| August 2008 |
August 1 (Friday)
It has been nearly a year since I began my journal. August 23 of 2007, was my first entry. The journal has evolved from what it was into
what it is, which is ..., well it is still evolving.
Taz' behavior when I arrived home yesterday was much better than his behavior from the day before. He still yelled and whined for a few
minutes, but he did not require a long time to get over it.
It is funny to watch Cathy with Taz. Until Taz showed up Cathy was the "newbie," the baby. She would acquiesce to any of the other
dogs, but now if Taz gets in her face she voices her disapproval to him in a hurry. It's funny -- like she is letting him know that SHE was
here first! She no longer is low dog on the totem pole.
I also enjoy watching Oscar and Scamp around little Taz. Both of them were babies in the house once upon a time, and each of them
had to endure the indignity of being "little man" out. Both of them experienced the rebukes of the older and bigger dogs that were here
before them. Now they are passing it on to little Taz. I wonder ..., is it even remotely possible that each of them might recall what it was
like ...?
August 2 (Saturday)
The time is around noon, and it is blazingly hot outside. I managed to get a bit of yard mowed this morning, and I shall work on the inside
for awhile. For me, not having a spouse or other family or roommate (besides the furry ones), the chores are many. I must cook and
clean house; care for the animals; look after the yard; do laundry; go to work; and find some time to relax. The daily routine is a grind,
with a three-hour round trip to and from work each day plus nine hours at work. Each day the animals have to be tended. Bonnie
requires daily medication twice per day. I have my own medicine to take now, twice a day. I take an aspirin, a plavix, and lisinopril in the
morning; then I take a zocor in the evening: all the things a growing boy needs.
But, hey! I am alive and breathing; I have a great job; and I have a great house on 16 acres with a beautiful pond and lots of trees and
dogs and cats. And I don't have anyone to nag me or spend all my money. Things are looking up.
Taz is still a ways from total acceptance by the other mutts, but I do believe he likes his new surroundings. He still cuts up whenever I
abandon him for even a little while. I had to crate him while I mowed grass. After only a couple of hours he was fit to be tied, and took a
while to settle down after I freed him from his dungeon.
August 5 (Tuesday)
I do not recall if I mentioned this already or not, but the bill for my hospital stay came in: $64, 227.51, of which the insurance company
(Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee) paid all but $790. I paid the balance yesterday. It was only after I saw the final tally that it really
dawned on me that something serious had happened. Thank goodness for insurance!
We're having some extremely hot weather these days. This week in particular the temperatures are projected to reach into the upper
90's to low 100's. We had a couple of those days last week. I prefer summer to winter, but I prefer fall and spring (who doesn't). Winter
is great, really, because I get to use my fireplace. I heat my house with the fireplace, and it is a cozy heat and saves on the electric bill.
Taz is getting along okay, but he still gets crated every morning when I leave for work, as does Cathy. Surely I should be able to leave
Cathy free, but I'm still scared to try it. Cathy and Taz have become friends. Here is a picture of them recently:
| Cathy chases Taz in the yard. |
August 6 (Wednesday)
I bought my house, when was it -- summer of 05? Anyways, I've only been in it a couple of years and already it almost burned to the
ground last night! Well, not quite, but right after I went to bed and turned out the lights one of the wall-mounted electric heaters started
arcing. Now if I had not been inside the house when that happened, the house might have caught on fire, and burned to the ground. I
turned off all the heaters at the control box, and now I have to make arrangements to fix the problem.
I shake my head when i think about how fortunate I am. I am at the cardiac center of the hospital when I have my heart attack, and I am
sleeping right next to the heater when it starts to arc.
I would be sad if my house burned to the ground, but I would be sick if it burned to the ground when I wasn't there and my animals were.
August 8 (Friday)
I have nine dogs -- way more than a person should have. I guess Taz has become a keeper. Our local shelter has had a turnover in
administration, and I do not know the new people. I shall be a bit hesitant to deliver an animal over there now, even though it really
shouldn't make any difference.
Taz had his gonads removed yesterday, and he got his first shots. There is another dog hanging around outside my fence at home. He
belongs to a neighbor, and he is still just a puppy -- probably in the range of nine months of age or so. Sadly he is not being cared for
well. I have placed food for him outside the fence the last couple of days. I shall keep an eye on him for a while and see how things
work out for him. He is a very spry and playful pup. He bounces around in front of the fence, and my dogs play with him there. He so
wants to be petted and played with.
Back to Taz. At bedtime last night he came up missing. I looked every where and in every conceivable place and he was just gone. I
feared that he had somehow escaped the fence by crawling under it, but that would not be likely. Could he have gotten out some other
way? I just couldn't think of a way he could have gotten out of the fence. I began to panic and retrieved my flashlight and went outside
the fence to look for him. By the time I began to look for him it was simply too dark to do much good. My poor old heart just would not be
able to stand the disappearance of the puppy. I decided to give the house one more going over. I checked all the cabinets, behind all
the furniture, under all the beds. No Taz anywhere. Then I saw something out of the ordinary. The skirting on the couch, which sits
about 4 inches off the floor, was a little bit askew. And as it turned out, Taz was under the couch asleep. I could have killed him.
August 10 (Sunday)
I traveled yesterday to see a friend of mine, whom I have not seen since the very early 1980's. We had a nice visit, but both of us were
exhausted at the end of the visit. The drive for me was about 1.5 hours (the same for him), and I was worn out when I returned home.
Old age. It is a reality. It would be nice to make the full trip to his house and spend a bit more time. Finding someone to look after my
animals would be the challenge right now. I would not want to intrude on my friend Vicki, who came to my aid when I had my recent
hospital stay. I need to keep her in reserve in the event of another emergency.
August 12 (Tuesday)
I am in a contemplative mood today. Perhaps the reason I am is because it is raining, and it is cooler than it has been. I am thinking of
Charcoal. Charcoal was a kitty who lived with me for about three years. He moved with me to my new place, then shortly thereafter he
disappeared. I haven't seen him in perhaps a couple of years. He was a sweety pie. He was a gorgeous black and silver, long-haired
Persian, I think. I think about him from time to time, and I miss him. I do not know what became of him.
The dogs would not let me sleep much last night. For some reason, Cathy and Taz wanted to play during the night. That kept me from
sleeping very well. Taz spends a lot of time by himself outside. It might be that he would prefer to be outside. I may consider just doing
that. Especially if he is going to be keeping me awake at night.
August 13 (Wednesday)
The weather has cooled off a bit. We've got a lot going on at work today. I enjoy what I do for a living, but today we've changed some
things up at work. Being a routine individual, change doesn't sit with me very well. Anyways, what I am doing right now is testing some
changes that were made to my personal computer. Hopefully, the changes have not affected my ability to continue to work on my
website. Let's publish today's post, and we'll see.
August 15 (Friday)
More rain today. The rain has really made the grass green, but everything grows so fast it is difficult to keep up with the yard work. I
manage to get things mowed, but forget about the weed eating.
I had a doctor appointment today. It was a follow-up, and the prognosis so far is good. I had a narrow escape a few weeks ago and feel
very fortunate about that.
All animals are doing good. For some reason I have been thinking about Charcoal lately. He was a cat that came to me from no where
and stayed with me for four or five years. Not really long after I bought this place he came up missing. He was a sweet kitty, and I have
no idea what became of him. I have been missing him lately.
August 19 (Tuesday)
I've never bothered to take the time to train my dogs or teach them tricks. They do learn well, though. Every morning just before I leave
I confine the dogs so as to minimize the possibility of "accidents" occurring, such as I have experienced in the past. Fred gets his own
kennel, as do Cathy and Taz. Oscar, Sam, and Scamp all three go into one kennel, which is large enough to accommodate them.
Bonnie, Clyde, and Lu Lu are left free to roam. I throw a little cat food to all the dogs so to keep them calmed down as I am leaving. I
started the cat food thing some time ago to coax the dogs into going to their respective places.
As I would toss the cat food into their kennels I would say, "Go to your room." I did that over and over so that now in the mornings when I
tell the dogs to go to their room they head straight for their kennels. It's really a cool thing to see.
August 22 (Friday)
Taz is getting very big, but he still crawls under the couch to sleep. He is a very gregarious little guy. He runs out to the road and barks
right along side the bigger dogs. And he is still fiercely independent. However, he still cuts up a bit when I first arrive home from work.
He does hate being abandoned!
August 23 (Saturday)
I made a visit to the Farmer's Market on Shiloh Road. Here you see one of the young vendors giving me a difficult time over some 'okry.'
August 26 (Tuesday)
Have I mentioned that we have received some rain recently? Last summer we had a drought and nearly everything alive died from thirst.
This summer nearly everything alive is nearly dead from drowning!
Taz has outgrown his little kennel that I bought for him, so I fixed him up with something more accommodating. Each morning as I leave
for work I tell the dogs to "go to your room." Each dog understands what that means, and each dog heads for his or her respective
kennel. Taz continues to get into the smaller one. He is not accustomed to the new one yet, but watching him is cute. He can barely fit
into it, but in he goes and sits there patiently waiting for me to lock him in.
August 28 (Thursday)
I have been working on a new project lately. I can't recall exactly how I discovered Pet Talk, but I have been posting on that site for the
past couple of months or so. It had been my intention to share some photos of my clan along with a few comments to explain some of
the pictures. My thread turned into a repository of stories. Some of the stories are about animals for which I have no photos. I decided
to create a separate page on this website to house the stories, and you may reach it here. Hope you enjoy!
August 31 (Sunday)
Gustav, right now a category 4 hurricane is heading into then Gulf of Mexico, with its sights set squarely on South-Central Louisiana. I
know the feeling and the experience, having survived Hilda, Betsy, and Andrew. Poor South Louisiana. Katrina and Rita were the
one-two punch. Now here is Gustav to pour salt into the wound.
Parts of South Louisiana are under a mandatory evacuation. I chose to say behind when Andrew hit. I spent more than a week isolated
in my mobile home just outside of Baton Rouge. It was a very eerie few days: no electricity; no running water; no neighbors; no traffic;
no television; eek! I'm glad I'm outta there for now, but I do miss South Louisiana.