Posts Tagged ‘Camp Kindness’
Camp Kindness, June 2013
Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
Frank and Joy go to Camp Kindness
Friday, July 26th, 2013I was asked to speak at Camp Kindness, the kids’ day camp at Nebraska Humane Society, again this year. That is always one of my favorite parts of the whole summer.
Russ, Abby and Amanda helped. We brought Joy the Puppy.
The second of the two days my vet tech friend Allison and her awesome cat Frank came with us. That made it even more fun – Thank you Allison!
Frank and Joy did great together again. Here is their story.
Camp Kindness 2011
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
What’s New?
Friday, July 8th, 2011Hi! What’s new?
I feel as though my poor website has taken a back seat of late and I have not gotten to interact with you all here much. I did not mean to show up here so infrequently! Here are some highlights from my past few weeks!
I attended a Beth Moore event with my Mom-in-law, Karen, which was wonderful. One of the absolute highlights of the weekend was this cat painted on the parking garage near Pershing Auditorium in downtown Lincoln:
My girls attended Camp Kindness at Nebraska Humane Society, which was, as always, awesome.
While we were there, we accidently met a baby Chinese Crested puppy and her two equally adorable brothers. She was throwing toys at her brothers’ heads and dancing around in a happy I-am-just-the-greatest dance. Her mini dress says “Major Attitude.” My friend called this the Princess and the Pea picture. :) That is her equally cute, more furry brother to the left of her. HE has been adopted. I do not know if she or her other brother or their Mama have yet.
The awesome Jana Rade of Dawg Business published this post I wrote on xylitol toxicity:
Xylitol is an artificial sweetener present in many products, most notably some sugar-free gums. After the scare with this poor dog, we do not even allow xylitol into our house anymore!
My weekly articles at Life With Dogs are up and running…
The CareFRESH Blog is up and running too…
Any small pet health topics you would like to see covered?
Veterinary Economics published my story about Joy the Puppy missing her Ebony Dog, which is neat to see in print, but brings up all of my (still pretty raw) sadness over Eb.
Joy’s eyes are still intermittantly baldy-bald, and we are still all moping around, but we are doing ok!
Next month, Veterinary Economics is publishing my post on how to make a Veterinary Pen Holder!
That will be lighter, and a fun article. Pretty silly!
Tomorrow, I am speaking at the Nebraska Humane Society Cat Expo at noon. When I do public speaking, I tend to drool and stammer and mumble and talk so fast I am done in ten seconds instead of one hour and trip over my own feet standing still (or at least I feel like I do). So that should be fun for everyone.
Nebraska Humane Society Cat Expo
If you are in Omaha, come if you can! A cat behaviorist, Kitty Dybdall, is speaking at 10 am, which I am very excited about, and a CAT AGILITY TRAINER, Jill Archibald, is doing demonstrations! I am SO excited to see that!
Hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Piggy the Great
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011Our guinea pig Piggy died Monday morning. I held him on my lap and told Amanda and Abby Comforting Things I had very recently told them about Fuzzy and Wuzzy Rats, only this time it was Piggy.
Joy the Puppy walked up to us sideways, wagging her tail. She kissed Abby on the arm, kissed Piggy on the head, kissed the DVD case next to Abby, kissed Abby again and settled in to be sad with us. I would take Joy the Puppy over a smart dog any day. She is one of a kind.
And I would take Piggy over a smart guinea pig any day. He too was one of a kind. (Are there smart guinea pigs? Does anyone know?) He was sweet and gentle, goofy and fun. Piggy and I spent almost every morning together these past six plus years.
I found some of my favorite pictures of Piggy. Some are photographs I took, and some are drawings given to me by the kids at Camp Kindness in the summer of 2008, when Piggy came to help Fuzzy and Wuzzy Rats and me. A few have fun stories that go with them, and if so, I linked the stories to the photo captions.
Piggy Kissing a Purple Hippo
Piggy as the Zero-Zero Domino, Halloween 2010
(The three black dogs were all Dominoes too, but they were big enough for dots!)
Piggy Eating Cat Grass in the Garden He Shared with Max the Cat
My first (and still favorite) species-specific “pet care” article was inspired by Piggy:
Taking Care of Your Exotic Pet, For Example, Your Guinea Pig, Which is Not Really All That Exotic
We will miss you Piggy. You were the sweetest, cutest guinea pig I have ever known.
Piggy Finch
May 1, 2004 – January 17, 2010
This is a card my brother Dave made for me several years ago, even after he said “But I don’t make greeting cards!” Isn’t it awesome? I still use it all the time when I want someone to know I am REALLY REALLY grateful. I know some of you have gotten one from me! Dave included his Great Dane Riley (yup, same Riley), his cat Abaye and Piggy.
This next set is the pictures kids drew of Piggy when he went to Camp Kindness at Nebraska Humane Society with me. How many ways are there to draw a black egg-shaped pet? (Apparently, as many ways as there are great kids writing thank you cards.) I like the green pig too – apparently drawing black pets is as difficult as photographing them…a box of crayons gives you more wiggle room than a camera. Thank you kids…looking through these again cheered me a little. And thank you Friends, for all of your kind words and love. You have cheered me up quite a bit.
And one by Abby…
And one by Amanda…
And this last one did not include a drawing of Piggy, but it is my favorite thank you card I have ever received from Camp Kindness…
Piggy, you touched a lot of hearts, but you really got to mine. We will miss you buddy.
What I am Doing This Week: Attending Camp Kindness Again, Taking More Rat Pictures
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010Tuesday, July 20 was another day of Camp Kindness, a day camp for kids at Nebraska Humane Society. You know I am super neurotically protective of kid pictures, and Camp Kindness is all kids everywhere…which means of course, more pictures of Fuzzy and Wuzzy!
Still, I didn’t want you to think I ONLY ever take pictures of my gorgeous rats, so I also took one of Kerry Ecklebe, the Director of Humane Education at Nebraska Humane Society…um, holding a rat. OK, so maybe I am obsessed with my rats! There are worse maladies to have!
I do not even want to know how many website design rules I am breaking with this layout. I just love huge pictures of Fuzzy and Wuzzy! They are so goofy looking, and I love that you can see whiskers and wrinkles and everything in the pictures…
Kerry Ecklebe holding Fuzzy
Kerry is a class act, and one of my favorite people. NHS is blessed to have her!
What I am Doing This Week: Attending Camp Kindness, Taking Rat Pictures
Thursday, June 24th, 2010This week I spoke at Camp Kindness, a day camp for kids at Nebraska Humane Society. I love doing it! This is my third summer visiting Camp Kindness with my Hairless Dumbo Rex rats, Fuzzy and Wuzzy. I told the leaders of Camp Kindness that they are stuck with me and I will show up every summer whether they ask me to or not! Ha!
Being such an introvert, it is SUCH an exhausting day. I am not normally much of a public speaker, preferring to educate pet owners either in writing or one-on-one in the exam room, and even that does not come easily. But I love people and pets SO MUCH and maintaining and restoring pet health is so important to me, that it is all very rewarding. Anyways, enough of my blah-blahing, on to what you probably came for: PICTURES OF FUZZY AND WUZZY!!!
And a couple of Josie, the super cute, super sweet therapy dog!