💖A letter to G 💖

Dearest Dad

You have had to leave us and our hearts are breaking. I know you will be with us always but the pain I am feeling leaves me breathless. 

I cannot begin to express what yours and Moms love means to me. Your total acceptance, your caring, your mischievous nature, your love for life were so wonderful. One of the most amazingly beautiful things I have ever seen was the love between you and Mom, it is the kind of love we all hope to find but very few of us do. When you looked at Mom it was there shining out for the whole world to see and it was truly beautiful. 

I want to thank you for helping me to see that I am enough and I don’t need to try to be what others want me to be and that even if my certain people feel disappointed in who I am then that is their problem and not mine. It has made the world of difference to me and it is down to you and Mom. I am a better person for having known  you and Mom. 

I will always love you and hold you close in my heart Dad. Thank you for being my Dad, the Dad I always wanted.

I will always be here for Mom whenever she needs me but you know that already don’t you ?

All my love always

Tea

💖💖

 

It has been four months since Izzy left us, it has been a tough four months if I am honest. Losing our Alpha has changed the pack dynamics and the three boys are still struggling with where they come now, Bean however has stepped up as our new Alpha. She may be small but she is certainly mighty.
Da Popster is going to speak to an animal behaviourist he knows for some tips on how to get life for the boys to be a bit more harmonious so fingers crossed for that.

I still her miss her more than I can express but I still talk to her every night before I go to sleep and again in the morning. Some days the loss hits me like a sledgehammer and I can barely breathe and other days I can think of her and smile even though it hurts. She had such a huge personality and it has left such a hole in our lives. But I am so grateful we had her in our lives, she was such a joy to be owned by.

My beautiful, funny, demanding, loving, bossy girl we all miss you so much.

A month tomorrow

I can believe that it will be a month tomorrow that Izzy left us for the Rainbow Bridge.  It has been one of the toughest months of my life. I have had dogs cross the bridge before but none have affected me the way this has, I have always considered it the last loving act I can show my babies and I do still believe that but we have always known it was coming because they were very ill. We had none of that with Izzy. The swiftness of her decline, the shock of the vet call telling me to get back urgently and the sight of Izzy not being able to lift her head let alone stand up was just horrendous. I cannot get my last image of Izzy out of my head not matter how hard I try and it just keeps breaking my heart. I know it is selfish but I want her back so badly. |I would give anything for her to chuff in my ear in the morning and then whack me on the head with her paw to get me up, I never needed an alarm clock with my girly.

                  I think I needed her as much as she needed me, I know she has saved my life more than once when I have been at some of my seriously low points. I also never realised how much the household routine revolved around her, set times for medications different times for her eye drops, her demands for fusses and giving her massages. It has left me without a routine which certainly doesn't help much either.

               The other pups have been lost without their leader, the boys have settled down a lot now but when her Dad is at work Bean is very whiny & whingy, it was only when I was going through some photos that I realised quite how much Bean and & Izzy snuggled together daily so it is understandable why she cries for her sisfur. Hiro is stepping up though, the boy who never let anyone but Izzy snuggle with him now lets Bean snuggle ( I am very proud of him ).

              I will get there in time I'm just glad I have got passed the anger I was feeling, I have been biting poor Steve's head off

15 Days to go

Well my son and only have 15 days until we are Budapest bound and we are both very excited. We have a super apartment booked up to stay in with a little terrace with lovely views, we have all our airport transfers arranged, our travel money has arrived, insurance is sorted just need to pack and we are all set. It will be lovely to meet Asta and her Mom and Dad that is going to be the highlight of the trip for me.

Follow the linky to see where we will be staying

I have got a horrible virus at the moment and have not been able to speak since Monday but I would far rather have it now than when we are away although I could do without seeing the gummy creepy crawly type things I have been seeing today all over the floor and walls …. this is down to the fever I have at the moment I know but still does not make things much fun. Hopefully it will break soon and I will start to feel better .

My dogs are looking after me well bless them laying on me when I am chilly and also when I am really burning up……….lol but bless them they are such super little ones .

Anyway that is all for now

TTFN

Momma Tea

X X X X XN

Oh my word has it really been that long ?

Almost a year since I posted ? I am so shocked it has been THAT long !

I have more time now as I am no longer doing some of the things that kept me away from blogville. I will miss doing one of them as it made a difference to something I feel deeply about but due to personal reason I felt I could no longer continue doing it. However I can still contribute in other ways so it is all good and as it is all in the past now that is where it can now stay.

My son is starting to look at universities which is cool and kind of scary too as it is hard to imagine my little boy will be 18 in 11 days, I cannot really call him little any more as he is way, WAY taller than me now. I am a little sad that I am not able to go to the open days with him, he is going with his Dad who has decided he will not drive to them and as the train fares are astronomical I cannot afford to go along ( which his dad knows full well and I honestly think affected his decision to go by rail ), but I know in my heart that I have definitely done my more than my fair share when it comes to his education, his dad told him he was not smart enough to get into grammar school so why take the exam, and when he missed getting in by 2 marks and through no fault if my sons ( we had a bad weekend before the exams with my then partner going missing and we had the police in and out as they were looking for him after I reported him missing ) my ex husband said why fight the decision . I did fight the decision citing mitigating circumstances and the panel understood and my son got in. He has during his time at the school gone from strength to strength and gets consistently brilliant grades and is a model pupil. Not helped by his father booking holidays to suit his own timetable and not my sons,booking vacations during exam revision time for example but Ben still managed to get fantastic results. I on the other hand go out of my way not to disturb his studies as I know they are very important to Ben but such is being a mom……….lol I just hope that whichever Uni Ben chooses he will be happy and do his best there.

We are having to alter our vacation plans as some of the Uni open days occur during the time we were supposed to be away so still not sure when we will get to Budapest or how long for which is a little frustrating just glad I had not already booked it.

I am having  good days and bad days with my health still but I can’t complain really, how can I complain when I have 5 of the most adorable, mischievous, cheeky, loving and snuggle dogs that ever there were ?

I must confess I am liking having just my 5 in the house again now that we no longer have a two other dogs and their owner lodging with us. It is nice to have evenings with just my OH and my 5 doglets all on our own-some, I never realised quite how much I missed having my space to myself during the day as well it’s funny how you don’t realise you have missed something until you have it back again.

We also have plans for some work being done on the house and back yard, we are getting the gutters & facias replaced on the house, some serious de-cluttering done, the lounge and kitchen to be painted and the now spare room turned into a guest room / craft room after it has been decorated, Also replacing the kitchen flooring as the laminate is lifting in places thanks to the dogs. We are going to get the front yard cleared and what fencing is left ( after some high winds ) replaced, the back yard is going to be cleared with the patio re concreted as some of our slabs are moving to much. We are also getting a bigger aviary for our Perci bird so that hopefully we can get her a companion too. I know Molly would approve of that.

I shall leave you with one of my happy photos from the past

Love

Momma Tea

In Remembrance

Having A Wonderful Time

but missing my OH and pups very much indeed. Will know on Thursday if I am staying longer and if I am I will be flying back to the UK on the 2nd of August. This means I will miss my Dad’s 75th Birthday but I am sure he will understand. It has be awesome to meet fellow dog bloggers in the fur and what awesomely amazing folks and pups they are too, they made me feel so welcome and at ease which for me is quite a feat indeed as I find meeting new people very difficult indeed. I have also spoken to some others on the phone and again I felt like I had known them forever. Thank you to all of you for making me feel so comfortable and at ease.

The boys are a joy to be around and the youngest makes me laugh so much he is a real cheeky chappy, I love them both so much. My BFF is holding her own and has ups and downs but she is getting there and I love being with her so very much and I know I am going to break my heart when it is time to leave them all. That said I am going to start saving very hard to come back next year and hopefully bring my OH with me too !!!!

The weather is helping me so much I am hardly getting any pain which so great but I dread to think what it will be like when I get back to the UK so am putting that away to the deepest recesses of my mind now and ignoring it……lol.

Anyway that is my little update for now

Big Texan Hugs to y’all and I will leave you with this

 

Love

Momma Tea

Well I am Stateside

The flight from Heathrow to Atlanta was pretty uneventful well apart from the fact the girl sitting next to me fell asleep and I didn’t like to wake her up so I could use the bathroom so I didn’t pee until about 45 minutes before we landed………….lol. My ankles and feet swelled up which is new but thankfully after a nights rest they have gone down a lot .

Atlanta was interesting to put it politely, because the queues in immigration were so looooooooooooooong I missed my connecting flight by 2 minutes, hearing that news made me burst into tears even though I knew I was going to miss it. I then found the Budweiser lounge and had three cokes and two cigarettes and felt a lot better after those and a phone call to my OH.

I went and waited for the next flight after having been sent to the wrong gate for it, then they changed the gate so off I wandered to the new gate and waited and waited and waited some more to be told I had been upgraded to economy comfort YAY thought I . But then they announced the flight was over sold by 5 seats and would 5 people like to volunteer to get off for 300 delta dollars……………… Hmmmm not many takers but eventually they had four and we all waited nearly 50 minutes for them to find the 5th person. They upped the delta dollar off and THANK DOG someone took them up on it. We finally got on the plane and had a very turbulent journey to Houston and there waiting was a the most fabulous sight my BFF Kerrie and her son with my suitcase that had gone on my original flight. Yet again I blubbed but for the right reasons this time

So all’s well that end’s well

EEEEKK Having a bit of a stressy

I am pretty pants at flying at the best of times but flying alone with a connecting flight is enough to give me the biggest wiggins ever. Now add to that Uji has a mahoosive lump on his back that warranted a trip to the vets today, I thought when it started coming up at the weekend that is was just going to be one of his Mount Vesuvius spots but no it got bigger and bigger but no head on it . So we trekked off to the vets ohh heck we have to go back tomorrow for a needle biopsy without sedation and if they cannot manage that they will give my baby a GA and take a bigger biopsy. The results wont be ready until I am at some silly height flying off to see my BFF. The C word was mentioned but is unlikely however it was mentioned and lets face it that is enough to send the sub conscious to go into over drive.  I have my fingers crossed it is something simple and easily treatable but you can’t help but worry over them can you ? Especially when you are going away …….

I have packed my main suitcase three times tonight with the help of my lovely OH , thank dog for him I would have gone all stressy rampagy without him. I am so looking forward to seeing my BFF it has been far, far, FAR too long since we last saw each other and I am really looking forward to meeting Sandra & her family as well as hopefully Meeting Sarah as well. Plus I am going to have a lovely long chinwag with Frankie’s Mom which will be pawesome too.

So as you can imagine right now I am feeling up one minute and down the next but hopefully after his biopsy tomorrow all will settle down.

I would ask for your prayers for my Uji Bear though as every little helps as we all know so well. The power of Blogville is monumental !

 

Love

Momma Tea

Well Now So Many Goodies

There has been lots going on over the last few months, real life seems to have got in the way of blogging for the Krew & I. But The auction we ran for Cinque Ports Rescue on FB back in Feb raised over £700 ( over $1,074 ) which was wonderful and came in most handy. Now we are doing another on FB HERE and I am hoping we can get over £1000 ( $1,535 ) this time. Which is much needed at the moment because one of CPR’s Chinese Crested Foster Dogs has broken her leg in 4 places and needed major surgery which has depleted the funds considerably. So please keep your fingers & paws crossed we can raise above and beyond our target. We have a dedicated little team of fundraisers and you will not be surprised to know that JD & Max and the Mum Clare are in the team. Clare has started up a little business making engraved personlised item such  Dog tags ( dogs & humans ),

This is mine

Yo-yo’s,

all manner of wonderful shiny goodies that can have your own photos put on them and being the totally Awesome lady that Clare is she is donating part of each sale to Cinque Ports Rescue . Please do check out her web site Mojo’s Metals.

We have some wonderful auction lots Original Artworks from a Signed ‘Off the Leash’ print to hand made glass doggy beads to Mike McCartney Prints.

 

A super talented lovely lady in Canada has made a very VERY special Bear for the auction too

How TOTALLY PAWESOME is that ? Of course we are including the ever popular Honkypuss’s

It would not be an auction without them in it…………..lol.

I have been so moved by people generosity with their donations and the the bidding as well , I am going to pick Clare’s Brains when I see her next month so I can try and do an auction for blogville so you all get the chance to bag some lovely goodies and help a fabulous rescue too.

If you are on Facebook please drop by on May the 18th when this auction starts as we would so love to see you there.

The Kresty Krew will be blogging some exciting news in the next couple of days so watch out for that

 

Peace & Love

Momma Tea

Todays post is just this

For all our furbabes

 

 

For Benji, Mango, April, Dude, Ronnii, Richie, Molly and all our Angels that have crossed The Rainbow Bridge.

I have my Ranty Pants on !

You have been warned that I am going to rant !

Recently I have been having a few medical tests to try and work out why my seizures are not stable and trying to find a different medication to stabilise the condition. This is not the cause of my rant because obviously I would like this sorted out, I know I have my little seizure hound in Uji who warns me when a wobbly is due so I can lay down so I don’t get hurt but it would be nice not to have to worry about them any more. So on to the cause of my ranting, I had to have an EEG yesterday and the man who did the test asked me if anyone else in the family has seizures to which I replied ‘ I have no idea I am adopted’. This is the cause of my rant.

I am so sick, tired and quite frankly pee’d off with being asked questions which need this answer. It makes me so darn cross that we ( adopted peeps ) are not allowed to forget this fact. We are not allowed to forget that someone did not want us for whatever reason, we are reminded that the people who bought us up, the people who cared so tenderly for us when were sick, who put band aids on our boo-boos, who put up with us through our teenage rebellion  and temper tantrums, the people who love us and who we love back are not our ‘real’ parents. This to me is not only insulting to my PARENTS but it always reiterates my feelings of rejection. Like many peeps who have been adopted I really struggled with the fact that my parents were not my ‘real’ ones, that the woman who gave birth to me didn’t want me.

I know my Mom and Dad ARE my real parents so why the heck does it matter for forms to have my birth name on them ? My birth name is not who I am at all, it never has been and it never will be. I am Trudy, Daughter of Doris and Michael, Sister to Kevin and Mother of Ben surely that is all the world needs to know ?

So endeth my rant and I pass on the Ranty Pants to anyone else who may need them.

 

Love

Momma Tea

OMD Thank You Amber Singleton Carlton

 

All I can say Amber is a huge THANK YOU for your guest blog post here on the dangers of xylitol. It started a niggle in my brain about something I used for my darlings but thankfully I had stopped after Uji kept getting an upset tummy after it was used. So off I did toddle five minutes ago to double check this product and there in the list of ingredients was Xylitol !!!!

Imagine my horror though when you see what the product is

As you can imagine it has now been disposed of . so a mahoosive THANK YOU again Amber from me and my Kresty Krew

 

Love

Momma Tea

TV, Tangents and Trash

I just watched a tv show where six months earlier a son had helped his father pack up his mothers clothing for him to take to goodwill/dispose of after her death and his son found out that his dad had hidden them in the garage. His father said he had felt as if getting rid of the boxes would be like closing a door on his wife and that he was giving her away. But he had realised now that everything about his life with his wife was inside him and that even though her things may be gone she will always be part of him.

It got me thinking about all the ‘things’ in my life and the ‘things’ I lost when I divorced and stuff I still have and hold onto that really do not matter in the great scheme of things. I have boxes and boxes in my attic of stuff I really do not need to keep. Some of it is there because when my last ex (after my divorce ) left I really did not have the physical or emotional strength to go through it all and chuck it out so it just got left, at the time it would have been too painful to go through it but now thankfully those emotions are no longer there so I could go up there to de-clutter and junk it all. The problem I have with that is that there is stuff from various periods in my life that I have not reconciled the emotions from and if I come across those sort of things I am going to have to deal with all those emotions. So do I procrastinate further and leave all the ex junk or do I bite the bullet and deal with all the emotional upheaval that will ensue with all my other memory and emotional inducing objects ?

The one clear thought I have is that all of my personal belongings and things I wanted to keep from when Ben was little and the things that were bought for us as a couple ( from my family & friends ) when my husband and I were together that I was not allowed to take that have niggled and niggled at me over the years since really do not matter at all and I can now shut the door on those niggles. I may not have the photos or babygros or the china my parents bought us or the glasses my close friend bought for us when we got engaged or even my childhood teddy bears but I have the memories and now that is enough for me.

I find it odd how one little section from a tv show can make the mind go off on a tangent and suddenly rectify something. The human mind is an amazing thing sometimes.

My precious babes

My friend Kat came round on Friday to sit in the garden with me and she bought her beautiful Puggle Sidney with her ( yes the same gorgeous Sidney we fostered for a wee while ). Now everyone in our family adores Siddles except for poor Ziggy. Ziggy went for him as soon as Siddles was in the hall but thankfully the baby gate was closed, it isn’t that he does not like Sids more he is scared of him ( Ziggy is scared of so much bless him ) and his actions were definitely fear aggression. So Ziggy went into his crate ( his safe place ) with a very large frozen bone to nom on and he was very happy to be in there. It was a very, very hot day so he was better off in there to be fair as we could not stay in the garden for too long at a time and the other dogs had to have sunscreen on ( which Zigster hates ).

We had the wading pool filled as it was THAT hot and Uji got put in there, Sid got put in and little Missi went in too, the only one that didn’t was Izzy as I am still keeping her stress levels down as her seizures are still not stable. She did get a a jug of water poured slowly over her though to keep her cool. We had a very nice visit with our friends though which was fab as I have not seen Kat in what seems like forever.

After Kat and Sid had gone and Ziggy had had a dip in the pool we settled down on a mat on the grass as we finally had some shade. Missi and Uji curled up between my knees, Izzy behind them towards my ankles and Ziggy beside me. We had soft music playing with me singing quietly ( in case the neighbours heard dog forbid…lol ) it was heavenly. I got the most wonderful, wonderful snuggles from Uji, with him gazing up into my eyes while I stroked his neck. SHEER BLISS !!!! He even let me get rid of his tough follicles which he normally hates me doing.

I have to say I felt very emotional but I can honestly say I felt such pure happiness and contentment, the kind that is all to rare in life these days it was just truly joyous.

My babies give me a reason to get up every morning, they make me smile with their silly antics, they love me regardless of if I am fat, feeing crappy, look terrible or have weird hair colours. Their love has no preconceptions or limits, being loved by an animal is in my opinion the purest love of all, they just love us for us. It does not get better than that !

Gone But NEVER Forgotten

In my heart forever <3

A short ( hopefully ) Rant and other things

Ok so I have not been blogging much lately but the Krew and I have been reading even if we have not been commenting. There are various reasons why we have not been as active as usual but I wont go into them now. I am having a rant now and with darn good reason too and I know you will agree with me.

Here in our little town of Blogville we are not just bloggers, we are not just friends, we are a family ! Yes our family be a little odd and sometimes dysfunctional but what family isn’t. This family cares about each and every one of it’s members which is I am so angry ( angry does not even come close to how I am feeling right now ).

One of our family has been attacked in a most disgusting manner by a cowardly, nasty, and quite frankly disgusting  anonymous commenter. A commenter who is not man or woman enough to use their name which says a lot.

Our beloved Miss Sandra of the Houston Pittie Pack has been quite distraught by these comments which I will not repeat here. Sandra has done so much for so many dogs, without a thought for herself, she is one of Blogville’s most kindest, caring, loving and amazing people. Sandra has been to hell and beyond in the last few months and has at struggled to keep herself together at times which is understandable after the horrendous things she and her family have been through.

How dare an anonymous person now hurt and upset her like this, well let me say this to the coward that has done this, You may have written your nasty words in Kissa-Bulls blog but the whole of Blogville has their backs and you now have to contend with us. We do not like it when one of our own is attacked in this manner, we like it even less when the comments are as despicable as yours.

They say Karma is a b*tch, well that b*itch is after you now BIG TIME !!!

To Sandra, Please do not take the words of a cowardly, moronic, pathetic piece of scum keep you from your family here in Blogville.

We all love you and want you to stay.

Please go over to their blog and leave them a few words of support I know they would be much appreciated . You will find them HERE

 

A Furious Momma Tea

 

PS. Sorry my rant was not exactly short

Hello Again

Well it has been a bit of a week really, it started well on Saturday with the arrival of Missi and she has been a shining light in our dark days along with our other fuzz balls. She is the teeniest, tiniest pup I have ever had the joy to own and I will be eternally grateful for being allowed to be her Mom.
We had some bad news on Monday with the passing of Steve’s Dad, we knew he ad been unwell for some time but his passing was sudden and unexpected and it as it Steve rather hard to be honest. My friend Lyn has been a tower of strength as usual, we are blessed to have her as a friend we really are. I honestly think we would be lost without her friendship and support. We love you Lyn I hope you know that.
Then today the world was hoping against hope that Belfast City Council would show a little common sense, mercy and compassion but no they could not and Lovely Lennox was destroyed. My heart is breaking for his family who were not allowed to say goodbye to their beloved boy or to even have his body back. I would like to know why they cannot have their boy back in death, do they have something to hide ?
I know we need to campaign against the DDA here in the UK as it is seriously misguided for want of a better word most of it relies on measurements which is just ridiculous in my opinion as many dogs will fit the measurements.
Anyway if you would like to light a candle for Lennox please follow this LINK

Anyway my lovely friends that’s about it for now, my love to you all

Momma Tea
xxx         xxx

Busy Bee’s

Well things here are a bit busy at the moment what with one thing or another. We have an slight problem with aggression with Ziggy and Uji but we are working on it as best we can, I think it as Zigs is coming up to his 1st barkday he is trying to work out where he fits in our little pack and Uji is making sure he knows he isn’t the Alpha male and Zigs is testing this. So right now Zigs is going for long walks and adventures with his Popsi and we are using distraction techniques which do seem to be helping but when they don’t whoever starts it gets a time out. Zigs is going to the vet tonight just to check there is no underlying medical issue but I don’t think there is other than a runny butt today. As neither myself or the OH have had to deal with anything like this it is a learning curve for us and to see all the baring of teeth and snapping and snarling has been scary especially when Zigs snapped at me and then his Popsi but I know it was the situation and not us per se he was snapping at. Part of my problem is Zigs is a very strong boy and I struggle to hold him when he has a mind to beat his little big bro up, sometimes being unwell really does suck big time but hey ho we will get there we are not about to give up on our boys .

On another front our blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat as what with dealing with the boys, my medical probs and trying to build our new web site that has had to come last. If you notice a change in the writing style of Ziggys posts I am letting his Popsi take over helping Zigs with them as I am not on their adventures so I cannot help Ziggy write them.

The new web site is taking shape and as soon as all the new stock is made and photographed I can add it all and we should be up and running. Sounds easy doesn’t it ? But it is not as easy as I thought it would be and is a heck of a lot more time consuming and fiddly but I guess some of that is because it is all new for me so again it is a learning curve. We have a nice new logo being designed by a very, very talented young lady which is based on Uji & Izzy and some of our clothing which I am MEGA excited about as I know it will knock everyone’s socks off when it is unveiled. We have new lines planned and I am already sourcing fabrics from around the world for our Winter collection. This is where I need all my doggy blogging furiends help too if you could let me know what you look for in your small dog clothing for the winter months that would be awesome as yet we are not making coats but we will be looking into that and maybe a line of collars to match out garments what do you think ?

Anyway while all was quite here I just thought I would make a quick post explaining some of the things that are going here in the wet n very windy UK

Love

Momma T

Ps. This pic is for Frankie & Ernie