Scruffy

Well, again with the new additions to the family. This is Scruffy - an adorable, sweet little fella who was thrown out at least twice that we know of. He was fortunate enough to cross paths with Shelby, (the groomer who has taken care of him for the last four months or so). He was brought in to the salon to be groomed and was never picked up. The owner left a disconnected phone number with us and later returned and left his rabies tags. Shelby at some point found out that this was not the first time that he'd been dumped out. Between the two of us we can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want him... he's house trained, sweet, good with kids and other animals, cute, appears to be neutered already...

Anyway, he needed a family that could keep him indoors and once I met him my heart just went out to him. I brought him home to see how he fit in and what everyone thought of him and it was like he just belonged. So as of last night he's our new baby... even though he's grown.

He and Shadow have become fast friends if you can't tell. Shadow likes him because he's cuddly and because he can walk the little fella without him pulling him all over the place. They're very sweet together.

Still haven’t been bitten...

but today, I had my lip busted at work. By a dog. 😂

I was trying to put a collar on a Great Dane who was very ready to go home and she was bouncing around a lot... she jumped up and her head hit me in the mouth. It busted my bottom lip pretty good. It's gashed open and bruised and swollen. But I'm ok. 😊

The bad to my good...

Due to the amount of hours I'm working lately I'm never home. Before starting my second job (which I'm still enjoying, btw) I was home every afternoon with Shadow. Well, this morning he informed me (with tears in his eyes) that he didn't even feel like he had a mom anymore.

I felt like I could vomit.

Having two jobs is temporary... even if I wanted to I couldn't do this forever. But I still feel guilty and bad. That's not all, but the rest is nothing I want to get into right now... When I think about it, though, I just want to run away.

Today...

Today, I am now in the system at work so I can sort of have appointments (for baths and stuff). How awesome is THAT??

Also, I washed a Great Dane today... he was a baby, but he was HUGE. Very sweet, though. I liked him.

AND, I was almost bitten today. By a pug. 😂  He wasn't fond of bath time or getting his nails trimmed. Brandy, bring me your bath-loving pugs any day. 😃 Anyway, he just touched me with his teeth so it was a warning. Shelby saved my day. Too bad I didn't save hers. Yeah, she got bitten today. 😰 But that's all part of it so I imagine it's only a matter of time before I'm inducted in... with TEETH.

Anyway, goodnight. I'm pooped and tomorrow's another full day.

Miss me?? I miss you. :[

I have been working. SO. MUCH.

Right now I have two jobs. One is supposed to be full time, but since I started the second one I don't really get to put in all 40 of my hours. The other is definitely part time, though I wouldn't be surprised if I put in nearly 40 there. This is a typical day for me as of late: Wake up before 7 AM, get Shadow ready for school, feed my animals, go to work at my bookkeeping job. Leave there at some point and work at PetSmart until 7 or sometimes 9 PM. Whew! As you can imagine I don't have much time for anything else... so if I'm slow to respond to a message or call or whatever - that is why. Either that or I'm up to some dumbassery - like locking myself out of my house twice in the same day. Seriously, I did that this week. 

Don't get me wrong, though... while I do miss Shadow and my pets (A WHOLE LOT), I'm having a blast working at PetSmart. I'm a dog bather in the grooming salon and I have so much fun. Yeah, it's wet and messy and dog hair gets in my nose and mouth - but I love being around the animals and my new coworkers, too. I like it so much that it's hard to believe I'm getting paid to do it. 😁

Anyway, aside from that I guess there's not much else worth mentioning. Just wanted to let you all know what I was up to. So what's new with you??

Little Bird

Sooo... yesterday when I got off from work I stopped by my mom's house to pick up my son. She handed me this:

She said she found it on a mound of dirt. We looked for its nest to no avail. She has cats and dogs so leaving it out there would have meant certain death. Plus it was sort of chilly that evening... so, I took the little shit home. I have heat lamps all over because of our reptiles and spiders and also various kinds of food because of our array pets.

Anyway I took it home and tried to feed it. It appeared not to be interested. It was the late evening so I imagine that the poor baby was tired. I just put it near a lamp and hoped for the best. Morning came and it still wouldn't eat. Knowing that I couldn't feed it every hour or so due to my jobs I began looking for someone to take it. I called the Museum of Natural History and they gave me the names of a few people who rehabilitate wildlife in the area. I called around and a police officer in the area met me at around 9:30 am. By then the baby was opening his beak - he was ready for breakfast. 😁

The officer said that he had an incubator and some different things to feed him so I sent the little one with him. I figured he had a better chance of survival with someone who knew what they were doing. I'm wishing him the best!

To Puppy:

I'm sorry. More than you will ever know.

Tonight as I was coming home I saw a dog running in and out of the street. He was small and looked scared to death... it made me sad. Me and Shadow wanted to help him so we stopped the car and tried calling to him. He just kept running... so we hopped back in the car to try to get closer, but that didn't work. We lost sight of him. Shadow was really sad... he said that he hopes that dog finds its way home. I really do, too.

As we were riding home Shadow said he wondered whatever happened to Puppy. Puppy was his first dog and we got him when we were living at my grandmother's house... Shadow was about two years old then (he's 7 now). One day the old neighbor lady had walked down and asked if we wanted to see her new puppies... and of course we did. She then offered one to Shadow, who of course wanted one. So we took him back to our house and Shadow named him Puppy.

Seeing as how I was in college at the time (which = dead broke) and probably pretty dumb he never went to the vet for any shots or to be fixed... so thanks to me he wasn't off to the best start. He lived outside and he ate dog food and scraps. We had no fence, although we had a huge yard, so he ran free. He'd run over to the neighbors house and steal their toddler's toys... he was always bringing something home. My grandmother hated him for that. Oh, and for being on her porch for any reason, whatsoever. But anyway...

One evening when me and Shadow came home we saw Puppy in the yard. He wasn't jumping all over us, happy to see us. He was lying really close to the side of the house, breathing hard. Upon closer inspection he was bleeding profusely from the neck. I was scared to get too close, but I wouldn't leave him to die alone. I sat outside with him for quite a while. I ended up calling my mother who loaded him up in the back of the hearse that she drove and took him to the vet. He lived... but apparently someone had shot him and it went straight through his neck. So his days after that were spent in a pen (a pretty huge one, at least), to keep him from wandering off and getting shot again. But I still felt bad about that.

He grew up and moved with us when we moved out on our own. We rented a trailer down the street from my grandmother and he could still have a yard to play in (no fence or anything to keep him safe, though). Luckily, he never got in the road much. Not long after moving into that shit hole we were offered a really nice apartment in Oxford... affordable, and closer to my job and Shadow's daycare. Though I couldn't take Puppy I could not turn that down. So I sent him to live with my brother (who lived next door to Nick's grandmother), and that way we could still see him.

Well we saw him pretty often still, but he had no fence... just ran about. A few months later my brother moved... and Puppy just hung around at Nick's grandmother's house. Nick's uncle (who lived very nearby) still fed him so we just left him there. No one seemed to mind and we still got to see him... until one day when he just wasn't there. I heard that he'd been picked up by animal control, but for some reason I didn't go look for him. I wish I knew why I didn't, but I can't remember. I do know that I was in no position to take care of him because the apartment wouldn't let me have him there. I was probably hoping that he'd find a better home that what I could give him. Unfortunately, I doubt that happened.

*sigh* I hate that. I really and truly do. It haunts me (and Shadow, obviously) to this day. I should've done better by him (and Shadow), and I deeply regret that I did not. So as we were riding home tonight Shadow was thinking of Puppy and crying. I was, too. "Mom," said Shadow, "I hope he found what he was looking for." (I think when he didn't come back home we told him that he'd run away because we didn't know what else to say). All I could say was that I hoped he had, too.

"I wish I had a picture of him" he said between sobs. I honestly didn't think that we did, but Shadow found one. ONE. He hung it on the refrigerator.

Puppy disappeared a few years ago... Not knowing how he is or how things ended up for him haunts me. It should.

I feel like such shit right now. I should.

Puppy, I am so sorry.