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WilloWorld

Hi, and WELCOME to my world...

My name is Willow Miranda..

(I've been adding all the new stuff here at the top of the page and am trying to remember to post dates on them..)

My NEW email address is Piletre "at" yahoo.com

August 27,2006

Summer is almost over.
We have two new decks on the house and our Bubba boy has had another surgery. His two siblings were diagnosed with spleen/liver cancer, so we had an ultrasound done on Bubba, which revealed spleen cancer. We made immediate plans for him to have surgery (spleenectomy)and he is now doing just fine. It was a tense time around here, but all is well again in WilloWorld.

Here's Manny and I in June on my 67th birthday.

Sept. 20, 2005

In the Pumpkin Patch with me and AJ along with Bubba doing a Norman Rockwell moment.
(AJ is now 8 yrs and Bubba is 4 yrs)

Manny and I have decided that three years of retirement is enough. We've both gone back to work (sort of part time). He's driving truck again during the apple season and I've gone back into home health care, which is what I used to do years ago. We both figured that hanging around the house is just making us "older" so we've gone back into the fields of employment that we enjoy the most.

Sept 19, 2005

New page of photos

July 15, 2005.. New photos.

Beautiful AJ

Bubba leaping for the Kong toy.

April 2, 2004

Please click your REFRESH button to see new additions.
To enlarge the text: In the MENU, click on VIEW, TEXT SIZE, and then scroll to LARGER or LARGEST

Time again to update the page.
This past year has been very easy going because I've finally learned how to be retired! Lots of time has been spent in gardening and in genealogy, in fact so much time has been devoted to family history, I find myself dreaming about it! I've also gotten back to photography and you'll find a few of my favorite pictures posted near the bottom of this page.

I've also rediscovered writing about my "critters". You can find some of my articles on one of my favorite websites,

ALMOST HEAVEN GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE AND SANCTUARY, INC.

Scroll the page down and click on "Pet Stories and Informative Articles".

I'm also doing photo editing now. My work page: Examples of photo editing.

Here's a new photo of Manny and I. It was taken last summer after our grandson's (outdoor) graduation. Manny was putting on a heavier shirt because of the cool temps and I was talking (as usual).

March 13, 2003
Since I've been retired now for about 2 years, it's time to update this web page.
To start with, I've become rather lazy.. enjoying the easy-living style of sleeping late, no alarm clocks, no meetings, no hassles of planes to catch.. I LOVE retirement, even the extra pounds I've put on!

Manny is also retired now (since Oct. 2002) and he has been busy every day. One of my retirement wishes was for a studio of my own, out under the trees.. a place where I can write my little stories, listen to music, read, maybe do a little sewing..
Well, Manny built me one.. I now have my little studio out under the trees, and I'm thrilled with it. It's literally a "dream come true".

We only have the two doggies now, Golden retrievers named AJ and Bubba. AJ is 5 yrs and very mellow. Bubba is 2 yrs, and has been somewhat of a challenge, but he is loved equally.

Bubba had a difficult time beginning his life. He was taken from his momma via a cesarean section, and because the owner (a real jerk), had the momma dog bred so many times in her 5 yrs, her teats were too large for the puppies to suckle. The owner didn't want to hand raise the three puppies and he told the Vet to "put them down".

The Vet's techs intervened and took the three puppies, feeding them formula from a bottle. One day, when I took one of my dogs to the Vet's office for a regular check-up, one of the techs carried out a teensy little golden puppy to show to me. The tech explained the story involving the original owner, and after I asked what would happen to the puppies, she told me they had a list of people who wanted one. I told her to place my name on the list. Later on that night, she called me and said that after discussion among the techs who were taking care of the puppies, they had agreed to place me at the top of the list.. and sooo.. when my puppy was three weeks old, I brought him home. The puppy was named "Bubba", because we kept telling the other dogs they were going to have a baby brother.

Bubba arrived with a stuffed bear, a crib, baby bottles, formula, and a special blankee. He outgrew everything but stuffed toys, which we call his "suckie toys", because when he is tired, bored, or ready for bed, he heads for a suckie toy, plops down in the floor and nurses on it. I found that a stuffed, fleece-covered ball is what lasts the longest, AND it's easy to launder!

Here's Bubba at three weeks old.

... and here is my "little devil". I never realized until I was looking at these earlier pics just how much those little tuffs of hair resembled horns.. *S.. He still has those same tuffs of hair sticking up and I still call him my little devil, even though he is now about 80 pounds

May 27, 03

FINALLY! Here is a picture of my studio/cabin/summer-house/etc., taken in Feb.03. It was raining at the time. (Note the lemon on the lemon tree in the forefront) I was standing on the deck of the main house snapping the pic.

While looking at these pictures, it just dawned on me that every tree, flower and bush that shows in these pictures were planted by Manny and I over the years.
EXCEPT.. when we first moved here, there were 6 little scrawny Fruitless Mulberry trees planted in a long curve down in the field in front of the house, and also the three ornamental cedars near the deck, which we had NO idea they would eventually need heavy pruning! Even those HUGE trees in back of the studio were our little 2 ft. high "babies" when we put them in the ground.

July 30, '03

Here are some recent views of the yard. It's "coming along" pretty good now. I actually have time to sit down and enjoy it!. That pinkish-red flower atop the Mock Orange tree is a very old Fushia plant. It was named by my sister and brother-in-law, ( who owned a Fushia Nursery many years ago) and is called "Big Red". That particular plant has been in that spot for the last 25 years, working it's way up through the tree branches and is SO hardy! It's gone though many years of neglect on my part, but NOW that I'm retired and have lots of time, it has my full attention!!

Under the deck of the main house. Those are the trunks of three ornamental Cypress trees at the edge of the deck.

These two pictures were formally the "goose run". It was the length of our field and about 40 feet wide. "Montbretia" flowers on the east side of the studio under a very large Lilac tree.

CLICK HERE FOR A FEW MORE PHOTOS

..and here are "the boys", AJ and Bubba (who as always, is using AJ as a pillow).

One of my favorite pictures:

I live in California in a country setting. There are dogs, geese, quail and chickens running around, all of which are pets.

Here's my hubby, Manny. My ciggie smoke kinda got in front of camera lens..*S

Manny and I, on my 60th birthday in June,'99

Manny is a truck driver, and his hobby is building "street rods". He currently has a '34 Ford, 5 window coupe that is completed. But his "baby" is a '34 Ford, 2 door sedan. It's chopped 2 inches and lowered in the front.It will always be in the stage of being "built". I don't ride in it very much, as he has a tendency to check it out every so often to make sure it still goes "varoooom-varooooom. I'm usually jamming my elbow in his ribs at that time telling him to either get his foot off that accelerator or I'm walking!

Willow, Charley (brother), and OOPS, it's another Willow, July,'98. (What can I say, I'm a Gemini...*VBS)

Our "Ruby" is remembered, thanks to the wonderful people at Golden Retriever Rescue Organization who, for a nominal fee will build a beautiful webpage for your pet that has crossed over "The Rainbow Bridge".

Here's a baby picture of AJ, having a "bad hair day", and then almost all grown up (11 months and 87 pounds). He had just come in from playing in the rain and was still wet, even after shaking water all over the house as he ran through.

"Training AJ"

Please give me the pen, I know you think it's a toy
but you are in training, my furry friend
swallowing the pen will NOT be a decoy.
You're old enough to learn, without being such a tease
Give me that pen NOW, AJ, c'mon, pretty please?

If you will unclinch your jaws, I won't chasten.
You'll still get your doggy treats,
and your bed-time I won't hasten,
but, when, oh when will come the final day
you will give up from your jaws, and not run away?

Only mangled mice from your grip you release
onto my lap when I least expect it.
My screams of horror confuse your offering of peace
when you have been naughty and pesty
and your puppishness has made "mom" testy.

Ah, well, you are still only a puppy (of 90 pounds),
And I need more patience with your exerberance
when, at my words of commands, it only dumfounds.
But, you don't fool me, you clever creature,
I furnish your chow, so guess who's the teacher?

7/3/99

How about that?? AJ is now two and a half years old and a handsome devil!

I can't forget our other two furry friends. Click on Murphy's name to read how he came to live with us at age 12. You need to next click on the "M" list, part 2. Then there is Berserk Bernie , a mixed breed Border Collie who is now called Uncle Bernie.

.

I'm sad to say that our Murph crossed over the Rainbow Bridge today, May 21, 1999. His Memorial Page has been put up by the Webmistress of GRR. Click on the small pics to have them enlarged. We shall miss him dearly, but he is now in no more pain. I know he has been met by our beloved Nokie
and Ruby.

"Berserk Bernie"

Glistening black hair
shimmers when you move.
Wild eyes that have a mean look
to anyone you disapprove.

But I know the heart behind
that disagreeable stare,
that guarded scrutiny
of menacing warfare.

Beaten and frightened away
when you were a pocket-sized
ball of fluffy ebony puppy..
mind timorously disorganized.

Mean man was cruel,
made you wary of most strangers,
except little kids
who display no dangers.

Fleeing recklessly away to uncertainty,
brain damaged with fist beating..
but we found one another,
love evident at first meeting.

I held you pressed close,
cradled in my arms
and I cried.

Willow - Feb. 7, 2000

Update, May, 2002:
Oh, gosh.. I hate to say this.. but our Bern is now with our other furbabies who have crossed over. My Bern left much too soon.. he was only 8 years old, but had developed bone cancer.. my BernBern..

Eight years you shared your life with me.
Eight wonderful years of your loyality.
My "Velcro Boy".

"Put him all the way under".
Difficult words, but they had to be said.
Cancerous pain was all that was ahead.

So I said the words that granted freedom.
For the last time, I held you close,
cradled in my arms and I cried.

Willow - July 31, '03

My daughter-in-law, Diane and baby Daniel. My son, Dan

For my grand daughter

© "Deanna’s Song"

See the wild child of the fields, a Gemini of the first degree.
She feeds the scented eye pack seeds to the birds as chicken feed.
She is our little wild child of the fields,
an artist, a singer, a destroyer of treasured things..
but lose yourself as you look in her eyes and hear her gaiety ring.
Yes, the wild child of the fields,
legs bared to the brambles with scratches and bruises,
as off she runs to the land she chooses,
and into the fields...to the world of make believe.
The animals are her playmates, with the geese she hasn't any fears,
the world is hers, dancing and laughing with freedom of childhood years.
Yes, she is a wild child, but with the sun in her heart,
the blue of the sky in her eyes, her brown hair flying in the wind
as her running feet take her to the land where the summer will never end.
And when the time of play is over, at the dimming of the day,
she closes her eyes, wherever she lies to sleep the night away..yes..
she is our little wild child of the fields,
a Gemini of the first degree..
our little wild child of the fields.

(revised 10/6/98)

To my grand son

© "Daniel’s Song"

How do you capture the wind,
When it is a hurricane of riddles and hugs?
Computer games and clever drawings,
Oh gosh.. small hands offering up the “pill bugs”.
Now, this whirlwind is growing up,
So quickly, like the blur of a hummingbird’s wings.
Some day a man, with child of his own,
But, ever to me, the son of my own offspring.
He’s brown of hair and blue of eyes,
With a smile that erupts in laughter
To grab at your heart and stir memories,
Of a time to try and recapture.
Second chances are few in this life,
But surely this child of eleven,
Has been sent to us from the One above
As a gift straight from heaven.
He is a handsome child of the autumn,
In the time of the falling leaves
When the apples ripen and the air is chilled,
And in football, a young boy believes.
Time passes us by as we walk our path;
Soon it will be years down the road
When this boy of eleven, all grownup,
Will be in a world of his own abode.
No, you can’t capture the wind,
Instead, look at a boy of eleven
And feel in your heart, the joy he brings,
This precious gift from heaven.

1997

© NOKIE

I didn't like to call you "just" a dog.
You were my friend.
We went to the beach one day.
I watched while you swam in the water, and then,
while you were resting in a bed of bright-yellow wildflowers,
I thought, "How beautiful you are."

When we returned home, you ran out into the field
to lie down in the golden grassland.
You didn't raise your head when I called your name.
I ran to you, your eyes were opened,
but not watching for me ever again.
You were still beautiful, even in death.

Almost a year has passed since you have.
I was looking at your picture today.
A beautiful Golden, you left us much too soon.
Funny how we become so attached to our furry friends.
Some people say, "But he was only a dog"...
To some, you were, but to us..well..
You were our friend, our companion,
our peacemaker when voices were raised in anger,
our furry pillow to hug when emotions created tears of sadness.
You were our Nokie, special and one of a kind.
On a theatrical stage or in front of a TV camera,
in a convelescent home with knarled, shaking hands grasping at you,
on a school ground surrounded by laughing, shrieking children,
in an acute care hospital, where children were not even allowed to go,
or in a hospital for the mentally ill,
making one and all smile and remember the companions they once had,
the companions they wish they had been able to have.
Churches, restaurants, shopping malls, where ever you went to do your job,
you worked so hard, giving of yourself with that big Golden heart.
You gave so much in such a short time, that you had no more to give,
and your heart just gave out.
You were special, you were my buddy, and I miss you.

Missing Our Friend

Fifteen months, has it really been that long?
You lie in your bed, flowers winter-dormant,
green grasses carpeting. Can you feel our loss?
In your sleep, do you know of our emotion?

Ever beside us, you patiently waited,
knowing that at any moment a hand would reach out
to touch you, stroking the silken covering,
absorbing the radiating love of faithful devotion.

Sleep, my friend, rest and wait for us.
We miss your presence, the steadfast loyalty
bestowed by God upon his creatures,
and golden heart with love enough to fill an ocean.

You got this far, so you might as well sign my guestbook..(you'll receive an email..I promise..*s..)

Read my Dreambook!
Sign my Dreambook! 		Dreambook

Notice to guests at my home:

1. The dog lives here. You don't.

2. If you don't want the dog to be near you, stay off the furniture.

3. Yes, he has some disgusting habits. So do I and so do you. What's your point?

4. OF COURSE he smells like a dog.

5. It's his nature to try to sniff your crotch. Please feel free to sniff his.

6. I like him a lot better than I like most people.

7. He does THAT because he CAN!

8. To you he's a dog. To me he's an adopted child who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly. I have no problem with any of these things.

9. Dogs are better than kids. They eat less, don't ask for money all the time, are easier to train, usually come when called, never drive your car, don't hang out with drug-using friends, don't smoke or drink, don't worry about whether they have the latest fashions, don't wear your clothes, don't need a gazillion dollars for university, and if they get pregnant you can sell the pups.

"....and all Flowerland was taught the power of Love, by gentle deeds..."

(I hope you have a rainbow in your life today, even if it is only "happiness remembered"...*s)

WAIT! WAIT! Don't leave yet!
To see pics of our WHEELS from long ago and far away, CLICK HERE

Updated 12/13/08