Cheryl Beckham

Years ago I must have expressed out loud in front of someone, somewhere, something about the cuteness of a frog lawn ornament, that had caught my eye, for some reason. I didn’t even buy the frog, but some how that was to be the start of the many, many frogs that have now seemingly taken over my house and lawn. Word got out and frogs are a constant, but welcomed gesture from folks, as a gift, a token, a present, a tip (after all, I am a bar tender, and we receive quite a variety of tips now and then) from virtually everywhere from all types of people that I have/had a relationship with over the years. I must have a frog made out of any and every type of material that is known to man, in all kinds of sizes, and stances.

For Christmas I was given a frog aquarium kit, which requires a check to be sent in with the order for the frogs to come in the mail, or I could go down to one of the many pet stores that have popped up all over the place in the past few years. I’m sure at least one will have baby frogs for sale, it seems like the more humane way to receive new members of the family. But going to the pet stores, any of them like PetCo, Puppy Palace, and Petsmart always leaves me with me wallet emptied out and my heart broken from not being able to take home more of the critters that are all there, just waiting for a home, and knowing that their chances of being purchased and treated adequately highly reduces most of their survival rates.

One of the places that I try not to go in to are the A.S.P.C.A. and Animal Shelters, I have never left one yet with out crying like a baby and feeling like a piece of scum, and dirty. Not something that I enjoy or look forward to doing, ever.

My father called me last night to tell me that their neighbor’s dog had once again raided my parents chickens. This has been going on for some time and this time the dog was caught “red handed” with my Dad’s prize rooster “Red” and my brother saw the episode and quickly got his rifle and shot the dog, dead in it’s tracks once and for all.

I was surprised to hear that the neighbors weren’t raising hell with them for the shooting though. They loved that dog and I’m sure that they are none to happy to hear the news. I hope that nothing comes about between them, they have been good neighbors for a long time, and have become good friends of the family, it would be a shame for something like this to ruin a good relationship.

A few years ago I was in Phoenix for a job interview. The company was a new franchising effort and they were staffing up. The open position was to replace someone who was leaving the company, and we hit it off great.Sitting in her office I noticed a pair of strange but cutely unique stuffed animals and a box logo’d with their likeness. I asked about them and she told me they were a gift from one of the franchisees, a new line of Hallmark Cards greeting cards and gifts. They are a pink kitty and a green bunny, named Hoops and YoYo, who are as funny as all get out.

So I went online later and looked for the Hoops and YoYo line and found a huge amount of free e-mail greeting cards and gift items for sale. They are hilarious, check them out sometime!

My daughter convinced me that she was capable and willing to take care of a dog, so for last Christmas I broke down and gave her a puppy, a 6 week old male Pug, that she named Scooter. I have to say that Scooter is one of the smartest and coolest dog that I have ever had the pleasure of being around. But like most puppies, there is the occasional accident that happens in the house and it always seems to happen on the carpet. Sometimes when I walk into the house I can tell and smell that we have a puppy and it is a major turn off, so I need to do something about it before it gets any worse and my Dad starts getting on us about the puppy.

Since I turn to the Internet for just about everything these days I figured that I would look for some odor removal tips and see if there is something out there that I wasn’t aware of. I’ve all ready tried everything that I know of and have asked around at work as well. One of my customers told me about a local company called The Steam Team that did wonders for his mothers carpets, he was even kind enough to send me the link http://www.thesteamteam.com/pet-odor-treatment.shtml  that took me directly where I needed to go to see what this company has to offer and what they are all about.

I’ve given them a shout out and they are scheduled to come out to the house on my next day off which is Tuesday of next week. If they do a good job my Dad is interested in them cleaning the rest of the carpet in the house which hasn’t been done in several years and it certainly could use it. So we will see how it pans out and hopefully we can move on.

I’m so glad that The Animal Planet cable channel as decided to bring back my all time current favorite TV show “Pit Boss” I was afraid that once again a TV show that I enjoy would end up being dropped, since that always (and I mean always) seems to happen to me. From the first day I saw the commercials advertising this up and coming TV show up until the last episode of the last season I have been hooked, hook – line- and sinker as they say.

I have a lot of respect for Shorty and his crew for all that they do for the Pit Bull breed and for what they are doing for the Little People in the world, both are widely misunderstood and this is bringing attention to both worlds.