Sunday

We joined friends at their home for a Labor Day BBQ and bonfire. There was so much food. You know so much good food that you're full but you just keep going back for little of this and that. JK went crazy on the grill making burgers, brats, steak, chops and ribs...holy shit that's a lot of meat! I woke up Monday morning still feeling full.

A lovely fall sunset. 

 Someone had the bright idea to throw that bale of hay on the fire.

 Which turned it into an even bigger/hotter fire. Our friend Faye ended up with embers in her hair and A swatting her across the head to put her out.

 A loving the heat...it was 54 degrees. No alcohol for her last night, 7Up only.

And JK serenaded us around the fire...or tried to. He hasn't picked up a guitar in years. Who am I to criticize, I can't play a single chord.

Frog Massacres, Car Rides, Lattes and Other Randomness

Woke up this morning and it was 56 degrees. Seriously, it was 92 and so humid I could hardly breathe just a few days ago. Oh, the joys of Minnesota...you can't hold onto the summer. Yesterday morning A and I sat in the back yard trying to catch a cooling breeze then somewhere mid-afternoon I saw my neighbor's windmill change direction-here comes the north wind. By evening the AC was off, windows open and sweatshirts out.

Late last night I finally forced myself to leave home and return to the Twin Cities. As I drove along the back roads it was a frog massacre. There were frogs everywhere hopping across the road; leaving the swamps, lakes and ponds to return to the mud of the fields. There is just no way to dodge all the hopping bodies and each "thud" I heard under my car just made me sick to my stomach. The frogs and busy squirrels know that it won't be long until until the big chill arrives. I'm just hoping for a long, long fall.

This is the first day in over a week that I haven't went home for the day. I've been spending my nights at my house sitting/pet sitting gig. I get up in the morning, clean, do laundry, run the dogs in the yard, hop in the shower and make the 1:15 hour drive home to do the same thing again at that house. A is recovering well. She has finished her antibiotics and is passing the point of concern over complications. This morning though, I woke up and followed my normal routine....cleaning, laundry, dog running, showering and then found myself wandering. A and I had plans to join friends for a BBQ/bonfire today before her surgery. Since A is feeling up to entering public life again and they are about 1/2 the way home, we are meeting there.

It's good that I'm staying here with these dogs today. My pet sitting crew has greatly decreased after 5 moved to other foster homes and our sweet little Petie passed. I won't lie and say I miss them all (well I truly miss Petie) but the numbers here are much more manageable and I'm enjoying them much more. Like sweet and spunky Suki who definitely got her point across to me yesterday as I got ready to leave. They've been spending too much time alone.

Betty takes her crew in the car a lot and even has these cute little baskets/booster seats they ride in. Since she left I had not had them out but today I was craving a coffee so I rattled my keys and called "Wanna go for a ride?" and Suki, Juno and Gus went ballistic! I opened the door to the garage and they were leaping with all they had to get into my car.

We headed to Starbucks but the line was a mile long...don't know what that was about so instead we settled for a vanilla latte at McD's. I've had better (and worse) but I did save myself a $1...well more like $2 especially when you consider a latte is 1/2 foam anyway. The thing I dislike about McD's is they make you declare if you want whole or fat-free milk. At Starbucks, unless you say fat-free they just make it with the good stuff and you can delude yourself into believing whatever you want...if you don't say it it didn't happen.

Sweet little Susannah sleeping in the sun. Soon she will be coming home to stay with me. Honestly I feel a lot like this....just so very, very tired. I've been sleeping; more like I can't keep my eyes open another second and passing out sleeping, but spending 8+ hours in bed at night plus taking naps with A during the day. I just can't get enough sleep. I know that I'm just stressed and this is how my body deals...I need to sleep and repair. Betty should be returning home mid-week and my work asked me if I wanted to extend my time off another day so I don't go back until Wednesday. Hallelujah!
If you managed to make it through this long and mostly pointless post, I applaud you for your dedication. Now get the hell out of here and go out and enjoy your Labor Day!

Life, Near-Death and Death...All In One Week.

My pet sitting/house sitting/commute had all been going okay until last Tuesday. The previous weekend had been great. Saturday A came to visit me, we hung out by the pool and then went into the city to meet fellow blogger, Crystal for drinks. (Once again Crystal, it was great to finally meet you and Rachel.) Sunday I spent the day at home with A and my own crew before returning to the city to start another week. I had a busy one planned; rescue home visits, a Wednesday night concert date with A to see Stevie Nicks, a lunch date on Friday. Just busy, busy, busy...

Tuesday night around 7pm I was driving back to the house from a home visit for a potential dog adopter and A called. Her voice was strained and when I asked her what was wrong she said she was having abdominal pain. So much pain she was actually out of breath. I asked if she thought it was her appendix and she said she was sure it was just menstrual cramps. At 9pm I talked to her again and she had went to bed and said she felt much better. At 10:30 pm I was just getting ready to lay down myself and my phone rang. I answered "What happened?!" She said she was on her way (driving herself) to the emergency room. She insisted I stay put until they found out something. After blood work and a CAT scan, they transferred her to another hospital for an emergency appendectomy.

I had no choice but to call Betty's daughter to come deal with the dogs here. My crew at home had already been alone for hours and they were going to need taken care of through this situation.

By the time I made it to see A, she was out of recovery and looked like hell! I had been up all night and as we already know, when I reach that point I just can't deal with anything anymore. The surgeon came into talk to us. She was very concerned about A's condition. Her appendix had burst and by the time they opened her, the infection had spread through her abdominal cavity. She estimated her appendix had been leaking for 1-2 days and pools of infection were everywhere as well as fecal matter. Her blood pressure was dangerously low. They couldn't get it to come up and were considering moving her to ICU. Her blood work was a wreck. They were running fluids and loads of antibiotics and well as a morphine pump to keep her comfortable.

Thursday I needed to go to work (one girl on maternity leave, another on vacation out of state) and when I went to visit A that evening she seemed better. They had stabilized her BP and her color was much better but she was having trouble breathing. The next morning they diagnosed her with pneumonia. Even with these set-backs, Friday afternoon she was up walking the halls with me when I came to visit.

See that smile...it's induced by the morphine pump on the right. :)

They discharged A from the hospital Sunday afternoon. The physician's assistant came to go over discharge instructions and told us A had been the talk of the office all week. He had been there for her surgery and said when her lab work came in, the question everyone asked was "How is this person even alive?" They even had the crash team on standby in the operating room because they were sure A was going to code during surgery.

Surgery is always scary but it was shocking to realize just how close to death she was. As A would say, "I was circling the drain." Damnit, sometimes the joking is too much! But I realize that's the way she coping right now and she's trying to help me not worry. It's going to be awhile before she's 100% but so far she's listening to me and resting. Her body has been through so much in the last week. I took the entire week off and I'm splitting my time between my home and the pet sitting/house sitting gig.

We did have "the talk" about this situation when we got home. I wasn't rude or angry; just told her that she's a great nurse and does a fabulous job assessing the needs of her patients. It's time that she starts using those fine assessment skills on herself too. This is the second time I've had to pull out the "If this was your patient having these symptoms, you would send then to the ER, right?" I'm hoping she has learned because this mistake could have ended her life.

During the midst of all this drama, Betty's daughter arrived at the house Wednesday evening to find the tiny 5 month old pup Petie "The Flea" crashed in the floor. He was rushed to the vet and perked up a bit but by Friday he crashed again. Thankfully this time he was in the care of my own Tim and  Orv's foster parents. Barb, Dave and their vet did everything they could for him but unfortunately his frail little 1.5 pound body just couldn't beat the odds anymore. He surprised us all by hanging on until Sunday afternoon and then passed peacefully in his sleep. When I left the house Wednesday morning he was jumping up my leg begging for attention, giving me kisses and wrestling with his siblings. Another sitaution where it all happens so fast. I know he had been sickly since birth but he was just such a sweet cuddly little doll. It just makes my heart sad. This is the last picture I took of him.

Bless his sweet little heart.

What's Your Name?

I have quite a few animals I'm babysitting around here. Betty was kind enough to "color-code" them before she left. Seriously, she put different color collars on everyone and left a list. After a week, I've finally got it figured out who is who and learning a little about their personalities.

 Flirty Susannah who wants so much to be loved but is shy. She runs up, licks my leg then runs away. But she's quite the cutie the way she dances and flirts with that tail. Reminds me of a Geisha dancing with a fan.

 Brandi and Omar

 Suki and Gus

Naughty and rambunctious Mikey.



 Chesney

 Sampson living the hard life.

 Petie, aka The Flea or Flea-Bag. He's 4.5 months old and is the size of a 10 week old kitten. There's a few others that I don't have pictures of yet. Like poor Mannie who I called Sherman for days and didn't understand why he wouldn't respond. And sweet little Juno who never leaves my side and chin-spins for my entertainment. Plus Angel, Rosie, My Boy and Chumley.

There's also a beautiful blue-eyed Ragdoll cat here too. For the life of me I can't remember his name!

"Ragdoll Kitty" will just have to do.

Living the Single Life...

...and hating every minute of it. No worries, A and I are still happily together but just living apart for a while.

It's been a crazy busy week! It started over a week ago when A and I were out having dinner and I received a phone call from one of the women we work with in rescue. Betty has been the cornerstone of our rescue/adoption effort in the Twin Cities and now she was the one asking for help. She told me she was entering rehab in 5 days. She shows dogs and has 4 chin of her own plus a litter of 4 puppies in addition to the dogs she's fostering. Another foster volunteer and I were scrambling to try to figure out what we were going to do with all these dogs and how we were going to get them moved in just a few days. Aghhhh!!

I was not relishing the idea of trying to move 4-5 more dogs in my house and everyone else seemed just as overwhelmed. There was even some conversation about us only concerning ourselves with our foster dogs and Betty was just going to have to worry about her own. Needless to say, that pissed me off and so I talked to A and made an offer. I had no longer hit the "send" button on that email and I felt the ball of anxiety forming in my stomach...30+ days living in the Twin Cities; away from A and my own crew, living on my own for the first time in 10 years.

At first Betty thought I was crazy. But I convinced her I could handle the increased commute and she finally agreed. She checked herself in Wednesday and handed over her home and pets to me. Her daughter is taking care of the personal things. The first few days were hectic, the dogs/house felt overwhelming but I'm slowly adjusting. Yeah right, who am I kidding. I miss A and my crew terribly.

Yesterday I went home for the day. We had friends coming for lunch, I did laundry and cuddled with the dogs and cats. After our company left, A and I layed down to nap. It was the most relaxing and comforting sleep I've had in days. When I had to leave, I cried. You would swear I'm leaving for another country for months instead of just 75 miles for a week. It didn't help that later A sent a picture to me of Cassie waiting by the door for me to return. Now that breaks my heart.

Otherwise I've just been keeping myself busy getting this house in order. I actually had to go grocery shopping and cook for myself. Let me tell you, it's over-rated! Next weekend A will come up and we will hang out in the pool (yes, bonus we have a (real) pool here) and I will have to go home for a few hours at some point to see my own babies.

I'm slowly getting around to every one's blogs and catching up on my email. Happy Monday!

Is there anyone out there willing to help out a grad student?

Hello readers, my blog friend Crystal asked me to post this because she needs help getting participants for her dissertation examining grief following the loss of a companion animal. If you or anyone you know fits the following criteria (either A or B) and would be willing to take a short online survey, please email her for further details. Thank you!

Group A) 

You may qualify if you meet the following criteria;

• You have experienced the death of a companion dog within the past 5 years.
• You have attended therapy during and/or following that loss. (The therapy does not need to have been specific to that loss)
• You are over the age of 18.

Please email Crystal at cagrief@gmail.com (for more information or to see a flyer click here)

Group B)

You may qualify if you meet the following criteria;

• You are a therapist licensed either at the masters or doctoral level.
• You have been practicing for at least a year.

Please email Crystal at cagrieftherapy@gmail.com

Thank you,

Crystal

Nerstrand/Big Woods State Park

How can I be so tired from doing nothing? Oh yeah I'm tired form all the drama; not with A and I. We are fine as ever but rescue/friend drama. I'll write more on that later when I have a chance to sit and write it down. The last 4 days have been a blur but we had weekend plans that we weren't breaking.

We loaded up the crew and cruised to a nearby state park for the weekend. I can truly say I did nothing all weekend but sit around the fire, eat and relax.

The dogs had to do a few "time-outs" inside the RV. Here Tim watches A setting up the tripod to cook over the fire.

A was so excited to finally use her new Dutch oven. Her dad, sister and nephew came to join us for hiking and dinner. She made campfire chili and I baked the cornbread before we left home. Since the fire was going she decided to bake the biscuits for Sunday breakfast in her Dutch oven too.

We got distracted by more visitors to our campsite and the biscuits ended up a little over-done. Oh well, there was plenty of food and I didn't need more carbs in my diet.

I spotted this RV when we were pulling in and snapped a picture..."Look A, Parrot Heads!"

Later that evening the two ladies who own and painted this rig stopped by our camp site to meet the dogs. 

A's dad had to stop on the trail and read every informational plaque.

Starting into the woods. All I can think is how many mosquitos are in there waiting to feast on me. I had coated myself in DEET and even though the mosquitos still swarmed me, I came out of the woods with only one bite.

The trail we were on followed along a creek and it wasn't long before we found the Hidden Falls.

A's sister took her dad back to camp while A and I continued on another trail for awhile.

We found this interesting tree and A just couldn't resist climbing it.

I wasn't there to witness it personally, but I can't help but imagine this is what A's birth looked like. She swears her birth was more like "Alien". Whatever.

Happy Monday!