Well. not really "Gone Fishing". UGH! I mean I could never eat something I've killed.
Nope, I'm a big hypocrite when I comes to THAT.
But I'm on vacation now and...
I have so much to do!
Cleaning, sorting, throwing out and painting some room(s).
Hopefully cutting trees and clearing the bottom of my yard where it drops off...without cutting off one of my OWN limbs! LOL!
and
Work on creating. Hopefully listing some things and
THINKING about my priorities.
Or maybe just having some beverages and not thinking at all!
Maybe pumping up the tires and going for a bike ride!
So I'll be back here on the 16th...maybe
(it will be SO HARD for me to stay away that long!)
Sometimes I almost forget that this blog is here for all the world to see.
I finally have tried to post a few things on Facebook and it's so odd. I guess that only people that I have "friended" can read what I write but I find it strange. I am now friends with people that actually live in my town, or near it and yet these are not people who would pick up a phone to "chat".
It goes both ways, I don't try to reach out either.
Someone was talking about gathering eggs and I thought "What? does she live in the country now?" but I guess it's a game about farming.....
Yet here on my blog I receive comments and in turn leave comments to "friends" that I have never met, yet who I feel really know me. People I admire and respect and who take time out of their day to visit me here. I will ramble on and on and not give it a thought to who might be reading. But I must remember that I should not post anything that can come back and haunt me. So I find myself with something I would like to share but realize that I can not, not really.
I feel like everywhere I turn lately there are signs, messages trying to guide me on the right path. A book I was reading that other day was talking about having passion for something in our lives. The kind of passion that makes us lose ourselves and all track of time. The author said that most of us discovered it when we were young, but we have forgotten it while being so busy dealing with our daily lives. Or maybe someone told us that it was silly or stupid and we decided to do what we were expected to do or what everyone else was doing. The book was talking about getting older and retiring and it stressed that instead of retiring, to try re-"firing". To work towards that passion again. I have many years before I can retire but I can start now to listening to my inner voice and onto the road to my passion, my happiness and away from people motivated by greed or evil or sheer laziness. I've been thinking quite a bit about my health lately and the effect of "aging" is having on me. I realize that I must eat better and exercise more but I think that stress plays a big factor. I think that if I could process stress differently, handled it differently, that I would feel better physically. I will try to remember to make sure to "be quiet" and listen to my inner voice, be strong and were true to myself.
So, that's what I'm thinking about....handling stress better, dealing with mean people better, and following my passions and not backing away.
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?
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.
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.
