Teeya had her puppies on July 19th. Unlike most Chis, she had FIVE of the little monsters. She has been a wonderful mother to them, and recently weaned them. (BTW--All the puppies are blues; four females, one male, all blue.)

These are the pups now...

So Teeya did her job, and did it well. Then my daughters were handed an orphaned kitten, probably less than three weeks old. Though Teeya's milk dried up when she weaned her pups, she has taken over caring for the little kitten, now named Monkey. Ronald and I have been feeding the little kitten, but Teeya keeps it warm at night, cleans up after it, and has been protecting it from our other dogs (it is so young, I am not quite sure if it is male or female).

This is the best picture I could get of the two; Teeya really doesn't like cameras.

Even in the animal world, motherhood can come in many forms.

Recently, to lift my spirits before having another surgery, I adopted another chihuahua from Joy's Homegrown Chihuahuas.  Teeya, who was born on May 15th, is the pretty little blue fawn pup shipped all the way from Florida that I got.  Joy shipped her here to Texas, made sure she had her first shots and in general made sure the transaction went very smoothly.

Miyu is the little black calico kitten playing with Teeya.  We are not exactly sure how old she is, but she was probably born about the same time as Teeya.  We got her the end of May, making her less than two weeks old, but with her eyes open.

In this picture, Miyu has stolen Teeya's squeaky toy.  The two think they are sisters and play all the time (and fight all the time, just like siblings).  Both of them have been a real joy to bring into our family.

Teeya and Miyu

...not because I am having overwhelming problems or something, just because I have been superstitious that if I posted something good, it will be like I dropped a mirror and will have seven years bad luck.

Not to say that everything is perfect--my back is out, we had a hurricane (Ike), and one of my dogs killed a kitten.

But my back is about to be fixed. Ike blew down a bunch of branches and knocked out electricity--but we had a small generator, just large enough to run an AC and a portable DVD player to keep me entertained.  The dog that killed the kitten was turned over to the Huntsville animal shelter, and was adopted out two days later (hopefully to a family that doesn't have cats).

The positive aspects of our lives far outweigh the negatives.  Ronald is working for a seafood restaurant and making more money than he ever has.  We bought a small plot of land near Lake Livingston so we could take advantage of their boat ramp to go sailing again.  Both of us are developing hobbies together that we never thought of before.  We are making positive plans for our future.

So, for the first time in at least a decade, I feel at peace with myself.  I don't want this to end.  Which is why it may have looked like I have abandoned my site--but I was just waiting.  Waiting to be sure that my peace was real.  Now I feel the wait is over.