October 2009 Calendar Page

I finished October's pages today, "A Night at the Opera", inspired by the sheet music and the photo of the man holding the violets. I actually chose the photo first as I really liked the violets, so different. Tomorrow I think I'll try and finish December. I have a few ideas and I'm still in a bit of a Christmas mood.

Lisa, I think I might even try and do January 2010 before I pass my pages along to you. How different would it be to have January in advance? Don't hold me to it though, you know how plans change!

Last Tuesday afternoon as I was bringing in the groceries and taking some boxes out to the garage, Gracie escaped! She's never tried to get out before, but she saw our cat, Bailey on the front porch and decided to go play with her. She's so small and so quick, I lost sight of her in no time. I searched for her until 8:30 -9:00 that night, until it got too dark to see anything at all. I drove around for a while stopping and asking everyone I saw, posting and handing out flier's I'd quickly printed. Then I went back home and got Brutus and he searched with me. I honestly believe he was looking for Gracie as he usually walks right along at a fast clip, with his head up, and his tail wagging. That night he kept his nose to the ground sniffing and looking from left to right, walking slowly and making 'Brutus sounds', if you've met Brutus, you know what I'm talking about.

Wednesday morning I was back out early, replacing signs I'd posted with new ones I had printed with pictures on them. I handed out smaller flier's to the morning walkers. While I was still out looking, my cell phone rang - the neighborhood dog walker, Janice, had Gracie! I'll admit to making a fool of myself by sobbing - no not polite tears of joy, but total mascara running, snotty sobbing!

A big thank you to Janice and to all of my neighbors who were so concerned and so helpful. So many of you have come by the house to see if Gracie made it home. Even more have come up to me while I was walking Gracie, just so happy to see that she was found. I have great neighbors!

And yes, we've all spoiled Grace like crazy since she's been home! Stella and Brutus sniffed her all over, Brutus cleaned her ears, then they both sniffed her some more! She was dirty, hungry, dirty and tired, but happy to be home! (Did I mention that she was dirty?)