Rescue and the internet equal friends

 I was drug screaming and kicking all the way into rescue. It changed my life for ever. In my journey I have learned a life time of information and met some incredible folks from all walks of life and many corner of the world. I was then strong armed into social media, I never felt like I had time to play on the computer or get into the whole social aspect of the internet. Out of my feelings of obligation I joined a form for Chinese Crested dogs and my life has never been the same since. That form lead to Face book, another I really don't have time for these things that moved me into another life change. I have since welcomed and embraced the new changes and have even became addicted as most have to the new way of meeting friends and learning of a whole new way of life. What this new social media has done for me is one of the greatest things I could have ever had happened to me. As my need to make the best of rescue and the re-homing of the dogs, I so love, I tend to drive across the country like I am going to the corner market. This has given me the opportunity to meet many of the friends I socialize with on the internet. I have been greeted and shown endless hospitality from all my internet friends. We all love dogs and have the common bond of trying to do all we can to help them. I try to meet in person as many of the friends I have met along the way. Because I come from the generation that wants to sit face to face with friends and enjoy their company, I crave the need to meet all of you that I chat with and share our lives with. I want to share some of the special folks I have had the pleasure and honor to meet.

Sick, who cares.

 I was stricken with something miserable, I don't know what but it hit me like a brick. I had to have my kid stop and pick up something for fever and pain as both of these thing had me struggling to stay out of bed. The bad thing is I had to take a picture of the medicine and post to her face book because a conversation on the phone would have killed me to explain the brand name vs the generic name and really I did not care I was dying. I figured if I took a picture she would be able to show it to some one and they could get her the right stuff. Now the world knows I am sick and that is not how I like to roll, so suck it up and deal with it. Now I can not breath and bending over is like having a spike pounded in my eye straight through the brain. That being said I have no desire to move at all. Now the Damn dogs do not care I am sick they are just happy as shit I am home and they are running free. It is snowing like hell and two of the dogs are straight out of Peru and are not at all having any part of the the cold wet stuff and are at maximum resistance to going out side. Their size alone requires the strength and moves of a wrestler to make this happen.
None of the damn dogs want to share anything, so grump is the word of the day and all I have heard is grumbling from all of them. Some times the grumbling comes from every corner and causes

the room to vibrate. With head congestion and pain, this is not pleasant, it actually sucks even when my head does not hurt. The old ones don't like anyone to move or sit by them, The Chi's are just grumpy and bitching at everyone. The big dogs just go about doing what they want with no consideration to who gets mad at them or why. They just sit where they want to sit and it does not matter if there is another body there human or dog. Now the human or dog that is being sat on start bitching and they don't care they dig in and hold their ground and the little dogs become greasy muffled grumbling spots under them and the humans have to get up to get leverage to make them move. The old dogs will bitch and bark till the shrill of their voice pierces my ear drums. Now on normal days I have at least 9 hours with out this commotion so the remaining 5 hours is tolerable and life goes on. Then when they are not bitching at each other they are wrestling, they are so noisy when they play I often feel like my hearing is being damaged from the noise. Lets add in the fact that they all need to burn off some energy and it is snowing like hell out.  It will be burned off inside the house with my massive head pain and there is not much I can do about it. Now all of them want what they believe the others have and that includes the humans. Watching TV or any other sedentary inactivity will cause such a bitch fest I want to run as fast as I can out the door.
First ,if you have a seat NEVER leave it because it then become fare game to everyone else. Before you can catch air under your butt they will jump into the warmth of the seat that your butt just left. Then you do what ever that made you get up and then on your return you find all the poos that was made in your wake as you left the room. As you pick one up another will replace it as you turn your back to leave the room. Now after a few of these you return to a seat that is full, most of the time with a big dog. You use your brute strength to pull the dog out of the seat to have one or two of the Chi's jump in as the dogs butt starts to catch air under it. Now moving them does not require the strength just speed, you gotta be quick to get them, getting two at the same time is impossible. It comes down to a race of the strongest and quickest get the seat. Now one would think that this is the end of it but hell no it is just the beginning of a fight for comfort in your own living room.  Then they start this subtle encroachment on any spot they deem the best. Now if this happens to be mine with 4 other dogs sitting in my lap or curled up around me in the chair, then the games begin. It becomes so madding that I will get up and just move. No this does not work either, the problem follows me. It will be so subtle that I find myself moving three of more times before I just get pissed and start yelling. The yelling works for about 1.5 minutes if I am lucky. Mostly it is just a way of blowing off the stress of have a house full of dogs push me around.
Now there are a couple of dogs that do not do this to me they are happy sitting on the back of the furniture or in front of the heat vent. Jake, is one of the foster that just decided he likes my daughter better and hangs with her. He sleeps with her and follows her around the house and whines when she is not in a room he is in.
So now I am sick and the dogs are more annoying than ever and all of a sudden Jake decides he wants in my lap. I said what the hell Jake you don't even like me why do you want in my lap. My daughter comes home and sits on the couch and he does not even give her a second look. He jumps up on me an wrangles his place on my lap and starts his grumbling with the others and I am about to toss all of them and he just gives me the look and rubs his head on me and rolls his eyes. What the hell buddy you mad at Ta Ler Paw and now your sucking up to me. Then my daughter pipes up and said " he is just using you Ma" wow, now this makes me feel good enough to just go to work, it has to be better.

SOAP!!! Who knew?

I was on a dog transport and came home in the wee hours of the morning and wanted a quick shower to relax and I could sleep in the next day.  I turned on the water jumped in and went to grab the soap that I just opened and put in the shower the day before. all I can say is it was by shear tiredness that I did not go up stairs and yank a kid from her sleep for taking my soap.  As I buy in quantity and the bar soap supply is just over the toilet there is no need to steal the soap out of my shower. Now what comes to mind is a lazy kid that thinks it's easier to take the new one I just put in the shower rather than open the box and dispose of said box. The next day after work I get home and at some point I am reminded of the missing soap and ask my kid why????  "I did not take your soap, Ma". Well there is two of us in the house and I did not take my own soap and I flasher her the liar, liar look. I then ask her if this was her way of not hurting my feelings. As I have been told in the past the only time she lies to me is when she doesn't want to hurt my feelings.  This did seem to put a chill in the air for the evening and she went up stair to her room. I then went to bed. 

Weeks later I am cleaning out the kennels in the dog room and I hear the familiar sound of the shower door rattling in the bathroom. I look over and the bathroom is dark, no lights. I yelled " get out of the bathroom" nothing. So I got up and went into the bathroom turned on the light and almost died when I saw the damn dog trying to get the soap out of the shower. I ran back to the living room and grab the camera and when I got back he was still trying to get the damn soap. I got a few good shots of him and ran to the basement to tell the world on facebook about my damn dog. I am sure my finger was still on the send key when I heard the feet on the stairs the pounding across the floor going into the kitchen then down the hall was deafening.  My kid was almost in my room when I turned around to yell what is going on up there. She took one more big step and looked me in the eye and said " I TOLD YOU, I didn't take your soap". The cyclone of wind she created as she turned and flew back up the stairs faster than she came down, sent me into tears of laughter. I mean who would have thought the dog was eating the soap.

 

As this is such a new and unusual thing I am thinking the dog is playing with the soap and really not eating it. I looked high and low for the missing bar of soap and forgot about the whole thing in time.
A few weeks later the dog is sitting on the couch and with out warning throws up all over me and the couch. The smell of sour acidic Dove soap almost made me loose my stomach content.  And, yes it does bubble on its return. Now I am on heighten alert to keep the dog out of the bathroom, as he is really eating the stuff. 
I have been doing rather well remembering to keep the door shut and we have not had any further disappearing bars of soap.
Now my idea of a quick trip to the kitchen to get my hair tie and the dogs idea are not quite the same. And when I got back he was all over the damn soap again.  What the hell now I have a soap eating junking on my hands. Do they offer a 12 step for this.

Foiled again!

As it would appear the dogs have foiled me again.  I really do not want to give them all the credit but they sure do make it seem like they have all the cunning on their side.

As all the kids have left the house I decided that I did not need all 9000 cable channels so I got rid of that extra expense and chose to keep Netflix as a watch when I want and pay for what I watch.  Now this has been a good deal for me for the last 8 months. I can stream some of the movies over the TV and will get a new DVD in the mail as I finish one I can get another in the mail. For me this has worked.  So on weekends the girls come we watch the latest DVD that has come in the mail.  I have had this DVD player and its remote for ever with out problems. Until a few weeks ago the dogs, not sure if one or more than one, chewed the remote to the DVD player.  Now this alone would have put me over the deep end but as I can still stick the DVD in and hit the play button on the machine it's OK for me. The girls are beside them selves. They don't want to watch the previews in the beginning and they have to fast forward, fast back and fast side ways with the damn thing, this is a major issue for them. Watching anything with them when they have the control in their hand is at best, a nuisance.

Up until two nights ago I have had no issues with the remote being chewed. I was really happy that something the dogs did was not sending me into insanity.  

I love a good foreign flick with subtitles if the content is of interest.  So we received a DVD  about the Japanese invasion of a town in China.  One of the girls and I had snacks and drink in hand  when we sat down to watch. We sat through the 10 minutes of reviews and advertising to realize the subtitles for the movie were in Spanish. Now the half eaten remote has become a huge issue because we have no way to change the subtitles to English.

My daughters quick thinking reminds me we can watch it on the touch screen computer and change the subtitles there. I would have never came up with this one, way to much thinking out side the box for me. So we drag the computer over and set it up in front of the TV and change the subtitles and begin what was to be a really good movie.  The first problem was it is much smaller screen and I can hardly see the words let alone read them; I felt like I need Opera glasses. Now the words are at the bottom of the screen and guess who's butt  and tails was always in the way. Can we all say, get the hell out of the way. So we had to lock down the room and move the computer closer. I am starting to think about the new DVD player in my near future and where the hell I will need to stick the remote to keep it away from the Damn dogs.

I hate sarcastic snotty machines.

The older I get the less I think I can learn. Well maybe the less I want to learn. Either way some things I learn just blind side me and send me to the floor. Today being one of the learning things that just hit me like a brick upside my head.
We are getting ready to do an online auction for the rescue, I am trying to find new avenues to post in to get the word out. I message friend to ask about posting on a page and we start a little messaging back and forth. My last text to this conversation was " No worries I don't tread on others".  I was on my kindle and to lazy to get ups and go to the computer where I know my way around and can Google the spelling of words and stay on my message, so I ask my none English as a first language daughter. How do you spell tread? After several tries she pull out the cell phone and connects to some app she has on it and shove the damn thing in my face and says " say the word Mom". OK, so I say "tread" and the thing just produces a wavy line across it.  She says "say it again Mom". Again I say "tread". Wavy line. Now I am laughing at this and ask "what the hell can't this thing understand English". She shoves it back in my face and I had to move back so she did not shove it in my mouth and says "try again". Results, it spells out Dead. I started laughing so hard I started to cry. She clearly was frustrated at it and me and says let me turn the volume up and try, she (phone) talks to you. She then sticks it in her own face and yells with a really good outside voice and broken English with a twist of who the hell knows what and it said "Dead".  Now I am on the floor and I can not stop laughing and I told her the damn thing is not deaf it can't understand you either. So she shoves it back at me and said "do it again". In my clearest voice I could muster under the bouts of hysteria I said
 "you suck".
The Damn thing said in its clearest female voice "Well I never".  I can't even tell the story with out laughing hysterically I can't even explain why I never finish my chat with my friend. I guess I'll just post this blog and explain when I calm down....

Pee or deal with it...

As most of us are in the grips of one cold and snowy winter, it was brought to my attention that many of us dog owners are having the same issues. How to get the dogs to do their business outside and not in the house. My solution came to me as a half ass gift many years ago. I was working with another rescue in early 2000's. One of the members had a hospital donate all there mattress covers to the rescue and they bought all new.  Now the member is sitting on a trailer load of these things and she decided she could unload them at an annual get together in the middle of the Smoky Mountains. As the camp ground hosted most of us she pulled that trail up and as we came in she started to unload. I had no idea what I would do with them but she kept heaping them into my van till I really had to protest that I was not there for fun I was on dog transport and I was dropping and picking up dogs and moving on. So as I moved on the transport I dropped off some of these mattress covers and ended up with a dozen or so after all was said and done. At that point in my rescue life I was not having an issue with this as long as I did not leave things on the floor like a throw rug or a pair of sock I had no problems. As time progress my problem did the same, dogs came and went and then I found belly bands was my new savior. I learned that traveling was a huge problem so we broke out the pee pads, as we now call them. One of my own dogs had a case of separation anxiety that I was not aware of. She never pee or pooed in the house or car as long as we were there. At home she had a doggy door and she went outside to look for us and left her trail of pee and poo. but let us leave the van and she hit every square inch of the van. She would wind herself up and let it go. We covered all the seats and pillows everything with the pads and it saved us from a head ace that almost cause me to kennel this dog for life. I may add that she is around 10 now and no long does this. She has around 10,000 miles of travel in her life with me and now it is no big deal and she is very happy to just sit and bark at the cars and people passing bye. 6 years ago I moved into this house and it had carpet and still does. I am not rich and therefore must keep the stuff till I hit the lotto. I realized early how important the pee pad were becoming to me. I yelled at the kids when I found them using them as paint drop cloths, almost had a heart attack. I have no idea how to get more. I bleached the hell out of them and washed them daily to keep up with the ever growing movement of dogs coming and going. Mine are now aging and so their house broke state is now broken. I started asking everyone I could about working or knowing someone who worked in a hospital. Trying to get that donation of use mattress protectors, as a few of the pads where starting to fall apart this was a huge stresser for me.

  Now as I am not one to just think outside the box on my own I usually need a board upside the head to get my brain unstuck. So one day at work I am whining about poor me what the hell was I going to do when the pads just disintegrated. My co-work said just Google it. Where do hospitals get their bed protectors? Duhhh.   Well I have not looked at all the sites as I am sure there must be many but in Alphabetical order Allegro Medical was the first thing I hit and I never left. Desperation has no price attached. They had just what I needed and I looked no further. Now what I have learned over the past few years is the size does count. I bought the little ones 24x36 and then started to sew them together to get the size I needed as they seemed so cheap I could buy a million and sew. Then my hall way became the pissing spot of choice and I just could not get the sides covered so I started to look at bigger sizes. I now buy two of the 44x52 sew two together and Ta Dah I have a hall runner that gets the job done.

Now I have found that the markers in the bunch like to piss on kennel doors so I put the small ones under the front of the kennels in the living room as these are the ones that they can get too. Back room is off limits so no worries as long as door is kept shut. Now as the dogs come and go I have to change the rooms that get blocked and change the pee pad locations to keep up with the Damn dogs.  So I found the next size down is the 34x52 are great to just through around in corners and other spots that they seem to think is a great substitution for the back yard when temps dip below O degrees and snow starts to pile up.

 Now I know that there are many folks that love their homes and just would not put up with this. So I am sure this blog is not for you. But for those of us that love our dogs just not there potty habits I hope this helps you save just a small piece of  your sanity. I will not tell you how many rug cleaners or vacuums I have went through in the last 6 years I don't want you to faint or have me committed. I am not supporting Allegro as there are many, you will find the one that has what you need.
They wash up great and you can bleach the hell out of them. Throw them in the dryer and it makes life just a little better so we can love our four legged pissers.
 

To all my friends on Valentine's

To all my friends on Valentine's