What's Happenin' (Part 2)

[houghchrst]

Yes ready for this bizarre winter to be over with but for me February is an anxious time because when it gets near the end I get that spring feeling in my gut. I know the dogs are ready for it to be over. These days the only time I get any fresh air is when I take my foster dog out. There is no heat in my car so that is always interesting when I have to go out. Waiting on one of our next few winter storms this evening.

Brandon has been staying over. He is single now and normally stays with a room mate but seems the roommate is back with his ex which is awkward for all. He finally got a good job working in a factory learning different things, he is loving it. He has never really had a steady nine to five job. All were part time mostly food service places. He gets home all grimy and greasy dead tired and happy as a clam. Working on a new girlfriend, a girl he has known since he was a tween. We see hide nor hair of the ex or the children. Wonder if we ever will. Wonder if the oldest will try to make contact when she is older. Who knows. It makes me very sad to know that the GF was such a fake and caused so many problems between me and Brandon and Brandon and his grandmother though she is a bitch in he own right lol.

Hugely stressed out by my financial situation. Thinking I am going to have to move into an apartment or something. Give up a lot of my family's heirlooms.

[dawnmn]

Christina, I hope you don't have to give up your family heirlooms. It's hard to only live on disability. I don't know how people do it. I know that I wouldn't beable to live off of it. I'm lucky that I have a husband.

My DH is retiring early this December and I'm scared about survival. He says he has it all worked out and I guess I'm going to have to believe that he has this. I'm the one that does the monthly bills and he does the investments. Our financial guy says we are good to go. I will have to go on Medicare and DH will have to go on the state insurance. His job doesn't offer retirees health insurance. So that's another monthly expense that we will have to pay and health insurance is expensive.

My granddaughter has diabetes and she is only 3 1/2 years old. I will have to learn how to give her shots because I'm the babysitter for them when they go out. Her mom is going to have another baby in July that will be three under four years old. I will be taking care of the two when she is in the hospital. They wear me out. By the time they leave I'm ready for bed. So much energy.

I do stop by and read the messages it's just that I don't have much to say.

[joy]

So glad to read about u all. I will just say my health is bad & been call severe by more than 1 doc & in more than 1 state. But hey I am hopeful cause I know hot weather will arrive someday. I am thankful that I have phone that guesses what I am try to spell. Unfortunately it is small & eyes are blurry. Forgot the part about nerves after surgery. But I am use to doing things slow & sometimes napping inbetween. See still me. Always gripping!! LOL. Each of u hold a special place in my heart & I hope u all can hang on there & have some relief from ur difficulties & pain sometimes. Be slow but very careful.

[houghchrst]

Hey all just figured I would do a check in. Not a lot going on here. Spring is here, YAY! Our weather was weird here anyway. Except for a couple cold spells it was almost fall much of the winter. I have developed a bit of peace about a lot of things lately. I don't know how long that will last you know how I am. Jared has started his GED prep classes, one night a week from 6 to 8. thank you very much. I have been an emotional wreck about these boys schooling for 23 years, we've been struggling. Fighting to get work done. no more. We are in the home stretch. Thank you God and it is Perfect timing cause Brandon has moved in and uses my car to go to work. He works 7 to 3:30. Still loves his job but man is it a workout, he comes home dead tired and sore. He also gives me a little money on payday which works out perfectly. So I got two positives going on.

Still have the Dachshund Skyler, his adopter has pushed up his adoption because her Doxie injured herself and she was waiting on results from that. I plan to call her, she does not seem enthusiastic about the whole thing. I would be chomping at the bit to get my new dog. Most people are. Am thinking maybe she wants to back out and have given her plenty of opportunity to say so. Will check today. I also still have the four ferals. I named them, I had to for speutering, then they can keep track. I gave them short nicknames that can be turned into a boy or girl's name. We started out with Lou, Mac, and Sam and Ripley. They ended up being a Louise, Mackenzie, Sam and Ripley stayed the same. Ripley is a girl, I named her after the Sigourney Weaver character Ripley from the famous Alien movie. She is one tough, mean, cookie. I keep her in her own setup. She is the most feral. Thank God she isn't bigger because she would look just like a lynx and she would act like one. She tore my sewing/foster room to pieces because I stupidly let her loose in there. Newbie just not thinking. Managed to trap her and get her spay and vetted now we are waiting on a barn for them all. I do believe Louise and I are slowly making friends. To try to give you guys an idea I will post a couple of pictures.


This is where the three youngsters are. All black and fuzzy, just adorable and sadly feral. If I could get trained people to take them in they maybe can be rehabbed but most of the time it fails or they wind up being indoor/outdoor cats.


This is Miss Ripley, I keep two crates facing each other and she stays in one except to use the litter box. It amazes me that they automatically use the litter box. her food and litter is in the other crate. It is interesting gettting clean bedding in there lol. She hisses as soon as I come in the room and if I get too close she hisses, spits and swipes at me through the blanket. Lol she can't even see me.

I often cry when I am feeding and cleaning things up because my heart hurts for them. They will never know the wonderful feeling of curling up on someone they love's lap. Having the gentle caresses of someone who loves them. On the other hand they are only happy when they are out roaming free.

Let's see what else, I was granted food stamps, I lost about $260 in monthly income and they gave me $170 in foodstamps. I am grateful, it will help. I also like that I know that money is earmarked for food that way I don't cut myself short.

My basement flooded twice now. The second time was way worse. Am throwing and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Stuff I haven't used or even seen in years. Crap I forgot I had. some things got ruined that just breaks my heart to have to throw them away. NOw the well pump, well tank, water softener, water heater and the sump pump have been changed so hopefully that will stop giving me fits for years to come. I have been waiting for over four years for that to all come together. Thank God for CJ.

My mobility really sucks. I get out and do what I can and it is just exhausting hauling around this hurting body. The more I move the more I hurt, the less I move the more it hurts to get up. Just ridiculous. I really miss my Methadone prescription. At least even if I took it less than prescribed I still had something. Don't get me wrong, the MMJ helps tremendously but like all meds there are just some pains that it doesn't touch.

Well I am out. HOpe you all are doing well.

[houghchrst]

things here are still about the same. Only Brandon has a different job now. He went back to his old restaurant Ruggero's. They have new owners and gave Brandon his schedule on the spot. Training him to be cook which will come with a raise. He has definitive hours and is making more money than he was on that old job at that warehouse. It is like five minutes away if that. He gets to sleep later and can either work all day or pick up an afternoon shift and he isn't made to punch out and stay off the clock to help clean. EVeryone is responsible for their own area. The last people that ran that place were running it into the ground and treated the staff poorly.

Jared is set to graduate on time. He is passing his GED pretesting with flying colors. He wants to do better on the math so he is holding off until June to take the real tests. I am not planning ahead with him. He is 18 and has to learn to fend for himself. So I am making him step out of his comfort zone to learn to adult. Been doing things for him too long. I am dead tired. so I am slowly peeling him off of me lolol.

Still have the three black feral kitties. The non fuzzy one, Louise, has attached herself to me. I have to feed her soft food to distract her so I can clean their cage and then she gets a little bit more while I try to feed the other two. She comes out and rubs all over me and wants petting then when she realizes the human is deliberately petting her she will sometimes bite at me, not hard just a warning, sometimes a swipe. She will do great at a barn where they want the ferals to be somewhat friendly. Oddly enough there are those that do.

I no longer have Miss Ripley as she has found a friend an a barn. Somebody just as mean as she is and they got on quite well together. But I did rescue a split faced Torti that had been kicked out of her home and was not being fed. She is vetted and up for adoption. I have her in what was Miss Ripley's set up. Surprisingly she does quite well in there and I have wondered if they kept the poor thing in a crate. Los Gatos is backing her and she attends the adoption event on the weekends at PetSmart.

I was doing the last of the speutering on my feral colony and only caught two cats. One was a torti female, no more kitties for her, and one was just a kitten. About six months they figure but I am thinking a bit younger. He has some eye damage and I was seriously concerned that is was infected or something. So an animal social service organization has taken over his vetting bill and I have a rescue friend who lets me use her van to drive an hour away to get him to a proper specialist. His eye is bling but it is not bulging or weeping and it doesn't seem to bother him. She said it could be a birth defect or an injury that has started to heal. Plus he has a cold and we are doing antibiotics to protect from any secondary infection. So we will probably be getting the eye sewed shut, not necessary to remove the ball, and get him neutered. He is not completely feral and is very young so I am working with him to bring him back to home life. I am pretty sure he was raised in an indoor litter. The dogs don't phase him as long as they don't try to nose on him. I have him loose in my room, door closed, he uses the litter box, comes out to eat. He is getting there. am hoping to get him adopted. And I am still disappointed at my Rescue group for telling me he either has to be manageable or put down. Like there are no feral one eyed cats out there. As she sees my work, cause we all Facebook to network, I am wondering if she under estimated me and is realizing it. Let's not get cocky.

I am retiring from feral trapping and keeping. It is too heartbreaking. Retiring lol, like I've been doing it for years. I say that but yesterday morning I thought I was going to be taking in a mama and 5 bitty kittens lol. Others came forward and I backed out.

Think i am going to start working on my back patio this weekend. I am turning it into a catio and thank God for facebook friends as I have started a fundraiser for me birthday which is going until the 21st of April. to get the money to help me fence an area of the yard and to rescreen my patio so the cats can be out there. I can foster more dogs and cats that way. I can't have a big dog dragging me around the yard so besides Skyler who is now ours I am not fostering any dogs.

NOt a lot has been happening. I haven't been blogging much. Me? Well I am still the same ole depressed, stressed, anxious, lethargic individual I have always been. Yes my house is a mess, yes they keep screwing with my psych med refills. I will never use Rite Aid again unless I have to. Yes I am desperately in need of money but for now my taxes are being taken care of. I think of all the stuff I need and here I am getting donations to help animals. Seems off but then again I would not be getting donations to help me with anything else lol.

I so miss everyone. I am grateful to see that there are a few who have stuck around. I wish you all well.

[jingle]

"I so miss everyone. I am grateful to see that there are a few who have stuck around. I wish you all well."
Isn't it nice to come in here and see people talking?

We're had big, booming. crashing thunder storms and my poor cats were terrified. hey usually look at me during a storm and if I tell them all is OK, they just relax and aren't afraid. Last night they hid.
More storms are supposed to be in this afternoon and I needed a few things so I went to the grocery store early. I was pushing my cart down an aisle as usual and, of all things, the manager of the store came to me, hugged me and wished me Happy Easter. I smiled, thanked him and kept shopping. When I got in my car I started bawling. Gee whiz - it's been a long time since I was hugged and wished happy anything.