MY HAPPY PLACE

Sometimes when life seems extra hard, when people disappoint me, when they are heartless and selfish, when I just want to run and hide.....I go to my HaPpY place,

even if it's only in my mind.
Where's your HaPpY place?

Peeper Tom...er, I mean Blue.

ALMOST MY WORST NIGHTMARE

In my last post, I mentioned that something had happened that made me think again about finding the old lost dog.
This is the incident that brought that feeling back to me.
The feeling of possibly losing what matters most to me.

I take my boys, Blue, Jimmy Chew and Ralphie with me to work everyday at the vet clinic.
They stay in big nice roomy runs in the boarding area and when it's nice outside they can have their turn running around the big enclosed grassy play area. The clinic is a large building with a spacious waiting room in the front and a large grooming room off of the waiting area. Up front is the reception desk and then there is the other side of the reception area where we check out clients. Then it's the exam rooms and the lab area and then surgery and finally boarding. So, it's a long building.
Lately I have been working upfront in the reception area and my boys are in the back in boarding, under the care of two of my part-time people.
The other morning the propane truck pulled up and the gate to the enclosed play area had to be unlocked. I had my morning person go back and unlock it and then I told him to make sure there were no dogs out and not to let any dogs out. So the man filled the propane tank and left.
So I am sitting at the front desk facing the big double doors when all of a sudden I hear the groomer scream.
"I thought she screamed "Dog loose". I stood up and looked outside to see if the dog was loose out there or in the building and that's when I saw my Ralphie in the parking lot. I yelled and I ran out the front door with one of my co-workers as Ralphie and Jimmy turned and raced back around the building towards the back but there in the gravel in front of the windows stood Blue.
Blue looked panicky and frantic. Of course he couldn't hear us but when he turned and saw us he raced towards the doors. We got him inside but he was totally freaked out. He didn't have his collar on and as I reached for him to lead him away from the front doors he seemed to be frightened and confused. He kept backing away acting like he thought he was in trouble. Finally we got him to go into one of the exam rooms and my co-worker told me she had him now and to go on and try to catch my terriers. I ran out the door and around the front towards the back of the building. At the end of the parking lot I saw my 2 part-timers and one of the other receptionists trying to corral Ralphie. Apparently they had been able to call Jimmy inside the back boarding door but Ralphie was having none of it! As I called to him and hurried towards them, one of the girls came up behind him and grabbed him.
When we got inside, I asked what had happened. Apparently my morning person hadn't locked the gate yet and my other person who comes in at noon had just arrived and let my dogs out into the play area to "PLAY"....not realizing that the gate was open. I started to "talk" to them about it but I had to stop. I couldn't go on because I couldn't hold back the tears and I had to leave the room.
Lately I have been talking so bad about my little "terrors" that I felt like I was being "smite-d" in punishment. The clinic is less than a half block from one of the busiest intersections in the Quad Cities. And my Blue?

He wouldn't have heard anyone calling to him.
I can see his frightened face in my mind again and tears are blurring my eyes and choking my throat.
It could have been my worst nightmare.

LOST and FOUND

I thought about writing this post right after this incident happened but then it kinda fell to the wayside until something happened to me that reminded me of it again. (I will post about that hopefully tomorrow.)

I came home one evening tired and worn out. The sun was gone but it wasn't completely dark out yet. I walked into the house and let my dogs out into the backyard. I headed back out the front door to get my garbage bin from the sidewalk and wheel it back up the driveway as it had been garbage day that day.
As I walked down my porch steps I saw a dog slowly walking down the sidewalk.
She was alone. I could see that she was a Pitbull so I decided to be a little cautious, just in case.
I stopped and sat down on my steps and softly said "Where are you going?'
She turned and looked at me. She was tired, so I said "Come here honey".
She walked up my front walk and I approached her and rubbed her on the top of her head and her tail started to wag. She had a harness on, so I lead here up and inside my porch and took a leash off of the peg and walked her back down to the sidewalk. We stood there and looked both ways. I was hoping someone was out looking for her and would see us... but no luck.

Finally I walked over to the neighbors. I don't really know why I bothered but I know that they know people around the neighborhood and hoped they would recognize her....Nope!
So I took her back and put her inside my enclosed front porch while I went to get my phone. She wanted to come inside the house but I wouldn't let her. I called Animal Control but of course it was just an answering machine. So I went out and joined her in the porch while I called the non-emergency police number. I told the dispatcher that I wasn't sure who I should be calling but I had found a dog. The woman asked me what breed it was and I told her that is was a Pit. A friendly little Pitbull.

Her response was "Oh MY GOODNESS! Does it have a black harness on!?" I kinda laughed and said "Why YES it does!
Apparently her owner had been looking for her and was very distraught. The dispatcher asked for my name and address and was VERY surprised. She said "Boy! Has SHE travelled!" She had gotten away from the opposite side of town. She lived below the hill, down in the Broadway District where the historical homes are. She had walked at least 2 or more miles. And she was 10 years old. The dispatcher said that I had 2 options. She could send a patrol car for the dog but they were out on calls and it could be a while or she could give the owner my address. She said that the owner was a female, in case I was worried about my safety. I told her it was fine to give her my name and address. So, me and "Mimosa" sat in the porch and waited.
Eventually I saw a van come slowly down the block. I could see her looking at the addresses so we walked down the steps. And young woman, probably in her late twenties got out of the drivers seat and hurried up to us. She had a broken leash in her hand and what looked like an envelope in the other. She tried to tell me how she had been walking her dogs when the leash had broke and Mimosa had ran off. She said she and her other dog and searched everywhere and finally she had returned home to call the police. I could barely make out what she was saying because she was crying and trembling so bad. She told me how her dogs were rescues and that her other one was a Australian Shepherd mix and how she had rescued her little Pitbull a long time ago and how she was elderly and....she was just sobbing. She told me how her Aussie had kept looking at her as if to say "WHERE is she?!"
I told her to STOP or I would start to cry too.
Then she opened her envelope and with trembling hands pulled out a 20 dollar bill. She apologized that she didn't have more and was saying how this dog meant the world to her and for me to please take the money.
I said no. She tried again and I said NO! I didn't need to be paid. I said that my only hope was that if any of my dogs ever got lost, that someone would stop them and call me. She asked me again to take it and I told her that I wanted her to take the money and buy something for her dog.
I'm not a hugging kind of person but she threw her arms around me and I had to give her a hug. She reminded me of one of my nieces and I told her everything was OK, that her dog was fine, that she was fine.
And I tried not to cry because I knew how she felt. How important that her dogs were to her.
I watched her load her old girl up into the  van and I went inside. I thought about that old dog travelling so far across town. She had to have crossed at LEAST 2 very busy streets even if she crossed through neighborhoods, there was no way for her to make it to the opposite side of town without crossing traffic.
I felt sad because no one probably stopped her because she was a Pitbull.
But I was happy that she crossed my path at just the right moment. a couple of minutes either way and I would have never seen her.
But then again, I do believe things happen for a reason.

Chicks and Bunny

HAPPY EASTER!

BUNNY

VACATION PLANS AND ELEPHANTS

Have you read the book "Water for Elephants"?
I loved that book.
Now the movie is coming out on Friday and I hope that they follow the book. I'm so afraid that they will cut out important parts. I don't usually go to the theatre to see movies. I usually wait for the DVD. But maybe this time I will go. I like Reese Witherspoon but she really wasn't the person that I envisioned as I read the book, but who knows?! I'm hoping that she pulls it off. I am also a bit afraid to see it in public because I am sure that I will cry in certain parts. I hate to cry in a dark room full of strangers.....

And that brings me to the other movie that I want to see:

 Born To Be Wild IMAX 3D
another movie with elephants and sure to make me cry.....

One of the reasons that I brought up these movies is because I was thinking about my upcoming vacation.
I REALLY need a vacation. I'm frazzled. The clinic I work at had 2 women on maternity leave and at the same time they added 2 new doctors. Because of this, I have been working up front in the reception area instead of being with my boarding "clients". I REALLY miss the dogs but I do have 4 excellent workers covering the shifts. One of the new moms returned a couple of weeks ago and the other one returns next week. Maybe then the overtime will stop. I don't mind having a little bit extra in my paycheck but I hate being so tired that I never get anything done. So in a couple of weeks I am going to take a WHOLE week off. I usually just break my vacation time up into days but this time I NEED a week. I plan to finish sorting through my "junk" (the whole basement is already done and organized! Waahoo!) but I want to get rid of EVERYTHING that I don't have a plan for. In my town we are allowed ONE big trash pick-up a year for free. So during my vacation I will be dragging a bunch of junk to the curb. Last time I did this I actually ended up helping people load up their cars with my stuff.

I mean BIZARRE stuff. I had a 3 foot tall picket fence that I just cut up randomly and pulled out of the ground and a woman took it all. It even had the cement still attached to the bottom of the posts. I had rusted, broken things that people dragged off. So who knows how this year will be but I'm getting rid of stuff and taking what I can to the recycling center.
I also plan on building a new enclosed area for my dogs and taking down some of the older fencing and then cutting down several wild trees and start working on terracing the backyard area that drops off. I'm investigating about getting fill dirt to try to level the yard some more.
And if it rains, I will be painting. Painting the kitchen, laundry room and my bedroom. I also want to "create" some paintings. I've got a huge list of things to get done! I haven't decided yet if I will take the week off from blogging or not. I might need to, so that I don't get distracted and spend valuable work time visiting my blogger buddies. I might do that and then come back with "after" photos!
Now for the reason that these movies made me think of my vacation. OK, yes the book was a bit of a romance but it was much more. And then of course there was the elephant, Rosie. I won't say anything more, I don't want to SPOIL anything. But I highly recommend the book. The other movie has footage from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a haven for elephants and rhinos.

The reason this all made me think of my vacation is because my DREAM vacation, a vacation I HOPE to one day take is to someplace like: http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/ the baby elephant orphanage.
I need to do some research, I'm not sure if they have volunteer programs but I do know there are other places that do. Most of these babies are orphaned because their mothers have been killed by poachers.

They have handlers that spend 24 hours a day with them, nurturing and caring for them. I originally saw it on 60 minutes... I think, or maybe it was CBS Sunday Morning. Then I saw it again on Oprah when Kristin Davis visited there. It just really touched my heart.
So, you can see my train of thought. Water for Elephants movie coming out, the new Born To Be Wild IMAX 3D film that's out and me thinking of my upcoming vacation and someday having a dream vacation.