Toby Had a Tough Day

Marley and Toby were in absolute heaven -- it was sunny, warm, they were in their own yard, and their entire family was at home.  What more could a dog ask for?  After playing, running, tug-of-warring, swimming, digging, and running, running, running with wild abandon Sunday afternoon Toby (somehow) cut his foot.  It was actually quite a serious cut.  It was an inch long and very deep.  Worse, it cut an artery.  So, when they finally came up to the house, Toby's paw was spurting blood in large pools.  We rushed him to the local emergency vetinary clinic, Loomis Basin, and they rushed him in for treatment.  Unfortunately, the artery had retracted too far for them to retrieve it and tie it off without major surgery. 

So, they packed the cut with a gel, stiched it up tight, and sent us home with sedatives.  Being an absolute goofball, Toby has kept us all in stitches with his "sedated" antics.  It is now day five with the cone.  Thank goodness all of the walls are slated for repainting and there is minimal furniture in the house, because although Toby doesn't seem to mind the cone very much, he does run into everything with it.

We are so grateful that the "fix" worked.  The important thing is that we are all home and happy.  Life is good . . .

We’re Back!!!

It feels really good to be back home. Even though it’s unrepaired and largely unusable, it’s still our home. We have said our goodbyes to all of our new hotel friends, goodbye to a full breakfast every morning (cooked by Sue), goodbye to maid service, goodbye to pizza Tuesdays and baked potato Mondays, goodbye to walking the dogs three times a night, goodbye to daily trips back and forth from the hotel to the house, and finally, goodbye to takeout dinners.

It's good to be home!

70 + Loads of Laundry

Burton decided we should do the cleaning of our clothes and linens since there is only minor smoke damage to them. So, he picked our "stuff" up from the fire restoration company (two giant truck loads). They had cleaned about 40% of what they originally took out of the house. We were left with over 70 loads of laundry and a huge amount of dry clean only items. It was a real chore sorting through the smelly mess. But, we did it.

Last night we folded and packed away the last load of laundry! Thank goodness that part of the job is done! Now, if only I had a nice, big, clean closet to store all the clothes and linens . . .


Quick tip: Adding a tablespoon of vodka and a tablespoon of borax to each load helps cut the smoke smell. Amazing!