SAINTS

Dairy Queen soft serve ice cream cones are a semi-regular treat our dogs really enjoy. Getting the cones home from the local DQ to our house without starting divorce proceedings is something in which I take great pride. Christine is a driving back seat ice cream advisor. She assumes I need…. and want, her expert help in how to hold ice cream cones in a freaking tray! You know what people say about those who assume….Chris has a little case of OCD, and lots of control issues. Let’s leave it at that.

So we get home with the cones. None have been spilled; none have slid to the floor of Chris’ car (oh thanks be to God). In our family there are ice cream champions: Keifer, Kirby, Clio and Sienna, ice cream up-and-comers: Piper, MacKenzie , Madison and Mollie, and the ice cream virgin: Tucker. Mabel thinks that getting out of bed for ice cream is ridiculous. She’s holding out for caviar.

Tuck wouldn’t take the proffered ice cream from me, but he took it from Angelina, as long as she hand fed him. No worries, if he needs to start out slowly, we can accommodate.

Keifer i not one to take it slowly, he bites all the ice cream and half the cone if he’s allowed. Kirby, too. Gimme, gimme,gimme. MacKenzie is very delicate. Clio is not. Blind, brain injured Clio goes apey over ice cream.

Our Tucker has learned another new lesson about life outside the pen. That cold, white stuff gives me brain freeze, but wow, it’s worth it

time flies when you are having fun….

i have such odd lunch breaks….as soon as i pulled into the driveway, trina and stan meet me with the news that jesse had just had a fall (while she was having a poop) and now she can’t get up on her own and is trying to bite anyone who is trying to help her….oh joy. i grab a towel to lift her up to her feet and then we give her peanut butter spiked with pain meds so she is currently feeling pretty darn good. i just took her for a walk to the end of the driveway for a pee…and while she is walking like she has a board up her backside, at least she is weight bearing on all four feet.

i told her she was pretty darn wrecked if having a poop made her fall down.

then on my way back to work, a young bear was hit by a car and killed. the guy who hit him took off and there was this very nice elderly man standing in the road, trying to protect the bear from oncoming cars. i went back to the house and grabbed stan and dave and they came and pulled the bear off the road…poor thing, he was very beautiful.

people should slow down when they are driving, watching a bear crossing the road is much more wonderful then seeing him dead on the side.

i picked up the mail and there is a very kind $700 donation from new south wales…isn’t that in australia? wow the world is getting smaller and genuine kindness is getting closer each day!

i am tired tonight…it is raining and i am happy about that….and my one other good story today has nothing to do with animals.

it has to do with daughters, i raised.

my youngest is still a university student and she works alot of hours at rona to help pay her way. her car is an utter peice of crap and is constantly falling apart. so she heard about a senior couple who were selling their 1990 volvo for 400 bucks. she doesn’t ask her dad or her brother or her boyfriend or her sister’s boyfriend to go and look at it with her,,,she takes her older sister instead. dad said “are you freaking crazy?”…boyfriends said “are you guys totally insane?”, brother said nothing cuz he didn’t know..and i said “good for you guys, go for it.”
so…off they go to see the car which is 18 yrs old and has 350,000 kilometers on it….it is in very good shape and all of the bills are there from the day these folks purchased it brand new. the gentleman tells her it needs new front tires. so lindsey and jenn agree that this is a very good car and that jenn should now buy it. but the man is worried because jenn is a student that she might not have enough money to buy the new tires. so he drops the price to $150 to make sure she can buy them right away…..and she does sort of.

on the way home she remembers that she just bought new front tires for her old car so she goes over to the tire shop to see if they will fit, they do. she pays $50 to get them switched around, calls a scrap car place and gets them to pick up her old car and pay her $150. she then goes to canadian tire and for $100 buys seat covers and new floor mats to make her new car look nice. i go to look at her car which is clean and very safe and solid looking, i am happy she has a good solid car. she has booked it in to check it over and fix an oil leak and replace a couple of hoses that the man told her needed to be done. and at the end of the day, she now has a good reliable car that she paid for herself. and she and her sister figured the whole thing out on their own without a single man in sight, except for the decent and honest man who sold her the car.

the one thing i love even more than self-actualizing animals is self-actualizing daughters i raised.

yay you guys, good job!

and i would like to thank that very nice man for caring about my daughters safety and ensuring she had the means to take care of the tires right away. i am very grateful to you for that.

i am arbitrarily choosing the date for the open house for sunday sept. 14th. i’m off for the week before which gives me enough time to get ready so…

OPEN HOUSE

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH, 2008

11AM-3PM 

this official and written in stone…hope to see everyone here!

i did manage to stay away from here for long periods today. my headache is somewhat better, and it is quiet now with all of the comings and goings done. and i did get the med refills, i did get out to abbotsford to pick up from greyhound, 3 large boxes of donated medical supplies (i have no where to put them so they are still in my van til i have some time to shove them somewhere.) i did get the nippers to cut ellie’s callous but…. i did not cut the callous cuz the nippers i got won’t cut that freaking thing. i did pick up lady from the vets…her leg is stitched up and she is minus 15 of her teeth. i did manage to find two really nice accountants so now i have to decide which one. i did get into staples and pick up the self inking charity number stamp and a label maker that i ordered. and i did manage one tour today and answered several quite long winded telephone calls. i got to the farm vets and returned the hip lifters we borrowed for jeanette and i got to have a late lunch/early supper with eva and tammy and that was nice. all in all it was a pretty easy day, except for my headache of course. a little bit of my laundry, a little bit of the animals laundry too, maybe some tv and a hot bath tonight and maybe if i am lucky, to bed a bit early too…so no hotel, but that was ok, i seemed to get better with just a little less stress, noise, and chaos around me than there usual is.

i have a massive headache today and i am dreading all of the coming and goings and accompanying noise that comings and goings bring. i also absolutely have to go and find and hire a new accountant today as we can’t use our old one anymore due to a conflict of interest with the tenant suing me in response to the order to vacate…god, rescue is so convoluted and complicated, i freaking well hate it. why can’t i just rescue animals and everyone just leave me alone to do it instead of making it even harder than it already is?…of course the tenant will point out…he is not suing saints…he is suing me personally because apparently that then makes it ok. whatever, whoever….just another expensive freaking headache to get that storage building back again.

my new motto…if it is too good to be true…it is too good to be true so save myself the headache. quit thinking that people are like me…cuz they are not. too many strings, too many delusions, too much previous baggage for me to deal with….. NO ONE will ever give what i give here…accept it, believe it and maybe i won’t get caught like this again and i can save myself some future legal fees.

sigh, ok done whining, no wonder i have a headache this morning, negative shit brings negative thoughts and negative thoughts bring freaking headaches.

first person arriving…oh for a quiet, darkened hotel room today…..

the folks came to meet tiger lily, buddy and sissy…they fell in love with tiger lily, sarah and tawnie. nothing has been finalized or decided yet, we are still in the process part of possible adoption. BUT they brought their 2 young grandsons who were visiting from saskatchewan. their mom works for the prince albert spca and my beloved hook was a foster cat in their home. he remembered the boys and they remembered him, hook is pretty close to the end of his life (altho he is so very strong and determined, he might just keep surprising me) and it is almost like he came full circle from homeless rescue to beloved friend with a chance to say hello again to the family who saved him for me. i love that cat.

busy day…dump run done. lady got into the vet and she is still there,,,they will surgically remove that deflated hanging thing and give her a dental while she is under…just waiting for her pre-op bloodwork to return. jewel had her first accupuncture treatment, jewel is not a fan of having needles inserted into her person…she did ok but not as good as everyone else has done but then jewel is not everyone else either.

lisa came out to check out our ellie…she THINKS there is nothing terribly wrong, just that callous on her foot is hurting so we tried to cut it off. 3/4’s there and then ellie won and i will try to get the rest of it off tomorrow…that ought to be fun. anyway, beloved pink princess is not apparently dying so that is good.

however…rusty the rooster is not doing well..he has looked not good for the past couple of days….he is not the proud, strutting rooster that he normally is and i am a bit worried about him. chickens are really hard when you don’t know how old they are cuz you never know what to expect. here i am hoping that he perks up tomorrow and starts to strut his stuff again.

the vet advised me to get another cow for percy. she says he is reaching the age where he could start to get dangerous and needs a calm cow to keep him cow vs human occupied so i am back to thinking we should be looking around again.

i think that is all the news today, except my daughter is back from her holiday. she and a friend toured the eastern provinces and then finished off with a tour of new york. since new york is my home state and the city was a big part of my life, i am very glad she enjoyed herself and got to see some of the major historical sites that are there. they saw ellis island, the statue of liberty, the empire state building, central park, the john lennon memorial and of course the memorial at ground zero…i forgot to ask if they got to the village, the bronx and grand central station. her highlight of the trip was seeing “the lion king” on broadway….new york, new york…a world unto its own and a history so thick and sometimes so tragic and yet a strong and vibrant city with a life of its own….but i am glad she is home safe and sound and where i can see her, i can put that motherly worry away for now.

ellie came out today but when i got home from work, she started screaming and running across the riding ring to me. i went over to see what was wrong and i THINK she is running a fever. anyway, i took her into the barn right away and put her to bed. i will try really hard to get the vets out tomorrow.

jewel is limping tonight, she was even more nut-ily active this weekend than usual. she is going for her first accupuncture treatment tomorrow because apparently we need her to feel even better than she already does.

oka just came home from the K9H2O fundraiser for the FVHS..laura, lana and eva were his escorts…he was the hit of the party, mr. popularity and he came home happily exhausted and limping too. i gave him a tramadol and he went straight to the couch.

i was talking on the phone to my daughter when all of a sudden i see a small pool (vs a puddle) of blood on the floor…”what the heck?…gotta go sweetie, someone is bleeding here!” anyway, it was lady…that blood filled mass on the back of her leg picked that moment to burst. now she has this gross empty, bloody sack dripping down her leg. thankfully laura and eva arrived so they held her while i bandaged it. guess lady is off to the vet tomorrow to cuz i want that gross hanging thing off of her now.

anyway…bits of worry but nothing horrible (at least not yet), ellie is my biggest worry and even with her i am hoping the vets tell me she is just sunburned and lazy and i am over reacting with her.

iky has left the building, we are starting out as a foster and if all goes well, we will progress to adoption once her thyroid condition is stable…i so hope this is the perfect home for her!!!!

ellie is not well…today is three days in a row that she refused to get out of bed…she did get up to eat her dinner and did readily complain with her giant pink head sticking out of her open door when i was a bit slow to get her supper to her. but ellie in bed all day does not bode well, i will get the vets up to see her.

phoebe decided to pick a fight with sarah, and sarah was ready to clean phoebe’s clock…bet phoebe thinks twice before doing that again cuz someone taught malibu barbie how to turn into the karate kid when bullies show up.

tawnie and sarah’s ex-family came to sign the surrender papers. normally i don’t let families see the animals after they get here cuz usually it just upsets everyone. but today i did, and it upset tawnie and sarah when they left. just goes to show you that once the heart is given by a dog, no matter what, they never take it back again. there is no doubt that those dogs are happier, and feeling much better than they have for the past several years…but those were their people, their family that they loved and they wanted to go back with them again. dogs do not ever hold grudges, unlike some humans i know. anyway, it was sad because they were sad but they are over their sadness again now.
stripe and i had a talk tonight about her special cupboard house. i told her not to worry, we all knew that was her house and we all know she is totally committed to it too. tang just wants it cuz he is jealous but he is too lazy to find and commit to a cupboard house of his own so he thinks he can take hers. tang is out for quick and easy, well stripe’s house is neither of those for him…..it belongs to her. so she can quit freaking out and falling off the top of the fridge, all she has to do is to scream once or twice and i will put the run on him for her.
well, i am off for a bath and an early to bed…i did not sleep very well last night. cat and dog fights and then terrible nightmares about all of us (me, mo, nicole, eva, laura and lana, lynn, zoe, kathy) trying so hard to get all of these evil ghosts out of our house (the house looked different but i remember how much we loved it in the dream so it must have been saints in disguise except i can’t remember any actual animals in the dream)….anyway….it was freaking scary. i never have nightmares, i rarely even dream so i think this is currently interesting.

there is no staff here this weekend. mo will take care of the barn and laura and lana will be here on saturday for the house and the rabbits and lynn usually is here on saturdays too…i will be home at noon both days for feeding and meds. i can manage the house no problem at all on sunday after work cuz i don’t have to work on monday and will have lots of time…and tammy will do the bunnies on sunday, but if someone could do up the americats on sunday if they have time, that will be really great. eva said she would drop by and help for a bit too in the afternoon. and we are moving the weekly skin dog baths to monday when angelina can come so no one who is icky will miss out on their nizorol bath.

as an aside..i think raymond might finally be starting to feel more settled and comfortable lately. stripe is alive and well and not so pissed off this morning. tang however is not such a happy camper, he is keeping a low profile in the cat room..monty knows he is in here and monty does not like tang so tang is trying hard to stay out of his sight.

what goes around comes around…there is always someone, somewhere who is bigger and tougher and meaner that doesn’t like you…tang might be thinking about that today.

this story will illustrate the futility of blame. the second you assign it, you remove any possibility of ever having any control over what you want or need to control, ever, ever again.

the players

stripe

tang

eddie

jewel

sarah

tawnie

carol

the stage

carol has gone to bed tired and weary before 11 pm. cuddles has joined her and sarah and tawnie tried to but couldn’t jump on the bed and carol wouldn’t help them. jewel was asleep next to the bed, stripe was in her bed above the fridge, eddie was sleeping on the laundry room counter and no one knew where tang actually was.

the incident (as witnessed and reasonably surmised by a great deal of past experience)

carol and cuddles were falling asleep in bed, everyone else was settling into various places too. stripe was in her cupboard where she likes to sleep when tang decided to invade her. a fight ensured and stripe started screaming and then fell off of the fridge. tang stimulated by his screaming victim, gave chase. jewel, sarah and tawnie, leapt to their feet in hot pursuit. stripe tried to jump up on every counter but was too panicked and frightened and old to succeed. since she was the one visibly trying to escape, the dogs all converged on her. they didn’t hurt her but the chasing her was exciting and fun.

enter carol into the middle of the fray and everyone except stripe went flying. tawnie slinked off to bed and jewel immediately laid down, sarah the ditz was still after the cat who was still jumping and falling back down. sarah suddenly realized that carol was VERY pissed off and it might be a good idea to sit down for a second and see what was going to happen now.

carol scooped stripe up onto the dryer, grabbed tang who was stalking in from behind and dropped him back down to the floor, the dogs went to move but thought twice when they heard a voice from above, utter the following words in a dangerous threat… “touch that cat and you are all freaking dead.”

stripe is carefully checked for injuries and extreme care is needed cuz she is very upset and bites very hard. she is scared shitless and angry as all sin but appears to be unharmed. tang is then banished to the cat room and the hole in the door for escape is blocked so he can’t get back out. stripe is then given some milk to see if she will calm down enough to have a drink. eddie now wants some of that milk and so he starts to sneak up on stripe and her milk which sends her back up the edge. eddie is banished to the cat room too and now the difficult part begins.

calming down stripe to get her back up to the top of the fridge, where she likes to be. carol spends the next half an hour alternatingly speaking softly and slowly to stripe and keeping the dogs utterly motionless. finally it is accomplished and stripe is where she belongs and no one will bother her again tonight.

but we are not out of the woods by any means because at twenty one years old and stressed to the max for several long minutes, the risk of heart attack is quite real. and that we might not know for quite some time.

the ending and the question

so who do i blame here? tang for being a bully? stripe for being a 21 yr old screaming freak out who fell off the fridge in the first place? jewel and sarah and tawnie for being dogs with instincts to chase screaming terrified cats? do i blame that pig eddie for pushing her further cuz he happen to want her freaking milk? do i blame myself for mixing cats and dogs. for having so many, for taking in assholes like tang and moronic fools like jewel and sarah? for not helping them up on the bed which was nowhere near the ruckus that ensued? do i blame all the ex-owners who left their pets with no hope in the world unless they could make it to some place like saints? do i blame the idiots who bred them all in the first place for whatever stupid reason they had and then gave them to someone to dump when they were old?
what is the point in blaming anyone at all? it is… what it is.

but now i am thinking that what happens to be “is” is not going to stay “is” for very long.

i have a few problems around here to sort out and blame won’t help me in any way or fashion, it will just cripple me with anger, guilt and rage. and i can’t afford the luxury of wallowing in crippled-hood when solutions to problems need to be found.