This is Emmy. To be precise, Bergie's Emmy Winner. Yes, she is registered. She is also 15 years old. Exactly 1 year younger than Oscar. Emmy follows us everywhere we go. Being blind, she stays close to our feet. Of course, that means we trip over her a lot. She follows us to the computer room, and lays on the floor behind me, so I have to make sure I don't step on her when I leave. She sleeps quite a bit. She snores. She sneezes and wheezes. But we love her.

She has always been consistent with her manner. Food first, anything else is second. Being blind and deaf and mostly toothless, if a hand touches her, the first thing she does is check for food by mouthing the hand. She is so set in this habit, that if I reach down to pick her up, no matter where we are at, she backs up so as to not miss the possible food. This has caused her to fall off the porch a couple times before I figured out a way to pick her up. I ambush her. I reach down with both hands out far enough and from above, that she can't see them coming and like a clamshell, I grab with both hands around her middle and hang on. She jumps cuz it startles her, but I cannot get her to hold still otherwise. I have to do this to help her up onto the chair to sit with me. Even being blind, she has figured how to get up in Richard's chair. He puts the foot rest of the recliner out at an angle and she climbs up between his feet, he puts the chair up the rest of the way, and she curls up between is feet. He has taught her this way because we are back to not being able to pick her up like a normal dog. Despite being blind and deaf and toothless, she is the healthiest dog of 15. She was Oscar's little sister. They were born from the same parents, just one year and one litter apart. Little Man and Minnie were the same, with Emmy as the mother and a black and tan (like Lucy) for a dad. His name was Taz. He was a cool dog, but entirely stupid and ignorant when Emmy was in heat.

Emmy and Minnie were just put to bed, as Rich has had enough of dogs sitting on him. It was too hot to go outside for long, so we vegetated in the house all day, watched the race and took a nap. All with dogs sitting on us. Lucy sleeps with us, the other two have the utility room and can go outside when they need to at night.

My turn to go to bed. Catch you all on the flip side.

CB

Developements

I'm going Elk hunting this year I got lucky and drew a cow tag. Kirk, lugnut and I each drew tags for area 32A for the week of the 13th to the 24th of October. Camping out , eating out of bean cans ,sitting around the camp fire , lots of B.S. and wild story's and with any luck bring home the meat.

Went to a doctors appointment today and got lucky again, I get to go to radiation treatment after Elk hunting every day for seven and one half weeks. In the last three years my PSA has creeped up from 0.0 to 0.2 so we are going to shoot it till it stops or my guts are fried, sounds like fun , what do ya think ? Other than that still working out every day dropped over forty pounds, lifting weights and walking on the treadmill. I plan on being the best built 62 year old in letha, shouldn't be to hard not much competition. Well don't make any one mad you can't out run !

later RB

Awesome ... here by request

This is the kind of story you need when it seems like the world is spiraling out of control....
Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled up next to them. Freedom and Jeff
Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She's my baby.When Freedom came in, she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vet’s office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lie in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day. We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to Jesse, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving. I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone. So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew.
She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.Hope you enjoy this.Jeff

Happy 4th of July

I wish our dinner yesterday looked and tasted like the photo. Come to think of it, it did taste like the photo. Dry, no flavor. Looked ok, but there you go. A guy we met at the gym and his wife brought out his favored steaks and marinade for us all to enjoy. Meat was really alright, just no flavor. He warned me about the maridade, but I couldn't taste anything. Instead of searing, he closed the lid and they all roasted. He has a good heart, so we ate. He and Richard have alot in common. Scarey, huh? Dave is alot more boisterous though. Dave's wife, Tracy, works at what used to be call the Pratt Ranch for Boys. It still functions in the same capacity, just for more affluent clients. 35 boys in all. 10k per month per kid. Wow. Tracy is the principal of the school. Most programs last 9 months. Dave works for the county weed control. All in all we had a very nice time.

Don't know about fireworks viewing as of yet. They will be shot off at the Gem Sports Island thingy. May just stay home and watch the dogs jump. Started last night, and Minnie jumped and shivered every time one went off. Lucy burrows into whatever and whoever she is with. Emmie is deaf, so she doesn't hear the booms.

You all stay safe and do the "ooh" and "ahh" stuff. Catch you later.

Oh, by the way, Rich is writing a letter to Aunt Vivian. If you have any messages, let him know.

Cathy