Pets

Pets / Sleep — 19 Comments
7
May 12

First Thing Monday Morning. And I mean first thing.

Monday Morning you sure look fine ~ as Fleetwood Mac would say.

But only 45 minutes into Monday morning, I’m not so sure.

Joining up once again with Monday Listicles. This week we are to link up with An Hour in a Day and list 10 things that happened in a wonderful hour of our lives.

So….

10)  12:45 a.m. this morning, I awoke after hearing the dog whimpering.

The dog who had been having going to the bathroom problems.

Get up take him out.

Stand around waiting for dog to do something in the dark and start to become bit creeped out. Something never happens. (With the dog and nothing happens to me either.)

See cat hanging out in dark.

 

9)  Drag him in at 12:59.

Realize I am wide awake.

Get laptop and start to work.

 

8)  1:09 a.m.  Cat looks at me… “feed me.”

 She always gets canned food first thing in morning ~ Like 4:30 first thing in the morning.

NO. It’s one o’clock in the morning.

 

7) 1:17 a.m. feed cat.

Rescue my son’s flip flop from dog.

Dog comes and sits down beside me.

I pet the dog. He seems way too awake.

Lots of shaking, scratching with loud jingling of collar.

 

6)  1:19  a.m. I take collar off dog.

Check weather.com to see if any chance of rain for my garden since I saw it was cloudy when out walking the dog.

 

5)  1:22  a.m.

Realize dog had made a very bad smell when by me. Contemplate walking him again.

Go back to work.

 

4) 1:26 a.m. Insert page numbers

Print out story.

Paper jam.

3) 1:34  a.m. hop back online.

 Looked through a “Can’t believe they are the same age?” feature.

I must be old because I didn’t know who half of those pictured.

 

2) 1:40 a.m.  I’m cold. Go get a sweater.

Realize I’m procrastinating.

 

1) 1:46 a.m.

The dog and cat have settled down. I’m still wide awake.

Time to get something done.

How about you? What do you do when you find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night?

Join me on staceysmotheringmoments.com

Pets — 8 Comments
3
May 12

I heard the toliet flush.

Another death in the tank this morning.

Every Thursday, our high school starts an hour later.

So it was just me, my senior (about to leave me forever) and Tebow (the black lab, who will never leave me for I am the only one who runs with him.)

As we were walking out the door, I heard the toilet flush.

“The black goldfish died.”

What we just bought him?

So my high school student disposed of the fish before the eight year old got home.

*  *  *

Much later in the day, the eight year old and I were in Wal*Mart.

“Your black goldfish died.”

Why, oh why do I say such things?

We ended up looking at the fish.

“Here get some guppies. They always have babies,” I hear myself say.

I mentioned how they have babies as much as we have ground beef for dinner.

That’s all he needed to hear.

“Mama. When you are working, you need to take a chair and sit with your computer and watch the fish. When an egg comes out you race over to the little tank and put the egg in it.”

Oh dear.

“Joe,” I explained, “they don’t lay eggs they have live babies.”

His eyes got wide as pecan pies.

“You scoop them up the minute they pop out.”

Great.

This morning we were down one animal.

Tonight we are up five.

Who knows where we’ll be tomorrow?

Who has guppies out there? Can you really keep their babies?

Fish / Pets — 2 Comments
15
Jan 12

Musing on the miracle of Sucky.

Our fish population has taken a hit lately.

First, our smaller Plecostomus died after our Oscar kept picking at him.

Then Felix, the aforementioned terroristic Oscar died after a protracted illness…

That left one tiny feeder goldfish who outwitted  the ailing Oscar and

Sucky.

 

Who died early last week.

Or so we thought.

“Mom Sucky’s floating on top?” yelled our youngest one morning before school.

Help. We have a sick aquarium.

I told him to get Sucky out. Honestly, I couldn’t stomach anymore dead fish. Losing Felix saddened me terribly and once again I’d failed as a mom of creatures born with gills.

“He’s too big. He’ll clog the toilet,” I yelled hoping to catch my son before Sucky’s lifeless body hit the water in the porcelain container.

Learned that lesson with Felix. Who did clog the toilet. Hate it when large tropical fish block plumbing.

So there went son, lifeless Sucky in hand, walking out the backdoor.

A minute passed.

“MOMMMMMMM!” The back door blows open and in rushes son.

“He’s alive. He’s alive. I put him in the dirt…and he started moving.”

“Put him in the water, Joe!” Good grief son.

Into the depths of the sick tank Sucky went. He floated for a moment…then dashed down to the bottom.

Checking in on him later in the day, Sucky was fastened to Squidward’s house par usual.

Sucky, the fish who cheated death.

Heaven help us all.

Or maybe that’s the point.

Do you know a fish who cheated death? Or survived a deficient fish-mom?

 

 

 

animals / beach / iPPP / Pets / Puppy Diaries / Uncategorized — 13 Comments
11
Jan 12

So much to get done today. Then came Tebow.

3:45 a.m.

I got out of bed and already felt behind.

Stumbling in the dark to make coffee, I smelled…

A very bad smell.

Dog poop.

Now I had cleaned up a large mess yesterday. (At this point, I realized I was dealing with a case of doggie diarrhea.)

I turned on the light.

There by the door was a pile. Many sloppy piles.

The first minutes of my day were gobbled up cleaning and scrubbing carpet.

*    *   *

I sat down with my coffee at 4:15 to quiet my brain and reflect on spiritual matters. To draw strength from things which I believe but cannot see.

And as I looked around, what I did see is?

This place was a wreck. I’ve got writing that absolutely needs to get done, appointments with children and exercise.  (For there is always time to exercise.)

Overwhelmed with guilt on the state of this house, my anxiety bumped up a notch with how little time I have in the next few days to get things under control.

Sensing my distress, as dogs do have that my-Master’s-freaking-out-ESP, Tebow came over  and laid his head on my lap.

I gave him some love and got up to pour more coffee.

Walking to the kitchen and looking behind the couch, I saw a glistening pristine lake of dog teeter in the spot I just cleaned from the poop.

 

 

God spoke to me through dog teeter.

Forget it, Jamie.

Forget your house being perfect.

Your life at this moment  is children, a husband, deadlines and a pooping, peeing menagerie.

I hate not being in control. And I don’t feel capable to control much these days.

But I can rein in my emotions. I can chose to love, encourage and hold my children accountable.

I can love my husband the best I know how. Sans providing a nice straight, beautiful home when he walks through the door.

I can write awesome articles and turn them in on time.

And I can clean dog poop….

But that’s about it right now.

How about you? What was the moment that you realized….I can’t do it all?

 

Pets — 3 Comments
27
Dec 11

Musing on Cinderella. I might be slow but the Prince still can’t catch me.

Tortoise. 

A turtle. Especially a terrestrial turtle.

*   *   *

Meet Cinderella.

Come on people. Has anyone seen a shoe? It's Waterford and a size 10 tortoise.

 

Yes, the newest member of the Miles’ household is a reptile.

(I guess the last newest member of our household was another reptile — a snake — who escaped.)

Snakes can escape.

Tortoises, turtles who are land bound, cannot. Or so one would think.

This Cinderella has some moves and not just on the dance floor.

You look up and she’s nowhere to be seen.

Okay, we’ve found her every time but I got to admire her chutzpah.

“I maybe be a turtle but…

Don’t fence me in.”

She made it to the pumpkin before the Prince grabbed hold of her shell.

I like her.

I like her more than I thought I could.

With Cinderella, slow is the new fast.

These days I’m into slowing down.

How about you?

 

 

Pets — 4 Comments
7
Dec 11

Musing on Turtles. I mean Tortoises.

I don’t do water animals anymore.

I can’t keep up with a very heathy, rapidly growing Oscar. No way to keep that guy’s tank clean.

My youngest wanted a turtle for Christmas.

NO WATER. I love his Oscar. I hate the mess and refuse to be saddled with two messy water creatures.

 

*      *      *

If any of you can’t keep a secret, stop reading here…..

Santa is bringing my son a tortoise.

 

This tortoise.

This Russian tortoise that is now upstairs in my house that was in a pet shop in Loganville until yesterday.

I went to get her. I brought her home in a box.

When I opened the box up — she evidently took out her fright in being transported in a cardboard box by defecating all over herself.

I felt sorry for her and cleaned her up. She didn’t seem to like it very much and was hissing at me. Then she tried to rake my hands with her very large talons…

Gretel. She looked to me like a Gretel. Which is a problem because she is Russian not German.

I put her in her new home and she hid under a log.

:(

Maybe she wasn’t happy?

Good news was she was out and about this morning.

I was rather alarmed to see Oreo hovering so close but then thought — it’s a turtle (uh, tortoise) the cat can’t harm the tortoise.

Then I realized Oreo’s only real interest in her was the heat lamp. Whew.

I went and picked Gretel some fresh collards from the garden and placed them in her lovely manse.

Going back up a few minutes later.

She lives!

 

She had to have walked over there all by her tortoise self.

The pet shop owner estimated that Gretel was already 10 years old…and could live another 40 to 50 years.

I better make sure she’s happy since she’s going to be taking care of me when I’m back in diapers.

Have you ever had a turtle? I mean tortoise.

Please say it wasn’t absolutely horrible.

She is rather quiet.

iPhone Photo Phun

Pets / Puppy Diaries — 6 Comments
1
Nov 11

Musing on Tebow turning two. Or is he 14?

Tebow.

Two years ago today you came into the world.

The runt of the litter you were always number one in our hearts.

A Christmas Eve run to Midvale, Georgia brought all smelly, dear 65 pounds of you into our lives and into our house.

Well, you weren’t 65 pounds the day we got you.

 

No. You were a bitty, black, furry lump.

 

Our two younger children had never had a dog before. Soon after the excitement of finding a puppy under the tree wore thin, they were unimpressed.

I told them to just wait. A good dog is the greatest thing in the world.

But even with the greatest thing in the world you have to overlook look some Tebowisms.

*  A love for chewing up pencils and leaving the bitty wooden shards on the floor. Just after I’ve vacuumed. (How does he find them? I can never find a pencil when I need one.)

*  Love of running. Tebow dear, you’ve really gotten in too good a shape.  I feel like I’m running behind an Iditarod-caliber wolf straight out of a Jack London-Erma Bombeck sports romance novel.

*  Love of sleeping on my bed after your run. You act quite bothered when I have to move you to make up the bed.

*   You always want to believe that everyone is okay – but your bark gives the stranger  who’s not fair warning.

*    And I love the way you lay your head on my shoulder just like a child who loves his mummy very much when I get a chance to lie on the bed for a moment. The bed you have been on since I placed the last pillow back in place.

 

*     *     *

Tonight when we were giving Tebow his cake, I asked his pack,

What do you love about Tebow?

Joe, 8 years. “He’s warm.”

Dad. “Seriously? I love that he’s not a twin.”

(Actually, he was an octuplet, Dad. So there. )

Hannah Kate, 10. “I love everything.”

Jake, a very grumpy high school senior at this second. “He doesn’t really annoy me too much.”

 

 

No, with the exception of your black fur on the white bathroom tile (and stepping barefooted on chewed pencil bits) you don’t annoy me much.

You are a very dear soul. Happy Birthday.

What do you do for the pet in your life on his special day?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georgia / Life in Madison / Pets — 4 Comments
26
Aug 11

Today’s Muse. Dog Days at the Morgan County Citizen.

Another work day begins at the Citizen.

 

The Morgan County Citizen is going to the dogs. Well, at least today, August 26th, National Dog Day.

Word on the street is that Kathryn Schiliro, Managing Editor of paper, declared today bring-your-dog-to-work-day in celebration of National Dog Day.

When I heard this stupendous news, I couldn’t bear to let my Tebow miss out on all the fun.

Though I decided to hibernate a while from my weekly newspaper column, I never miss a chance to see old friends at the paper.

And I never picked up my 2011 Georgia Press Association (GPA) award.

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm. It still says 2nd Place.

After the GPA refused to take any of my phone calls asking for a recount of the voting, I feared as much.

Looking at the document, a steady hand and a black Sharpie could fix their obvious mistake.

Kathryn brought her child Holden, a boxer/pit mix.

 

 

Photobucket

 

 

Kathryn never had experienced life with a dog before Holden and seems quite smitten calling him —  the “love of her life.”

Andrea Gable, editor of another Main Street Communications publication, Lake Oconee Living, brought her beauty of a German Shepard, Gus.

 

 

 

 

A chance stop in Bainbridge, Georgia while travelling with her husband and two girls resulted in the addition of two new canine members to their clan. Gus and his sibling, a white Shepard, headed home in the car with her daughters. (My animal lover daughter would say that Andrea is a very nice mommy.)

 

 

Holden greets longtime Citizen staffer Monaray Powers.

 

 

Photobucket

 

I looked for the publisher, Patrick Yost, but he wasn’t in.

Photobucket

Katie Davis Walker was out on assignment, but  Jack, her doberman, made Tebow feel right at home

.

Photobucket

Out in the parking, Mr. Yost pulled in empty handed after searching for hours for Doggie Bags. Alas, no perfect treat could be found.

 (I guess this was due to all the hoopla surrounding National Dog Day.)

He assured me he felt horrible.

And promised send the entire staff with their canine friends to Atlantis in the Bahamas for a week long frolic in their unparalleled Dog Park and Beach Resort — scheduled to open December 2027.

So there it was.

The Dogs’ Day at the Citizen.

Have you ever taken your pet to work?

And like people knew about it…you weren’t hiding him in your purse or anything.

Georgia / Pets / South — 4 Comments
25
Apr 11

Musing on disposing of death.

 

It was Friday I think.

I can’t remember because so much has happened since then — but I went into my son’s room to feed his two fish and

one fish looked normal,

and I couldn’t find the other fish to see if he looked normal or not.

That’s when I started to think when I found him he probably wasn’t going to look normal.

If you consider swimming and breathing through his gills in and out, in and out — gathering oxygen from the water — the best way to find a goldfish.

I found him.

This happened while children were at school. Scooped him up. It was Crystal I think. So I guess he was a she, at least in name.

I disposed of  Crystal with little fanfare. Who can take the time to find a bitty box? It’s not like I keep small containers around for goldfish sarcophaguses. (Though lately it seems like that might be prudent.)

I went about my work, never making it to the store to replace her or him or well, maybe I should say to replace Crystal.

Approximately 48 hours. That’s how long it too my son to discover only Nemo II remained.

To surprise he took it rather well.  Then he asked if I buried her.

I lied.

Or mumbled something.

Sometimes it’s just best to mumble when mumbling would spare an innocent hurt. When mumbling would spare you precious time having to comfort a sobbing child.

So once again the littlest one of the Miles’ household didn’t make it very long. But soon we will have a few new babies to loving foster to maturity.

For this is what the Easter Bunny brought the children in their baskets.

 

I think this is going to go smashingly well.

Georgia / Life in Madison / Pets / Puppy Diaries / South — 2 Comments
22
Apr 11

Musing on Doggy Easter Egg Hunt to Support Georgia Rescue and Rehabilitation.

Why let Man’s Best Friend miss out on all the Easter fun?

Come out tomorrow, Saturday April 23,  for the third annual Georgia Rescue and Rehabilation Doggy Easter Egg Hunt at Heritage Park in Madison.

Whoo. Our Tebow’s getting excited at the thought of all the new friends to meet — along with all the new smells to savor.

Registration starts at 11 a.m. — with all sniffing and hunting to begin at noon.

The fee is 5 dollars per dog and all dogs must be on a leash.

There will be a rabies clinic with very affordable shots and opportunities to get a Pet Portrait of your dog in all his Easter finery. Micro-chipping will be available to ensure the safe return of your loved one should she ever roam too far from home. There will be refreshments for two-legged types as well.

Georgia Rescue and Rehab is a local non-profit organization that rescues and finds loving homes for abandoned dogs and cats. A completely volunteer organization — come out and support this wonderful cause.

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