Tuesday sunshine

It is the day after.

Yesterday was spent fretting. Fretting about Kate. Fretting about grooming equipment. Fretting about kids. And finally, fretting about money.

Kate had stopped eating. She is not your typical food driven corgi. She will not eat unless I sit beside her and coax her along. It matters not what I put into her food to tempt her. If Henry wants it, she will gladly step back and let him eat it. So the first meal off was not a big deal. However, the next she also refused, then the next, and the next...Then she exploded. At almost three I am still having issues with her housebreaking. Let me say that she is indeed "breaking" the house...or the rugs at least. I so look forward to the day I can rid myself of these carpets and put in laminate. Anyway, not to be too graphic, this was the gagging kind of explosion. After a couple of hours it was time to call the vet and get her in. I got an appointment for later in the afternoon and then set to work cleaning.

I also got to work cleaning and testing some of the grooming equipment left over from son's business venture. We are talking expensive equipment. Equipment that Mom doesn't want to just give away. However, son, or his employees, did not take the best of care of said expensive equipment and since Mom doesn't want to give it away, Mom needs to do some cleaning and painting and testing to ensure that the person who pays a reasonable price, which is a great deal for them, gets aforementioned great deal. So the putty knife began scraping at rust bubbles. New gaskets. Rustoleum paint. I had pieces in my oven, softening up the glue on the old gasket. My house now smelled like wet dog, and Kate's digestive woes...and enamel paint. Fans were going. Doors and windows were open. The furnace was running full steam so that the paint would dry. Sunshine! A top plate is wire brushed and painted outside on a saw horse. Twenty minutes later I hear the dreaded sound of rain on the skylight. DRAT! So much for the smooth paint job. Mutter under my breath at oldest child for not teaching employees how to care for expensive equipment. Then wonder why I am going to all this trouble...as I drive to the local hardware store with list in hand. It all made the hours disappear as I waited to get Kate in. So that was good. In three hours someone is coming to see some of the grooming items. They look great and well worth the price I am asking. Time will tell if they agree, but I have a nook in the garage and will NOT give the stuff away.

As the last layer of paint began to dry I jumped into the truck with my sad girl beside me in her seat belt. My fears were many, so I was armed with questions. As a result Kate was subjected to poking and prodding ("Mom, what the heck is she doing back there?"), Xrays, and blood work. Ultra sound. I came home with meds and with special food. And with $300 less in my bank account. (Hey, Mr. Prez...she was born and raised here...oh yea, she was..., right, sigh) The good news, and what made me feel OK about the sharp decline in my savings account, is that she has no infection of her female anatomy. She has no foreign body or impaction. She now has a baseline blood panel. We also spent an hour talking herding dogs with a vet at the clinic that I had not yet met. Kate loved her and I did too. Nice to have two that I feel really good about at that clinic. She even takes herding classes at Sue and George's. I WILL get to the trials this year so perhaps we will meet up at some point outside the clinic setting. Vets that understand; truly get where I am coming from, are priceless.

My latest "can't miss" is a show on the RFD channel called "Come Bye." Herding dog trials from the British Isles. I am so hooked. Those Border Collies are simply incredible. Sadly there are very few handlers that are under fifty. I sure hope that the sport doesn't die out. :-( ...

So, as the sun shines through my stained glass windows, I realize that I must get going. I have equipment to set up and a horse that is likely dragging her grain bucket around the field in a fit of rage over my tardiness. Whilst my bank account won't see any improvement for another ten days, I hope to pad my son's account a tad. ***update: successful transaction. Now I need to get over before all this cash gets buried. I also need to get my grooming table, which weighs at least 10,000 pounds, out of his garage, into my truck, back out of my truck, and into the trailer; I sold the one that was in the trailer, and it took a strong man and myself to move the bloody thing...wait NOT bloody, hairy; it was a hairy thing. I just keep making more work for myself...***

The day has officially begun.

Tomorrow the new leg...at least one of them...I think...I hope...

G2