FUNK

I'm in a funk.
I thought I had pulled myself out but... truth be told, no.
It's not because of Squeak, although his passing didn't help.
It's just...............

I need a change.
Or maybe just some sleep.
Or maybe just a new approach to life.

I seem to remember an episode of Seinfeld where George, whose life was always a major fail, decided to do the opposite of his natural instincts and suddenly everything started working for him.
Although I can't remember how it ultimately turned out for him, something must have gone wrong as he was back to his never-do-well life by the next episode.

But...
Yesterday when I got home from work it started to storm.
Really high winds, over 50 miles an hour and then hail.
The weather people on TV were intense.
They had their jackets off and their sleeves rolled up and they were showing diagrams on where to seek shelter in your home.
Last year we had a tornado in our region, something rather rare here
and they told us to seek a safe place.
At that time, I went to the basement door and walked down a couple of steps and sat there, holding 2 of my little dogs, Poppy and Ping.

I had motioned Blue to the doorway, I knew he'd never go down the steps, so he sat there along with Nora and Jimmy. I called to the others, I called to my cats...but mostly I called my cats Harry and Ghost.
Strange how I made my Sophie's Choice....
I remember that I had thought if I heard a "train" noise as they predict, I would just set the two little ones down on the icky basement floor and tug Blue as far down the stairs as I could.
I would think if I did that, some of the others would follow him down too.

But last night, curled up in my big chair covered in critters,
I watched the Tornado Warnings and thought about my Dad.
When there would be storms, he liked to open the garage door and sit in his lawn chair and watch.
He never ever was concerned. He never told us to go downstairs.
Of course, the downstairs in my childhood home was nicer than the whole of my home is now.
And MY current downstairs is dark, damp with cinder block walls and it's filled with stuff.
Stuff being old furniture, cat carriers, Rubbermaid containers full of more stuff.
I really didn't want to go down there.
So I pulled up my ottoman and stretched out my legs and more little ones crawled on top of me.
Blue was laying on the sofa

and Nora was pacing.
Nora was the only one that seemed concerned so I called for her to lay down next to the chair.
I figured we'd just wait and see.
I was so tired that I started to drift off to sleep.
I remember thinking just before I drifted off that I hoped the hail didn't dent my car
and that if nothing happened to us, that I needed to pitched the stuff in the basement
and repaint the walls, maybe put down a piece of sheet vinyl flooring...

So, I woke up and the threat had passed.
Apparently 5 tornadoes had touched down in several areas.
Down on the far end of my street, a tree had come down and brought down power lines and people were trapped inside a restaurant.
I was lucky that we still had power in my section of town.
I got up and threw a load of laundry into the washer.
I let the dogs out to potty and the night sky seemed eerie.
They hurried back in and we all went to bed.

I got up this morning and went to work and I cried.
Nothing big really happened or anything but I just cried.
I don't think I'm alone though.
Many people that I work with feel the same way.
And there's other people I know, outside of work, that feel like crying too.
About different things
Maybe it's just the time of year.

Maybe it's that I get home and only have a couple of hours
to clean the house, sort through and get rid of the clutter,
do the laundry, feed the dogs, groom the dogs,

scoop the poop and clean the litter boxes,
read the blogs and the books I want to read and
oh, create Art
and I need to get to bed and get some sleep.
Seems like I never have time to do what I want or the energy.
Maybe it's just that I feel overwhelmed.

Do you feel like that too?
Is it the weather? The time of year?
The horrible things in the News and on social media?
See,  I told you I was in a funk.
Sorry.

Work, Poop, Feeling Tired and Jimmy

This week will be a crazy one.

Today was kinda horrible.

I came in to work to find many of the boarders had accidents and then jumped in and on it.

Yep. An old tiny Aussie was waddling around with poopy dreadlocks hanging off his butt. 

A crazy yellow lab who had jumped and spun in it and an elderly sick corgi mix that smeared it all over the walls of his run.

(I actually have a story about that old guy but I'll save it for another day.)

Yep, lots of fun.

So I had to give baths to them all.

That's my duty, not the groomers.

The groomer only "grooms" her own clients.

She will do my boarders but they must call her and book an appointment.

She has also decided that she's too old and tired to bathe large dogs, rowdy dogs or pitbulls. So if they need just a bath, they have to set it up with me.

I only get 25% so it's not a big money maker for me and I have it set up that the money is directly applied to my account.

I figure if I don't have it in my hand, I won't spend it.

Anyway, the funniest part of this whole thing is...

I'm 5 years older than the groomer!

Oh well!

So tomorrow should be an ok day but Wednesday, my half day at work, I have 22 more boarders coming in between 8 to 11 that morning.

Should be interesting.

So as always, Thanksgiving will be packed to the max as well as the weekend.

That's just the nature of the business.

I can feel my throat feeling sore and I'm kinda achy all over but I'll drink some Alka Seltzer cold medicine and get some sleep and I'll be fine.

I need to get to work on my Art.

I've been doing some sketches but to be honest, yesterday I just cleaned the house and then spent some time online and then sort of crashed.

I was on a roll for a while there, creating paintings, and then I got distracted.

I need to organize my time better and make sure  I squeeze creative time in there someplace or I'll be washing poopy butts forever!

I'll leave you with a couple of photos of Jimmy Chew that I took yesterday.

He actually got exhausted from being his rowdy self and he just crashed too.

Yep, Jimmy Chew and I were feeling the same.

 

I... 

Just...

Can't....

Stay.....

Awake.......

A Warning, kind of

Saturday night I was on the computer and I look over into the kitchen and Ruby has her front leg sticking out at a weird angle and her head is leaning back.

Twinkle and Louie are sitting in front of her. just looking at her.
At first I thought they were all playing with one another but then I realize they are just staring at her.
I get up and walk into the room and pick her up. Her eyes are BIG and her tongue is "rolling" around in her mouth and it looks grey. Something was VERY wrong.
I call my sister and urgently ask her to come right away, that I thought Ruby was having a MAJOR stroke!
(Doc had told me to start giving her a 1/4 baby aspirin a day because she's been having mini-strokes.)
So I'm on the phone with my sister while I'm trying to get my finger in Ruby's mouth and hold down her tongue so that I can push a piece of aspirin down her throat and all the while I am FREAKING out.
Suddenly I noticed something black poking out behind one of her back teeth.
I get my finger in there and scoop around and pull out of her throat a thin twisted piece of plastic!
Suddenly she's acting normal. She was choking! OMG!
My heart can't take this stuff.
I shoved the 1/4 aspirin down her throat and go take 2 for myself. 

I had no idea where that plastic came from. I am very careful about that sort of thing.

If a dog toy gets chewed, I toss it.

If I unwrap something with a twist tie, I immediately drop it in the garbage.

I didn't have a clue.

I thought about it over and over. What could have it come from?

Then it hit me. I let Jimmy chew on empty 2 liter bottles and also water bottles.

They actually make dog toys where you can stick an empty water bottle inside of them to make a "crackling" noise, so they must be OK to use, right?

And I always first throw the caps away...

So I went over and picked up one of Jimmy's "toys".

Of course he immediately sat up excited. I looked at the tops and realized that there is a plastic "ring" left on the top of the bottles where the caps were attached.

But if someone chewed on it... yeah, it could come loose.

The thing is, they were all white!

Still, I threw them all away. Jimmy followed me around and bounced up and down and then stopped.

Why are you throwing out my toys?!

I went and got his monkey off of the top of the dryer and threw it to him, then he was happy again.

I still don't know where that black plastic came from.

But I'm happy that I discovered those "rings" on the plastic bottles

and even happier that I was home when Ruby needed me.

THE BATTLE OF THE SOFA and also MY UGLY FLOOR

First, I want to say, spontaneous photos reveal a lot.

Like what a slob I am.

OK...I hope this isn't too hard to follow,

I'm going to try to do two story lines at one time.

So here we go!

"MOM! He's in my SPOT!"

"Sorry, Poppy, but I'm not waking him up."

The turquoise thing is a 2-tier cat bed with a Target bag sitting on the top tier.

The dilemma of my ugly floor -

After pulling up carpet and having them sanded and refinished (several YEARS ago)

I was left with water-marked floors (I hope it was water)

Someone told me they look "rustic", I think not.

If it was various planks that were darker, maybe, but not box shaped marks.

I am probably going to put down tile....

but there still is an INSANE voice in my head telling me to paint them WHITE.

but so far....I've done nothing.

"Oh, you are BRAVE today Poppy!"

yep, that's dog hair on the floor and a "duck" dog toy.

I walk out of the room only to return and find this...

"How did you do that Poppy?"

Dog toys everywhere...

Yes, the buttons on the sofa need to be replaced

but luckily I can take spare ones off of the damaged love-seat...more on that, in a later post.

"Wow, you must be in a good mood today Blue."

"Hey! What's going on here?"

"Well played Jimmy. Well played."

BARE NAKED

Bare Naked Dogs

Summer Cuts

Do you even recognize Nora?

before photo

I was so startled when she was done being groomed
that I almost thought I would cry

but I quickly recovered and told her how "Beautiful" she was.

That's important to do.

Never laugh at a dog after a haircut!

When my sister and I were very young, we laughed at my Mom's poodle when he came home

with Pom-Pom hair and painted nails.

He immediately went and hid under the end table and refused to come out.

Speaking of Nora, here's an update on her.
She has put on some pounds. (That tends to happen in my home.)
She no longer needs her medicine. I'm doubting if she ever did and 
she now has good firm stools.
Yeah, I know TMI.
But that's what the expensive medicine was for, chronic worms.
By keeping her on regular Heartworm medication and good food, it's been taken care of it.

She is VERY protective. She goes crazy in the van at ANYONE she sees.

She bounces off the van windows and totally freaks out.

When she's at work with me, she will bare her teeth at some dogs until I tell her to stop.

Then she's OK.

She was barking at the neighbors over the fence where it is lower

but I told them to just call her by her name and then she stops.

Apparently she realizes that if you know her name, there must be 

no STRANGER DANGER.

And... she has taken to herding the little dogs.

Especially Mimsy.

Nora "nips" her on the back and guides her through the house.

I was feeling very sorry for Mims but then I took Mimsy to work with me and let her run full out in the big grassy play area.

Mimsy was racing around, and suddenly I think she felt overwhelmed by it all.

She ran to Nora and sat close to her, pressing her body against her.

So, apparently all is well between those two.

I just wish Nora wasn't SO protective.

She never acted like that when she used to belong to those other people and would board with me.

Everyone thinks that she's just so bonded with me that she's ready to defend me no matter what.

After getting Nora shaved down for Summer.

I decided to do Jimmy myself.

The groomer doesn't have a lot of patience and while I knew Nora would be good and just sit there

I wasn't so sure about my Jimmy.

(before)

Being a terrier he can be frantic.

But he sat quietly on the counter and let me buzz him.

I think I actually did a very good job!

I'm proud of myself.

So I came home and shaved little Ruby.

She has a very thick dense coat.

(before)

With her heart condition, she can't get over-heated.

I have never shaved her before and was worried.

The last two baths I've given her, she's twisted herself into a little mini-stroke!

She was bent in a weird angle and her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth and she was unresponsive

until I screamed RUBY!

and then she came back.

After doing that twice, I've just been wiping her down with a wet washcloth.

So....I shaved down Ruby

and afterwards set her in the pool and scooped the cool water over her.

She loved it.

Must have felt so refreshing.

Ah, Summer.... Life is Good.

HERE'S THE "SKINNY"!

The other day I noticed that Jimmy was hesitating before he would jump up on the sofa or the bed.

Then I noticed while he was at work with me, that he didn't seem to want to run and play with his buddy like he usually does.

(One of the vet techs brings her little terrier with her everyday to play with him.)

But when he hesitated before jumping out of the van and then gave a little cry,
I decided to have Doc take a look at him.

Jimmy's back was out. So Doc gave him an adjustment.

As he was feeling down Jimmy's spine and doing what he does, I asked if he thought Jimmy was too heavy.

"How much does he weigh?" He asked.

I said that the last time I weighed him he was 18 lbs.

Doc gave me that "look".

So after the chiropractic adjustment, I walked Jimmy up front and put him on the walk-on scale.

30 lbs.

I took Jimmy off and I stepped on it..........

After a month of holiday goodies, Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas dinner and New Years Day dinner

I have gained almost exactly the same amount.

Doc said I have to reduce Jimmy's meals down to 1/2 cup twice a day, instead of the 1 cup twice a day plus treats that he's been getting.

Jimmy is back to running and playing like he always has.

Doc said that his back was really out, I'm not sure if it was just the extra weight or from one of the dogs jumping on him or from his rough and rowdy playing.

And for me?

Two words.

Weight Watchers.