Buffy turns Six

Well, today Buffy turned six-years-old. Okay, between you and me, her official birthday is July 18th, and today being the 19th we're actually one day off. This is referred to as a convenience birthday. Buffy, being now six, doesn't actually know the exact day of her birthday, so she still relies on us to tell her when she can open presents.

Since we were all working on Friday, the 18th, we shifted Buffy's reality to believing today, the 19th, is her birthday. We figure, at the most, we have one more year of being able to do this before she starts realizing the concept of a birth "date".

Buffy woke up early and in a wonderful mood, and ready to open presents. I will upload pictures here later of her wonderful bounty.

Tracy and the kids are upstairs cleaning the house for Buffy's birthday get-together (no party this year), and if all goes well Buffy will be up to her neck in friends later this afternoon. If not, then we have two contingency plans: a) Roller Skating or b) Chucky Cheese. I dread both, but for my Buffy anything is possible... :)

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY (one day removed) BUFFY!!!

Moofin's dead. She was hit by a car about 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday evening, June 29, 2008.

Moofin, for those of you who weren't fortunate enough to know her, was a three-year-old purebred Sheltie, born to our sire Justin (deceased this last year) and Jasmine (hit by a car Spring 2007). Justin and Jasmine had impeccable pedigrees and were champions.

Moofin had the pedigree, but no show points, as did her brother Hansel (killed by a car Fall 2007). She never whelped, nor participated in a single show. She simply acted lovingly towards everyone in our family, and everyone that came in contact with us (and consequently her).

Moofin was the star (pet) attraction at the Crane Family Reunion, a reunion for which our family traveled 4,200 miles through 11 states to attend. Moofin rode every mile. In the end, Moofin would have been our most traveled pet with 20 states under her belt. Some humans don't accomplish that much travel. Everyone at the reunion loved Moofin, petted her and in some way, as were all of us...they were touched by her. There were countless children (and some adults) asking for chances to take her for a walk, pet her, give her water (and food). I think Moofin was in Heaven before she ever left this world.

In Heaven she, no doubt, is. A speeding car killed Moofin as Moofin strayed from her normal potty routine over to the mailboxes. She must have had one foot over the line. The car threw her 20 feet, the blood line showing her path. A single steel collar lay on the white line where the auto hit her. They never stopped. For our pets, Kentucky has been a cruel, dark and bloody land.


As I searched thousands of photos this evening looking for something that represented her spirit, I had great trouble finding just the right one, and settled on the one above. I have tens of photos where Moofin is running, full speed, at a blur, chasing something (in some cases, her brother Hansel; in others, it appears, just the air). Other photos were just poor representations of the wonderful spirit that was her. I'll continue to search, but this one will do for now.

Moofin, we miss you. The hole that your absence represents will not be filled anytime soon, if ever. We all loved you and considered you part of the family. Good-bye.

Another blog, another 50 gigabytes

We just returned from a 4200 mile adventure to 12 states, the most important being Idaho, which is where the Crane Family Reunion took place on Saturday, June 14th. We started out from our Old Kentucky home on Tuesday, June 10th, and didn't circle back home until Thursday, June 19th. We rented a beautiful Chrysler Town & Country that averaged 21.93 mpg (mostly highway driving) for the trip where, thankfully gas stayed a steady price of $3.99 per gallon throughout the twelve states we visited (including Kentucky itself). Those states included:

Kentucky
Indiana
Illinois
Missouri
Kansas
Colorado
Wyoming
Idaho
Montana
South Dakota (via Wyoming)
Minnesota
Wisconsin
...and then back home via Illinois and Indiana on the last day.

The trip cost seven video tapes and about two gigabytes of digital photographs (about 40% of which I tossed -- thank you, digital cameras!).

I'll be posting pictures up here as soon as I get my photos uploaded to Shutterfly. We have pictures from every state including some amazing shots from a stormy sky (Kansas City, MO), waves of wheat (somewhere in the middle of Kansas), the Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs, CO), Rocky Mountains (CO), wind (Wyoming), windmills (Wyoming), bunnies and antelope (Wyoming), Crane Family Reunion shots (Idaho), water falls (Idaho Falls, ID), the Idaho Falls Temple (Idaho Falls, ID), moose (northern Idaho), moose and an Elk herd (Southwestern Montana), etc.

I need to get to bed, but this is just the first of many postings to come. Ciao!

JEFFnTRACY