New Beginnings

Seems like the time between blogs gets longer and longer! I've got legitimate excuses this time I think. Getting ready to move and between packing and purging, getting things ready at the new place two hours away, and getting this house ready to sell has been all consuming. Not everything's quite ready yet, but it's wonderful to have the luxury of not being in too much of a time crunch to move from one place to the other in one day or even one week! Right now it's getting things switched over to a new state, finding another job, getting water, elec., etc. turned on and most importantly, getting the cats' new digs finished.

Here's the new rescue set up, much bigger and better than the old one I have now (no leaky roof and uninsulated walls)! It's not totally finished yet, still got to put in shelves and ramps and their Little Tykes play equipment, but the guys are gonna love it and I can't wait to see them enjoying the extra space. Getting them there, not looking forward to.



I know the dogs are going to love moving too, lots more trees and land for them to run and explore! I'm hoping the openness and fresh air will be more accommodating to my creative ventures as well. And Marls, since you're never gonna see my house pics unless I post some here's a few to give you an idea. I'll post more once I get it decorated more to my liking.

View into the DR and kitchen.














The LR.














Master bath (that wall paper's gotta go!)

Time Flies

I can't believe I've let so much time go by without a post! I've been doing stuff, just not taking the time to blog about it - bad me! Found a couple really cute pics of my dogs when they were youngsters.



The border collie mix is Boots (he came with that name, don't blame me) and the big doggie is Acadia (I did name her) who is half Rottie, half Catahoula and all baby. They are now 9 and 11 respectively. Time so flies!



Finally decided to try the video portion of my camera and tape some cute moments with my critters. I tried to get my talking cats, Sammy and Chance, to do their thing, but both of them clammed up when the camera came out. I guess they'll want to sign an agent before they'll talk on screen. Actors. So, this is my very first try, please ignore the erratic camera operator! LOL! This is Hannah, my oldest kitty at 12 and Weebee (another one I did not name), the rescued Cornish rex who decided she didn't want to be adopted and stayed here. She so does not like to be interrupted from her nap. LOL!



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In sadder news, I had to have two of my FeLV+ kitties put down last week. I knew when I decided to have a sanctuary for the positive ones that I'd lose them way too early, but I'd rather give them a few good years if I can even if it hurts worse when the times does come. Actually they were both pretty old for a FeLV cat; Pretty Baby was about 12 or older; Jamie was also about 12. This is Pretty Baby (P.B.) in her prime. I don't have my scanner working so I couldn't post a pic of Jamie, but she was small, all black with a corkscrew ear from an old hematoma. Rest in peace my girls.

Busy Days

Ok, I almost fell asleep waiting for these pictures to load, so, yeah, I'm tired. Been a bit busy at work and at home so I'm looking forward to the weekend!

We got in more wildlife yesterday, another squirrel, a turtle and these baby opossums. I should have never said aloud that I missed the little critters I took care of last year! They are cute, but a lot of work, oh, and did I mention messy! :)



Spent Monday taking pics of the adoptable kitties to go up on Petfinder while I was out in the enclosure. The gray tabby in this pic is Sundance (yep, he has a brother named Butch Cassidy). Don't know if you can see it that well, but he has a huge lump on the side of his neck that gave us a scare. At first the vet and I thought it was an abcess, but when antibiotics didn't do anything for it, she suspected the worse; lymphoma. But it's not, just swollen lymph nodes, thank goodness! He's still on clavamox, but it's a rare disorder (my cats naturally have the unusual stuff) so the treatment will either be nothing or start him on prednisone. He's still doing great, so at least that's a relief!

Here's one of the baby squirrels of the season. One of my first blog posts was about the opossums I raised, so far this year we've only had squirrels and birds. This is one of Andrew's "kids", almost ready to be released.

Long Time, No Blog

Nothing too exciting going on lately so I've gotten out of the mood. I did join Facebook so I've been playing with that instead of blogging. I've got a few old friends on there, but what's more exciting is finding new friends that share my interests (mainly animal rescue and writing).


I was in a panic Thursday, trying to find a home for a border collie dropped off at our clinic for euthanasia. It's always sad, but this dog was happy, hyper, healthy weight, very loving, her only problem was she had a mild case of megasophagus. Her elderly owner didn't know how to take care of her and thought no one would want a dog with health issues so he signed papers to have her put down. Being the animal lovers we are, a couple of us knew this dog had plenty of good years ahead of her started looking for someone to take her. With a little luck and a twist of fate we found a BC rescue who at first said 'no', but then called back willing to take her. Then we had to check with the owner to make sure it was all right with him (I know, sounds wonky, but vets have been sued over such issues), and he didn't get back with us until almost closing time so I was sweating it. Not sure what I'd have done if he'd said no.


Anyway, all is well, the rescue LOVES this sweet girl and she's in foster care now, safe and happy.

Snow Days Pt. 2

More snow fell during the night, but alas, the sun is melting a lot of it off today. The weird thing is that it was 70 degrees Friday and the snow hit the next day. Freaky, but that's Memphis weather.


Anyway, this isn't normal for us to get this much snow, which is why I'm compelled to take pics. Usually we get more ice than snow, so this was nice, especially since no power outage this time!

First Snow of 2009

And it's still coming down. It'll probably all be gone by tomorrow, but it was pretty. Marls, you can stop sending this stuff my way, ok?

To Facebook or Not To Facebook...

that is the question.

I've got friends who are devoted Facebook users, most of them young, socially active and just getting started in the game of life and developing relationships. Having a social network to post pics and gather friends is a must for them, but I thought I was way too old for that playground. I'm pretty well settled, not into weekend trips to the lake or partying until wee hours of the morning anymore. Yep, I'm a stay-at-home nester whose date plans involve renting a movie and ordering in.

Anyway, one of the vets at my office has discovered Facebook and is enthralled with it. She's more my age, married with kids and like me, she's settled. She said she likes it because she can connect with old friends, find out what they're up to now. So that got me to thinking about people I'd long ago lost touch with and wondering how their lives were going, etc. So yesterday, while spending a rainy and cold Saturday in my cozy old house, I decided to see if there was anyone I knew on Facebook. Surprisingly I found a lot! Some friends that I have now, some that I hadn't seen in 10 years or more. I had to sign up in order to search, so I was all ready to email these people and ask them to be my Facebook friend. Sounds lame, I'm aware of this. LOL!

But the more I got to searching and finding people, I started wondering if I should leave well enough alone? I mean, we haven't kept in contact so maybe we weren't such good buddies? Though my experiences with different jobs, co-workers/friends come and go all the time, people who were your best lunch pals and interoffice companions don't often translate into the real world. Without the unifying bond of work, a lot of times the conversation sags and you find there's not that much you really have in common. So I've learned to enjoy people at the time, knowing that not everyone is meant to stay in your lives forever. And the ones that are you don't really lose touch with.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. While on my Facebook search I found people with kids I never knew they had; old boyfriends with their wives (and sometimes kids); people I used to work with who don't look at all the same and truthfully probably aren't the same as I remember them. I guess I'm debating on whether I should reconnect or if I should let our history together be just that (ok, no debate on the old boyfriends, I'm definitely not going there!) That maybe what I (and they) remember is much sweeter than what could be again and I shouldn't ruin the memory? Or am I overlooking the possibility that we might have a new set of commonalities to share now, life experiences that could forge a new bond? It wouldn't be the first time I've made friends via the internet and at least we'd have the advantage of some type of history beforehand.

I'll have to think on this a while and say thank you to whatever force kept me from sending 40 friend invitations last night during my searches! (and thanks Marls for the cute cartoon - perfect timing!)

Update!

Sadie is doing great so far, she came through the surgery like a champ and seems to be feeling much, much better this morning. She's eating, head-butting and talking to me like she did before. It's amazing to me how they can go through so much (like having their guts cut open) and be perfectly fine less than 24 hours later. I'd be a whining baby for the rest of the week I know!

Thanks for the well-wishes, I really appreciated them!

Say a Prayer for Sadie

Sadie is going in for surgery tomorrow. She has a bladder stone and has been uncomfortable and peeing blood for about six months. I know she's ready to be well again and I trust Dr. G, it's just I always get this nagging worry whenever any of them go under. I help prep animals for surgery all the time and even assisted and watched when my dog Cadia had her tumor removed in December. I'm not sure that I'll be nearly as calm with Sadie. Maybe I'm more protective of my cats cause they seem much more fragile because of their size. Sadie is really small and such a sweetie; my pretty orange girl. I'm thinking positive, that everything will go fine and she'll be up and feeling good in no time!

Keeping Busy

It's been a gorgeous weekend here, the temps are in the high 60s to low 70s. Really beautiful for February. I spent yesterday and today outside, cleaning up the yard and rearranging the shed. The dogs and Skylar kept me company, but Boots worked harder than me. He got a new tennis ball which I realize is enabling his addiction. After about 20 minutes there is no trace of yellow left anywhere on it.




Cadia and Ethan definitely bored with the outside world and ready to go back inside to their comfy beds.


The sanctuary kitties love to watch me work.



Also took an old, scuffed up and stained up carrier and pimped their ride! The only plastic-safe spray paint I had was black and white. After I finished it cracked me up cuz it looks like a Storm Trooper helmet!

Photo Tag

I was tagged by T to post the fifth picture in the fifth folder of my pictures file. Whew! Anyway, here it is:

This is Skylar, one of my adult rescues and the only one that has free roaming rights to the backyard (everyone else is limited to the cat enclosure). She came to me declawed (yuck!), but that means she's not a real climber so she's safe inside the 8-foot wooden fence around our yard. She didn't get along with the other cats in the sanctuary so she was living in the 'airlock' (the entry way to get into the cat house) before I tried her out with the backyard and she loves it. She's my raking the leaves and cleaning up the dog poop helper and follows me like one of the canine pack. I believe she thinks she's a dog; a very superior and better looking dog. LOL! She gets a little upset when it's really cold or rainy and she has to be cooped up, but Skylar's a real sweetheart and has to have her cuddle time before going inside for the night.

New Hope

"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America."