3rd Place, Derby Weekend and Beautiful Gardens...

The Shelter Contest is over! And Great Lakes Bengal Rescue pulled in the votes in the last hours and has come in THIRD PLACE!! I lack words. THANK YOU! Shelter and Rescue Groups run on the will and determination of the people who run them. I wish every group who entered could have won. If you find one in your area, help them. Every single bit Makes A Difference. We can save these animals, they have no voice.

WE are their voice.

In honor of ALL Rescue Groups, and Bengals today, here's two of my favorite pics of two of my Bengals who are alive and happy today because people cared enough to help. That's Magic, F1 Bengal, first, his story came down to the 11th hour because no one understood him, and the verdict was he could not be saved.

Wrong.
King Lear the Huge here, with me in my bath. Yes, I know this could have ended quite badly but both the bath and his story came out just fine.

If they cross my path, I will save them. With your help. Again, simply: Thank you. This means so much to me.

Moving on and catching up...I went with some of my teammates on The Chippewa Valley Roller Girls on a road trip to a Mixer this weekend. A Mixer is Roller Girls from all over, randomly assigned to teams, and Bouting all day. That's (From L to R) Genetic Defect, Pitbull Scarier, Arm and Slam'er and Calla Doctor.

I ended up NSO'ing (Non-skating official) Bouts RUN on Volunteers. If you love Derby, but think skating is not for you, trust me, the team in your area still wants you. They will cheer you in fact. You can still be very much a part of the sport.
I love this picture. Each team at the mixer got a Shirt of a different colour. Obviously, the first thing that needed to happen was they must be destroyed. Carnage it was. It was the best thing for them, really. They looked much better afterwords.

I love this sport. It was beyond fun. And very bonding as a team. Why, the girls who stayed at the bar until close after the Bout even came into our room to check on those of us who retired early, after they got back. Very sweet it was.

As for the rest, they are all very nice girls and I had a lovely time.

And to close: My Gardens! If you've been following along (and if you haven't, catch the heck up) you will know my gardens here at the Spooky House have been sore in need of someone who actually knows what they are doing to save them. Did you know the thing about plants is they need to be planted in specific PLACES depending on if they need SUN or not? Yeah, I didn't either.

My friend Slam'er knows these things and she came over yesterday to see what could be saved. Her first words, literally, as in before, say "Good Morning" were "Oh Gods, this is worse than I thought" Not encouraging, but true. I am not sure she really believed me when I told her what was here was the result of my Gardening efforts for the last four years. Again, not encouraging, but true.
I don't know that I will ever be able to keep up with the Jone's on my block, these people are SERIOUS about their gardens, but now at least, I have hopes of it. The beds are neat, there are no weeds, I know what the plants ARE. (I may name my next cover band "Ligularia" THAT is a plant that belongs in the Spooky House) We have Plans this fall to dig up the front yard and change a boring hill into a thing of beauty.

Took about 8 hours yesterday. I "Helped" mostly by staying out of the way and letting her get to it. I was in awe and it may well make my list of "Top 10 Coolest Things anyone has ever done for me"

Had a great Derby Weekend. Saved a whole lot of Bengals. And now when I come home, my gardens are beautiful and I relax just a little bit more inside.

Yeah, it's all good.

Really good.

Love and Every Little Thing,
Lorraine