back. He truly had 5 or 6 lives. Once he disappeared for 5 days and we thought we lost him-turned out, he was hanging out underneath the neighbors bungalow. About 6 years ago, he lost a ton of weight in a short amount of time, started hiding and stopped eating. Luckily the vet was able to hydrate him and give him antinausea and he was back to the old Spook, eating everything in sight. This time was different and I knew it right away. So, I had to make a decision. Natural or euthanize. He never appeared to be in pain and the poor guy hated vets from the beginning. He would howl all the way...I didn't even know cats could make that sound. He would also pee in the car. I couldn't bear making his last moment in a loud vet office with barking and crying dogs and chaos going on, unless he was in pain. So I chose to let him go in his peaceful surroundings at home. For three weeks, I watched him barely eat but he continued to drink water and he also continued to appear to enjoy our time together. This was about a three week process. The last week, we had so many special times. One night we just hung out on the patio, one of his favorite places with the tiki torches lit. He sat on his chair and I sat one mine and we listened to music all night. One of Spooky's things was that he always had to have his paw on top of my hand. If I put my hand on his paw, he would always move his to the top-over and over again. The night he died, I held his paw and rubbed his head and he still insisted on putting that paw on top. It was bitter sweet and I did this until he took his last breath.

Spooky in his favorite chair on the patio.

One of the main things that is helping me deal with my loss, is that I prepared ahead of time for what I would do once he finally did pass. This is why people make their plans ahead of time, why not do the same for your furry family member? Being artistic, I decided to make him a Pet-Tribute. I realize some of you might think this is morbid, but for me, it was a beautiful way to pay tribute to a member of our family. Spooky had been with us since my daughter was 6. She is almost 21.

I made him the Pet-Tribute about two weeks before he died and I am so thankful that I had it ready and knew exactly what to do with him once he passed. This was the first animal I had ever had to deal with dying. I didn't want to have to handle this after the fact. I took some old boards and sanded them, stained them and bought a beautiful hinge and latch and built him his Pet-Tribute. I put pictures of our family inside and wrote him a letter with so many of my fond memories of him and put it inside a glass jar to preserve it. I made a copy of the letter so anytime I miss him, I can read it. And if in 50 or a hundred years someone happens to find his Pet-Tribute, they will know how dearly he was loved.


I am sorry for any of you out there that actually might need this post, but if you do, I hope it brings you some help in dealing with your loss.

-Ginger

Friday, January 22, 2016

Another tip to save you a bundle! I cut the cord to cable!


I don't know if you are like I was, irritated as hell at my cable / internet provider who delivered to me a lovely present each month: their bill for over $185! Guess I was bored - or maybe it was raining outside, but I started looking at the detail of the bill and realized that $23 were for fees and taxes, including a $7 or $8 sports network fee, on top of the monthly subscription fee. I also saw the monthly rental of $11.99 for a box that I had now probably owned and paid for 3 times over. Then there was the $30 for the ever-so-annoying house phone that I didn't even have plugged in, but it cost more to not have the phone line than to have it. I never could understand that one.



Anyhow, I read this wonderful article about cutting the cord that described some of the other options available. I think most of us are familiar with Netflix and Amazon Prime by now. You may or may not know that you can buy Showtime and Starz subscriptions to watch any of their shows, anytime you like for $8.99 per month each, cancel at anytime. I love this part! It keeps them producing amazing shows. I had also just purchased Apple TV so that I could get HBO Now, which allows you to watch any HBO produced show anytime you like for $14.99, cancel at any time. Perfect!



Now, all I needed was AMC because yes, I love Daryl, too! This was from Walker Stalker in Atlanta 2015 - total blast and going again this year. If you go, make sure to do a set tour around Senoia, GA. Total blast and you can do it for free just by Googling on your phone.



But, back to this amazing article, they also mentioned an app I had not heard of yet (forgive me if I am a dinosaur here) but Sling TV! I felt like I had crossed a finish line! For $20 a month, I could get not only AMC, but also HGTV, History, H2, Disney, ESPN, ESPN 2, Food, CNN,and a bunch of others! I could have my cake and eat it too!
Here's the math:

Last Year (2015)

$186 x 12 = $2,232 per year Verizon FIOS Triple bundle and entertainment pack

Now

$55.00 x 12 = $660 Brighthouse Internet 150
$20 x 12 = $240 Sling
$8.99 x 4 = $35.96 HBO
$8.99 x 3 = $26.97 Starz
Total = $962.93


Savings per current viewing interest: $1,269.07

That is a lot of extra stuff I can choose to purchase to watch if I am so inclined, but based on the current shows that I am interested in, this schedule serves my purpose! I did spend an initial investment of $298 for two Apple TV devises. I got my Amazon Fire TV Stick free because I had earned points. Now I own these devices and have activated 3 TVs in my house, where before, I only had two at the Verizon $186 per month. There are no more monthly rental charges!!!

So, I canceled Verizon and they have owed me $80.20 since November 19 when my cancellation took effect. Just sayin'... Cut the cord!



Hopefully I can help save you a dime or two as I figure things out.

-Ginger

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Thursday, January 21, 2016

Try this to treat a pet's abscess.

So, I thought this was worth sharing as it saved me potentially $800. My dog Arnold came up with an abscess on the flap of his left ear that grew to about the half the size of a golf ball, maybe a little smaller. There were no obvious wounds or scabs that I could detect. He also wasn't bothering it, but obviously it needed some sort of treatment to go away.



Well, a few years before, my cat Spooky had an abscess about the same size. I promptly took him to the vet where they recommended and ultimately knocked him out to lance and scar his ear so it wouldn't come back. That bill was over $800.



So, this time I turned to Google and did some research, and one of the remedies I found to try was to apply a warm compress to the abscess. I tried this for a couple of days, and nothing changed for the worse or better. Then, I remembered a remedy that my daughter Taylor uses for an oncoming stye on her eye that makes it go away before it really even starts: black and green tea bags!

I tried the black and green tea bags for Arnold's ear, heating the tea bags in a cup of water for about a minute and fifteen seconds, making sure it wasn't to hot, and then applying one to each side of the flap for about 5 minutes, and within two evenings, I noticed a decrease in the size. I continued to apply the tea bags once per day and after five days, the abscess is almost gone.

I would like to note that if your pet has obvious pain or severe infection, you should seek a veterinarian's assistance, but if your pet is like Arnold without the pain or infection, give it a try! It might save you a bundle!

-Ginger

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