Meet "Sweet Pete"

I did a lot of complaining this summer about having too many animals to take care of. I'll blame it on the heat. Most of the animals are easy but I have way too many cats in this house. The cats drive me nuts. Three of them I took as outdoor mousers, but since a cat doesn't distinguish between killing mice and birds and bunnies, they've all ended up indoors.

Blair is the last dog I've helped save.


While I agreed to foster her, it appears she now will live here permanently. She's a good dog and doesn't ask for much, although she has a horrible habit of counter surfing. Nothing is safe on the counter if it's even remotely edible and sometimes I forget to put things away. Other than that, she's pretty perfect.

I am still on one rescue distribution list and I usually just delete them w/o reading. Once I see an animal's picture it becomes difficult to delete the email. Long story short, I've decided to help another dog. Meet "Sweet Pete".



Pete was an owner surrender to a high kill "shelter" in Vance County, NC where they "euthanize" by heart stick or gas chamber. Where they also hose down the kennels with the dogs still in them. Last winter Ashley said the puppies had ice hanging off of them. Pete is old and black. For reasons that I don't understand, black dogs and black cats have the lowest adoption rate and thousands are killed every year. But that doesn't stop people from continuing to breed black labs by the thousands every year either. Stupid. Pete didn't stand a chance of survivng in there.


Anyway, I spent the day on the road yesterday meeting the angel, Ahsley, from Middle Mutts who goes into the kill shelter every week to pull some lucky animals. I dont' know how she does it. I had agreed to foster a senior dog and Pete is the guy I ended up with. He's skinny and I suspect he has heartworms because he has a dry cough. He's loaded with intestinal parasites which will be addressed this week. He smelled so bad that I took him straight to a groomer in town where he was bathed three times. Poor old guy.

I was assured Pete would get along with other animals and people. So far, so good. He's met my precious Princess and all went well. When I brought him into the house and Smudge, my big cat, came around the corner, Pete tucked tail and slinked in the opposite direction. I don't think he'll bother the cats. In fact, he's in the laundry room with two of them now and not a peep from him. The cats are another story however.

So, I will be working to get Pete healthy and adopted into a nice home where he can live the rest of his years. I don't know how old he is, but he's definitely old. Old and sweet.

Happy Sunday everybody.

Animal Stuff and My Grandmother's Chair

Oi vay! The last few weeks have been busy with my new job and taking care of animal issues. The job is going well; I have a new executive to support and he is used to having his hand held big time so I'm really exhausted when I come home now.

I've been nursing a very sick rooster for the last two weeks. I'll spare you the gross details and just say that "Big Rooster" must be part cat. This is the third time he's almost died and recovered. He's still not 100% but after being in a pen in the garage for two weeks, I put him back with his flock today.



Little Fizz has been staying with some huge goats over at my neighbors for the last two weeks after being neutered. He was being bullied terribly and when I checked on him Wednesday evening, his incision was bleeding. I put some cornstarch on it (did you know that it stops bleeding immediately?) and left him crying to come home. As I looked back, I saw one of the big goats ram him right in his rear again.

I called the vet the next morning and asked if it was absolutely necessary to keep him separated from the girls for 45 days. While she said yes, she advised me to bring him home because he could be seriously injured by the large goats he was staying with. I'm happy to say that he came home Thursday evening and so far, I haven't seen him show any signs of being interested in the girls. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays this way.

I'm glad summer with its heat and drought are over; onward to taking care of some projects.

Remember the odd wooden chair I wrote about a couple ofmonths ago that used to belong to my granddmother? Well, I refinished it and had the cushions reupholstered. I got the cushions last week and I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. I remember this chair from when I was very young and I have to say it looks great...and it's comfortable too.



The weather was really pretty today and I spent the day mowing, weeding and working on my walkway. This evening I put the binding on my autumn crow wall hanging that I started last year. I'll wash it tomorrow and put a pocket on the back to hang it by and take some pictures to share.

I'm off to bed now but wanted to get a post in before another day went by.

Happy blogging!