We received this in the mail recently:

Thanks BCBS

It’s nice to know that Michigan’s largest health insurance provider is concerned about preventing Health or Wellness!

Save Our Setters is holding their annual Halloween Costume Contest.  If you have an Irish Setter, Gordon Setter, English Setter, or Irish Red & White Setter then you are eligible to enter.  The prize for the winner is a $30 on-line pet supply coupon.  Check out the details here.

We would enter, but neither SUE or LILLY will tolerate wearing a costume.  So you won’t face any competition from our girls!

Stop by the site and check out the previous winners.

I’ll post a reminder when the voting begins so that you can all vote for the bestest Setter.

Thanks

Jim, Sweet SUE, & Miss LILLY

I’m not sure that I can add anything more to it.  Go read it.

Current Healthcare Causes Divorce.

I wandered across this at the Angel’s Gate Hospice site.  It touched me, and I wanted to share it with as many animal lovers as I could.  Please visit their site, and thank them for posting this.

1.	Be present and be in the moment with me. In the moment of now we will write the final chapter of my life. Your presence is everything. Listen to me with your heart.
2.	I have a right to compassionate, considerate, respectful care. Choose for me a veterinarian who will honor me physically, emotionally and spiritually. One who will listen to you because you are my advocate and no one loves me as you do. Choose a veterinarian who will offer her or his wisdom so that you can make informed decisions regarding my care.
3.	Keep me free from pain and symptoms so that I may enjoy my day and the precious time I have left with you. Seek to understand the different types of pain I may have. Look for enthusiasm in my eyes as a gage. Celebrate my life with me till the very end!
4.	Keep me well nourished so that my body will have the fortitude that it needs to fight disease and energy to function. Offer me my favorite foods to entice me to eat but honor my decision, should I choose not to eat.
5.	Keep me well hydrated; for this will keep me in balance with the universe.
6.	Keep me warm and comfortable. I will need to be bathed more frequently-maybe several times a day. My favorite bed and blanket gives me security and lets me feel safe. I want to smell fresh air and to feel the warmth of the sun on my face. I want to hear the softness of your voice reassuring me of my importance in your life.
7.	Let me stay active and continue to be a part of the family I love so dearly. I want to go for rides in the car, and long walks on the beach, and snuggle with you on the couch while we watch TV. Keep fun in our day.
8.	Touch me. Your loving hands have fed me, played with me, comforted me and now give me strength. Linger just a little longer as you scratch my ear. Your touch lets me know you are there and gives me assurance that you care.
9.	Give me permission to leave- I need to hear those words from you- I need to know you will be OK. Let me go. Know it is my time even if it seems like it is too soon. Support me as I take my final breath.
10.	If there comes a time when you know that I am suffering please euthanize me. I trust that you will always make the right decision for me for I am the blood of your heart. Be with me- I want you to be my last vision.
11.	As there has been great joy in our life together now let there be joy in my passing. Cherish and be thankful for our happy moments together. Promise to keep my memory alive in all you do everyday.

This is indeed a bold statement.  But if you are an American under the age of 65 (or otherwise not on Medicare) you don’t have health insurance.

Phantom Health Insurance Policy

Now, before you start trying to yell me down like a whacko nut-job right wing conservative Christian thug trying to protest a town hall meeting, please hear me out.

If you don’t have a government provided health care plan (insurance) the plain truth is that you do not have health insurance.

O.K. – I hear you shouting “But I have a great insurance plan through work.”  That probably means that you don’t use your plan much, but for the sake of this discussion, I’ll accept your premise.  You currently have great health insurance through your job.  But tell me, do you have “job insurance?”  Because if you don’t, then you don’t really have health insurance.  The moment your job is over, or your employer can no longer afford to subsidize that great plan, you lose your insurance.  Sure there is COBRA, but if you are without a job, how are you going to pay the COBRA rates for your great health insurance?

I'm sorry, your policy doesn't cover any actual health care

“But I buy private insurance” you say.  I say, so what.  Try to use that insurance and you’ll find out that you don’t really have any health insurance.  Sure the insurance companies, benevolant, generous corporations that they are, will tell you that they only rescind a tiny fraction of a percentage of their policies.  But if you aren’t a whacko nut-job right wing conservative Christian, or even if you are but you somehow have aquired mathematical skills beyond the second grade level, you can puzzle out the math here.  It’s true that the insurance companies, benevolant, generous corporations that they are, only rescind a tiny fraction of a percentage of their policies.  Of course, that just coincidentally happens to be the same tiny fraction of a percentage of their policy holders who actually need the insurance companies to pay out for some sort of catastrophic illness.  Yes, you may have private insurance, unless you need it – then the generous, benovelent corporations will rescind your policy and voila – you don’t have health insurance either.

If you can actually think for yourself, instead of following hate radio, Sarah “Quitter” Palin, Fox News or some other whacko nut-job right wing conservative Christian “news” source – you will instantly come to the conclusion that we must have health care reform.  And if you can’t think for yourself, please let me think for you instead of some whacko nut-job right wing conservative Christian pundit.

We knew it was coming, but I’m still having trouble processing it.  Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92, following a long illness.

The word “anchor” was first applied to a newsman when Cronkite “anchored” CBS’ coverage of the 1952 Democratic and Republican conventions.

When I first started working in radio news, I wanted to pattern myself after Cronkite.  His steady, level delivery; his calm demeanor in the face of the biggest events of the 20th centruy; and his trustworthiness – if “Uncle Walter” said it, it simply had to be true.

His steady hand can be seen in a lot of places, probably none more important than in covering the assination of President Kennedy.  Throughout the obviously rushed coverage, he refused to label rumor as fact – and he delivered the information available without any fanfare.  Those too young to remember may not appreciate the fear that gripped the country at this moment.  Beside the overwhelming loss of a great leader, there was a near panic concern that the “Commies” would take advantage of this moment to attack.  It seems silly now, but at the time it was a very real concern.  Cronkite simply reported the facts, including that Vice-President Johnson would be taking the oath of office.

In this first clip, pay particular attention to Cronkite’s sensibilities at the 5-minute mark.

Cronkite was a steady, level-headed influence on America, and even the world through so many key events of the last century.  And on those occasions when Cronkite felt the need to editorialize, he stepped out of his newsman role and clearly labeled his editorial as such – and everybody from the lowliest American to the President had to listen and hear what “Uncle Walter” had to say.

The Assassination Of Dr. King

Cronkite’s Editorial on Viet Nam

The death of President Johnson

Three Mile Island

Of course this one is what made the biggest impact on my 8-year old mind…

His influence extended into this century, when we were lost we turned to Walter Cronkite to show us the way:

And that’s the way it is…

Rest In Peace Walter, I fear that we will never see another like you.

Our foster girl PEPPER is happy in her new forever home.  She has made huge strides (pun intended) since her surgery.

As a “Thank You” to everybody who contributed to her success, and to show the amazing results of her surgery, I made a quick video to show her new found four-legged walking skills.  Most of this was shot in her new backyard with her new family.

Thanks to everybody who contributed to her success and her new happy life!

So Micheal Jackson is dead.  He passed away Thursday.  He was a celebrity, so I guess that was news on Thursday.

I haven’t cared much for his music since he hit puberty and left his brothers behind.  O.K.  Apparently a lot of people do like his music, but then again McDonald’s sells a lot of hamburgers.  It doesn’t make them great hamburgers.

As far as I’m concerned, he’s a dead, drug-addicted, child molester.  And one less drug-addicted child molester in the world is a good thing.

Congress held a moment of silence for his passing.  Is this some new productivity plan on the part of our law makers?  Are they going to have a moment of silence every time a drug-addicted child molester passes?  I just don’t get it.

And why is this still news?  Why is it the only story on the news?  Is there nothing else happening anywhere in the world other than the story that a drug-addicted child molester died three days ago?

ENOUGH ALREADY!

Check out The World’s best Optical Illusions.  These are amazing.

Wow, have I ever neglected this thing. It’s been quite a while since my last post. There is a good reason for that – a cute little red-head named PEPPER.

This is PEPPER

I wish that I was a better photographer, because this little girl is just too cute for words and I have yet to take a picture that really captures her essence.

This poor little girl has had a tough row to hoe.  She was surrendered to Save Our Setters by her owners due to the fact that they could no longer afford the expensive special food she needs.  PEPPER has an allergy to grain proteins, and cannot eat any food containing grain.

Of course, when they surrendered her, they neglected to tell anybody at Save Our Setters that she had also been struck by a car!  When I picked her up from the transport volunteer, she was hobbling on three legs.

Anybody see a problem here?

Her right hip was obviously dislocated.  Her previous owner did send along a handwritten note saying “Pepper was hit by a car.  The vet says that it is only cartilage damage and she will be O.K. with a couple weeks of rest.”

Well, I’m not a vet, but that sure looks like more than cartilage damage to me.  Here is a quick, raw video I shot of her when we arrived at home that first night.  This is not a polished video, it was a “quick & dirty” (and if you look at our living room carpet you can see the “dirty”) that I sent off to Save Our Setters so that they could see the situation.

I immediately scheduled her to see Dr. Moore at the Harborfront Hospital for Animals in Spring Lake.  Take a look at her x-ray for yourself.

Not Cartliage Damage

Dr. Moore felt that if this had been treated immediately, the leg could have been popped back into the socket at a cost of approximately $200.  But by the time that I got her into the vet (at 9:00 AM the next morning after picking her up) there was just too much scar tissue built up.

So off PEPPER & I went – to see a variety of specialists, including the experts at the Michigan State University Vet School.  After a LOT of research, we boiled things down to four options:

1) Amputate the leg – cost (approximately) $1,000

2) Physical Therapy – cost (approximately) $1,400

3) Total Hip Replacement surgery – cost (approximately) $8,000

4) Femoral Head Ostectomy surger – cost $2,300

Nobody felt that Physical Therapy alone would be a good option.  It would leave her with significant pain and a high probability of future complications.  Amputation would be the least cost option, and many dogs adjust to the missing limb without issue.  It would relieve her of the burden of carrying around a mostly useless limb, but it seemed a shame to do that if another way could be found.  The Total Hip Replacement (THR) would be the Cadillac option, but the price tag was scary.

The experts at MSU, and our own Dr. Moore agreed that the Femoral Head Ostectomy (or FHO) would provide here with the same improvement as the THR with far less surgical trauma – and of course less cost.

Sometimes a girl just needs her Dad

While we were conducting all of this research, PEPPER continued on demonstrating to us that she was a wonderful little girl.  She ran and played with the nearly boundless energy that only puppies can generate.  At the end of the night, she would be sore and tired – and would seek out Dad’s lap as the best possible place to rest and recover.

Two weeks ago, PEPPER had her FHO done.  In layman’s terms this means that the removed the ball from the top of the long leg bone (the femur) and stuck the resulting end into the scar tissue that has filled her hip socket.  She is still confined to crate rest and leash walks while she heals.  In a couple of weeks, we will begin a program of Physical Therapy to help her learn to use that leg again.

I cannot say enough good things about the folks at Save Our Setters.  They immediately stepped up to the plate, determined to do whatever was best for PEPPER.  Of course, doing the right thing is not without cost.  And Save Our Setters is a non-profit organization, totally dependent on donations to cover the costs of doing right by the dogs.

I put together this little video for use on PEPPER’s page on the Save Our Setters website.  Please take a couple of minutes and see our wonderful little girl in action.

Now, I’m not one to beg – but this time I am more than willing to beg.  If you’ve got a dollar or two to spare, please go to the Save Our Setters site and make whatever contribution you can.  I would consider it a personal favor, and PEPPER will certainly appreciate it.

Thank you!
Prop It Up!