“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
~Charles Dickens

Happy Sunday!

Now that freaking Mercury-in-Retrograde is out of the way, things seem to not only be getting better, but getting much better!  For me, anyway.  I hope the same can be said for you!

This week, I AM HAPPY that the kids are starting back to school & the neighborhood is beginning to quiet down.  Although, those moments when the bus arrives & drops them off again in droves are no fun.

I AM HAPPY that I was finally unveil & share ONE LAST BITE (an epilogue to Must Love Vampires) with all of you!

For those of you who may have missed it, this is a FREE E-BOOK DOWNLOAD I’m offering to complement my October release, MUST LOVE VAMPIRES.  You can get it for your e-reader or even read it right at your computer.  Check out last week’s Tease Me Tuesday post or the top of the left sidebar for details.  And spread the word…I want everyone to get the chance to read this—after they’ve read MUST LOVE VAMPIRES, of course; it’ll ruin the ending if you read it first. :littlevamp

I AM HAPPY that after a minor emergency trip to the veterinarian, my sweet, darling Precious is going to be just fine.  Late Wednesday night, I noticed she was (don’t laugh) holding her mouth funny.  And drooling/licking an awful lot.  When I looked more closely, I realized her whole front right tooth—the really long fangy one—was missing.  Now, she is 15-years-old, & I knew her teeth weren’t in the best condition ever, but still… Ouch!

I found the tooth, thank goodness, so she didn’t swallow it.  Then I watched her through the night & called the vet’s office first thing the next morning.  They were able to fit her in that afternoon, & it went way better than I’d been expecting.  I thought they might have to dose her a little & pull the root…or do surgery to cut it out.  My fear was that whatever was left of the tooth up there in the gum (& there was no tooth visible that I could see), & that sort of thing can get dangerous for a pet at her age.  But instead, the vet said that the gums were (amazingly) already starting to close over & heal.  It’s still a little pink & swollen, but he said we’d be better off letting it go, as long as it continued to heal on its own.  So I’m supposed to watch for redness or more swelling, but otherwise—hands off!  He didn’t even give me antibiotics or ointment, which is nice because Precious is SO not an easy-to-medicate cat.

And… I AM HAPPY that the doctor seemed impressed by how well Precious is doing at her age.  Yes, she’s getting up there & has some of the expected health issues all older cats do, but he did her annual exam as long as we were there & gave her the thumbs-up.  He also asked what I was doing to keep my kiddos so healthy because he hasn’t seen them in a while.  (Other than for their regular check-ups, but there for a while we were having such a problem with urinary infections! ) I told him about their raw diet & filtered water…how I add extra water to their food because cats are notoriously bad at getting the water their organs need to function properly…& that I even use electrolyte solution on Precious’s food in hopes of keeping her kidney & liver function up.  He was impressed.  And I came up with the electrolyte idea all on my own. :fangsmiley

Okey-dokey, that’s enough from me for one week!

Your turn…  Has Mercury-in-Retrograde disappeared from your rearview mirror yet?  Tell us what great stuff is happening in your life this week!  What are you happy & grateful for that you’re willing to share? :show

Now to announce the winner of this week’s Free Book Friday two-book bundle: The Unexpected Hero by Rachel Lee & At Close Range by Jessica Andersen…

:dancingbat   Dee!!! :dancingbat

Congratulations, Dee!  :drinkonme   (See—it pays to get your butt back to The Dungeon. *g*)  Please contact me with your full name & mailing information, & I’ll get your book out to you as soon as I can!

I’m canceling Sexy Fail Saturday this week (trust me, you didn’t really want to see it, anyway :uhoh ) to blog for a good cause—doggies!

You know how much I love helping animals, so when I heard about this from @smexys_sidekick over on Twitter, I wanted to do my part, if I could. And today is the last day!  (I’m not even sure I’m doing this right, but she said just to copy & paste the bulk of the post & link up to the blogroll.  So that’s what I’m attempting to do. :flash )

According to Pedigree, over 4 million animals arrive in shelters every year due to abandonment, breed rescue, or other circumstances. To help shelters provide the care these animals need, they have an insanely successful campaign called: Write a Post, Help a Dog. Designed for the individual blogger, Pedigree promised to donate 20 pounds of food (one bag) for each blogger that blogs about this campaign. In 2010, 391 bloggers participated resulting in over 7,000 pounds of food donated to various shelters. YEA!!

This year, Pedigree wants to increase their goal to 10,000 pounds of food to be donated to a designated shelter. How can you help? It’s all very simple. Do what you do best—BLOG!

How you can help in 2011

Simply spread the word about Write a Post, Help a Dog 2011 and once again Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of food for each blogger’s post. Here’s all you need to include in your post:

• The Write a Post, Help a Dog program is aimed at raising awareness and food for the more than four million dogs that wind up in shelters and breed rescues each year.
• For each blog post mentioning the Pedigree Foundation from now until midnight ET on September 3, Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of its new dry Pedigree recipe food for dogs — its best recipe ever — to a shelter, because every dog deserves leading nutrition.
• The Pedigree Foundation — a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization is committed to helping dogs by providing grants to shelters and rescues and encouraging dog adoption. This year the Foundation has already raised more than $376,570 against its goal of $1.5 million to carry out its work to fund grants that not only help shelters operate, but to further shelter innovations.

The Pedigree Foundation depends on charitable contributions from individuals to carry out its mission to help dogs find loving homes. In addition to writing a blog post, here’s how you can help:

• Donate online at http://pedigreefoundation.org/donate.aspx
• Apply for a shelter grant from the Pedigree Foundation by completing a form at www.pedigreefoundation.org
• Purchase Dogs Rule Gear at www.dogsrulegear.com where the proceeds go to the Pedigree Foundation to help loving dogs find a home. SPECIAL OFFER: Get 10 percent off Dogs Rule Gear by using the promo code BlogPaws10 from August 22 – September 30.

Then, link up to our Blog Hop below, hosted by the Pedigree BlogPaws bloggers to help spread the word about Write a Post, Help a Dog. This is a Blog Hop! 125 entries so far… you’re next!