Squirt - my Queen has crossed The Bridge

No, this was a memorial for my Uncle Ralph who passed unexpectedly in April. He lived in FLA so the cousins decided to have a memorial in the town he and his family were from. A couple of the cousins made a granite marker and found a granite bench that we set in the family plot to honor Uncle Ralph. We were sent some of his ashes so we all took a little and scattered them over the family buried there, in a sense bringing a little bit of him back home.

My dad passed in '94. My dad and Uncle Ralph were two of the kindest, gentlest, most caring people I have ever known. A friend of Uncle Ralph's wrote this about him when he passed -

"Those who knew Ralph describe him as a modest, kind, gentle, patient, intelligent and soft-spoken man with a winning smile, and an abiding sense of humor. This is a true and accurate description of the man"

Those words fit my dad as well as Uncle Ralph.

I have two brothers but our baby brother disowned us after our mom passed. Mark and I are adopted, baby brother is a natural child - mom lost 5 babies before she was able to carry one to term so he was always special. In his mind, a great deal more special than he really is, tho! :p It's a long, sad, cruel tale but suffice it to say, baby brother wrecked havoc both during the final days of our mom's illness and after, finally taking the step of disowning Mark and I. :( He has since alienated most of the rest of the family along the way. I feel sorry for him and miss him terribly, as does Mark.

Hi Leslie, pleased you have had a nice day with the family get together so sad that it had a sad reason behind it. Uncle Frank sounds like a wonderful gentleman, it was lovely you all had the chance to remember them.

Sorry to hear the doggies a bit unsettled when you got home, when the Mom's away the doggies will play (or something like that) Brick is a sweet pea, we worried for Soph like that and going in to keep her company. It will be good to get Squirt back on the novifit as it seemed to really help her, hope the post turns up quicksmart xxx

Leslie:
It is too bad that your one brother has chosen to act like that. He is missing out on a wonderful sister. It sounds like your dad and his brother were great men. It is good to have a kind, and humble father figure in your life. My dad was one of the most intelligent men I have ever known. I learned so much from him. His biggest lesson to me was how to be humble, and how to help others. I miss him more than any other family members. I still have one of his jackets and swear all these years later I can smell his scent on it. What I would not give for 1 hour to see him. Hope all the babies are back to normal now that mom is home. It poured here all nite. Supposedly snow next week. I was looking up herbs to keep Tipper's inflammation down. I am going to ask the vet if Dark tart cherry would harm her. I know certain parts of cherry wood is poisonous to animals. I used to have a pet pig and her ate cherry bark and almost died. It shriveled his eyes up like raisins. I am wondering about the following if they have any long term side effects and are good or bad. Tumeric you can sprinkle on their food, Devilsclaw for arthritis, Saspirilla combined with Burdock, and something called feverfew. I am wanting to keep her arthritis to a minimum without drugs, and keep the tumor from enlarging. Let me know if you have any ideas on these. Have a good day down there it is really cold in the low 40's here. Blessings
Patti

Turmeric and Devil's Claw are among the herbs I use with Squirt...but I'm out of the DC right now. Both of these are good. Burdock I use for immune and liver support. But I've not used Feverfew nor Sasparillo. I am looking into Meadowsweet again for her, too.

The thing, the hard thing for me, to understand about herbs is that they don't work like western medicine where you take X for Y symptoms. Herbs are part of a whole system approach so while we use the anti-inflammatories for things like arthritis we also look at how the body is functioning in all areas and address removing toxins with things like Dandelion while at the same time boosting the system with things like Nettle that are highly nutritive. So, if this is something you want to do with Tipper, I strongly recommend you find a Holistic vet or animal herbalist in your area to work with as they will be able to better guide you in exactly what would benefit Tipper most. If there isn't one you can work with in person, some will work with you online. Expect an in depth accounting of everything around her, not just her illnesses. They will probably want to know detailed info like the water she drinks and the type of bowl she drinks out of, the air she breaths, the laundry detergent you use, etc. Holistic means "whole" and that encompasses every single thing in her world. ;) I was completely floored by the client intake form from our nutritional consultant the first time!

Leslie:
Thanks for the information. I had been thinking about getting a holistic vet to help with Tipper. Just don't know as I can afford that on top of all the other stuff she needs. I will have to check and see if I can find someone to help me that is reasonable. You have to watch out here, as many of them just want your money, and will tell you anything and everything to get it. My vet has had experience with some of them and told me so it scares me. Maybe I could find someone online willing to help me. At any rate I will keep at it as usual. Hope you all are doing well today. It was pouring here and now the sun is out. Blessings
Patti

Another good thing to keep in mind are inflammatory foods - foods that can cause or exacerbate inflammation, like white potatoes. Plants in the nightshade family, like potatoes, tomatoes, some peppers and others can cause inflammation so getting familiar with foods that cause and foods that can lessen inflammation is important for our babies with arthritis and other inflammatory conditions like IBD.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the family even though it was a sad occasion. Seems I only see my family now too at weddings and funerals. Rather sad, as we used to have a family reunion religiously almost every year, but somehow living got in the way. We do keep in touch as much as possible though.

So Squirt was fine, bet you didn't think Sophie would have a problem. It's good to know though she settled down once you were home.

These dogs constantly keep us busy, and everyday seems to be something different.

BTW, I'd pay you to get herbal recommendations for my pets... I'd even do your website if you wanted to get into it (free). What else have I got to do now that I'm leaving FB.:D I don't think you'd have much trouble giving people the knowledge they need to know all the while making some money. From what I've seen lately there are a whole lot of people fed up with the high cost of meds and wrong information from their vets. One thing about natural herbs, there is no harm done.

Hi Leslie:
Hope you all are having a good couple days. It is in the low 30's here this morning. They said we will see snow flurries by weeks end. I wanted to know are sweet potatoes in the nite shade family? I do on occasion give her some. Are the lentils she is eating ok? I am going to sprinkle turmeric on her food, hope she eats it. Blessings
Patti

Just thinking about you and Squirt...

Donna

No, Sweet Potatoes are in the Convolvulaceae, or Morning Glory, family and are considered to be an anti-inflammatory food. BTW, yam and sweet potato are not the same plant. Yams are of the Dioscoreaceae family. ;)

Judi, if I'm still kicking in about 20 years, I may know enough to take you up on that web site offer! :D