barney and opal went thursday to be neutered and spayed. they both did great! opal had a slight reaction to the anesthesia as she was coming out from under it and acted a little crazy. i hate to say it, but it was absolutely hysterical watching her try to walk while she was drunk and hallucinating. apparently, some cats experience that with anesthesia so i didn't worry too much. but i did laugh.

barney left lifeline in an e-collar. as soon as we got out the door, his head fell forward and the collar was on the pavement. he stopped and just stood there, not able to see and not knowing to pick up his head. it was just so sad and funny at the same time!! poor little barney!!!

barney

ed and i have been busy with home renovations. we've painted the living room and dining room, ripped up the carpet and are getting ready to install laminate flooring. because of all of this, we had decided to wait until october to talk about getting another rescue dog. sometimes, fate has other plans.

barney is a stray i found, starving and just pathetic. i brought him home and asked ed if we could keep him over the weekend and take him to the shelter the next week. after talking about it, we decided to keep him and get him healthy. so, into the middle of all the chaos that is our house came barney.

update on opal and kittens

well, the kittens didn't make it. opal was too young and didn't have enough milk for them. we tried feeding them by hand, but they wouldn't eat from us.

opal, however, is doing great! she has put on weight and is healthy and happy.

kittens???

well, it seems that maybe the vet and i were both a little off in our calculations. if i am reading the signs correctly, opal is in labor and we should have kittens in the next day or so. hopefully, all will be okay and opal will be a good mommy to them. to be continued....

the big scare

opal went to the vet to be tested for feline aids and leukemia and to get a rabies vaccine on thursday. when her carrier was taken out of the car, she pushed her way out! we looked for her and ed even got a humane trap and set it up behind the fence, but no luck. on friday, when i got home from work, i asked our neighbors to be on the lookout for her. well, lo and behold, she was in their backyard!! she ended up a tree, but between ed and me, we were able to get her down and she seems none the worse for wear. :-)

mixed species again!

a couple of weeks ago, shortly before otis went to his new home, actually, i found a stray kitty and brought her home. she was feral, but still young enough to be tamable. she spent a few days in the bathroom, learning to use the litterbox, then moved into the extra bedroom. finally, she got free reign of the house, once we were sure she would use the litterbox consistently. she has turned out to be a very sweet little kitty!

the downside to taking her in, however, came when we realized that she is, more likely than not, pregnant. i think she is probably in her 6th week now so i think we have about 3 and a half more weeks. she is just a little thing herself so i am a little worried about her having kittens. but, we have been feeding her kitten food and giving her kitten milk to help her get all the nutrients she needs to have healthy babies. :-) ed suggested taking her to the shelter, where they have experience with cats giving birth, but they have so many cats and kittens now, they would probably euthanize her and i couldn't live with myself if that happened. so, we are going to be kitty parents again. hopefully, this time will have a different result than the last.

otis has a new home...

a couple of weeks ago, ed met a family at the doggy park for them to meet otis. he came home and said they would be a great fit as they have children and the mom stays at home, which would mean no otis jail for 8 hours a day while we are at work. we didn't hear from them for a week and i started to think maybe they didn't want him. they emailed, however, and said they did indeed want him. so, we arranged to take otis to them this past sunday.

when we got there, everyone was waiting in the front yard and boy were they ever excited to see otis!! :-) i think he was a little overwhelmed at first, but after a few minutes, he seemed to take everything in stride in typical otis fashion.

i know it should be easier, this being the third time we have rehomed a rescue, but this time was the hardest yet. i can't decide if it is the fact that, for me, otis was a perfect combination of all the things i loved the most about penny and lily rolled into one or if it is that we had him a little longer than either of the others. i don't know. but for whatever reason, otis touched me and became so special to me and letting him go was probably one of the hardest things i have ever had to do.

although there were more times than i can count that i wanted to yell at him for destroying something or lock him in otis jail until he stopped jumping and bouncing, otis was so incredibly loveable and loving that you just couldn't stay mad at him for longer than a few minutes. all he had to do was walk over and put his head on my lap and look at me with those big, black otis eyes and i had to forgive him.

watching him blossom into a dog who loved everyone and everything was like watching a little miracle being born. and i will miss that. i'll miss watching him make sure everyone at the doggy park had the chance to pet him or sniff him or chase him or be chased by him. i'll miss having him fall asleep right next to me and immediately begin snoring. loudly snoring. i'll miss watching him play with amos and calvin and the cats.

but most of all, i will just miss him being in our home and being a part of our everyday lives. otis is such a fun, funny, loving, loveable goofy dog and he gave so much to all of us. no matter how many dogs we have in the future, otis will always be special to me. he taught me wonderful lessons about patience, acceptance, forgiveness, living joyfully and loving unreservedly and i will always be grateful to him for that as well as for all the joy, love and laughter he brought into our home and lives.