RIP Homer. . . or . . . Marge?

Not too long ago I wrote about being wary of gifts from ex-husbands like the one mine gave to my kids, a frog hatchery kit.  Of course that was in 1994 or '95, and those frogs stayed with me through thick and thin.  Until today.  Earlier in the day one of them managed to get out of the tank, something that has not happened in years.  I noticed one of the cats looking at something like .. "e-e-e-eew-w-ww!  What's that?" all creeped out and nervous.  Realizing it was a stranded water frog, I scooped him up with my hands and plopped him back into his tank.  He immediately started to swim around while dust and cat hair swirled around him.  He was fine.  

One of the frogs .. not sure which one exactly ...

Later, after a nice Saturday afternoon nap, I went into the kitchen to feed the cats and checked on the frogs to make sure they were both still in there.  They weren't.  Uh oh!  After crawling around on all fours I located Homer (or Marge) under the kitchen table on his back and a little stiff.  Being me .. I picked him up and promptly dropped him in the tank like touching the water would immediately revive him.  Um .. no.  So then I took him to the kitchen sink and ran water on him to get the dust and cat hair off of him and tried to feel if there was any life in the sticky, slimy little guy.  Tried to locate his heart in his chest - actually flashed back to when we dissected frogs in high school .. didn't help a bit.  Nothing.  Walked around with him a bit, showed him to my son, kind of waiting for the doggone thing to start flopping around in my hands!  If only his eyes would have been closed - I wouldn't have felt like I was burying him alive while I wrapped him in his burial cloth (paper towels) and tucked him into his coffin (empty microwave popcorn box) and laid him to rest (in the trash can in the garage). 

Do you think that Homer (or Marge) knew it was time .. and was trying to go somewhere to die?  I mean, elephants do that, right?  And neither of these frogs has tried to jump out of the tank in years. So that's what I'm going with.  Homer (or Marge) knew it was time and went somewhere to die. 

Rest in peace Homer.  Or Marge.

 

Ending on a good note.

Four wonderful and or exciting things have happened in the last two days. MY AEROBICS DVD IS HERE!!! Can you say home made? But that’s okay because the show was never put out on DVD, not even sure about video for that matter. So I have two DVD’s and eight episodes. Woot!

And .. remember my old man cat Riley going to the vet and having blood work done? Yeah, so he is in the early stages of hyperthyroidism which is not unusual for a cat his age. I was given medication for him but I am also trying something else. I consulted with Holly, over at A Spiritual Dog Blog, about treating Riley with herbs. She has been studying and working really hard to gain the knowledge to treat animals holistically with Chinese herbs. Her business is taking off – she’s very busy these days but she put together an herbal formula based on Riley’s symptoms and age, etc, and got it to me in like 2 days. I have her button on my side bar; have a look. I am so happy for her success and grateful for her help with Riley! Thank you Holly!

At the end of last year sometime I wrote about Andy Clary, a friend from 25 years ago asking – does anyone know where he is?? I have seen some Google searches for the name, but no one has ever contacted me until this morning. An old friend of one of Andy’s sisters emailed me to say she doesn’t know directly where Andy is now but she does run into his sister from time to time and will try to help me make the connection if she can. I was thrilled to get that email – it’s the closest I’ve come to finding Andy again so it’s exciting! And I thank Deb for making my day!

Speaking of making my day .. ! Thursday night I couldn’t sleep. At.all. Consequently, going to work yesterday morning was brutal. I do not function well without any sleep so was not nearly as productive at my job as I would have liked to be and it was a very long day. So it was a wonderful surprise at the end of my work day to get a phone call from my BF that he was outside waiting for me. I packed up my laptop and lunchbox, grabbed my purse and my jacket and keys … it never ends. Anyway, I went outside to my car and opened the door to put all my baggage inside – and a glorious smell wafted out. There was a water bottle with lilacs in it sitting in one of my cup holders! I had mentioned seeing some as I was waiting for a red light the other day and he remembered and surprised me with some he followed his nose to find. And then he was beside me to seal it with a kiss. Sigh-h. And the picture? My lilacs are sitting next to the roses my BF gave me earlier in the week.

I know, right?

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**Edited to add- I just realized by the picture and what I wrote, it almost looks like Holly treats mostly cats. But the flipside of that card has a picture of a dog on it! I would venture to guess she treats more dogs than cats but can obviously do both. Don't want any dog owners to be discouraged!