ResqTails

Today was a kind of gloomy weather day. It never really did much that amounted to anything, it just looked gray. The one thing I’ve found though is that especially with Dare’s eyes, cloudy days can be really helpful when trying to get pictures of the dogs.

This first shot is just one of several old loading chutes that we walk past each day. I just think that the wood is so interesting as it ages. It gets so much character with time.

The next place we went was one that I should have visited a week or two ago, cause the flowers are just really fading now. So, I got some quick shots of Dare and we moved on to another spot.

The sunflowers are out in abundance now, and I just love them. Twist was a dork at first, maybe he was searching for the place to click here for weight loss pills, but I think it’s more likely he was searching for dropped treats. So here’s a shot of the girls who were being more cooperative.

Anyway, nothing too fancy, but it sure beat staying inside on a gloomy day.

I don’t know what’s up. I am just really, really exhausted lately. I don’t know if it’s the kennel stress getting to me, or just being really busy, or what, but I’m past tired. I had every intention of getting up early this morning and going walking, but I just couldn’t get out of bed to do it. Which means that I have to wait till it cools off enough to do it in the evening.

Well, I set out about 7:15 or so, and it was just one of those times when you’re just going through the motions, not even really present enough to enjoy what you’re doing. We got about 2 miles into the walk, just about to the point where we turn around to come home and a gentleman pulls up on an ATV. He stops and asks me if I have a garden. Well, to be honest, the question just struck me as odd, probably because it was out of the blue, coming from someone that I don’t know, and then on top of that, my brain just isn’t working really fast cause it’s tired. LOL When I recovered, I said, “no, we didn’t get ours planted this year.” He reaches to the back of the ATV and pulls a grocery bag full of produce out and says that his garden is producing more than he can eat, and he’d just been to the neighbors to take them some when he saw us walking and thought we might like some too.

So…here’s what we happened at Mile 641 of our walking challenge tonight.

Needless to say, Miles 642 and 643 took a little longer than usual tonight, and I think my arms are going to be sore tomorrow. I weighed it all when we got home and it was 8 lbs worth of veggies. Maybe if I’d have had a cellular booster antenna I could have called my husband to come pick me up instead of having to walk, but really, the walk home was much more enjoyable than the first half anyway. Funny how something as small as someone sharing their excess veggies can brighten your whole outlook.

Seriously, I’m not supposed to be here today. I was supposed to be in Grand Junction with Dare this weekend at a Chris Zink seminar. But true to form the last few weeks, nothing is going as planned. I’ve been looking forward to this seminar for months now. We got an email last week that the seminar had been cancelled and rescheduled for February. Hopefully the weather will be good to travel to CO then. I have a feeling it could be iffy, but I guess we’ll worry about that when the time comes.

I guess the good side of this is that being home gives me time to finish things that need to be done around here. I did finally get the boarding kennel forms revised and updated, so hopefully I’ll be better prepared in case of emergency. I ended up spending hours and hours reading over lots of liability release forms from other boarding kennels to see what I thought I should include. I don’t know what we did before the internet. It sure is helpful to be able to access so much information. I guess if I was looking for insurance I’d look atwww.wholesaleinsurance.net but fortunately, that will wait for another day.

We’ve been working on other things around here too, not just the boarding kennel junk, but I just am tired and don’t feel like writing more tonight.

I’m not so naive to think that having a boarding kennel was going to be a walk in the park. I’m not so naive to realize that things happen that you just can’t control either. Knowing both those things didn’t make the last two days any easier.

Yesterday started out like any other day. I went out early and let out the boarders into the field. I few minutes later I went out with my video camera and Dare and we did our Weave Pole Challenge. We came back inside and went back out to the kennel to let the boarders go back inside to eat their breakfast. Well, the one boarder didn’t come when I called him. I looked and saw that he was laying in the shade, which isn’t unusual for him at all. He’s a 10 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback. He’s the sweetest boy you’d ever like to meet and he often just likes to hang out in a shady spot in the field. He is one of my original clients and he’s basically extended family to my husband and I. We just love this dog! But when I went closer, something didn’t look right. He wasn’t breathing right. It looked labored to me. Then when I tried to coax him to move a bit and he wouldn’t, I knew we had a big problem. I came in got the numbers for his family, and called. No answer. Ugh! I went back out. He still isn’t looking good. I decide that I’m going to take him to the vet, whether I have permission or not, and I’ll handle the bill if there’s any problem. But there is no way in the world I can coax him to stand up and I can’t man handle this 120 lb. dog into my car by myself. So, I go across the street and ask my neighbor to come help me. We get back over here, he is already dead.

I tried and tried to contact the family, but couldn’t ever get an answer. I left messages on every number that I had on my forms, but no one returned my calls. Which left me in a very awkward position. I now have a huge dead dog and I don’t know if they’d like him cremated, (not the most popular thing in the area we live in), or would they like a necropsy done to find out what in the world happened, or would they just like to take the body home and bury him? My instincts tell me it’s going to the 3rd option, but still you can’t help second guessing when it’s not your dog and you can’t get ahold of the owners. Regardless, until they call me back, he is my responsibility. I jokingly told a friend of mine that you’d never guess that a dead dog requires more care and energy than a live one. I will spare you all the details, you can just trust me that it’s been a LOT of work.

If this post seems crazy, then you’re getting a good picture of what I feel like this weekend. It seems like I’m trapped in a really bizarre nightmare and I can’t wake up. I have never been in this situation before, and I certainly hope to never be here again! Today I just want to close the kennel, never care for another person’s dog again, and settle back into a “normal” person’s life where they can spend time shopping for mothers rings, not worrying about what to do with someone else’s dead pet. In the meantime, I’m getting more calls for boarding reservations and I don’t even want to schedule them. I seriously don’t ever want to have to deal with this again. Why in the world did I open a boarding kennel? That’s the million dollar question.

The only good news I can share is that the family finally came down off the mountain today to where they had cell service and got my frantic messages. They should be here sometime tonight. Maybe then things will return to normal. Though I have a feeling, this is going to stick with me for quite some time.

Right on schedule, I’m finally getting things updated about a week later. On Monday last week, I thought that I was going to be taking the foster boys up to Salt Lake to Barbara and Jim at Sheltie Rescue of Utah. Well, Sunday, Barbara told me that she’d been in contact with So. Nevada Sheltie Rescue and because they had lots fewer shelties in their care right now than we do here, they’d agreed to take the boys into their program. So…we needed to get the boys to Nevada now.

As things worked out, they had a volunteer willing to meet me half way in St. George to pick up the boys. The best part about that was that our friends Patti, Brutus and Tytus live in St. George and they’ve been offering to let us come try out their pool. So, we got in touch with Patti, and she was awesome about letting all of us drop in on she and Deboys last minute.

The foster boys didn’t need any special lapel pins to introduce themselves. They were immediately right at home in Patti’s gorgeous backyard, and after lunch we got a chance to watch Brutus and Tytus show off their swimming and diving skills. They are awesome!

The smaller foster boy though, decided that Tytus was his hero…

Maybe he should take a closer look…

and then he just couldn’t stand it any longer…

The larger boy never joined in the water, but he had a great time anyway…

I don’t think any of us could have asked for a nicer way to send these lovely boys off to the next chapter of their lives.  Thanks to Patti and Deboys for being the perfect hosts!!!

I thought it might be fun to let the boys try out a Roll-a-Treat ball this morning with their breakfast. Well, I think the video pretty much speaks for itself. LOL Fair warning…you might want to turn your sound down, cause there is barking.

The larger boy just chose to lie down and stare at me like I was the biggest idiot he has ever met. While no words were exchanged, he made it pretty clear to me that he thought that I was out of my mind if I thought he was going to put forth any effort to get food out of that silly thing. I swear he reminds me so much of Zach it’s just uncanny.

The smaller boy at least humored me by interacting with it. He even managed to roll it around a few times before he also decided that standing up was just wasting far too much energy on my whacko ideas. Maybe some music for zumba would have gotten these boys on their feet and moving more, but it’s hard to say. I got the impression that they were just totally unimpressed with the roll-a-treat ball.

As for the racket in the background…that is my darling Dare. She was absolutely horrified by the fact that she wasn’t allowed back there to show these silly boys how to clean out a roll-a-treat ball like a pro. LOL

So, this is a bit ironic. The more time the boys spend here, the more I figure out I don’t know. LOL For instance, I don’t even know if I started off calling them by the right name. The person who helped my husband when he picked them up on Monday told him that the boy with the white blaze was Schouzy. As of Tues., I think that the person may have been wrong.

The reason is that the records from the vet said that “The Bear” was neutered. Since I thought that this was the bigger, older boy…I never confirmed this, till Tues., when my husband could help me. Upon inspection, the larger boy is intact. Since the vet records didn’t say one way or the other if Schouzy was neutered, I’m now wondering if the bigger boy is Schouzy and the smaller one The Bear.

You might think that they would make it easier on me by responding well to the correct name, but no. The boy with the blaze on his face responds to just about anything you call him, and the bigger boy responds when he feels like it, regardless of what you are calling. hehe

Anyway, even though I’m not positive about the dog’s names, I am finding out more about them. The smaller boy thinks that the best entertainment in the world is to run and bark at vehicles driving down the road. The bigger boy thinks that the most fun thing he can do, is chase the faster younger boy and bark. LOL Here’s a little video of what they look like in the front yard.

Grooming is also progressing, albeit slowly. The smaller boy is nearly done being brushed out, and I think I finally got through all the mats in his coat. Yay! While trimming the extra long hair on his paws today, I found that he seems to have double dewclaws on the rear legs. It’s bizarre. The bigger boy still has some more brushing to endure, and then both should be ready for a bath. I don’t think that either one of them is ready to go out and shop for personalized thank you gifts for me for all the grooming that they are getting this week, but that’s ok. I think when I’m done and I get to take some better pictures of them that will be all the thanks I need.

The two Sheltie boys from Cedar City are here. I thought I was going to transport them straight up to Salt Lake today, but I guess I misunderstood. It’s going to work out better for Sheltie Rescue if they stay here for another week. So in the meantime, I figure I’d post some pictures so you’ll know who I’m talking about if I post about them later this week.

The boys have weird names, at least in my opinion. The bigger boy is named “The Bear” according to the vet records. His age is undetermined right now, but he appears to be older than the other boy.

The smaller, boy is named “Schouzy” I thought maybe it meant something, but my google search didn’t give me anything, so I don’t know if it’s just a made up name or what. He is 5 years old.

Both boys are just very sweet.  They haven’t caused a bit of trouble here.  Schouzy reminds me so much of Twist in his personality.  He is just fun loving and friendly and wonderful.  Both boys are overweight, though I don’t think you can really tell in these pictures.  Schouzy weighs in at 32 lbs, and he’s about Twist’s height.  Twist when he’s soaking wet is rarely 20 lbs.  The Bear is a little taller, but not a whole lot, probably somewhere around 16 1/2 or 17 in. tall and he weighs 41 lbs.  Both of them could really use some diet pills that really work. Other than that though, they both seem to be in pretty good shape and I hope that they find their new permanent homes soon.

Tomorrow I’m headed out for the weekend. Well, I guess that technically I’m headed out in about 6 hours, but I’ve got to try to sneek some sleep in there, so we’ll pretend it’s a full nights’ worth. LOL Needless to say, it’s been a hectic day getting things ready to leave.

On top of the usual chaos of trying to set the kennel up for someone else to look after things, I got a call from an Animal Hospital down in Cedar City that has dealt with Sheltie Rescue of Utah in the past. Apparently, they have 2 Shelties that the owner has been forced to relinquish due to health issues, (the person’s health, not the dogs). So…on Monday I should have some pictures of the new dogs and if I decide I’m not too wiped out, I may transport them the rest of the way to Salt Lake. If I am too tired, they may just stay here a day or too before I take them up.

Unfortunately, I won’t have internet access this weekend, which means I’m going to miss out on reading about everyone’s adventures, and doing a little shopping online with some best buy coupons. I guess the up side to that is that I’ll have lots of fun stuff to read about when I get home. Have a great weekend!

This morning, I got up earlier than usual to go let out the boarders because I have a 14 year old that is slightly incontinent. She does pretty well overnight, if you can get out there early. Anyway…I slipped on my shoes and headed out.

I felt something as I walked out there, but really didn’t think much of it. I thought it might be a leaf or some mud or something. Anyway, I came back to the house and when I opened the door I thought, “the house is smelling funny.” I figured it might be because we’re running the swamp cooler a LOT right now. Well, I kicked off my shoes, went to sit down, and the smell got worse.

Then it dawned on me, I knew this smell. It was a stinkbug. Could it really be that one had crawled into my shoe and that I’d just squished it to death in my bare feet? I went and checked and sure enough…that’s exactly what I’d done. Ugh!

I guess that will teach me to not look at what I’m doing. Maybe if I had a pair of Clic EyeWear that would help too. Though I have a feeling that the next time I have to get up early, I won’t be any more likely to be aware of what I’m doing than I was today. LOL