Thursday, May 24, 2007

Prayers & Good Wishes Needed

Over a year ago I wrote a message here about my my sister's grand baby needing prayers and good wishes. Well, he needs them again. He's in the hospital once more, this time on life support. Back then they didn't give him much hope of seeing his first birthday. Well, he made it. Now we are hoping for a second one. He was born with something called Autosomal Recessive Cutis Laxa Type One. There are only a couple of hundred people or less in the whole world with Cutis Laxa, and his is the very worse kind. It is a rare genetic disorder of the connective tissue. On the outside it shows up in loose and hanging skin, but it does worse stuff inside. He has had one battle after another, and has seemed to be doing so well lately. He just started walking and seemed to be so happy, and now this. I'm hoping there's some way for him to have more time, if it can be good time. More time for him to laugh, to play with his big sister and his grandma's dogs, to enjoy the new freedom he's found since he has a special daycare where he can spend a few hours at a time with other children. So, if you have a moment, please say a prayer, a blessing, send good thoughts, white light, what ever you can, that he'll beat the odds and be laughing for one more birthday.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Pet Tip: Giving Your Dogs Medicine

If you have more than one dog, like I do, when it comes time to give them all medicine, it can be a little overwhelming. (Smile) I give my dogs heartworm medicine every month, and the regular wormer about once a year. I've learned a few things to help make it not so overwhelming.

First, I keep a piece of paper in the drawer where I keep the meds. On that paper I have each dog's name with their weight wrote out next to it. (You don't have to reweigh them more than once a year unless you have a growing puppy or you notice by looking that your dog might have gained or lost weight.)

Next I bring out a couple of disposable foam plates and a marker. (I only do two dogs at a time instead of wasting a pile of plates.) I write the dog's name and weight on the edge of the plate with the marker. I put some can dog food on the plate, the amount depending on the size of the dog. You don't want to put too much because you don't want to take a chance on them maybe not cleaning their plate.

Now that I'm ready to measure the meds, I have the dog's name and weight right in front of me. That way I'm not likely to make a mistake, and I'm not going to mix the plates up and give Max at 67 pounds the plate I fixed for Clover at 53 pounds. I've worked hard to train my dogs that when a plate is put in front of one, that the food on that plate belongs to that dog, but them being dogs, you still have to watch closely until those two plates or clean. If you can't get your dogs to do that, then put the food and each dog in a room away from the others so there is no chance of someone not getting all of his meds, or even worse, of someone getting an overdoes.

When those two dogs are done, I pick up the plates, mark through the names and weight on them, write in the next two dogs' names and weights, and repeat until they have each had their meds.

The last thing I do is mark it on the calendar so I'll know for sure what date they were given the meds on.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

On To The Next Publisher

Well, after a few rejections on my starter book for romance writers, my agent, Elizabeth Pomada, is at it again. She's in New York right now and has pitched my starter book for romance writers to St. Martin's Press. When I talked to her tonight on her cell, she said she will be sending the complete to them.

Sooooooo.....cross those fingers and toes for me once again. (Smile)

The other publishers who have rejected the book said they thought there wasn't a big enough market for it. 'Market' being romance authors who would need my starters from time to time. I think there's a whole pile of us out there who hit blocks and need starters. Right? (Smile) Now I just have to hope that St. Martin's Press knows that too, or is willing to take a chance on it.