Farewell to a Mighty Dog

                                                           

 

On Sunday night at 10:45 p.m., our eldest dog, Godzilla, passed away.

Godzilla the Wonder Dog

                                                            

I have three dogs. Two of them are Chihuahuas and the other is a toy Yorkie. We got Godzilla, the Chihuahua around eight years ago. My youngest grandson, Nathan, accompanied my husband and me when we went to pick up Godzilla from a family who not only raised this breed dog, but had both parents of our dog living in their home. This was definitely not a puppy mill, but people who loved the breed and only allowed the female to breed after several years in between litters.

My grandson and husband picked the small ball of fur that was to become our family and Nathan named him. Nathan was four years old at the time and my husband and I were amazed with the name he chose; Godzilla, Wonder Pet, Super Dog. It was quite a big name for such a small dog.

 

                                                            

Godzilla soon proved to everyone that he was indeed a wonder pet and super dog. Chihuahuas are very brave for their small statue. Godzilla the dog would have made the Japanese creature of movie fame that he was named after, very proud of him.

                                                                          

When Godzilla was around four years old, he became very sick. I think it had to do with the food. Dogs and cats were getting sick and many died because of the contaminated food. No one wanted to take responsibility for all these deaths and American companies who produced pet foods were blaming the Chinese government. Personally, I think both countries were equally at blame, but let us not go there, yet.

The vet had to keep our dog on I.V. fluids at his office for about a week until the problem cleared up. We thought he was out of the woods, but he wasn’t. About this time, we had purchased a white female Chihuahua and named her Snowflake. Nathan was with us this time, too. Snowflake and Godzilla were adorable together. They were inseparable. Then the unthinkable happened.

                                                                         

Godzilla developed lumps which turned out to be lymphoma; a death sentence for humans and dogs most of the time. The Vet told us that even with chemo, we were only looking at eighteen months. My husband and I decided on the chemo and, for four years Godzilla went through the routine of injections, pills and blood tests. He was a trooper. After four years, he was found to be free from lymphoma.  The whole neighborhood and our family celebrated this good news. Everyone in the town of Audubon, N.J. knows Godzilla and his sister Snowflake.

This past year, we took in a five year old, five pound ball of terror; a toy Yorkie. I named her LeLe, but my husband calls her the Tasmanian devil after the cartoon character. She is adopted, but is afraid of men. The first few months that she lived with us, my husband was constantly sporting bandaged fingers. She’s gotten use to him now.

                                                               

 

We noticed that Godzilla was developing a problem with his skin. It smelled horrible and he was losing fur. Was the cancer coming back? Was it mange? Nothing worked and it got worse. We increased his steroids, but to no avail.

We are what we eat

I am certain that the food industry is trying to make us all sick. The same ills that we find in the human population are also hitting our pets and, it’s because of the food. Because of his poor immune system, the chemo effects, the steroids, Godzilla had a bad case of yeast infection throughout his whole system. What the %#$%? My husband bought only the best food: no chemicals, no coloring, no junk, but we didn’t know about the allergy to grains.

We are on a strict diet of grain free foods. I guess it’s like the Dr. Atkins diet for dogs. We not only have him special foods, but we have him on special water and stuff like granules, Ox E Drops, Tincture of Blackleaf and BacPac Plus which is a special digestive enzyme. We even have to bath and rinse him in a special solution.

I worry about the foods we people eat and, all the stuff that companies refuse to put on the labels. Our food is overly processed, overly salted, full of sugar and, may contain antibiotics, hormones and chemicals that we can’t even pronounce. And, with Monsanto being as powerful as it is, we don’t know if or when we’re eating genetically modified food. If the food industry doesn’t care about us, why should they worry about pets, right?

Conclusion

I’ll keep you all updated on Godzilla’s condition. I want this dog to live a long and happy life. His sisters are keeping an eye on him to make sure, he stays the course.

                                                        

Dogs, Books and Dr. Oz

                                                      

 

This has been quite a week for me. My daughter and her family had gone on a well-deserved get away for a few days, leaving me to take care of little LeLe, one of their dogs. LeLe and my two Chihuahuas, Godzilla and Snowflake got along great and my husband and I enjoyed the antics of the three dogs.

                                                            

My husband is getting used to coming to some of my book signings and people are getting to know the man behind Steampunk Granny. This Thursday night I had a book signing at the Maple Shade Library and on Saturday, Super D (Dawn Byrne), Super N (Nanci Rainey) and I headed over to the Landis Farmers Market in Vineland, New Jersey and the Novel Idea Chapter Two’s second Annual Autumn Author Event.

                                                                      

 

It was hosted by the owner of the Novel Idea Chapter Two Bookstore, Linda Eisenberg with the help of Kristen Battestella Snouffer, author extraordinaire and guardian angel.

                                                          

Linda and Kristen make all the plans and do all the hard work of getting this popular event on tract. There were many authors there and all seemed to be doing a good job of selling their books. One writer, Tom Geden aka Sir Good Knight even put on a show for the children at the market. His link is here. www.sirgoodknight.com

                                                               

Although Kristin was fighting a cold, she braved the sniffles to make sure we all had our spaces ready. Love you Kristin. It was a productive day for all with Dawn selling our South Jersey Writers’ Group’s two anthologies Tall Tales and Short Stories from South Jersey and Reading Glasses and Nanci selling her book, One More Day in the Driver’s Seat.

                                                             

Cinseare Santiago Reiniger and her husband Dan, were there selling their books, jewelry and adorable zombie dolls.

                                                       

I sold several of my books and took a picture of my first sale; a lovely family who bought both Roof Oasis, the first book in my apocalyptic tale with a twist and Chicken Soup for the Soul’s “Touched by an Angel” and I have a story in this edition called Angel on the Footbridge.

                                                                

I was contacted on Friday by the VP of Chicken Soup for the Soul to tell me that the Dr. Oz show is interested in having some of the writers who contributed to “Touched by an Angel on their show and I was one of the people chosen. It’s set for December 4^th. I’ll find out more in a few days. I am so excited. I believe in angels, I believe in miracles and when you believe; good things happen.

                                                       

My daughter and her family are back from their trip and they are preparing to take in Jim’s seriously ill father. They’ve already taken in Jim’s Uncle John who has an Intellectual Disability. Uncle John and Big Jim are in the right hands. My daughter and her husband are such loving and caring people who have put all their energy into making a safe home for both men.   

                                                                

I’m keeping LeLe a bit longer. I insisted. I like that little dog and she likes me and ReRe and Jim need to devote all their attention on the humans for now.