Ming-Wah's leap of faith, courage & trust

Some of you know that I'm a visiting nurse for pets. Well, Little Ming-Wah is one of my patients as well as my friend. On January 8th, Ming had spinal surgery (a hemi-laminectomy) on three ruptured discs as a result of degenerative disc disease. He's only four years old. This has left him partially paralyzed with no ability to use his back legs or go to the bathroom on his own. At first I was having to express his bladder three times daily as well as "gloving up" to help him with other eliminations. We also do exercises for his physical therapy several times daily to help build his strength for standing and hopefully, walking again. Ming never complains, always willing to do what we ask of him as long as there's a treat involved!

Ming's owner/Mom took a huge emotional and financial leap in making the decision to go through with the surgery knowing he may never walk again. She put her faith and trust in the doctors and people like myself who are involved in his ongoing care.

Every day, Ming continues to take an enormous leap of courage in this long recovery process, and each day he shows us how to handle every obstacle and challenge with amazing grace. I feel blessed to be called to help him and his mom, and I continue to learn from him every day.

New photos of Ming's progress HERE!

For Illustration Friday's prompt: Leap (see my other entry here)

acrylic, colored pencil, rubber stamps and collage in my Moleskine

Zen Garden

I'm creating a small space in my garden for a beautiful Buddha statue I bought. I purchsed a small American Bamboo plant that looks like a dwarf Japanese Maple. I also got some ornamental grasses in shades of blue. I'll fill in the areas around the plants with crushed white stone or small smooth pebbles. Obviously this is a very rough sketch that was inspired by my idea. The garden will look much better than this, hopefully. Besides, I wanted to use these beautiful stamps that came on a letter I received and this seemed to be the perfect fit.

See the garden here!

As Plain As The Nose....

It's been a while since I've added anything to the ol' Moleskine.

This is in response to Illustration Friday's promt, Plain.

Backwards

This is in response to Illustration Friday's prompt, "backwards."

At The Monterey Bay Aquarium they have this awesome overhead exhibit of sardines swimming in circles above your head. It's like one continuous silver streak that shimmers and moves. There's always a fish or two somewhere in the group trying to go the other way. But who's to say who's going backwards, the majority of the swimmers, or the minority?

EEK...a mouse!

I love the expression "Don't sweat the small stuff." But what about little things that have an enormous impact on our fears even if there's no logic in it. I think there are a lot of elephants waiting to hear that explanation!

This is in response to Illustration Friday's topic, "Little Things."

Micron pen and cheap color markers on my much-loved Moleskine.

Excessive Wishing

Be careful what you wish for! This is in response to the Illustration Friday prompt, "Excess."

Superstitious Fellow

This poor guy thinks that no matter what he does, a black cloud will follow him to the end of his days. His future's not looking so promising, is it?

Done in response to Illustration Friday's..."Superstition."

acrylic background, Micron pen .005, Prismacolor pencils, markers, rubber stamp trees