SAINTS

i just got off of work, but am on call yet for another hour.

hopefully all the saintly folks there will post in here and report the highlites for those of us that couldn’t attend. hint, hint.

busy day again…one tour, i think it went well. thx everyone for all the help today!!
chyna is home again…i didn’t do my job very well for her. she is happy to be back so at least that is a relief…sorry chyna, next time i will try to get it right for you.

shrek and fiona had their sutures out, shrek had his bloodwork. they both need to stay on their antibiotics for a little bit longer. the vet thinks they are lovely too!

new dog in..i am going to call him “Les” cuz he really needs to lose some weight, we are going to try positive thinking…he used to be called “Mud” so i think Les is an improvement. apparently he was 18 pounds last april, today he was 36…we have one of the few almost 40 pounder poodles in the world…poor, poor not so little thing. we drew blood today to look at thyroid and possibly diabetes or cushings. hopefully soon he will feel more comfortable.

regarding the other recent name changes… fiona and shrek work for those two..woody just doesn’t fit so i am going to leave him “fluke” which does seem to suit him.

ok…diabetic time, then once my call time is done…a hot soak in the tub til the news about tonight’s fun begins to trickle in.

that stupid doorknobby animals are utterly endearing and stupid people just piss me right off?

is it because i am species biased? maybe.

or maybe it is because dumb dogs don’t actually hurt anyone, they rarely cause any kind of real harm. they are just innocent goofs trying to get along in life as best as they can.
but people man, can cause so much pain, in so many ways…it just boggles the brain (and the heart.)

The Bed War

not my bed cuz tony and 4 lane can’t get up on my bed unless i decide to lift them. (which mostly i decide not to)

it is THE BED next to my bed (on the right hand side) which is the prize of this war between 2 idiot dogs.

there are 2 equally nice beds of equal or greater size and comfort on the left of my bed, and another the same down near the foot. none of the beds are more than 3 feet away from my bed but apparently they do not care about this because those beds simply do not exist for them. these beds sit empty every single night while 4lane and tony argue over the RIGHT bed.

this is how it goes….i go to bed. one of the two players gets the right bed. the other stands in front of the right bed winner and stares. the bed winner then lays there and snarls and barks cuz the loser is staring at him and wanting to have that bed.

i tell whoever to please shut up. but he doesn’t cuz he is being stared at and his bed is currently an item of interest.

eventually the stare’er lays down on the very hard floor with his back to the one on the bed. this is a trick to get the bed holder to relax and forget that his bed is under seige.

at some point the bed holder has to get up to have a drink or a snack or a pee (old dogs pee and drink frequently.)

as soon as he gets up and walks round the end of the bed, the stalker leaps up and grabs the bed. when the one who walked away comes back, he finds his arch enemy is in his bed.

so he stands in front and stares. and the dog on the bed starts barking and snarling and telling the bed-less dog to piss off and go away.

this goes on all freaking night long as they take their turns at winning and losing and having a pee.

by morning the flannel sheet pee pad is toast from overuse, the dogs themselves are tired from battles won and lost when they should have been getting their beauty rest.

and three perfectly fine and lovely beds spent the night empty just because they were not perfectly in the right place at the perfectly right time (which is when i happen to try to be sleeping.)
really..how doltishly endearing can they possibly be?

A LOT.

cuz i feel like screaming the “F” word at least a dozen times…oh what is bugging me? the list is just too long and exhausting to even try to explain…we will just leave it at it is one of those days.

sooooo, i am going to bed, maybe tomorrow will be a nicer rescue day.

(the cat NOT the season)

she is like a breath of fresh air around here. firstly she is stunningly beautiful. secondly she is absolutely adorable with her little one eyed look. and thirdly she is totally fun.

i walk past a scratch post and she reaches out and grabs me. i go to switch the laundry around and she climbs into the dryer. i fold up a huge pile of towels and she knocks them down to the floor. i go to have a bath and both of her front feet reach under the door and she tries to steal the bath mat. i sit down to the computer to type and she balances across my shoulders.

to winter…. life is fun, life is an adventure, life is pretty freaking interesting.

i like that about her, winter just pleasantly trucking along doing her very own interesting thing.

nice cat…hmmm…i have frodo, i have dixie chick….hmmmm, i am thinking maybe i can have winter too?

sigh…better wait a bit longer til it seems like no one will ever want her…then i can tell her that i really want her so she doesn’t feel bad… she is a lovely, lovely cat.

the volunteer sign up calendar for this weekend is empty.

mo is still not fully recovered from the flu and is asking for someone to help her in the barn.

i am on afternoon shifts sat/sun so i can get a good chunk of the critical work done around here before i leave at noon..just need to know if we have any extra help so i can plan things in order of priority.

thx

ok…i already had forgotten that trudging thru 8 inches of fresh snow with half a bale of hay (thrice)….. freaking well will leave you gasping and coughing and hanging onto a frozen fence. it is pretty but it sucks and pretty actually means diddly squat around here.

california dogs like snow…at least fiona and humperdink do…shrek went back to  his bed next to the blazing fireplace. so much for cutting back on heating costs.

the barn guys look like a bunch of nanooks from up north…poor ellie is a fair weather pig, she does not like her back covered in snow. she’d probably like california where she could sunbathe on a sandy beach.

this bodes really, truly horribly for my afternoon shift tomorrow…just what i want to do, drive around in the dark and the snow and try not to get killed.

ahh well…as scarlett would say…i will worry about that tomorrow.

take it from someone whose formative driving years were spent in sask, alberta and NY…..if you truly cannot drive with an inch and a half of snow on the road…stay home or take the bus.

if you do want to try driving…a couple of things..snow tires are mandatory in snow storms…all seasons radials are ok once the roads are cleared. if you are going to go up or down a steep hill…do it slowly and steadily…don’t freak out a get heavy footed on the gas and certainly don’t stop in the middle of the lane because you think maybe this is not a good idea or you want to think about this further..pull over first then do your thinking, it is safer for the rest of us who do know how to get up or down that hill.

i came home for lunch…i did not go back again…holy moley smokey it is a freaking circus out there.

i sent the staff home early…no point in risking their lives and ending up here alone all by myself for the rest of my life….that would truly suck big time…but hey guys…i am still working tomorrow so please try to make it up the hill or call me and i will come and get you.

tiko and tasha are back (my tiny little orphans who are now big and grown up 8 yr old cats.) they do not remember that i am their mom and i fed them every hour on the hour  and cleaned their tiny little bums.

here is the story on these guys which appeals to my sense of amazing survival at its very best (you will probably find it not so appealing but thats why i live here and you are not!)

many moons ago before i had even thought of saints…i got a call about a litter of orphaned kittens…the owners had let the brand new mom outside and she promptly got hit by a car and died. they did not know what to do with the babies…so they pretty much did not do anything…so from day 3 til day 7 those babes supposedly had nothing to eat. when they called, i fully expected to have newborn babes dying like flies, but what showed up at my door was 5 adorable and healthy looking week old kittens…hmmm…did someone just tell me a lie?

anyway…i started feeding them and they did really well…except i could not get the little buggers to poop…. i figured with 4 days of no food, their guts were probably empty and anything i fed them was probably instantly sucked up and turned into energy without any waste. by day three i was panicking and i called the clinic looking for help. they thought i was an idiot who did not know how to stimulate the kittens bowels (from hand raising MANY orphans…i was actually quite expert at this.)

whatever…they could think whatever they wanted to think, just make those babies poop. so i took them in and i called at noon, and still no poop was to be had despite their expert stimulating. finally at 3 pm the vet called to tell me what they had found.

every single one of those 5 were sucking each others butts. there was no poop to be had because they had learned something new to stay alive. these tiny little things had discovered that instead of passively starving to death, they could feed each other if they just cooperated and shared everything they had in a tiny butt sucking circle….brilliant innocent babes.
i think that is truly nature’s survival instinct at its most amazing.

anyway…back to today…tiko and tasha are not happy campers (and just like their tiny infant selves, they do manage to eat quite well during their stressful times, except they are now politely eating canned food out of a bowl)

we have pissed off cat one and two here and they do not like any of us very much. but i warmly remember my little butt sucking survivors so i already love them very much.

i figure in the end, they are real survivors and will eventually make the transition here and i can be patient til they start to like me again (hope it doesn’t take as long as it did with boo.)

welcome to saints tiko and tasha…i will always take care of you.

whining here…..i can’t do anything extra on work day mornings…nothing, nada, zippo,  except deal with what i have to deal with here and get myself into work.
early work mornings SUCK around here, they are stressful. i have 20 minutes to myself with a hot cup of tea when i first get up and then i run from A to B to C to D with mops, and paper towels and insulin syringes and food bowls and open and close doors over and over trying to get these guys all out to pee. i am watching the clock constantly, counting minutes inside my head against tasks i have to do and freaking out under my breath. the animals don’t know how stressed i am because i have learned to seem quiet and calm and peaceful while i move thru everything. but i don’t relax til i make it at a reasonable time to my office desk.
in the morning my time does not belong to me…it belongs to the animals and to my employer who is paying me to get to work on time and because of the animals, that is really hard for me.

if folks think about all the stuff they have to do in the morning before they go to work and then added 100 animals to be responsible for they might have some idea about what i mean. it is nutz.

it was one of the reasons we went to paid staff but even that only starts at 9 am. from 3 pm each afternoon til i leave for work just before 8 the next morning, the only one responsible to meet their immediate needs… is me. if someone is sick or has diarrhea painted all over the room, there ain’t no one to take care of it but me. and with the numbers of animals here every morning, the variety of issues that can face me is mind boggling.
its a heavy load in the early morning…it is almost bigger than me.
anyway…i just want to put this out there so if i am abrupt on a phone call early in the morning or unhelpful to a friend or a loved one in need….it is not because i really don’t care or am selfish…it is because i am insanely busy.

days off are best to catch me free for some of the nicer things and even work day afternoons i can shift around in a pinch but there is no room for me to manouver an inch in the morning if i have to get my ass into work.

come hell or high water. the past few weeks my days off have been filled with one animal or staffing crises after another. please god today, just let me get this one thing freaking well done.

i decided to hold back $1000 from paying one of the vet bills to get the front field fence fixed once and for all. joey went thru it again yesterday…carrie caught him beetling for the school again, enough is enough.

putting chicken wire up over the 4 inch farm fence was just a cheap and stupid idea, we have been fixing it and fighting with it for far too long….i should know better than to try for half-assed temporary solutions to real ongoing problems with dogs.

good, solid, escape proof fencing is critical to their safety, don’t mess around. duh, now why did i not think of that 2 years ago?

well, i better move my butt…with the staff reductions, i have taken on daily responsibility for the main cleaning of the big dog areas, plus i still have the morning clean up/insulins/feedings in the mp building….so as long as both renee and carrie get here, hearty and hale (EVERYONE is getting sick with the flu lately) i should be able to whip thru my stuff and move on to the book keepers needs.

medical updates

fiona had a few sutures removed, the area cleaned, her antibiotics renewed and goes back in on saturday for a re-check and maybe more sutures out.

shrek has a badly abcessed canine, so on saturday he will get bloodwork and his sutures out and be booked for a much needed dental.

chica made a miraculous recovery from her GI bleed but she still goes in late this afternoon for assessment to see if we can find the underlying cause.

i have not booked nina in for her eye removal yet but will do it today.

edith’s arthritis is really bugging her again and she is lame. the barn guys are all do for their next de-worming so i will have the vets out to re-check her then.

spritely’s leg looked good last night but i haven’t seen it today yet.

tony’s pain is better controlled.

lucky still has diarrhea, dusty and apollo’s bloodsugars are still far too high…we have adjusted their insulin doses up again…dusty is now at 22 units and apollo is now up to 14 units twice a day.

laura and i intregrated lincoln and o’grady together on the weekend…they are both doing ok…they seem to like each others company. o’grady’s breathing is still too rapid (the lung infection is better but his heart is still not all that good)…i fear he is not going to be lincoln’s friend for very long but hope floats til it sinks.

and the new little bunny stevie is doing ok…i will get him booked in for his neuter and then either put him in with the little bunnies or try him with lincoln and o’grady in case lincoln is one day alone again.

we are in DESPERATE need of large flat flannel sheets if anyone has any they don’t really need.

every dog is different. every dog has a unique make up of experiences and coping mechanisms and beliefs. yes i said beliefs…dogs have them too. some dogs believe something good is about to happen, some believe something bad just occured, some believe there is a cookie behind your back, others are sure it is a big and heavy stick.

today was my first day off since the 4 new dogs arrived on friday…today was day three here for them…today is the day that they begin to learn about being a full functioning member of this very odd place. today they became saints.

sooooo….i took them all out to the barn with everyone else and basically just tossed them into the mix.

i am going to leave tony out of this, he came down from 100 mile so i will assume he has some rural experience and probably wasn’t as overwhelmed….but the LA dogs must have thought they were on a different planet.

shrek and fiona (yes it is official) and sir hump-a-lot (no this is not his real name yet, i am still pondering this for him) encountered chickens and ducks and pigs and llamas and horses and cows and goats. they met a whole herd of saintly dogs today and no one was on a leash.

they discovered a barn and a manure pile and more different smells then they had ever smelled before. they learned to step aside from oncoming wheelbarrows and to duck when a forkful of manure flew over head.

they did SOOOOOO well!!!!!!!! i love dogs. they just kind of watch and see what the others are doing and if they are having fun. they look to me to see if i am happy and easy so they know it is ok to relax.

i think they quite enjoyed themselves. my favorite moment was when they were all running around like fools along the pond. peluchie was chasing sir hump-a-lot and they ran right out onto the ice and both promptly fell in.

bet that was a shock.

the ice is so thin that their flailing around just shattered it before them so they could easily swim to shore. and here was when that magic happened…the moment when fiona figured the whole thing out about living happily at saints…..

she and shrek stood at the side of the pond watching peluche and sir hump-a-lot swim to shore and suddenly it clicked for her and she realized…”OH! i think we are supposed to all swim now!”  and she launched herself straight in.

103 pound bulldogs don’t swim. bulldogs with 20 inch infected incisions should not swim. california dogs used to warm balmy weather normally would avoid canadian polar bear ice cube swims…unless they are trying really hard to fit in.

welcome to saints fiona…stay out of the freaking pond.