Life At Home - What's been going on lately?

[cfulhage]

Originally Posted by Monica

Lately though for us, just this past Sunday was the anniversary to the day that I received Casey 4 years ago, my G-ma's bday today, and finding 4 dogs (a mother, akita, and her three pups). We are just deciding if we want to keep them and foster them until they are adoptable or take them to a shelter....

Oh, I could never foster any animal...I would never be able to give them up! How old are the puppies? I don't know much about Akitas, even though I worked at a vet clinic for 5 years-we didn't have any Akita clients. Although we did have 2 Akita crosses, and they were the sweetest things! My advice is to keep them all!! Good luck making a decision!

[Monica]

Akitas are known as Japanese Fighting Dogs (or some say Chinese). They are extremely strong dogs. When my sister and I were only toddlers, our parents had an akita/rotty mix who was chained up with a thick chain leash (Koda had broken off a door car and broken the thick leash). Akitas are big, strong dogs! I'm guessing though that the pups are around 6 weeks old as they are eating solid food, though still suckling on mom!

I have pics here: http://photobucket.com/albums/0903/M...%20And%20Pups/ though do note that these images are large, 800x600 pixels so might take a while to download on a slow connection.

[Cowgirl Chris]

Well, as far as what is going on with me...busy, busy, busy. I went to Georgia almost two weeks ago to see a woman about her hahn's macaws that she needed to rehome. after the long nine hour trip one way (it is getting to cold to ship around here), I was so disappointed in what I found. Not only were the birds not the ones that she had sent me pictures of, but they were sick too (which she did not tell me about). I was so angry about the whole thing. Yes my heart went out to these abused and neglected birds, but I did not want to take the chance of bringing them to my home to infected my birds that I have now. So I called a friend up who is an aviarian vet (excuss the misspellings everyone). She met me at the hotel I was staying at and we went back to see the birds. the examination showed that the birds had been struck with something several times. One birds had a broken wing that had become infected and the other was so starved that it had pulled out all of his feathers and you could see every bone in his body (so very sad ). We took the birds back to my friends clinic and within the first 48 hours one of the birds died from the infection. I was hoping that the the starved one would survive with the IV and meds that was giving, but it was not ment to be. The bird died three days later. I felt horrible. I should have gotten there sooner and got the birds out of there. Yeah the previous owner just gave us the birds in order to keep from getting turned into the police for animal abuse. The only thing that I ended up with from that trip was long hours of driving and a 500 dollar vet bill (yicks!! ), but when you think about it, maybe the little bit of care that I was able to give the birds helped them to pass over with a little less pain. My DH felt so bad for me that he even went to a local pet shop and bought me two GCC that he named cheech and Chong lol. Though you should never buy from a pet shop, he tried to make me happy. Isn't he just a sweety.

Now on the bright side of things, I finally got my second bird room finished built and I have started puting up the cages and toys. I guess after I left my vet friend, she had made a couple of calls and and got my vet bill down to only 150 dollars with all of the donations that her birds friends made (I sent thank you cards and letters to each and everyone of them) One elderly woman even called me from virginia and said that she was so touched about all of my efforts to help the birds that were not even mine that she had to meet me, cool hu. I am always interested in meeting other bird lovers. We meet for lunch and talked for ever it seemed. Sarah is a wonderful person!!! I immediately liked her from the start. Last monday she invited me and my family to her home. It was beautiful. I have never seen a home so lovely. She had at least 15 birds herself, from lovies to scarlet macaws. Of course we went out to eat again and we spent the night. It was so enjoyable to watch this old woman (she is at least in her 60's) with so much energy go around to every bird and talk with them. They all responded to her with love (expect for one that she called her little pain in the butt) A seven month old blue and gold macaw. She said that she had pick the B&G up from a friend who breed them when it was fully weaned. if she had her back to him/her, the bird would grab her hair, clothes, or anything else on her body and pull it if he got the chance. I could not really tell if he/she did it to be mean or just to play. Sarah would look at the bird and say some things in spanish (I did not know what she was saying, but I am sure that it probably was not good lol) Then the most amazing thing happened, she asked me if I would like to buy that B&G. YES YES YES. Sarah had said that the only real reason that she took him was to help a friend out and that she just did not have the time to work with this bird. Don't get me wrong, she is keeping her other birds until the day she dies. They are so friendly that anyone, even my little three year old could pick up any of her birds AMAZING!!! So now I am the proud owner of a B&G that I named Tiny. I have had Tiny for a week and he/she is letting me pet his/her head and back. I still can not pick him/her up without getting a nasty bit (at least 5 bruises on my arms to prove my effort), but I believe that the progress is coming along just fine. Cheech and Chong are great. My kids hold them all of the time and so does my DH which is not a big bird lover. So in the end everything has worked out just fine. I will be adding pictures soon for everyone to see.

[Monica]

I'm sorry to hear about those two birds, though atleast you tried and have a big heart! Congrats though on the new additions! Can't wait to see photos!

Over here, it's just watching over pups and their mom, feeding them, cleaning up after them, and caring for the rest of the critters!

[Cowgirl Chris]

Monica,,,too bad that you were not closer to me so that I could help you out. How is it coming with the worms? They are very cute puppies. You can tell that they do have a bad case of worms with how fat their little tummys are, poor things. I am going to take photos of my new babies over the weekend and post them on here. Tiny is coming around slowly. Last night he/she let me scratch his/her head. Small steps right. Well other news, my oldest daughter got her report card yesterday (she is in the second grade) all A's...I am so proud, who knows maybe I have the next genious on my hands!!! No ego on my part right lol. So what is everyone getting into this weekend? I am just now starting my holiday shopping YUCK. I hate to shop. Pretty strange for a woman right.

[Monica]

We are taking the biggest pup in to see the vet on Saturday to see what worms they have and get medication to get rid of the worms, and other than that we have nothing planned for the weekend, though we do need to go shopping sooner or later for groceries (with thanksgiving coming and all) and get some bird food too (we went shopping last night for just the cats and dogs... came home with about 108lbs of food for dogs/cats, 20lbs cat litter, and some moist food for the cats!).

I can't wait to see photos though! And congrats with your daughter! Sounds like she'll do fantastic with school!

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by cfulhage

ladyscroller, I am sorry to hear about your dad. Glad they found an antibiotic that is working! I'm sending thoughts and prayers your way.

I haven't been up to much lately, just studying. Seems like the professors are punishing us before thanksgiving break! When I'm not studying I'm taking care of Ollie or babysitting for my 6 month old niece.

I was hoping to take a trip to Atlanta next weekend with my dad, but he decided to go scuba diving instead. Which reminds me, I'm going to be taking scuba diving lessons through the university next semester (hopefully!) so I can go with my dad. I'm getting tired of getting left behind when he goes to Cancun, Belize, Cozumel...I'm just crossing my fingers that I can fit the classes into my schedule!

Besides that, I'm just really looking forward to thanksgiving break-starting a week from tomorrow!

Camille, I am a PADI advanced scuba diver. When you get certified, come on down to Australia and we can go diving in the Great Barrier Reef-absolutely beautiful!

That goes for any of you who are certified too! (I said CERTIFIED, not certifiable, BTW )