Just Touching Base...

www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUzNDcxMDN8MjcyNzI4MTM1OA/dogs-red-vintage

I adore dogs. I adore red. I adore vintage. Put those all together in a deck of old playing cards, and I am reduced to a quivering blob of ecstasy.

Yesterday I became acquainted with an Etsy shop that has me in an absolute swoon: AntiqueWhimsy. It's run by a delightful lady whom I strongly suspect was a twin from which I must have been separated at birth. When I tossed that possibility out there, she agreed, saying, "I think we might be twins... I have a few other twins who were somehow born to different parents. Funny how that works sometimes." Indeed! And usually I meet them through Etsy.

Anyway, let me share some of Janet's wonderful wares so you can join in the general rapture:

www.etsy.com/listing/180912942/hi-yo-silver-away-2-vintage-single-swap

www.etsy.com/listing/221352027/multi-tasking-2-vintage-single-swap

www.etsy.com/listing/203641099/playful-pups-4-vintage-playing-cards

www.etsy.com/listing/187132192/poodles-a-walk-in-the-park-3-vintage

www.etsy.com/listing/217349075/allow-me-3-vintage-single-swap-playing

And this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Janet has wonderful vintage playing cards of all sorts. Here are some others that have me in a tizz:

www.etsy.com/listing/209728326/in-the-orchard-2-vintage-single-swap

www.etsy.com/listing/214711328/lunch-on-the-farm-2-vintage-single-swap

www.etsy.com/listing/183015181/tiny-dancers-4-vintage-single-swap

www.etsy.com/listing/180002184/the-owl-the-pussycat-2-vintage-single

Okay, okay! I will stop tormenting myself (and you) right now. Suffice it to say, you must check out AntiqueWhimsy if you are at all a vintage paper ephemera fan.

I suppose I've got dogs on the brain even more than usual, if that were possible, because I've been spending an unconscionable amount of time recently hauling one or another of mine in to the veterinarian for various health crises. 

Peppy frightened us one Saturday night by honking and hacking almost nonstop; it was necessary to rush him to a 24-hour emergency vet the next morning. Apparently he'd had a bad bout of collapsing trachea, very common in the pomeranian breed, but not one which had given my dogs much trouble in the past. We were sent home with pills to give him in case of another flare-up, but so far, so good.

Lollia has continued to relapse with her neck trouble and has been back to the vet for more muscle relaxants, pain pills, and anti-inflammatory medication. The vet is now talking about sedating her for x-rays; an alarming prospect, both for what they may or may not find. One vet mentioned a degenerating disc as a possible cause, and what can be done to treat it if that's so, I don't know. Not to mention the bills! I need to list more items in MyPalPeppy to raise funds. 

I'm not sure why Lollia is prone to this particular trouble; she is a "spinner", and I wonder if years of ecstatic twirling in the same direction have taken their toll. (I like what one other spinning pomeranian owner said of his dog, "He's not an 'ambi-turner' ".)

You can see Lollia spinning in a video in a past post; she starts off slowly but then cranks it up a bit:
 
http://sheertrashroadshow.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-boy-in-house-or-more-accurately-tall.html

Usually she's very fast, but somehow we never seem to have a camera handy to catch her in action when she starts in. But there are lots of poms with this trait, if a quick search of youtube is any indication. Here's one that's a real cutie:

Anyway, that's pretty much what's been going on around here recently. I'll try to post again more quickly next time.