I'm still here ....

I can't believe it's been exactly 3 months since my last post. And no, I haven't done a thing yet with those toggles I soldered. But I will, one day.

It's not that I haven't been doing anything. I have been very busy beadweaving, but this post isn't about beads - we'll save that for another day.

On August 3, I adopted a new puppy!

 My sweet Tigger

Tigger is a golden retriever, and he is cute, and smart, ... and he's sick.

I'm not going to get into all the gory details here (if you want to read all about it, you can find it on my Facebook page. Every gory detail!).

The good news is, after months of pain, diarrhea, and other problems, and a couple of hospitalizations, the doctors finally found the problem yesterday afternoon, and the problem could be treated surgically. Last night, little Tigger had major surgery - parts of his small and large intestines had to be removed, and then surgically reconnected, and some other things also had to be done, and while he is still in ICU, he is finally on the mend, (although he will need monthly vitamin B12 injections for the rest of his life, because they had to remove the part of his intestine that absorbs B12). He has an appetite (for the first time since he came home with me), and is feeling much better, even though just 24 hours ago this tiny puppy had major surgery. It breaks my heart to think how long he has been suffering, because not a week has gone by that he hasn't seen the doctor at least once (sometimes 3 and 4 times!), and he's had test after test after test, but no one suspected a surgical problem until Monday night.

The bad news is - this has more than wiped me out, financially.

There are a couple of fund raising efforts going on right now that I wanted to let everyone know about:

LoveAnimals.org allows pet owners like me to create a web page for situations just like this - they call these FriendRaisers, and here is the link to Tigger's FriendRaiser. I'm so grateful to our many generous friends who have already donated $890 toward Tigger's bills. The money raised here goes directly to Tigger's vets, and if you feel like you CAN donate, and would like to help (every little bit helps!), I hope you'll visit the link and read more about it. Tigger and I greatly appreciate it!

The other fundraising effort is on Facebook, where the beading community has banded together to create Patterns for Tigger. Some very talented beadweavers, including Nancy Dale (NEDbeads),  Beki Haley (WhimBeads), and Carole Dean Sharpe (SandFibers) are donating the proceeds from certain of their beadweaving tutorials and kits towards helping us out. And of course, all proceeds from anything purchased in my Etsy shop will go towards Tigger's bills, and if you like the look of my Well-Traveled bracelet, but are NOT a beadweaver, Katie Nelson has offered to stitch the bracelet for free for anyone who purchases one of the Well-Traveled bead kits from my shop (I'll make sure the beads are shipped directly to Katie, and you're only remaining cost will be to reimburse Katie for shipping the finished bracelet to you.) 

Patterns for Tigger is also looking for more beaders who'd like to help out by donating a pattern (these are short term loans only!), or maybe you'd like to help out in another way - there is a place on the group's Facebook page to let the group's administrators know how you'd like to help.

I'm fiercely independent, and don't like asking for help; in fact, I don't think I have ever asked for help before in my life. But I recognized I was between a rock and a hard place this time, and neither the rock NOR the hard place is going to win!

So that's how I spent my summer vacation - here's a picture of Tigger hanging out at the bead shop - he has gone to work with me everyday until this week, but he's got a good excuse for being absent this week.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you find that you can help me, just know that it really means the world to Tigger and to me - we really appreciate it.

And I hope many of you can come visit and meet Tigger!