SAINTS

the operative word here is “was”….

she was on the couch with her head on a pillow, wrapped up in a soft and warm fleece..i sat with her and was schmoozing with her beautiful head and she was licking my arm and my hand. it was a sweet and quiet moment before bed.

this morning my back is bad and i am having trouble moving. bonita banana is out in the front yard playing “catch me if you can”……ok, so now we both know that i can’t.

i am leaving for work soon and i need her in and i am not sure how i am going to accomplish this. boni has been playing this game for many long years…she knows all of the tricks in trying to win….and she knows the simple solution to not losing…do not let them touch you..no matter what and then the game can continue.

i ain’t feeling so warm and fuzzy right now….oh well i will win but it is going to hurt my sore back.
smart dogs are such a pain in my ass..in my neck…and in my head…except today, the pain is mostly in my back.

huge storm moving in… i hustled my ass outside to get the barn guys safely into bed…before i went out..iturned all of the TV’s and radios on loud…closed the doggy door to the dog yard and made sure jesse and lucky and dusty were secure and safe.

the best laid plans of mice and men…..and rescuers.

i got everyone in and fed….i put up the van’s windows…i locked up the shop with frodo inside…i went and closed all of the windows, turned up the radio a bit louder and fed and medicated the mp building.

and then instead of going out the back door to the sliding glass doors thru the yard like i always do…i went out the front doors of the mp building for some reason and thank you god, jesus, mother mary of god and saints particular watchful guardian angel…..

as i came out the door i just happened to see out of the corner of my eye……

pixie heading down the driveway.

she somehow got out thru the wire of the cat run and then out thru the wire between the slats of the front fence.

i freaking HATE barely 3 pound dogs here, especially tiny escape artists who are born again runners…i hate it, i hate it, i hate it…they are too freaking small.

i need a foster home for her NOW..one that she cannot possibly escape from ever, no matter what…for her i want a condo apartment with NO balcony where she will never be off leash and can never find her way outside anywhere…not even 100 feet in the air.

tomorrow, she goes into a cage…tonight is fine cuz the dog door to the cat run is now shut because of the storm….i SHOULD have closed that one before i went out to the barn.

this little dog is going to worry me to death.

thank you thank you thank you whoever for letting me see her buggering off.

it is the name of a movie i finished watching today (i started watching it last week but got busy and distracted and missed the last half.)
anyway..it is the true life tale of the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper…ford took his prototype and then manufactured the device as their own. it took many years and the loss of his family and friends to win his court case..in the end he did..but at a high personal cost.

what struck me about this movie was..the day before the jury was to go out…ford offerred him 30 million dollars (this was a lot of money back then…heck, it is a lot of money today)..he said no..he wanted them to admit they had stolen it and give him the credit for what he himself had invented…they said no…he could have all the money he wanted but to give him back his integrity, meant they had to admit to wrong doing and that they would not do.

he won the case….the jury awarded him 10 million dollars…a third of what he would have gotten if he sold himself out.

i was thinking after the movie was over..what he had lost and what he had gained.
here was a man who believed in truth and honor, here was a man who sacrificed many things for what he did truly believe.

it was a good story…sad and heart breaking at times and even at the end..truth and honor don’t come cheaply or easily for anyone….it was an interesting movie.

today was a day of invented things not working so well…i bought some LCD stick on lights on sale for 50% 0ff..one won’t turn on at all and four will not stick where i want them to stick. those particular inventions need a bit more work. i tried to get the house phones working without any luck at all so i guess i will have to get shaw out here because it is obviously the wiring again and not the actual phones.

steve stopped by to look at the suite…he said i am just wasting money trying to salvage any of the carpet up in the suite. he said it all needs to get torn out and replaced, so i had the carpet place come and measure..i found the cheapest carpet they had in the store which they will sell for $1 a square foot (that is 44cents off)…plus installation etc… and we will see what the quote ends up being..but i am still expecting about $1000 which totally sucks all around.

we showered chewie today to have a really good look at the remaining small wound…it seems to be stuck at a standstill…not much if any healing in the past few weeks…i think i might ask the vets to consider surgically closing it…i think it is small enough to attempt that now.

screw off!

the instructor from Douglas College came out…the vet assistant students start here on sept 28th….new year…new group.

merry’s potential adopters came today and decided not to adopt..she growled a bit when she was picked up. i understand how she felt being picked up by people she did not know so i am ok with what she did…not all possibilities are meant to become realities and merry is just fine here.

Oh good it worked, they are leaving … NOW can we play?

the sand and gravel was delivered, the water delivery is tomorrow..i never did make it to cleaning off the office desk but mostly because i did not feel like it.

so i did get some of the things i needed taken care of today…and i did manage about an hour and a half of quiet time to finish watching a movie that i am glad i got a chance to see.

it was one of those fair to middling days…not so great, not so bad…just filled with typical mundane kind of things…i still think i should have just gone to work today.

i want a bed day…that was the plan yesterday when i decided to take the day off (i literally was falling asleep while driving and had to pull over for a 10 minute power nap…even i was getting scared that i might die before the end of my shift.) but, now after sleeping fairly well last night……i am thinking…the email box is 96% full…i can’t remember the last time i paid terrason gas…the insurance runs out on the van today so i should renew it…the office desk is full of unopended mail (not donations, those get opened..but mostly bills and whatever can wait kind of stuff.)
i should order water…and some gravel to fix muddy spots before winter….oh and sand in prep for icy pathways out in the barn yards…we need a pile of that around here too.
the classy chicks outside pen is getting not only muddy but really slippery…i am going to fall one bedtime soon.
i should move the fans out to the shop and the heaters over to here and the mp building….merry and esther are probably both going out on trials…so i should get them bathed up nice and pretty too.
and some of the windows are looking kind of icky from busy, wet, nosy noses…it might be nice to look outside thru clean glass instead of their version of smeary dog frosting. and i should find a away to prevent harold from gnawing on my bedroom wall cuz he was starting last night to do it while he was waiting to fall asleep too…why can’t he suck his toe instead???

hmmmm…waste a day in bed?…yes, yes, yes…. or do a bunch of stuff that i have to do….no,no,no,no…..ah crap man….who will win?…the so wanna be lazy today or the better be somewhat responsible?

rescue so sucks on an unpaid extra day off…i should have just gone to work and made money on an easy shift…duh..i am so stupid.

chilliwack spca has asked us to join them for their paws for a walk compaign..sunday sept 12…about 10am-3pm to man a table and give out info for SAINTS…is anyone available to volunteer for us out in chilliwack that day?
sorry for the short notice…mind like a seive here again!

too cute!

i see we are dropping in the pepsi challenge thing..we are 4th today..ouch. we really could have used that money, i am so tired of worrying about owing the vets so much all of the time…and the fundraisers are always so iffy and stressful too cuz we never know til they are over how good did we do?

but..putting a positive spin on this….as we drop in the pepsi challenge..i stop hoping and counting on something even more unpredictable than fundaisers and donations to help keep us safe. at least our real supporters and donors are concrete and reality based..not just a dream or wishful thinking.

and it stands to reason as this contest picks up speed…more and more folks are going to get involved and vote for their favorites. it also stands to reason that humans being who we are..we will find more and more ways to stretch the rules and make our favorite vote into two or three. this is probably not a good thing in terms of our personal morality….if $5 keeps our integrity intact…it should stay intact for $25 grand too.

so..as we drop in the standings here, lets feel good because we are dropping for some pretty good reasons..one is more people are getting involved and trying to help a cause they believe in which might not necessarily be the vet bills of old, leaking animals but that is ok..and we may in a small part be dropping because we are following the contest rules and this makes me feel ok too.

the animals want and need us to be the best that we can…if we can keep our ethics intact for 25 grand, the saints animals are probably pretty darn safe with us because we will always try to do right by them too…
and i do know how strong are the temptations sometimes…we think if we win, all will be right..and we do want it to be right for them because we care so deeply for their wellbeing…so even for me sometimes i do think…hmmmm…maybe….oh, ok..maybe not is better. it is good to morally test ourselves occasionally too.

but this i do know…a contest with prize money will never do as much for them as we can if we just keep plugging away, doing right as much as we can…we all will be fine at the end of the day, no matter who wins the pepsi challenge. we have been here longer, and i hope we stay here longer, than any contest possibly can.

there! now i feel good and not so disappointed today!
we can usually turn a negative into a positive if we look hard at the important things in the long run.

the vets will reluctantly wait..they are so good to us..the money will come, it always does..and this current tough spot is forcing me to think about adjusting some of what we do. thats ok too…it is time to be a little more in tune with the actual financial reality of rescue….bigger is not better and the rescue piper must be eventually paid and these are good lessons for me to finally learn.

honestly..i have been doing rescue for years on a bunch of wishes and prayers…i am not always very bright.

jesse was a total dick head today..i got so mad at him…he jumped both bibi and then harold with me right there to see…pretty stupid of him if you ask me…so i sent him back to the office, he did not want to go but i made him. if he wants to come out and play with the rest of us, he better watch his manners..i am not tolerating that shit from him.
anyway..we did make up tonight but i told him, even if i am not mad at him anymore…i still expect him to try to be good. if he would stop acting like a dick head, he could come back into the house.
everyone with a thinking brain, makes choices…in my books…being a dog is not an excuse.

and ziggy was a dick head tonight too. he was playing with sweet caroline in the field…a little head butting and goofing around but then he got over excited and she did not want to play any more because he was getting too pushy and rough (she is a sweet little old sheep, not a rambunctous young donkey like him). he kept bugging her so then she tried to get away…as soon as she started to run, ziggy lost his mind in the fun of the chase. he was going nutz…running and grabbing her with his mouth…she became quite frightened and i had a hard time getting him to stop and calm down….so lesson to be learned here..ziggy is a young and playful animal and the sheep and the dogs are not toys for him to rough house with. i think we will let him stay with the cows during the day now until he grows a bit more maturity and brains….if he wants to roughhouse..percy will be glad to oblige.

well..that was it for the saints dick heads today…i did hear via the grapevine that chewie was being a bit of a bugger too, but he was good with me at bedtime.

it took almost an hour to get him back up again at bedtime which pissed off everyone else who was waiting for dinner and bed.
i found him down under the trees behind the pond…i soon realized i had to move every stick, rock and log out of his direct path to get him to come along with me. once we finally made it up to the lower gate, herman decided he was tired and needed to dig a hole and sleep.
give me a break here herman….we are halfway home!
i went and got an apple and cut it into small peices..he ate all of those in only moving about 6 feet..once they were gone he turned around and went back to his nice new dirt bed.
grhhhh.
i told him i had bananas for supper…he still wouldn’t move…i told him there was some murdering animal around that might want to murder him in his sleep….he wasn’t moving, he had travelled far enough for one day at least.
i finally got the empty blue plastic pool and herded him up with that..he thought i was incredibly rude, impatient and pushy…hey…some people think the same!
but bottom line…. whether herman (or humans) get it or not…..i only push and make someone move if i absolutely have to…otherwise, unless it is important, i have better things to do than argue and struggle and take up time and energy to make them do what i want.

anyway..we finally did make it up to the barn, and he quite enjoyed his dinner and everyone else finally got to bed and also had their supper. and all of the barn guys were safe in their bedtime spots which is what really bedtime is about….not personal choices or timetables…not about someones agenda or opinion (pete and gilbert have their own personal agendas at bedtime and it ain’t about the well being of all)…it is about making sure all eat well, they are all comfortable and they all will be absolutely safe until morning.

get with the program herman or stay in the upper field.

i hit my freaking head again putting the classy chicks to bed because i was in a hurry after messing around with herman……the dent in my head is getting bigger and deeper each year….pretty soon my head will be shaped like a valentine heart…this cannot possibly be a good (or healthy) thing.

updates…..

lucky had her vet check…another ten days of baytril but her lungs do sound better.

ruby went off to her brand new home..yay ruby and carol!

bonita is settling…she has discovered the couch and is quite enjoying lounging on it instead of trying to chew the wood and wire of the cat run to get out.

yoshi is the only one left still upset with the moves…doris is eating again, but yoshi still will not even eat the roast chicken i bought for him…..hmmmmm..you are not going back to the medical room yoshi-man, i want you over here..be brave, eat your chicken and turn yourself right side up again…you too will be fine over here.

oh hey jenn! that worked! thank you peanut now i can vote…yayayayay!!!!