We had a good Christmas. Especially Teddy. Here's the evidence:

I hope you had a good holiday, too. 

We missed being able to indulge Sophie this Christmas, and we always miss her sweet presence (and her willingness to wear a Santa hat.) By the way, not all of Teddy's gifts were from us. My brother and his wife gave Teddy some of them. Unfortunately, they were the ones that took the harshest treatment. But Teddy thoroughly enjoyed them, and the orange octopus has been re-stuffed (which will only be temporary, I'm sure.) Anyway, we wanted to do something in remembrance of Sophie, since this was the first Christmas without her. So, we donated a bed to the Richland County Dog Shelter in Mansfield, where we found her and adopted her just over eight years ago. I wondered how it would work, as there was a link on the shelter's website, and the bed ships there directly from the manufacturer. It turned out that it worked really well, and I received the nicest acknowledgment message from the shelter the very next day. I'd like to share it with you, just in case it may motivate you to send a bed to a shelter you know about. Here's the email I received:


Dear Dana,

We received word from Kuranda that you and your husband are donating a Kuranda bed in memory of your precious Sophie who you had adopted from the shelter 8 years ago. Please accept our heartfelt sympathies for your sweet Sophie. She is lucky to have had your love and care for those 8 wonderful years and I am sure you feel the same way about Sophie.

That is quite touching that you want to reach out to another dog at the shelter and make their stay a little bit more bearable with a comfortable bed while they wait for that special someone to adopt them. Thank you for being so considerate and so generous. The dogs truly do love these Kuranda beds and they are very well made and durable.

Whenever you are ready to start looking for another family member, please let us know if we can help you in any way.

Thank you again for wanting to help our shelter. That is such a wonderful tribute to Sophie and we appreciate your kindness more than you know.

Susan Kochheiser
for all the dogs at Richland County Dog Shelter




I really appreciated that, and I did respond to her. Just in case you ever want to donate a bed, check the website of the shelter you have in mind, as it probably has a link to Kuranda on it. If it doesn't, just visit www.kuranda.com and go from there. I hope that makes my little Sophie smile. We wanted to do something in her memory that had a lasting impact, so I hope that very soon a dog at the Richland County Dog Shelter is a little more comfortable thanks to Sophie.

Thank you for your business and your support this past year. Have a very Merry Christmas! 

This is a huge blog entry for me. I guess I'm making up for lost time. I've been super-busy this past month, with the usual Christmas preparations and such, on top of all the regular stuff, plus a birthday, and nursing my finger and my dog, so I've been really bad about updating lately. Here's a little bit about what's been going on...

Having a bandaged finger doesn't seem like it should be a big deal, but does get in the way more than you would think. Things I take for granted, like the way I hold the leash when I walk Teddy, putting an elastic in my hair for a ponytail, opening jars, flossing my teeth, and trying to applaud at a great concert. It doesn't stop me from doing these things, but it does get in the way. It's also a factor when I'm sawing a design out of silver, because that's the finger I would like to be using to hold the metal against the bench pin. Oh, well. I did get my stitches out, and things were great for two or three days, then the joint got really angry and swelled up, turned red, hurt tremendously and became un-bendable. It's calming down now, and much of the pain is gone, but I lost a lot of ground with physical therapy. Despite the whining, I have managed to get some work done, and here's a photo of some of the jewelry I made while impaired. It doesn't interfere much with my ability to paint. Washing my hands, yes (when it's bandaged), but not in getting them dirty.                                                                   

Teddy had some dental surgery to remove a cracked tooth. It looked like it should be terribly painful, but he never showed any symptoms of the problem. He was very floppy from the anesthesia and pain medication, and it was sweet to see such a big dog be so...pliable. We didn't want him to fall off the bed that night (he usually starts the night with a visit for an hour or so), so we got him situated in his giant, very comfy Frontgate dog bed, which we covered with a sheet to catch his blood-tinged drool, and we thought he would be out for the night. Not so...sometime around 4:00 AM, Teddy decided he wanted to visit, so he flung his 73 pounds up onto the bed in a move that lacked any kind of grace or control and landed, like a bony sack of potatoes, on Art's legs. And then he wouldn't move. Art actually had to get out of bed and push him over. I was relieved to see that Art still had use of his legs. Teddy is pretty much recovered from his surgery, although we are still softening his food (which smells great, by the way.) He is now being treated for an ear infection. I really hope that Teddy is not trying to compete with Sophie's legacy of vet bills. We're hoping for an extended period of good health for Teddy (and our Discover card).

Today is Teddy's favorite kind of weather: cold, wet and snowy. I took the photos below from inside our enclosed porch. He's watching the door and giving me the, "What, aren't you coming out with me?" look. No, I am not.

Another Ernie Haase and Signature Sound concert.  It was their Christmas concert, and it was wonderful. Cute boys on stage. They don't even have to sing and I'd be happy. Probably couldn't get my husband to go if that was the case... But they do sing, and they do it so well. And they are a lot of fun, too. 

 We were able to take both my parents this time. My dad's recent knee replacement meant that we had to rearrange our seating at the last minute. They were very accommodating at the Midland Theater, and we appreciated that. Want a little taste of the concert? OK.....Here's a little video montage. It starts and ends with a complete "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen." While you may think that I'm using high-tech video equipment with amazing sound capabilities, which I have mastered from years of experience, from a well-thought-out location near the stage to capture my favorite parts of the concert, I am not. I am using my tiny point-and-shoot camera, which has a microphone I can't even see, from the middle of the balcony (thanks, Dad's knee), to capture those parts of the concert during which I was able to figure out which buttons to push on my camera to get the video to work, which I haven't used since the last Ernie Haase concert. So, basically, you're in for a real treat. But if you've got about three and a half minutes to kill, have a look. Then please go visit www.erniehaase.com, because they deserve much better than this. Anyway, here you go....

While you may not think that Ernie and the boys have anything to do with my work or my dogs, you would be wrong. I listen to a lot of music when I am working and walking my dogs (well, "dog" for now...), and that means a lot of Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. It's really exciting to experience their music live when I spend so much time listening to it otherwise. If they only knew that I'd never get any work done or walk a dog without them....

One more thing...It was one week ago that a lot of innocent people experienced an unthinkable tragedy in Connecticut. That has been on my mind a lot, and weighing heavily on my heart. A couple of days ago, a friend sent me something written by someone I don't know. I thought that it took a little of the sting out of what happened, and I'd like to share it with you. It's impossible to understand something like that, but where there is God, there is hope...

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.
...They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"This is heaven." declared a small boy. "We're spending Christmas at God's house."
When what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same,
then He opened His arms and He called them by name,
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring.
Those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
And as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
Then He looked down on earth, the world far below;
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
Then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"Come now my children, let me show you around."
Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran,
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."
--Patty Davis,

I've spent the last week being bandaged, then splinted. Whenever someone asks what happened to my finger, I tell them I strained it by over-using it, but the truth is I had some surgery on a joint in my finger. Not a great look for someone who works with her hands on a daily basis, but I'm getting used to it. I never realized how much I use my left hand and, specifically, that finger. For work, I mean...Just another week or so and the splint will come off and I will get the stitches out. In the meantime, I'm still managing to get things done.