Lily Willie Grew Her Angel Wings

Our little Lily grew her angel wings this morning and flew off to the rainbow bridge. I like to think of her meeting Chichi and Tiny and Emma and Sugar and Alfred and Holly and Baxter there. What a wonderful crew of old soldiers to be with. Of course, they aren't old soldiers when they get there. They will be young and healthy and running again.

She came to us from Southeast Pug Rescue (who are no longer in business.) I picked her up in Atlanta on the way home from the bloggy meetup in Blowing Rock, NC., back in 2011. She rode on my lap in the backseat the whole way home. She was a little pug and had some issues that seemed to be anxiety related. She fit in well here. I think it helped that I work from home and was not gone too much. She circled me a lot for years, but that calmed down over time. She loved to run and bark with the other pugs. Later in life she developed what we called a "yowl." She would yowl when one of us would drive up after being gone. She would yowl whenever the other pugs would be barking at the front door if they heard a knock or the wind blow a acorn or something and make a sound against the door.

She liked a good chew but didn't really care for stuffed toys. I bought a purple soft blanket in Atlanta before picking her up to bring her home on. I still have the blanket and use it on the bed along with Emma's pink blanket that I brought her home on.

Her back legs have always given her trouble and we knew over time that there would be a day that would come that would either be surgery or let her go. She had developed a problem with her spine over the past few years. She was not walking much and lately falling a lot. I carried her a lot and picked her up because she could not get up a step at all. It has progressively gotten worse and since Christmas, she had gone downhill fast. She stopped being able to relieve herself at all this week. At her age and with expense of surgery and care, we felt like her quality of life would not improve much if she survived it.

We sure will miss her, and I will miss her so much because she followed me everywhere and I was always making sure she could get where she was going. My heart feels like a big puzzle and now this is the 8th piece missing but also eight pieces fulfilled of a puzzle not finished yet. I am so thankful that I was able to have her to take care of for this time of her life and mine. I am so thankful for each pug that has come to us over the past 23 years.


This is the last picture that I have of her.

Emma Lee earned her Angel Wings

My Little Emma Lee earned her angel wings on October 24th, 2015. She was a mama's girl, but she also was a bit of a daddy's girl, too. She came into our life in January of 2008. My pug and blog friend Chalica, who now lives in Colorado, pointed her out to me at the rescue site of Southeast Pug Rescue. Sadly, they are no longer in existence. I will forever be thankful that she pointed her out. She has a daughter by that name and I just loved that name, too. I have a friend that recently had a baby and also named her Emma. I contacted the rescue and we were checked out by them and got cleared and given the go ahead to go to Jacksonville, Florida, where Emma was being fostered to pick her up. Suzy and I went on a Friday and visited with a friend of mine (same one that now had a baby this summer named Emma). We went shopping at Target and bought a pink softie blanket to bring Emma home in. I still have that blanket and it is special to me. She always used that blanket on the bed and we called it her blanket. Now it's my blanket! You can see the blanket a little bit in this picture. This is her riding in Suzy's lap on the way home. It was a rainy day.



The lady's house that was the foster for pugs had a house full of pugs. She and her mom lived together. There were a lot of pugs and she pointed Emma out. Emma was thin and had thin legs and a dark face. She kept wanting the older lady to pick her up and hold her. She said that Emma liked to lay down on top of you when you would lay down on the bed. And sure enough, when I laid down on the bed to read that nigh she was right on top of me. She ALWAYS did this, and I always took time to talk to her. Then she would eventually move over or I would move her over so that I could read. I would sing to her, too. I would call her different nicknames. E, E Lee, EmmaLee, FattyMac, MacKieMae, Rudy, BooBoo, so many that I can't remember them all. This is one of the first walks that she went on when we got home.
I have a video of her when she came into the house that first day when she met Sugar. Sugar was the only pug we had at the time. We had lost Chichi and Tiny and Baxter in 2007. I watched that video today and it was so sweet. Sugar was truly excited to have another pug in the house. I watched several videos today of Emma back then. She would screech when I would come home from being out and screech when I made their dinner. It was so funny.

She was such a loving little pug and not scared of anything. She loved me and did not like to be away from me. She would follow me everywhere in the house. She lost her hearing a few years ago. And as her health declined, she slept a lot. If I left the room and she was asleep, if she woke up, she would come look for me. I had to help her up even one step. I had to put her on and off the bed each time. I carried her around a good bit. I loved her so much and she loved me. Of course, I love them all but she was so attached to me. Recently, I had been away for about a week helping my parents and when I got back I was in the kitchen cooking. She was on the couch in the living room and could see me from her seat. If I got out of her line of sight, she would bark. She had never done that before. She just wanted to make sure she could see me. It was so sweet to me.
Here is Emma and her cousin Jack back in 2009. I think this was Christmas Day.

This is Alfred and Emma back in 2010

This is Lily and Emma Christmas 2011.

Another picture of Emma and Sugar. These two would ride in the stroller together. Emma would rather walk but would not want to turn around to come home. She would rather keep walking straight ahead.

Emma just sitting outside.

This is a picture I took earlier this year in May of them all on the bed. They loved to all get a nap on the bed. They loved the softie blankets to lay on. Emma always had her pink softie blanket that she came home with from the beginning.

This is the last picture I took of Emma on October 9th of this year. She was sitting under the table in my office on the pug bed. She spent most of her time between that bed and another one when I was in this room working.


On Saturday, October 24, 2015, I was walking to the front gates at Magic Kingdom at Disney World when my phone rang. It was Ed telling me that it was time to take Emma to the vet and send her to the Rainbow Bridge. I knew time was getting close. I had seen it coming for a long time. We had x-rays from the vet that showed things going on internally that would not get better and at her age could not be operated on with a good outcome. Emma had been on medication to help with some discomfort. She was 13 or 14 years old we think. I knew before I left on vacation that this was a possibility but it still is so hard to let go. I had cried so many times weeks before this happened knowing that it was going to happen. So when the call came, I just stood there and cried again and told Ed to kiss her and tell her her mama loves her and she's been a good girl. So tears were off and on at Magic Kingdom all day. So glad I could wear sunglasses. Whenever I see someone with tears at Magic Kingdom I feel so bad for them because you know it's something bad when you are crying there.

I came home and Lily and Molly and Gigi were glad to see me. And Lily misses Emma the most because the two of them stayed with me all the time. Gigi and Molly are daddy's girls and sit with him all the time when he's home. It's very different without my little shadow here following me and always looking for me. She would sleep a lot and when she would wake up she would always look up to see where if I was still here. I miss her so much. All of us who have dogs or cats in our lives are so lucky to take care of them and have them to love and that they love us in their own ways.

Thank you to all my pug and blog friends out there who still stop by and read this old blog...even those who don't leave a comment. Times have changed and interests have changed and pugs stay the same!

Disney World April Trip Part 5

Tuesday is the last full day of our trip and it was a rainy morning. We headed over to Hollywood Studios to ride Tower of Terror a couple of times. We stayed over there for a little while and decided to come back and I was tired and decided to stay in the room for a while. Suzy decided to go over to Magic Kingdom for a while. She came back after a few hours and I just didn't feel like doing much because my feet just hurt too bad. She decided to go back to Magic Kingdom. After a little while, I decided to walk over to Epcot and go to Germany and get the Noodle Gratin for dinner. Then I went to Japan and bought some cards. I like to spend some time in that store in Japan looking at the pretty things.
I wanted to get the chocolate chip cookie that I always get before leaving Magic Kingdom but I wasn't going back to Magic Kingdom this trip. They sell it at the Boardwalk Bakery, so I walked over there and got it. I also picked up a donut for Suzy in Epcot since she said she wanted one and she was not going to make it back over to Epcot in time to get one.

I now remember that Sunday night we had decided not to eat a decent meal but went to Beaches and Cream and had ice cream for dinner. I had a brownie sundae and Suzy had the No Way Jose.

I need to mention that Lisa Reese of Pixie and Pirate Destinations made all of the arrangements for our vacation. She is a great Disney travel agent. And her services are free of charge to her clients. And she is knowledgeable on all things Disney. I only have to send her an email and whatever I need is taken care of.

I saved a lot of the receipts from the trip.


I found some new socks that I hope will take care of the blister problems on my toes and feet. We'll soon find out. I have some new shoes, too. Can't wait to get back down to Disney and trick or treat!

Disney World trip April part 4

We started out on Monday going to Magic Kingdom. I get anxiety when the bus gets too crowded, so the crowd started building and we decided to take a taxi over to the Magic Kingdom. We didn't tell the guy where to drop us and I just thought he would drop us near the Contemporary like last time we took a taxi, but this guy took us to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We then rode the Ferry Boat over. It was a nice ride and we were able to see the opening show for Magic Kingdom.


It was a bit of a rainy day. We rode Small World and the Seven Dwarfs' Mine Train and Peter Pan. This was the first time I had ridden Peter Pan. It took awhile to get through the line but there is a bit to see while waiting.
We had lunch reservations at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Village Resort. So we took the friendship boat from Magic Kingdom over there. It was a nice ride and we saw the new DVC villas that were just finished. This is one of our favorite things to eat for lunch at Disney. It's the Kona burger. I sure wish they would offer the O'Hana bread pudding there for lunch, but they don't. I am going to ask next time I'm there just to be sure. We walked around the resort and looked in the gift shop. We headed back to Magic Kingdom on the friendship boat and Suzy stayed at Magic Kingdom to ride rides and look around and I took the bus back to the Beach Club to get off my feet.
Suzy finally came back to the room and then we left again and went back to Magic Kingdom to spend the evening there. We rode Haunted Mansion and Pirates and Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. We stood in the line for Space Mountain for what seemed like forever. It was almost the entire queue. I don't think I will ever do that again. I'll probably ride it again. I don't like that it was so dark, though. Suzy didn't have dinner that night so she got a wrap over at the Beach Club snack place/gift shop when we got back to the hotel that night and it was pretty late. I don't remember what I had that evening.

Disney World April part 3

Sunday we started out at Animal Kingdom. It was extra magic hours early there. We have our usual route that we like to take once the gate opens. We rush over to Dinosaur to get on that ride. We don't get fast passes at this park because there's not much that we ride here. We like to save fast passes for the other parks. So we took off to dino land and rode Dinosaur after it opened finally. It took a while. Something was wrong with it and I think it was close to 45 minutes before they opened the doors to go in. I think we rode it 5 times in a row since we knew we were not going to be coming back to this park again on this trip.

Then we go over to Primeval Whirl. This is just a tradition for us. It's a crazy little ride. You get banged up on it. The seats are small...especially for me. There are seats for 3 people but no way are 3 people going to fit in it with me on that ride. We rode it a few times in a row.
We rode the safari truck and saw the animals. That's always a fun thing to do and gets you off your feet.

We ate lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. We ate outside and saw a little bunny rabbit near by and also the birds gathered around.

We went back to the hotel and I know that I took a nap because my feet were killing me. I think Suzy went over to Epcot and walked around. She does not sit still while at Disney World. I kept notes during this trip but did not do a good job. No notes for Sunday evening and no more pictures for the day so I have no idea what we did the rest of the day. I'm thinking we went to Epcot and walked around and rode rides and watched the fireworks.

Disney World April Part 2

On Saturday we took the friendship boat over to Hollywood Studios and Suzy rode Tower of Terror for the first time ever! I'm so glad she was able to ride it. She was a bit apprehensive but she wanted to do it again. So we rode it again another day. Now it's one of our favorite rides.

We walked around and met up with a friend of Suzy's who was there with her son and grandchild. We stopped by Starring Rolls Bakery. This is my favorite place to get a cupcake. My favorite cupcake is the Butterfinger cupcake. Here it is. I cannot wait to get my hands on this cupcake when we get to Disney. Wish they had it other places besides Hollywood Studios.

We left Hollywood Studios and went back to the room. My feet were hurting from having the blisters. We then went over to Epcot and walked around and ate some of the food at the Flower and Garden show. We stopped in Germany and Suzy got some of the caramel popcorn that is so good. I watched the college kids from Germany make the caramel apples while Suzy was making her purchase.

I had these empanadas from Mexico for lunch.

We walked around Epcot and then went back to the hotel to get ready to go to dinner and then go to the Magic Kingdom. We ate dinner at Biergarten in Germany in Epcot. This is the first time we had eaten here. It's a buffet and a stage show with music. There is tiered seating and you sit with other people at your table that you don't know if you don't have enough people in your party to fill up the seats at the table. We enjoyed the food and the experience of the show but not so much sitting at the table with strangers.

We left Germany and went to the Magic Kingdom and stayed there until 1:00 in the morning. We rode Thunder and Pirates and Carousel and People Mover. And some of those we rode more than once. It was extra magic hours if you were staying in a Disney Resort, which means you got to stay in the park longer than people who were not staying in the resorts. There was a couple behind us in line at one of the rides and asked us to get them on the ride by tell them that they were with us as guest staying at the resort since it was after hours and they should not have been in the park. We told them no, but the person behind them lied and told the person monitoring the ride that they were with them. There is a Disney employee who checks to make sure you eligible for extra magic hours. So the entire time in line they were being rude and almost just harassing at times. The girl was drunk or high and her boyfriend had to hold her back at times because she was being aggressive to Suzy. I told her I was going to report her. She still called me ugly names (like I haven't heard that before.) This girl looked to be in her late 30s....not a teenager. Just crazy behavior for someone at Disney. Her boyfriend was not much better than she was. There were no Disney employees in sight as we snaked along in line waiting to get on the ride or I would have told them what was happening. It's so aggravating to go on vacation to a happy place and have to deal with drunks or druggies and nasty, rude, aggressive people.

Disney World Trip April 2015 Part 1

My sister and I took a trip to Disney World back in April this year. I started writing about the trip earlier this year but somehow I corrupted the file and it ruined the formatting of the blog. I had to delete the post and start over again. So here is the trip report.

We went on a five-night trip to Disney World. We left a little after 3:00 in the morning on Friday April 24th. We got there about 11:00 or so. We got a little lost at Lake City when we stopped for gas but didn't take long to find our way again. We checked into the Beach Club Resort but our room was not ready. Just left our bags with them and gave them my cell number for them to text us when the room was ready. We left there and went to Epcot. The Flower and Garden Show was happening at this time so we were glad to be able to sample the food that was available.

Here is Suzy after leaving the hotel walking over to the back gate of Epcot.


The next few pictures will be of the food we ate at Epcot during the Flower & Garden event. This was not all eaten in one day but over the course of our trip.






Here are some pictures of the plants, flowers and topiaries that were in place at Epcot. They were so pretty.



We visited Club Cool and rode Space Ship Earth and Test Track twice. I bought a t-shirt in Mouse Gears that has a cute saying on it. "Please Stand Clear of My Vacation." That's kind of a play on what the announcement is on the monorail when it tells you to stand clear of the doors. We got a text finally that the room was ready. We went back and got the room. It was on the first floor with an outside door and face the lake with a nice view. Lucky to get that room as it was not a far walk to Epcot by going out a door beside the patio. We then left and went back to Epcot and had dinner at England of fish and chips, which is kind of a tradition for us. Stopped by Club Cool again and then made our way to the monorail and rode over to Magic Kingdom. We rode Pirates and Big Thunder and Small Word and Splash Mountain and Goofy's Barnstormer and People Mover. We had a Pina Colada slushy in Adventure Land and it was so good. We left at midnight. Bad news was I got two huge blisters on my feet. I wore some walking sandals that I thought would not hurt my feet but they really HURT my feet. And the pain only got worse the rest of the week.