Focht Family Blog

Although Nathan will never believe me, today I went to Petco just to pet some dogs. I had absolutely no intention of bringing one home. We drove over to look at what dogs were up for adoption. While we were there, Nathan’s mom decided to adopt a little Golden puppy named Popeye. This is a biggie for her because she doesn’t usually like dogs. In the crate next to Popeye was a little 5 month old border collie mix named Tinkerbell. She was extremely quiet and calm and soft and sweet and since Nathan was concerned with getting a dog that would end up chewing on something in the RV, she looked like a good candidate for us.

So, although Nathan is still worried if we made the right choice, he let me get her. We bought her a collapsible crate that we can put her in when we need to go out and she is already crate trained. We brought her home and I gave her a warm bath outside before bringing her in. She is so quiet all she has done so far is lay down on the bed Nathan got her. She is a bit skittish but I am hoping she will get some confidence as she learns that she is with us for good. Here are a couple of pictures of her on her bed…

Misty was getting worse so we drove back to Statesboro early. We took her into our vet in Savannah on Friday, February 27, 2009. We showed our vet the x-rays hoping she would tell us something different but the best option she gave us was that it could be fluid around the heart and with open heart surgery to drain it she could live another year. We decided that since she was old for a mastiff and we didn’t think she would live through surgery even if fluid was her problem, that we would put her down before she started suffering. This is the hardest one for us because she was the best of our mastiffs and every other time we have had a dog to still come home to. Here are some pictures I took of Misty in her last days…

Goodbye my sweet girl. We will always love you and miss you.

I had the opportunity to visit with some college friends that I have not seen since my wedding, a couple of them from even further back. My college roomate drove to the campground to see us so she could meet my children and say hi to my mom. Here is Susanne in the RV…

Later in the week, a group of us got together at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. From left to right is Claire (who drove up from Warner Robbins), me, Susanne, Karen, Brooke, and Shannon….

We all had a great time catching up and will plan on doing it again the next time I am in Atlanta. :)

While we were in Atlanta we had a few fun times. My brother brought his bus both weekends and camped with us. Here is his bus,”The Pilgrim.” It was owned by a traveling minister who fulltimed in it for 18 years before Tim bought it.

The first weekend Andrea’s aunt Candy was in town and it was her birthday. They decided to have a little party for her. The girls decorated outside…

Here are the boys, my brother, and Andrea’s parents and aunt Candy waiting for the party to began.

Meghan and Josh helped put the candles on the cake…

And here is Candy blowing them out…

Today we took Misty to a Petsmart because we still think there is something growing in her stomach. The vet was concerned about her pale gums (which I noticed last year) and thought that she might have something wrong with her spleen. They x-rayed her stomach and chest and found that her heart is huge compared to what it should be. She said she was actually surprised that she didn’t die 2 months ago. She has had a few episodes that we thought were mild seizures that I guess were cardiac episodes. We are going to put her down on February 28, 2009 in Savannah. We don’t want her to suffer anymore than she needs to.