Smokey

Today is the three-month deathversary of when we lost Rowena, my teenager’s pet rat. Exactly one month after Rowena died, however, we welcomed a new member to our family.

However, this new particular member of the family was sort of unexpected!

Ever since my dog, Chewbacca, died, we have made it a point to get a new dog or cat. My son desperately wants a Pug, but so far, we have not been able to get him one. We almost adopted a cat, but we couldn’t get matters situated in time before someone else adopted him.

Since I am all for animal rescue, I keep my eyes out for the chance to save an animal in need of a new home. In fact, if I had it my way, my home would be an animal sanctuary for unwanted or abandoned pets. Hey, a girl can dream! But for now, I have to keep it low-key, and that means replacing the pet that we had lost. Actually, two pets were now gone. The losses were sort of getting to us.

And that’s why I think it was providence that a new animal was brought into our lives exactly one month after we lost the second one. That animal was Smokey.

For some time, I had heard about Smokey in the neighborhood. My friend knew Smokey’s owner and my friend also occasionally cared for Smokey. Smokey is an American shorthair cat and his previous owners did not take very good care of him. They ended up abandoning him after they moved. My friend took care of Smokey, who had to live outside because she’d already reached her pet limit at her apartment, but she wanted to rehome him so that he would have his own official home. Also, my friend is planning to move, so she and her daughter worried about Smokey being taken care of after they left.

I expressed interest in taking in Smokey, but my husband needed convincing first. He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea since we are also planning to move. I know that moving is a difficult experience for a pet, but I felt Smokey would have enough time to adjust with us as his new family and get used to us before we move. So it was decided that we would take Smokey.

Unfortunately, we were not yet prepared for a cat. I had NO cat stuff at all. When we had a dog, he was with us for 21 years. I have not been a cat owner since the early 1990’s. All of my previous cat stuff was long gone. Also, we were not financially capable of going out to get cat stuff. In our hearts, we were ready to welcome Smokey, but we were not ready for him financially!

I told my friend and she took action. She placed a call-out to people in the neighborhood to help us out in being able to give Smokey what he needed in his new home. Litter boxes, cat litter, cat food and even beds were donated to us for Smokey. They even donated toys and a collar! I was very touched by this communal generosity. This definitely made it easier for us to take Smokey then and there! (Thank you again, everyone!)

Of course, there was also one other thing I worried about: Smokey’s previous owners coming back and looking for him. I had not heard good things about them and also that they may be violent. So I was pretty nervous about being the one to “take their cat” after they had abandoned him. (I must confess: I had once abandoned my own cat. I have felt guilty about this ever since. But I would be happy if someone had taken my own cat in and kept him as their own. In some way, I saw my taking in an abandoned cat as absolution for abandoning one. I am NOT happy about this part of my past. I used to be a rotten person and I know I did several bad things in the past that I am not proud of. I have never again abandoned an animal since. Even so, I have never forgiven myself for this.) But, fortunately, Smokey's previous owners never showed up. Seriously, I spent the first couple of months expecting to hear that they were back in town looking for Smokey. I held my breath and expected that we’d have to surrender him back to his previous owners. But now it has been three months and I am starting to breathe easier and feel that they are not going to come back for Smokey. Now I even feel brave enough to post about him on my blog.

When we first got Smokey, he was really edgy around us. He spent A LOT of time in his carrier and he wasn’t very trusting of us, either. The slightest noise made him jump. We had to be careful not to be too loud around him because he got scared easily. There was one time he even got out and ran off. That was hard; my son was in tears because he just loved Smokey. But, fortunately, Smokey came back, and a friend said maybe this means that Smokey knows this is his home now.

Later on, he felt more comfortable around us. He started to spend more time around us and out of his carrier. We would give him lots of treats and made sure he always had plenty of food and water. My son made him a cat box and we also got him a cat tower. We got him other toys and, when his neck wound from a fight with a neighborhood cat was healed, we put on his collar. He HATED the collar at first and I wondered if his refusal to wear it was his intention to keep himself a “free cat.” But he gradually accepted wearing the collar and stopped tearing it off.

Now Smokey is happily settled in with his new family. We love him a lot and give him lots of attention. He is very attached to my oldest and my oldest even wants to take Smokey with hir when ze goes off to college. (Ha!) I have taken lots of pictures of Smokey and my son even made a video of Smokey playing with his fidget spinner. Smokey has certainly adjusted well to his new family and new home and I am very grateful that we were able to take him in.

Dragon in distress

Today was my last day of pet-sitting for my daughter. She came home from her field trip today. I am glad she is home but a little sad she’s taking over the care of her animals now.

But today, something kinda crazy happened in the case of her Bearded Dragon, Spike.

Last night, after I had fed Spike, I noticed he was in one part of the tank and not really moving so much. Yeah, I know that sometimes they don’t move around too much, but with the position he was in, I thought he might be stuck.

Here is a picture of it:

So I decided to hang out in Jen’s room for a while to see if he would move from his spot. Jesse and I were in there reading for 20 minutes and Spike didn’t move. He was breathing and he didn’t “look” like he was in pain or anything. So in the end, I decided maybe he was just relaxing in that one spot.

We went to bed, and I figured that Spike might move during the night while we slept. (He IS nocturnal, after all.)

But when I woke up the next morning, Spike was still there in that same spot!

“Spike! Spike! Are you okay?” I cried out, getting on my knees as I turned on his heat lamp and examined him.

He seemed to be okay. But I was starting to feel concerned that he hadn’t moved at all and that he had spent the night in that one spot!

Finally, I got an idea. I figured I should put some frozen peas (his favorite food) into the tank to see if he would move to go eat them. (Food is a good motivator.) It was time for his breakfast, anyway, and that’s what he eats for breakfast!

So I put some frozen peas on his food dish, as well as in other areas of the tank.

And pretty soon, Spike moved from his spot to go eat the frozen peas.

He was MOVING! Yay!

I watched him as he moved. He didn’t seem hurt or seem to have an injury anywhere. He seemed to be okay. He was happily eating his peas and he seemed fine.

Kinda strange that he had stayed in that particular spot for hours. But then again, he is currently shedding, so maybe that was just part of the process. Or maybe he was meditating, or something. Who knows!

Here are more pictures taken of Spike shortly after that one.

Lost dog

Today, Jesse asked if he could go outside to ride his bike. I told him to wait until it cooled down first. Just as soon as it was cooler, we went out the front door. I kept an eye on him as he rode his bike up and down the street. I noticed a stray cat walk past the house but was surprised by another visitor: A dog! A dog that was obviously without an owner. (There was no collar and license on the dog, either.) We tried to guess who the dog belonged to but we had not seen her before so we really had no idea. One of my neighbors came out to put out trash and she didn’t know who the dog belonged to, either. (The dog was going back and forth between our houses. I texted my neighbor later to ask her if she knew what breed of dog it was; her best guess was a terrier mix.)

At first, I didn’t want to talk to the dog or anything because I didn't want to encourage her to stick around since we had to go in soon. But she was sooo friendly. I petted her and talked to her a little. She LOVED Jesse, always running up to him and looking up at him as if expecting to play. She also kept going into our garage and sniffing around. She was so cute!

I felt bad someone had lost their dog. We waited and watched but there was no dog-walker coming to claim her. (Sometimes I have seen people “walking” their dog without a leash.) At one point, when the dog had ran off, I told Jesse it was time to come in because I had to make dinner. But he didn’t come in right away. So I kept telling him he had to come in and, wouldn’t you know it, the dog showed up again! I felt bad for the dog so I gave her some water. (She tried to get into my house but I would not let her; I don’t know if my dog would welcome a guest!) Well, the dog drank some water and ran off. I told Jesse to come in the house now and he got sad and said he wanted to pet the dog. I told him he should have done that when the dog was here. I noticed the dog across the street so I told him to go ahead and pet her. He went across the street to do that but then the dog ran off in the opposite direction – to someone running to her: A little boy dressed in pajamas. I was going to say something but had a feeling to keep quiet because I could tell something was happening. The little boy and dog got together and the boy petted the dog then hugged her.

I smiled, realizing the situation: This was his dog. I looked and noticed a woman about my age walking over to them and bending over to pick up the dog. She was obviously the mom. The dog seemed happy to see her family again. Jesse got to pet the dog then he ran back over to stand near me. He talked with them for a bit and I looked at the dog as the woman talked. The dog seemed comfortable and relaxed in the woman’s arm. Yep, this was her family. Jesse found out the dog’s name was Sniffy.

Soon they turned around to walk back home and Jesse and I did the same. I smiled at Jesse and said, “Maybe there was a reason why we had to stay outside longer.” The dog liked hanging out with us; if we had gone inside, she would have ran off again, and who knows if her family would have ever found her. I was just so glad and relieved they did. I would’ve worried about her all night and hoped she hadn’t got hit by a car when running around in the streets. But now I won’t have to worry about her. She’s home again, safe and sound.

The money comes and the money goes

Okay. New plan.

I'll be attending school to study for job certification NEXT year. Not this year.

The money I had for this had to be used for family expenses (that's just the way life is!). So, I'm going to start all over again and save up for next year. Also, it's probably just as well. The classes I had to take were all full. So maybe next year I can get in there early and get the classes that I need. Jesse will be in preschool fulltime next year. And at least this way, I can get a regular job (not the kind you need certification for) and just work my way through that and have regular employment in place if I don't end up being able to get a job in my desired field after this schooling ends.

So, it's all good. It'll work out. I'm VERY frustrated, because I was so ready to do this, but that's just the way life is. Maybe this can be a good thing. Hubby keeps telling me this approach would be better. He stressed that even if I went to school and got a certificate in medical coding, there's no guarantee I'll have a job waiting for me. I can see how that could happen. The new plan just makes better sense, because I'll have something to fall back on even after I complete the schooling. So I'll do it this way.

I just have to be careful with expenses. I will REALLY need to be firm to save up for this. It's just that it's like....money leaves your hands faster than it can stay in them! The money comes and the money goes. Hubby and I have been trying to establish a savings for YEARS, but it's like there's ALWAYS something that comes up. The car needs a new tire, something in the house breaks and needs to be fixed, something comes up at our daughter's school that we need to pay for, etc., etc. It's just, always something! As it is now, even as I have a nice check on its way to me, that money isn't going to last, either. My dog has a loose tooth and I need to take him to the vet to get that taken care of. (We don't have pet insurance. Is there even such a thing??) So that money has to go towards that. Such is life.

This is part of the reason why I want to have regular employment. We need to have that extra money there -- if anything, so that we can build up a savings. We literally have NOTHING saved. So if our house is crushed by a wayward comet, we'll be living on the streets. I know it's important to have a savings, and that's why I want a regular job. Hubby's job pays him well and we also have my annuity. But that can only carry us so far. And, like I said, things keep happening where the money just doesn't last. So if I have a good job that I receive certification for, that will help us a lot.

For as long as it can, anyway.

I just need to try to hang in there. Next year will be better. But that's what we all would like to think!