Frilly and Funkie Challenge #18 "All Creatures Great and Small"...My ears are named Hunni Pi!

This is a somewhat happy/sad post. Happy because the scare over the weekend of September 15th we had with my “puppy” (she’s 9, but her age doesn’t make her any less my puppy), turned out-so fat- GOOD. She just had a slight case of iron deficiency. Sad, because at the end of the same week (September 20th) I received a text from my Nieces that my oldest brother (my Dad’s Jr/The 2nd of 3 Donald F Rush) was in the ER. He died 2 hours later from sepsis for conditions he just let go too long. This has easily been the toughest summer in a long time. The loss comes just a few weeks after one Wife in our group of Besties lost the battle with cancer.
My heart broke all over again on Thursday night, & had just starting to mend when this caught us all off guard. At this typing, the funeral/Memorial is set for Wednesday & we are currently on a trip to Madison, Indiana (with one set of Besties) that was already paid for, & we won’t be able to be back for it by then. I did do the usual funeral slide show work for all the pictures of Tub from photos our Dad has been putting together in albums for each of us kids. Our Dad been asking me for copies of certain photos that he didn’t have already & I had no idea what he was doing with them. When I got them all after he passed in 2016, it was a very pleasant-yet sad- shock. I’ve been trying to scan/heal & copy them all so no one has only part of them & the Hrands will be able to each have a full copy eventually. So doing all that on short notice was a way of passing on my love for Tub, even tho we hadn’t been close since the late 1990s. That took about 24 hours without sleep- small price to pay indeed- & I am catching up down here along the Ohio River Valley.
    Getting back to this Challenge...Hunni Pi was from a litter of 6 puppies from a Chesapeake Bay Retriever stud and a half-bred bitch. No one wanted the Mom & her yet-to-be-counted pups, so she was dropped off to Anderson’s Veterinary Hospital where our Bestie helped Connie & Ralph (see last post of the Winner Haberdashery Tag Set to explain who they are) deliver them. It just so happened that there were the same number of puppies as siblings in Ralph’s family: hence the nam(Arthur, Charlie, Alphia, Wanda, Waldo, & Imy), & that’s how each pup got their name. One weekend about 8 was later, we were camping w the Besties and they brought three of the pups to puppy sit- among those was the baby runt- Imy. That beautiful blonde little girl toddled over & sat ON my feet. One look up at me (before she fell over backwards)... & that was that: almost as if she’d said “YOU’RE MINE!” in her wittle puppy-voice. We already had a rescued dog, who looked just like her, that was “helping” me hear, Nikki B. Claws. She had found her way to us by ending up on our back doorstep as a stray. Nikki’s barking at anyone around alerted me just fine, but her “attitude” was more like “Run! Run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me; I’m the Gingerbread Dog!” NOT helpful. Nikki was in last years since she was probably (according to Vet) about 4 yrs old when she came to us. So the timing of a new pup to train from scratch- was perfect. I look back through all the dogs & cats we’ve raised and see that GOD sent each one just when we needed, or when they needed. So I felt like this was yet another blessing... whereas the ChiefHubby felt another true PUPPY was more of a CURSE...lol! I DID pray about it that night, as he suggested, and at the end of my prayer, my  idea of her name popped up: Hunni Pi. It came from our friends in Birmingham who had 3 Golden Retrievers: Ki, Hunny, & Max. I kept thinking along the lines of “BitOHoney” the candy bar since Imy had a lump on the top of her head due to a hematoma that developed from getting pushed around by her bigger siblings. It seemed she was left from the best choices & I felt she was more like ME in that we both are handicapped. At that time, 2009, we were getting ready to graduate our younger Son from HS & move him into his college years alongside his older Brother. Since both are Honors students w very high Math marks, “Pi” was spelled as such for a nod to them. In between training, draining of the hematoma, & cuddling, HinniPi became the closest companion dog I’ve ever had! I call her “my Velcro Puppy”; always stuck next to me, notifies very well, & is a charmer to all our family & friends, yet a protective ferociousness around anyone she senses I don’t trust! She is; in all honesty- the ears of my body. While I believe I am “fearfully & wonderfully made” as GOD’s creative plan... I am unique in my needs just as EVERYONE is is some way. Mine just happens to include being deaf- along with other rarities & “goodies”... lol! There will come a time when I will need to keep the promise I made to HunniPi... as I have to so many animals in my life... but until that time of her life comes; she & I are enjoying the days as they come.
                     
                   So this Challenge is for you, my PuppiPi, HunniPi !!

With humble THANKS! to all those who commented or liked my last project!!

I am on board to be Guest Designer (for the 3rd time) on

The Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog

for another Challenge coming up in just a couple of weeks.

I'm both excited AND nervous: what could they possibly think up for a theme this time?!

And, don't forget.... PRIZES...courtesy of:

The Funkie Junkie Boutique !

I hope to take in a bit of rest on this mini-vacation, and I'll return to get fired up

for the next Challenge...#19 AND; I hope you'll join us!

BE SAFE & HAPPY BLOGGING!!