a miracle?

The good Lord, not only gave us a best friend, He gave us a miracle. My husband is diabetic. I was working out on the property with a friend of ours. We were trying to stock up on fire wood for the winter. Ricky, my husband, was inside the house alone and Jade was out with us. All of a sudden, Jade began barking like crazy. Gary, our friend, went to see what was happening. Jade was standing at the front door, barking at something inside. When Gary got there, he thought that Ricky was on the other side of the door, teasing her or playing with her in some way. When he got close enough to see in, he could see that Ricky was in trouble. He started screaming for me. I was all the way at the back of our property and could barely hear him, but when I did, I came running. My sister had diabetes all her life and I was very familar with insulin shock and diabetic coma's. The minute I saw Ricky, I knew that he was going into a diabetic coma. I was able to give Ricky what he needed. He made a full recovery. If it hadn't been for Jade, I don't know what would have happened because neither Gary or I were going to go into the house for quite a while and Ricky wasn't in any condition to get help.

We got Jade at a shelter. We thought that we were saving her life, but it turned out that she was saving ours! She might not be "pure bred", but she's our "pure miracle".

We had to go to a funeral in Florida. On the way back, we stopped and spent the night in Jekyll Island at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Its right on the beach, and Jade had the best time! Even better, she got a boyfriend! As you can see, it was love at first bite. The people in the background were the owners of Jade's love interest. They were there for the week. She was just so happy that we ended up spending an extra night just so that she could have a good time. Boy, what we do for our dogs! At any rate, Jekyll Island is dog paradise. As you can see, as long as the dogs are well behaved, no leashes are required. They romp and play to their hearts content. Just make sure you carry water! And, of course, a poop bag! If they drink the ocean, I can guarantee you that there will be a lot of vomiting going on. I don't remember his name, but he was a beautiful yellow lab about 8 months old. Even though his owners swore that he knew absolutely nothing of the ways of love, he begged to differ! He would follow her anywhere! Chicken Jade has always been afraid of the water, but while playing ball with her boyfriend and two other dogs, she forgot where she was and found herself in the waves before she knew what was happening. It was wonderful!

They are going to tear down the Caribbean Beach Resort at the end of this month. Cracks in the foundation because of it being built on sand. However, they are going to build a new one. I can't wait! If you are a dog owner and love to show them a good time, this is where you should go! The price is right too. Tell them Jade sent you!

I'm patiently trying to get your attention,

you know I adore you and - OH! did I mention

I love to be near you, to share the same space?

Just look at this "follow you anywhere" face!

You know I'm your faithful, dependable friend,

so eager to serve you, true-blue to the end.

I'm sitting here staring at you like a sap,

hoping to find a soft spot for a nap-

What do you mean, I'm too big for your lap?

Its lonely out here on the deck by myself;

I sure didn't mean to knock over that shelf!

How long will I have to endure this disgrace?

How CAN you stay mad at this cute little face?!

My "heart"

I just had to record a milestone. Jade has learned what "go pee" means!!! I was always able to tell Max to "go pee" and he would. I thought that was really cool and came in handy many times, but I never thought that I would have another dog who would do that. For those of you who are unfamiliar with doggie habits, males will pee immediately and on anything. Its called "marking territory", but females can be a real pain in the legs. They do not go immediately and sometimes can take hours to go. They have no desire to mark thier territory and will go only when they have to. There is no way of knowing when that is. However, Ricky thought that Jade was smart enough to learn this trick and surprised me by teaching it to her. All I can say is: you go girl!

Jade's vacation

We went on vacation to Florida, or at least we thought it was our vacation. It turned out to be Jade's. The first hint should have been that while we drove for 12 hours straight, she slept the whole way. Then when we got there, we were exhausted and she was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Thank God for Capone. He is my daughters West Highland Terrier. Fortunately for all of us, he has as much energy as Jade does. So, Capone took over babysitting services while we rested. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I never would have believed that two dogs could play non-stop from 7am to 11pm. With the exception of putting food into the body and getting it back out again, they played!



People tell me that I spoil my dogs. Could be. At any rate, Jade's dinner consists of Beneful Dog Food mixed with whatever meat we have had for dinner ourselves. Her favorite dinner is when we go out to eat. She sits in the car and patiently? waits while we eat. When we come out of the restaurant, we had BETTER have a doggy bag! She knows that she will get a small treat then and has to wait until we get home so that I can mix it with her dog food. That's my way of easing my conscience. If I mix it, I'm not feeding her people food, right? I'm just making her food taste better! At any rate, my daughter is very strict on the "people food" thing. Capone is absolutely NOT allowed! The first thing she had to do was train her mother, and then the dog. It kills me. I'm convinced that my "grandson" feels that I don't love him! He is also convinced that if he doesn't eat it, Jade will get it! The funny thing about that is, Jade could care less. She is so used to getting people food that its not a novelty to her. Any dog could come up and push her aside and eat her food. She would wag her tail because she KNOWS that her owner will just give her some more! BUT, the bad part was that this little 20 lb. Terrier was trying to put down 40 lbs. of food every day. He would eat his bowl of food and then attack hers. ( That is the dry food that stays in Jade's bowl just in case she gets hungry during the day. By the way, it is possible for a 20 lb dog to eat 40 lbs of food because his digestive system is in high gear at all times. He is the only dog I know that can poop twice or even THREE times in one walk!! He did this every day that we were there, which was one week. He also managed to down a large Milk Bone dog biscuit and a small rawhide daily. From now on, whenever someone says something about "being full of it", I will think of Capone!

Now, Capone is a very well trained dog. At least that was until Jade got there. In order to keep her from getting food before him, he managed to get into the garbage and eat 3 large Ravioli's. He had spaghetti sauce all over the kitchen floor. My daughter also informed me that he had diarrhea for 3 days after we left. Like I said, "full of it".

Capone is the proud owner of a doggie door. It is the smallest one they make, I think. Jade weighs approximately 65 lbs. If you have ever seen a really fat woman try to squeeze into a girdle, you would get an idea of what it is like for Jade to get through the doggie door. She was not about to let it get the better of her though. She absolutely loved the idea of being able to come and go as she pleased, so squeeze she did. In and out, in and out. She had a ball. Like I said, this was HER vacation! The only bad part is that after she gets home and sleeps for a couple of days, she is very depressed. You don't dare mention the name Capone. After she spends 5 minutes of running around trying to find him, she then pouts for hours.
It took us longer to get over "her" vacation than it did her. It will be awhile before we try that again. We are hoping that we can get Capone up here in Tennessee for "his" vacation. We live in the woods on the top of a mountain. There are all sorts of animals that Capone could only dream of, having been city born and bred. I'm sure that it will be a vacation to remember!