Sunny and a Porcupine!

Into each doggie life a little "quill" must come. Sunny and Lucas had quite an adventure during their romp up in the orchard, yesterday. Well, Lucas came away just fine and dandy, but Sunny seems to have encountered the remnants of a porcupine. I say, remnants because she was NOT covered in quills.

As we made our way back to the car, Sunny the normally very compliant and well behaved dog was MIA. Lucas was panting to get in the car and I really had to "CALL OUT" to get Sunny's attention. She was pretty far off and came running, but stopped half way to chew on her foot. I was concerned, but she finally made to the car. At that point, I figured she had stepped in something and was licking it off.

When we got home, I grabbed a wash cloth and was preparing to clean her up. That was when I found 4 quills on her body. I was able to pull them out without much difficulty - she wasn't happy with me, by any means, but they were out. That was when I got to wondering about her paws. As I begin examining (with ever vigilant "Aunt Trish" nearby), each paw, I was relived, until..... yep, two quills stuck pretty deep between her little pads. Yikes!!

So, we all know I love Sunny, but I was NOT going to take her to Emergency unless she demonstrated some significant discomfort (Been there and I was not looking forward to spending another $1200 on Emergency care). Ok, let's be honest, IF she had been that uncomfortable - I would have said it was only money!

Luckily, she wasn't crying, whining or exhibiting any signs of discomfort, so I waited til today and got her into the lovely people at Oakwood Vet Hospital. By 2:30, Dr. Drew had removed two "quills stuck deeply between her pads" on her back left foot. They gave her drugs and she has pretty groggy tonight. She had a heck of a time getting into my CRV - needed my help.

What was really interesting was Lucas.... "where's 'mama sunny'?", 'where's the lady that feeds me?' 'where is everyone?''oh my, oh my'! I am not sure he has ever been left without me or Sunny since he came to live here. He was happy to see Sunny; Sunny less than thrilled to see Lucas.

Tonight, Sunny sleeps and Lucas is still waiting for someone to play with him!

Some Laphams visit

Just as Trish and I were headed to the lake (one with lots of whitecaps - more on that later!) on Sunday, Cousin Mary stopped in to say a few of Uncle Byron's children were coming over (from Houghton Lake) for a short visit. Trish and I have great memories of 'the twins' (Linda and Brenda). Like Cousin Mary, Linda and Brenda were very cool "older" teens when I was young (maybe about 6 or 7?). They were always so nice to us - at least to our face!



Even better, John Francis (the youngest of Bryon's children) was also coming. I was old enough to be John's babysitter (at least once or twice!). I was sorry that John's wife, Beth, was not part of the party. (I still remember her as great fun at the "Lapham" girls wedding shower for her - which was probably eons ago!). Their time here was too short and I hope now that Linda and her husband are living in Houghton Lake, we may have a chance to see them all more often!

As I was eating dinner tonight, I realized, my Grandma Lapham had 3 grandsons with the first name "John" (John Patrick [Uncle Harry and Aunt Margaret], John Francis [Uncle Bryon and Aunt Rose] and John [whoops don't know John's middle name from Uncle Johnny's family]). In addition, there were two Mike's and two Joe's. What is amazing is there weren't more Mary's in such a Catholic family!

So the Bacon side is not left out, Dad said, there were two children named George Samuel (a Bacon and a Schultz)! And they weren't even Catholic!


Oh, about those whitecaps on the lake... Turns out, on Sunday, the Coast Guard had a busy day in Frankfort. There is a pier and that undertow was pretty strong. I heard, on the news, today, that they had to 'help' several swimmers get their bearings.

Empire seems blessed with just the right kind of 'cove' that provides some protection from the most nasty of the undertow's. Although, my dad did say that when he was young (REALLY EONS ago!), the pilings from the logging days were tall enough to create some undertow issues at the 'first circle' (I guess folks these days call it 'the tear-drop!).