Texas Lady

Gino’s blanket before Bandit ate it

Today is exactly one month since we put Maximus to sleep…it still hurts but I still know it was the right decision.  I don’t know how long it’ll be until I can think of him without crying.

Buffy went back to her owner Wednesday evening and we told him what had happened to her, what we had kept from him in his time of grieving for his wife.  He agreed that he wouldn’t have been able to handle the knowledge at the time.  With all of Buffy’s health issues behind her (finally) she arrived home to no momma.  We’ve talked to George every day and he says that she still walks from room to room looking for her lost Momma.  So sad.  Today I called the vet to find out how her blood work came out.  It was more bad news.  Her white cell count was down so no more infection.  Her red count was up so no more anemia.  But her kidney values had doubled so that means she goes back on subcutaneous fluids again.  This means I will go over to their house daily and stick a needle in her and administer Ringers solution.  There’s no one else to do it, so I’ll have to be the baddie again that hurts that poor little dog.  Since I know I am doing it to save her life I can do it again, but I hope it’s not at the risk of losing her love and faith in me that took 6 weeks together to build.

I had a very happy day today.  It was WW weigh in day and I’d lost another 2 1/2 pounds, almost 25 so far.  I got some new coupons in my email for the local fabric store so I got cleaned up and went shopping.  This is the store where I purchased the fabric for the two baby quilts I made and I’d decided to make changing pads and diaper bags to match the quilts, so I had to go back to the same store I bought from before.  I had found one fabric on their online store but not both so I had to go check it out anyway.  To make a long story short when I got there they were having a 1/2 off sale so I bought the other fabric (they didn’t have both in stock locally either), some patterns and a few other things, then I came home and ordered the other fabric online.  So I’ll be able to do what I wanted now.  One baby is due in September, the other January so I can’t wait forever to get going on these projects.  I was happy I found both fabrics; that’s not always easy to do months after you purchase the first time.

Gino has been adopted and as soon as Ronnie gets some time off from work we’ll be delivering him to Shepherd, Texas.  I’ve packed his bags (dog food, heartworm meds, shirts, bones, chew toys, balls, leash, etc.), made him a blanket (with his name on it—Bandit chewed it up the same day I made it!!!), his crate and his pillow.  That ought to be enough for one little 5-pound Chihuahua.  We always send them off with all their belongings; it probably doesn’t make them a bit of difference but it makes us feel like we’ve done our very best for them.

Ronnie took me out to our Friday night Mexican restaurant, Don Julio’s, for nachos and Margarita’s and it topped off the whole beautiful day until I cried about Maximus.  Ever since dinner I’ve been feeling very sad.  It’s after midnight now and my mind was going round and round on it so I figured I’d get it out of my head so it wouldn’t bug me anymore.

Ronnie has to work tomorrow so I’ll go to the vet and pick up Buffy’s meds and go to their house to administer them.  Hopefully after that I can get some time to sew.  I have a blouse about half way finished and a nightgown cut out to sew.  I have a bunch of new patterns and fabrics to make some pretty things; I just need the time to do it and the motivation required.

I’m looking forward to being down to 7 dogs so I can have more time to myself and a little more peace and quiet.  When you have 11 dogs (what we had last month) it’s just too much for one person….period.  Since Ronnie works so many hours and has so few days off the entire load gets put on my shoulders and I’m just exhausted from it.  We both feel like we need to not foster anymore for a while at least.  We truly need a break.  This is the first time in months that we don’t have a vet appointment scheduled for any of them.  Twice we have gone up to 11 dogs and once to 10; you’d think we’d learn but it happens before you know it.  The last time we took in 2 little puppies on a Sunday and got a foster back the next week and then Buffy.  Bam!  Four more dogs at one time.  We didn’t know what had hit us for a while but that’s how rescue is and we won’t stop rescuing.  Once Gino leaves we’ll have Jolie who we’ll have forever because there’s no one else in the family to care for her, and Mimi who Ronnie won’t give up now, and our own 5 dogs.  That’s still a lot but when they’re Chihuahuas (except Bandit) it doesn’t seem like a lot of dogs even if it is.

I posted a photo of what I embroidered on Gino’s blanket.  I don’t have one of how it looks now that Bandit got to it (maybe I need to do that, too!  LOL).  It was a good idea, anyway, and Gino will never know the difference.