Hello Everyone!!!

Just wanted to say hello to everyone after a long absence. I won't go into a long-winded story, but a lot has been going on. What I will say, it through it all Josie and I have still been doing our Therapy Dog work and she has been working her magic. That being said, here is a little story. (There will be lots of little stories to try to catch up...)

This past spring, I had to go dermatologist to have a few moles removed. Nothing serious. One of the moles came back suspicious. Again, nothing serious, but the doctors wanted me to have the skin removed around the mole. I decided I didn't want this done until the end of the summer because I wouldn't be allowed to get any sun on my back. So, this past early October I go to have this procedure done. I am laying in the room and the doctor and nurse are performing the procedure. They are making conversation with me to take my mind off the fact that they are actually cutting me and removing some skin. I don't feel a thing and I mention that I do volunteer work at two of the local hospitals with my dog and we are a Certified Therapy Team. When they are done, the doctor leaves, but the nurse is finishing up with me and she says "My daughter had a therapy dog visit her when she was in the hospital..." and I say "Well, maybe it was Josie. Did the dog go up on the bed?" and she answered "I don't remember, so much was going on." and I said "Well, Josie is the only one who goes on the bed on a red blanket..." and I soon as I mentioned the red blanket, she stopped and looked at me and started crying. I looked at her and said "What's wrong?" She said "Nothing, it was Josie that visited her..she remembered the red blanket", so that's when I showed her a picture of Josie and she said "Yes, that's her" and she proceeded to tell her how much that visit meant to her daughter. That they weren't going to even let the dog visit her because her daughter is allergic to dogs, but her daughter really wanted to have the dog visit and that Josie was a wonderful experience that day and her daughter talked about it for weeks and weeks. And it meant so much to her. And she hugged and thanked me. So here I am having this surgery and I meet someone who Josie has touched. How sweet is that??? Soooo sweet. Well, she said her daughter is doing very well and never forgets what Josie did for her. Gotta love it!!

I will be posting a new post after Halloween complete with pictures. Hugs and woofs to all of you.
Much Love,
MB, Josie and Blues

And now...some pictures of my pups...

Josie making sure we're sailing the boat correctly...check out her ears...you can see how windy it was...two ears up!!

First Mate Josie making sure the port side is clear.

First Mate Josie on our last voyage of the season.

Josie looking cuter than ever on our new futons.

Mr. Blues all grown up and striking a pose!!!

Finally back after a couple months off...so much to tell!

Josie and Blues trying to stay still....LOL.

My blue-eyed boy Blues.

My brown-eyed girl Josie, sitting up for a cookie.

Josie looking sweet.

Those blue eyes.....

Blues snuggling with Nigel.

Gertrud and myself after our tubing adventure.

Josie giving Nigel some loving.

As you all know, I took some time off after my patient John had passed away in March and I befriended his wife Gertrud. All this after sleeping on the floor on a doggie bed with Josie for three weeks while John was in Hospice care. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I don't regret a second of it.

I did stop back in on my birthday, May 24th, only to find out that our beloved friend MaxDog had passed on that day. What a sad day that was. I posted my condolences to MaxDog's mom, who has a new beautiful blog called Living Life to the Max, but decided I still needed to take some time off to spend with Gertrud and myself.

I had grown quite close to her and she to me. Something I was not ready for was the sadness that accompanied John's passing in March. It enveloped myself and Gertrud. At first I didn't understand what it was. But it crept up on me until I was fully wrapped in it. I couldn't escape the feelings. I didn't know what to do, so I went to see a Therapist. Funny, the Pet Therapy person seeing a Therapist. But, hey, what I do is all volunteer work. I am not trained. I just give from my heart. And someone had passed away. And there was a great loss, a void. And I also had became very attached to him and his wife. Now what?

And not only was I down or sad from it, now there was his wife, who was dealing with his death, and 54 years of marriage and I wanted to help her. So I did what any friend or family member would do, and I was there for her. I still am. What I learned was that the best thing I could do for her is just "be" there for her. Let her "be" sad, with me being with her. Try not to "cheer" her up. That is my natural persona. Try to make them laugh or smile, but I learned, just to be. And it's an awesome lesson.

We have become very close, Gertrud and I, and I am very blessed to have a good friend like her. We have adventures together. She's experienced some firsts with me. I took her tubing down a river. We ate crabs together. She flipped out of a pool and was okay (that was not planned!). She bought a new car. Yes, a new car. I helped her trade in her two cars, one of which only had 2,300 miles on it, the other 30,000 miles and buy a new car. My cousin works at a local car dealership, so we got her a fantastic deal.

Josie and I have been visiting the hospital on Fridays to visit Pediatrics and we visit a special school for children every other Wednesday on our lunch hour so the kids can read to her. Once in a while we do adults at the hospital, but it's only because I am spending so much time with Gertrud right now. I also went and got Josie's and my certification at another hospital right around the corner from the one hospital we go to so in the Fall we can start going to both hospitals.

Blues has been growing like a weed. Seriously!! I think he has Greyhound or Whippet in him!! When he runs his ears go next to his head the way a Greyhounds do and his legs are sooo long and so is his tail. He just screams Greyhound! So I think he is a Shepherd/Husky/Greyhound mix. But he is so sweet. I really think he is going to make a wonderful Therapy Dog one day. Love those Greys!!

I seriously want to thank all my FB friends (you know who you are) who gave me my boosts each day to keep me going through all of this and all my Blog Friends who checked in with me. God Bless you all. My hubby (love him) got me a Macbook Pro for my birthday so I will be checking all of your blogs.

Thank you for being so supportive and loving. I love you all. xoxo

Much love and Woof!!

MB, Josie and Blues

P.S. A very special THANK YOU to our good friend Nigel for his "nipping at my heels" about getting back to blogging. Thanks Nigel. It's good to be missed. Love you dear friend.

P.S.S. A shout out to Sierra Dog and her folks. I will talk about them in my next blog!! They went and did a very nice thing!

P.S.S.S. I hope you all like my new look. I am working on it as we speak...much love!

Josie's New Visits, Blues' Ears, Birds and Flowers, Oh My!

Hi Everyone! I'm so sorry it's been so long since my last post.

Josie and I have been busy keeping company with Gertrud, which we love, and training baby brother Blues, who will be turning 6 months old on June 6th. Gosh how time flies!

Josie and I also signed up to do a children's hospital on Wednesday's during our lunch hour. The kids are special needs kids and they read to her. She had her first visit last week and she did so well! I was so proud of her. The kids all asked questions at the end of the session and then they all come up and wanted to give her treats all at once. I was a bit concerned because they all approached at once, and there were about 15 children, but Josie was fantastic and just smiled and kept still so they could all pet her. I just beamed like a proud mommy could.

We also received our volunteer status at another area hospital that is a 600 bed facility. We really have our work cut out for us. But we do as much as we can. We still go to the oe hospital at least once a week to go to pediatrics, but at this new hospital we are going to concentrate only on adult patients.

Once Blues is a year old I will take him to Therapy classes and then I will have two Therapy dogs (hopefully!!)

So, a little about the pictures. Well, of course you know Josie and I wanted to show all of you out there that Blues' ears were back to matching Josie's!! Isn't he growing into a handsome boy?

The rest are of my flowers, a peony, one of my hand painted birdhouses, which I painted and a clematis, and a red rhododendron.

The last five pictures are of a Robin's nest I found hidden in my coral honeysuckle bush and the babies. I couldn't get too close or I would disturb them. Can you see the parents yelling at me in the last picture???

I do apologize for not keeping up lately. I have been thinking about all of you so much and been feeling so bad because life has been so hectic it's been hard to post. My hubby is getting me a Mac Laptop for my Birthday so I should have no excuses for keeping up with all of your blogs by the beginning of June.

Much Love,
Hugs and Woofs,
Josie and Blues