pet naturals of vermont

I’m angry.  I’m bitter.  I don’t understand why she had to die.  And, I know what caused her to die.  It was obvious. 

We had 2 choices.  We could have done a toxicollogy autopsy or we could have a simple autopsy.  We chose the simple autopsy since the other one would take $1000’s and would have been a long trip to a University several hours away.  And, so, we took her to our vet.

The result came shortly.  She died of gas bloating her stomach and rupturing her spleen.  The vet said she could not determine since we chose not to have the toxicollogy autopsy done.  But, she had seen this happen due to rat poison or some other type of poison.  Her heart and lungs were healthy.  She was a healthy dog- 75 lbs of muscle.  The only thing she had ingested was the Pet Naturals of Vermont vitamin.  Therefore, I’ll let you come to your own conclusion-  toxicollogy autopsy or not!  I don’t use cleaners unless they are non toxic natural cleaners.  So, there was no possible way for her to ingest or even be around any other toxin.

Of course the Pet Natural people think they are in the clear since we chose the simple autopsy.  They don’t really care that they could be poisoning other animals.  They only cared about what we were going to do and once they found out we weren’t going to get the autopsy to give us the toxicollogy report they could care less about our Belle. 

And so, Belle died unneccesarily.  And, the obvious killers could care less if others suffer the same fate.

Belle

I just buried my dog- a lovely place by the pond where she used to swim and play.  We covered her with her blanket and toys- lots of them since she used to steal all of our tennis balls.  In fact, that’s what she was doing right before she got sick- playing fetch with my nephew- having a great day making sure that everyone who had come to visit had come strictly to visit her. (because clearly the world revolved around her- and the longer she’s gone the more I know she was right)

It wouldn’t be so bad- so painful- if she hadn’t died so suddenly and for such terrible reasons!  At 3 she was fine and happy and playing.  We gave her a new vitamin treat- Pet Naturals of vermont soft chews daily vitamins.  That was the only thing she had eaten during the day (she always ate at night when we ate dinner).  And, since she was making sure the world was revolving around her, she was never out of our site.  So, it’s a fact that the vitamin was the only thing she had eaten. 

30 minutes later, she was sick- not violently ill, just sick.  My husband and I took her outside and spent the next few hours watching her.  She would walk around, lay down, and sometimes act like she was going to vomit.  But, she never really did.  And, at 5:30 I called our vet.  They were leaving for the day and said to take her food and water away.  We made an appointment for the next day in case she wasn’t better.  They told us about an after hours clinic 30 minutes away if she got worse.  But, she didn’t.  She seemed to get better after that.  We researched her symptoms and they all led to the same conclusion.  She was suffering from vitamin toxicity or some sort of poison in her system.  And, they all suggested the same treatment.  She needs to just get it out of her system.  And, so it seemed she was doing that.  She was getting better- perking her ears when the neighborhood dogs barked, no longer getting sick, responding to our calling her name.  And so, we decided after 4 hours to come inside. 

At 7:30, we brought her inside.  She went and laid down in the kitchen.  She acted like she was going to vomit again and we thought walking up the stairs may have stressed her out.  So, we let her just lay and rest.  And, we went in the other room to do something or other and decided to check on her every 10 minutes or so.  And, that’s what I was doing when I found her barely responsive when I spoke to her.  I could tell she was having a hard time even raising her head- although her eyes told me she was trying to.  And, I wanted to see if she could get up, so I encouraged her to try and saw that she had no ability to get her hind legs up.  I ran to get my husband.  As he was going out to the kitchen I was already getting ready to take her to the after hours clinic- grabbing my shoes, keys, wallet, etc.  I went to the car to make sure there was a space for a 75 lb dog in the back seat.  I left the door open and called my son- who was less than 5 minutes from being home.  I would need his help to carry her to the car.  I walked back in to the house and walked into the kitchen and I knew.

My amazing Belle had gone.

Found- New Favorite Website!

OK- the title isn’t completely true.  Nothing beats cakewrecks.  But, earlier today I went to the blogger choice awards site to see if my beloved cakewrecks won the best humor blog.  Of course itdid!  While I was reading the list, I was overcome by the amount of votes for the winner of several other awards- including best blog about stuff, and best blog of all time.  The blog is about a guy who is married to a woman with cystic fibrosis.  It tells about their daily life, including their new miracle baby who was born when just over 1lb.  I just started looking at it, but at first glance the site is very well done.  And, I predict it to be a daily must read in the near future!  For people like me who are just finding it, there’s a recap to get us up to speed on everything from the beginning of the site.  So, you don’t have to go back and read the whole thing.  But, after reading the recap, I’m even more tempted to go back and read it all.  It seems inspiring and sweet, although I’m sure sometimes scary and sad.  But, the response to the site is amazing and helps to let me know there are good people out there caring for others, praying for others, and are generally good people.  And, if we think we have had a bad day, there are probably others out there who have had worse- and who don’t feel as sorry for themselves as we do!

Coming Home

I posted this on my Fresh Choices Daily food blog.  But, I thought I’d post it here, too, for anyone who doesn’t go to that one.

Frugal Friday- Coming Home

Lately, you can’t go a day without hearing about the economy.  I can hardly watch the news because it can be so depressing.  But, because I’m an optimist, today let’s take a look at the brighter side of life!

We live in a fast paced world.  Usually, both parents are working and the kids are involved in sports and clubs or even working just to pay for gas to get to school or activities.  Then, adults go out for dinner and drinks with friends, kids are hanging out with friends.  It seems that when one family member comes home, another is about to leave.

But, with the economy heading in the wrong direction, people are starting to head in the right direction.  They are going home!  Families can’t afford to go out for dinner all the time.  So, we are cooking and eating at home.  The reasons why this is a great thing are unmeasurable.  Home cooking is much healthier.  Therefore, we are feeling better- both physically and mentally.  And, we all know that restaurants aren’t usually the quietest places for lots of conversation.  So, now we have more opportunities to share with each other.  We are spending time around the dinner table- eating a great meal, talking, and laughing.  That’s the stuff great memories are made of! 

Still having restaurant withdrawals?  Well, that brings me to my Frugal Friday tip!  One night a week, let someone in the family pick a restaurant.  Then, get their menu- they can usually be found in the phone book or on-line.  Pick an item off the menu and have it for dinner!  You can have as much fun with it as you want- or have time for.  Create little menu’s, have someone “play waitress’, (even better- have one of the kids “play dishwasher”!).  If you’re really ambitious, you can even go on-line and try to find the “secret recipe’s” for your restaurant of the day.  I know I’m always looking for something new for dinner.  This just might be a great way to add some fun to dining in!

My Happy Family

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Aren’t We Cute?

Create your own FACEinHOLE

To My Cousin

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Going on a Whale Hunt

My son is reading Moby Dick- or supposed to be.  I think there’s more protest than actual reading going on.  I found a great site to use to check that he’s read each chapter.  It also includes quizes, an end of the book test, and discussion and essay questions.  They have every book I can think of on the site!

Then, today I called my sister- in- law and she was on her computer watching this cool site.  This guy took a 7 day whale hunt trip to Alaska.  He took pictures at least every 5 minutes for the entire trip!  How cool is that?!  I will probably never go on a whale hunt trip to Alaska.  But, now I get to go for free.  And, even better, on his plane ride, he’s reading Moby Dick.  I’m hoping that seeing an actual whale hunt will inspire my son to actually finish the book.  Yeah, I’m not holding my breath either.  But, I can still have some hope!

CBS Homeschool Segment

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/sunday/main3445.shtml

Check out this link to watch the segment CBS just did about homeschooling.  I have seen some positive press lately for homeschooling.  It’s good to see that people might be losing the idea that homeschooling is a bad thing.  As more and more people turn to homeschooling, more and more people have friends and family that homeschool. They see the great things that happen when children are homeschooled and they realize it’s not something bad or scary.

High School- So Far, So Good

I just started week three of our high school journey.  For several years, I’ve been dreading the thought of teaching high school.  But, as the time got closer, I got calmer.  Everything seemed to click- in the planning mode, at least.  After 3 years of homeschooling, I’ve realized the right curriculum has to not only be right for my son, but also right for me.  I can find a curriculum that I think he would love.  But, because of everything else going on in our lives, I have to be realistic, too.  And, if there is a ton of planning involved in making that curriculum effective, I’ve realized it’s just a waste.  So, this year, I successfully found curriculum I think we will all like.  It has each day specifically outlined and he and I both know what he has to do.  I think this make us both feel better.

I, once again, created a goal book for the year.  I was actually proud of myself for keeping that up last year.  And, starting high school, it makes me feel better to be able to show what he has accomplished.  I think it’s good for him to see as well.  Some additions to the book this year are the weekly sheets.  My son actually created it the first week of school as part of his computer class.  Using excel, he made a list of his classes and the days of the week with boxes large enough for me to write his assignments in.  Although I love the homeschool tracker, it became a chore and not portable enough for us.  So, now I write his assignments in sometime the week before and he knows what he has to do each day.  There is a small box in the upper left hand corner of each assignment box.  He writes one line of an X when he finishes an assignment and I write in the other line when I confirm or correct it.  So far, so good.

So, as I said earlier, as the time was approaching, I was getting more confident that I was doing the right thing.  And then, a phone call confirmed it!  My friend has a daughter the same age as my son.  This summer, I borrowed her biology curiculum to give my son a jump on his classes.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do most of the experiments and only got half way through the book.  So, she agreed they could do the experiments together at her house each week- a true blessing to me since I didn’t know how I was going to get them done!  But, that left me one other subject to worry about- foreign language.  I really wanted to start him in Spanish this year.  But, the program I wanted was way too expensive for us right now.  So, I wasn’t sure what to do.  And then my friend called.  Her daughter was going to take Spanish from a friend of hers and she said my son was welcome to join them- free of charge!  I am so excited!  They aren’t starting until the end of September so that will give him time to get into the routine of everything else.  But, I am sometimes just amazed at how things work out.

So, is everything wonderful in the world of high school?  Well, not as much as I had hoped.  But, for a teenager with hormones and mood swings, we are doing pretty well.  He whines about this or that.  But, usually gets it done.  (If only he’d realize how short his school day would be if he cut out the whining and daydreaming!)  He has his regular subjects and then 2 electives- typing and computers for this semester.  He’ll be joining the YMCA once the weather gets too cold for him to be outside for recreation.   So, I think it’s a well rounded day. 

So, I’d have to say that so far we’re doing ok- pretty well, actually.  At least we will be once he finishes Moby Dick!  Why he chose to read it, I don’t know but now I’m determined to make him read it all the way through!  Don’t tell him I never read it!