SAINTS

Those of you who have eaten in Carol’s kitchen are familiar with the line up of little doggy noses pressed against the wire door between the living room and kitchen, watching, ever hopeful, telepathically telling us to send some morsels their way. 

Tonight I was sitting on one of those high chairs at that table thingy eating my dinner and smiling at the usual lineup of Wilber, Murphy, Cedric, and Jack cheek to cheek, noses to the wire …and suddenly realized there was a new face right next to Jack’s.  Tigger Woods!!!!  He sat there as cute as could be, side by side with Jack, five faces all in a row pressed together against the wire.  I wish I’d had my camera – it was a Kodak moment.

i put the barn guys to bed just before dark so i could get maudie out for another run tonight. it was pissing down rain so the barn crew were happy to cooperate. i took EVERYONE (almost)…i took tyra, and tally, cole and lexie, moses and bill, i took jazz and copper and maudie and dexter and i even let slow pokey norton tag along too. when we were finishing up in the upper field with the frozen poopcicle treats and the poopy rolls, i was just missing jazz, copper and norton. i could hear coppers jingling bells, and norton was miles behind just starting the first bend in the pond and jazz was no where in sight. and then we got busted. eva who should have been at home, came back and caught us red handed. and she started shrieking at us, “have you lost your frigging mind???! it is freezing cold out here, you are all soaking wet, you are sick, you crazy woman AND I JUST FINISHED CLEANING THAT HOUSE AND YOU GOT THEM ALL WET AND MUDDY!!!!!”….ooops, sorry.

she helped me round them all up again and move them back in, and helped me dry them off and wipe up the floors. her parting shot was “and quit walking all over my clean floors with your big dripping mucky boots.” boy were we in trouble!

 

there is a 30 year old gelding that needs a safe place to land. we won’t have room til jenny and winston leave. and there is a 16 year old deaf pom coming in tomorrow. he has been with the same family for sixteen years so he won’t like it here. apparently they are moving and there is no room for him in  their new home, he must be a big pom, sigh.

Or:  Stuck in a snowy pasture with a dog that won’t budge….

Charley, Isaac and I take a walk every morning (or at least every morning that I don’t leave for work before dark) up the long narrow pasture behind the house.  There’s a hill at the end of the pasture, and a few weeks ago Isaac let me know he could no longer do the hill.  He would simply stop in his tracks and not move until I turned around and headed back in the direction of the house.  

But he still loves his little walk, and he runs to the pasture gate in anticipation as soon as I emerge from feeding Martin in the barn.   

Today he is kinda tired and weak again, taking a couple of tumbles on the carpeted floor on the short trip from his bed to the door.  But he still wanted to come for his walk, so off we went.  Only this time he stopped long before the hill.  And this time, he wouldn’t turn around to head home.  He stood there, and wobbled, and stood there, and wobbled, and stood there…and eventually sat down, still facing away from the house. 

So, unable to coax him to move or to turn around, I sat down with him.  And there we sat….in three inches of snow, with more covering us up, staring at the beautiful world around us.

It was a magical moment……which lasted……and lasted….. and lasted.  Twenty minutes later, Isaac could still not be tempted to get up and return home, I was getting wet and cold,  and I had visions of dragging flu-y Carol out to help me get him back home. 

Finally, just about the time I realized that the snow we were sitting on was covering a very large pile of alpaca poop, he spontaneously stood back up and plodded home like nothing was wrong.

I guess he just wanted a few moments to sit and ponder.  Maybe we should all have our “Isaac moments”.

It is cold,and dark and snowing. I have the flu and Jack peed on my bed. Every one else apparently peed and pooped non stop last night too. Thanks so much for the wake up call you guys.

I woke up in the middle of the night and realized i hadn’t seen Lola when I got home from work last evening. Funny how all of a sudden you notice the missing presence of one cat out of 20. Anyway, I was tired and sick, it was 2 am and I thought I would look for her this morning.  then i convinced myself that earlier when I saw Missy staring down behind the dryer, that Lola might have fallen behind there. So I got up to look. Looking behind the dryer is not all that easy, our dryer stands taller than most because of the drawer underneath. I couldn’t find the step ladder so I ended up crawling up the top and peering over. No Lola. i checked the cupboards and the cat room beds, I crawled under my bed with a flashlight too. And finally I thought of the sick room, which is where she was, not sick, just liking their beds and food better.

I know it sounds stupid to go to all that trouble in the middle of the night for a cat asleep somewhere safe, but if I don’t, and I find that they slipped away to the other side in the middle of the night without me knowing that they were sneaking away, it bugs me. so i have to get up and look. and that is the trouble with cats, even really old ones, they are sneaky little buggers, never trust them to give you fair warning about anything, they relish surprise.

Anyway on my late night travels last night, i noticed that Harrison’s almost constant cold is progressing this time to the point of needing treatment so I will kick Lola out of there today and move Mr. Sicky in there instead. I let Tigger Woods out of his cage last evening. He wandered around, looking stressed but I notice that this morning he is curled up asleep back in his pen. Ratz, I hwas hoping to collapse it today because it takes up so much room, but I guess I can’t cuz he still needs it.

It is chilly in here this morning and i haven’t opened up any of the doors yet. I guess I better bring in that other heater since apparently we are back to winter weather for awhile. Which reminds me, i called that furnace repair guy more than a month ago, how come he hasn’t come to fix the furnace yet? maybe he knows from his last visit it is hopeless and he just does not want to tell the crazy lady with all the old, leaky  animals that they are S#$# outta Luck.I better call him again today and ask.

And speaking of repair guys, that new panel they put in the washer is haywire and now i have no idea what cycle I am choosing…now off is hot, hot is cold, cold is off and the whole laundry thing just gives me a headache. I need to call him too, oh and spritely needs more meds, i gotta call the vet!

Maybe I’ll stop thinking and go back to bed, i feel like crap today anyway, why make it worse?

oh, right, i can’t go back to bed cuz jack peed on it.