Feel Like Complaining

I finished the stick I was working on and love how it turned out. I'm not sure if I'm going to hang it or mount it to a wood slice as its base.  Tiny Abe has decided he wants to stick around for another week or so. He only weighs 1.96 and didn't gain anything last week. Faith got some different food for him because he just wasn't loving his kibble; he loves the new stuff so hopefully he'll put on some weight. Plus he's got a little cold so those things will hold off his neuter for awhile. We can only give him a tablespoon or two at a time or he'll throw it up. But this boy is a beast when it comes to food; we have to put him in his crate when we eat or this happens. I believe that we should write up a stipulation that any prospective adopter must have a comfy shelf for him to nap upon. I don't think that's too much to ask. He prefers sleeping on me than anybody else because I'm so fluffy. We leave for our Oregon coast vacation in a month. Things ...

Reina's mom contacted me two months ago looking for a sitter as she and her boyfriend had a trip planned to Greece. She lives in California (and is a Rover sitter) and he lives in town here. A meet and greet wouldn't be possible for awhile, so I manually blocked the dates for her so she would be assured that they would be hers.  Reina was rescued in Mexico last Fall and her mom became her foster. The poor girl was pregnant, undernourished, and sick and as she was nursed back to health, her foster mom failed and kept her. She's not even three yet but considering her beginning is doing very well. A few days before she arrived her mom had decided to cancel their trip but she didn't want to cancel Reina's stay with us. They decided to go visit family back east although it was a shorter trip than originally planned. She does have separation anxiety and it took her awhile for her to calm down. Before we started Rover I had never heard of that before but I swear that every...

I think I found this stick with the longer one at the lake. I'm not sure what kind it is but the wood is hard and heavy. I'm calling it an experiment because that's what you do with something you're not crazy about. There is no uniformity at all in colors or design. I even bought a pyrography kit (fancy word for wood burning), to add another dimension. It's not good for hard, bumpy wood at all, hence more experimenting. After it was finished I coated it with Minwax rather than my usual protectant. It really brought out the beauty of the wood and I now have it hanging on a tree branch in the front yard. Mom and I used to swap our experiments but now I guess I'll have to keep it. If it gets stolen I won't be totally unhappy about it. The stick I'm currently working on is much better and hopefully will be done soon. It seems like the more time I have, the less time I have. I don't understand how that works at all!

Can you tell that I'm running out of good titles? On Thursday, we got a new dog and then I left for 4 nights to take care of 3 cats.  I have been with this family before, but it's been a long time. They originally had two dogs and one old cat. Then they got ornery cat Jack that terrorized (still does) the old one, Charlotte. The last time I was there, one of the dogs just had surgery for a torn acl and it was not a good time at all. She had asked me last fall if I could stay, plus they added another cat. I just wasn't up to it so told her I couldn't.   Now the owner has moved and no longer has the dogs which is the only reason I agreed to do it. Charlotte is now 17 and still sleeps in the laundry room to stay safe from the others. She's having some kidney issues so usually pees on her blankets which requires daily laundry. Jack has calmed down a lot and Santino is shy but he lets me look at him...from a distance. It hasn't been a bad stay, mostly because of the ...

On occasion we have boarded a dog without getting the chance to meet them first. This happens for out-of-towners and the stay is usually only a night or two so we figure we can survive that long. Buddy lives in Arizona, his twin human sisters are starting college in town so they were going to combine a vacation along with moving them here.  When they dropped him off, all 4 of the family members came in as well as 3 friends from Norway. They're all talking at the same time trying to tell me about their dog and I'm like freaking out because well I'm an introvert and you just invaded my space, as well as there still being a pandemic with 101 different variants out there. Plus, I'm a dog lover from way back but I've never seen so many people faun over one dog before. They were all taking pictures, hugging, and kissing like it was the last time they were going to see him. The dad even set up a group text so I can update the whole damn family at once. Come on people, just...