Opposites

As I sit at our still-extended-from-Christmas-Day dining table and enjoy my last little slice of heaven, also known as white bread toasted with my Aunt's homemade strawberry preserves, my mother calls me from the local Military base shopping center and tells me that Thurston is sick. Oh lord. Now, my mother, God love her, is one of the biggest non-homo drama queens I know. I have learned to pick and choose which of her dramatic monologues of certain situations that invariably will crop up in her life are actually important, and which ones are just dramatic monologues for the sake of having a dramatic monologue.

The poor little guy didn't eat yesterday, wouldn't drink, didn't bark at all, and wouldn't go outside to do his thing. Sunday morning, he threw up on their bed... a bunch of black dirt, as she described it, and constantly "licks the air." Hmm. She says he may have eaten too much dirt and has gotten a splinter in his throat. He kept my mom and stepdad awake from 1:30am to 4:00am this morning, which if it were me, I would have just medicated him and put little Thurmador in the dang closet! (Nothing interferes with the sleep of Dr. and Mrs. Harrell, mind you, which is the precise reason why we are perfect to have canine children, instead of real children.. we'd be put in jail for putting them out on the patio to sleep. haha.)

Well, needless to say, the decision was just made for me to make the 50 minute drive to my mother's house to pick up Thurston and bring him home. If I know him, (and I do !) he just wants to come home. They keep their home very cold in the winter.. and we do too, by comparison, but he is also chilled for some reason and keeps shaking all the time. But I think he's putting on a show to come home. Wouldn't that just beat everything if he gets home and he's fine?? *Chuckle.*

Maybe he is sick. Maybe he has pneumonia! But... he hasn't been coughing... just licking. Why would someone lick the air? I know!!... I need to call Julie and ask her, since my doctor-nurse hubby seems to be of little help. His suggestion is to look in Thurston's little throat and see if there's anything in there. How can we do that without him gnawing off my hand? And what the crap difference would it make if there WERE something in there? Heimlich?

Well... looks like I'm going to Covington today!

Will post what the outcome is in the following edition...

Holiday Craziness

Greetings to you all from the Harrell Household!

Christmas has come and gone once again and all the hustling and bustling is now over. It is the third day after Christmas, and it brings me great pleasure to announce that we all are relaxing and doing a whole lot of nothing this week.

November and December went by very quickly as Brad and I both were SLAMMED, with a capital S, with school work, work work, church work, and everything else - work.

During all the crazy holiday business, Thurston took his normal retreat to the Chastain plantation in Covington, and sweet Jack was left to his kennel. :( .. until the day we came home to a shredded $200 shock collar and an almost collapsed great dane-sized kennel. So... we called up the newest doggie daycare in town, Camp Bow Wow, and registered him up for camp!

Camp Bow Wow is great! It is VERY convenient - only a 4 minute ride in the car to the next interstate exit, and Jack is off to the races all day long! Our little Jack now has a girlfriend who is a Husky named Lyla. Since he takes after his mom and dad though, the girlfriend came at a price! He STOLE her away from Diego, Lyla's other boyfriend... they had to be separated one day for "fighting" over her ! hahah!

Last week for Christmas, Jack even got to go and play all day on Christmas Eve at Camp while Mom and Dad had to cart themselves all over West Tennessee for Christmas family shindigs. Jack does seem to frequently pose problems in scheduling family events, especially when heading up to visit folks who have anti-dog-in-the-house sentiments. So while I was busy working my magic at the Christmas Eve worship services at the church in Covington where I work.. (yes.. services... plural... one was at 5:00pm, and the other 10:30pm!...) Brad was home all alone on Christmas Eve with sweet Jack. I think I finally arrived back home around 12:45pm.

Christmas Day was a joyous time of my family coming, coralling dogs, tons of food, laughing, talking, LOTS of talking.., and presents. I was VERY sad and disappointed that my litttle sister could not come home for Christmas this year. She was alone at her apartment in Odessa, Texas with her broken knee and little Christmas Tree. Daddy was able to send her presents though, and we all skyped with her while she opened them. It was nice to get to see her - even through a computer screen.

Mom and Don wanted to have more "Noodle" time with Thurston. (Thurston morphs into another Shih-tzu named Noodle when he visits them... ) And so he went back to Covington for an extended Christmas vacation visit.

Jack, Brad, and I are just chilling this week with our bud Julie and her Rodesian Ridgeback named Romy, and her Bull Mastiff named Argus. They are all sweet and we love them. Off to the park later this afternoon, but first... I think another nap is in order!