A sad day today for our family. Luna’s dog Benny was bitten by a tick last spring, and her health has been deterioring ever since, she was diagnosed with Lyme Disease shortly after she was bitten by the tick, the medication did not help in her case. She came to visit us on Sunday, with her people, and we all had a lovely time, on a very beautiful, warm, sunny day. She wasn’t feeling well, or strong, but did enjoy herself sitting in the water at the lake, and swimming around a little bit. The visit was cut short today, so that Penny could be taken to the vet, as she was very weak this morning, and not feeling at all well. Sadly, the vet said her heart was the problem, and recommended that she be put to sleep rather than suffer. We lost Benny today.
We did have a lovely few days with Benny and the Grandbabies and Bim and Luna and Lares. Everywhere we went, and everything we did included Benny, who needed to be carried. We all went to Granny and Grandpa’s house for a picnic, and everyone had a great time looking around the house, and playing in the yard. We took a walk down to the camp lot, and had a good time exploring there. I taught the Grandbabies the poem I had been taught at school, to remember one of Elmer’s Safety Rules they taught back then:
Single file,
Indian style,
Facing traffic all the while.
This is vital information for safely walking or running along the side of a high speed road, where there are no sidewalks. On our journey we passed a twenty-something jogger, in full fancy regalia, who had invested a lot of money in his hobby, but none of his intelligence.
We all proceeded over to Harriet’s cottage and played in the water for the rest of the afternoon. As the afternoon waned, we returned home to dinner, a campfire, and of course, roasted marshmallows.
This morning, since Benny was feeling very weak, and not at all well, we went for short walks to the back of our property, and then down to the dock across the road, where Luna and Tink went wading. Then off they all went, heading for home so that Benny could visit the Vet.
Later Luna texted me to let us know that Benny had passed. She is suffering no more.
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While we were at Granny and Grandpa’s we visited with an aquaintance I made over the internet. He is married to my second cousin once removed, and knew my Granny and Grandpa, my Mom, and my Aunts and Uncle. Another cousin came along as well for the visit and we had a lovely chat, sitting in the shade, while the children played and explored.
NOTE: Since I arrived back from the little house the city I have had nothing but trouble with our Bell internet connection. Last Thursday I called the techinical support line and she said she fixed it, updated the “line” she said, but it cut out again this morning and here I am without an internet connection. The technical support person on the line this morning asked me if a new power supply had been sent to me, first I’ve heard anything about power supplies. He is sending me another one. It may or may not arrive. Bell has my address wrong, so if the unit ever arrives it will be a small miracle. Our Post Office will sometimes return mail to sender, if the box number is incorrect or missing, even though they know who we are. I keep giving Bell the correct address and they keep going back to the old one that they created themselves, which is incorrect. I think the only solution is to end the Bell service and search for another company. Bell’s bureaucracy can’t even handle correcting an incorrect mailing address, the company is incompetent, in my opinion. So the notice for this entry did not go out apparently, although I did go through the process of posting it. And only part of this entry made it to the internet, as far as I can tell. What a mess! Since it is a 30 minute drive, one way, to the nearest hot spot, it could be quite some time before I am connected to the internet again!
We have to pay $62 a month for this deplorable service from Bell Canada.
What really disturbs me is that even the government is insisting that significant business be conducted over the internet, and yet internet services are unreliable in so many parts of Canada. With unreliable internet service, how can one possibly comply with government regulations!
There is frequently reference to the book “1984” and big brother these days, but in “1984” big brother was a lot more reliable than the failing infrastructure we see in Canada.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
20°C
Date: 9:11 AM EDT Tuesday 26 August 2014
Condition: Cloudy
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 20.1°C
Dewpoint: 18.6°C
Humidity: 91%
Wind: SSE 13 km/h
Humidex: 27
Quote
“We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer
1904 – 1991
Lovely dog. God bless Benny.
Maggie, my condolences to Benny’s family. How sad that her life was cut short by one nasty little bug.
Dying … a fact of life that doesn’t seem to get any easier to bear, each time it happens to someone we love. I hold firmly to my hope that there is something beautiful in it, to the one who is dying if not to those left behind. Once, at a time when I was anxious and fearful about death, I had a dream that I died, and in the dream as my spirit left my body I felt an exquisite expansion of my spirit as it filled with light. I woke up knowing that I had been given a message of truth. It was a comfort I have not been able to remember at all times, alas.
Bell, eh? Thanks for the headsup about this company’s poor service. I still haven’t replaced my cellphone and do consider not supporting SaskTel, the public company here in the province, when these other companies like Bell and Telus offer bundled packages that SaskTel does not. But it will be a last resort, as I am a “buy local” gal whenever possible.
Thanks Steve-Paul.
Thanks Wendy, that small bug had a big impact, a learning experience for us all.
Kate, I had several similar messages of truth from the universe, as a child. Remembering them is hard work, because the culture I find myself living in does not honour those truths, quite the opposite, so I have to “swim up stream” to keep them in sight.
Bell has given us a very bad time, from time to time. There are not many viable options way out here in the bush, for reliable internet. In fact, if my computer settings are correct, there isn’t another high speed internet customer anywhere near us. This is resolvable of course, if you through a lot of money at the problem, which we are not in a position to do.
I’m so sorry about Benny. She looks like a sweet, loving dog and I’m sure she’ll be missed. I’m glad you all had some good times together before she passed.
With Bell service, I guess it’s just one of those area specific things that you’ve had poor service from them and yet we’ve had excellent service. We left Rogers about a year ago when Bell Fibe came into our area. Since Rogers had been a horrible fiasco, constantly giving us trouble and such extremely poor customer service (they even spelled DH’s very simple first name wrong on our bills), we were very glad to suddenly have high speed alternative for internet. We followed a recommendation from the rep we talked to go through Customer Retention (we had Bell for long distance) and we got a deal that cut the price of our combined internet, cable TV and phone in half, and that included free long distance in the US and Canada.
After a problem with drop out was corrected (and Bell was very good at spotting the problem and sending someone out to fix it quickly), we’ve been quite pleased with our cable TV and VERY happy with our internet service. Our download and upload rates have increased measurably!
Again, I’m sure that the difference between our experiences probably has a lot to do with where each of us is located, you out in the country and me in the middle of a large metro area. I hope you’re able to work things out to your satisfaction.
Hmmmm… Maybe you should talk to Bell Customer Retention and tell them why you’re intending to leave? You’ll be much more likely to have someone straighten out your problems if they think you’ll be leaving them and you might be able to negotiate a lower payment at the same time, like we did.
Such a beautiful dog, so sad she was hurting so badly. My sympathies on your loss. I hope you can get your internet sorted out. So frustrating to be without reliable service!
My sympathies on the loss of Benny. How sad! She appears to be an older dog, so I’m guessing, if that is correct, that being older her immune system was a little down and just couldn’t handle the illness.
This has been the first year I’ve gotten tick collars for our dogs. We don’t as a rule have the deer ticks here that carry the Lyme, but rather we get the tree ticks that don’t. We also get included in the dogs’ vaccinations one for Lyme disease so that might also help. But I’ve put the tick collars on this since the spring just to be safe. Losing a part of your family like that is heart-wrenching. It’s bad enough that our pets live such short lives in the first place – I really think that’s a big flaw in the Big Plan when animals were being engineered! They need to have longer lives…
Only when they’re with loving families like yours and Maggie’s, Bex. Some people – like SD’s mom – bring in pets for only months and then toss them aside. Others treat their pets not much better than they would a weed.
Sadly, there are a lot of adult pets out there that are given up by their owners and never find new homes. Most people only want cute kittens and puppies, and aren’t interested in taking on an older animal.
Teri, to my surprise, the new power supply from Bell arrived the next day, as they promised. This was a shock! I came home from work, and there it was, sitting on the step, having been delivered to our house. This is new, as usually the courier require us to be home, which often we are not, then the package is taken to a town an hours drive away and left for us at a facility for pick up, during office hours, and it is a horrendous ordeal to get there to pick it up. Having it delivered to the door while we were both at work was unusual, and welcome.
Then I plugged it in and the connection problems disappeared.
Shocking! A most welcome shock, as I had been prepared to cancel our service with Bell. Why the woman who took my call last week did not think to send a new power supply is beyond me. What she did send was an email with a list of links on how to troubleshoot problems, which is totally useless if the internet does not work, and if the problem is with their equipment.
Joan, Benny was a gentle and exuberant soul, she will be missed. Thank you for your condolences.
Thanks for the tips Bex, I am passing them along to my girls, who both have beloved dogs at home, and Attila is spreading the word where he works, as there are many lovers of dogs there. Benny picked up the tick on the shores of Lake Erie, far from our property. But we have lots of deer here, and at our camp, so ticks are something to watch out for. Our sprayed clothing repels ticks as a well as mosquitoes, and we always wear rubber boots when working in the bush, which gives us a bit of protection. However, ticks are unlikely to go unnoticed on our bodies, but are more easily missed on dogs.