All Dogs Go To Heaven

Today was a sad day in our world.  One of our real dogs, Girlie Girl,  had not been eating well over the past week and so we decided it was time to go to the vet.  While I was there with her yesterday, they did blood work and an ultrasound of her kidneys.  The vet compared her blood work to some that was done in January and based upon that and the ultrasound findings, it was determined that she was in liver failure most likely secondary to cancer. 

Cancer is a horrible disease for all of God's creatures.  We could have gone down a long path of surgery and possible chemotherapy, but it would have had the same outcome in the end.  With heavy hearts, Grown Dawg and I came to the realization that it was best to have her put down.  She was one of the best dogs that any human could ask to have.  We were blessed to have her as part of our lives for 9 years.

She went to Heaven this morning around 10:00.  She will be cremated and we will spread her ashes at the beach.  We took her there often with us and she loved the time there.

Here are some pictures of our Princess Dog.

At the beach!



Bone time.




Laying in 'her spot' on the rug. 







Laying in the sun.  One of her favorite things.



Weekend Beach Time

We went to the beach for the weekend a couple of weekends ago.  Mainly to go down and attend a class / comedy show by Capt. Jimmy Price.  He does several fund raising events to provide Christmas presents for under privileged children in the Oak Island area.  You can check out his website and some of the other things that he does here: http://www.topdoginc.org/. 

One of the crazy things about his class was that we were sitting next to a older gentleman that we started talking to.  As it turns out, it was Don Betts of Betts, Inc.  Such as Betts cast nets, Billy Bay Shrimp.  THAT Don Betts.  The only way we found out that is who it was is that one of the captains that was presenting mentioned his name during his presentation.  Also, Capt. Jimmy Price thanked him as he donated a good amount of items that were used as door prizes.  Grown Dawg was asking Mr. Betts about some of the different cast nets and the best ones to use and if the larger nets, such as 8-10 foot nets were hard to throw.  Mr. Betts offered to send us a DVD of  'How to Throw a Cast Net' which we received later in the week!  He is definitely a man of his word.

We also did some fishing from the shore / docks in the backwater, but with no success.  It was colder than expected and the tides were pretty extreme.  We didn't even see any fish, much less catch any.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.



Me and Capt. Jimmy Price



Mr. Don Betts

Grown Dawg fishing.

These 2 guys were catching plenty.

Yellow Storm Rising

Spring officially announced its arrival with the pollen storm to end all pollen storms.  I noticed the outflowing of yellow snow on Tuesday.  I had parked my car outside and within less than an hour, it was covered with a layer of pollen.  Combine that with the wind and dry conditions here lately and you have a full blown pollen storm.

The Bradford pears always bloom here at the end of February or early March, but the pine trees, dogwoods and the majority of hardwood trees REALLY work hard to show up one another come late March.  Grown Dawg and I noticed how the pine trees were loaded down with the small blue/purple pollen cones over the weekend.  And today they had all turned yellow.

The parking lots have a dull green / yellow coating on them and everyone is starting to complain of their allergies.  The drug companies must love this time of year.  Sort of like Black Friday for every other company in the world.

I am just waiting for the non-existent Spring showers right now.

At least it is starting to get closer to fishing season!

Thank Heavens for Warm Weather and other Stuff

This past week's weather has been a wonderful peek at Spring.  But in the southeast, we really don't have a true spring.  Just early summer in my opinion.  Winter has been long enough and cold enough for me.  Fortunately, we have already had some days in the eighties.  A nice chance to open the house up and have some fresh air moving through.  We even have had to turn the air conditioner on for a few hours on Monday.  It is funny how excited you get about using the air conditioner.  I am sure that mid-August, I will be missing days like that.

Other wonderful 'spring things' that have gone on include daffodils and Bradford pears blooming.  The early pollen haze is already here.  Day lillies are sprouting, but flowers will not be here for a bit.  The brown yard is starting to get green patches of weeds as well as some of the grass is sprouting back.

I LOVE THE SOUTH!

Other random life stuff:

Mama Dawg had her knee replaced the end of January and has done fabulous and has actually been discharged from therapy as of Friday. 

Our granddaughter, 'H Dawg' turned 6 months old. 

One of our real dogs had some surgery and had to wear a cone on his head for 10 days.  It came off today - THANK HEAVENS!

Water temperature at Apache Pier is up to 55 degrees, so there will be some good fishing sooner rather than later.

Grown Dawg has been spending time on the boat under the watchful eye of David Perry of Marine Service Center in Murrell's Inlet and has been pulling a good friend's flatbed trailer in anticipation of boat hauling. 

Hopefully, fishing news will be in the next post.

Higher Education

Grown Dawg went to a Fishing Seminar today.  Yeah, this is the third one in 2 months, but we are trying to be better at fishing.  This one was at Oak Island Recreation Center and was put on by Capt. Jimmy Price and Capt. Jerry Dilsaver.  One of the best things that he learned was about cast nets and the best way to throw them.  Apparently it is like swinging a golf club.  It is not power, but technique that gets it done.

The best part is that he scored a FREE fishing rod.  It is a 7 foot Star Rod which is made by Sea Striker.

Guess he will be wanting a new reel now. 

Wonderful..................