Hmmmmm, what's up with Katie?

Last night I was visiting with the Dingbats around the campfire with Katie in my lap.  I was petting her and noticed something soft on her ankle.  Since it was dark, I carried her over to Hazel's nearby motor home and asked her to check Katie to see what it was.  Hazel has a nursing/medical background and has a lot of knowledge in the area of dogs, too. 

We laid Katie down and checked out the inside of her right ankle and this is what we saw (the black marks are permanent marker I put on the lump).

This is her other ankle, you can see how skinny and boney her ankles are:

It didn't seem to bother her, she was eating, drinking, walking fine, acting perfectly normal.  Hazel said she thought it was filled with fluid, and was not a tumor, and to keep an eye on it.  She gave me a permanent marker to mark off the four sides of the lump so I'd know if it's growing or getting smaller.

I took these photos last night when I got her home.   When she was laying on her back on our couch, I took this next photo of both her ankles.

And this morning:



It looks bigger, but it's the way she's sitting.  I think it's the same as last night.

Weird, huh?  I can't imagine what would cause something like this.  Any ideas?  At least she doesn't seem to be bothered by it.  I hope it will go down and we won't need to see a vet.

On another note...

I subscribe to a website called Living Life Fully.  Every day I get a quote in my e-mail box, and I liked this one - it kind of fits me the last few years, and probably some of you, too:

Living life fully doesn't mean having it all, going everywhere, 
doing everything, and being all things to all people.  
Many of us are beginning to see that too much is too much.
                                            --Elaine St. James

It continued with these questions to consider: 

• Is there anything that you have too much of?  What?  What do you do about that?
• Why do we tend to fill all of the spaces of our lives?  Why can't we let space be space?
• How do we go about recognizing what's essential and what isn't?

Living in our small spaces, I'm sure most full-timers have asked themselves the same questions.

Speaking of small spaces, here's our "small space" in it's new campsite - I don't think I've posted photos of our new site.

We have a nice view of the mountains to the west.

Behind us are the Dingbats.  We're close enough to easily walk to the campfire and visit, but still far enough away from the wash that we get TV channels.  We couldn't get any channels in the first space by the wash.

Below is is the wash that's behind our first campsite in La Posa West.  The parking lot that will be the location of the Big Tent is on the other side of the wash from the camping sites.

Every day more and more RVs arrive.  I wake up in the morning to more and more campsites filling. 

This is my last post for the year; 2013 will be history in 12 hours.  I've had a really good year, 2013 has been good to me - and I'm looking forward to 2014.  I'm expecting it to be even better!

Thank you to all our readers who have ordered items through our links this year.  We've generally had a tiny amount of income from our links, and we appreciate every penny, but this month has been different.  I'm sure on-line Christmas presents are the bulk of the purchases, but as far as normal on-line buying, whatever you're all doing, please keep doing it.  :)

Here's to better health and more wealth and tons of happiness for all of us full-timers, part-timers, friends, families and followers.  And a more peaceful world for everyone.

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everybody, and a fun and safe New Year's Eve tonight! :)