Sometimes God has other plans...

I thought there were enough animals in my house.  With three dogs and two cats all living indoors (a total of 232 pounds of animals), I THOUGHT my home was full.  No more four-legged furry creatures.  That's what I thought.  But evidently God had other plans.  Because there is now a fourth dog living in my house.  

Well, he's really more puppy than dog.  We're guessing Gabe is about 8 weeks old.  He weighs 5 1/2 pounds.  And no one has a clue what he is - best guess is some sort of hunting breed mix due to the black ring around the base of his tail.  As for how he came to live at my house... well, he just kind of fell out of the sky.  At least that's the vets explanation, "Puppies just sort of fall out of the sky here in Tennessee and no one ever figures out where they came from." 

My sister and I found Gabe walking along the center yellow line of the road out in the country where homes are at least 1/2 mile apart.  After checking every home in the area, leaving notes on the homes that didn't answer the door, & leaving a note at the church to please announce it during the service (it was Sunday)... not a soul had ever seen him before or knew of anyone whose dog had recently had puppies.  We weren't even supposed to be on that particular stretch of road at that time - we were running 20 minutes late.  It was one of those mornings where the clock is moving in fast-forward and you're trying to move in quicksand.  No particular explanation for running 20 minutes late, the clock was just moving extra fast that morning.  But, if we hadn't been late, we wouldn't have found Gabe, and maybe the person who did find him in the middle of the road would have been driving too fast and hit him.  

So now there is this little brindle & white spotted munchkin that God has trusted us with living in my home.  He's smart & is very good (for a puppy).  The big dogs tolerate him as long as they get lengthy breaks with him locked in Rocco's old crate.  Miss Lilly Ann has discovered that he makes a better playmate than Sylvester when it comes to games of chase and tag.  Sylvester has beat him up several times and Gabe has finally figured out to steer clear of that particular cat.  Jack the cat is trying to learn not to run from Gabe - he did a bit better at that today and didn't get chased anywhere near as much.  We keep trying to tell Jack that he needs to take a page from Sylvester's book & just wallop Gabe while he's still bigger than the little brat, but so far no luck.  He's such a cute baby.  I'd really like to get my hands on the moron who dumped him!  As for what I'd do to the idiot... well, I think I might get in trouble if I wrote it out here - I'm sure your imagination can come up with some appropriate punishments.

Miss Lilly Ann - It’s been 10 whole months!!!

I can't believe it's been 10 whole months since Lilly joined our family!  

The timid, scared of everything, pees if you look at her wrong little girl is no more.  She is a confident, happy, precocious two year old little girl that is rarely intimidated.  She has gone from knowing 5 signs when I adopted her to 23 signs today.  Little Missy has learned to fetch and will bring specific toys when asked.  She loves walks now & does just fine having her harness and leash put on (no more rolling over and peeing all over herself).  She gets in and out of the car by herself and is confident enough to sit up and bark at the cars behind us.  She also learned about the lake this summer & discovered how much she LOVES to swim.  She still hides under the bed when told she has to take a bath, but will actually crawl out on her own now and doesn't fight being put in the tub or jump out at the first opportunity.  I no longer find pockets of dog food hidden throughout the house (there's still a small stash hidden under my bed for "emergencies") and she no longer tries to guard all of the food bowls (just hers).  We haven't had to use the crate in over 5 months and there have been absolutely no "scared the pee out of her" accidents in almost 4 months.  She gets along very well with big brother Rocco, still hates cousin Sarah with a passion (the girls can't seem to settle the argument of who is in charge), loves it when Grandma visits with cousins Toby & Maverick, and is best friends with Sylvester the cat.  It's hilarious to watch 45 pound Lilly and 21 pound Sylvester play tag and hide & seek through the house - yes, they take turns.  It's even better to watch them play ball.  Lilly will throw the tennis ball toward Sylvester and then wait for him to bat it back to her.  They'll play this back and forth with the tennis ball for a good 20 minutes before Sylvester gets that disgusted cat look on his face and walks off.  She has mastered the art of greeting other dogs while we're out on walks without getting scared and freaking out, and has even discovered that it's o.k. to let human children pet her and will sit quietly beside me to let them tell her how soft and pretty she is (this is something that had her crying, rolling over on her back, and peeing all over herself back in March '07).  Lilly has learned that any light flashing on and off (both inside and outside) means you're calling her.  She has also learned that when outside, if she looks away she doesn't see the light flashing on and off and can therefore ignore you until you go get your shoes & coat and actually go get her.  Fortunately, she has not figured this tactic out with hand signals (the deaf dog I had in high school, Vander, figured this out and would actually cover his eyes with his paw so he didn't have to "listen").  She is a huge fan of the well executed tummy rub and will take advantage of any opportunity to climb in your lap and lick your hand until you comply with the tummy rub request.  She was ingenious enough to learn that if she climbs up on the back of the sofa and walks across it, she can reach her leash and harness that hang by the front door - she hasn't managed to get them off the hook yet, but it makes it quite clear what she wants.  I know I'm a bit biased, but I think she's pretty amazing for a severely abused, deaf, and partially blind little girl who was in at least 2 shelters and 3 homes before coming to live with me at 15 months old.

Our goals for this year are to continue learning new signs, completely stop scratching holes in the wall next to the door when she wants out (she's gotten much better, but I'd like to be able to repair the drywall without her digging another hole in it), stop guarding food altogether, successfully visit the dog park (we haven't even tried yet), have fun being left at the groomers/dogie day care for the day (haven't tried this either), and actually go get in the tub on her own when it's bath time (Rocco does this).  They may be a bit ambitious, but she's progressed further in 10 months than I'd even hoped for in 2 years so I thought I'd set the bar a bit higher for 2008.

The Christmas Tree Massacre

Miss Lilly Ann discovered the Christmas tree.  It was all that stupid tennis ball's fault.  There she was minding her own business throwing the ball against the wall and then chasing it through the house, when the darned thing decided to roll underneath the small table the 4 1/2 foot tree was sitting on.  In her quest to get that ball, she knocked the tree off the table.  I'm sure it frightened her.  But, since no one was home to hear her ruckus, she had time to get over her fear and investigate this thing that fell out of the sky.  And wouldn't you know it, that tree had all sorts of dog toys attached to it (ie: ornaments).  Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!  She had the best time pulling all of the ornaments off of the tree and then playing with them!  When I got home the tree was on it's side, ornaments were strewn throughout the house, Rocco & Sylvester were hiding with "I didn't do it" looks on their faces, and Miss Lilly Ann was sound asleep in the middle of the disaster with hot pink stains on her nose and paws from one of the ornaments she chewed up.  She woke up all sorts of happy and excited to show me her new toys.  "Look what I found Mommy!  Isn't this just great!  Someone left all of these toys out just for me!"  Rocco and Sylvester were still hiding in the other room - waiting for me to start yelling.  Which I should have done.  Lilly SHOULD have gotten in HUGE trouble for killing the tree.  BUT... she was so happy and so cute... well, I just couldn't rain on her parade.  So I sent her outside to play while I cleaned up her mess and moved the tree to a safer location.  The tree was a bit mangled, but a bit of fluffing and it looks fine.  As for the ornaments, she only broke five (four of which can be hot glued back together).  She basically just played with them.  I found little ornament figurines all over the house, including in her favorite hiding spot - underneath my bed.  BTW, crawling underneath my king sized bed is not fun.  I should have taken pictures, but didn't think of it until I had most of the "fun" cleaned up.  She really was cute!

Merry Christmas!

The NEW vacuum cleaner died!!!!!

Seriously, it did!!!  Fortunately it was within the 90 day Sears store warranty (see, it pays to shop at Sears).  So, yesterday I took the whole think back to the store and told them I wanted a new & completely different vacuum.  After trying out and taking apart half the vacuums in the store, I walked out of there with a Dyson upright.  Piece of cake.  No hassle.  No questioning my telling them that the Hoover was a piece of crap.  No trying to get out of it by telling me that since Lilly had chewed up one of the attachments and I no longer had the box the "satisfaction guaranteed" warranty was void.  Nope, just, "Which vacuum would you like to exchange it for?"  and  "Thank you so much for shopping at Sears!"  I used to work at a Sears a VERY loooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggg time ago, so I already knew the "satisfaction guaranteed" warranty was pretty good.  But, I really was surprised at how EASY getting rid of that horrible piece of crap was!  So, I'm incredibly happy with Sears.

As for Hoover...  OMG!  I don't think it's possible to screw up a vacuum cleaner design any more than this stupid thing!!!  The self-cleaning hepa filter doesn't self-clean & there's no way to get to it to manually clean it; every time the dirt cup is removed for emptying the filthy clogged self-cleaning filter spews dirt everywhere; the pet hair furniture attachment stops working as soon as the beater bar touches anything; the holes on the plastic pre-filter are too big allowing pet hair to get into the hepa filter & clog the whole thing up even more... like I said, it's a piece of CRAP!!!

Now for the Dyson... I hate that the housing is so tall it's hard to vacuum under things & the whole take the wand apart to use the attachments is a bit awkward.  But, IT WORKS!  It's lighter & smaller than the piece of crap and you would not believe the amount of dirt it has already gotten out of my carpets!!!  I was really surprised because I vacuumed right before returning the Hoover & then vacuumed with the Dyson as soon as I got back home.  The Hoover was done picking stuff up (ie: it thought the floor was clean) - then the Dyson managed to vacuum up THREE dirt cup fulls of well, dirt.  I figured it would pick up some stuff, but absolutely did not expect to have to empty the dirt cup THREE times only hours after using the other vacuum.  Oh, and the filter didn't clog & it didn't spew dirt throughout the house when I emptied it.  So, I'll forgive this thing for not maneuvering underneath stuff.

The Vacuum Cleaner Died Today

With two dogs in my house I vacuum the carpets a lot.  Like four or five times a week a lot.  I've had my Hoover V2 superwhatever vacuum for about nine years now, so I should not have been surprised when in the middle of vacuuming smoke started pouring out of it, the beater bars stopped, and the electric circuit breaker for the living room was tripped.  I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.  The living room was full of smoke.  The smell was horrible!  Burning rubber and something else, something electrical.  Opening the windows to the house was not an option with all of the heat and humidity outside, so I turned on all of the fans & sprayed air freshener everywhere.  Yeah, that really helped, NOT.  The dogs actually asked to be let outside.  Their normal attitude is that being locked outside is a horrific punishment, however under these circumstances they were happy to sweat it out in the heat & humidity for the benefit of fresh air.  My gut told me to just chuck the thing in the trash, it was definitely dead.  However, the part of me that really doesn't have the money for a new vacuum insisted I at least make an attempt to see what was wrong.  I spent the afternoon taking apart the entire vacuum & hoping it was just something as simple as a belt that needed replacing.  I hoped in vain.  The engine had obviously had a meltdown & I know of no cure for a dead vacuum cleaner engine.  So, into the trash the pieces went.  And off to Sears I went.

The salesman probably thinks I'm a bit nuts.  I looked at every model there & just wasn't thrilled with any of them because none of them were my dead vacuum.  The design of vacuum cleaners really has changed in the last 9 years.  I finally settled on the latest generation of Hoover's V2 superwhatever after the rather confused salesman managed to find one that wasn't orange.  He tried to explain that the color of the vacuum had nothing to do with the accessories or cleaning power - duh - and was befuddled when I told him that I knew that, but just couldn't live with an orange vacuum even if it was on sale & I'd go to a store that had a different color if I had to.  Men just don't get the color thing - especially if it happens to be the color of their favorite sports team & Tennesseans LOVE orange.  So now I have a red & white upright boxy looking thing that tried to suck the entire carpet up with the dirt when I turned it on tonight.  It's got a pretty cool detachable hose with an extension hose for getting the cobwebs and a bare floor attachment that my other vac didn't have, I like that part of it.  But it doesn't maneuver as well (it's too busy sucking face with the floor) and I don't like the design of the bagless dirt cup as well as the one on my old vac.  I suppose, given time, I'll end up liking this one too.  

I know that the vacuum cleaner's death is not the end of the world.  In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing.  But, it consumed pretty much my entire day and put a huge dent in my pocketbook by the time all was said and done.  So, today, the vacuum cleaner's death was a large part of my world.  I hope I won't have to say that again for another nine years.