A heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to Shar Pei Rescue in memory of Jan Green. Many dogs will benefit from your kindness.

Last week I had my hardwood floors refinished. Which may not seem like a big deal until you realize to yourself..."Holy Cow! Where am I going to put the dogs!" As if moving out all of the furniture, dog beds, toys, cow hooves and partially chewed knuckle bones weren't enough of a task.

Solution? My home office!

My house is pretty old and it used to have a one car garage. The previous owners converted it to a room but never really did much with it. Over the years I managed to turn it into a home office. I even invested in some really nice looking carpet tiles for the floor. (Which turned out to be a great idea, just toss the ones the dogs mess up, pop new one in, voila!). Part of the old garage also became a laundry room and pantry/breezeway/whatever. The breezeway got laminate flooring and the laundry room got this epoxy flooring that you can just hose out. Which is good because the dog door is in there. So the dogs have a place to stay and easy in/out access.

Meanwhile, I am shuttling back and forth from my sister's house (where I am sleeping) and my house (taking care of dogs, business, etc.) In order to make the office more comfy to the kids, I put throws, beds, blankets, and my comforter. Basically, my office became a flophouse for Pei.

So the first night I took Mulan (my alpha girl) with me to stay at my sister's house. The next morning I went home expecting the 4 boys to have reduced the place to some form of frathouse rubble. But they were very well behaved. YAY!

So all of the refinishing is done. The floors are beautiful. The boys survived 4 nights without me and this morning I woke up under a Pei pile. And for those of you wondering what a Pei flophouse looks like.....

Jan Green's funeral was today. Over the past week, people have been leaving their remembrances of Jan in our comments section. The amount of love and care that pours forth from the words of those she left behind are a testimony to the gentle spirit that was Jan.

Every new entry makes me cry, but it also reaffirms something: Jan was someone special, and I am glad to have had her as a friend, even for a short time.