Cassie: My Little Christmas Miracle Dog

I have fantastic news.  The holidays and tours got the best of me and I couldn’t get over here to give you an update, bad me!  Cassie is great.  In fact, when the anesthesia wore off, she was better than great.  Her face completely changed back to a fun-loving dog – it was a Christmas miracle.
I’ve got a couple of pictures I’d like to show you.  This is the before picture with the tumor on her belly:

 

Cassie night before surgery

I wasn’t so sure how she was going to do that next day so I took plenty of pictures and video.  And here’s what she looked like Christmas morning, almost 2 weeks after surgery:

 

Cassie Christmas Morning

 

Cassie (r) & Max (l) opening Christmas presents

So the doctor tells me he’s not sure if he got all the cancer out.  I guess that’s hard to know.  But I do know this much, my Cassie is alive and well at the moment and you can’t put a price tag on that.  I can’t imagine what parents of children who are terminally ill go through and it breaks my heart to know there are a lot of them out there.

Cassie is doing great.  She’s quicker and it’s like years were taken off.  She’s 13 and I know not everything lives forever, but if I have any power at all inside me, I will do whatever it takes to keep my babies alive unless they are suffering.  Then, it’s a whole ‘nuther ballgame I don’t even want to be at.

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas – tomorrow is my update with pictures on one of the most beautifully decorated houses on Chincoteague Island.  Can you guess whose it was?  LOL, no, not mine, but you’ll find out tomorrow.

Hang in there, Cassie Girl, and come back home

Have you ever gone through life wondering if the decisions you are making at the time are the right ones?  Have you ever loved something or someone so bad and made a decision health-wise on their behalf knowing it could go either way and if the odds aren’t in your favor, you had to live with that decision the rest of your life whether it haunted you or not? My Cassie  Girl has cancer and it’s malignant. Cassie is my 13-year-old Cocker Spaniel.  After years and years and years and years, I decided to get another dog.  She was a stray and just so happened to be a cocker spaniel, my favorite breed of dog.  Of course, I’d never had one before so I had no idea the health issues cockers have (just spent over $4000 to have my male Cocker’s eardrums removed because of a nasty ear infection if that gives you any idea).

I named my new dog Chelsea.  Chelsea stuck around with us for about a year before she died in my daughter’s arms from unknown causes.  I cried for days.  My boyfriend surprised me later with a new puppy.  She was beautiful, so sweet, adorable, sore from being picked up all the time adorable, and I named her Cassie. Cassie was the sweetest dog I ever had.  She never bit anyone, except one time she nipped at the neighbor’s pants legs for coming too close, but talk about loving.  The most loving dog you’d ever seen. Cassie never really had many health problems as she grew up over the years.  Not like Max who decided to take a swim in the channel and came back with a nasty ear infection that only got worse over time until we had to get his eardrums removed.  But you know, that dog can still hear.  Just dumbfounds you.  Not real good, but he can hear. Casse and Max were supposed to be lovers until we found out Max had no idea which end was up so Cassie remained puppyless.  We had bought Max to mate with Cassie but it wasn’t in the cards and frankly I’m glad.  We’re not a puppy mill and never had any plans to become one.

While Max grew up to be the cantankerous one, Cassie was content to sleep in the floor beside you.   Such a sweet sweet dog. As Cassie got older, she started showing signs of old age, like incontinence and limping (figuring that was arthritis), but overall the dog was in exceptional health despite her age. A few months ago, she developed a lump under her mammary glands.  A few days later, the lump bled but we managed to get it under control and she seemed fine.  About a month or so after that, she developed another one but this one didn’t bleed nor go away like the last one.  It just kept getting bigger and bigger and developed what looked to me like several lumps in one. My original decision was to let her go.  Let her live her life as happily as we could make it.  But then, something struck home.  If I didn’t at least save her, she was going to die and I was going to have that on my conscious and I knew I couldn’t live with it. So I called the vet, made the appointment and the diagnosis was he wanted to remove the lump; however, it was the holidays (Thanksgiving) and he was going to be out of town.  So we set up the appointment for today, about two weeks later. The wait was long and horrendous.  I kept telling Cassie to hold in there, that I was getting her help soon.  I didn’t want it to erupt like the last one…just a few more days, I’d tell her. I was lying in the floor wrapping presents last night and I took a few pictures of her.  Just in case.  And video.  Just in case. Just in case.  Didn’t the doctor reassure me she had over 50% chance surviving this?

I wake at 5 am and she’s lying on the bed beside me. I reach over and rub her golden head.  She looks like she’s smiling. I get up and take a shower to make that 7 a.m. appointment.  She’s waiting for me downstairs so I put her collar on and let her go pee before we make our journey.  Afterwards, we battle the wind and I put her on the passenger side.  There’s a little bit of snow out my back door and I wondered if it had snowed last night. As we’re traveling to the doctor, I realize it did snow.  In fact, there was a police leading a convoy (us) down the highway so we don’t get in an accident.  I reach over and pet Cassie’s head and she kisses my hand. We finally arrive and she’s really excited to be there.  I’m figuring she smelled other dogs in the grass or she was just glad as heck to be out of the car. The doctor is waiting for us behind the counter.  It’s a little after 7.  He’s not smiling.  He walks around and feels Cassie’s lump.  “It’s grown,” I tell him. He’s not the same as last time I saw him when he made me feel it was just a matter of taking out the lump and it was all over. “You know it’s cancer, right.  And you know it’s malignant.” I don’t even remember responding to tell you the truth.  By this time, I’m starting to cry.  I’m fighting it, but not winning.  I knew it was cancer, but why wasn’t he just taking her back there and doing what I’m paying him to do and being positive about this??? “I know you can’t guarantee anything,” I tell him, “but what are the odds?” He said he didn’t know.  He knew the damn odds last time I was there, why was this time different??? “You know you have the choice to just take her back home and let her live out her life,” he says. I freaking didn’t know I had a choice in the matter!  Take her back home?   Why freaking why?  I want her to be saved, not go home and let her die!!!! So I’m standing there with a choice.  I can take her home, let her live her life as peacefully as possible until this thing explodes all over the place or I can let him try to save her knowing full well I probably just ended her life right then and there. That’s the way he made me feel. “Take her.” It came out.  I don’t know who was talking but that’s the decision. He took my number and said they’ll call. I get in the truck and bawl my head off.  If that was the last time I will see my Cassie Girl, I’ll have to live with it the rest of my life.  And I never got to say good-bye. But you know, there’s a force out there.  And I prayed to it over and over with tears streaming down my face so hard I couldn’t even see out of the windshield, but if there’s any hope at all, any way my Cassie Girl can come back home to me today, then I’ll know that it wasn’t her time and that I made the right decision.

Ocean City Sunfest 2010

It’s now the end of November, one week before Thanksgiving, and I’m about to talk to you about the SunFest celebration held in Ocean City, Maryland, in September.  It’s not until now that I got a break from tours (actually our real break comes the second half of December when we take off for two weeks…woohoo!) and I really didn’t want you to miss these beautiful pictures.  So while we’re approaching winter and all the celebrations that go with it (freezing rain, snow, slush, sleet), let’s take a little sun break…
Every year in September, Ocean City holds a huge festival they call SunFest.  This was my very first time going because I usually had to work at my weekend offline job, but I asked off specifically to see what all the hubbub was all about.
Before I go on, I want to mention that if you’re planning a trip there next year, make sure you understand THERE IS NO PARKING.  Serious.  None whatsoever.  So if you don’t have a hotel room on the beach or pretty well near it, you’re pretty well up the creek without a paddle because you’re walking it.
So we had to park at a convenience store on 26th street I believe which meant we had to walk 26 blocks before we hit the craft fair part which was what was taking up the main parking lot.
Was it worth it?
Thank God, it was a beautiful day.  Despite being windy which comes with it being on the water and all, it was still warm and actually hot in parts (could be the 2 mile hike there and back but I digress…).
So I’d like you to see what we found once we got there.  A parade of kites and not just any ol’ kite but super duper monster kites which I would love to take home, hang them from the roof of my condo, and watch  the tourists stare and point.
So here we go…

And after 26 blocks of blood sweat and tears, we finally made it…

Paula Deen LIVE in concert at Delaware State Fair

Check this out…as of right this very moment, it’s 96 degrees in Chincoteague, Virginia, and God knows what the heat index is, but it has to be pretty well up there.  Yesterday, my friend, it wasn’t much cooler either and just as you would know it, my daughter and I had plans.

Big plans.
Big super duper plans.
Big super super duper duper plans.


That night, we were to go see Paula Deen LIVE in concert at the Delaware State Fair in Harrington, Delaware.

YES!!!  I KNOW!  Isn’t that just the coolest thing????

Well…

It. Was. Hot.

But let me tell you something we didn’t know and I’m not sure how many of the rest of the them didn’t know it, but it was OUTSIDE.  No tent.  Blaring sun.  Sweat forming pools around the ankles hot.  Would we have still gone?  Probably the fools that we were, but the concert was FABULOUS.

Paula Deen was FABULOUS.  There’s her husband all the way to the left and her married son, Jaime (not sure if that’s spelled right) and her grandson, Jack.

Let me tell you, what you see is what you get – Paula Deen is no different live than she is on TV, except with this show, she was more people oriented.  In other words, she was more into getting to know her fans by talking to them from the stage.  She was wonderful!

Here she is (above) talking to us.

Here she is above with her son and grandson.  He was a pistol, I’m telling you.

And you know, as hot as it was, she kept on going..if she was sweating, you’d never know it.  Not a bit of wind and the sun was blaring right on us – I know it was almost 100 degrees out there.  I could have used that cool Michael fan, I’ll tell you that!

Here she is above with Michael and former  Miss Virginia Hannah (funny no mention of her last name in the brochure that was handed out but Hannah it was).  The guy to the far left was a chef and darn if I can remember his name but he was cool.  Paula made him take off his jacket calling it “inhumane,” lol.
And here’s my favorite picture of all…

LOL, okay what’s she doing?  She was talking about going down the slide at the Harrington Fair.  Sounds like even Paula likes to get down and dirty at fairs!
It was a fantastic concert, despite the fact we had no idea it was going to be outside during a heat wave.  When it ended, there were mobs and mobs of people exiting this one exit, so we took another route – down the racetrack and guess whose  limo passed us?  Yep…beautiful white stretch limo and inside was Paula Deen, our cook show hero and all around great person with the best sense of humor you’ve ever seen.
Great show…if you’d like to watch part of it, here you go!

Amish Country – Lancaster Pennsylvania – Part 2

The first full day in Lancaster was spent checking out the shops.  My whole reason I came was to find some covered bridges.  You gotta admit – you would, too, right?  What is it about covered bridges that is so romantic?  Especially the red ones – gotta have pictures of red covered bridges or my life is not complete.

While the gang was preparing to visit Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market, The Kitchen Kettle and other hot spots along the “strip,” I had it in the back of my mind I was not leaving until I found a covered bridge.  Barbara, one of my friends who went with us, told me we’d find one later when the rest of the gang went to the mud hop, or whatever it was called where people love to take their expensive trucks and run them through the mud.  Meanwhile, I had to make the best of it by being dragged through farmer’s markets and shops and being forced to buy jars of homemade preserved vegetables and other Amish goodies.  Anything you could can, the Amish canned it.  Might I say I had a great time.

Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market

Well here we are at Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market.  Actually this is the sign for it and looking across the street.  Here’s a picture of the building itself:

Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market

Not overly impressive on the outside but good lordy you ought to see what’s inside.  A good word of advice when you see all those yummy things on the shelves…if it says pickled, it’s going to be SOUR.  I bought pickled asparagas.  I thought how neat – I love asparagas.  Well this was a little too tangy, but the pickled beets were out of this world.  I bought my daughter some hot pickled mushrooms thinking she would love that, but she said they weren’t that great, but don’t let me discourage you…there is something to suit everyone and lots of it.  I wanted to take pictures inside but there were too many Amish people (who I might say were the friendliest and most courteous people I’ve ever met) working in there and I didn’t want to offend them by having their picture taken.

I did buy this little lighted street lamp thingee for my deck.  Ain’t it cute?

Across the street, and all along the street in fact, were these quaint shops.  Here’s a picture of one of them.

Bird in Hand shop

After that, we headed off to Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse.  Kitchen Kettle reminded me a little bit of Colonial Williamsburg in a weird little way.  We even got some entertainment:

And there were, of course, buggy rides….

And more of Kitchen Kettle Village…

We had a great time.  And like everything, all fun comes to the end as we make our way back to our room before we take to the road again to find my covered bridge!

Until next time,

Amish Country – Lancaster Pennsylvania – Part 1

I’m finally home.  I just had a wonderful semi-girly weekend in Lancaster, Pennysylvania.  It started out as a 3 girl girlie weekend and ended up with 8 head – 4 women, 4 men – but it worked out fine.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is beautiful.  It’s not until you get outside of town do you really see the true beauty of it.  Hills and hills of beautiful grassy pastures.  It threatened rain the whole time we were there but finally held out until the day we had to leave.  How’s that for timing?

This was my first trip to Lancaster and if you don’t count the views from a bridge we had to cross from New Jersey, it was also my first real trip to Pennsylvania.

I love mountains and wasn’t sure I’d see any.  I didn’t, but what I did see were miles and miles of hilly farmland which was just as good (the car’s engine took a little beating…I don’t know how it would have held up if it were any hillier).

On the way to our room, this is what you saw quite often.  This is a big no no according to non-Amish people, but to the Amish, they’re used to it.  They say, “I don’t know why you’d want to take our picture.”  It’s not that they hated (hate isn’t in their vocabulary) you for doing it, they just didn’t see the reasoning.

All of the buggies were the same color.  Their main message to each other is that no one is more important than the other. I learned so much about the Amish.  It’s really quite interesting to find out why they lead such simple lives and there’s quite a few lessons they could teach us if you paid close attention.

The picture thing for example.  They did not take pictures of themselves – not even their children as they were growing up – and you’d never see any pictures of people on their walls.  They had other things on their walls but no people whatsoever.  They believed that everyone was equal and no more important than the next person.

Before we hit the room, we decided to stop off at what they call the Green Dragon Farmer’s Market.  This place was HUGE.  I was so excited, I didn’t take but a couple of pictures and this was one of them.  This is actually in the humungous parking lot.  There are places for cars to park and places for buggies to park.  See if you can find the buggie. ;o)

This is two of our 8 head party heading back after spotting a buggie.  You do that a lot here.  In time, you get used to them but if you’ve never seen one before, they’re really neat to catch a glimpse of as they fly by (and I do mean fly…these buggies can boogie!).

So this is on our way back from the Green Dragon Farmer’s Market.  We had loaded up on fresh breads, pies, canned this, canned that, you name it, it was there, and went to find our room.  Let me tell you something while I’m thinking about it.  If you’ve never owned a navigator (I hadn’t but the friend whose car we rode in did), you have really missed out on an experience.

And so this is our home away from home.  Picture taken on Sunday when it did rain, but the skies remained rain-free until then.

So we’re checking the room out…it’s very very clean, smelled great, so we’re happy with our decision to stay here instead of the ritzy hotel in town (might have to do that one next) and I look out one of the windows to see what’s out there and I say, “Kim, come quick!  Look out the window!”

Another buggie parked at a convenience store across the yard there.  It took all of five seconds before we were grabbing a camera and ran out to get a close up.

Kids.  What can you do with them.  Show us a buggie and we’ll show you a picture we snapped of it no matter what lengths it takes to get it.  No matter what people might think of you.  No matter if you look like a tourist.  You gotta have that picture.

One thing that annoys me about living here on the island is that when the tourists come, it’s like you’ve lost your home to them but this experience did give me a better understanding – when you’re vacationing, it’s time to have fun.

Smokey Mountain Sunrise

I’m trying to think how many times I have actually been to the Smokies.  For those reading this blog and don’t know what the Smokies is or where they are, the Smokies is a major mountain range in the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains.  For someone who has never been there, it’s something magical about these mountains that’s really hard to put into just the right words.
Let me give you a visual so you can try to understand where I’m coming from:

Smokie Mountains

That still doesn’t do it justice.  Let me try again:

Smokie Mountains

Ahh…now we’re cooking.
Like I was saying, I don’t know how many times I have been to the Smokies, it’s been that many and it’s not like it’s a hop, skip and jump away.  Going from Chincoteague to Pigeon Forge was exactly 620.90 miles which is 10 hours and 31 minutes driving time.  Roughly, I would say I’ve been four or five times.
The reasons were varied.  The first time it was on a lark coming back from Arkansas.  I saw the sign for the Smokie National Park and decided to veer off 80 and go check it out.
But the second, third and fourth time, it was for vacation because ever since that first time, I felt like I had to keep going back.

Smokie Mountains

And you see why?

The picture above was a special moment.  I wanted some sunrise pictures.  In order to have sunrise pictures, you have to get up literally at the crack of dawn.  Forget the fact that you’ve not had much sleep from the night before.  You were on a mission.  Here’s another:

Smokie Mountains

These were taken off the deck of our mile high cabin.  Oh, btw, if they tell you these cabins are in the clouds, believe’em.

I’ll be back to tell you more about my Smokie vacations tomorrow.

Tree Art in Blacksburg, Virginia

I’ve had somewhat bad news.  We’re waiting on the results from blood work to come back for one of our pooches, Skylar.  The doctor found a mass on her spleen yesterday.  It’s my daughter’s dog, but I’m just as close to her.  Please pray for her!

I’ve not posted in a few days because I’ve had to put a lot of muscle into my online business, although I have got good news – I’ve got a trip to Lancaster, PA, coming up!  I’ll tell you all about it as it gets closer, but I wanted to share a picture with you I found the other day.  Here it is:

 

I’m not sure if you can make this out, but is this the craziest tree art you’ve ever seen?  We were traveling to the Smokies and this was taken at a hotel somewhere on the Interstate in Blacksburg, Virginia.  These two trees are actually nailed to this brick wall and are thriving!  All of the branches are nailed, too.  It was the neatest but craziest thing I’ve ever seen.

And here’s a picture of Skylar who went with us and who ended up loving the media room in our cabin but I’m jumping ahead of the story.  Tomorrow…our first trip to the Smokies!

The Natural Bridge in Natural Bridge, Virginia

What started out as a beautiful day on the island has now turned to windy and rainy – ych.  The best thing you can do at this point is to kick back and dream of where you want to go on your next vacation.

So what is higher than the Niagara Falls and one of the seven natural wonders of the world?
We’ve traveled lots of places (the main reason I started this blog) but I was kicking back, looking through pictures and I came upon a few pictures of The Natural Bridge in which my family and I visited on our way back from the Smokies a couple of years ago.

The Natural Bridge is unique in that it’s 20 stories of solid rock carved by nature.  It’s really awesome to see.

According to Wikipedia, The Natural Bridge (located at Natural Bridge, Virginia) was a sacred site of the Native American Monacan tribe, who believed it to be the site of a major victory over pursuing Powhatans centuries before the arrival of the white people in Virginia.  What’s really neat is that it is believed to be a fact that George Washington visited as a surveyor.  In 1927, they found a stone engraved with “G.W.” and a surveyors cross and so they accepted that as proof that he indeed surveyed the bridge.

Hundreds upon thousands visit The Natural Bridge every year.  We hadn’t planned on stopping actually because we had so far to travel, but you know how it is on the way home, you want to get in as many sights of interest as you can despite the fact you’re tired and weary from whatever you’ve been doing in the last few days or week or whatever, but somehow adrenalin or something kicked in because we had a blast.

Here is moi standing at the entrance.  Tickets include admission to Natural Bridge, Cedar Creek Nature Trail and Monacan Village, Wax & Toy Museums and Drama of Creation Show (dusk) are $18 for adults and $10 for children 5 – 12.  You can buy advance tickets online here.

And here are my babies…

You actually start out by purchasing tickets in a big brick building then veer off to your right coming out and begin the trail.  It’s almost as much fun getting to it than being there.  Lots and lots and lots and lots of steps.  That’s my son who refuses to keep up with a woman who insists on taking pictures of every single thing.  But it was a beautiful walk.

And here it is in all its splendor.

Historic Lighthouses: Assateague Lighthouse

One of the things I find so incredibly wonderful about living on Chincoteague Island is the fact it’s right next door to Assateague.  The story goes there were people living on Assateague many years ago but due to everyone moving to Chincoteague, living conditions got pretty bad over there.  They never had electricity but Chincoteague did and that was one of the reasons for moving.  Today, Assateague is home to the wildlife refuge, the once beautiful Assateague Beach (we had a couple of bad storms this past winter and it took away much of the beach but they’re trying to restore it before the 2010 summer season) and this wonderful old lighthouse that was built back in 1867.  The story goes there was a lightkeeper that had to lug heavy containers of kerosene (remember no lights) every single day up to the top of the lighthouse to keep the light burning.  Today it is preserved and maintained by the Coast Guard.  The picture below was taken in the summer of 2009.

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Thompson

The lighthouse is only available for tours from March to November.  Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children under 12.  Proceeds go for restoration.

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Thompson

This is a picture of my daughter standing in front of it last spring.  And here’s one as she sits down for a bite to eat.

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Thompson

One word of advice – make sure you go early early spring or wear plenty of mosquito spray if you are brave enough to make the hike to the lighthouse in the middle of the summer.  We hit it around the end of April or beginning of May which was perfect.  We brought repellent but didn’t need it.
If you’re a lighthouse lover like I am, you’ll love to stop off at the Assateague Lighthouse for it’s qaintness and historical charm.

New York? New York?

It has been a rough winter here on the island.  I’ve never seen a winter as rough as this one!  Started out with flooding, then snow, then snow and then…more snow.

I’ve only been here three years but I’ve never seen it so bad.

So it doesn’t surprise me that my daughter comes into my office and tells me she wants to go to..of all places, New York.

New York is about five hours from here by car, but one hour by plane, and of course, she chose plane.
The last time I was in an airplane was when I was eighteen years old and I had to fly solo to Ft. Lauderdale to pursue a modeling career.  Terrified.  And the old fart next to me wants to carry on a conversation and all the time I was thinking he had ulterior motives so it was an uncomfortable ride to say the least.

Then, there’s 911.

Six months after 911, we did go to New York, this time though was by bus which I didn’t think I was going to like but I rather enjoyed it (beats being blown up in an airplane).  Slept most of the way but I liked the fact I wasn’t  millions of miles in the air.  Took us 5 hours to get there, but once we were there, this little country girl was definitely in awe.


We had 10 hours to do what we wanted before we were supposed to load back up and go home, but we saw nearly everything Manhattan had to offer.  Climbed the Empire State Building, walked through Central Park, browsed the NBC studio at Rockefeller Center and ate at the famous Hard Rock Cafe.  Life was great.  This picture to the left was my daughter and I when we just arrived at Times Square.

But the most memorable part of the trip was returning to where terrorists flew 2 airplanes into the World Trade Centers and well the rest is a haunting history we’d just like to soon forget.

I remember when we walked up to the disaster area (now it’s been six months since it happened mind you), you could still smell the smoke and in fact you could still see smoke coming out of piles that the fire department was still trying to get out.  Crews were still out clearing things but it was the most eerie place you’d ever want to go.  You could actually feel death.  You could smell it; you could feel it.

Now this picture has an interesting story.  There were signs everywhere saying no pictures allowed.  Not quite sure unless it was just in case someone didn’t want to capitalize on the fact they could get some good pictures and sell them?  Anyway, the signs never stopped me.  I wasn’t going to walk away without getting some so I whipped out the camera, took a few shots, and put it away real quick.  I’m not altogether stupid.  This picture to the left is the memorial that was placed at the disaster site.
It was an experience to say the least.  I’ll never forget it and the fact I could see a little bit of history firsthand was worth millions.