BED STEALER

Aaaaaaaaah!

A day off.

and here I am, wasting it on the the laptop

and taking photos with my phone.

Chatting on Facebook

and Instagram.

I need to get off and be productive.

House needs to be tidied,

Laundry caught up and 

Art to be created.

I'll leave you with a Sunday photo.

Hattie, my piebald Dachshund stealing Blue's "bed"

whenever he gets up.

I think she likes the warmth he leaves behind.

TODAY was my WORK ANNIVERSARY...

I've worked there for 13 years!
and in 9 more years I can retire....

In other words, I better get to work on my paintings!

SPRING BREAK IS OVER! and APPLE TREE

I think....

the worst is over.

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Well, for now anyway.

Working every single day was getting to me not only physically

but mentally.

So much so that I...

Lost it.

I won't go into it here but I went into HR's office

and kinda let loose with everything.

About how I felt and blah, blah, blah.

I couldn't shut up because I was so emotional.

Anyway, there's definitely much more to this story but I will 

just say that it has been said that my schedule will change and they will be hiring more help.

Other news, a week ago last Sunday the weather was beautiful.

(Today there was icy/sleet/rain)

But a week ago it was gorgeous outside and after I worked the morning

I called my niece Lily to see if she could come help me prune a tree.

I have an Apple tree in my front yard that I planted when I moved in 

almost 23 years ago and I've tried to trim it now and then 

but it was now towering 2 stories tall and had large limbs extending over my yard,

across the driveway and up near my front porch.

So Lily came over and I had my trusty Sawzall out (a reciprocating saw).

I tried to cut a limb above my head, I've done this before but this time I wasn't able to hold the saw above my head for that long.

All my energy was gone.

So we carried out my extension ladder and propped it against the tree.

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I have a fear of heights but I didn't have to climb too high.

Lily told me to get down. She has the same fear but up the ladder she went.

I made sure the ladder was on solid footing and then I handed her the saw.

I told her that she wouldn't fall but if she did, the most important thing to remember was to throw the saw as far away from her as possible.

I said that I didn't want her cutting her leg off.

Then I told her that if she had to throw it, not to throw it towards me.

She gave me a "Lily look" and I said that I was serious and

that I had climbed up on the ladder in the backyard a few years back and the ladder started to go over and I threw the saw.

I said I had bent the blade but still had all my limbs.

Lily told me to hold the ladder tight.

So she got up there and cut down a good size branch.

Then I unplugged the saw and had her hand it down to me and held the ladder as she inched down.

She had cut the branch that had stretched across the front yard.

I started to move the ladder and she said "Now what?"

I told her that we had to cut the one across the driveway!

It had grown out so far that it was scraping against the roof of the van.

So we did the whole routine again.

Then I stood back and looked at the tree and said "It's lopsided!"

"No it's not!" Lily said and I called to her to walk down to the front of the yard and look.

She walked up to me turned and frowned.

Then we walked back to the tree and moved the ladder again.

"Do we have to do this NOW?" she asked and I said "Yes!"

I told her that now was the time that trees were "dormant" or something like that and we had to cut them before they "bud".

I said we had no time to waste.

So the ladder didn't seem to have a sturdy footing so we started to move it again.

All of a sudden the neighbor man came out.

I told him were either pruning the tree or killing it.

He said we needed a rope but I didn't have a rope so he went to his house and got us one.

He had to go to get dinner so he left and Lily and I tied up the big limb brushing the front porch.

She got up the ladder and I told her to remember to throw the saw

and I walked back and pulled hard on the rope.

Down came the huge limb.

Then I helped Lily down and we cut it and the others up into manageable pieces.

Then we walked back down the driveway and looked at the tree again.

"Now it really looks stupid!" I said.

It had three branches left.

They shot up towards the sky and at weird angles.

I said they had to go too.

I told her they were longer than they looked and we had to make sure they didn't fall and hit a car passing by.

So we cut two and then cut them into pieces and dragging to the big branch pile.

That left the last tallest one.

I told her to move her car over in front of the neighbors house and away from mine.

I backed my van as far back as I could into my driveway/lawn.

Then we tied that thing around and around.

I put the ladder so it was wedged hard in the remaining part of the tree and over a fork of a limb so that there was no way for it to fall.

All the other limbs had been cut to the point where they would start to slowly crack and crash in slow motion to the ground.

Not this one.

I pulled on the rope and I could see that dang thing coming at me.

But like I had told Lily, they are longer than we realize.

I tried to move fast but I wasn't fast enough and I didn't want to hit me in the head

so I put my arms over my head and it hit me hard on the wrist.

I gotta say, it hurt so bad that I thought it was broken.

Lily kept saying stuff to me like "Can you move it?"

and "If you can move it it's not broken" and "If it's broken you couldn't stand the pain"

And I was saying stuff like "shut up!" "Shut Up" "SHUT UP!" and

"Just be quiet a minute" and "I need a minute to deal with this!"

I was bent over in pain and I just needed some silence.

She stepped back and forth over the branches and came up to me.

"I told you not to come down off that ladder with the saw!" I moaned.

"I'm just checking on you! and if you can move it, it's probably not broken".

I practically yelled at her that "I broke my arm when I was five and went a whole day with it broken before I told anyone and I'm sure I moved it then!"

Then I wiggled it a bit and she looked down at it and said

"You need to put some ice on it or some vegetables".

"Vegetables?" I raised my eyebrows

"Frozen vegetables I mean" she smirked.

I wiggled it some more and then said "Let's cut this thing up before it's dark, it will be dark soon".

It won't be dark for a while" she said.

"It's getting dark NOW" I said.

Lily looked up at the sky "No, it's not getting dark, it's going to rain" 

I looked up and said "They didn't forecast rain, it's just getting dark!"

We just looked at each other for a moment and then started cutting the limb into pieces and dragging them to the branch pile.

When we finished Lily looked at me and said "You need to go put some ice in your wrist"

and I said "OK. I will, and thanks honey for helping me"

"Sure" she yelled as she went down the driveway.

"Love you" we both yelled to each other.

and then I said "Be careful driving home...in the dark"

and she gave me that Lily look again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY CHEW

Today Jimmy is SEVEN!

Minor miracle that he's made it to this age. I've wanted to wring his neck so many times.

Before I rescued him, I had rescued my little grey poodle and named her Vera Wag and I said that if I ever got another boy dog, I'd named him Jimmy Chew.

So when I went with a friend to look at a different dog at the shelter and I walked by him, sitting so sweetly in his kennel run, I couldn't believe he hadn't been adopted! He was only 8-9 months old.

Why would anyone get rid if him?

OK, I have had a lot of incidents with this little terror

where I was ready to ship him off but... Those are tales for another day.

He's made it to 7 and he's still living up to his name!

Be careful what you name a dog!

Happy Birthday Jimmy! Ya damn little crazy bugger.

(Doing this blog post from my iPhone while I'm at work, hopefully this works and doesn't post weird!)

JUST HANGING ON

Just a quick post.

The madness has begun at work.

It's filling up and tomorrow my Boarding area will be at full capacity

and it will stay that way for a week or so.
Also, my only helper, the girl that covers the evening shift, got thrown from her horse and her back and knee are "sprained" but she says she can still work.
I would tell her not to but I can't cover the entire day/night, every single day.
So... I told her to take it slow and if she can't do it to let me know.
If that happens, I don't know what I will do.
I'm supposed to get some help NEXT week but....
OK, I'm not going to think about what might happen because maybe everything will be fine.

So... I might not be posting anything during that time

and just sleeping.

But then again, maybe I will.

Who knows, but just in case I disappear for a bit

you know where I am.

Sidenote: At work I take my lunch by myself.

I usually eat at my desk and look at real estate listings

and then I started to look up cars.

But today I decided to do a little "Art".

Just a little illustration to keep my creative juices going.
I drew this little cat, colored him in and cut him out
and taped him to the edge of my counter.
This is the "cut-out style" I plan to use when I do my "Kanga" book.

IS IT JUST ME?

Are you like me? Do you assume that everyone sort of thinks and does things like you do?

Only to find out they don't and then wonder, is it just me?

Am I kinda "off" or is everyone else?

Here are some examples:

I have had my niece Lily helping me in Boarding since she was a little kid.

At first she would come along on weekends and holidays just to help and then eventually she was hired to do the boarding job.

(Now she's a vet tech assistant) but she learned to do boarding just like I like it.

She pays attention to details so because of this fact (when she was still working in my area) I would have her train new people.

Once I was watching her show someone how to set up a kennel run.

We have a mix-match collection of bedding and

I always put a comforter or blanket in the back of the run for the dogs to lay on and then a towel by their food and water
and then a potty pad at the front.

So Lily was showing someone this and she walked over and grabbed a blanket and laid it down and then I heard her say

"And then go get a towel that matches the blanket and..."

I interrupted her with a laugh and said "Lily, they don't have to match!"

and that's when she said "But you always pick out matching ones!"

to which I replied "Well, yeah. I like it to be visually pleasing but you don't HAVE to do that".

I had never told Lily to do that, I guess she just watched me pick them out and figured that's the way it needed to be.

(But really, if you are going to grab one from a stack of towels, why wouldn't a person pick one to match?)

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Another example.

A while back I bought two little "dip" bowls from Target that were on clearance.

They were the exact colors that would look nice in my kitchen and were the perfect size for Stretch to eat from.

(the other cats go downstairs to eat but he's on special food so he eats on the end of the counter)

I had this plastic water bowl for him and it just bothered me.

It just didn't look right, not sitting next to these little food bowls.

So the other day I walked around and around Target trying to find the right water bowl.

Finally I went to the dip bowl area and picked one up and took it over to the soup bowls to match it against.

I looked at so many that I caught a clerk watching me.

I felt weird so I hurried up and made a decision and walked on with my cart.

But I kept looking down at it and I knew that bowl wasn't right.

So I rolled the cart back over and went down another aisle and looked at the sets of cereal bowls.

Sitting there was a bowl that wasn't even the same color but instead the color complimented the little ones that I had.

I happily picked it up and turned it over, $1.99!

Perfect! Then I noticed the sales clerk looking at me again from across the aisle.

I think she thought I was up to no good, so I just smiled at her.

Doesn't everyone struggle with these kinds of decisions?

And finally, last week I was talking with a friend/co-worker about cars.

Her husband used to work on cars for a living.

They always buy Toyota's.

I was telling her how I no longer Google real estate listings on my lunch hour.

I was saying that I'm happy with where I live and I was just going to work on my own house and make it better.

I told her that I was now Googling cars on my lunch hour.

"Are you getting a new car?!" she asked and I replied -

"Oh No!" I said "But some day several years from now I hope to and this way I will know what to buy!"

She laughed and asked if I had narrowed it down at all.

I told her that I had thought of a Mini Cooper but it seemed like they needed a lot of expensive repairs.

Another co-worker said that I might not make it to work in such a little car like the Mini Cooper and I said

"I know! that's one of the good things about it!"

We laughed and then I said, 

"Well, right now I like the Toyota Camry and also the Kia Optima"

My friend of course likes the Toyota and I'm leaning towards the Kia

but like I said, I've got years to think about it! LOL!

Then she asked me "What color?"

She was smiling because she remembered when I bought my VW Bug and I only wanted one color then.

It had to be blue. I told the salesman nothing else would work.

(I don't think I even need to explain why.)

So I said "I don't know yet. I plan on putting up shutters on my house someday and I haven't decide on the color for them yet".

She wrinkled her forehead and asked why that would matter?

"Well, the car needs to match my house of course" and she shook her head and asked "What? Why?"

I tried to explain how when it sat in the driveway it should jive with the house...

She looked at me like I was crazy and then said

"Well, your van doesn't MATCH your house now, does it?"

"Well.." I hesitated and adverted my eyes as I mumbled. "My van is white and so is my house..."

Then I smiled and walked back to my area.

Is it just me?

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HE'S DOING MUCH BETTER!

I took Blue to work again today. He got his IV taken out of leg because he doesn't need any more fluids. He's eating a mix of his dry and special canned. He had a couple of shots and now on some pills to keep stimulating his appetite and his eye is doing better!
A BIG THANK YOU to all those who had him in your thoughts and prayers! We really appreciated it! 

The vet said that it wasn't necessarily Pancreatitis. She said that it presented with signs of Pancreatitis and the blood test showed Pancreatitus and the treatment for Pancreatitis seems to have worked.
She said if it hadn't worked, the next step would have been abdominal xrays.
I didn't really ask what they would have been looking for and possibly suspect.
I don't know what she was trying to say, or not to say.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
I do tend to worry about anything and everything!
I figure it best not to even think about it anymore...

One thing that I learned that I guess I never realized, and I am NOT complaining here but just stating a fact.
It never occurred to me that it's more expensive to treat a huge dog.
What I mean by this is that an injection is priced by the amount.
So one of my tiny dogs who might weigh five pounds would only need a very small amount drawn up but a HUGE dog weighing 140 pounds multiplies that amount by quite a bit.
The syringes were very large and he had ....seven? I think.
Like I said, I am NOT complaining, it's just something I never really thought about before and good to remember.
I'm fortunate because I work there and I get some discount and I'm able to charge it.
But when I look down into my future, some day when I'm retired, this is something to keep in mind.
And... the other thing is, when Ruby was very ill, I was able to wrap her in a towel and literally run with her to the car. Now that this is over, I have to admit that it was scary having Blue take the steps so slow and also this morning when we got out of my vehicle, the parking lot still had thick ice and although I tried to ease him out, he stumbled, slid and fell. I blocked his fall and he fell mostly on my legs and I almost went down too. I was able to pull him and get him up and luckily he was fine.
So, just something to keep in mind now that I'm not as young or as strong as I used to be....

I know that I was stressing over Twinkle a little bit ago here when she had that little seizure and the fact that she's 9.
and yet, I refused to think about Blue being 9 too and that age is different according to size.

OK, enough of this talk!
I know Blue just had an illness and he's on the road to recovery and he will be with me for several more years.
It just rattled me to my core.
But I think I handled it pretty well. I only tried 4 or 5 times yesterday while they did stuff to him.

Thanks again for all the healing thoughts and prayers that you all sent out to him!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Blue

Posting from my phone.

He's not feeling well.

Didn't eat last night or this morning but did eat some scrambled eggs.

Took the stairs slowly and seems unsure of his balance.

His third eyelid was almost completely covering his left eye.

As I drove here to work at the vet clinic, he kept nodding off. 

He slowly wagged his tail when seeing everyone when usually he's bouncing around.

Blood tests are being run and currently waiting on results.

Please send him positive healing thoughts.

Update: He has pancreatitis.

I'd told it's serious but not life-threatening.

They did a lot of bloodwork and he's now on his second bag of fluids.

They gave him several injections.

One was an antibiotic.

Another to stimulate his appetite.

and another for pain.

He's starting to look better. His eyes aren't so droopy now.

And he ate a few spoonfuls of special lowfat gastrointestional canned food.

They don't think it's his diet because I feed him the good grain-free food.

They think it's more age-related I guess.

More info as I get it.....