SAINTS

he was dragging himself around yesterday looking for extra snacks every time i turned around. and today he is not interested in any food but is still dragging himself around and laying in odd and uncharacteristic places. i just found him in the hallway, and earlier he was under the coffee table, he was on squirt’s front door step, on the dog bed in my room…he is motoring all over the place looking for the best place to rest and for no good reason that i can think of, except one. he is quite cold, his body temp is dropping, he is 21 yrs old. so what are you looking for today mr. roscoe? maybe something that will make me sad?

i have put him back in his own comfy bed and i have wrapped him up in a fleece, and i would be happy if he would stay there and warm up a bit and then ask for something yummy to eat.

she got it into her pointed little brain that she did NOT have to do what i said (this is in regards to taking her out into the fields on a leash)…she shrieked, she pulled, she had a flipping fit, her friend was there and that was more important to her. i ended up having to pin her up against the fence so she didn’t slip her collar and get loose…you do not ever let phoebe win, not for a second. if a battle is going to be fought over something, then i am going to win.
the only reason saints can have multiple inter-species communally living safely together is because i insist that they do. this means that while most of the time i am fully content to let them be themselves and do their own thing…. when i do say “stop”, it better stop now…not in 5 minutes, not when you feel like it, not when you get what you want…it stops right now.

mugsy and cleo learned in one very close encounter complete with flying rubber bowls, do not touch my freaking goat, maude learned the same lesson, they all learn that here…they have never even thought to touch that goat or any other barn guy again and this is very good.

dog fights are very rare here and usually they only happen when an innocent human unintentionally sets the stage. when you consider there are 28 dogs here, living together (and an ever changing population with new animals that come in with a whole crap load of issues,) that is quite an amazing thing…in any case, fights are totally against the rules and when one does very occasionally happen it ends as soon as i am on the scene…whatever one dog did to piss off another dog pales in comparision to all of them when they have made me mad.
i do not really roar often but when i really roar i better be heard. phoebe decided she did not have to listen today and she was quite wrong in this. little neurotic, ADDH, OCD, red whirling wonders do not run the show around here and this is a very good thing when you consider what would happen if she did.

so not only am i currently choked at her, i am thinking long and hard. she has no other place to go, she has never been anywhere before that she could stay no matter what, no one has ever stuck by her…they let her get the upper hand and then they either ditch her or start talking euth. as her final plan
this is it for phoebe…it is the end of the road. i will ensure, whatever it takes, that she can safely stay here but with a few unbreakable rules. and the number one rule is…when i am mad phoebe, you better stop, take a deep breath, but stop… because unlike everyone else in your life…i am here for the long haul and unfortunately, so are you….and i will make sure you and the others are safe and you will cooperate with me on this because i will make you.

(for my birthday, i really would like her to be a nice, quiet, non-freak-out, non-biting dog)

Just so everyone knows, tomorrow is Carol’s birthday. I don’t know how old she will be but maybe she will tell us! I hope you have a great birthday tomorrow and that you are able to do something nice for yourself!

i think the dump run fairy visited us during the night. i did not notice that the huge pile of garbage was gone when i got home from work…but it might have been. this would be scary cuz why did i NOT notice 500 pounds of missing garbage right next to where i park my car? and it is not like i just parked my car and then went into the house and never came back out again. i parked my car, walked past the garbage or not garbage (depending on if it was there or not) and into the mp room and came back out and in with jesse for a quick walk (i did this at 6 and again at 10, so that was 4 more times i walked past where that pile should be).

and then when i went to put the barn guys to bed, i checked the hay shed too…not a bale of hay to be seen (good thing i picked up an emergency bale this afternoon)…so i went back out to the van which should have been parked next to a big pile of garbage and i STILL did not notice if it was there or not (there really must be something wrong with my eyes). i drove it around to the barn and i unloaded that bale of hay so everyone could have a proper dinner. and just when i had finished, the hay guys showed up.

when the hay was unlaoded, we walked back up to the front of the house so ed could look at the tractor and advise me if we should sell it or not (i think i would rather not but it is a tight money thing). i can’t say if at that point i saw any garbage there or not. BUT i noticed this morning when i was completely out of tea and i went out to borrow a bag from the MP room that the garbage had mysteriously vanished…..apparently sometime during the dark of the night? …maybe?

well let’s not over analyse, a gift is a gift is a gift…thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! to the kind and considerate garbage dump fairy who saved me half a ton of work (and the dump fees) today!

bruce’s market makes the best smoked salmon pate…it makes a great sandwich, all you need to add is two pieces of bread. mmm…..i made dinner tonight and it was EASY and GOOD.

apparently when jewel feels well, she farts alot. i had to eat my sandwich in the kitchen but i am glad she feels better.

the hay delivery just came, percy so loves that bright red truck…everyone was trying to eat off the snack wagon so i think the load was lighter by the time it hit the shed. i bought all the feed stuff after work today so i can fill all the bins in the morning..yay full shed, full bins, ya can’t ask for more than that!

i got a call at work today, phoebe is missing another chunk of herself…very deep and resigned sigh. i will start her on ABX tonight, i was just getting all the abx med numbers down. she is NOT to EVER go out in the fields with the other dogs unless she is under full control on a leash while going to there. she is starting to look like a freaking bait dog and she simply can’t control herself during the excitement of getting there so everyone please try to help keep her safe. she is so absolutely insanely and obnoxiously annoying, i don’t blame any of the dogs for nailing her and unfortunately she thinks riling everyone up into a frenzy, is the best kind of fun. trina has her calmly walking to and fro now without any drama, she waits til trina unleashes her and then runs off to join the others…no muss, no fuss, no missing chunks. i like that better…does phoebe like that better? probably not so much.

speaking of odd and sadistic animals, i don’t know if i told you but edith can actually growl. she started out quite softly but is gaining volume and proficiency with practice every night. it enrages her when pete and percy stick their noses in her feed bowl but she NEVER growls at jeanette….go figure. she is going to poke out percy’s eye one day when she batters him with her horns, altho lately i notice he is learning to close his “edith facing eye” when he tries to push into her bowl. he is not such a dummy.

tomorrow is day one of five days off, and the last of my multiple days off til my next holidays in june…i have got to catch up and get ahead on some things so i can survive the upcoming 6 weeks. in celebration of tonight being the night before my first day off, i think we will chill out and do diddly squat…oh what movie shall we watch? i hope something good.

because while you might now be miles down a different road, someone else might be standing at the crossroads where you once began.

when i was a kid, i grew up on animal books. “big red” was my favorite and when i grew up i was going to have a top quality breeding kennel. i imported my first dog from the states when i was 20. i named her meghan and she was a beautiful tri-color rough collie pup. i learned alot from meghan, i learned about parvo, and collie eye, i learned about demodex mange in herding dogs and how to shave and dip them in lime sulpher, i learned about septicemia, and poor immune systems when the mites die off and they develop a massive unstoppable staph infection and watching a dog you love die. i learned about thousands of dollars in vet bills on a $4 an hour wage. i learned alot from that sweet little dog in the 8 months she lived.
i learned i did not want to be a breeder and discovered the homeless results of breeders instead. but for the grace of god… and god’s grace when i was 20 arrived in a broken dog dream.

thirty years later i still remember where i started and that is part of god’s gift too. it behooves me to remember my young and innocent self when looking at others and where they are standing today.

it is easy in rescue to pretend that life for us started exactly where we are now. but it didn’t and we know it even if we have tried to wipe that past out.

we all had rabbits we didn’t look after, our gerbils lived in a glass cage, we all had cats that had a litter, or we bought a puppy from the farm up the road, or a budgie at the mall, we let our unneutered dog run loose, we gave a pet away, we killed one when it bit or got sick or kept running away, we kept the cat outside in the winter, we ignored the dog on a chain, we were too busy or stressed or broke or selfish or in chaos to notice a heart that depended on us to see them each day.

the world has changed alot in the past 30 years, but not for everyone, some still hold tight to childish fantasy’s and dreams. some only know what they have had a chance to learn, and we all know a heck of a lot less than we think.

i bet in 30 more years, i will be cringing at what i thought i knew today.

eva’s new nickname for jewel. she howled and wailed the whole time we were out in the barn.

eva brought over dinner and we shared equally with jesse out in the mp room…apparently she likes homemade stew.

when we were done eating, jesse did a communication thing with me…”let’s go for a walk…let’s go for a walk…let’s go for a freaking walk carol!”

percy and pete and edith were dolts at bedtime…every single night they run into the barn. and every single night i sneak out the door they just rushed in and go out to the riding ring. the only one ever out there is jeanette. and she is patiently waiting in exactly the right place for her supper delivery. percy and pete and edith are now on the wrong side of the fence…again. dumbos.

helga is STILL sitting on those freaking eggs. i almost tricked mo into being the egg murderer, someone suggested at the picnic if we shake the eggs, they become non viable. so we got mo to shake one and then she freaked out and freaked me out too that now we were going to have a little brain damaged, shaken baby syndrome chick so we didn’t shake anymore. i hope if there is a little chick in there that it is ok and just dizzy. sigh, we will have to leave those eggs alone now, the whole attempted murder of eggs incident was just way too upsetting. i am putting bowls of food and water next to helga so she has a chance to eat while diligently hiding her eggs from the stupid humans around here.

there is a HUGE dump load out in the driveway…thank god i have wed. off cuz it is soon not going to fit in my van. and the feed bins are getting low again, the hay shed only has one last bale of hay…gee wed. will be “haul heavy crap around” day, that is going to suck big time.
jed had diarrhea after i left for work this morning, but before the staff got here. they were traumatized because not only was it newfie sized but it was everywhere too. plus he just had to use his huge pie plate paws and walk thru it to add to the mess on the furniture and all over him too. rene said it was awful and if he does it again tomorrow, she is turning around and going straight home. i told this all to eva at dinner..she said “oh, poor jed” …hah poor jed nothing, he likes having baths, it was the staff that are suffering from post traumatic stress because of him. i started him on some meds…please god, don’t let him do it again…if they all go home tomorrow, i will have to clean it up at lunch time and it will be even worse by then…yuck!

i heard edwina the duck in the far distance quacking in distress. shit! something was in the hen house!!!

i jumped from bed and got as far as the kitchen and realized 2 things…edwina does not quack because she is a muscovy and the quacking was coming from underneath a sleeping raymond. apparently he was laying on top of tyra’s favorite toy.

i woke up this morning to a very sad and depressed tyra, she was laying outside in the cat run on the bed looking all distressed. i dug that freaking duck out from under raymond and she jumped up, wagged her tail, grabbed it out of my hand and brought it back into one of the inside beds.

that duck is her baby, (i know this because she hasn’t gutted the thing yet)

everyone is fine, i am fine too…no one is particularly bad , no one is sick, nor singularly cute for that matter either…we are all just having a not very interesting day so i will just bore myself with laundry.

good time to post a picture of ellie in her hole nicole!

the dogs enjoyed it very much, clyde and copper ended up on the table so they can’t come to the fundraiser cuz their table manners aren’t all that great.
i have 7 unreserved tickets left for the fundraiser so if someone wants to come but hasn’t gotten their tickets yet… let me know, it may soon be too late.

we should have picnics more often, today when i was putting the barn guys to bed, i found a sweatshirt, a coffee cup and a camera….i probably don’t need any more sweatshirts, but the coffee cup and camera are nice.