The Pool

So we broke down and bought a "cheap" above ground pool. Cheap being a relative word. Yes it is not as expensive as a more permanent above ground pool, but wow it sure adds up when you run into those never ending glitches.

The husband and I originally talked about where would be the best location of the pool. First I did some research online looking up our county ordinances regarding swimming pools. Anything over 24" of water required a 5 foot fence. This was recently amended, however. Before it only required a 4' fence. Of course! Our fence was only 4 feet tall. Because of the hassle of having to put up a fence inside of our fence to protect any trespassers from drowning in our pool.*sigh* So we opted for up against our deck. This would help with the posts for one side of our fence around the pool.

Dakota and I went out and laid out the location of the pool (looks like a landing site).

After talking more that evening, Brent and I decided that the original loaction was a little sketchy. We have a couple of sink holes forming in that spot of the yard. The fear of adding all that water weight on top of them did not seem like a good plan. So we decided on the only "level" spot in our yard. Of course it is under a serious amount of pine trees.

After 7 hours of work on a Saturday afternoon, this is what it looked like at the end of Day One:

Seven more hours of work and here is what it looked like at the end of Day 2:

And above is what it looked like after day 4. We should have it all finished and up to code by the end of summer. Just kidding . .. maybe.
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I Am Furious!

The fostering to adopt has turned into a bigger fiasco then I ever could have imagined. We were told we could foster to adopt so we could get to know the new dog (a.k.a. Harley) and see if he was a good fit for our home. I called at 3:00 Monday afternoon to check that we were still on schedule to pick him up. I was told there was still one more surgery before him and he would be ready for pick-up at 7:30 that night. That was sure not leaving much time for recovery on his part before we picked him up.

We arrived at 7:30 and waited for 20 minutes before we were even able to talk to the person in charge of adoptions. We were told the dew-claw fee would no be included with the adoption fee. Okay, perhaps they should have informed us of that via the phone when I called them twice that afternoon, but since we were only fostering and not adopting that day, I dismissed the concern. When we were finally able to talk to the young lady in charge of adoptions, we were told the protocol had changed and we were no longer allowed to foster him, because we lived too far away. What?!?! We live under 20 minutes away. We were then told the dew-claw removal would cost $20 per paw - the homeless pet rate. But when she took us to check out, the fee for the removal of the dew-claws we were told would be over $150. I nearly choked. So now, not only were we to pay the adoption fee of $175 we were supposed to pay an additional $150+ as well. After one of the tech's went and talked to the doctor, the fee was decreased to $92. At this point we had been there for nearly an hour and I was fried. It was the most chaotic place I have been to and everyone had a different answer for everything. They set us up for a well check visit and removal of stitches in ten days.

We got home and realized the packet of information they gave us was missing many of the things they told us would be included. Not a rescue group or vet I would be willing to work with again, that is for sure. But wait! It gets even better.

Over the week, Harley started sneezing and doing something they call a reverse sneeze. I did some research and found out it is usually linked to allergies. Of course, we would adopt a dog with allergies. But as the week progressed it become worse until Friday night he was actually coughing. I was up most of the night with him due to his problems settling because of all the coughing. Brent was very concerned and thought we should take him to an emergency vet. I convinced him to wait until morning.

We called the Town and Country vet, the Homeless Pets is run out of, and no one answered even though the information they gave us claimed they were open. We then called the vet of our previous fur babies and got in that afternoon. Long story short, Harley is full of hookworms. What kind of rescue group does not d-worm their dogs?!?!? They gave him a de-wormer, a heart worm test, an initial visit, some heart worm pills for six months and some cough tablets. We walked out of their less $225. If you are keeping a running total we are now down $500.

After we got home he began feeling lethargic and would not eat. He eventually had diarrhea and vomited several times. He would not eat in the morning nor drink, so we returned to the vet who gave him some fluids, an injection of anti-nausea medicine, and an oral antibiotic - anther $135. She believes the amount of parasites that showed up in his stool sample is why he is vomiting and having diarrhea. He is heavily infested. Did I mention that humans can also get hookworms?

To say that I am annoyed by the Homeless Pets organizations and Town and Country Vet is to put it lightly. What kind of rescue group does not do testing on their rescues to make sure they are up to date on all their shots and healthy. We will see how I feel tomorrow, but this evening with my still lethargic and extremely sick Harley next to me I am ready to call and give them a piece of my mind. Needless to say, our appointment for a well check and removal of stitches is canceled.

Fostering to Adopt

I thought I was at a place where I was comfortable not having a dog in our lives. One less responsibility. One less mess. Can come and go as we please. Can complete school without interruption (well one less interruption).

Well, my husband called me Saturday morning to let me know a customer of his had three lab/rot mixes. Should he bring one home? He would call me back in 10 minutes. What!?!?! I had 10 minutes to make a decision. He must have lost his mind. I wrote out a pro/con list. I talked to Sierra about it (Dakota was still sleeping).

The thing is I know where all of my family members will weigh in on the decision. My husband will take almost any dog. He sees it and he thinks we should have it, but luckily he knows the ultimate decision is mine, since I will bear 90% or more of the responsibility. Sierra really wants another dog. She misses having a dog and thinks about it often. That being said, she is also extremely practical. If I give her the pros and cons, she will look at the cons and say it is not a good decision and we shouldn't do it, no matter how much she wants one. Dakota is usually one that think s we should wait. He really wants a dog, but after the last experience we are all just a little leery. Chloe . . . well, what can I say, she is 8. She would take any dog at any time.

So here I sit - knowing how much my kids want/need a dog - trying to weigh out how much it would change our lives. Napoleon was the most wonderful dog ever. So laid back. We never had to worry about leaving him home alone, about accidents, about chewing, about digging. He was such a good boy.

One of my biggest concerns was that these puppies were kept outside with their mother. None of them had received any type of vaccination or veterinary care. The risk was too great and knowing that black and tan breeds are more susceptible to parvo made me all the more scared.

I got online and looked at our local shelter to see if they still had a puppy I had seen several weeks ago. They sis not, but they did have a white American bulldog that was an adult. I knew my husband would be in love with this dogs looks. He always is gravitated toward these types of dogs. So on our date night we headed to the shelter to meet Olivia. We both adored her. We were just getting ready to have someone get her out for us when we saw her jump. She jumped over 6 feet to look what was happening on the kennel behind her. Well that was not gonna work. Our fence was only 4.5 feet. The guy working hteir informed us any large dog was probably out of the question and medium sized dogs were iffy for our height of fence. We never had a problem with Napoleon, but he was such a special and mellow dog. We did not want to risk it with a new dog.

We then walked past the puppy room. I fell in love with a Doxie-mix. She was precious. Brent was less than thrilled. We decided we would think about it and return on Tuesday when they would be open again.

We headed off on our date night and ran some errands. We stopped at a Whole Foods to pick up some things and noticed they had a local rescue group there with their dogs. We did not even talk about it, we both just headed straight for the dogs. I saw a cuties and was reading his sheet. Brent surprised me and said he thought he was a good looking dog. He was a small dog. Brent and Dakota are not small dog people, so I was surprised to say the least. He decided we should take him out and meet him. One of the volunteers asked if we wanted to fill out paperwork on him and Brent said yes. Whoa!! I was thinking. This is going way too fast. They wanted to know if we wanted to take him home or pick him up on Monday after he was neutered and had his shots. I was not ready to make a decision so quickly. It was crazy busy there and we had no way of seeing his personality or anything. I was feeling a bit panicky. When I explained this to one of the volunteers she told him that we could foster to adopt. In other words, we could take him home for two weeks to see how he does with Chloe and how he adjusts to our home, then we can make the decision on whether or not to adopt him. I was SO relieved.

Tonight we are scheduled to pick him up and bring him to our home. He was just neutered today, had his shots and had his dew-claws removed. He will be a very traumatized little boy.

Wish us all luck!

Total Money Makeover

My husband and I got to go to the Dave Ramsey show yesterday and I have to admit it was a ton of fun! Not to mention how informative it all was.

I tend to be what Dave calls a nerd and my husband is more of a free spirit, so we do not always agree on what our budget should look like. I think, though, with Dave's system, we can come to mutual ground and get to a much better place financially. I am so excited about getting started - even though we have been kinda doing this for a year already. We are on board together and even though it will be a long haul, I am anxious to see where we will be two, three, and five years from now.

Suprises at the Door

I awoke this morning to the little neighbor girl and a stray puppy standing on my doorstep. They found or were given the puppy at a local park. Their landlady will not let them keep it. They believe it to be 3 or 4 weeks old. Based on the number of teeth it has, I would say it is more like 6 weeks, but I am no vet. It is tiny and precious . . . but what puppy isn't? What are these people trying to do to me? LOL! Who on earth can resist a precious little puppy?
Me . . . maybe. I am just not sure my heart can take it.

Heart Broken - Again

I belonged to a rescue group on Facebook. I saw a puppy and fell in love with her. She was in Douglasville at the Animal Control Shelter. Brent and I went to meet her on Sunday. After meeting her, I knew that she would not workout with Chloe. She was very jumpy (think surprise attack whether sitting or standing). I left with a number of pretty bad scratches.

While we were there, however, we met another little baby. She was just the sweetest thing. They said she was 3 to 4 months old and a lab mix. She looked more like a boxer mix than a lab. She was removed from a home for abuse/neglect along with 4 other dogs and a cat. One of the dogs was a chihuahua with a broken back.

The puppy was very submissive and rolled on her back and peed a number of times. She cowered on the ground. It was heart wrenching. I could not leave without her. I only hoped we would be able to get the submissive peeing under control after showing her love and gentleness. By the time we left the shelter (we were there for over 2 hours - they thought we were weird) she was already less fearful of us and quit peeing when we touched her.

On the way home she was severely car sick. It was an hour drive. By the next morning she was showing signs of kennel cough along with now continuing to regurgitate water cuz her tummy was upset. We took her to the vet that afternoon (which again caused more carsickness). We got an antibiotic and some puppy-pepto. The kennel cough medicine caused nausea. Just what we needed. We also got her some special bland dog food until her tummy settled. She has 3tbsp of the dog food that night.

We had no vomiting on Tuesday, but she would not eat anything. Tuesday night when I gave her her cough medicine, so threw it up and threw up an additional five times. Of course her stomach was a mess again and she continued to regurgitate all day today. I called her vet this morning. They suggested chicken and rice and to bring her in tomorrow morning if she still had not eaten anything.

After she had not eaten anything by 4:30 today, I could not have her go through the night. It had been too long. She was so lethargic. I took her to the vet by our house to reduce the car sickness. They suggested a parvo test, even though she had had not diarrhea. It came back positive. Dakota was with me. There is/was no way we could pay the bill for parvo treatment. We were told it would be a week long treatment that would cost between $350 and $750 a day with no guarantee that it would be successful.

We do not have that kind of money. We live paycheck to paycheck. Having to make a decision based on monetary value over the value of a her precious little life is inconceivable and makes me feel like a horrible person. It is a very hard thing to come to terms with.

It is amazing how attached you can become to a puppy in such a short amount of time. We only had her 3 days, but she was the sweetest most helpless creature. We are all heart broken. Sierra is really struggling with the decision we had to make.

I could not settle on a name regardless of how the others prodded me. I knew in my heart it was because she would not be with us long. But I refused to put the feeling into words. This morning I finally took some pictures of her, as I had not done that. I am very thankful that I did. She will be greatly missed. With the wound of the loss of Napoleon not yet healed, this new wound is made even more painful. I wonder if I will ever be brave enough to try again.

A Family's Best Friend

We are grieving the loss of our fur-baby of nearly 12 years.

Here is the long version:

Napoleon had been spending more time than usual in Dakota and/or Sierra's rooms. He would stay in there even when they came out and were out for an extended amount of time. Usually, he would only wait for a bit and then have to join the rest of the family. Especially when we were all eating.

On Thursday, while Chloe and I were doing school, Chloe said he was standing on the foyer. I had the wash going and wondered if he was afraid to go the rest of the way down because of the dryer buzzing. I finished up school and got our stuff together for errands (at least 20 minutes). When I went down to switch the loads before heading out the door he was still standing there. He turned around and put his nose by the door. He never does that. He never goes out the front. We can even leave the door open 2 feet and he will just sit at the top of the stairs and watch us run in and out. I switched the laundry and went in Dakota's room to see if Napoleon would come down since Dakota's door was open. Nope. I got Dakota to come out. We went upstairs and Dakota got him a treat. Napoleon actually seemed to consider if it was worth it to go up the stairs for the treat. I wondered if maybe he had to go to the bathroom and did not want to use the deck stairs. I had Dakota take him out. He went pee and then laid down in the yard while Dakota watered the tomato plants. He came back up the stairs and down all the stairs inside to be in Dakota's room with him. Dakota thought maybe he was limping a bit. He spent the rest of the night as he usually does - on and off the couch with the boys downstairs watching TV and then sleeping on our bed.

He got restless during the night and stood up on the bed and something didn't seem right. I woke up and reached out to him and he laid down again. I am not sure how much later, I awoke again as he jumped off the bed and laid on the floor. Not much later he began panting really hard. Brent got out of bed and laid next to him on the floor. About a minute later Napoleon got up and went and stood by the back door - this was around 5, I think. Brent let him out the door and he stood at the top of the stairs for quite awhile. He finally went down and threw up. He went pee and then tried to poop about three times, but never did. When he came up stairs, he put his head by his doggy door but did not come in. Brent opened the back door and we both called him to come in. He did not move. He just kept looking straight forward like he did not even here us. I cannot remember if he came in or not, but he ended up going down again. I woke the teens and told them what was going on, then I got a towel and went and sat with him while he laid in the dewy grass.

Sierra came out and sat with us for a couple of hours. We gave him some water and he drank quite a bit. I was happy - thought it was a good sign. A minute later he got up, walked about six feet and threw up. Then he just stood there and would not look at us. I knew it was going to be getting pretty hot, so I decided to attempt to bring him in. I know he does not like to be picked up. He struggles terribly, so I never do it for fear I will hurt him. I picked him up and he barely struggled at all. I carried him up the deck stairs and inside to Sierra's room and their I spent the rest of the day.

Dakota cried the entire day. He barely surfaced from his room and the bathroom. I had Sierra take a nap in my room while Dakota and I spent some time with Napoleon in her room. I did a lot of research on the internet. I did not want to take him to the vet and stress him out even more if I did not have to. I knew in my heart that it was not something they could fix. He has had several tumors for years, but he has developed a number more and some of them were in key places where is lymph nodes would be. I could not come to terms with putting him to sleep if he did not appear to be in pain. That is not a choice I wanted to make.

He was lethargic all day and would get up and stand until I made him lay down and rest again. He also seemed to be breathing harder than he should have needed to since he was just laying around. He went outside once on the deck and down the stairs. He just stood there on the slab at the bottom. He eventually turned and stared up the stairs at Dakota and I. I went down and carried him back up.

After more research I found out that dogs can be sick for a long time, but they do not show it until it is really severe - survival of the fittest and the pack mentality. I also found out that dogs will breathe heavily rather than cry out in pain. Again for the same reason.

He went outside right after I found this out and peed. It was very dark. He laid down in the grass all sprawled out. It began to thunder and he did not even move. He has been afraid of thunder for the past couple of years and will hide out in Dakota's room. I picked him up again and carried him inside. He was making a faint whining/wheezing sound as he exhaled. I knew now that he was in pain and probably had been all day. It broke my heart and I just wished he would be at peace and let go. I could not put him down by myself and Dakota and Sierra would not go - it was too much for them. I had to wait for Brent.

He hurried through the rest of his day and rushed home. Napoleon got up and stood in the kitchen after Brent got home. It was heart wrenching when he would do this. He would start to fall asleep while standing but would not move to lay down or to move forward no matter how we coaxed him. Brent fell apart and went to change his clothes and try to pull himself together.

The kids said good-bye and I had to explain to Chloe what was happening. She knew he was sick, but she was hoping he would get better. When I called her to her room to talk to her, she fell apart. I explained to her that he was in pain and that when we took him to the vet they would put him to sleep and he would not wake up again. And he would not be coming home with us. She asked if we could see him again and why exactly we had to do this. I explained that he was in pain and we did not want that for him and that after he went to sleep we would die. She said she was hoping this day would not come and that sometimes you have to let things go. When I tucked her in that night, she reminded me of a dream she had the night before last that we had lost Napoleon and we could not find him. She said she now knew why she had that dream.

Brent and I took Napoleon to an emergency hospital and they put him to sleep. He did not struggle on the drive nor when they came to get him on a gurney. He had no fight left. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

I knew that this day would eventually come and I was so worried how it would affect the kids and Brent. I knew it would be terribly hard for them. I had no idea how hard it would be for me. He was truly the best dog and we will all have a big whole in our lives without him here.

Merry Christmas!

Night at the Museum

A local Civil War and locomotive museum put on a special event inspired by the movie, "A Night at the Museum." I was not sure what to expect, but I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised and found the event a lot of fun. They really went all out. They had a lot of people dressed in various costumes walking through the museum and conversing with the visitors as well as the other costumed "actors." They did a wonderful job staying in character and playing their parts. It was amusing to listen to them talk with one another, especially the characters that were from different eras, as they were having trouble communicating due to their differences. For example, Queen Elizabeth was looking for the gentleman in black who had lost his lighted sword - the "sword" was actually a light saber (more about this later).



There was Cleopatra's tomb were we got to meet Cleopatra herself. She carried on about Caesar and wondering if we had seen him. She said we were sure to recognize him as he would be saying, "Hail to me!." Later we ran into Caesar in his chariot asking about Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

Their was a rainforest type area with two grunting cavemen hitting one another with their faux wooden clubs. They also had a saloon set up with the usual cast. Civil War soldiers trying to recruit all of the attendees to their side of the fight. I could go on and on, but I will only mention one more . . Atilla the Hun. He was so entertaining. He was so large and yet so quiet. He would just walk around quietly then randomly come up behind someone and grunt/growl really loud. He startled both of my daughters this way, which we all got a giggle out of.

My husband, however, was disappointed as he has was just wanting to experience the museum. He is a huge history buff and was looking forward to the opportunity to finally get to see the museum. A number of the usual exhibits were covered up by props for the added characters, so he felt cheated out of his museum experience. To add to his annoyance, along with all of the historical figures they also had characters from Star Wars (Princes Leia, Darth Vader, R2-D2, Stormtroopers). He could not understand what this had to do with history.


Agreed, it was not an overly educational outing, but it was so much fun! Well, . . for me, anyway.