Your Life As Art Photography by Pam
Artist & Intuitive | Pamela Zmija
href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/zmijaourmomentsintime/9338671903/”>20130721-328C2586-WM, a photo by {Pamela Zmija Photography} on Flickr.
My lil bro and sis.
Both of them I am so proud of.
I love how close we are and when we can all come together at the family cottage.
Love my sister.
She us a huge part of our life. After a crazy scare last weekend I’m even more thankful for her. Another reminder that you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Love ya lots sis!!!
9 years ago today, my husband and our family lost a very special woman in our lives. A wonderful woman who I loved so very much. Who I enjoyed spending time with and was excited to share with her our upcoming wedding.
9 years ago today, my husband’s mom passed away from a crazy, emotionally intense roller coaster ride with Ovarian Cancer.
Just two months before our wedding, my husband lost someone so very important to him, at a time in our lives we were so excited for the planning of our wedding, praying and hoping everyday that Mom would beat this, she did once and fought hard. Unfortunately her battle had to come to an end, with much love and tears it was a very very hard goodbye.
I was so excited to have such a wonderful mom-in-law, she reminded me so much of my own mom and even some of my grama. Unfortunately the day we wed, this very important woman was missing from the front of the church pews. We know she was there in spirit, we know even to this day she is watching over us and our kids. How very much do we wish she could be a part of their, of our lives…
I am thankful for the time I did have the pleasure of knowing this amazing woman, not long after we began dating she was diagnosed, we became quite close and I am so happy we had that time together to bond and get to know each other. Everytime I watch Young and the Restless I think of her, she is who got me hooked. I worked with her during my summer breaks from college. Although she was only in my life for a short time, she certainly left a lasting impression, one that I continue to see in her baby boy, my husband and also in my children, more so my daughter. I am thankful for her love and for her acceptance of me into their family, she was so excited when we got engaged.
I will never forget the day we got the call, the hospital room filled with family and so much love, so many tears. The days after were a blur, as much as you think you can prepare for the imminent outcome, it was not easy. Not easy at all. Unfortunately the end came quicker than we had thought it would, we do believe that she knew she did not have long left and yet she never let on to influence wedding plans at all 😦 We went back and forth many times whether to cancel and just do something quick, she continued to reassure my husband that she did not want anything changed. Most certainly we had hope, we had a lot of hope.
The days following her death we spent a lot of time with her family, it was so wonderful. I also spent a lot of time with my husband, future husband at that time. I didnt want to be away from him after such a loss. We had a wonderful support system and compassion from our true family and friends.
Our wedding day was tough, on so many levels. I know Mom did not want us to make any changes, I love her for that, I would have loved even more to have her with us.
She is such an inspiration for how hard she fought, how wonderfully she lived and the amazing life she had !
We love you and miss you each and everyday xoxoxoxo ❤
I love the Hosta’s that we have had at all of our home’s, they remind me so much of her not only because of their beauty, but because when they bloom. Mom’s birthday was only a week before she passed, a few yaers ago, more than a few years ago, the flowers were full bloom on the anniversary of her death. I enjoy watching them bloom, having them surround our home, in a sense how I know she is still with us.
Hug your loved ones, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Spend time with those you love, those you enjoy being around, those who play an important part in your life, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Take photos, a lot of photos, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Say I love you – and mean it, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Love and respect, sometimes you only get one chance, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Never let your pride and ego make choices you will one day regret, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
There will always be time for the less important things like shopping, tv, gossip, and so many more… you never know what tomorrow will bring.
People, are important. Love, is important. Respect, is important. Family, is everything.
You never know what tomorrow will bring. Live with no regrets!
We took our kids to Marineland and the kids, no we ALL had a blast!!! It was so much fun!!! A Lot more photos to come of the outstanding dolphin, seal and beluga whale show as well as our own fun by the falls!
Even the littlest moments, turn into cherished memories ❤
I love my family, I love that my passion for Photography captures our many memories and moments together!
One thing I always have a hard time with is letting myself capture the moment and not always go for "the shot", most likely the Virgo in me 😉 I'm excited to share our other photos as I made a point to get in a lot more! To enjoy the moment, the memories we all made together and most important, BE with our kids! Xoxo
A weekend that is typically one of the biggest of the summer, this year was cold. Cold, yet fresh, vibrant and colourful. Beach beauty in many forms!
Thinking of a vacation… ensure while you are planning that you are taking into consideration what you will do with your loved ones… your fur babies.
Ive had quite a few people contacting me not only to find out what on earth happened but also to offer their condolences for the loss of my parents dog. Everyone is in shock and disbelief that something like this could happen.
So what did happen?
Well, my mom was simply told by the kennel owners in a very emotionless, blank statement… “another bigger dog t-boned her”.
Their dog Hazel, a pure chocolate lab, was a big dog, she was very tall and extremely fit. She was in great health and regularly played, no rough housed with her best bud Becker. If anyone saw the dogs play, they could understand why this statement we were told by the Kennel isn’t sitting well with us… (yes us, my parents, my sis and us – we were all close with miss Haz and are all broken hearted).
What does a “big” dog mean? I could careless whose dog it was or the dogs name, IF thats what really happened.
Being only told that very simple, emotionless statement, does leave one’s mind to wander.
Its quite simple, dogs are like children, with fur. Even for someone who has children, my pets have always been like my babies. For people running a kennel, I would think they would be doing it not as a way to just be home and get paid money, but because they are also dog lovers and do it because they have a passion for it – which also means following rules… just like a daycare has to with children.
The vet diagnosis is that she had a “spinal stroke” , which is caused from trauma or injury. This was severe enough that she was paralyzed her from her middle down. Paralyzed. How does another dog, running around playing do this? See why we are having a very hard time with this? IF she was hit that hard by another dog that she was left paralyzed, would the other dog not be hurt in some form? You’d think so…
Hazel was paralyzed. Paralyzed from her middle down. Which meant that she had NO control of her bladder, bowels and NO movement either. When she was sitting she could not even lean her head down to drink water, the paralysis was that bad.
A dog who was so vibrant, full of life and so much love… She was left with no future, my parents left with a horrible heart wrenching decision and on our boy Beck’s 2nd birthday she went to Heaven and is free from pain. I agree with their decision, as much as we all miss her, the poor girl who was once SO full of life, so smart, at 2.5 her life was tragically cut short – and why?
Obviously freak accidents happen, unfortunately our family knows too closely about how that can happen. What is very upsetting and is not sitting right with me is how.
How is it safe to have 8 dogs, 5 of which do not know each other and were all bigger like our dogs, out together in the yard at the same time with 1 person?
How could a dog running around paralyze another dog by running into her?
How many dogs can a kennel legally have on their premises to be able to guarantee maximum safety for ALL dogs?
Upon investigation into the dog by-laws which include kennel requirements, where this kennel is located, is as follows:
“Boarding Kennel” means a kennel where more than two (2) and twenty-five (25)
or less dogs are groomed or housed and which is licensed by….
Further down within the bylaw,
3. Every person who owns or operates a kennel shall provide the animals
under care, or cause them to be provided with:
c) The opportunity for periodic exercise sufficient to maintain good
health including the opportunity to be unfettered from a fixed area
and exercised regularly under appropriate control; and
What is deemed appropriate control? To any dog owner, you would think that would be ensuring their safety while around other dogs, having 8 big dogs out together in a yard is NOT appropriate control.
There is nothing that will bring her back, however I do believe that people should be knowledgeable in what is deemed to be appropriate at a kennel and what is required by law. What if there has been other instances at this kennel or other kennels in the area and people have just assumed that “there’s no point” in doing something.
Infact, after this instance we were reminded that when my grandma’s small dog had been there she came home looking as if she had been attacked, of course the kennel denied such a thing could or would have happened. Based on that one occurrence we did think at the time, ok perhaps its not true, maybe she wasn’t attacked.
And now this…
Why am I sharing? Because this could help another family, this could make the kennel completely adhere by the by-laws to ensure complete safety. OR simply make people plan their vacations around each other so that their pets can be cared for by someone you know and trust.
I had almost ‘forgotten’ about the contract the Kennel makes you sign before you take your dog there, of course as a fur mommy I read it and read the statement below, I also read it and thought well what could happen…
This is the paragraph at the top of their contract:
All pets are boarded or are otherwise handled and cared for by XXXXXXXXX without
liability on Kennel’s part for loss or damage from disease, theft, fire, death, running away,
injury or harm to persons, other pets or property by said pet, or other unavoidable causes,
due diligence and care having been exercised.
Hmmmm… could something have happened before, especially the last part of that paragraph.
Really and truly makes me wonder.
Socializing 8 dogs together, EIGHT BIG DOGS… which apparently resulted in Hazel being paralyzed – this WAS unavoidable IF they had been socialized in small groups.
Their website states they socialize the dogs for 30 min at a time 3 times a day. Apparently its easier for them to socialize ALL dogs together, to minimize the owners time in the kennel… No? Thats not it? Ok so how are they guaranteeing the dogs are ALL safe while socializing strange dogs all together? Most likely so they had time they need for other things, which yes includes a side venture they have in addition to the kennel. To each their own, I seriously could care less what they do with their “free” time, however when its jeopardized the safety of our family member…
I will not publish this kennels name online. Quite frankly I Never.EVER want to see them again. I am sure if they ever do come across this blog post they will see how incredibly upset I am, how disgusted I am and how I most certainly feel they are responsible for what happened. Entirely.
My parents had insurance on Hazel, which came with her as a puppy – as many Lab owners know its quite common for them to have issues with their back legs, we also have the same insurance on our dog Becker. Had they not had this insurance they would have been faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars in vet bills. The money is not even what hurts – yet of course when reality hits yeah it would sting hard and makes the wounds even worse – but it does really really add insult to injury thats for sure. Your dog was in our care and was hurt so badly she was paralyzed, ok now go pay the vet bill…
Hug your pets. You truly never know what the future may bring…
We all were quite excited for our road trip, just the four of us getting away to just have FUN!
We can all so easily get wrapped up in life, the daily requirements of kids, pets, home, work and everything in between. After dropping off our fur baby for his first ever stay at a kennel… I returned home to join the family in packing up the Jeep and heading off on our weekend getaway.
Life doesn’t stop.
No matter how much fun you want to have. I am the mom, I have to be the strong one, I was determined to hold it together for my kids to have the experience we were all so excited for! I hid my tears and kept myself busy and enjoyed every single moment we all shared in Niagara Falls and at Marine Land!!!
Last night was the first night I actually slept more than 3 hours in 3 nights, so photos from our trip have been a very slow progress. These are two of my favourites… self shot of course with the timer lol, our family above at the falls and our family before heading out for dinner! The kids were SO excited to stay at a hotel again, so I thought it was very fitting to see how relaxed they were 😉
More to come – we all had an absolute blast at Marine Land it was SO much fun!!!
One thing I truly love about dogs is their absolute amazing capacity for love, unconditional love.
I have this photo of the three labs, I loved that our family had the 3 colours of the labs – Yellow, Chocolate and Black. As children, both my hubby and I grew up with labs. We have been blessed with some amazing dogs and this quote truly identifies with all of them ❤
So many people could truly learn from dogs, they are amazing creatures with outstanding personalities!
This was exactly, to the day, a year ago. On this weekend we had the girls for a weekend sleepover and celebrated our boys 1st birthday.
This year, his birthday was far from happy.
This year on his birthday (yesterday), he was without his bestie.
A horrible freak “dog” accident stole not only his best friend but a dog we all loved and cherished.
At just 2 1/2 years old, those of us who loved her amazing personality, her drive, spunk and absolute love, were forced to say farewell goodbye’s. All because of a “freak” accident. One that left our sweet girl paralyzed, with extreme chances of ever being able to regain any movement.
Which has left so many of us feeling an unbelievable amount of guilt, for the plans we all had and the choices we made for the dogs to go stay at a kennel… Where we believed they would be safe. To enjoy our time away, while they had their own “weekend away”.
A weekend away, which turned to be very tragic. We wont ever know what really happened or even “how” something like this could happen. But much like my kids, the dogs wont ever be left with “just anyone” Ever. Again.
This photo above means SO much to me. Its the one photo I have of the 3 dogs together. Three dogs, all with their own distinct personalities, their own love for all of us and their own part of our family. We are not just mourning a dog, she was very much a part of our family, very much a part of our kids lives, of our fur baby Beck’s life. At just 2 1/2 years old, she had SO much life left in her. She may have been my parents dog, but she was very much a part of our life, from the time she was a wee baby going to see her litter for the first time.
From the wee baby that she was, to the amazing grown girl that we all loved. Ok maybe not all, but we sure did. She had her very strong willed personality, but she was SO amazingly smart, any dog lover could see that.
At one of her favourite places, with her bestie of course… the beach.
So much can change in such a short time, never take a moment for granted. I am SO thankful for having my camera by my side for my children’s lives, I am so thankful for these memories that can live on not only as memories but as photographic parts of our lives.
RIP Hazel, you truly were on of a kind. We all miss you so much!
For those who say “its just a dog” have never ever felt the true love of a dog.
Love these two. They are the best of friends!!!
