More Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time...even the pets. Well, Starsky was a bit freaked out by the commotion and flying wrapping paper, but the rest of them were pretty happy. The cats have new toys - with catnip so that Sati and Boulder will play with them and not just the thief, Peach. Shelby will probably shred her toy within the week, unless she upgrades it to "suckle status" (a few toys she doesn't destroy, but rather sucks on them to fall asleep). And Tasha liked her treats so much, she was rooting through the bags looking for more. This photo of Tasha with Santa is a little old - she's a bit grayer around the ears now. But she has such a great smile (and I was finally able to scan the picture so I could upload it).

Holidays at Home

We've gone a little out-of-control with the outdoor Christmas decorations this year. We can blame our neighbors, who have always been the brightest spot on block. Here is their yard for this year:

And then, for comparison, is our yard this year...much brighter than last year's (yay for Black Friday sales):


And, finally, a close-up of our door. I had tried to find one of those door coverings pre-cut to fit, but couldn't find any anywhere. I think using pet wrapping paper worked out well and may even be more appropriate given our little house o' pets.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Holidays at Work

We get to do decorations at work - well, for the lobby anyway. I came up with the idea of doing a fireplace scene, so I enlisted some help from my coworker, HW. She had to leave before I did (I was stuck at work late b/c my car had broken down again), so I finished on my own. Unfortunately, noone got to see the finished wall b/c it all fell down over the weekend (guess that tape wasn't the strongest). Below is the re-vamped and less heavy version of the wall:

I tried to do a very subtle homage to Santa and if you look close at the window, you can see Santa and his reindeer flying past:

HW and I also put some festive holiday garland down one of our walkways:

We weren't alone in decorating; there were a lot of others helping out. I personally was a big fan of the penguins on the door:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

Tasha Feeling Better

The above is, of course, a photo of our foster dog Starsky and not Tasha, but it was too cute to resist (although he is not much amused).

I'd mentioned that Tasha had been picky about her food in a previous post. Well, she actually got much worse. She started having these "falling episodes", where she was sitting up and then just dropped over. She had 2 the day of the Thanksgiving Parade and then a couple more since then. They don't appear to be seizures and the vet suspects it may be a heart issue (cardiac syncope) - every so often she doesn't get oxygen to her brain and passes out for a second. The only thing we can do for those spells is keep an eye on them (I have a log of all of them) and keep an eye on her quality of life.

Tasha was also having some major diarrhea, combined with lethargy and no desire to eat. We started her on a new prescription food, Purina E/N, and some medication for the digestive issues. Her x-rays and other tests show no tumors or obvious issues. The first meds we gave her didn't do anything, but this homeopathic stuff we tried seems to be helping a lot. That and having us hand-feed her has improved her appetite. She's also not as lethargic anymore, which is great. We've taken a break from the Pets on Wheels while we work out Tasha's health issues - we will probably give her a bit more time, even though she's doing better, just to make sure she's up for it again.

Peach helps with the holiday decorations

Peach felt like the Christmas skirt around the tree would look much better...

...next to his cat tree/condo

We've moved it back a few times, but he keeps taking it away. I suppose we should just be grateful the pets haven't knocked the tree down yet. :-]

Tasha is so spoiled!

Tasha has been very picky about eating her food lately and we can't afford for her to keep losing weight. So, she is getting spoiled. She gets a little dry food (which she rarely eats) as well as wet food and part of a dog food supplement roll that she really likes. Sometimes, she doesn't even feel like eating that though, so we hand-feed her small chunks. Hopefully she'll keep gaining weight. She got x-rayed the other day b/c she was having lots of pee accidents and we were worried she might have a growth on her bladder (we had already tested & ruled-out a UTI). She was clean and her bloodwork was good except for some anemia. There's medication, but it is liquid and she is a nightmare to give meds to. So, for now, we're just trying to fatten her up (like poor Santa in Rudolph) and hope that gets rid of the anemia too.

Black Friday & Animal Transport

We are not just in the fostering business; apparently we are now in the "animal transport" business of animal rescue. Black Friday afternoon, after getting up at 3:30 AM for the deals, saw us headed out to pick up some "exotics". One of Misty's coworkers, MF, is fostering exotics for our friends' rescue, Luna's House. We picked up an iguana named Homer and two to-be-named chinchillas. The chinchillas were happy and cozy together in their transport cage, but poor Homer had had a rough time at the shelter. He is blind in one eye, will probably lose part of his tail, and was cold. We ran the heat on thermal blast and sweated all the way to the MF's house (Homer, on the other hand, was quite content - as you can see by his happy tongue sticking out).

We got a call the next day from MF. The chinchillas were doing great, but she'd had a scare with Homer. She woke up and saw him not moving in his cage. She watched him for several minutes and didn't see him breathing. She gently picked him up and said he felt stiff. She started freaking out and yelled at her husband "how could you not notice that he's dead?" Her husband pointed to Homer, who was now awake and moving around in his cage. Apparently, he's a very heavy sleeper.

Starsky the Beagle

Well, we have a foster dog...bringing us to an even split of dogs and cats (3 & 3). We agreed to foster the 1-year-old because he is a rescue who was scared out of his mind in the kennel. We figured he would need lots of confidence boosting to come out of his shell. Errrr...he really just needs some good training. He is a bit skitish and scared - you look at him and he cowers - but he is also basically a puppy. He wants to play with our dogs, but they don't want to play with him. He even tried playing with the cats. When left alone, he destroyed the house, so now he is getting crate-trained. We think he is really a good dog, but he would be better off in a foster home with more space (so neighbors don't hear him howling in his crate) and younger dogs that want to play with him. For now, we're all stuck with each other.

Happy Thanksgiving and a little remodeling!

Well, we had another feathered visitor in our walls last night. He fluttered back and forth, pocked his beak through the hole in our ceiling (from the leak from the bad water heater), and then got stuck between the walls (I think the walls are too close together for them to spread their wings enough to get out). And, of course, he got stuck in a DIFFERENT wall than the other bird...so we drilled a NEW hole! He got stuck about halfway out and started banging the back of his head against the wall trying to wiggle through. Once he got back inside the wall, we opened the hole a little bigger and he got out. Flew into the closed window and then right out the opened back door (too quick for a photo). We also have a new foster dog that arrived yesterday - pictures of him will come later this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Baltimore Thanksgiving Parade

I know, it is a little early for a Thanksgiving Parade, but Baltimore does it the weekend before Thanksgiving apparently. It was a very cold day (of course, temps were still mild until about Thursday - the same day my car broke down AGAIN). Tasha loved the weather, but I'm bundled up in two pants layers (low-weight backpacking fleece under the sweats) and two long-sleeve shirts under the Pets on Wheels logo t-shirt. I had gloves as well, but had to keep taking them off so I could get photos.

Since we were walking for Pets on Wheels, everybody had dogs and we were told to "work the crowd". The parade started and everyone split up so half of us took each side of the street and greeted spectators. Tasha particularly loves little kids and they got a kick out of her...especially with her antlers. There was also one guy who was off to the side. He was in a wheelchair and had some noticeable mental difficulty. I brought Tasha over to him and his friend placed his hand on her fur. The moment he touched her, his whole face just lit up with joy - that made the whole day for me. That, my friends, is what we and Pets on Wheels are all about...bringing that bit of joy to someone in need of it.

At the end of the parade, we all got together and posed with Fifi, from the Kinetic Sculpture Race. We couldn't resist having all our pups pose with a giant pink poodle.

Note: We also had a bit of scariness because I think Tasha may have had two small seizures that day. Once, when we were on the bus (everyone and their dogs rode a big schoolbus to the city for the parade), she fell over onto me like a stack of books when we entered a tunnel. Later, she fell against the couch in a similar fashion. She didn't appear distressed, her eyes didn't roll back into her head (which is typical for seizures), and she was fine seconds later. I'm keeping a log of them and we'll have to keep an eye on her.

Last Best Friends Post - Angels Rest

This should be my last post about the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary...at least for this year. During our visit, we spent some time at Angels Rest, which is a cemetary for the animals at Best Friends, as well as for those of the staff, volunteers, and donors. Some human ashes are buried there as well, alongside their best friends for eternity. It is a beautiful tribute to the lives of creatures that have touched someone's heart and seems to capture the "sanctuary" feel the Native Americans spoke of when they referred to the area ages ago.

There is a water fountain right inside the main gate that creates a lovely centerpiece and a sense of peacefulness. What is even more magical, however, are the wind chimes. There are "trees" of wind chimes of all shapes and sizes scattered throughout the area, each "branch" holding a set of chimes and a plaque for whichever animal it is dedicated to. The entire place is filled with their sound. When you close your eyes, you feel like you are floating away to visit those precious lost lives.

Dogs at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

My third post in two days - I'm on a roll! Last time I talked about the cats, so this time I'll talk about the dogs, since we volunteered with them as well. Best Friends also houses bunnies, horses, mules, birds, all sorts of things - but we don't have much experience taking care of the other animals and stuck to cats and dogs. The dog kennels are set up in octagons, making care-giving much more efficient (supplies are in a central location rather than at the end of a long hallway) and giving each dog "run" more space (the outdoor areas spiral out into a pie-shape, so they get wider the further from the building you go). The dogs are housed in groups and have indoor/outdoor areas with access between the two via at least one doggie door. The octagons are set out in pairs and each pair has its own set of walking trails outside the buildings. We walked geriatric dogs at "Old Friends" (like the sweet fellow above), so there were 3 options for the walks depending on their ability: short, regular, or extended. You could only have dogs on walks at the same time if they were from the same kennel since neighboring dogs don't always get along with each other.

There is also a "Fitness Center" building near the "Old Friends" octagons, which we got to visit since one of the dogs needed hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy involves having the dog walk up a ramp into an enclosed box (no ceiling; see photo below), which is then filled with enough water to relieve the body weight off the legs. Then, they start a treadmill below that causes the dog to walk. It is a great tool for stretching and strengthening the limbs of dogs with injuries, hip problems, or simple arthritis. And the dogs love it because it involves lots of treats and attention.

We also did some of the drudgery type of work in the afternoon: washing dishes and cleaning runs. That part was interesting because we got scheduled with the feral dog octagons. Their handler could go in and visit with them, but we weren't to get too close. They had a part-wolf dog and a part-coyote dog in there! These dogs were also younger, so they had big caverns they'd dug up in the yard.

We decided to stay at the cabins at Best Friends next time we go. It was too cold to be camping in October (it may be warm during the day in the desert, but it is freezing at night) and car camping in an economy rental car was not that pleasant. Plus, if we stay at the cabins, we can "borrow" one of the Best Friends' dogs for a sleepover. It gets the dogs out of the sanctuary environment and gives the handlers a chance to find out how they react to things they are likely to find in a home, should they be lucky enough to get adopted. It was an amazing experience and we can't wait to go back!

Cats at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Aren't they so sweet? We have lots of pictures for Best Friends - I'll have to see if I can't make some sort of slideshow when I have more time. We volunteered in the cat area for our first and last days at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. The first day we spent a few hours cleaning the catteries, which are big rooms that house social groups of up to 20-30 cats per room. They have an indoor space about the size of a small living room or large den, with lots of beds and cubbies to play in:

They also have an enormous outdoor area, that is connected to the inside by multiple cat doors. There are tons of perches, toys, and beds outside. There is also a large rafter system for the cats that are more feral; this gives them access to food, water, litterboxes, toys, and beds (as well as their own up-high cat door) without having to interact with humans.

There is a lot of sunshine for the cats to enjoy and, every once in a while, they get a field mouse who makes the mistake of wandering into their cage. We were told that the wild turkeys in the area like to walk by the outdoor catteries and stir things up in the afternoons.

When we finished cleaning, we went to cuddle cats in a building for "special cats". It has a room for each of the various "problems", including one each for those that are incontinent, on special diets, geriatric, neurologically-damaged (often called "wobble cats"), and two rooms for FIV+ cats. Many are missing limbs like Scooter (below), who scoots his back end across the floor.

Dancer (not pictured) is one of the "wobble cats" and he leaps and falls all over the room, trying to catch a feather toy. Despite their difficulties, these cats readily come up to you and purr away while you pet them - no question that their lives are worth living.

Early Notes on Zion/Best Friends Trip

I have fallen remarkably behind in posting blogs - I'm afraid after being out for so long from my back surgery that I had a lot of work and school to make-up. We did have a marvelous trip to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary back in mid-October. We flew in and out of Vegas, though we didn't gamble much - just a couple quarter and dollar slots right as we were leaving. We had spent too much time walking The Strip the first night and then Misty had a migraine the last night (we were only in Vegas for the 1st and last nights).

Zion National Park was gorgeous, of course, and we hiked a lot. Much more than I thought I would ever be able to do. I hope we can scan a postcard of this one climb (I'll wait to talk about it later). I got some great info for my nature class since the bus drivers were all off-duty historians and professors. We learned all about sandstone formation, as well as the conservation efforts in place (such as cooling towers for the visitor's center and a free shuttle system throughout the park to reduce the number of cars). The picture at the top is of the "mule deer" common to the area. Their large ears help them regulate heat. The photo below is of this amazing rock formation I noticed on one of the big climbs. It was far from the trail, so we couldn't decide if it was man-made or just a trick of the way the sandstone fell.

Next time, I'll talk about the actual Sanctuary visit.

I'm Back, Baby!

I knew I had a good, close-up photo of our "Breakfast with the Elephants" - this is one of the family groups having their turn at feeding the elephants (the little girl got too scared though and wouldn't do it).

I went back to work on Friday (I had minor surgery on my back). The nurse finally decided I was okay to return, but I still had to wait 2.5 hours for the final approval. Which put me behind for the day, although I'd been behind for weeks now. I stayed until nearly 9pm that night, but feel I've made a lot of progress...which is important since we'll be on vacation for a week in October.

Breakfast with the Elephants

Obviously, these photos are not of elephants, but we did get incredibly close to them. The "Breakfast with the Elephants" at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore was Misty's birthday present. We had to get up early on Sunday to get their in time - 8am breakfast, followed by feeding the elephants. You got to feed them compressed cubes of hay or something like that, which they eagerly took out of your outstretched hands. Some of the little kids got scared once they got up close to the elephants and chickened out. It was over far too quickly, but we did get to explore the rest of the zoo. Since it was still early, a lot more animals were out than usual and there were no crowds to fight to get in close for a good picture. The baby chimp above is about 1.5 years old; the one below is 2-3 years old. They have a long childhood, according to the trainers.

cat-sitting & picture for mom

We cat-sat for our neighbor from Thursday until late Sunday night. They have a cornish rex cat named Arizona. Cornish rexes are unusual in their appearance - they have huge ears, a tiny head, and a long body of crushed velvety fur. Apparently, Arizona is also slightly unusual in her habits as well. She would actually cry to have us open the door to the tub so she could drink from the faucet.

Below is a photo for my mom, since she really likes those M&M guys. Apparently, another neighbor is part of the M&M Racing Team. Cool, huh?

R.I.P. Dee

Unfortunately, little Dee passed away last night. She was the one I wrote about in the last post. We had considered calling her Diva, but wanted to wait until more of her personality came out before sticking her with that night. Her diva-like behavior so far included crying any time her heating pad started to cool off (we have a microwavable beanbag thing that slips into a really soft fleece-like pad). She'd stop crying as soon as you reheated it. Poor little thing. She was adorable - thought you all would like to see her "got milk?" pose.

They Grow Up So Fast - and Dog-a-Thon News

We had F.A.R.M. take back the kittens we had been fostering. We had 4 of them - 3 (Charlie Brown, Charlotte, & Cisco) were 10.5 weeks old and way too big for us to contain anymore. We offered to keep Cosmo (above; 8 weeks old now), but they thought it best to keep him with his buddies. In theory we were going to be taking a break from fostering (probably until after the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary trip in Oct).

But, of course, that didn't happen. Misty's boss at work brought in some kittens her friend had found. They think they may have accidentally spayed the mother (not realizing she'd already had kittens). There were three kittens, but one was killed by a Jack Russell. Two of the vet techs (including Misty) were called upon to each take 1 of the other two home. So, we have a little girl kitten that is about 4-5 days old. I'll try to post a photo soon. The 2nd kitten passed away last night, so we have the only one of them left. So far, she seems fine...but if she went 2 days or so without food and cold (while mom was being spayed and they went unnoticed), then it is still up in the air whether she'll make it. Fingers crossed.

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Pets on Wheel Dog-a-Thon
There is going to be a dog-a-thon on September 29 for "Pets on Wheels", which is the organization that Tasha does her pet therapy in the senior citizen home with. I've created a donation page for the event here: Tasha's Dog-a-Thon Page - it's a great cause to donate to if you're looking for one. :-]

Weird Bad Luck Continues...

Isn't Shelby the cutest?

So, our bad luck continues. I got a ride home with a coworker, Heather, last night, so that I wouldn't be stuck at work until 9:30pm or later again. She didn't have A/C in her car, which made it a hot ride wearing work pants in 102 degree heat. But, it was very nice of her to try. We were almost home when I realized I didn't have house keys, so we got off early to pick them up from Misty (who was still working). Misty gave me her house keys and we got back in the car to finish the drive...except the car wouldn't start. I don't know about you, but it seems very sketchy that another car has up & died with me in it. I feel like I have some sort of car plague.

Luckily, a mechanic just "happened" to stop by (he was there to visit one of Misty's coworkers) and helped us out. Heather's car was completely out of oil (believed to be due to a possible leak), her coolant looked really cruddy (it has been flushed out several times in the last year, so they think the leak might be letting oil into the coolant), and she may need to replace her starter. Rather than risk her driving me around any longer, we sent her home once our lovely new mechanic friend got the car running (she called me later to say she'd made it safely home). Therefore, I had to wait until Misty got off work to get a ride the rest of the way with her. We had hoped I could get home earlier so I could help our neighbor work on my car. It turns out not to have mattered that I wasn't able to get home quicker since our neighbor had something personal come up and can't work on it until at least Friday. Which means I'm at work until about 9:30pm again tonight. Fun times.

more bad luck....followed by some much-needed good luck

[Jenna is writing again...albeit slowly with just her left hand] The little foster kittens (Charlie Brown is featured above) are getting big...and so cute. Although they are extremely messy! Which brings me to the next lousy bit of luck/injury. On Monday, I had to clean the bathtub b/c they had made it thoroughly disgusting. I was on my knees scrubbing and didn't pay attention to where I was in the tub. When I stood up, I got a nasty gash on my lower back/tailbone from the tub faucet [see end of post for photo]. And now, a couple days later, it is swollen and bruised as well.

Back to Monday...I went outside to go to work...only to find that Misty, in her Percocet-haze last night, had locked the keys to her car (which I'm using since mine is dead) on the driver's front seat. A re-call to AAA and I was late to work. What is worse is that I got the same guy to come unlock the car that had given me a tow on Saturday. Talk about shame. Good news is that Misty got her recheck today and is cleared to go back to work (will have to continue getting the leg checked and stay on antibiotics for a while though). Of course, this means that I'll be at work tonight until about 9pm when she can come pick me up since we only have 1 working car.

A little bit of good news last night though. One of our really nice neighbors has offered to do all the work on my car for FREE if I just buy the parts. So, that nearly $600 + tax repair (that was the even more bad news I got yesterday) is now an $85 diagnostic + $100 parts + gift (b/c I want to get the neighbor something for his troubles). So much more doable. And we managed to get the car started enough to get it home without another tow. Yay! Here's hoping we are finally on the upward spiral of this strange kharmic twist.

[photo of my "faucet injury" after a couple days of healing]

Just a little walk in the woods, huh?!

[Written by Misty Sue] So, July 28 started out to be a gorgeous day. A great day to take the dogs hiking and a little swim (which Tasha could have done without). FYI, when hiking with someone, please keep an eye them. I did not and it resulted in Jenna falling down a river embankment. I was too busy trying to keep Shelby from floating away after her ball. As a result, Jenna suffered a sprained right shoulder, which could be a torn rotator cuff. She'll be in a sling for at least 2 weeks. :-(

I suffered a simple scratch on my right leg from the hiking which turned into a fiasco. By Monday, I was at the doctor for cellulitis and by Tuesday I was admitted into the hospital. I was on I.V. fluids and antibiotics which weren't helping due to an abscess which had formed underneath. The surgeon came and opened it up on Thursday. I was doing well enough to be discharged on Friday (or they were tired of me begging to go home). I am still on antibiotics and still have a swollen foot but I have a recheck appt. for tommorrow. This is the 3rd time this has happened to me, so I think I'll be wearing pants when I go hiking from now on.

As if it wasn't bad enough with my leg and Jenna's shoulder, her car died yesterday while trying to get groceries. I of course can't drive with my leg so we were lucky enough that the tow truck driver gave her a ride home. Her car will get looked at Monday, so she is stuck driving my car 1-armed-which she hates.

[WARNING - infection photo below (added by Jenna on 8/9/07):]

The picture on the left shows Misty's leg on Sunday, once we realized the tiny scratch was cellulitis. You may be able to see the pen markings we drew to show the borders of the redness (i.e. infection). Her leg also appears swollen, was hot to the touch, and, of course, hurt. You can see where she got the infection in the tiny dot in the middle of the redness. The picture on the right is after she was released from the hospital and actually looks a LOT better than it did in the hospital (we didn't take any photos while she was in the hospital). The gash in the center of the abscess (purple part) and cellulitis (redness around purple) was made on purpose by the surgeon to get the infection out.

Harry Potter Mania

So, I decided to experience some of the craziness that is a Harry Potter midnight book release. I decided not to attend the festivities before the actual book release (which began at 9:30pm), as the Barnes & Noble where I reserved my copy seemed to have it pretty geared towards little kids. Instead, I took a 2 hour nap in preparation for getting & reading the book. Well, I should have gone a little earlier than I did - check out that crowd (may be hard to tell, but all the little bumps in the above photo are heads....hundreds and hundreds of heads).


When you arrived, you got in line and received a wristband (yellow for reserved, blue for non-reserved) and a ticket with a number on it. Then, they would call groups of people in to purchase the book by 50s. All the yellow-wristed people (who'd pre-reserved the book) went first; people with blue went last. I think it would have gone a little faster if they'd made everyone actually purchase the book ahead of time - then, they could just hand you a book in exchange for a receipt. Misty and I arrived right at midnight...and got number 871. We were told that 3000 people pre-reserved a book (obviously, not all of them showed up for the midnight release - some will go pick theirs up at a more reasonable hour).


Ah, payoff. I had the book and we were on the way home at, yep you can see the watch, nearly 3am. Thankfully, the Starbucks connected to the Barnes & Noble was open and I enjoyed a Grande Skim Caramel Macchiato while waiting (highly recommended - so yummy & caffeinated!). The reactions of people getting the book were fabulous. The first groups would come out screaming and everyone would clap for them. The middle groups had lots of curious eyes wanting to take a quick peek while waiting their turn. One young man (teenager) caressed his book and said "Ah, beautiful" while passing us. Two little girls, maybe 8 years old, got their photo taken with their new books and a Harry Potter silhouette - they were adorable and so excited for so early in the morning. When it was finally my turn, I let out a quiet but happy "yay", which still brought a smile to the VERY patient and, thankfully, happily caffeinated Barnes & Noble workers.

It is 2:30pm now and I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book (I crashed for about 30mins right before my chiropractor appointment, but have otherwise been reading most of the day). I expect to finish by tonight. Have to say, JK Rowling's done a good job so far. First chapter seemed a little awkward, but sequel books generally do have a rough time getting started. Different than the others, of course, and I feel sad not to see a couple characters show up that I particularly liked reading (the plot she's chosen makes it difficult to get everyone in, but maybe they'll show up by the end). She is also bringing in the loose ends from previous books. Hopefully, they will be tied up nicely with a good payoff for us readers.