Memories ~~ Not good ones

January 29, 2020

The First part of this Blog is about us.. If  you'd rather just skip down.. you will see a Lolita update towards the end.... 

Today marks 2 years since we lost our beautiful home.  I've replayed the day in my head a hundred times. I've had nightmares about it MANY times..
Its still seems unreal.

I will never forget what it felt like to have to walk away from a place you've lived for 18 yrs.  The home we were so proud of.   I still remember the first day we saw the house. We were So excited.  The second we walked in the door Paul & I knew it was gonna be OUR new home. I remember how proud  my Mom & Dad were of us when we showed it to them. 
I am glad they didn't live to see our world fall apart. I know they would of really been upset for us, and maybe even a bit disappointed too...
Paul use to have an amazing job. He made great money. We had perfect credit and a savings and checking account.  We took trips, we could buy things.. We never paid anything late.. Everything was great...
But things can  change and things can go down Hill VERY quickly.. Never EVER take the life you have for granted..  I often did and I am sorry for that..

I still cry for MANY of the things I had to leave behind.. not only things like our beautiful sectional couch and my china cabinet, and my nice blender and alot of plates and pots and pans, plus some of our clothes... but tons and tons of personal items. Collectibles that Paul had bought me for my Birthday & Christmas over the years.  Beautiful wall hangings from The Bradford Exchange.  The tiny little Rudolph Knick Knacks that we painstakingly searched all over for finding them one by one to add to the collection..
Collectors plates, stuffed animals... so much that was part of who we were.. All gone. .. tossed to the curb..
Many have asked WHY we left so much.. The reason is simple.. 
We only had 1 small Truck... (for one day)  I only had so many boxes and only so much newspaper to wrap things in.
At the time we lost our home we only had $8 in our checking account. No cash, No Credit cards....
We had No one that would loan us money quickly to get us  more packing supplies..or help us get the Truck for another day....
Everything was packed up quickly. .. trying to take the  most important and necessary things for sure and they were packed away in a small storage unit..
Nothing else we could do...   
I remember driving away from the house with our van packed up and the Girls with us  thinking.. "this didn't just happen"  It was like a horrible dream..

That night we spent it out in our freezing cold van. The temp. was about 25 with wind chills nearing 10 degree's Fahrenheit..  I didn't really sleep.  Paul slept on and off..
I would turn the Van on for 15 minutes or so to warm it up..  then turn it off for 10 or so minutes to save gas.... all night long that went on. 
I just  kept replaying things over and over in my mind.. I cried so much..
   I can't even really describe the feeling of fear, desperation and shame that I felt.  Its the oddest feeling in the world to have NO HOME...
I hope NONE of you EVER have to face that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next day we began our search for a place to live.We sat in Dunkin Donuts with pauls Lap top checking out sites for Help..
  It was by a blessing from God that many of you came to us...  
You reached out and lent a  hand to get us out of that Cold Van and into a Hotel for 17 days while we looked for a home for the 5 of us..   It was NOT easy!!!  NO shelter would take the dogs..
No low income rental units through the Government or State would allow the dogs..  No churches .. 1 dog sure... some said 2 dogs ok... 3 forget it..
We kept hearing the same thing over and over... "Surrender the Dogs( or a dog or 2)  to Animal Control"  that was NEVER EVER gonna happen..
We'd live in our Van forever if we needed to before we would of done that.. They are our kids!!
But Thank God we found this home...

I will continue this story next month.. to coincide with when we moved here..
Hope this didn't bore you too much..
It helps me some times to talk about it ...  I know that sounds strange...


Lolita Up date....

I really appreciate so many of you asking how Lita is doing. It means the world to us!
Right now she is on 1/2 a predisone 1x a day.  
Sadly the lump on her Lymph node has gotten bigger.. infact, its the biggest its ever been..   :(    
This worries me alot...   However.......  She is doing good..
Still eating.. still keeping her weight right around  72 pounds.
Still likes the park and still likes riding in the van.
Still happy when her Daddy comes home..
Only thing is, she pants a bit more and needs to pee a bit more (from the Meds)    Other than that you would never know anything was going on.  We continue to take it one day at a time and pray she keeps doing good.
We hope she will be with us for a long LONG time  yet!

We have an appointment set for Crystal for her blood work and check up on February 10th. We have to come up with $200 bucks for that darn thing..  not sure how we are gonna do it..  If you can pitch in, we sure would appreciate it greatly.
(( Paypal   Jaybellfan1@aol.com ))  the Vet will NOT allow any more of her Seizure meds (which run out on 2/13) until she has this stuff done~~
We have such a tight budget and any thing that throws extra money in the mix really messes everything up.
We have to get our van in also cause the Front defroster/heater is acting up again.. it was working for awhile, but now is off again.  Its very dangerous to drive around when your front window is fogged/iced up...   :(
not sure what that is gonna cost us....  

We really appreciate it when we get stuff off our Amazon list too!!
Its a HUGE HUGE Help..  Its amazing how just a bag or 2 of dog food ( or bird food ) now and then can really help lighten the load!  

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/HQHTX5IWD74Z?ref_=wl_share

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week.. and we will be here again a bit later in February unless something changes.

Love from us all.....

A Wee Update ~~

January 20th  2020

Hi Everyone.. Lolita here...
Hope your all having a super Monday...

Mom took me to the Vet today.. I weighed 72.2 pounds..
I was 73   2 weeks ago..  Mom isn't to concerned..  but she doesn't want me under 71 pounds..

Sadly the lump on my neck has grown back.. so Mom & Dad decided to put me back on a low dose of Prednisone ..    
They are hoping a low dose will keep anything from spreading and also the lower dose won't get me quite as hyper or have me peeing quite as much... 
I am still eating great and acting fine.  I still love going to the Dog Park and going for rides....
So all that is still very good.  

Mom is feeding me more moist food now tho- cause my teeth are pretty bad...
Anyone who has ever had dental work done on dogs KNOWS its NOT cheap.....
So Mom is hoping giving me some softer foods will help alot..  

Other than that its pretty much status quo here pals....

Please keep sending good thoughts  our way and as always.. if you can help with our Amazon list we would be forever grateful... 

It really really helps out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/HQHTX5IWD74Z?ref_=wl_share

Have a wonderful week everyone.. Stay safe!!
Bark later!!!  xoxo   ~~~~ Lolita 

Lolita Update ~~

January 6th 2020

                           Happy New Year Everyone!!

Hope your Holiday season was Amazing and your year is starting off good!

Many of you have asked how Lolita is doing. SO I wanted to update everyone..

She has been off her Prednisone now for about 2 weeks.
I am sorry to have to say that the Lump on her neck (which was almost completely gone during her Pred. use) has begun to grow back again..  
This is upsetting in a way.. but also a bit confusing. 
We still are not really 100% sure what is going on with her since tests were inconclusive ...  

Over all she has been acting fine. Since she is off the Pred she is no longer peeing constantly or pacing around panting. She is back to her normal more relaxed self.  
She still loves to run and play at the Dog Park  (See pictures below)
For a couple of days last week she seemed a tad picky about her kibble. We added some moist food to it, and she has been eating very well again now.   Her teeth and gums are bad.  The Vet wants to do a big cleaning, and xrays etc.. but they it costs over $800.. and that is NOT even counting if they have to pull any teeth.. We just can't afford that.. So we are gonna try to give her softer foods and help her along that way. 
I took her to the Vet and she weighed 73 pounds.. which was up almost 2 from 2 weeks ago.. so she is not losing weight.  So that is great. 

We found the Lump on her in September.. (it could of been there a  bit longer and we just thought it was a fatty thing.. but I actually took notice of it in Sept.)  its now January.. through this entire Ordeal she has really not changed at all..   
We know that could change at any minute.. but for now she is good.. so we keep praying and keep moving forward

Please keep the good thoughts coming.  They really do mean the world to us..  

Here Lolita is at the park on Sunday (1/5)

Not too bad for a 13 1/2 year old Lab who may have cancer.   She is really a great dog and she loves life so much.  

I am trying my best to stay positive and be strong.. some days are a  bit hard. ...  but you guys help alot...

I will keep you all posted as time goes on..
Lets hope I don't have any "new news" any time soon..

Some one asked if we "needed" anything..  
We can always ALWAYS use things from our Amazon list..
Its a huge HUGE help!!
And if you'd like to help through paypal  we can always use that help too. Paul is still working at the same job (over a year now) but money is very VERY tight..   Seems the girls are always needing meds, or appointments ect..
Paypal..    Jaybellfan1@aol.com

Thank you all Very Much..  

Hugs & Love ~~~  Lisa