River Tries To Save a Butterfly Bush

On Monday, one of my favorite plants, butterfly bush number 2, needed an operation.  We had a hard winter, and one section of the bush became bent and was scraping the driveway.  Mommy and Daddy studied the patient. They discussed cutting back the bush and removing the scraping section down to the root.  One of them suggested to try to tie off the bush to keep in standing, but the ground was too soft and the bush too strong.

Pocket and I were in our buggy.  I calmly listened and tried to determine the best course of action.  Pocket fretted over her favorite bush and only mumbled nervously. She would be no help.  The bush’s future was in my paws.

“We need to trim the back of the bush and completely cut the front,” I said confidently.
  
“Oh no, we can’t trim any of the bush!” Pocket cried.   Her worrisome nature was annoying.

“I am not sure River,” Mommy said.  “What if the bush doesn’t come back?”

“Dammit Mommy, I’m a doctor, not a pathologist.  !  But I know how to save this bush. Just listen to me.  The Griff always knows.” I barked.

Mommy and Daddy briefly discussed it.  They knew I was right. Mommy began to slowly cut away the branches.  Pocket gave out a small cry with each cut. Slowly the plant began to take shape again.  Mommy did not have the strength to dig the roots from the front part of the bush out of the ground.
Daddy had to come with a saw and shovel to remove the crushed part of the bush. It was hard to watch as he had to twist it back and forth, cutting the roots until it was free.  He then had to snip our flowering friend, who had brought so many butterfly angels into our yard, into smaller parts, and shove it into a trash bag like he had performed a mob hit.

I was impressed with the surgeons’ techniques.  The bush looks strong and healthy, even though it only a quarter of the size it was before the operation.  Mommy isn’t sure it is going to make it. She is going to have to give it a lot of tender loving care in the weeks to come. 

Our butterfly bushes are very important to us.  They are a beacon to draw in visiting angels. We are going to need Butterfly Bush #2 back to full strength in a month.  Angel visiting time is upon us, and we have to make sure they find their way our abode.

If you are so inclined to pray for vegetation, then please pray for our butterfly bush.  If it doesn’t survive then, well, I guess we will just buy a new one, so it’s not the end of the world, except for butterfly bush #2.  

Keep butterfly bush #2 alive.  It fought through the winter, it fought while being cut back, it fought through the aphid infestation, and it is fighting now.

Surely a Butterfly Bush #2 deserved an #2 chance,

Wordless Wednesday

Beat This Caption

I'm telling you I found chopsticks and a lo mein box.  I have almost reached China.

Monday Question

On this Memorial Day please name the pets you are remembering this day

Foley Monster
Sky
Jax
Copper
Blake
Gizmo
Barney



Nico

Stella Rose is our May 27, 2018 Pup of the Week

On April 24 my sister River Song got this message from our friend Stella.

“Dear Mrs. Marsha:  This is Stella Rose just in case you thought it is that crazy ass ferret Ed, I just wanted to clarify.  So anyway in case you didn't know I have been sick AGAIN, wif those damn stones and I wanted to address somefing wif you.  I know your River has connections wif the "Big Guy" and I wondered if you could discuss something wif River and him for me. I decided I wanted to share my plan, wif you, and River and I guess the "Big Guy".  So when the time comes and the medicines stop working, I have decided I am not crossing over to the Rainbow Bridge, I am only going 10 steps across, and putting up a pup (lol) tent, and building a fire wif smores, and just waiting around on my mom. Even if it takes 50 years, I am just going to wait.   Now I am sure there are rules and fings up there, so that is why I need River on my side about this. So I hope I am not putting you in a precarious position but it is somefing I just wanted to talk to you about. It is not that I think I am special and should not cross like all the other dogs and kittens and cats etc. do, but I am just a rather stubborn little pug, and have been known to dig my heels in when something does not set well wif me.  So ten steps, and I wait, for however long it takes. If I run out of smores its okay. Your Friend in Blogville.......Stellie Rose”

River gave me Stella’s letter the next time I visited her in her dreams.  “What did you tell her?” I asked River.

“I said it was perfectly fine,” River said, unconcerned.

“You said it was fine!” I barked.  “It’s not fine. This has never been done before.  This is unheard of. Not completing the journey!” I was very flustered.  “You have to tell her no!”

River shrugged.  “Sorry, I already said yes and you know you can’t break a promise to a pug.”

I hurried back to the Bridge. I had so much work to do before Stellie got there.  I met with the Big Guy. I met with a Board of Big Guy’s. I met with the Big Guy Board.  Finally, I was given a judgment. Stellie could stop ten steps away from Rainbow Bridge and wait.

Last week Casey, one of our newer angels, came to tell me that Stella visited him in his dreams.  She said she would be joining us very soon, but she had changed her mind. Stella would climb to the top step and be closer to Casey, Trudee. Sammy J and Cotton, but she would still be only 21 steps from her mom.   She had no intention of completing her journey. What was I going to tell the Big Guy Board?

I stood before them and said that Stella would be stopping at the 21st step and not the 10th.  Oh, how the Big Guys thundered! Lightning bolts were thrown! Hail rained down from the heavens!.  Who was to blame for this outrage, they asked. I stammered, I stuttered, and then I blurted out the world’s oldest excuse:  “Spell check error.”
They stopped their grumbling.  “Oh, spell check error, perfectly understandable, Stella’s plans were approved.

I hurried back to Rainbow Bridge Landing, and I found Stella, on the top step, setting up her tent.  She smiled and blew me a kiss. “Don’t you want to come all the way to the top?” I asked. “You can get your wings, fly through the hills, eat at the chocolate forest, choose a body from any time in your life, or become a butterfly to see your parents.  It’s just one more step.”

Stella was a very stubborn little girl.  But that stubbornness served her well. It got her through going blind, becoming mostly deaf, suffering debilitating, painful bladder stones, and back leg problems that greatly affected her walking.  But Stella kept moving forward, through the darkness, the silence, and those long nights when it was just her and the pain. She stayed by her mother’s side longer than most dogs could bear. Now, after her mom had helped her pass, she would not take that final step onto the Bridge, afraid that cord that had connected Stella and her mom would break if she did.

“I am fine,” Stella assured me as she finished her tent.  I ducked inside as the clouds of humans tears for her passing passed past over us.  When I opened the flap, Casey ran inside, knocking me over. He licked and kissed Stella so much he would have suffocated her if she still needed air.

And that is where she has been ever since.  Casey spends a lot of time with her, but he also runs with his siblings.  Each day I ask Stella if she wants to take the final step and she says no, she will wait for her mom.  She has become the first angel to greet dogs when they arrive at the Bridge. I don’t mind that she usurped me.  I am still the official greeter and oath giver.


No one passed a proclamation or made it official, but the top step is now known as Stella’s step and will be long after her mom takes the final step with her and they walk off together into Rainbow Bridge.

A girls night out with Whitley, Sophie and Pepper turns into a rescue mission

With all the new angels we have greeted this month it was time for me to have a girl’s night out.  I gathered my good friends Whitley the Westie who whipped up some awesome clothes for us to wear, Pepper, always a fun little girl, and Sophie-Rae, the most loyal lady I know, who I had to pry from her brother’s Jasper side with the promise of many free Foleytinis.

First I took my girls out dancing.  Whitley is an expert jitterbugger. She is small but her little white paws move quickly.  Sophie-Rae is more of a ballroom girl and every boy in the place wanted to whirl her around the dance floor.  Pepper got up on the bar and kept every entertained with her twerking while I crowd surfed across the floor.

Then we went to Hawaii.  We didn’t want to make light of the terrible problems the volcanoes have caused but when you and your squad get a chance to ride the lava you can’t pass it up.  We were all shot high in the air by the warm liquid and then we went flying down the mountain faster than we have ever gone before. We had never been warmer or gone faster.  We have to warn that this should only be done by the immortal dogs. If a mortal dog tried they could end up more than singed.

We went down to the beach.  It was nighttime and we were going to lay there until dawn when Pepper said that she smelled something burning.  I turned around and saw that my tail was on fire. I ran into the ocean to put the fire out. It caused the ocean to sizzle.

The other girls were laughing at my misfortune and I was embarrassed but then I realized I was with my squad and I laughed with them.  Sophie Rae said we should help the people who have lost their homes. There wasn’t much physically we could do for them but we gave them a special blessing for good luck because there is no worse luck than losing your home to a volcano.

I was again amazed, looking at these poor people who have lost their homes, that they still maintained their strength and dignity.  I try to maintain mine, but sometimes things go wrong, like the other day there was no margarine in the refrigerator. I lost it. I guess that is why we are the support animals.  The humans have the right attitude for the big stuff while we are made to provide them support while they accomplish amazing things.

We spent the rest of the night trying to get pets that had been left behind to the humans who were looking for them. We can communicate with animals better than humans so we directed the pets where to find their rescuers.  After saving as many scared animals as we could Sophie-Rae, Pepper, Whitley and I returned home.


Such is the lives of pup angels.  Even when we try to party we end up helping.  I guess that is what makes us angels.

Pocket's True Confessions

I don’t get to go to church often, so I need to make my confessions here and now.
Sometimes I pretend I don’t want to eat when I actually do. My parents give me attention and eventually more food.

I give River a mean look which causes her to snap at me and then I whine and get lots of snuggling from my parents.

On walks, when I want to sniff the ground longer, I pretend to pee because my parents don’t pull on the leash when I am peeing.

I have eaten both grain free food and food full of grain, and they both taste like crap.

Actually, that isn’t true.  If River poops on the pads and I  get there first, I eat her poop, and I like it more than kibble.

Sometimes, I will bark for no reason in the middle of the night to make my parents move so I can sleep on the warm spot on the bed.

During walks, when I endlessly bark at my neighbors, I am criticizing their fashion choices.  Long pants and flip-flops together annoy me.
If parents can yell at the TV during sporting events, the
n I can look out the window and bark at nothing.

I love to talk with my friends on the Internet, but if I met them in real life, I would probably just bark at them, wag my tail, and make a fool of myself.

The only thing I have learned that is close to a trick is acting like I didn’t get a treat and making my other parent give me another one.

I know what those signs with the squatting dog on a lawn with an x through it mean but I always leave a little poop in my system just for their lawn.

When it comes to pee-mail, she who pees last pees the longest.

It is weird that I don’t mind sniffing River’s butt, but I don’t like that we drink out of the same dish.


Sometimes I fake wagging my tail.  I’m not excited, but it makes my parents happy to think they are leaving me satisfied, and I just want to go to sleep, so a little fake wag never hurt anyone.