Rest

You know, eventually I'll remember the importance of doing nothing not-as-much.

A few days ago I was having a "bad back day" and decided to call in to work. Not something I do often.

I didn't lay around all day, but did rest, decided to forego household chores, and spent time with family.

The next day? My back felt better than it had in weeks.

Similarly Buddy has injured his toe. When it was taking longer than usual to heal, I decided to bring him in the house & crate him at night so he can rest (night is his most active time, as he guards the property). Two days later it's still bothering him, but he's walking much better. I'm hoping a few more nights of that and he'll finally be healed (if not, we will be taking him to the vet, but I'm hopeful some rest will do the trick).

When will I learn? Rest = better me. Sometimes time off is just what we need to get back "on".

As always, thanks for checking in.

Friday Fragments

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Felt like it was time for another Fragments post, so here it is, ya'll.

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Like every December, life has been crazy busy this past month. Busy, but good. Very good.

I met up with 4 different friends I hadn't seen in a while (on 4 separate occasions), we've had 3 classes, 3 Christmas parties, 1 playdate, 1 band concert, 1 date night, 1 cookie swap, 1 doctor appointment, 1 holiday breakfast, got our family pictures taken, went to a Christmas tree lighting, and went to Southern Lights.

If you add it all up, that's 19 different activities, and it's only the 23rd of the month. There was some overlap on dates, for better or worse.

And that, of course, doesn't include our normal craziness. That's just special holiday craziness, LOL

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Jena is still doing very well in school, and has started learning to write (tracing letters). I'm still very impressed     :)

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Potty training still not doing any better. In fact, she's had a few more daytime accidents. I do a lot of laundry.

I started a rule that she has to go 2 nights dry in UnderJams, then she can wear panties to bed. That at least gives me some respite. Plus she gets better sleep because she's not waking up wet.

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The chickens are now outside. Their tractor is wrapped in plastic sheeting to keep out the elements. And we extended the invisible fence wire around them to teach the dogs to leave them alone.

And something (a raccoon?) has already been trying to get to them, and broke the wire in 3 places trying to dig underneath the coop.

Thank goodness for Buddy, or we might have lost some chickens.

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I want to break Jena of her lovey while I'm off between Christmas & New Years. Jason thinks we should wait until the lovey falls apart and deal with it then.

Part of me thinks he's right.

Part of me thinks when it is time, he's not the one who will be up with her overnight, and then have to try to go to work the next day.

I'm torn.

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Still working our way thru FPU, and things are going really well. We've paid off two smaller bills (the TV & the living room furniture) sooner than planned, and should pay off two more smaller bills (the hospital bill & my Lane Bryant charge) by the end of this month.

Oh, and while this was the first year we actually set a real budget for Christmas (and tracked it), we're actually gonna end up being under budget, so we've decided to buy small presents for each of our six nieces & nephews, which we don't normally do, and we should still end up under budget. Yay us!

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Work is going pretty well, minus the database project that never ends, but I'm expecting an increase to my stress-level the first few months of the new year.

And maybe most or all of 2012.

So I'm a little anxious / nervous about work right now.

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As always, thanks for checking in!

Have a great weekend!

Buddy

We Have CHICKENS !!!

Fifteen to be exact. All hens. Plymouth Barred Rock.

We got them when they were approximately 28 hours old.

We've been talking about getting chickens since we moved onto this property a year ago. The house sat empty for so long, plus the previous owners didn't take care of it, plus it is in a wooded area, so... we had a major bug problem. Primarily wood roaches and wolf spiders, which were probably feeding off of the wood roaches. Plus when Spring rolled around we had a major mosquito issue because of our neighbors' (non) maintenance of their (stagnant) pond.

So we had several people suggest to us that chickens are an effective, non-toxic, and green way to control bug populations.

But neither of us have experience with chickens, and I actually had a fear of chickens (little known fact), plus we had plenty of renovations to work on in the house, and some marital issues to focus on, so... chickens weren't exactly a priority.

Just doing the renovations & cleaning up the property greatly helped control the roach & spider problem. And we purchased some Mosquito Control Rings which Jason secretly threw into the neighbor's pond, all but eliminating the mosquito problem within a few days.

But we do live in a wooded area, so... there will always be bugs. Always. As the colder weather has been setting in this year, the little critters have already been making their way indoors.

And so... chickens. All natural, non-toxic, environmentally friendly bug control, plus excellent producers of organic, sort-of free range eggs.

Technically I think they qualify as "free range", but once they reach adulthood and are outside, we will be confining (ie protecting) them by housing them in a rather large chicken tractor, the square footage of which is nearly double the recommended size per bird. Yay.

But with Tootsie's history of, ahem, not being nice to animals, and even Buddy, when introduced to the baby chicks we hoped he'd protect... yeah... ends up he thinks baby chicks look yummy. So a very secure chicken tractor. Very secure chicken tractor is in the works.

They are currently in their brooder, locked in the laundry room (away from Tucker), but will be moved to their chicken tractor in the garage within a few weeks, as they outgrow the brooder. This Winter they will be too young to be outside at the outset of Winter (we intentionally chose a cold hardy breed, so future Winters they should be fine outdoors, but this year they will be too young).

So far having chickens is fun. But they poop a lot. Surprisingly a lot. But they're still fun. Thanks for checking in!

Buddy Sleeps...

... outside Jena's bedroom window.

taken thru the screen

I love the dog that protects my child.

"It's always worth it"

One summer night, not long ago, we finally pulled into the driveway right about dusk, after eating dinner and then grocery shopping before eventually coming home.

And Jena spotted them immediately. The "flashing bugs" (really, isn't that much more accurate than lightening bugs anyway?)

She asked if she could catch one.

My body slumped, I sighed silently. We were already way late getting home. She needed a bath. And it was a weeknight, meaning if I had any chance of her waking up in time in the morning and her not being a complete grumpy butt, we needed to get inside and start the nighttime routine, like five minutes ago.

And then I looked at her face. She was so excited at the prospect of being able to catch a flashing bug. The anticipation of the joy that little insect would bring was billboarded across her little face.

And at that exact same moment, Kelle Hampton's words from a blog post that really touched me came back to haunt me (it wasn't the first time, it wouldn't be the last): "It's always worth it."

"Of course we can catch some flashing bugs."

I got her out of the car and set her on her way under the watchful eyes of our dogs as I carried items into the house.

In & out I went, several times, smiling as I watched her meander her way through our expanse of a front yard, following the path of the flashing bugs.

After what seemed like too long about five minutes I was done unloading the car, and went outside, just to watch.

She walked, and pranced, and I swear sometimes danced, and followed one bug all the way down to the edge of the woods. It was the farthest she had ever been away from a grown-up while exploring our property. But I didn't move. I had full view of her, she was perfectly safe.

Although Buddy did become quite nervous at her being so far away, and left my side to go to "work", watching his charge. {{sigh}} I love the dog that protects my child.

Anyway, Jason pulled into the driveway soon after, which brought a squealing Jena running up from the edge of the woods.

She never caught a flashing bug.

I managed to catch one close to the house, but before I could transfer it to her hand, it flew away, higher than any of us could reach.

We went inside, and started our nighttime routine. Very, very late.

She got to bed late that night. And awoke cranky the next morning. And I was certainly exhausted.

But, oh... the joy of watching my daughter chase flashing bugs on a perfect summer evening....

Yep. It's always worth it.

Consideration of Others vs Individual Rights

** WARNING - like so many others, this post is a rambling sort of post, not really organized, and is just me putting my thoughts out there. It may, or may not, make sense. You have been warned    =P    **

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This topic has come up in my life several times lately.

First, regarding the plans for Jena's upcoming birthday party. When I announced I wanted to do something "big", and that in fact, I planned on doing bigger celebrations for all of our birthdays from here on out (the why behind this is really a separate post that I should do), I was surprised to get a bit of backlash from a few family members.

After all, they said, what if not everyone can come on the date you pick? then they'll feel bad that they missed it.
And what if they can't afford to buy a gift? well, that's why I want it passed along that we want "no gifts". But people feel obligated because it's a birthday, and then if they can't afford it, they'll feel bad.

And so on, and so on.

For me, the response to this type of conversation - one which surrounds a specific person's birthday, or a specific couple's wedding, or whatnot - is easy: it's not about the other people. Not to be rude, but the point of a birthday party is to celebrate the life of the birthday girl (or boy).

Now, this is just my viewpoint, and I know several people (including family members) who have voiced their disappointment that I have this opinion, if the event is celebrating a very specific person / couple / group of people, then it's all about them. Period.

I mean, you don't have to be all rude about it, but Jena's birthday party is about celebrating her, not about an insane (and probably impossible) attempt to accomodate every single family member or friend who might possibly like to attend.

So... that covers my view of that type of scenario.

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The second type of scenario had an example played out beautifully over Independence Day weekend.

Saturday night several (all?) of our neighbors set of fireworks - like, the big stuff - for a combined time frame of over four hours. From 9pm until 1:30am it was a near-constant barrage of BOOM! BOOM! crackle, crackle, crackle BOOM!

Now, I know it was a holiday weekend.
And I know we live in a rural area.

But rural does not equal soundproof.

The people next door - only about an acre of land separating our houses - we have full view of each other, set them off for nearly two hours, of course being the last ones to start, at not quite midnight.

And when I say "big stuff", well - come to find out later that at least one person on our road has their pyrotechnics license. So, like. actual professional-level fireworks. BOOM!

If you can't guess where this was going, I was not happy.

At first, I was merely annoyed. But very tolerant. After all, it is a holiday weekend. And my annoyance had more to do with the fact that Jena is afraid of loud noises, and Buddy is gun-shy, than anything else.

But by midnight (3 hours into the "show"), I was ticked. Like really angry.

See, the way cars were driving up & down the road, I began to suspect that this was coordinated. That they were intentionally taking turns, driving to each others' houses to shoot off each stash of fireworks. Not everyone, but definitely a few.

So I may or may not have gone on the back porch to check on the dogs and yelled something in the direction of my neighbors like "It's past midnight already! Knock it off!"

And my mini-tirade may or may not have included some cuss words.

Admittedly not my finest moment.

Later, in venting about this, I have gotten a mixed reaction. Some people agree with me: fireworks are fine, the celebration is understandable, it's a holiday, but shooting them off until 1:30 in the morning is rude and completely uncalled for.

Others have pretty much told me that I need to get over it. It's a freakin' holiday, they have every right to shoot them off all night long if they want to.

So... obviously there are some varying opinions.

I don't think my neighbors, any of them, are so incredibly rude & inconsiderate that they intentionally set off fireworks all. night. long with the intention of bothering someone else. At least, I hope not.

Most likely, it didn't even cross their minds.

They were having fun, with no thought (or consideration) for how their actions affected those around them.

I don't know if they heard me yell. They didn't stop for over another hour that night. But the next two nights? They stopped by 11pm.
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Sometimes, getting someone to take us into consideration is as simple as that, as simple as informing them, educating them that what they are doing is upsetting. Because sometimes, people have no idea.

Of course, sometimes people still don't care. They are so focused on themselves, that they are self-centered that they have no concern beyond their own desires.

I suppose, perhaps, that it's about finding balance. Finding that place between standing up for yourself, exercising your own rights and taking others' needs & wants into consideration, even if it means limiting the exercising of your own rights.

Because I think to live in one extreme or the other would be... abusive. If you are so selfish that you are only concerned with what you want, then you are mistreating those around you. But if you become so selfless that you never consider your own needs & wants, then you find yourself crossing over into behavior that reeks of self-contempt.

So many things in our lives are about finding the right balance, aren't they? About finding that place between two stances that fits, that feels right.

Sometimes I think it has more to do with the journey, and that sometimes that place, that balance, changes as we go, as the fulcrum of our developing self slides one way or the other and we adjust our load to discover the new harmony in our life.

Weirdest Night Ever

I swear last night was the weirdest night ever. Things kept happening, one after the other, and I ended up getting all of three hours of sleep.

Oh, nothing hugely major, just a series of oddities.

It all started around 10pm.

First, Tootsie wouldn't finish her canned dog food. Our totally food-motivated, piggy of a dog, who has never turned down any sort of food, wouldn't finish the yummy canned food. You know, the stuff we use to give her the heartworm treatment. Great. I have to use my puppy persuasion powers to convince her to finish it. That really should have been my first sign.

Next, we had bad storms, and about as soon as the rain starts I see a loud flash at the same time I hear a boom and am pretty sure one of our trees got hit by lightening. But it's really dark out. I don't see any fire, so... guess we'll wait till morning to see.

Then, Tucker comes running in from the laundry room with a mouse (he's become quite the good mouser). It's still alive. I tell him to go to his room, because I don't want him letting a live mouse out on the floor of the house. He doesn't (I guess I should explain that normally he will go in "his" room [the spare room - where he's fed & the litter box is] if he's told). I proceed to chase him around the house for 5 - 10 minutes, with a mouse in his mouth, until I finally get him in his room.

The noises that proceeded out of that room were... interesting. The sound of my cat howling, screeching, as things are being knocked over. It seems the mouse might be fighting back.
I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of that little mouse getting in a good bite or two. And in case you haven't had the pleasure... a mouse bite hurts. Like the dickens. Don't let their size fool ya.

But I figured Tucker could handle himself with a little mouse, so left them alone, and the noises quieted down, and in no time he was crying to be let out of the room.

After he comes out, I go in to survey the damage, and there's the little mousie. Poor thing. I use a sock to pick it up by it's tail and put it in a cardboard box before throwing it outside. As I'm carrying it out, it strikes me that it's a female. And seems to be more the type of mouse that you buy as a pet than you find in the wild. Which I find interesting.

And right now I'm chuckling a little on the inside because some of you are probably wondering how in the world I can tell it's a female, or how I must be crazy because all mice are the same, right? ha! Little known facts about Jodi... perhaps I shall write a follow-up post.

Anywho... in the course of the night I also killed three wolf spiders. Which is less weird than it used to be, but I still don't like and the sight of them still makes my heart jump. Mostly because they have this freaky habit of showing up out of nowhere.

So... in the midst of all this I'm doing chores: laundry, dishes, etc.

A little bit later I finish folding a basket of clothes, which I do on the living room floor, and pull myself up on the couch. And then I feel something crawling on me. I look down to see... a TICK! An actual tick!
Of course, my initial reaction is to flick it off, which I do. So then I have to search the couch to find it. Which I did (thank God!). I picked it up with tweezers and put it in the sink, unsure of what to do next. I couldn't find the bug spray, and I just remembered being told they were really hard to kill. So I took a knife & cut it in half. Because you needed that visual, didn't you?

By this time it's nearly 1am, so I put in one final load of laundry and go to check on Jena.

She's fallen out of her bed.

That child has never fallen out  / off of any sleeping surface. She has slept in our bed, on various couches, etc. Last night? I found her on the floor. I go to pick her up, and she is soaked. And I mean, soaked.

The kid who for a couple months has been waking up with dry diapers, and whose diaper I changed in her bed before tucking her in last night, has peed thru her diaper, soaked her pajama pants & top (don't ask me how), and the comforter. I'm guessing the comforter must've somehow gotten underneath her, because her sheets where actually dry.

So I pick her up & put her back in bed, go get a new diaper, and some clean pj's, and come back in to completely change her. She sleeps thru the diaper change, but half-wakes up during the pj change and is not happy about it. But we manage. I fold her comforter so the dry side is up, and place it on the floor next to her bed, just in case, and go get a throw from the hall closet. She falls back to sleep almost instantly.

I finally get ready for bed, and crawl into bed around 1:45pm.

But... around 2:30am I'm awakened by the sound of all three dogs barking madly. And Buddy's bark is not friendly. I sit and listen. Usually this means a strange dog, or a deer, or whatever. Although it is a bit odd that they're all barking. And moving. Thru the yard. And not stopping.

I finally get up and look out our bedroom window.

There's a pickup truck in our yard!

Somebody has just driven right past mine (and Jena's) bedroom windows and is now driving thru our backyard!

What do I do? Jason is working, I'm home alone with a toddler, and someone is blatantly driving onto our property! Do I confront them? Call the cops? Call Jason?

I should have called the police. That would have been the smart thing. I have the direct line to dispatch saved in my cell phone, so I wouldn't even have to call 9-1-1. So that really would have been the smart thing.

But it's 2:30 in the morning, and I'm half asleep. So I'm brilliant enough to put on my shoes, put my cell phone in my pocket, and head out to confront whomever it is, who has now stopped, about an acre back, gotten out of their truck and is shining a flashlight deep into our acreage.

I "call" the dogs as soon as I get outside. I make a quiet clucking sound and they come running. Good dogs.

And then... the guy decides to turn on the flashing yellow lights and LED tail lights installed on his truck.

It's the freakin' electric company.

In the darkness I couldn't see the lights mounted on top, or the signage all over the truck. All I could see was a pickup truck driving thru our property.

Buddy still isn't happy, but now he's probably feeding some off of my tension / anxiety. He growls at the worker, and jumps on him as he approaches me, knocking the flashlight from his hand. I call Buddy back to me and hold him by his collar.

The worker explains that we have a transformer in the middle of our property that got struck by lightening (remember from earlier... aha!). He said "maybe" he should have called or knocked on the front door, but he was hoping to fix it and be gone before anyone knew he was there.

I muttered something about leaving him to do his job, and walked back to the house, with all three dogs in tow. I told them to "stay" on the back porch before going inside. I don't know if they did or not, but I never heard them bark again, until he left, about 45 minutes later. His truck drove by my bedroom window, followed by a chorus of barking dogs.

Now, I'm no expert by any means, and I do understand his good intentions, but personally, I would prefer being awakened by a phone call, or even a knock on the door, in the middle of the night, than to wake up to find someone "trespassing" on my property.
Not to mention the safety issues for himself. Three dogs chase his truck barking, two of those dogs are pretty big, and he gets out without attempting to notify the homeowners? Honestly, he was lucky. Buddy was in defense mode when I got there. And Buddy is not small.
And let's face it, we live out in the country. A lot of people have guns. Showing up on someone's property unannounced, when it's too dark for them to see your identification, and without your flashing lights running, well... it's just not the smartest decision. For your customer or for yourself.

So... off of my soapbox about customer service, and back to the conclusion of my weird night... I walk in the house, take my shoes off at the door, and proceed to walk thru the house barefoot, as I often do.

And somehow get a splinter in the bottom of my foot.

Seriously.

We have all tile or laminate flooring, all of which has been installed for months. Winter is over, so there's no longer any firewood inside.

How the heck do I get a splinter?!?

So I hobble into the bathroom, grab some tweezers (different ones than I used on the tick, thank goodness I have multiple pairs!), and spend the next five minutes or so digging a splinter out of the bottom of my foot.

Good times.

I crawl back into bed around 3am, and hear the electric company truck roll by around 3:15am.

My alarm goes off at 6am. But I somewhat successfully ignore it until 6:45am.

I wake up. I peek in on Jena as I walk out of our bedroom.... and find her on the floor. Again.

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See. Nothing huge. Nothing major. Just a series of anomalies that added up to the weirdest night ever.

And a very sleepy Jodi.

Update on Tootsie

Well, she's still here.

Jason completed adding the additional underground fencing along the house so the only door they can now get to is the laundry room.

But... she's currently not wearing the collar for the fence system.

Why?

Well, the other morning Jason asks me to take a look at her. Says she's been acting weird since the night before - is shaking uncontrollably, hasn't eaten (and she's our little piggy!), and won't come out of the doghouse.

Ugh. Fine. I'll check out the dog.

Yes, I still hold a grudge against the dog.

The minute I see her my mommy-gene kicks in. Poor Tootsie. Something is definitely wrong. She is indeed shaking uncontrollably, and refuses to exit the doghouse, even when I or Jason call her. Very unlike her. He drags her out of the doghouse, and she wants to go right back in.

Long story short (really, I had typed the whole thing out but it ended up being really long), we think her underground fence collar had been malfunctioning for 1 - 2 days, basically shocking her randomly (but thank goodness not constantly) for noapparent reason.

We figured this out because we took her collar off of her (it needed new batteries anyway), and I was carrying it thru the house when it went off. For no reason.

And now she's traumatized. Seriously traumatized.

We've been working with her several times each day to try to get her to come out of the doghouse. She'll come out while we're outside, but within a few minutes of us going inside, she's back in the doghouse.

She also hadn't eaten two days, and still won't make the 15 foot walk to their food dish, so I've been taking small amounts of food to her several times a day. Don't want her to starve, but also don't want to take away a motivation for coming out of the house.
Also took the water bucket to her the other day, and as much as she drank in one sitting, I'm gonna guess she wasn't coming outside for water either.

We took her collar off of her, until we can figure out why it's going off randomly. If we can't figure it out, we'll have to buy her a new one.

I'm a little nervous about her not having it on, not only because of my anxiety over keeping her out of the house, but also because she's our wanderer. I don't think she means to, but the few times she's gotten loose (once at this house, a few times at the old house), she just... goes. She doesn't move very fast, but she doesn't stop either. And unlike Buddy, who bolts, but always comes back, she just keeps going.

But there's also not a chance in the world that I'm letting her stay in the house unsupervised while we're gone. Not even locked in a separate room. Not happening. Not after before.

And as much as I'd like to think there's some sort of doggie karma going on here, the mommy in me has been sitting with Tootsie, petting her, reassuring her, drawing her out of her doghouse, getting her to follow me around the yard, trying to convince her it's okay, bringing her food & water (and even treats), and just checking on her numerous times throughout the day. I'm a little resentful that she's making me like her again. Stupid dog.

So What About the Dog ??

Well, right now it looks like we are keeping Tootsie.

Against my wishes.

My feeling is that having her in our household, on our property, is now a known threat to Tucker's safety.

We took steps to keep her separate from the cats, but something happened (we still don't know what), and the first chance she got she killed Tess, and went after Tucker.

To me, the best decision is to:
    - fulfill my responsibility to Tucker to take every step possible to keep him safe, by finding Hydrant a new home
    - fulfill my responsibility to Tootsie to take every step possible to make sure her new home is a good, loving, responsible one. With no cats. Ever.
    - for several reasons, acclimate Buddy & Flopsy to living primarily inside the home, but crated when we are not home

Jason disagrees. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You see, Tootsie is his dog. He's had her the longest, for eight years.
So I don't know that it's so much that he disagrees with my reasoning, as much as he can't bring himself to get rid of her.

I understand. I disagree, but I understand.

We talked argued about it last night. In short order our mature, reasonable discussion of possible solutions degraded into a childish exchange, just using big words to mask the immaturity. And just to be clear, we both fell into that.

His idea is to use our underground fence system to fence off all openings to the house, except one: the laundry room, which is where the dogs currently used to stay on nights it's too cold for them to be outside.
It's actually been cold enough (single digits) for me to bring them in the past two nights, but I can't bring myself to do it. The "what-ifs" won't stop running thru my mind.

He feels this will not only prevent Tootsie from getting into the house unexpectedly, but also keep gun-shy Buddy from damaging the doors trying to get in, come hunting season.

I agree that it is a good idea, and possibly still worth doing, even if we get rid of Tootsie, but the biggest problem is that we already had taken steps to separate the dogs from the cats, and while we were out, something had happened, and they got together. Something beyond our control. So what happens if the fence shorts out? Or we miss the battery on her collar running low? or there's some other malfunction?

I don't feel that it's worth the risk.

The risk of reliving that scene again. Or of that scene happening at a time when Jena comes home with us. Or that scene repeating itself (God forbid) in a time & place where we see it unfold, and maybe Jena sees something so... awful.

Or Jena gets a little older and decides that Tootsie wants to play with Tucker so brings Tootsie in the house, thru the laundry room. Or takes Tucker out into the yard so they can play. And then not only witnesses what happens, but lives with knowing that she did it.

Yeah. To me, that's not worth the risk.

To him, it is.

To him, those are all random "what ifs" that are very unlikely to happen. But after what Tootsie did to Tess the first time she had the opportunity, I see it more as a matter of time before the opportunity presents itself again. We can't be there all the time, we can't be everywhere, see everything.

He also thinks getting rid of another pet so soon after losing Tess would be too traumatic for Jena.

I think we need to remove the known risk from the household, to prevent the likelihood of an even greater trauma in the future.

But not only is it his dog, he is also the head of the household, so he will most likely "win". Although I decided from the beginning this is one of those things that no one "wins". It definitely feels like one of those situations where there is no "right" decision, where every possible solution, is a bad one.

As we went to bed, I asked him if he'd made a decision. He said he had not. I told him if he planned on keeping Tootsie, then I expected to see additional locks installed on the French doors, and the additional fencing installed around the house, like yesterday.
My husband & I are both world-class procrastinators, but I told him there would be no "next time I'm off, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year". Not with this. That if he decided to keep her, then his next day off I expect to come home from work to see the new locks in place and the supplies for the fencing purchased and the installation at least under very good progress, if not completed. And that if it couldn't all be completed in one day, it would be completed his very next day off.

Period.

I guess we'll see what his final decision is. But I think I already know. {{ sigh }}

Buddy Found a Hill

I love my new header pic:

It's Buddy. Perched atop his hill. Watching over his domain.

It's the very edge of the area enclosed by the invisible fence. The very edge. Like, he's almost sitting on the wire. But... he found a hill.

It's in his blood, this Anatolian of mine. I love my Buddy. And this picture just embodies him perfectly. This is what he does. He watches. Looks for signs of... danger, I suppose. That's what his breed was bred for anyway.

Every morning when he first gets up, and several times throughout the day, he walks the (invisible) fenceline, checking out "his" land, making sure everything's okay.
If we've brought him in for the night, (which we've done several times this winter due to a) how unusally cold it's been this year, and b) the fact that he has lost weight & never got his full winter coat this year, likely due to the stress of the move) then the first thing he does when we let him out, is survey the property. He starts with a visual surveillance, ears pricked, tail at attention. Then he moves to roam the edges of his allowable range, taking in sights & smells, and marking his territory at every turn.

When Jena is outside, his eyes are rarely off of her. I learned this at the old house. I had him outside, with her playing a few feet away. I was trying to work on his obedience commands, but he seemed to have a mind of his own. I gave up and started watching him, trying to figure out what was so distracting to my usually very obedient dog.

He was watching her.

If she walked, he walked. If she stopped, he stopped.

It wasn't terribly obvious. He was about 10 feet away from her, and other than the occasional glance, wasn't even looking at her. But there was a clear pattern. Regardless of the fact that I was closer, that I was holding his leash, that I was giving him commands, he was with her.

Protection is in his nature. It's not trained, it's in his blood to be a guardian.

He still does it. Sometimes he's right by her side, sometimes farther away, sometimes he'll even wander off, but if you pay attention to him, it becomes clear that his attention is always on her.

And momma couldn't be more pleased about that.

By the way - yes, the property in the picture is ours. All of it. Even the woods on the opposing hill. Told ya I moved into the country. And yep, still loving every minute!

Taking Name Suggestions

For our dogs, on the blog.

I'd like to keep with the fire theme, but other than FireDog, FireDog #2, and FireDog #3, my imagination is failing me.

FireDog (male Anatolian Shepherd) I'll keep, but I need names for the 2nd (female chocolate lab) and 3rd (male chihuahua / rat terrier mix) dogs.

Also - I have two blog posts I'm working on, but they both require more thought & time than usual, so it might be a little bit of time before I get them posted. I'll try to keep you busy with randomness like this until then.

;o)

Thanks for checking in!

Buddy has been injured

photo taken by TM Photography

This is Buddy. My wonderful, strong, protective defender of our home & property. And us.

And he's been injured.

"Protecting" us from either a raccoon. Or a groundhog. Or an opossum.

Why those three? Because Jason found what was left of the raccoon & the groundhog. And I got to witness the opossum, injured as it was, still playing 'possum (he eventually made it to safety).

Buddy suffered a bite to one of his paws, that has subsequently become infected. Such a little bite on such a big dog. And it's bad. Buddy took him to the vet yesterday. The infection is in his joint (like our ankle). He got two injections at the vet's office, and is on antibiotics & pain meds for the next 10 days. And is to be kept indoors as much as possible to limit his activity so he doesn't injure himself.

He hates being indoors. Hurt as he is. Oh, he enjoys being around us, and it's definitely better for tending to his injury, but he is clearly happiest as an outdoor dog. Typical of his breed (Anatolian Shepherd), they were never intended to be confined to a house.

Vet says he should be all better in 10 days. If not bring him back for X-rays to make sure there's not a tooth lodged in the wound.

I look forward to seeing him all better again, running the fenceline, then sitting on top of the hill watching over his domain.

Oh my Buddy.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Life has been C-R-A-Z-Y here this past week. I'll try for a quick-ish recap.

Last Saturday I took Buddy to a six hour dog training seminar. It's a first for either of us, as he's never been to even basic obedience training, and I've never taken any dog to any sort of training. He did really well, for the most part. I don't know who has more to learn, me or him! I'm really hoping that with some work our transition to having our dogs as indoor dogs in the new house will not only be possible, but will be a pleasure.

BTW - I was really impressed with the work the trainer did with the dogs there. Many of them were foster dogs and had "issues". If you have a dog & live in the Greater Cincinnati area and would be interested in coming to her next seminar, send me a private message (kyfirewife@gmail.com).

Saturday night we attended the wedding of one of Jason's cousins, followed by a late-night showing of "The Killers" (recommend it). The wedding was "adults only", so we left Jena with my parents and had a date night of sorts.

Sunday I went to pick up Jena, and noted she had a low grade fever. But she otherwise acted okay, so I chalked it up to something related to the treatment for her staph infection. Got her up Monday morning, and she still had a fever, and vomited twice before I even got to try breakfast. Took her to the pediatrician. Good news: her staph infection looked really good, is healing nicely. Bad news: she has a virus. Her fever finally broke overnight Tuesday night. Which means Tuesday was a bad night. Her fever reached 104 F, and only came down to 103 F on Tylenol. She kept crying & waking up, so I eventually let her sleep on my chest, in the recliner. At some point I woke up covered in sweat. Her sweat. Then when she woke up in the morning, her temp was down to 99 F, and the fever hasn't been back yet. She's still somewhat whiny though, and clingy. And still not much of an appetite. So Jena's still not 100% back yet, but she is definitely so, so, soooooooooo much better than she was earlier in the week.

Of course she gets sick during what would be a very busy week at work for me. So I got permission to work a limited amount of time from home, and signed in remotely during Jena's naps.

Wednesday we had a showing. Last minute. I really didn't want to make Jena leave the house, since she was still not feeling well, but she didn't have a fever anymore, and the big picture is that these are potential buyers who might buy our house, so... we left. Now for the adventure. We come home an hour later, and as I'm trying to put the dogs back in the yard (we lock them in their room in the basement for showings), Jena opens the basement door when my back is turned, and... we have three loose dogs. As I'm trying to get Jena in the car & round up the leashes, my phone won't stop ringing. It's Jason. We have another showing. In 15 minutes. I now have a sick baby, three loose dogs, and can't even go home?!? The realtor is pulling in the driveway as I am leaving. It's the same people that were just there! I drive around, and eventually corral all three dogs into the car. Did I ever mention that these are not small dogs. Well, Flopsy is. But the big dogs? We're talking 85 & 90 lbs, respectively. Three dogs & a toddler in the car. And I'm not supposed to go home. I did anyway, planning to drop them off in the back yard & leave. Well, the potential buyers saw me & flagged me down as I was getting back in the car. Asked me quite a few questions, then they left. Okay, good. Get Jena inside, give her a bath. As I'm drying her off, my phone rings again. It's Jason. Another showing. In 20 minutes. I look down. Jena is nodding off. It's been a long day for her (and for me). But I have to focus on the big picture of selling the house. So we leave. Ends up, it's the same people! This time with their handyman.

So... ends up they did a sort of mini-inspection that day. Our realtor said their realtor is either a rookie, or just really inconsiderate, and that she should have instructed them that they need to make an offer first, then have a real inspection done. So supposedly they are planning to make an offer, but following their "mini-inspection" have already decided on some upgrades they want to do, so are going back to their bank to get pre-approved for more $$ for the upgrades. We're supposed to have our offer no later than close of business on Monday.

All I have to say is that after all that, they'd better make a decent offer! Jena & I were exhausted after all that, and I could tell the dogs were really stressed by having strangers coming in & out of the house so many times.

Yesterday was my first day in the office all week. And besides playing catch-up, we had a major event today that I was on the planning committee for. And I was determined to start Weight Watchers. So needless to say, yesterday was nuts.

Most of today was spent in final preparations for the event, plus the event itself. It was a huge success, and was well received by everyone. It was the first time we had done anything like this at my work though, so there are definitely some learning points for future endeavours, but all-in-all, it was great. And I am sunburnt.