One Week to Go!

As promised, today I'm going to tell you who is doing the drawing for the stuffed possum.

First let me tell you a little bit about her. Born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas - she was given very slim odds of survival at two weeks of age. Unable to suck, it was necessary for her caregivers to find other ways to get nourishment into her body. The fact that she's with us today speaks well of the methods employed.

Lovely red-brown hair. Striking eyes. Beautifully manicured nails, which she maintains herself. And an enthusiasm that has brought her through some tough times, Sarah is the perfect candidate for this job.  Raised in a journalistic environment, she is an authority soi-distant on all things paper-related. In fact her hobby is reaching into a trash can and choosing one particular piece of paper, which she then lays beside the trash can and leaves.

Did I mention Sarah was a dog?

A very smart dog.  She was removed from her mother's care at two weeks of age. One of a litter of fourteen, her litter-mates were dying off one or two a day. I had chosen her and named her at conception (the most dappled female of the litter, please. That she has one blue eye and one hazel eye is an unexpected bonus). I couldn't bear the thought of her dying, although I had not yet met her. So at two weeks, I drove to Oklahoma to visit my granddaughter and two great-grandchildren. And bring Sarah home to Texas.

Neither doll bottles, pet bottles nor baby bottles suited her. She'd either not get enough, or so much would come out it almost drown her. After a harrowing week of diarrhea and/or constipation and struggling to get food down, I put a saucer of milk in front of her. And pushed her nose into it.

She said "Why didn't we do this sooner. I've been hungry for a week." She lapped it down, and hasn't stopped eating since.(She prefers my dinner to hers. Her biggest weakness being a green salad. Extra onion, please.) 

That was two years ago. In the ensuing months, she chewed up an antique chair, our camera/computer cable, our printer cable, our Roland keyboard cable, Dee's HBP machine hose. Chewed holes in the sheet-rock walls and the corners off tables, chairs, and stairs. She was free. I figure she's cost us approximately $2,419.72.

In her on-going effort to offset that expense she's eliminated the need for trips to the vet to have her nails clipped. She bites them off to the perfect length. Every little bit helps.

And I'm happy to report she's given all that chewing up - for paper. She's obsessed with paper. Fetching the morning paper, carrying the mail back from the mail box and checking the trash cans on an hourly basis to be sure there's not too much paper build-up. I don't know what we'd do without her.

Sarah Palin Walding is already anticipating her role in the contest. Let's fill the trash can for her.

I've had some entries and some complaints that readers haven't been able to leave comments. (Well, that's better than complaints about the content of my posts I guess.) And I'm sorry I'm not technologically smart enough to just jump in there and fix it. But I'm working on it.

One of my FB friends put it nicely. "For all my friends who are concerned about my consumption of artificial sweetener, you'll be glad to know that it hasn't had any adverse effect on my  . . . uh . . . my . . . uh . . . thinker thingy."