SAINTS

it was a nice and quiet evening….was… being the operative word.

i got ben settled into his foster home, i got the barn guys fed and put to bed and i started to return the messages. eva took a call today from a senior lady who is moving out of the country and wanted us to take her 17 yr old newfie cross…huh? i didn’t think they lived that long, and good lord, a newfie is big! anyway, no return number… the lady was to call back tonight which she did. and it is not a newfie, it is a schpekke (however you spell it, i am too tired to look it up). but i ended up hanging up on her before i got her return number cuz all hell broke loose. first there was a visitor at the door, which happened to be my neighbor’s wife who had rescued pat the stray cat, offering to take him to the vet for me tomorrow cuz he is not well.

soooo…the dogs are barking, the lady is waiting on the phone, i am talkng to my nice neighbor on the front step when i hear a major kerfuffle in the house. i open the door and yell…”HEY! knock it off!!!” and see clyde is in the midst of a grand mal seizure. shit.

i tell my neighbor i gotta go and slam the door, i tell the lady on the phone, i gotta go and hang up.

i sit on the floor til clyde is done and it was a very long few minutes, i can tell you. i called the vet to leave a message to call me in the morning about pat the cat who needs to come in to the clinic and clyde needing his phenobarb dose boosted and luckily colleen was there on an emergency so she gave me the new dose right then and there. and the ok to drop pat off in the morning on my way to work.

it is quiet again. whew, and i went and apologised to my neighbor for cutting her off and i wish i could apologise to the lady on the phone for cutting her off too… but i can’t cuz i still don’t have her number.

i was going to *69 it but i got another call from a nice lady who found a senior lost dog this morning but was calling me to tell me the dog has been claimed tonight so now *69 won’t work. she probably has figured out that this place might be nutz and maybe now she doesn’t want to leave her dog here now anyway.

sigh, it is a baileys night, too bad i ain’t got any.

i will try to stop by ben’s new foster home on my lunch break for a final yard check to ensure we didn’t miss anything and it is now ben proof…greg said he’d be finished in the early afternoon, and ben’s foster mom would like ben there for dinner tonight. maybe i can pop him over as soon as i am off of work (that would be before the barn, house mop ups and field runs).

jeanettte was quieter last night, she is just starting to call out now and i bet is now more related to “hey!! open the gate so i can wander or where is my breakfast?” than it is to “oh my gawd, where the heck am i?” her mom popped by yesterday to say hello and i think that is why jeanette is a bit happier, cuz she can see her and know that she knows where she is. she is going to try to pop by again today to say hello too. this is NOT good for the dogs because they think they are going home, but apparently it is good for cows cuz then they think they are still at home if mom happens to be here too. sigh, all animals are different, that is why it is so hard for me to figure them all out.

 

it was dark when i got up today, that sucked…another winter is coming warning sign.

soooo…once ben is out of the entrance way at night and happily sleeping on evelyn’s couch (or bed?) i am going to let betty boots back in there at night. she is not happy about living in the dog rooms during the day, but at least i can get her a bit closer to me at night. i wish you could just tell them, “be nice and you can be where ever you want” and make it her choice but sadly that is not the way it is with animals…one of the fundemental differences between the species. altho, (i am chuckling here now) i have in the past given humans the very same choice and they didn’t get it either so maybe we aren’t that very different after all.

my ankle is sore already and the day hasn’t started yet but it is because i insist on wearing my sandels out on the farm and i twisted it on a rock last night. i better teach myself to wear shoes again (i haven’t worn shoes since january 13th, and i have been quite happy these past couple of months too)…ratz, they will feel so freaking confining now. i don’t think feet, hearts, or minds are meant to be confined.

well…i better go kick sweet pea and tom off my bed and go and feed the barn guys…it would be nice if i got to work on time again today..i did it yesterday, so i think i can do it again.

i had the vet out to look at jeanette….since i know next to NOTHING about cows, i wanted an expert opinion. she is ruminating well, her eyes are bright and alert and her temp is good…no sign of dehydration, no need to tube her to get fluids in yet…. i had the vet look at the  sore under her chest and she thinks it is a healing bed sore. and i had her look at her one flank which is WAY, WAY more sticky out than the other and that is fine too (shhhh, apparently jeanette has a fatty deposit/cellulite problem)

and…phoebe…gone is the quiet, subdued, introspectve little dog and back is the screaming whirling red wonder…sigh, i kind of liked her sick.

the swelling in spritely’s leg is down more than i have ever seen it…the vet was quite pleased.

tunie did NOT freak out and start swearing when she met this new vet, she was quite polite cuz tunie likes women better than most men (altho she does like greg and john)

i accidently stuck my thumb down clyde’s throat…he jumped up on my leg to say hello and my thumb was sticking out at an odd angle (don’t ask me why) and it went right down his throat. he liked it alot and it made him very happy…he is such an odd little dog.

AND….the very most exciting news of all!!!!!

molly is growing hair!!!!

she looks so pretty, soon we will be able to guess what kind of dog she really is!

 

jeanette is still upset….she didn’t eat her breakfast before she left home cuz she knew we humans were planning a dastardly deed and she was right. and as far as i can tell, she has not eaten or had anything to drink here either…no grazing, no hay, none of her reqular beet pulp that her mom made up for her. she won’t touch the dairy tex or the apples and bananas that i cut up for her.

soooo…this enquiring mind wants to know how long a very senior upset cow can go without food and water before i should freak out????

she is lovely, she is upset. she just lost the home that she spent her entire life in. apparently our vets when they were out here last, told greg that she is one of the oldest cows in the valley. how sad is that, most of them are sent to market when they are no longer of use.

the building materials have arrived from the bent nail. greg will fix up ben’s new foster home fence this week and then we can get started on framing in the new multi purpose room.

michael is not well. i woke up this morning and he was covered in feces, he slept right thru his accident. i gave him a bath and alison has combed him out, he is not moving well again today. i have re-booked his home euth for tuesday…if he hasn’t perked up again by then it will be time to let him go.

phoebe is also not well. she was tearing around here and barking her face off this morning. now she is very quiet, pathetic and moving with care. i am not sure what happened, i called mo to see if one of the barn guys kicked her but mo doesn’t think so. tammy is beside herself, she loves phebes and a very quiet, unobtrusive phoebe is a bit disconcerting. i gave her some pain meds just in case, if she doesn’t bounce up again by tomorrow, she is off to the vet. she did pass the cheese slice test, she did eat one of those.

jeanette is not going to fit in a stall with percy…a thousand pound cow is bigger than i thought. sigh…barn number two is probably our best option so i think we will be closing in part of the new loafing shed for a few of the saints.

so many worries for such a beautiful day.

so….the foster home for ben is a go. greg will go over and fix up the concern areas of the fence later this week and then ben can make his move to a better life. his new foster mom sent home some freshly baked chicken for him tonight. she asked me if i could just see ben all stretched out on her brown leather love seat watching tv with her…sigh, yes i can see it quite well.

tom is not well today. he has bloody diarrhea with alot of bile and mucous. not good, but his appetite is still great…he is a little shark! i will talk to the vet tomorrow about some new gastro meds for him…maybe some sulcrate?

jeanette is scheduled for a 9 am arrival time tomorrow, i told percy he will finally have a real cow he can talk to. everyone should have someone of their own kind who speaks the same language. ellie and tunie, while not best friends, talk to each other all the time…i think tunie is mostly giving ellie shit tho. i so hope percy and jeanette like each other.

pat the cat…hmmm, he is spraying all over my new sitting room since i put will and grace in there. he seems to like them, he hangs out with them and they spend alot of time gently and quietly sniffing each others faces….i have to get all of them into the vets to get them fixed asap. i will be phoning first thing in the morning…pat looks neutered but maybe he is just not very well endowed.

clyde is so freaking cute. he is still a bit of a stubborn goat when we are out for the field runs…he takes his time and decides when he is ready to follow us back in. but, every night, he sleeps tight up against my chest, with his funny big nose stuck into my neck. and periodically i can feel him burying it even deeper in there thru out the night.

louisa called tonight and tugs isn’t feeling great so he is off to the vet tomorrow too.

everyone nicely slept thru the canadian idol results show so i got to catch up on what i missed yesterday. thank you guys! thank you mo!!!

i just did it, i couldn’t not do it, but i shouldn’t have done it and i knew it, but i did it anyway.

i was coming home from the dump run and there on the side of the road are three ladies…one holding a bright pink spray painted sign that said…”kittens for sale $150″ and two others holding half grown siamese kittens in their arms…one lady lifted one of the kittens up high so i could see her better. i stopped, a male and a female, bottle raised cuz mom died at birth. a permanent siamese kittens for sale sign on a post behind them, i have been driving past it for a couple of years. one woman said they were advertised in one of the local papers for $350 but these two were never sold.

i asked their names, they didn’t have any. they were not spayed or neutered, i never even asked anything else. one lady gave me the female to hold. i saw two more people pull up behind me and i said, “i will take them both”

i am not going to pretend that this is rescue. i, carol hine, paid $300 cash for those cats cuz i was afraid of where they would go, of what would happen to them if i just drove away.

god, i am weak sometimes.

i worked my butt off today, but that was the easy part.

betty boob has been banished to the big dog room permanently. all it took was going after michael and then a few hours later, endora, to forever change her status from kitchen dog to big dog room dog. she is not a happy camper right now, and quite frankly, i don’t care.

i met ben’s potential foster mom today, she is a very nice senior, pet-free lady. tomorrow i will go and check her fence because even tho he will spend most of his time on the couch, i cannot risk his abscounding and looking for neighborhood rumbles on his pee breaks.

max has gone home, for good (he will still be back for that weekend in sept.) apparently when he came home from his weekend away last night, he did not want to come back in. YES! great way to apply the guilt max and get yourself home a week or two early! the big guys are very happy to have both their rooms back so they aren’t too concerned that betty boob has just been banished to their home…wait til they get to know her better.

i had an email tonight from the family that gave roxy away a few months ago. they are upset that she ended up here and would like her back and can identify her by her rotten teeth and really bad breath…well actually, a thousand dollars later,  no they can’t identify her that way because we had all of that fixed up for her so she would feel better, and she does. roxy is very happy in her permanent foster home, i am not messing around with that. (how many homes has this poor dog had? so far my count is up to at least three, (now up to four homes, this family only had her for about a year…how many homes could a 16 yr old dog have actually lived in?)of course this count does not include here or her foster home)…sigh, dogs are not supposed to be ping pong balls.

and could chicklet please just shut up? geez, she ragged on everyone from the safety of her bed, all thru canadian idol…i haven’t a clue who sounded good and who is going to bite the dust this week…thanks alot chicklet, another 60 minutes on your nap might have been helpful.

 

but the sitting room is done (and i fell asleep on my new/old sally anne sofa…very comfortable)…i have been back at her since 9 am and the bedroom is almost done. i have totally destroyed the kitchen, entrance way and the area by the outside front door, so those will be a few (many) hours yet, plus all the normal stuff like laundry, floors, feeding and barn…BUT…i am doing a good job as i go so this has to be a good thing and maybe it will actually be easier to clean and work around here when i am done. i already had one visitor today (gawd this place just reeks cuz i am on a very controlled, don’t get distracted by pee and poop and laundry, mission)… that was a drag that it smelled so bad. people can visit on wednsday so by then they can walk in here and say WOW!!! but i will be back to work so i will miss it.

i put a little nice area rug in the sitting room, sigh…some one has already peed and puked on it…bastards!

jeanette arrives on wednsday morning. i guess i better decide where to put her.

betty boots has returned to the hag…she is chasing the cats and scuffling with remy. i also saw her lift her lip at sweet pea, wanna bet i was on her like a dirty shirt…geez, sweet pea?, she is the tiniest most precious saint!!

boris is a brat. he is so good and sweet with humans but gosh he sucks with other animals. i moved him back to the bathroom for now. he likes it better in there anyway.

i am currently setting up a sitting room for myself in the old sick cat room. the animals are still welcome by invitation but i need some personal space too. the entire back area (my bedroom, bathroom, sitting room, all of like 250 square feet) is now NOT part of the shelter. anything behind that small hallway gate now qualifies as my home and i will take care of that area myself. i wonder if i can be strong and keep the pee’ers out (well not tom and sweet pea, that is for sure but i told those spraying orange boys to buzz off!)

and since i am tearing apart the whole back area, i am re-organizing the other areas too…sigh, and double sigh…it is about freaking time.

i wonder if i will actually get to bed tonight…hmmm, bet i regret this tomorrow.