Just GEEGLE it!

Some days can be more stressing than others. So today started normal and it then it gained momentum as the time moved forward the stress came on like a freight train.  I then had to get my daughters income taxes that I had done for her and get home because home visit night is tonight and then dog have to be fed, kids need to be fed and I need coffee.  I am running late and get home run in the door and I can feel myself already drained and no more energy or brain cells left to finish off the evening with. I give my daughter her tax returns and tell her to sign and put in the envelope put a stamp on it and your done. Now the other two seem to think she is getting something they are not. Now comes the 250,000 questions. Whats that Ma? Taxes. What is Taxes? It is what we have to pay Uncle Sam. Who is Uncle Sam? Do we know him? No ! it is what we call the government, Who?
Really! Do I need to explain Government to you: What the hell are you studying in school?  Then the subject changes ever so slightly, Do you make Taxes? No, I pay taxes. I then proceed to explain about the money is taken out of our pay checks every week and then we balance it at the end of the year so we know if we payed enough or if we still owe more. The mistake came when I said I claim 1 person during the year and 4 at the end of the year, That set off a whole new set of questions. Can you put me in you Taxi? That then changed the subject again. No and if I did you would not pay me. What???? its not Taxi its Taxes, Oh! can you put me on your Texas. Now I am on the edge and do not want to say one more word but now I must explain the difference between Taxes, Texas and Taxi then pronounce each one a hundred times so they could hear the difference. It got me no where so I said stop I don't what to do this any more. Ok how many kilometers in a Meter? Do I look like a math teacher, look it up. Then one of the girls chime in just GEEGLE it.  What the hell is Geegle? You know mom you Geegle it on the computer. NOooooooooooo,  You Google it!  Then the old blind dog gets stuck between two kennels and start barking his butt off. Then we start on home work. The questions and noise has chased me to the basement to get off the speeding freight train of stress. GAWD some days are just hell.

I fail to see...

We took in a new foster a week ago her name is Maya. All the kids know her name but the youngest calls her grouchy cookie mama. So tonight I ask why do you call her grouchy cookie mama?  She said "I don't know she just looks like an old lady that cooks and is grouchy, you know Ma. like you.."
Now I fail to see the resemblance. 

Grab a bag newbie

We got the call to help dogs so I told the newbie, grab a bag and get in the car.  My friend who just joined the rescue last fall has been getting the grand induction into dog rescue. I am not sure if she will survive or not but she is a good sport and willing to learn. I took her on one of my cross country weekend trips that I drag my kids and all the dogs on. This weekend they all had to stay home because we needed every inch of space for dog kennels and supplies. We took the seat out of the van stored the back seats and fill it with kennels and headed to South Carolina. The 10 state 48 hour 2,000 plus mile trip left her and I both limping from sitting so long and my butt now looks like a bucket seat. We worked the whole trip keeping in contact with others in home bases looking after all the other rescues going on over the weekend. The trip home took both of us to the stupid side of silly. We made jokes about each other then about our selves and then we laughed at each other and we laughed at our own jokes it got pretty ridiculous but it made the time fly.  At one point I am trying find the entrance to the fast food place and she pipes up and says "you know this is two way street, I mean I am just saying because your on the wrong side". We laughed for an hour at that one for no reason other than we were just stupid tired. We embarrassed ourselves at the fast food joints and then laughed. By the time we got to PA to pick up the last dog we stood in the parking lot meeting another rep to pass off a dog to us, we were just silly girl giggling and the dogs in the back were absolutely quiet. They were most likely scared of the two human clowns dragging them across the country. We got to the drop off point at 3:30 am after a much needed break for the dogs then we left. We got a couple of miles down the road and realized we left the one dog that we're taking back with us.  We did make it home before my girls left for school in the morning. It was good thing as the girls expected me to be home when they got up in the morning. The dogs and the girls both were glad to see us as this is the first time I left everyone home. I was greeted with crazy dogs and they even were dresses bad. I have no idea how Chiquita got her tail in the leg of her jammie and the neck of the jammies is around her waist.I was just glad to be home. Now my friend had one more hour to drive. I was worried about her, she slept as much as I did, none, well other than the occasional nod off while we would talk to each other.  I ask a question and while I am waiting for an answer I look over and she is gone.  I remember doing the same to her. I could feel myself going and just checked out. What a way to get broke in.  We are facing another hell of a week in rescue I hope she last.
Chiquita can run pretty good in her jammies around the waist, enjoy.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44tekhUaHGQ

Bagel theives

The fact that I have not had my bagel stolen for over a week has me in shock.  Now my own dogs are opportunist and will get me distracted and grab my bagel or drink my coffee.  They have lightened up on me some and set their sights on the girls who seem to have a problem keeping food on the table and or their plate.  And they don’t care. I on the other hand will chase the offending dog down and take the stolen loot away from them. The new fosters have not been here long enough to know this yet so I am always their target.  Now I just adopted out my latest bagel thief.  She got me a couple of times and had me thinking I was losing my mind.  I put my bagel in the toaster and turn around to make coffee.  When I returned it would be missing from the toaster. Now that one got me once but the next day I heard the click of the toaster popping up.  I turned and saw the new dog grabbing the bagel right from the toaster: I can’t hold one directly from the toaster it burns my fingers.  Hell at least the other dogs waited for me to put butter on it before stealing it. Then one time I caught the dog trying to take it out of the toaster before it even popped up. Holly cow batman I can just see the dog getting electrocuted.  So then I decided to watch her to see what she was doing.  She watches me and as soon as I walk away she is on the counter at the toaster.  I had to move the toaster so she could not get to it. My kitchen was designed by a person who never had an animal.  Now she is adopted and my dogs are after the kids food and all I have to do is not let my hand get too close to the floor or the other foster dog will get it; this happens when I stop to pick something up and bend over, I put the damn thing in their strike zone and they will snag it.  I have trained myself to not stop and do anything if I have food in my hand. My last two foster dogs now are 99.44% adopted and I could be foster less by Saturday night but as everyone has pointed out to me “be careful what you ask for”, Because now we will be taking in 11 dogs this weekend.  Well not having my bagel stolen for one week is something I have enjoyed and will continue to for my last couple of days before I start with a new batch of bagel thieving dogs.

My confession

I don't think we can control our hearts and who we will fall in love with and that goes with out saying about everything. Being in rescue I started out loving every dog and crying my eyes out when I had to let go. I thought I may not be able to continue my work in rescue because the pain of letting go was so hard. It took a lot of soul searching and preaching to myself to stay. As the time went on and the number of dogs I helped grew and it got less and less painful. I found it easy to wall up my heart and not let them in. I could love them take care of them and find them a good home and say good bye. I have let myself believe that I have found the magic to keep me safe from falling in love. I can not begin to tell you how many dogs have gone through my home and life during these years of rescue. There have been some absolute beautiful dogs, some so wonderfully good and loving dogs. But there I was tough as nails not letting any of this get to me. I just let the dogs be taken into a different room and I walk out the door and I am gone. Now one year ago I took in a little dog that had crossed my path many months before and when I first laid eyes on her she did not look anything like a Chinese Crested except she was hairless. She was the oddest little girl. So when she ended up in my home to foster I knew she would be here for awhile.  She is a character and has her own little personality that I knew if someone could just give her a chance she would be a great little companion for a family. I got inquires on her every now and again but when they found out she would bite another dog if they entered her comfy space the potential adopter looked else where for the dog of there dreams. My kids have names for all the dog and most are not so nice but they always love them the same and treat them good. They tell me why don't I adopt Julie instead of so and so dog. I am always responding to them that there is nothing wrong with Julie she is one of the best dogs we have. And then they come back with, but she is ugly and she looks like a witch or some other equally stupid comment. A few weeks ago we went an a road trip doing dog transport and all the dogs were being their totally annoying selves except for Julie. She found her comfy spot in the van and stayed there not being annoying or shovie in any way. She sits nice and begs with her eyes not her body. After hours of the dogs being a pain in the ass one of the girls said " Mom you know Julie is a really good dog, she is better than the other dogs". " I told you so, you guys never believe me".
Julie has a wonderful application on her and most likely will go to this family we just need to do a home screening and if it goes well she will be adopted. Now the girls are in heaven because that she is finally going and the other two dogs we have also are 99 % adopted. Just a few detail remained and then if all goes well they will be on there way to their forever homes. There is no end to the girls' excitement about no foster dogs. It will be short live as there are two more on their way.  Last night  as we were leaving Mya it struck me that Julie is next and she will finally have the home she deserves. The twinge it gave me sent me into shock as I thought this would not happen to me again. Then when we arrive back home Julie came up and got into my lap and the sudden sadness that came over me was so startling, I went to bed very sad and mad at myself for be so smug about the fact that this could not happen again to me. I have a steel reinforced concrete wall around my heart that will keep out all the dogs and protect me from the pain of letting them go.  And yet here I am dreading the day I have hoped for for over a year. Never say never.

Dropped out of sight

I have gone back to making my bed in the morning as the blanket piling dogs are gone now.  This morning as I was making my bed I was reminded of something that happened to Chiquita on a camping trip last year.  I was shaking the sheet out and the dogs were having fun jumping and grabbing at it, as settled on the mattress.  Now as I chased them off one by one they jumped back up. Of course this was great fun for them but I am out of patients as I need to get my butt in gear and go to work. I thought I had the entire pack of dog put up behind the gate so I could finish; I grabbed the corners and gave it a hardy shake, all of a sudden Chiquita came rolling out and hit the back of the bed and got her leg stuck between the bed and wall. I yanked the bottom of the bed and she dropped out of sight behind the bed. I heard her down behind the bed clawing her way out from underneath the bed.  She popped out the end and started spinning.  Now I know that in stressful situations, well hell any situation she will spin to deal with whatever has her wound up. Now I feel bad for her but many times her behavior will send me into a bought laughter.  This morning was one of those times, and it brought back the memory of camping in the new pop up camper. 

The tent part of the camper is pulled down over the frame of the slide out beds on the ends. Now it is only fastened done on one end; the other two sides it just has a 4 inches flap of the tent hanging down over the bed. There is frame work and Velcro and bungee cords that connect all of it together. Now it’s hot and rain cannot get up under the 4 inch flap so we just let it hang.  The first night we went to bed as soon as the sun set, all the kids and the dogs are in the pop up and we are excited and goofing around as we settled into our first night of our vacation. We laughed and the girls made fun of me, because my backing up skills on the camper needed a lot of work.  The dogs are wound tight and running from one end of the thing to the other sniffing and romping. The girls and I start to settle in and the dog just could not pick a spot and lay down. It was as if they had to try every square inch of the thing to find the right place to sleep.  It seemed like forever before we got them all settle down and we were just about to doze off into dream land when Chiquita gets up and starts spinning on the end of my bed.  I guess sleeping in the new camper was way more than she could handle and it sent her into a spin. I tried to ignore her but the camper was bouncing as she run around on the end of the bed. In the dark I reach out to grab her and she ran up to my pillow as I turned around to grab at her again, I hit her leg and she disappeared from sight.  Now I am surprise and shock that my dog just vanished in front of my eyes. I started to look for her behind my pillow and the dogs think I am playing again so they start bouncing around the girls are yelling at me; it happened so fast, I pushed on the side of the tent and I saw her in the dim light of the moon spinning under the trailer, I fell out laughing.  Everyone jumped on my side of the camper to see what was going on, when we felt the movement of tent tilt. Now it was not much just enough to give us a rush thinking the damn thing was going to tip over.  The girls did not crank down the legs far enough.  I rushed outside and around the camper and there she was, she looked like a little pace setter horse on a much smaller track. Now the fact that she dropped 4 feet to the ground and it scared the hell out of her did not do much to get my laughter under control.  I picked her up and tried to comfort her the whole time I am in tears.  The girls got mad at me and went back in the camper, by time I got back in the girls yelled at me that everyone in the whole camp could hear me and I embarrassed them.  I got into bed got everyone calmed down except for myself. I tried to control myself but the more I thought of her spinning under the camper in the moon light the more I would laugh. I can only imagine what the poor dog was thinking, the kids just wanted to kill me.