New happenings............

My pet sitting marathon comes to a close (with many hoorays from my husband) in two more days. Once again, as you can see from the picture, it has been very stressful. Hardship duty.... Sweet little yorkies that bark when you are in the pool. Doing their protective bit I think.

My son has closed on his new (and first ever owned) home in Englewood. It is a roomy 2 bed/2 bath home with a Florida room at the back of the house. Smallish back yard, but big enough for the pups. Move in should be next week. He is having a refrigerator delivered today and then we will be moving more of the smaller pieces of furniture. It will be great having the whole family closer together. It was becoming a drag driving back and forth to Sarasota to visit, see the pups and do anything with my cousin who shares the home with Ed.

We have adopted two schipperkes from rescue that are living with us at the Englewood home. I have also snagged the elder schipperke female from the Sarasota house and she is with us also. So now the animal family is complete with the mastiff Boyz (Dodger and Jack) and the schips, Bits the elder, Sammi the young female and her male companion Trip. The newbies were spayed and neutered on Monday and should be ready to be set loose with the pack by next week. Trip's hormones are still raging so we are keeping him separated from Sammi until they calm down.

Now, if the rain would just stop so we can go back to the beach it would be great..................

Pet Sitting...........

I'm on the second leg of my marathon pet sitting run and I guess if you have to do a job as tough as this one, it is always good to have great scenery. And, of course, suffer with an inground pool with a temp of 90 degrees!!!! And to think I gave up the graveyard shift of dispatching for this.......!!!!

The big furry loves of my life.......

I have always had pets in my life - the occasional stray dog or cat when I lived at home with my parents and many too numerous to list ever since. Most of the time the dogs were small to medium in size and at one time I actually considered my springer spaniel to be rather large. That, of course, was before I was introduced to Dodger and Jack......

Dodger is the larger of the two weight wise and is tan and black in color. Slightly overweight ( let's say portly to be nice), he weighs in around 240. Dodger is believed to be between 6 and 7 years old. Jack (short for Jackson) is a little over 2 and still a puppy. He weighs in around 180. Jack's favorite toy, which he plays with in the yard, is his bowling ball. He has become quite adept at picking it up and dropping it on my foot....

In my attempt to find something for Jack to play with in the house, and knowing a bowling ball was out of the question for obvious reasons, I opted for one of the milk bone toys with the knotted rope running through the center and hanging out on both sides lengthwise. My idea was great and Jack caught on right away to the fact that this was a fun thing to play with......however......

These toys are not made for a dog over 20 pounds !! Dodger got in on the action right away with no encouragement and the sound of ripping and tearing material could be heard throughout the house. After picking up handfuls of fiberfill stuffing that came from inside the bone part of the thing, I managed to salvage the rope. Not nearly as much fun I am sure, but much less mess to clean up. Someone out there needs to make a toy that the boys can have fun with in the house while not destroying the toy or the premises.............

Graveyard Shift....

I strongly believe that if you have worked as a police dispatcher you are destined to never again in your lifetime sleep like a normal person!! This is the second night this week that I have seen 4AM come and go. I am blaming the lack of sleep on my previous life style as I can't come up with any other logical reason. I'm not worried about anything that should be keeping me awake and I can't blame it on the dogs as they are not sleeping with me. I did do something to my back a couple of weeks ago and I have been to see the chiropractor a few times now. My back is feeling much better but we haven't been walking the beach at night nor have we been swimming the past few days as the afternoon showers seem to be starting. I suppose lack of exercise could have something to do with not sleeping also.

I start my marathon pet sitting this coming week. Staring July 7 through the middle of August I am booked solid. Nice for me - not so much for husband. The first 10 days will be in Sarasota so I will be able to have dinner with my son and cousin, and hopefully Steve will drive up for a couple of family meals. After that the job is closer to home so I will see more of Steve. The extra money will be nice but I'm not so sure about being away from home for such an extended period of time. I will miss the mastiff boys and will have to make sure I get down here to the house to see them.

Beach time ..........

Got a late start today, but managed dinner and some beach time. Not a long walk, but enough to relax the body and mind. We missed the sunset but the water was warm and soothing.....There is something to be said for living near the water.........Something very primal.....I know when I am leaving I can almost feel the water pulling me back towards it. I think I have always felt this way. As much as I enjoyed learning about the culture in New Mexico, I always felt something missing....something pulling me back closer to water....I feel a great peace listening to the waves crashing, watching the power of the water pulling the sand from the beach and then tossing it back in again...........

Beach time again........Yah!!!

While I am doing kitty sitting, Steve and I are having "date nights". As I stay overnight with the kitties, I feed them their dinners and then head to our house in Englewood for a few hours. I either fix dinner there or we go out to eat and then head for the beach. The water is much warmer than our last visit and I had to fight a very strong urge last evening to keep from running into the surf. The sunsets are truly beautiful and being there with Steve makes it all that much better. Some nights we head for Dearborn Street in Olde Englewood and go to the Ice Cream Shoppe. Their mint chocolate chip is super.

On a less positive note: I think I am fighting a losing battle with the house in New Mexico. As much as I don't want to be a "hard nose" about the whole thing, I am really tired of being patient and I am starting to feel slightly used. I feel bad for our buyer as I know what it is like to have your spouse leave and I also know what it is like to lose a job. But I think I have been patient long enough and it is time to move on, both for myself and for the buyer of the house. Maybe it was just not meant for him to own that particular home. At any rate, I see another trip to New Mexico in my near future. Not that I don't want to go again; it's just that it really strains the budget and until the house sells I have no other source of income other than social security and the little I make from pet sitting. I'm tired of playing a "wait and see" game...............

Kitty Sitting.......

I am 4 days into my kitty sitting and all is going well. The cats are great! They were all just a little feisty last evening and I did find some chunks of fur on the floor this morning. No one looks the worse for wear and they seem to have gotten it out of their systems. I have tried several times to get all of them in a picture at one time, but it never seems to work. Can't seem to do that at home with the dogs either.

My cousin has arrived and is settling in. She has been alone for many months since her husband passed away and has become accustomed to cooking for one and eating alone. Now she and my son are sharing the house and she will have to relearn cooking for two. Unless, of course, she wants to spend the extra money for Stouffers for two! I am sure she will be back in the swing of things in no time. She ventured out on her own yesterday for the first time to the drugstore and Publix. The dogs think it is great because she is with them all the time. I don't feel quite so much that I have abandoned them now as I will be spending more time with Steve at his home. We still have some work to do there, finishing painting, etc. It will look much brighter when we finish.

I have 4 days between this pet sitting job and the next and I think Steve and I will take a day and go down to Boca Grande and do some shelling. Not too far to travel, but still "out of Dodge" as they say...............