Two Wheelchair Dogs on a Mission to Help Disabled Dogs in Need

Posted by Barbara Techel

darla and doolittleYou may remember Darla from a few years back. When she was in a foster home, The Fuzzy Pet Foundation contacted me asking if The Frankie Wheelchair Fund could help with funds for a wheelchair for Darla.

I was so happy to help this sweet girl, who reminded me so much of Frankie. Well, that did the trick and she was then adopted to a wonderful family and mom, Tricia.

Fast forward to now and Darla now has another wheelie dog sibling. Tricia and her family adopted another special needs dog named Doolittle. Wow, talk about big hearts!

Tricia, Darla, and Doolittle want to give back and help other disabled dogs who need wheelchairs. Isn’t that great? And what’s so special is that they want to help with a donation to The Frankie Wheelchair Fund. I’m so very honored.

So you may be wondering, how can you help?  Well if you love to paint your fingernails and toes, too, you will love this.

It’s a Jamberry Nail Party and Tricia is donating 100% of her commission for the month of January to The Frankie Wheelchair Fund!

To shop for fun nail products click on this link:  Jamberry Nail Party for The Frankie Wheelchair Fund.

To follow along on Facebook click on this link: Fundraiser for The Frankie Wheelchair Fund (you can ask Tricia questions here, as well as learn more about the products).

I would also like to say a very special thank you to those that have also been sending donations directly to The Frankie Wheelchair Fund. I am thrilled for donations that came through yesterday. It means so much and it fills my heart up with such love for the many kind and generous friends out there.

Mystery Solved. But the Guilty Party Not Fessing Up.

Posted by Barbara Techel

mitten snatcherKylie is truly one of the sweetest dogs ever. Though she didn’t inherit all the typical Lab qualities such as playing fetch, swimming, or hunting, she is the best, most cuddly “big ole bear” ever. She also has a mischievous side about her.

I keep my mittens on the second shelf of a small table next to our kitchen table so they are easily accessible. They’ve been there since the beginning of December.

The last few days I’ve come into the kitchen to find them lying either in the middle of the floor or on the bed that Kylie and Gidget share which is also in the kitchen.

Each time I’ve picked them up and put them back on the shelf, wondering how in the heck they got to the middle of the kitchen. You’d think I’d be smart enough by now to know what’s going on. I’m a work in progress. What can I say?

Yesterday the mystery of my mittens were once again in the kitchen lying on the dog bed.

It finally dawned on me (stay with me here – my blonde hair gets in the way now and then) as I witnessed just then Kylie squeezing her body in between the big table and little one, snout sniffing out the second shelf.

“Aha!”  I said. “You! You are the one whose been snatching my mittens from the shelf!”

Ever so slowly she backed out, head hanging down as she slinked her way toward the bed. Along the way she picked up her favorite stuffed toy, Lambchop.

She had the gall to sit her sweet little butt down upon the bed right in front of my mittens, her puppy dog eyes really playing up the scene now and is if to say, “Oh, how could you?  How could you think me, your sweet dog, the one you call “big ole’ bear” and love with all your heart—how could you possibly think it was me?”

“Not confessing are you, Kylie? Well, okay then. But I’m on to you. I just want you to know that.” I was chuckling the whole time I said it as I reached over to pat the top of her head.

And just so you know, I’ve gotten smarter since the last episode last night and my mittens are now on the top shelf of the table. I might not be able to teach my old dog, Kylie new tricks, but this old dog is catching on.

Rituals: When They Go Astray.

Posted by Barbara Techel

I’ve been reading lately about how important rituals are. If you aren’t comfortable with the word ritual you can think of them as a spiritual practice or centering activity. If you don’t like those, you can come up with something that feels right for you.

You likely have at least one thing you do everyday that is the same and this can be considered a ritual. I like to drink out of the same tea cup everyday. That is a ritual. A small, but pleasurable one for me.

About two weeks ago I wrote about my morning ritual and a Christmas message I got from it one particular morning. But each day my ritual is to light candles in my writing cottage, turn on my tulip lamp, and pick one or more oracle cards from various decks I have. I also now integrated picking one of my SoulCollage® cards since I’ve now made 22 of them. I normally ask a question of the cards and am always amazed at the cards I randomly draw that fit for my question.

After my cards are drawn, I do my yoga practice. All of this is so centering for the rest of my day. I love it.

Today it went astray. It started with someone having to come look at my gas fireplace in my cottage yesterday. It’s not working properly. A part needed to be ordered for it which will take 2-3 weeks. It’s been -20 to -30 degrees with windchills all this week. To be safe, I have to manually turn off my fireplace each night now until it can be fixed.

Well with -30 overnight you can imagine how cold my little cottage got. I went to manually turn the fireplace on today, but an hour later it still wasn’t warm in there. This caused my whole ritual to go astray.

I could feel myself getting frustrated. But decided I would adjust and did. It wasn’t the same, but I had my ritual, well sort of, in my living room. Now I love my cozy little house, and I’m not complaining, but well, it was just different. It really made me think about the ritual I’ve come to love out in my writing cottage – how important it is to starting my day off with a centered mind.

So yes, I know this is part of life and these things happen and we adjust. So again, it’s not a complaint. It’s a very interesting observation of how ritual can have such an important impact on our lives and our well being. It’s made me appreciate my rituals all the more.

Even Kylie’s daily ritual was different yesterday. Most days after she is done eating breakfast, she heads back into her kennel to sleep the morning away. But not yesterday morning. I found her on the sofa in the living room, head resting on the blanket. Guess she needed a change of scenery. Not sure why. But today she is back at her same ritual again.

Two hours later, my cottage still with a chill in the air, finds me at the kitchen table and a temporary ritual of writing here, Kylie snoring loudly in the background, and me, once again, appreciating how much I love the quiet and ritual I’ve created within my cottage.

But alas, John has promised to dig out a wonderful heater from his back shed to keep my cottage at a steady warm temperature overnight, so I can return to my beloved ritual tomorrow morning.