my new dog park

Congratulations Meeshka! A great bolg-a-thon completed!
And hey, look, I won a barking non-shedding husky - somebody to talk to! Thanks, Meeshka!

This is what I did Sat. afternoon:
After my humans got done with their work, they took me to a new dog park. It's not at all like my old one (in a real park, lots of trees, spring water, nice nice nice). It's basically a fenced in area filled with mulch. There are a few benches around, and that's about it...and ya gotta bring your own water. But the dogs & people were nice. After surveying the entire boundry, I said hello to a couple of other newcomers. The white boxer was fun to play with, and I liked the little red fluffy guy a lot too.
There were a couple kids there, they were fun. They had a very friendly little Jack Russell named Snowbelle that didn't want to leave me alone, but she was kinda cute so I let her tag along for most of my border trip. Several other dogs showed up, and at least I got to go offleash for a while. My humans are talking about getting me a new friend, they think I'm pretty lonely. Hmmm, maybe not such a bad idea...

blog-a-thon day

Today is the blog-a-thon, and I'm tuning in to Meeshka's world for all her latest rants!

It's very boring around here, without Sherman. So I thought I'd just post a few pictures of us from this time last year.
Sherman's favorite summer posture:


Me convincing him he should get up & play:


Come on......


Success!


We were having so much fun, hu-mom decided it was time to take us to the dogpark & run off some energy...

Ah, such sweet memories! I miss you, Sherman, **kisses**

Woos to HULA

I'm going to catch up on old business today...

First, my official HULA bumper sticker arrived, doesn't it look great? (See how it matches my eyes?) It will be the perfect touch on the bumper of my own personal transport vehicle, my Siberian Outback. I'll get a picture of it on the bumper, once Hu-mom gets around to cleaning it up. The reason I look like I do is because hu-mom woke me up from a nap to take a picture. I'm trying to nap up for the upcoming blog-a-thon. Many of my bloggin' friends are doing it - so many blogs, so little time!

Second - Finally FINALLY, Hu-mom figured out that little blog-link thing, so now I'm working on adding all my blog buddies to my sidebar. (This will be an on-going project, if you don't see yourself there, please be patient with me, I only have two typing paws!)

Third - eons ago, I got tagged for telling 7 things about myself.... (forgive me, I don't recall who did it, I can't find your note, woos of sorry) then Sherman got sick & I spaced it out. Better late than never-

1. I'm in charge around here. I direct the play activities at the dogpark, I tell (or told) Sherman what to do and when to do it, I use my psychic powers to make humans do my bidding.

2. I LOVE my stuffie babies. Do not touch them.

3. I'm a very picky eater. What is this unadorned dog-food doing in MY bowl?

4. I hate being brushed, I like my fluffy left right where it is.

5. I adore attention from people (humom says I'm a big flirt) Why shouldn't everyone have a chance to tell me I'm pretty?

6. My registered name is Blue Moon Star.
(Hu-mom, dad, & boy each gave me one of my names.)

7. I love tiny little dogs, and cats, too. I really really love kitties.

Wooos,
Star

So you think you want a husky??? *edit

Hu-mom took me to Petco today. On our way in we met a nice young couple & their 10 yr. old skin kid. They went ga-ga over me, gushing all about how they were just reading a book about siberians and how they think they want one. Then they started asking question like....

"Are they pretty good indoors by themselves?"
AH, WELL, DEFINE GOOD. AND YOU NEED AT LEAST TWO OF US.

"Are they easy to train?"
YES, WE'RE VERY SMART, BUT WE DON'T MUCH CARE WHAT YOU THINK WE SHOULD DO.
DON'T WORRY, WE'LL HAVE YOU TRAINED IN NO TIME.

"The book said they're very good at getting out. Do they really need a tall fence? Can you just put them out on a long chain?"
EXCUSE ME? YOU'RE NOT TYING ME OUT ON A LONG CHAIN 24/7. PERIOD.

"So they're more of an outside dog?
WE DON'T GROW ALL THIS FLUFF FOR NOTHING!

"What about the fur, do you have to groom them all the time?"
NO, JUST THE 361 1/2 DAYS A YEAR WHEN WE SHED!

and so on and so on.
Hu-mom did her best to explain that we are really wonderful dogs, just not for everybody. They looked pretty crest-fallen as mom went on about our prey drive, (I am SUCH a good hunter!) and gregrious no-I'm-not-a-good-watchdog-personality. They did like it that we are, overall, pretty quiet. (I know some huskies aren't, but I am) mom told them to go check out everythinghusky.com and be sure to read up before getting one of us so they know what they're committing to.

It's not that there aren't huskies that need homes, it's just that huskies need the right home. And sometimes people are better off giving a home to a deserving something-other-than-a-husky.

and Meeshka remined me not to forget - WE LOVE KLEENEX! (And I also the cold water fountains in those little rooms. I wish I could train the humans not to pee in them.)

I just needed to rant, I feel better now.

Woos,
Star

Look what we found

wooos, blogging buddies,
It sure is quiet around here. I haven't been wanting to do much, so my hu-mom & dad took me out for a walk around town.
Lots of people talked to me, and I heard others say nice things, you know, the usual things said at a husky sighting..."Hey, is that a snowdog?" and "Look, it's one of those sled dogs"..and some kid always says "Wow, look at that wolf!" We went into a nice little shop and hu-mom found the perfect thing to go on a beautiful little memorial tree some of our Ohio friends sent to us - a red husky angel! I hope you can see it from the RB, Sherman!
Wooos of thanks again for all your prayers, they mean a lot to my family & me. I have lots and lots of new blogs to visit now. See you around.
Woos,
Star

Star's poem to Sherman

My poem for Sherman
by Star

Your golden fluff is everywhere,
reminding us that you’re not here.
Our humans grieve, they do not know
you linger still and did not go.
I hear your padded step go by
when, sleeping in the door, I lie.
I feel your fur against my face
as you curl up beside my place.
I feel your warmth; I smell your breath,
You’re here in spite of what’s called “death”.

Oh Sherman, Sherman, my dear boy,
I feel your spirit full of joy,
and yet at sunset, cry for you,
and softly howl a husky woo:
a-rooooooooooo,
woo-oooooooo,
a-rooooooooooo,
woo-oooo, woo-ooooo, woooooo

A note from Sherman & Star's hu-mom:
We thank you all for your messages, we deeply appreciate them.
May all our beloved furkids play happily at the RB til we meet again.
- Pat

He is gone.

He is gone.

My furever best friend Sherman left for the Rainbow Bridge tonight. I got to sit in the room while he was leaving. I sat very very quietly and watched. When our hu-mom & dad finished crying & hugging him and stood up to go, I paid my own small gesture of respect. It must have thrown the humans off, they thought I was heading straight for the door. But I stood in a moment of silence looking down on Sherman's face, (he looked like he was peacefully sleeping) then slowly walked a full circle around him one last time, tracing out kind of a "sacred circle". Then I headed for the door. They were impressed. Sometimes they forget how sensitive and intuitive huskies are.

Yes, I know, it's very sad, but Sherman is really happy he can breathe again. He feels good.

Then they took me out for ice cream on the way home. I think Sherman would have liked that. He liked to celebrate everything with food.

Hu-mom & dad put a post on this thread, maybe you humans would like to read it:

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=130252
(You may need to copy & paste it, cause I havent figured out how to put in a link here yet,
or go to www.petoftheday.com It's under Dog Memorial.)


Wistfully Wooing,
Star

No more waiting...no more pain

The diagnostics are back.... Sherman has lung cancer that is growing rapidly.
Our hu-mom & dad have made the hardest decision they've ever had to make. Typing this is just as hard. Sherman will be free to join the pack beyond the Rainbow Bridge later this evening.

The most lonesome wooo I can woo,
Star

Waiting...

Hu-mom & dad are waiting for the results of Sherman's tests....waiting appears to be very difficult for the humans. They burst out crying every time they look at him, and emit human howls of anguish. I'm just chillin, watching over our dear boy. He seems to be hanging in there. The rimydal has brought down his swelling and he seems more comfortable. He's having such a difficult time breathing, but he's still chowing down a couple times a day and can walk himself out for pee breaks. He was allowed to go lie down where ever he wanted, and he went out to lie in the kennel briefly, then came back in. It's cooler inside. He was massaged, and brushed, which seem to make him feel better.
We'll post an update when we hear more, maybe later today, but might not be till tomorrow. I can sense that he's got more than one paw on the road to the Bridge, but this seems to be a difficult thing for Hu-mom & dad to accept. Just for today, they're pretending everythings going to be alright.

Woos of thanks for each & every heartfelt message & prayer.

Wooos,
Star

Very very bad news.

We are heart-broken....
Our Sherman is gravely ill, it appears he has a mass of tumors in his lungs growing at a rapid rate and spreading into his bones. It doesn't appear to be fungal, but conclusive test results won't be back till mon. or tues. Honestly, we aren't sure he's going to last that long.

We have brought him home, he seems glad to be back, but he's really really out of it. It may be a few days, it may be a few hours...

Thank you for your prayers,
-Star & her humans

Sherman's in the Hospital

Hu-mom & dad took Sherman to the Emergency Hospital tonight.

The regular vet did the picture thingy again this morning & said his lungs didn't look good at all. So they ultrsounded him & sucked fluid out of his lungs & said getting him to an Emergency Hospital would be a good idea.

The big hospital vets said he has to stay for a couple days for critical care & tests, and they put him in a little private suite with oxygen so he can actually breathe again. He's also all swelled up and they don't know why, but they aren't too happy about that either.

*sigh* To be honest, it's looking a bit grim. It could be "bad"...or it could be "really bad". Please keep paws crossed it's only "bad."

Very sad woos,
Star

This morning Sherm came over & laid down in my spot, I stayed nearby to give him some moral support. I told him "Don't woo-rry, the humans are gonna catch on any minute now & figure this thing out. You hang in there!"

what now? baffling : (

Just a short post. Sherman ended up back at the vets yesterday. While he has stopped coughing and seems to have a bit more energy, his legs are swelling up. This goes beyond what a poofy husky should look like. He cries when he has to stand up. He is baffling them with his symptoms. They took more of his blood out for more expensive...I mean, extensive tests. Well, there goes my stuffie budget for this year. I hope he's fixable.

Wooo is me,
Star

P.S. Thanks for tagging us, husky friends, but Hu-mom is kind of crazy right now and will aswer the tag thing as soon as she can settle her brain down. Sorry for the delay...

Since you asked...Sherman update

It's been a l-o-o-o-n-g week for Sherman. The new medicine must be helping because he seems to be making slow progress in the last 48 hours. He looks a bit more alert, although he's still sleeping 23 hrs. a day. See, this was a couple days ago...when he could barely lift his head and was tripping over his own paws. Looks kind of ragged, huh?

and now he looks more like he should...for about 10 minutes at a time. At least most of the awful coughing & hacking is over (paws crossed)

A big problem now is his lack of appetite. He's gotten pretty weak because he won't hardly eat anything. Forget the kibble, Hu-mom! He ain't touching it. Hu-mom's cooking all kinds of tasty human food, and I know he's still sick because he's refusing to eat most of it.
I said to him "My Dog, Sherman, you're refusing ground beef??? eggs??? turkey lunchmeat??? cheese????" and he says "No thank you. You eat it." So I'm eating pretty good right now.
He does eat peanut butter and a little chicken when Hu-mom feeds it to him bite by bite.
I think she's getting pretty tired of sleeping next to us, on the couch, and will be less grumpy when she stops worrying about him every night. *edit: "not that she's all that grumpy"....(is that OK now, mom?)

The vet's are going to look inside him again in a week to see if the new-monia has gone away. I hope he doesn't get any more monias. They don't seem like much fun.
Sherman wants me to type a thank you for all your words of sympathy & encouragement. Knowing huskies everywhere are pulling for him makes him feel better. After all, pulling is what huskies do best!

Woooos, Star

New-monia

This is what Sherman has looked like most of this week.
Not good, is it?

Hu-mom & dad got very very worried, because he wouldn't respond to them, or to food, or to anything, they took him back to the vets, and they did that x-ray thing to his insides. It wasn't as awful as I thought, he says it didn't even hurt. Anyway, his lungs look like an artic snowstorm, which, according to the vets, is not a good thing. He has new-monia. I guess the old monia wore out or something, but this one is new. I'm being extra nice to him. I even let him lay on MY spot, near MY toys. He's taking lots of pills now, Hu-mom "steams" him in the shower room, then thumps on his lungs like he's some kind of huskie drum. He gets lots of extra goodies like meat & peanut butter, and he's eating nothing but treats. I'm being extra picky about food too, just because the hu-mons are real softies right now. But I'm glad, because I really want Sherman to get better. I did cute little zoomies for my hu-mons tonight when they came home, just to make them smile.

Woos, Star

BEACH!...sort of

We finally made it to one of the rocky beaches in Newport. Well actually, it's the end of the island where the boats are, not a sandy-type beach. But there were all kinds of exciting new smells there! See the people on the bench in front of this boat? They are from England. WE are the first LIVE HUSKIES this woman has ever seen! We let them dote on us for a while. The man had some yummy dried chicken snacks with him, too. He had two little bichons, but they joined us later, after the treats were gone.



We explored the beach.






Sherman stepped into the ocean and tried to catch some waves in his teeth. Don't ya just love his reaction? "Bleech! Too salty!"


After dunking my paws, I decided to stay on the beach. Something smells mighty good under this rock! Sooo good, I'd better roll around on it!


Then we went for a long walk around this old fort.


Now don't get excited, I'm not really off leash on the seawall - Hu-mom's been playing with photoshop. It was fun.



We sat & admired the view while the sun began to set.
(look, no leashes! *snicker*)



See what we were looking at?


Then we walked down the dock back to the car and fell asleep on the way home. We've decided we like it here.

Sherman, heal!

Sherman's ordeal with kennel cough continues....after ten days of antibiotics & cough meds, he recovered for all of two days. With usual husky precision-timing, he began coughing again right after the vet offices closed on Saturday. I admit he had me a bit worried too, as he coughed for soooo long and sooo hard, that the poor boy was hacking up blood. Even the new neighbors came over to see if he was choking to death. (Nice to know they care.) Then he slept allll weekend, wouldn't play or eat or anything.

The only good thing about this is that Hu-mom's been sleeping downstairs on the couch so she can keep an eye on him. Now, how can she do that when her eyes are closed all night? Good think I'm here to really keep an eye on him!

Hu-mom talked to the new vet Monday morning, and now he's on round two of the antibiotics. Must be more going on than just the kennel cough bug. Please send him some spare woooos if you can. If this doesn't work, they're going to "x-ray" him. Sounds ominous to me.



I want my happy fluffy boy back!

Woos,
Nurse Star

Smilin' in RI

Finally, a sunny day today, that long-awaited chance to get some nice shots of us, and what happens? Hu-mom and dad take us out for a photo-opportunity walk, and after a few shutter clicks, the digi blinkie thing goes dead. Apparently its bat-trees died. no bats, no trees, no pictures.
But she did manage a couple. This one was supposed to have a nice sailboat in the background, but by the time she squeezed out one more photo & we both smiled, the sailboat had sailed out of site. Oh well.


And these are my personal flower-decoration bushes.

They smell soooo good, and they skritch my sides so nice, I love to plunge into them headfirst!

Then I wriggle and wriggle,and voila! I'm covered in tiny white flower petals!


Hu-mom says I really look like a snow-dog except that it's not snow. I think I look mah-velous! what do you think?

I like to carry them around on my fur. I'm very careful not to shake them off, at least not until I'm back inside the house. So that about wraps up the photo exursion, till they get some live bats back in those trees.

Wooos,
Star

A-rooooo there!
Since we're still waiting on a sun-shiney photo opportunity to show off our new digs, I thought I'd post a couple pics from the last event our hu-mom & dad took us to in Ohio before moving....the Pettalk pic-nic!


The people & pups came from all across the country, and the best part was that they baked delicious cookies for us canines! We feasted all day on yummy stuff. I oversaw the begging, someone had to do it. Frenzied beggers can get so unruly...
Since we knew they had these special treats, we were ALL on our best behavior. It was worth it!
The sad part was saying good-bye wooo-woooos to some very dear friends, but who knows? Maybe hu-mom will haul our furry little butts 800 miles & go to another event one day.
Good bye, Lucy! I'm turning over my job as Queen of the Dogpark to you now - Keep everyone in line!

Et tu, Brutus! (Hu-mom is really gonna miss you, sweetie)

See ya later, Chipper & Kia

So long, Sherman...........................................just joking!

And finally...a pic of yours truly,

Woos to all the humans & pups in Ohio,
Star of the Eastern Coast

Rhode Island at last...

After a grueling 16 hr. trip (because hu-mom gets lost a lot), we finally arrived at our new home. That last couple days before moving were rough. When our kennel disappeared and I saw my squeeky babies & big fluffy bed get packed up, I admit I got a little nervous. So I ate many of the unusual herbs growing in the part of the yard Sherman & I got tethered to while hu-mom ran around like a rabid squirrel packing & cleaning. This was apparently not such a good idea, because for two days my tummy rumbled like Mt. St. Helens, and I didn't feel very well. I decided a hunger strike was in order, which further distressed the humans. I finally ate my first whole meal in five days tonight. The offending herbs seemed to have passed without any fireworks. All I wanted to do was sleep...



Sherman also got sick. He developed "kennel cough", hacking away like he was going to drop dead, with gobs of mucus pouring out of his eyes. Of course it was the "weekend", which is when the animal doctors all agree to stay home. But this morning one took pity on our plight and allowed Sherman to come in & get treated. I'm happy to report he's doing much better tonight. See for yourself-

After 16 hours cooped up in a car while he breathed on me, I may just start hacking away too. That would really please hu-mom, wouldn't it? : )

We're enjoying the fact that we are finally allowed in the house. Ahhhh, soft carpeting to stretch out on, so nice! Here we are, see my new lobster squeeky?


Hu-mom wanted to post nice pictures of us lounging on beaches in the sun, but it's been gray & rainey since we arrived, so here's the best she could do. I refused to look at that flashy thing, but the large white squawking birds in the background were pretty interesting to watch. They look tasty. Maybe when I'm 100%, I'll try to nab one.

Woooos, Star of the Eastern Coast