She's Home

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I finally get a day off that isn't filled with running, going and doing.  Ok, so I have stuff to do this evening, but right now, I'm just kicking back and trying to enjoy a relaxed morning.

Mom is home from the hospital now and she has nurses and technicians in and out daily.  This morning, someone is coming to draw blood.  Tomorrow, someone else is coming to install a machine in the kitchen that she can weigh on and test her blood pressure daily.

She came home Friday night while we were at work and it's been good to have her home.  It's taken some adjusting, and she isn't at full-strength, but I'm just happy to come home and see her sitting in her chair in the living room again.  It was getting hard to come in and out every day and see it looking so empty and forlorn.

Dad's still struggling with good days and bad days, but Mom, as always, takes the brunt of it.  I think she's just relieved that she got to come home and he was still here.  There were a few days that we were afraid we might have to seek outside help, but we managed to get through it.

Tonight, we go for our 2nd orientation (the actual volunteer orientation).  I was supposed to go get an eye exam and some glasses today, but that's not going to happen.  After the orientation, I'm not sure what we're doing, other than maybe going to see our BFF.

Tomorrow is my birthday though.  I'll  be 37.  Yeah, I said it.  40 just seems to loom closer and closer on my horizon.  What happened to 30???

Life is moving along.  I did go yesterday to the herbal store and picked up some new medicine.  So far, it seems to be helping.  That's always a good thing.

So that's it for me today.  I wish I had something more exciting or entertaining to share, but right now, I just can't think of anything.

Love, light and happiness....until next time...

Georgia on my mind

This is Georgia.  She's a beautiful Boxer Bull dog that Man-Hide and I were lucky enough to spend part of our afternoon with today.  She's a year and half old, and has a club foot that the vet tech said was likely that way from birth.

We have no idea how she ended up at the shelter.  We spent over an hour with her, and she was one of the most loving and affectionate dogs I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with.

We took her out to the porch and as she walked, she did not let her foot hinder her at all.  She even pulled a little on the leash in her excitement to get outside with us.

As we sat, Georgia climbed up between us and lay across both our laps.  She was very relaxed and seemed to just be enjoying her time with us, as if she knew it was a gift.

Leaving her at the shelter today was hard for both of us, and we agreed that if we had our own place, she would have come home with us.  On the walk back to her kennel, she resisted and looked at us very sadly as we said our goodbyes.

The only thing that's going to get me through times like these, is knowing that if it weren't for people like us, and the rest of the staff and volunteers at the shelter, Georgia, and others like her, would likely face a life alone on the streets or be condemned to wait on "death row" because of her breed, or might get no attention at all.

As hard as it is to leave one behind that you could so clearly have a special bond with, I know that I brought a  little joy into Georgia's life today.  That, in turn, brought some joy into mine.

If I can give these wonderful babies love, time and attention until they find their fur-ever homes, then I know I have made some small difference in what could have otherwise been, a very sad situation.

As much as I hope to see Georgia again next week when I return to the shelter, part of me also hopes that I won't.  That I'll find out that she got to go to her fur-ever home with a family that will love and care for her.

For now, though, I definitely have Georgia on my mind....

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Mom update:

Today was another round with the plasma transfusions.  I spoke with her earlier (still haven't been able to go up there because of my cold) and she was very tired and said she'd had a bad day.  The plasma and blood transfusions do that to her.

Still no word on if she'll get to come home Friday or if that's just wishful thinking on her part.  We'll have to wait and see.

Love, light and happiness....until next time....

Working it out

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I've been a busy bee today with Wow being down.

I created a Blog Frog Community page, a Facebook Fan Page, set up an RSS feed, made buttons and did some moving around.  I'm really starting to like the way my blog looks.

I know all the awesome bloggers out there say that you shouldn't have a dark colored blog, but I like it, it suits me and my personality, and I think that's all that really matters!

I also had a busy day yesterday.  No, the taxes haven't come in yet (I wish!), but I did go to the Orientation class I've been talking about with the local Humane Society.

Last night's orientation was basically a "pick your part" kind of deal.  They had different groups for people that wanted to go to nursing homes and take puppies in to visit the residents, people to work the clinic, people to work in the kitty room and the puppy room (and more I can't remember) and then they had the dog walkers.

Dog walking is the group Man-Hide and I signed up for.  Why?  Well, it's actually more involved than you would think.

We will be attending a 4 week class in April to learn about dog training, coached by a very experienced professional behavioral trainer.  We will be working with adult dogs, which just don't get as much attention, or as many prospective adopters, as puppies and kittens.

Adult dogs that do get adopted, are often returned for behavioral issues because most of them have never known much companionship or been exposed to much beyond the end of a chain.

As Dog Walkers, we will be not only walking the dogs, but working with them on their behavior, such as not jumping on people, calmly exiting the kennel, sitting and staying, and taking the time to just sit and relax with them and allow them to relax.

Originally, I was thinking I might like to work with the puppies (and I'm thinking about giving an extra day to the clinic since I want to be a vet tech anyway), but now that I have signed on for the Dog Walkers, I'm really glad I did.  That's what Man-Hide seemed to be the most interested in and to start with, I wanted it to be a "together" kind of deal anyway.

I feel like working with the adult dogs, we are truly giving something to them.  Allowing them to see that there are good people out there that care about what happens to them.

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I did get to have one of my warm and fuzzy moments last night.  When we first got there, there was an American Pit Bull mix in one of the kennels.  He was beautiful, but you could tell looking at him that he was stressed out and unhappy.  We spent a few minutes there with him before orientation started.

We went out at the end of orientation to the kennel area where he was to get a demonstration from the lady in charge of the Dog Walking volunteers on some of the basic behavior stuff, just enough to get us started until our 4 week class in April (we'll start volunteering in March) and I saw a big sign on his kennel that said "ADOPTED" in big red letters.  I was so happy for him!  Bull dogs in general have such a bad wrap and they often don't get adopted from shelters.  Many of them live out the remainder of their lives there until they become sick or so stressed out that their behavior no longer qualifies them for adoption, so I was thrilled to see this beautiful guy get a home and I even got to watch him walk out with his new owner to go to his furever home.

The hard part was that while we were waiting, we also saw owners come in to surrender their dogs.  That's going to be the part that makes my heart break, but at least I know that we will be there to give them some love while they wait for their furever home.

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A quick update on Mom.  They got the liver biopsy results back and the spots on her liver are benign.  Looks like the cancer is confined to her colon and whatever is going on with her blood.  She has hopes of getting to come home Friday sometime, and I truly hope she does.  She has been missed.  She will still need to get an appointment to have the cancer removed from her colon and she will have to undergo chemo after that, but at least there is progress.

Love, light and happiness...until next time.

Glad that's over

So it was another insane weekend in my own personal hell.  My job!

Friday wasn't too awful bad, and passed somewhat quickly.  Saturday, on the other hand, was horrible!  Two people called out and none of the managers thought we needed to replace them.  That left me and an my buddy that trained me, with one guy that hasn't been there long and a new guy that transferred from another store.  Unfortunately, although the kid seems nice enough, he seemed to have one speed, and it was just a notch above full-stop.

To top it all off, they kept sending my buddy to bus tables, which pretty much left me and the two other guys to try to keep up with everything, and it was busy!

Add to that the fact that I think I have a cold (AGAIN) and my favorite piece of man-hide had to work all day, all weekend, and it made for a very long weekend.

Also, our tax check has not come yet.  That's added another layer of stress since we live pretty much paycheck to paycheck and we missed time from work due to mom being in the hospital and my dad completely freaking out for a whole weekend.  Money has been non-existent.  I mean, can't even afford a cup of coffee non-existent.  If it weren't for our best friend, Double-D, I don't know what we would have done!

Today wasn't quite as horrible as yesterday since we apparently had the opposite problem from Saturday, and were over-staffed.  I got cut early, which is a blessing since Man-Hide has to open in the morning.

Right now, I just want rest and coffee.  And yes, I do drink coffee at night.  It doesn't have the effect of keeping me awake like it does some people.

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Man-Hide is playing his video game for a bit while I blog and play a little WoW.

Tomorrow, we're hoping the tax check comes since the website now says that our taxes have been processed.  We can hope anyway.  Either way, Man-Hide has work and then tomorrow night, we have our orientation at the Humane Society for our volunteer hours.  I'm truly stoked about that!

Due to my cold and work, I haven't been able to get to the hospital to see Mom.  She's mostly doing ok.  We're waiting for the results of the liver biopsy to come back and they're doing blood and plasma transfusions daily because they said that something was wrong with her blood.  She did say that she had trouble breathing last night when I called her this morning and that she was back on oxygen, but I'm hoping that's temporary.

Well, that's about all I have time for tonight.  My hands are still aching from a weekend of washing pots, lol.

Love, light and happiness...until next time!