Tippy Toes

Tippy Toes
Came into our lives May 27, 2007
Left this world - September 29, 2008


My baby is gone! I find it almost impossible to deal with the fact that I made the choice to have this precious little girl put to sleep, but I had to do it. I can't believe the strong attachment we had - right from the beginning, and it never wavered. She loved me and I loved her.

She brought so much joy to our lives. It took about a month or two before she trusted Bill enough to let him pet her. Every time he reached down to her, she just ducked her head. We've always wondered what kind of mistreatment she had at the hands of some man someplace. But, she finally got to the place where she knew that he wouldn't hurt her either, and then she was fine.

She'd sit in the kitchen when we were eating supper in a spot where she could see us both, and then look at me and then look at Bill and then at me and then at Bill to see who would cave first and give her something yummy from the table. (It was usually him) After we were all through eating, THEN she'd go to her bowl and eat HER dinner. Guess by the time I was clearing the table she figured out that treats were over.

She loved to ride on the buggy with us. She'd sit there with her ears blowing in the wind just enjoying the breeze. One time I took off a little fast, and she slipped right under the back of the seat and ended up standing in the back part of the buggy where the golf clubs would go.

Tippy was well trained from the time we got her. She knew to go outside to potty, she didn't mind baths - too much anyway, she was used to being brushed, and loved being held. Wherever was, was her favorite place to be. If I was at my desk, she was underneath at my feet. If I was playing the piano, she was there under the piano bench. If I was playing my accordion or autoharp, she was under my chair. If I went in to talk to Bill in his "wild room", pretty soon here she came and laid down where I was sitting.

The past couple of months she started going downhill. I never knew how old she was, so blighfully convinced myself that she was probably only 9 or 10. Still several good years in her. But she got a sinus infection so I took her to the vet. After checking her over, he told me that she was old! Probably 12 - 13 and maybe older. Then I knew that her days were numbered. He also told me that she was virtually blind in both eyes - one I think a little bright light would make it through judging from all the wincing she did when she got outside in the sun. The other was completely sightless. Then it made sense why she fell down the staircase a few weeks before that. She couldn't see the steps and just missed one - she rolled all the way to the bottom.

The last couple of weeks really saw her condition deteriorate, but I had such a hard time making the phone call to set up an appointment with the vet. I know she was hurting, and not a happy little dog like she used to be, but I couldn't face my life without her in it. But sometimes we have to make the hard decision, and after asking God to show me what was the right thing to do, I know it was for the best. I watched her all day Sunday, and it seemed like everything said, "I'm ready to go." She couldn't even come in the house across the threshold without stumbling and falling.

The reason we even came to have her was that someone from Oklahoma City brought her down her to our church in a pet carrier and left her under the drive-thru with a note reading: "Please give a good home. Owner had to go to a rest home. Her name is Tippy Toes." They will never know what a precious little bundle of joy they discarded. But, I tried to give her a good home, and I hope that her last year and four months was happy. I know my life has been made infinitely richer from having her in it.

I'll always love my Tippy Toes. She's resting in our front yard in a nice wooden box that Bill built for me to bury her in. She deserved a good home in death as well.

Sadly and with a big hole in my heart I bid farewell to my precious Tippy.

Tippy's Mama

Fresh Carrot Casserole

Hi again,
I haven't posted a recipe for ages it seems, so thought I'd give you something to try. If you are among the unfortunate masses who DON'T have a copy of the "famous" Babcock's Store Cookbook", this is for you. Those of you with the book can look on page 20 for the recipe.

I made this to take to a funeral dinner a few weeks ago, and didn't get to try it then. I always HATE to take a new dish someplace and not really know how it actually tastes. Unfortunately, sometimes my "evil" self takes over and I just think, "oh, well, I really don't know these folks anyway." TERRIBLE attitude, and I apologize!!!

Anyway, I made it again after that and took it to our First Sunday fellowship meal last month. So, I did get a taste, and, whooeee!!!! It's REALLY good. I think you'll like it - A Lot!

One little variation I made was when boiling the carrots, I boiled them in "salted" water. The recipe didn't call for that but I'm not overly fond of flat carrots.

So, here's the recipe for you.

4 1/2 cups, or a 2-lb. bag of fresh carrots. (I like to use the baby carrots. All peeled, and measured What could be easier!"
1/2 cup Velveeta Cheese
1 stick margarine or butter (butter is better)
2 med. onions, diced
2 tbsp. flour
Croutons

Boil the carrots and onions until tender. Save 1 cup of the carrot water. Drain the rest from the carrots and put them in a 2 qt. casserole dish. Melt the velveeta in the saved water. Add 2 tbsp. of flour and the margarine or butter. Stir until all blended together. Pour over carrots in the casserole. Top with croutons and dot with butter. Bake 1 hour at 400.

This is really delicious.

Hope you like it, too.

JB

A Little of This and A Little of That

Hello all,
I thought I'd write a bit and let you know what's been going on here in SE Oklahoma. The first thing is we are enjoying some GORGEOUS fall weather this past week or so, and it just keeps coming. We only got about 1 1/2 inches of rain off Hurricane Ike (we were expecting 8-10) so that was a blessing. No major wind either, although the driveway had some dead branches laying in it when Bill went down to feed that next morning.

We currently have two extra horses down at the barn. We basically bought a Halflinger from our pastor's mom. His name is Joe. He's a pretty nice little horse. But was lame when we brought him home so had to make a trip to the vet to see what was going on. He had "gravels". A term we'd never heard of, but basically it comes when they get infection in the hoof wall which gravitates up through the hoof and into the ankle, and if left untreated, can make it necessary to amputate the leg. Or, what really happens is you have to put the horse down. Luckily, this was caught in time, and with some soaking, antibiotics and and three day stay in the animal "hospital" at the vets, he was on the mend. Bill is still giving him antibiotics on his feed, and soaking his foot in Epsom Salts twice a day. He takes a bucket of warm water down there and puts his foot in it for as long as he'll hold still. He told me that the other day, when he set the bucket down, Joe just picked his foot up and put it in it. Usually, it's a little more of a struggle than that. Come to find out the horse has been foundered, so don't know if he's going to work out for what we were wanting him for or not. Bill thinks he could pull a little buggy but the vet said he should never be taken on a trail ride. So, we're keeping him for a few more weeks to see how he gets, and then will probably sell him. We have a neighbor who wants him to help train some of his horses to pull a wagon.

The 4th horse down at the barn as of yesterday belongs to our granddaughter, horse girl. She trained and then sold our Cinnamon, who she got from us last spring some time, so thought she'd try that again. So, she bought a 2 yr. old to train and re-sell, and she also bought a colt. He's not weaned so the seller is weaning him this week. Bill's got to take her horse to the vet for Coggins, shots, and all that stuff that has to be done before Lacie can take the horse to Texas. We're getting to know that vet pretty well at this point.

She'll probably be up next week to get her investments, so hopefully we won't have extras too much longer.

I've been dealing with the "horrible" possibility of putting my little Tippy to sleep. She's pretty well blind now and gets lost in the house, and kind of wanders around in the yard, and she can barely get around. Her legs don't even hold her up on the linoleum anymore. She gets out in the kitchen, and when she stands still, her front legs just start sliding out from under her. I feel so sorry for her, but the thought of making that decision to end her little life is just killing me. I don't know if I can do it or not. Unless you've had to do this for a much-loved pet, I don't think you can understand. I don't think I ever understood how HARD it would be. I just thought she had a few more years left. But the vet said she's at least 13 and in little dog years, that's pretty old.

This Friday I have to go in for "oral surgery". I went to the dentist a couple weeks ago, and he said a back molar that's been bothering me has decayed badly underneath the crown that's on it, and there's no way it will come out in one piece. So he suggested an oral surgeon in Ft. Smith do it as it will have to be taken out in pieces. Then I guess he'll make a bridge to fill in the gap where the tooth currently is. "Oh how I love dental work!!!" Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

So, that's what I've got ahead of me this week. I hope it goes a little easier than the surgery favorite sister had to have to remove her wisdom tooth. She hurt from that ordeal for months. But I don't think this one is quite that bad.

Well, that's about all that's happening down here. I guess it's fall now, so we can expect cool evenings, and beautiful days, and spectacular colors soon. We are just going to have to start doing a little riding. It's been quite a while, and this is the nicest time of the year to do it, so "Heigh-ho, Silver".

JB

Mom's Story: Final Note

Well, I said last time that I would post the final note I had written at the end of her story, so here it is. I hope you all have enjoyed reading her story. I know there would have been a lot more to it had she had more time to think about it, and we could have gone over it together. It's one of those things that I mistakenly thought we'd have plenty of time to do.

How ironic, that we put things off till later, knowing full well that there might not be a "later", but somehow we never really think about someone we love not being here anymore. I guess that feeling of loss never really goes away, no matter how many years pass. I remember Mother saying that she still missed her Ma and it was 30+ years since she died.

Donna's and my only joy in this entire situation is knowing that she's in heaven. We know that because she was confident in her standing with Jesus, and said from the get-go that if He was ready for her to come home, then she was ready to go. And we know she was. She was a wonderful example of a Christian - not only in word, but in practice. She lived the Christian life everyday, loving people, showing kindness without partiality. No, she wasn't perfect, none of us are, but she was forgiven and knew where she would live for eternity. Donna and I look forward to seeing both her and Daddy again, and meeting a brother and sister who we've only been told about. What a reunion that will be!!

Here's "The Final Note".

*******

FINAL NOTE: by Joan (Howard) Babcock

Sunday evening, Sept.10, 2006, after supper, Mom started yelling that she was having chest pains. She had thrown up and was hurting pretty bad. I called the paramedics and they came right away and brought the ambulance. We took her to Mena Hospital where they treated her for a heart attack. They wanted to transport her to Ft. Smith Hospital to see a cardiologist there but had to get the pain stopped and her blood pressure regulated before they did. That finally happened at 7:30 the next morning. Our pastor rode in the ambulance with her and me, and stayed with me all night until she was transported to Ft. Smith.

She didn’t want any open heart surgery or surgery of any kind but did agree to having stints put in if there was a need for that. She had the angioplasty Monday evening and when the doctor came out he said that her three main heart arteries were almost completely blocked. He was able to insert some stints but the surgery really weakened her condition.

Donna and Wil started toward Ft. Smith on Tuesday after there didn’t seem to be any improvement. Bill and I came home to sleep on Tuesday night as I’d been up since Sunday morning and had to get some rest. We got a call about 2:30 AM from the nurse in ICU that her heart rate had dropped and I needed to come up. About 30 minutes before we got there, Mom died on Sept. 13^th. 2006 with the ICU nurse holding her hand. I called Donna to head to Wisconsin, and after calling Twohig’s in Campbellsport, Bill and I headed to the airport.

Mom’s funeral was Saturday, the 16^th, at the First Baptist Church and then after we returned to Oklahoma, where we had a Memorial Service at the Octavia Baptist Church on Sept. 23^rd.

She lived with us for 1 year and 9 months, and left a huge empty spot in our lives. Everyone that knew her loved her. She had friends everywhere. I know she is enjoying all the reunions in heaven but we sure do miss her here.

Signed,

Joan Babcock

Mom's Story - Installment #21

Well, today it's been exactly two years since we lost Mom. I still find myself thinking of things I've got to be sure to tell her, or heading to the phone to give her a call. It's been a little easier this year - as long as I don't think about it too long - (this is probably not helping) but we miss her and wish she was still down here with us.

This is the last post of her story. I wanted to post it on the anniversary of her going home to heaven, and it worked out that way.

We're waiting for hurricane Ike to get here - at least what we're going to get of Hurricane Ike. There's a possibility of high winds and lots of rain, so we'll see what happens this afternoon.

We've had some adventures over the past week or so that I'll try to get busy and tell you about in upcoming days. Hope you enjoy the rest of Mom's story.

****

In May Joan and Bill got two horses for them to ride. They ride whenever they can. We got a telephone call from Butch and Judy and they plan to come for a visit on the 29^th. of May on their way to Lynette’s surprise 60^th. birthday party.

On Mother’s Day we took Okla Kirkpatrick from my Sunday School Class along to the Catfish King restaurant in Idabel after church. We had a good dinner and Okla was glad to have a place to go as her family hat just been to visit so weren’t there on Mother’s Day.

Delores called and said that Sharon said that they were coming to visit the 9^th. or 10^th. of June. Joan and I went to Espye’s on the 16^th. to practice All the players were there and it was good to see all of them again.

May 29^th, 2006 Butch and Judy Schickert came here. We had a really fun time but it was just too short. Maybe they’ll come back again when they can stay longer.

On June 3^rd. Lacie came up to go riding with Bill and Joan. They spent most of the morning and a while in the afternoon riding. They left the horses saddled up as they planned to ride again after supper. I cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, and the three of them went riding on a new road behind the church. On the way back, Joan’s horse, Blaze, got poked with a sharp stick and jerked back. Joan fell off and landed on a flat rock on her back. It knocked the wind out of her. Lacie rode Big Guy to the house and left him in the yard and got Joan’s car and went to get her. Bill told Lacie to take the horses to the pasture and he took Joan down to see Debbie, the paramedic who lives in the house by the creek where they used to live. She put oxygen on her face and then they took her to Mena Hospital to see if anything was broken. This was about 9:00 PM. The X-rays showed 6 cracked ribs and they sent her to Ft. Smith in case one punctured a lung. On Sunday morning Bill & I went up to see her, and she was full of pain medicine and couldn’t come home until they saw the doctor. Bill went back up on Monday and she came home Tuesday evening. She was really hurting but could walk OK.

The Adlers and Kannebergs came on the 9^th. and helped a lot with the food and stuff. Joan went to church on Sunday but didn’t play that week. The company stayed unitl the following Wednesday and we had a lot of fun. Sharon and Stan and Bill went fishing a lot, and Delores and Ed and I got to do a lot of visiting. Joan was getting around but slowly. She and Stan played music a couple nights and acted crazy. They made a cassette tape of it for us. They left on Wednesday to go to Gassville by Marty and Sylvia.. They called that they were home on the 18^th.

On Father’s Day Elicia and Phillip came up. They got here on Saturday. When we were doing the supper dishes, a big glass bowl that Elicia was washing slipped out of her hand and when she tried to catch it, it broke and cut her little finger bad. We called Debbie to come and look at it. She cleaned it up and bandaged it, and the next day it was really hurting her a lot. We went out to eat at Mena at the New China. Bill really like that place.

Ann and Kenneth from the singings brought over 2 five gallon pails of sweet corn to freeze. Bill and Joan went to his 50 year class reunion in Heavener, so we did corn the next day.

The week of July 15^th. – 22^nd. Bill and Tommy Phillips took a fishing trip to Colorado. They had a really good time and by this time Joan was well enough to do the feeding of the horses.

On July 22^nd. They took Gary Dupont on the helicopter to the hospital. He fell off a ladder and broke his hip really bad.

Shorty Howard called on Sept. 1^st., 2006 that Danny was in the hospital in Falls Church, VA on life support. She called on the 2^nd. that he had died. Nancy was there and she is going back to Illinois with her for a month or so.

Today, Sept. 9^th., Lacie came up from Texas to ride horses with Bill and spend the night. Around noon today 3 guys from the Octavia Fire department, Steve, and Norman, and Donald, came with a Booster Certificate plaque for their appreciation of what I gave the Fire Department in 2005.

I got news that Doris Donaldson had moved from Lehigh Acres, Florida to Milwaukee. She’s at Luthern Manor in Wauwatosa and is doing well health-wise.

******

Well, that's the last that Mom wrote. In the following post, which I will post in the next few days, I wrote a Final Note to tell you what those last few days were like.

Thanks for reading along with me.

Joan

Mom's Story - Installment #20

Well, I guess it's time for a bit more of the story. Things have been about the same around here. We didn't get a lot of rain off Gustav but did get about 3+ inches - nice and slow so it was a good soaker and was great on the grass seed Bill had just planted.

My poor little Tippy is really getting feeble. She's about totally blind now and runs into the walls and the side of the house when she's outside. Sometimes it looks like she can barely walk but then she'll run across the music room floor when I come in from outside and call her, so I think she's not too cripply yet.

Bill went horseback riding this afternoon for a while and he caught a possum in the feed room. Something has been getting into stuff lately down at the barn, and the cat won't even stay down on the floor - she perches up on the beams. Someone told Bill that if he put something good to eat in the bottom of a plastic trash can and then laid a board up against it so whatever could climb up and get in the can, he wouldn't be able to get back out, and sure enough! This morning he had a possum in the trash can. Hopefully, there aren't anymore down there, but he was going to rebait the can again anyway. I think it was a possum who got the kittens this last time. Mama Kitty was pretty stove up for a while after that encounter. We didn't know if she'd make it or not.

Well, so much for the Octavia Babcock happenings. Here's some more story.

*******

I went to see the hip doctor in Hot Springs, AR the first week in December. He said the hip was shot and would need to be replaced if I was going to walk again. Surgery was scheduled for Dec. 20^th.

On the 17^th. Joan had 10 ladies over for a birthday party. It was a lot of fun and then on the 19^th. we went to Hot Springs to check into the hospital. Surgery was scheduled for early the morning of the 20^th. Pastor Ed got there just before they were going to wheel me in. He stayed with Joan until I was back in my room. Joan stayed in my room with me at the hospital until I could come home. We came home on the 23^rd. of December, the Friday before Christmas.

I couldn’t get out of bed by myself or back in for a couple weeks so Joan had an intercom so she could hear me call when I needed to get up during the night. She had to help me get my feet back into the bed as I couldn’t lift my legs and keep that hip straight.

On Jan. 3^rd. I had my first followup with the doctor and he said all was going well. Went back on the 31^st. and then started seeing the doctor in Mena for the rest of the follow up appointments. The home health girls came to the house to take my blood pressure and take care of the incision. And then a therapist started coming a few times a week for 6 weeks. She made me get up and walk with her holding a belt and I had to do breathing exercises. I didn’t like them.

On April Fool’s day we went to a cake walk and supper at the Octavia Fire Station. I wasn’t going to go, but Joan thought I should get out, and the food was good.

On April 14^th. Joan was 61. Bill got her a vanity table and chair for her room. We went to Smithville for dinner as we were going out on Easter.

Sharon Hadley wrote a note to me that they were heading to Wisconsin but weren’t stopping here. She’s getting her ankle fixed in May.

The Muskego relatives are coming for Easter so that will be fun. They got here Saturday the 15^th. and left on Monday. We had a really good time We went to the Chinese Restaurant – all 7 of us in the Mercury. Sunday was Sharon Anderson’s 55^th. birthday. It was a lot of fun and I can walk with out the cane but I have to be careful.

Joan and Becky Phillips went to Baton Rouge, LA the end of April to see Andre Rieu, and Phillip and Lacie and her friend came up to ride horses. Bill took me to church and came and picked me up, but didn’t go because of the company. Joan got back home around 9:00 PM Sunday night. It was a long weekend without her.

Well, that's the end for this time.

JB