Hi again, everyone :-)

Such a lot has happened since my last updates in March.  The last event we did was with my friend, Eileen and Oasis 2nd Chance Animal Shelter (OSCAS) when we took a flea mart stall in Punggol to raise funds for the shelter.  The flea mart stall raised about $400 from sales of Beads of Love accessories, new and pre-loved pet items and OSCAS tee shirts.  Equally importantly, we raised awareness of the plight of stray and abandoned dogs and also the needs of the shelters.

After that, my right hand woman, my feeder of good food, my nearly indispensible helper, Siti, decided to go home and her replacement turned out to be scared of dogs and unwilling to get over that fear, so I had to let her go.  I had to fend for myself the next five weeks because happily, Siti decided to come back and we had a tussle with the Embassy to bring her back without her having to pay exhorbitant agent's fees.

The night before she came back, my Russell suddenly had seizures and I rushed him to the 24-hour vet clinic and he stayed in hospital for the next three days.  He discharged in reasonably good health after a scare about blindness and the possibility of having to put him down.  Of course, he would be on phenobarbetone for the rest of his life with diazepam on standby in case of another seizure, which I was assured he WOULD get again.  And again. And again.  Until his mind finally gives way and he slips away.

Well, as it turns out, he only had one seizure after that but his condition suddenly took a turn for the worst and I had to make that hardest of decisions to put him down and out of his misery.  He died 16 days after his 14th birthday, 2 months and 26 days after his first seizures.

Rest in peace, my baby boy.  I miss you terribly and I will always miss you.  But I love you and I know you love me and we will meet again one day.

I grieved and wallowed in self-pity for awhile and threw my attention at the girls, Tinkerbell and Gypsy.  Then I picked myself up and though I had no mood whatsoever, I sat at my beading table and stared at the beads.  I stared at it for two hours before I gave up and went to bed.  I did that for a couple more times and finally picked something up and worked on it.  It was really therapeutic and I felt a lot better than I had for the past few months and then, silly me, I could not find my camera.  But I found it on Friday and I managed to take some pictures of the most recent pieces I made which you will see in the following posts.  I really love them and I hope you will too.  They are for Russell and for his brothers and sisters of every breed and species living in the shelters.  May they, with your generosity and kindness, have full stomachs, be disease-free and find their forever homes soon.

In Loving Memory of

RUSSELL 'RASCAL' KHOO

3 September 1999

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19 September 2013