Eggs

Set 12 guinea eggs last night under my broody hen. 27 more days till hatch, fingers crossed for a good hatch.

Of Mice and Dishwashers

I'm this house's primary dishwasher. A combo of hard water, a water softer that needs re-bedded, and a lack of money prevent me from using a dishwasher. But the house does have one and as a general rule it get ignored. I'm not even one of those people who stores stuff in it. But the last couple days it has gotten a lot of attention and not for the best reason.

It started with me walking into the kitchen the other night to see little Cloud jammed under the boot rack. When I asked her what she was doing she popped out holding a mouse in her jaws. This is kind of par for the course with an old farm house and well I appreciate the cats' efforts, I don't like cleaning up guts so all kills go outside. So I told Cloud to drop it and she looks at me, growls at Wrangler who comes to see what is happening, and drops it. And it looks at me and makes a run for it. Cloud follows but gets detracted by a toy in the same corner. Little mouse runs the edge of the kitchen and into the crack by the dishwasher where none of us can get to. Two mice kills later and we still don't have that little brown mouse. Instead we have cats pulling at the insulation around the dishwasher in what seems to be an attempt to get the injured/dead mouse.

So the current debate is do we pull the dishwasher and see what we find or do we wait and see if a smell develops?   

Just Keep Going

Just keep going, that is what I tell myself at least once a day. From my personal life to work or to my stubborn ducks who won't go to bed on time if at all. It keeps me going and helps me keep sane (though the antidepressants really help that). 

To anyone who is still reading I left off with Nick in bad shape. He ended up passing away a few months later in November of that year after multiple rounds of antibiotics failed to kill off his urinary tract infection. It hurt like hell. He was my baby and had been basically my mother's forth child. But in a way it was a relief, at the end he was in so much pain, had to wear doggy diapers which he hated, and he did not deserve that. His final resting place is under the apple tree in my yard next Sparky the beagle my dad had when I was young. But life goes on, no new dog yet but when I have the time and energy to deal with all the love and pain a new dog has to bring.

But speaking of time and energy I still do not have a job in my field (If you happen to know of one in PA shot me a message) but I am working two jobs both in retail. One is full-time, the other part-time but it all equals out to being around 45-50 hours a week on the low end. It makes ends meet but some days it is really hard to just keep going. But I'm doing it and will keep doing it until I find something better that allows me to support me and my animals.

The animals as usual ebb and flow in numbers here. There is currently 7 hens, 2 ducks, 2 turtles, 1 rat, and 7 cats. Yep 7, last summer started with the 3 boys I had when I last posted Butterscotch, Rodolph, and Darkside. In the being of spring I was trying to catch a starving cat down the road from me a tiny black and white thing. I caught her but she got away from me and was never seen again, but as she escaped me I noticed something. Nipples, she was nursing babies who I had never seen the multiple times I had stopped and feed her. So driving by her spot a few days later I slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid a pile of kittens curled up of the road. I scooped up a little stripe (Tesla) and a tiny tortoiseshell baby (Cinder), while a tiny black and white baby (Houdini) just like his mother made a run for it. With the help of a neighbor teen and his friend who stopped we caught all of the starving babies and I took them home. It took the big boys a bit but they grew to love them and Rodolph adopted them as his own with lots of cuddling and grooming. But the worse happened Roo was hit by a car and had to be euthanized. Then a friend and I while driving around at one in the morning stopped and rescued a small black kitten with a white spot over one eye of the road. She was only about 2 weeks old and despite our best attempts, little Eclipse passed a few weeks later. Then a 8 or 9 week old grey and white baby (Cloud) crawled out from under my sister's car and made herself at home. We are currently working on getting everyone spayed and neutered, but I will always be here for them.

But we just keep going birth and death, blown up engines and new jeep (and new engine in old), frustrating jobs and the more frustrating hunt for a better one, this sucky but much loved house with all of it's issues and my desire to own it 100%. The next goal reached, next failure, or the next dream will all come to be but only if I just keep going.

Blood, Poop, and Tears

I've spent the last few days trying to keep everything together and all I want to do is cry. Tuesday night Nick started straining to poop, I didn't think much of it and made sure his water dish was full. Then Wednesday morning came and it got worse he got me up around 5 which is 3-4 hours to early for him to go out. Came down to a couple spots of pee and a small bit of diarrhea . Let him out and cleaned up the mess, went back to bed. He awoke me again at 6 to the same joy at which point I gave up on sleep and looked up cures for constipation. Gave him some of the canned food I keep around for the cats mixed with water to help him get some more fluids and took him for a walk around the yard. Not a lot of progress was made and I had to go to work.

I left my roomates' with both my cell and work number and picked up wet food actually meant for a dog. I unfortunately had to run to my dad's house to pick up his mail and I finally got to head home. Still no luck on the pooping front. More wet food and walks were provided with no real luck. He got a little bit out so I decided to hold off on a vet visit, until I saw how he was in the morning. Well morning came early at 5:45 and my floor covered with a mix of diarrhea, pee, and vomit. Also with some more straining and a new symptom: no desire to eat. And if you have ever meet a beagle, let alone Nick you know this is not a good sign. But the vet clinic doesn't open till 8 so we both fell asleep on the couch. He seemed more comfortable then he had been but the no eating thing was worrying. So we made a call to the vets office which was having issues of their own with their computer system being down, but they got as an appointment at 3.

Got to the vets and got an exam and an x-ray. No blockage, the bones he got into the other night weren't stuck, in fact he really wasn't constipated the straining was a symptom of his diarrhea. But we had to add to the bad news they did a urine sample and unlike all the pee I've cleaned up (he has had some issues since a UTI last summer) there was blood and bits of gunk all through it indicating an infection. But we had more great news the mass on his side which I've been concerned about shows up on his x-ray possibly indicating  that it is cancerous, which they would like to do a ultrasound on to get a better look at at some point. 

But to add to my lovely day he has two medications he must take to knock out this infection and help with everything. The only problem is Nick hates medicine with a passion and he knows when you are trying to hide it in food. So we are now trying to get 3 pills a day into him without him catching on or me getting bit (again) in the process.

But to add to all the tears from this, because of some issues with my insurance I've been off my antidepressant for about 2 weeks, so I'm in withdrawal from that which is messing with my mood and and ability to cope with things. I also need to get the insurance figured out to get up to date on vaccines so I can meet my cousin's new baby. I still haven't had luck finding a full time job and everything I try to figure out from a job to getting a new phone to projects in the house seems to go wrong. Oh and with the vets computers down I get to wait to see how much this visit cost me (x-ray alone was $95) and I still need to make an appointment with them to get his shots, check on the infection after the meds are done, and possibly an ultrasound. So this week sucked and I just want it to be done.

College, Ducks, and Rats

So this past Saturday I graduated from college with a degree in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary biology. Which is cool, now to find a full time job to help pay for everything. So if you know any jobs working with animals or in the biology field in Western part of PA let me now.

Well in other news there is now 6 ducks running around. They belong to a friend of mine who should be moving in soon. They kind of scare the chickens, but the ducks are starting to bond to the flock and follow them around. But they love the stream behind the house, they are still getting conformable getting down there without guidance. They are also a little young still (bought as chicks in February I believe) so we don't know sexes yet, but hopefully mostly girls. They are suppose to be Khaki Campbells.

And Luke is home from college and is settling in well. He is in an old hamster tank at the moment but should be upgrading to a bigger tank soon.

Flu

Ended up leaving work Sunday night with a fever. Then spent all of Monday in bed with fever, aches, and hives. So I did not go to my classes, canceled my therapy appointment, and called off work. Having a fever of 102.5 F was no fun, hopefully the ibuprofen will keep the fever down for my Organic Chemistry lab and my Ecological Applications class tonight.  

Blue Desk and Paint

I redid a desk for storage in the bathroom. Before:

 And after as a pretty, pale blue desk for bathroom storage:

 Sanding, paint, and new handles do wonders. But inside the draws I found that the wood had originally some sort of sign.

Ignore every bit of disaster area in the back ground. And remember paint on top of plastic not newspaper and latex based paint comes of floor fairly easy.