My dog took off yesterday morning. She's normally very good about going into her "kennel", which also happens to double as my laundry (*cough*) room. As well as those two functions, it also houses the door out to my carport. However, yesterday, she decided she didn't want to be there for three hours, so she bolted out the door and into the long grassy meadow (By meadow, I mean my highly unkept, unmown yard out back. The grass there is taller than me.). Damn. I was already running late getting the kids out the door. They needed to get to school, and I needed to get to work to do the cash register business. Needless to say, I had neither the time or inclination to be running after a wayward dog all morning long.
My kids and I braved the jungle for a while. We strode up and down the road calling her. But alas, she was too content with running wild. I, having already been at the end of my nerve quota already, was fed up. Too much frustration, and other obligations to be met, so (dare I admit), I packed the kids into the car and left, content with the hope that having our other dog tied up outside would be enough to lure her home.
I dropped the kids off at school, and drove to work. I caught my boss as she came in, and told her my tale of imminent woe, and asked if I could leave after getting the cash report finished. Since I have the best boss in the world (she doesn't read this, so no, I'm not kissing up), she said "absolutely!" (okay, I don't remember exactly her wording verbatim, but that is close enough). So, I clocked in two hours of vacation time, and drove home to find the escapee dog in question lounging in my carport, tail wagging, looking at me as if there was nothing in the world wrong with this entire operation. I was relieved that she was home, but part of me balked at the fact that I didn't even have to set foot out of my car and call her, in a way at least justifying my impromptu time off and vacation leave wasted. Oh well.
So, crisis averted, I went back to the arduous task of shopping and internet surfing. It was horrible...
Now, I suspect she got into something icky, because she's vomiting. Everywhere. I have a pretty strong tummy when it comes to gross stuff. I can handle most everything. This isn't one of them. I gagged. It wasn't pretty. I began to worry that she had gotten into something bad. She was getting listless, and wasn't eating. She threw up a lot. This morning, however, she started to seem better. She was drinking and seemed to get her appetite back. I tied her up out front today, in the fenced area. I am hoping that she doesn't chew through her leash, and if she does, that she doesn't discover how to jump the fence. I have faith. I have to.
Ok... so there's the dog vomit story. How about on to more pleasant things before I get to go eat?
Today is Tuesday. It is, really. I promise. Consult with your calendar if you don't believe me. If it disagrees, then you don't know how to look at a calendar. Or it's no longer Tuesday, but you can't fault me for that. You are late. How dare you?
Anyway... this particular Tuesday marks the end of Friday and Saturday workdays for me! At least for awhile. How long, who knows? But for the meantime, I have my Friday and Saturdays off! Yay me! A coworker of mine asked if she could work them in exchange for her Tuesdays. Are you kidding me- you have to ask?! LOL. It will be nice to have my weekends free again. Especially since I have been unable to have my kid-free weekends open for "alone" time with Dustin. Now we can do stuff! And not just that stuff (you all are pervs... seriously). Speaking of which, don't let me forget to reschedule my doctor appointment. My boy is graduating 6th grade, and of course, it's scheduled right smack over my appointment. Priorites. Boy first, then doctor!
And speaking of Dustin, his work has him out at Mt. Rainier for six(ish) weeks! At least they are paying hotel, etc... but I don't get to see him during the week (I'm making a pouty, sad face. You can't see it, but I am.). He does get to come home Thursday night, and stay until Sunday night or Monday morning. So at least I get to actually see him now that my weekends are free :)
That's it for now. Carry on.
We got a new puppy on Friday! We adopted her from the Humane Society.
We had gone into PetSmart to get some things for the mouse. Whenever we go in there, we seem to immediately head to the left, which is not only where the fish are kept, but where the little room the Humane Society uses to show off their pets they have for adoption is. As we walked past it, I saw what looked like a German Shepherd. It was me who stopped and went in first to see her.
She is a German Shepherd / Akita mix. She is roughly between 7 and 10 months old. We don't think her previous owners showed her much attention, or gave her much love. She seems starved for both, but is so incredibly timid. She knows what a crate is, although she uses the laundry room here, since it is a perfect size. She is for the most part potty trained, but has had a couple accidents since being here.
She seems to equate coming inside with getting into trouble. So we have a difficult time getting her to come to us when we are trying to bring her back inside. It's frustrating, because we don't know how to go about it. We don't want to do anything to reinforce her ideas of coming inside equalling punishment, but we don't want to continue to let her get away with not listening either. Especially for getting her to come to us. She's started noticing the fence, and has shown interest in figuring out how to jump it. Luckily, we have caught her before she got over so far.
We've decided to put a runner out front, and attach her to it when she goes out. That way, she is tied up, but still has freedom to run. We'll just have to make sure she isn't able to jump the fence and really hurt herself while on it.
My daughter came up with the name Samantha. I'm not sure where she got it from, but it's cute, and we all agreed that we like it. So that is now her name. It only took us four days to get her one. Albeit, the kids were spending the weekend with their father, so were not here to come up with one, and I really wanted them to be a part of the naming process.
So far, Sam is fitting in quite well here.
On another note, today our kitty came back! He's been gone for probably a month now. I had just mentioned today that I planned on putting away the kitty litter box and his food dishes, etc. I had finally given up hope. It's as if he heard me and decided that wasn't okay! When Dustin went to leave for the grocery store, there was Boo, on the porch waiting. He's in good condition- not matted or anything. I don't think he was taken indoors somewhere necessarily, but he was fed. He seems to have been getting some kind of attention. His fur is still clean and soft, and he is still as lovable as ever!
And he still hates the dog. Make that plural, now!
I got most of my house cleaned up today. It can be a chore when you're chasing around a man, 2 pre-teen kids, a dog, and a cat. (not me.. I'm the epitome of clean.....) *you can laugh now*
Kitchen got a good wipe down. It's amazing the things you find in the corners of the kitchen. Bathrooms, too. That's gross though, and very rarely will I get my hands dirty there. I leave bathroom duty for Dustin. He's got a stronger stomach than I. However, all of the laundry is done. I even put it all away, including the kids. Their's took some rearranging of drawers and closets. And that prompted me to jimmy-rig some kind of device together for my daughter's dresser, since the drawer handles had broken off. Some twine, a few pretty beads, and a couple knots, and now she can get her drawers open again. And there is a little decoration thrown in.
After I was satisfied with the house, and realized my ambition to exercise via Wii was all but vanished, I decided that it was a beautiful day awasting. I headed out to get my plants transferred into the garden plot. Radishes went first. They were begging to be set free! I went back to the shed for the carrots ( I think. Everything started to get all jumbled together.. so we'll see if everything grows where I think it is!). And of course, while heading back over to the garden bed, our dog decided he wanted to go nuts, and tore right through where I had just planted the radishes. Of all the area in the bed, he had to go right through there. I thought I was going to kill him. I was pretty sure we'd be having doggie stew for dinner. However, I composed myself, tended to my little darlings, sweet talking them into hanging in there. And then yelled at the dog. He's still alive though, laying here behind my chair like nothing happened.
No writing done today. Wish I could say that was surprising, but it's not. I did wind up doing some last night, and was so dissatisfied and peeved at it, I had to stop and go to bed. It kept me up most of the night, the scene playing out in my head, but not being able to find the right words to put down. Grrr! I'll try again later. Right now I have to go get dinner started. Red beans and rice. It's a prepackaged bag. Hopefully it won't be too spicy. Otherwise I just may end up at Taco Bell anyway.