SAINTS

flood preparedness….is everyone sick of me harping on this yet? i have lectured my clients and my family and friends and now i will share where saints is with our own emergency planning.

we have two weeks extra supply of feed for all of the various animals. greg is hooking up the water tanks tomorrow and then we will bring in a couple of tanks of fresh stuff. the next load of hay is to be delivered within this week so the shed will be full of that too. the shavings shed is full and we have enough meds, except i need to lay in an extra supply of the quatrisol. greg will hook up and test the generator that we need to keep the pump running if the electricty konks out.

the last things for me to get are some extra neccessary cleaning supplies like bleach, garbage bags, and paper towels…then we are set for whatever happens or doesn’t. we all know that i like being prepared. if the hwy’s go, the supply trucks can’t get in and our guys are not going to be left wanting and looking into an empty bag. and if the flood never happens well then, oh well, we have enough food and supplies to take a break from shopping for a bit..

the evening routine is brutal now…two sets of field runs to accomondate all of the dogs. swinger’s leg’s hosing and all the extra meds, laundry and clean up’s from the icky pittie,s make quite a big evening workload. i am bagged.

i was watching jazz tonight and was reminded that mo pointed out that jazz has been aging while i have kept her at ten. she is actually 13 now which is very old for a rotti, but boy you would never know it wjhen she is out for her run. jazz is one of my permanent fixtures, like bill and michael and cole.  even cole is no longer that 11 yr old husky, he is 13 now too. and michael our 16 yr old troll? well, really he is almost 18 yrs now. holy crap!

time has always been my biggest enemy. ever enough to get it all done and much too short for those you love.

all of them with reproductive cancers because they were not spayed and neutered in their youth. the newest to join the cancer ranks is chicklet. the pathology report came back today as a grade 2 malignancy…this means a chest xray to check for lung mets and if clear, she goes back in to have the other half dozen smaller masses surgically removed. chicky is only 10 years old, she has a good long life ahead of her if we take care of this properly.

caro had some problems breathing after his testicular surgery today and needed some help to re-open his airways. he is home now and i am to watch him and he also has very few teeth left once they finished with his dental extractions. he sure is happy to be back home.

spay, spay, spay, spay, neuter, neuter, neuter, neuter. these are such good things to do…it reduces the numbers of homeless pets and it saves their own lives too.

chicky has joined the thousand dollar plus saints club, pretty much all of them here are members in good standing.

i could just shoot myself some days.

the trouble with pitbulls is they are too freaking happy. they are little powerhouses of enthusiasm. three party hardy’s who make their own fun…like 4 entire rolls of paper towels shredded and papering their room, or a stuffed big dalmation dog who is completely missing his head. i found the feet and the legs and the tail, but that poor little toys head in apparently inside a pitbulls gut. or my red futon couch that is slowly getting picked away at or the plywood gate that has become a good chew toy. pitties think they are agile, (they are “the glass is almost full” kind of thinkers, the eternal optimist). but really they are klutz’s with very good recovery skills while their non pittie playmates are left choking in the dirt (that would be me). they are lovable and funny and really good natured and as a breed they make good family pets. it is too bad they are misunderstood because of a very few loser owners who’s utter stupidity created a media frenzy and the resulting breed ban legislation which is totally unfair to these dogs. george and brie move into their foster homes with Hugabull this weekend, and i will miss the silly, happy morons alot. jolie is staying awhil;e longer til she is little more stable physically and her diarrhea is better controlled.

the vet came out to see swinger. he is to stay on the quadrisol twice a day ( can we say that between him and spritely and that freaking expensive med that they are going to bankrupt us for sure. $600 a month now for both of them to be on it plus the recovery which costs another pretty penny too) we are to ice his feet twice a day, which i am not doing cuz he is a freak and i will get kicked in the head. but we will hose his legs twice a day for him and hopefully see if that helps. the next step is basically orthopedic shoeing with specially constructed shoes with foam pads between the hoof and the shoe. whatever, i just want him to feel good again.

eva is off sick for a week or two, so we could use some help in the bunny room if anyone has any extra time. and our bathing list is growing longer since everyone is on hold because the pitties are keeping our current bath team busy.

i guess i better go and hose swingers legs and then get them all to bed.

 

the good parts were that the barn animals all went to bed nicely and no one tried to damage me.

the pitties had a blast in the fields…george is definately the most well  grounded one. they all took off but george came back after a few minutes to walk with me. i didn’t see jolie and brie again until i whistled and then i got mobbed. george is learning to keep her feet on the ground, the other two are hopeless.

the saints dogs had a good run too and then we sat in the field doing nothing much for about a half an hour. we all like that alot.

the not so good thing is…i am thoroughly grossed out. i was reading the emails and tom was at my feet, licking my ankles as usual. after a few moments there seemed to be an odd kind of rythym there so i glanced down at him to check it out.  while he was licking away at my feet like he likes to that pervert caro was busy humping him…..i feel used. serves me right for missing that appointment i suppose, but geez louise i already was regretting it enough.

would people please spay and neuter their freaking pets!!!!!

As you are all aware, Carol is back to working full time now.  With her away from SAINTS 8 hrs a day, there is a huge hole to fill in caring for the shelter.  SAINTS urgently needs volunteers to help clean and care for the animals during weekdays.  If you can spare any time at all, even if it’s just an hour, to help with the cleaning,  it would take a huge burden off Carol’s shoulders when she gets home from work.  Some days Carol works longer hours and having to come home to a few more hours cleaning as well as laundry, is exhausting for her.  What about your family or friends?  Are they able to spare an hour here or there to help with cleaning?  Please, if you, or anyone you know, can help out, it would be very much appreciated by Carol as well as the animals.  Please contact Kathy at 604-312-1960 and leave your name and number if you have any questions or you can help.

when one is too sore to move before one even leaves one’s bed.

i woke up with a migraine, my neck, back and ankle are protesting gideon’s rough treatment of this rickety vessel yesterday. and i am sure the pitties enthusiasm isn’t helping much either. you would think they all would treat the actual provider of their personal little peice of heaven a little more gently. the ramifications of breaking or wearing me out early are probably not good.

of course this is the beauty and the curse of living in the moment, “this green grass is here now. and yonder mere human is too and happens to be in my way.  the grass is beckoning now, so why worry about the “IF’s” of tomorrow, let’s just run her over to get there as fast as i can”

 well i will tell you why you should worry about the “if’s” of tomorrow. cuz tomorrow is now today, and i freaking hurt badly,  you moronic blind, gluttonous and ancient pony!

sigh…deep breathing to calm myself. tom is snoozing on my lap, he never hurts me. altho his urine soaked breath generally does make me feel slightly ill. nudge finally pooped last night, but not enough, she needs to poop more…i am thinking about this.

waiting for the arthrotec to kick in so i can go and feed and loose the barn guys…i hope the late breakfast is worth the green grass of yesterday.

ok, i admit it, i am still pissed at that blasted pig horse. hopefully once the pain meds kick in, i will forget that i am still choked. i better do my happy thing where i look at them and they all seem so very lovely, ( right now i think they all suck) or maybe i should just go back to bed for an hour and try waking up in a better mood than i am now with my happiness viewing eyeballs in place which currently seem to be lost somewhere else.

probably not a good day to bug me, i am PMS’ing, menopausal (what kind of stupid trick of nature is that to make you deal with BOTH?!), i hurt, and i have a headache…god is so wise to ensure i don’t have a gun.

(and can someone please inform caro that tom is not his sex toy! oh why did i forget his neuter yesterday? oh yeah, cuz i am dumb!)

ohhh…AND! i  finally after 4 months of trying…just caught the real and actual culprit who has been spraying the top of my stove!!!

not harrison, not tango or mango or sunny ( i was sooo SURE it was tang or sunny, they piss on EVERYTHING!)…nooooope…it is 21 year old stripe and a female to boot! one more mystery solved (what other mysteries was i working on?) good thing she is old (and tried to poke out phoebe’s eye) cuz i really like stripe, she is a testy old bag. and i won’t make her live in the cat room like i threatened cuz she is a kitchen cat.

i wouldn’t bother too much to read this post folks, i plan on adding all of my complaints and whiny irritations to it all day long.

oh again, i forgot til i glanced in the mirror again a few minutes ago and remembered that my face is scratched up cuz rainbow used it as a spring board in the middle of the night. i knew it was bleeding but i didn’t care so i just went back to sleep…how pathetic is that??? there is a reason that i don’t like mirrors and camera’s, they usually tell me something i’d rather forget. 

ok, i am done…all the angst is worked out…and gideon is once again my knight in shining armour…the pain meds kicked in, cathy, lynne and mo were here to help out and all i have left is the dump run and the evening routine. apparently whining your way thru the day is somewhat effective in exorcising unhappy thoughts, that and being around good people.

nudge the mega colon cat hasn’t pooped now in three full days. neither one of us is happy about this.

my not so favorite image today was walking past the pitties private room window and seeing their sweet little faces lined up on the couch staring at me. george had a peice of the couch stuck to her lip.

gideon twice today bashed right past me and almost knocked me off my feet…once when i was going thru the gate from the back yard and again when i was trying to lead a cooperative for once swinger thru the upper pasture gate to show mo how sore his poor little feet are since his last ferrier visit. gideon is a bad freaking horse who is much too interested in the greener grass on the other side of the fence.

i never did get thru all the laundry today…jolie, the pooping pitty is much quicker than me. i hope we can clear up her diarrhea soon. she is so very, very sweet and can’t help it yet. i am pretty sure she says “sorry” every time i have to clean up more.

off to bed, the last of the meds are done and i am too tired for the ice cream i was thinking about earlier.

and could those freaking icky pitties cause even more political backlash. i was in a bad mood this morning, and then the hugabull people came bearing gifts, followed by bonnie’s new mom and sister, and my mood dramatically improved. a couple of emails later and i was once again not a happy camper. then, kathy sent me a hilarious video (i forwarded it on to you mo!) and once again i am fairly happy.

whew, i have to get off this moody roller coaster and go and clean the barn.

chicky did well with her surgeries today, we will wait for the pathology to come back on the mass they biopsied. she can be picked up tonight so i will go and get her in a couple of hours.

in the mean time i am not answering the phone or reading any emails lest i get mad once again.

caro got bumped to thursday for his surgical tune up cuz i am a moron and forgot his appointment today.

phoebe is developing a bit of a sunday ritual. each sunday morning, she and i head off in the van to mcdonald’s for breakfast. the timing is important because we have to arrive back home at the very right moment.

all the way down the hill, phoebe flies back and forth, over and under, hither and yon around the inside of the van. and she softly high pitched whines every mile we go. it always reaches the climax as soon as the golden arches appear. once we place our order, she sits perfectly, silently still and stares right at me. the order is always the same…two cheese only mcmuffins for me and a sausage mcmuffin for her. phoebe says since it isn’t actually ellie in her sandwich, she can have the sausage. i tried her once with an egg mcmuffin but she wouldn’t eat the egg.

we pull up to the payment window, she silently stares intently at the cashier and the same is true when we pull ahead to the pick up window. as the bag enters the car window, she switches her gaze onto it. i toss her mcmuffin into the back and she charges off to eat. she eats fast. she is always done before i am even halfway finished my first. then she moves herself to the seat directly behind me and stares over my shoulder to the sandwich i am trying to eat. she gets some, and she gets some of the second, which is why i always order two for me. when they are all gone, she moves up into the front seat and quietly and companionably sits with me while we finish the drive back home. once we hit the driveway. she starts looking franctically around for mo. sunday is phoebe’s barn day and mo is supposed to already be here for phebers to join. today, mo was late. it totally messed up phoebes morning, she flitted here and there trying to figure out where she was. but mo did arrive shortly after and the rest of phebes sunday went well.

after the barn was done, mo and phebe came back into the house. phoebe sat quietly next to mo while she held tom and didn’t even fuss.  you could see that phebers was totally content.

sundays are her special day. i wish they could be hers every day.

Code of Ethics

The Association of Sanctuaries (TAOS) is guided by a core commitment to the intrinsic value of all life and the need and right of both human and nonhuman animals to the basic necessities for living in ways characteristic of their species. Decisions made by TAOS and its accredited member sanctuaries shall be based on this commitment and on what is best for animals, individually and collectively, in a given situation. The following are the outlines of our ethical obligations, and TAOS members agree to be bound by them and by their spirit.

Here is the link: http://www.taosanctuaries.org/index02.htm 

Responsibility Toward Animals

Organizational Responsibilities

Responsibilities to Sanctuary Field & Other Social Change Agents

Responsibilities to Society