Gypsy, Work, Love and Play

I'm working on a series of posts about our trip to Detroit last weekend. Till then, though I'd share a few bits and pieces of the past week.

Gypsy

The Marmelade Gypsy-boy hasn't been feeling so good lately, and on Tuesday I wasn't sure he'd be with us by the weekend.

As many of you know, he in in kidney failure and has been being treated for it nearly a year. Our wonderful visiting vet came and gently told us he was in a "wasting" time.

But she also had some good words of advice -- one is that when an animal is having issues such as this, always wait for three days before making hard decisions. Sometimes this is a new plateau, a step toward the new normal, and not the end. (Or it could be a bug.)

She also reminded us that while he is not in pain, we are to look out for signs of "misery" -- vomiting or seizures, or other things that diminish his quality of life.

I'm pleased to say that my piggy boy who loves to eat and hadn't been doing so good on that topic is coming back. He's alert, engaging with us a lot, and eating more -- even waking me in the middle of the night for food. Works for me!

We know this is another step on the farewell path. But we are so grateful for any time we can share with him that is of joy and of high quality. I know many of you are pet lovers and have had these experiences. We're hanging in there. And to those with whom I've already shared this, your words of support have lifted me when I was really down. Thanks. (I'll need more at some point, and it's wonderful to know I can count on your.)

Work

Work has been a little frazzled lately with lots of projects. But our station was able to secure an interview with Rick Santorum, which is now online. He's leading (depending on the poll) in the Michigan primary polls. This was quite a coup for our public television station.

Now, I won't get political here -- this isn't a political blog. But if there are any Santorum or undecided Republican fans out there who are interested in hearing what he had to say, you can hear it HERE.

Love!

I have enjoyed many Valentine's Day posts on your blogs this past week. On the dreadful day when our vet came and we were afraid we might lose Gyppy soon, Rick made me a lovely Valentine's dinner, complete with roses!

Each year I make him a poetry book with a dozen or so poems reflecting key events in our year together.

The image in the "Gypsy" section of this post is from that book.

Here are a couple of others. This poem is about Rick and his blind friends Nino and Marie, with whom he does a 400-mile tandem ride each year.

And this one is about Rick's favorite bike ride of the year, in New Brunswick.

I love doing these books -- the past ones range from scrapbooks to watercolor books to photo albums to flip books and pop-ups.

Play

So, if I'm so into my Valentine Rick, why am I wearing someone else's ring?

This is the Super Bowl ring of Green Bay Packer, Brad Jones. Jones is a linebacker for the Wisconsin-based team. He was born here in Lansing, went to East Lansing High School and his dad is still here. When a hometown kid makes good, that's always exciting!

Brad gave his ring to his dad, Don, who brought the ring over to show our sports director! When I saw him in the parking lot on the way in, I said I wanted to see it too!

Pretty big -- I was wearing gloves and had it on my index finger -- and it was still big!

I told you I'm working on a series of Detroit posts. I'll just leave you with a sneak preview from one of the four posts coming up on the subject!