35 Days.... 24/7

How do you get past the self pity and the aggravation? How do you face the constantly reoccurring tasks of every day life? I found myself asking these questions to the Crazed man in the mirror this morning. That guy that looks a little like myself only he has red eyes and a pounding headache from lack of sleep and a 24/7 schedule of mad nursing duties. That was me over a week ago... I thought I had reached my boiling point. The pups were growing faster and faster and needed me more and more every hour it seemed. Steve had had his surgery and although he's educated and an extremely smart human... he's also neurotic and a baby when it comes to pain and an injury to himself. I don't want to sound mean when I say baby.... that just means he wants to be taken care of and I totally understand that.... who doesn't need coddled when they're sick. I had been taking care of him already, for 3 weeks, when it got worse..... I needed a break. Just when I thought my head would explode.... My daughter and grandson came to visit. Now, I can sense your shock..., MORE people in the house to take care of ??? A 5 yr old on top of puppies and a couch bound, steel plated moaning Myrtle!!! It was exactly what I needed.... an endless supply of hugs and conversation that didn't revolve around "do you need more drugs"! Truthfully, it gave me time to relax and get over my selfish pity. Steve had a 10 inch incision down the back of his arm with 28 staples holding it together. He had NEVER had surgery before and was... well.... terrified by the whole experience. It was up to me to keep him calm and help him recover. This past Monday the staples came out. The incision looks great... no puffiness... no infection... no bleeding. He's already started his range of motion stretches and is doing AWESOME!!! This morning, we were awake at 3am. I massaged his shoulder which was still tight and worked the taught muscles in his forearm. We got up went through a morning routine which both of us had forgotten in the past month and off he went to catch the train. Steve's been here at home with me every day since the 4th of February.... which was the day before his fall on the ice. 35 days.... 24/7 I think we're ok!!

Sitting here now I hear the train pulling out with him on it..... ... and I miss him already!

Be Careful My Friend.

The "Sunny" side of winter

Recently our local newspaper did an article about the foster work I do. I tried, in my interview, to create a new way for people to look at WV. We're not just a state full of kill shelters filled with unwanted dogs. There are just as many individuals and organizations here, trying to save the lives of those discarded pups. I think I succeeded in my attempt. The positive feedback has been wonderful. Yes, there were those first few requests by unhappy pet owners looking to drop off their troublesome pets. We diverted most of them by redirecting to no-kill shelters and breed specific rescues. This one call came into the paper though..... An elderly couple... 2 days after the first snow storm on Feb 6th found a small dog huddled in one of their cat houses in the back yard. Meet Sonny!! They fed and walked and tried their best to give him a warm place to stay until they could get plowed out and ask around their farm community for his family. Two weeks went by and no luck. They saw my article and called the reporter who called me. Today I got in touch with them and as you can see... went and got this little fella. Sonny's a Golden Retriever and about 5 - 6 months old. He's a text book example of what happens when you don't socialize your dog. Absolutely terrified of any noise or movement. On the positive side... he's not cat aggressive and he got along great with Dash n Roux. It'll be a quick task rehoming this one.

A New Beginning... one more time!

As I curled up on the floor in the cold darkness with 12 sad little puppies, I started thinking that my decision to wean them early may have been a selfish act.

So pitiful with their soulful mourns, I swear I actually heard a few of them SAY Maaaaa Maaaaa.

I believe as children we have the ability to talk to the animals. Something that we lose the ability to do as we mature. A cruel twist of evolution actually. Well, I also feel that if we care enough, we can still communicate with them. This isn't some imagined language that you can, one day,

suddenly interpret; it's a sense of knowing their needs and worries and calming them.

However, in some dreamy half sleep if you happen to hear your dog say, "I've gotta piss NOW", just go with it and get outta bed.

8, 11, 2 and 5 something were the times they woke me up last night crying for their mama.

Yes, I'll say it again... I actually heard them crying, Mama.

I'd get out of bed, turn up the light... fix their warm puppy milk and talk to them while they cried and slurped and eventually fell back to sleep. Finally around 6 am they were just inconsolable, so I crawled from my warm bed with a blanket to the floor and carefully removed each puppy from the box. Curled around them on the rug in our basement, I sang them to sleep as I cupped each tear stained little face in my hand. My heart just ached for these poor babies who had no idea where their mommy had gone. How they would have spit if they knew it was ME who had cast her from their lives.

Sometimes the decisions we make as pet owners and fosters, are hard. Sometimes the result of those decisions is even harder. I hope Aura didn't have as rough a night. I'd like to think that she's on her way to her new freedom and got some good rest. I don't mind being slightly insane from lack of sleep. I guess I'm used to it. Every day is a new day, right?

The sunrise this morning was beautiful and symbolic to me in many ways.

In the almost ten years we've lived here, the beautiful sunrises are something I've never taken for granted. I know it sounds corny, but they constantly remind me how I get one more chance to be a better person.

Today the pups will make their move from the basement fireplace to the laundry room.

Symbolically coming out of the dark into the light of day. A new life for them... one without their Mama. An adventure where they will learn excellent social skills and prepare for that day when they will travel alone to their new family. Hopefully I will have prepared them well enough to adjust to the shock of being ripped from their nest of siblings.

Around here, there really is no such thing as a routine, because just when I get one it changes. The puppies are learning new ways to escape every hour, so I have to stay at least three days ahead of them. It's not really a challenge anymore. Maggies pups trained me well and every litter since has failed at introducing any new escape plans. This puppy boot camp has been tried and tested many times over!!

Here's to a new beginning.... one more time. Happiness and joy, sadness and heartache. Puppies that chew and poop and bark and howl and give the best kisses Ever!! Here's to seeing Aura get her figure back and finding the perfect family that won't mind when she eats the neighbors cat.

Here's to unimaginable patience...... may the gods grant me that!!

I can't Help you now!!!

I've never been a big follower of horoscopes, but I'm pretty sure if I had read mine this morning, I would have crawled back into bed. After an hour plus of driving with the idiots of Northern Virginia, I got Steve to his appt in Sleesburg.... oops... Leesburg. We had received a call from his doctor on our way home from this same building yesterday. Apparently the xrays we had just had done were done incorrectly. The Doc apologized for any inconvenience this may cause, but he needed us to return and have the xrays redone. So we got there and no arrangement had been made. Nobody knew why we were supposed to be there and the docs staff.... when we called... didn't know that he was in his office and told us they would call us when he arrived. OMFG.... My brain exploded.... I called the Docs cell number and left a message on his voicemail. 5 minutes later Steve was being taken care of. How many incompetent morons does it take to run an imaging center??? Anyhow.... his arm is still broken. He broke it on the 5th.... the 1st night of the first snow storm. It's still not set and it still hurts him. The first arm cuff that was made was the wrong kind. Mental note: Do NOT have any kind of procedure done at or near Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson WV. This coming Tues, Steve will discuss with his doctor his options for surgery. That decision could have been made today, but nothing could have been done before next week anyhow. So not to have this whole situation all drama... we went to Office Depot!!! Yes... Office Depot and got iron on transfers. Now we're both the proud owners of this fine decal on our new Blizzard of 2010 T-Shirts. Snow Shovel + Stone Steps = A Broken Arm Many of you know about Aura. She's the latest on a long list of foster doggies that have graced our home. She's currently here with her litter of 12 pups. Twelve little mouths to feed and butts to lick. Stinky, noisy, beautiful babies. Aura is a super Mom... very attentive and has done an excellent job of feeding all 12 pups with only 9 available teats. Drinking around 6 gallons of water and enough food to feed six dogs her size, each day, she's more than capable of completing this task. She's also a factory for massive amounts of poop and urine. This translates into 5 to 6 walks a day. Unfortunately, when the urge hits her, she has to go right then. This is bad, especially since she's in the basement. The first time it happened was my fault. I assumed that Aura would if needed poop by the door on the brick floor like she had so many times already. I could clean it and scrub it and light a book of matches to kill the funk. NO... Aura decided she would get up on the bed and release the flood from her bloated bladder. 1 King size Comforter.... 1 king size electric blanket... 1 king size set of fleece sheets..... 1 king size mattress cover.... all had to be washed. That's 4 loads of laundry. The second time.... her leash broke.... at least that's what I'm making myself believe, because if I thought she chewed through her leash to piss on the bed AGAIN... I might have to turn her out. That would be 4 MORE loads of laundry. The last time.... I left her there for 60 seconds..... just long enough for me to come up the ladder with her food bowl and go back down. She not only pissed the bed twice, but crapped on it too. I saw red.... literally. If I didn't want to have to hand feed 12 pups I could have just put her out the door. WHY? WHY? WHY?.... that's all I kept yelling the whole time I stripped the bed for the THIRD time. She just sat in the whelping box with her pups not knowing WHY I was so upset. It must be perfectly normal for her to want to poop and pee on a big bed. The hard cold brick floor that's so easily cleaned would be the worst place to do her business. UGH!!! I eventually forgave her. I've never drank or eaten as much as she has to, so I don't know the urgency she must experience when that time comes. I'm guessing that it's so intense she also can't think logically. Why, I've seen drivers pull right off the shoulder and just whip it out during rush hour. Oblivious to all the passers-by that are getting a good laugh at their predicament. Today though, was a different story. I've been trying to give her some puppy free time by bringing her upstairs with us and the other dogs. When we were out yesterday, I put her in a crate in our dining room with Dash Roux and Moses. Today, I did the same thing, thinking she would be fine. What greeted us on our return was nothing short of pure k9 chaos. Aura, who had been placed in a crate in our dining room behind a gated door, in our locked house, was chained to a post on our patio. I didn't even stop to see Aura and the big Tow chain that was clipped to her collar. I went straight for the house. How had she gotten out, who chained her up and what about all the other dogs in the house!! The first thing I noticed was the mangled screen door on the back porch. Kicking the shredded screen out of the way I opened the door and found bits and pieces of what used to be the cat door that had been installed in one of our french doors. Aura had pushed the cat door and it's entire frame right out of the door... breaking it in the process. The first pile of crap was just inside the door..... the next one 4 ft further.... the next one... in the kitchen. The kitchen... counter items scattered.... this is where Aura got the full container of Parmesan cheese that she scattered all over the living room carpet. I turned to see the crate that had once held her and was in shock. She had destroyed it. the plastic tray had been chewed and broken into small pieces. The wire on the bottom and one end of the crate had been completely warped out of shape... so much so that it caused the entire end of the crate to pop from its clamps and fall open..... giving Aura her anticipated and desired freedom. By this time, Steve had joined me in what we used to call our home. Immediately I noticed he had stepped in some of the strategically laid poop. He hopped to the sofa and sat down to take his crap covered shoe off with his one good arm. I took his shoes and put them outside to clean later. That's when Steve realized he had just sat on a urine soaked sofa. Not just once, but twice.... she peed on the couch. This was bad. She not only destroyed our home, but she "got" the one person who didn't really want her here in the first place. Steve shares his home with these unfortunate dogs and puppies because I want them here. Now she only had me to fight for her and I was over her at the moment. I started to clean up poop when I realized I hadn't seen either of our two cats. Aura has a serious issue with kitties and my stomach turned when I thought she may have hurt one of them. Upstairs I went... Poop in the hallway... she had been here. Poop in the bathroom... she had been here. Poop on my grandsons bed... she had been here. ZOOM... Venus was down the stairs and outside. OK... one of them was alright. Xander was a big ole Tom Cat... I was sure he was fine... I couldn't allow myself to think otherwise. I cleaned up the poop. Took the rugs and blankets that needed WASHED down to the laundry room. Collected the two rugs she soiled in the living room and added them to the pile. Out with the carpet spray.... scrub scrub scrub... vacuum vacuum vacuum... got all the cheese and bits and pieces of crate and doorway all sucked up.... smashed the mangled crate back into shape and put it outside. Stripped the sofa of it's slip cover and cushion covers. Washed and treated the foam cushions and covered the sofa with a blanket. House almost back in order, I e-mailed the rescue and told them "Aura HAS to GO"! Even if I could forgive her, knowing how strong her motherly drive is, (which is why I think she had to escape), Steve will not, and truthfully, I am tired..... of laundry. So back to explaining how she got tied outside. Our awesomely cool neighbor, Donny happened to be home and heard her when she started barking on his front porch. He had already met Aura and she allowed him to put her back on the patio.... she jumped the fence again. He put her on the back porch... she tore up the door. He got a tow chain and tied her to a post... that's where we came in. She's downstairs now... tied with a seriously thick rope to a hook in the fireplace. (we don't use it) She can reach her pups... her food and her bed. Her time is limited here in WV. I've already assessed her pups and have determined they will be fine being weaned at 4 weeks. That will be this coming Sat. Say goodbye Mama.... I can't help you now.

Blizzard 02/10

I thought I was being clever when I parked our jeep down at the train station. I knew the blizzard could blow in and as soon as it was over the NPS would have the lot cleared and I'd be free to go wherever I wanted. I was partly right, but after getting almost 3ft of snow there weren't too many places we could get to even if we could get out. Unfortunately, the very first night of the storm Steve fell and broke his left arm. Trying to stay ahead of the accumulation he would go out every hour or so and clear the steps. I told him when we bought that damn shovel that it was evil, but he didn't believe me. I had pulled something in my shoulder earlier, taken a muscle relaxer and laid down on the couch. I also had Aura our current foster mama laying in front of the sofa with me. Deep dreamy sleep came fast, and just as quickly was interrupted by Aura barking in my face. As I slowly came out of my drugged fog, I realized I could hear someone moaning loudly and painfully. Outside, I found Steve still at the top of the steps and gripping his arm in pain. Off to the hospital we went in the middle of a blizzard. That train lot was never so far from the house as it was that night. Arm splinted and totally drugged we managed to make it back home although we couldn't drive faster than 20mph. I parked back down in that station lot and we settled in for a long weekend of broken arm pain. It wouldn't be until Monday morning that I could get him to the orthopedic surgeon for his compression cuff. Steve still has a long way to go before he's completely healed, but the pain is less debilitating now and his prognosis is great! Our neighbors steps are much like the ones that Steve fell on, but these I had to shovel. Yes, that Evil shovel is now mine. I once tried to make it a chew toy, but even puppies couldn't chew through it demonic shell. Normally I wouldn't mind shoveling the neighbors steps, but a storm like this one could convince me otherwise. Unfortunately our propane tanks are at the top of these stairs and WE have to keep access to them cleared for delivery.

Took me an hour or so, but I got them done. there's about a gallon of sweat on these steps as well. As cold as it was... this was hard work.

Here is part of the path from our patio to the neighbors on the opposite side of the house.

I clear this side so the dogs can have some space to run and of course do their business.

Poor little Moses... he looks so lost down there on the steps. He loves the run just as much as the big dogs though.

So, I finally got to go down to the Jeep and remembered to bring the camera.

I love HF when it snows. The mountains become magical. Every darkened crevice becomes a cave and snow packed paths become secret trails impossible to reach in the heart of winter and gone with the return of spring.

Our winter wonderland... I know I've called it that before, but it is what it is!!

Almost visible, are the train tracks that had fallen silent due to the amount of snow.

No trains had disturbed the silence of the valley and tree still held the snow that had rested upon it branches.

Our location affords us the strange phenomenon of watching the sun set in the east. As the sun drops below the mountain behind our home, it slowly rises up the mountainside across the river in MD. Hard to imagine unless you've been here to see it, but if you have.... you'll never forget it.

The morning after and beautiful sunshine fills the gap. You can see a few misty clouds floating along with the current. No longer are those tracks silent.

As the morning sun started heating the water, clouds of fog began lifting up and suddenly it wasn't only the Mountains that were magical....!!!

I can't really do justice to the beauty that surrounds us here. All I can do is share it.

I love my home, I love WV.

Make the time to come here. Let us know when you want to visit the magnificent place we were so fortunate to become a part of.

I know the snow storm was bad... roads were horrible... families lost power.... some tragedies were much worse. Even Steve and I were burdened with an emergency room visit and he's still suffering the broken arm.

I guess I can't help myself...... I could be delirious from all the shoveling, but isn't it still beautiful?

Make sure you take the time to see the joy of it. It'll be gone soon enough.

Happy Blizzard Everyone!!

Facebook Ate Me

Wow...I haven't posted since Sept of last year. The reason is clear. I was consumed by a greedy mind warping social network site called Facebook. With its promises of cute little farms and an endless wall of intriguing posts from all your friends and others merely acquaintances... well, so you never really met them, but you know they hate mornings and can't stand Palin, so that means they just HAVE to be your friends. Each morning I would rush through puppy chores, grab my coffee and almost trip over the dogs in order to sign on to see who had responded to my oh so clever remark the night before. HAHAHAHA.... Yes, they had read what I wrote and OH... I hate to pat myself so heartily on the back, but I must be the funniest person on FB, because they all replied... LOL, ROFLMAO, or they'd muster up the courage and try to say something equally as funny, although most of them failed. I'd laugh at the replies and scroll farther down my wall of friendly graffiti only to end up disgusted by all the "Repost This" and "make this your status" comments. Don't these people have minds of their own? Can't they manage to come up with a simple line or two that isn't exactly what someone else just posted. To make matters worse, I'd find myself going along with the rest of them and posting some lame-ass response to today's secret question. Truthfully, it disgusted me to know what color bra ANY of them were wearing and it was even worse when the answer was none. Blocking applications became some sort of war game for me. Figuring out how many I could shoot down today was a major goal for me. Then there were the constant "Improvements" being made to the site. Always with the understanding that our lives would be made simpler with these new updates. Little did anyone know how FB was becoming more and more invasive. Sucking information from our email address books was just the beginning. Searching the web with our info, discovering where we look on the Internet and what we buy, so they could target us with ads while we browsed those funny comments on our wall. What a clever bunch of fellows they are at FB. I want them on my friends list. Even Tom, on My space lets you be HIS friend!! Posting was convenient for us while on vacation. We could share our pics and adventures each day.... of course I could have done that right here as well and it would have had more substance. With all the puppies coming and going from the house, FB allowed me to constantly update the world with photos and stories.... how wonderful that was for all of you. Now I wasn't just the funniest guy on FB, but I had the biggest heart too!! I almost couldn't stand being me, I was so self important. Then the day came when i started to realize how not only me, but how everyone had been duped. Social networking, yes, it has it's pros, but it also has its cons. What had happened to e-mail? What had happened to CALLING your friends? I can send a text and get an instant reply, but if I call a friend, I get voicemail.... WTF??? Are we all so busy thinking of that witty line we'll post next that we can't answer that damn phone? Have we become so self absorbed that we can't take the time to write a letter (even in e-mail form)? Most importantly, what happened to getting together with your friends? Actual physical contact with those people you place dear to you. I've gotten ahead of myself. I forgot to write about negative posting, and some people should be crowned the king and queen of it. I seriously don't care that traffic is bad in NOVA.... It's ALWAYS bad traffic in nova. Taco Bell for dinner isn't something I would brag about. Telling the world how bad your children are only reflects on you as a parent. Sharing how your church got you through a rough patch, says you're weak willed. I could go on and on. It got so I was stressed after visiting my FB. Something I had taught myself to love and need had become an irritating addiction. Finally after deleting most of my profile and refusing to post any more worthless twaddle for the world to read, I figured out why FB had become a dumping ground for garbage commentary. In an attempt to actually BE more social, we've in all actuality become more reclusive. Unfortunately most people don't see this and therefore post and almost endless wall of negative comments. The only time they can be positive is when responding to one-anothers whimsical postings. Thus, pumping the egos of people like myself and making us feel Comedic and Wise. Fortunately I've come to terms with this false status and have made due adjustment. I wish the rest of my"friends" on FB could do the same and start something more meaningful. Social networking with all it's attempts, can not replace a hug. My Post to you Facebook....... you tried once, but now I give you permission.... Eat Me.