Last Monday Morning I headed to my mom's house to use the computer and to visit. My husband and Caleb headed to a friend's garage to help fix a car. When I stopped by a couple hours later to see how they were doing I found out that Buddy had bolted when they open the truck door upon arriving. I drove around for almost an hour trying to find him with no luck. Feeling defeated I headed back to the garage to let Mike know our poor bud was still MIA. Luckily a few minutes after getting back someone pulled into the driveway and asked if anyone their had lost a Beagle. Someone had found him and we were relieved to find out he was ok. The bad news was that they had called animal control and Buddy had been brought to the pound. We called only to discover they aren't even open Mondays and we would have to pick him up the next Morning. Go figure. I called and rescheduled his vet visit that was supposed to be the next morning.
Tuesday. I woke up bright and shiny in the morning, practically at the crack of dawn, so we could go get Buddy from the pound. I woke up my husband and reminded him that we could pick up Buddy at 8 A.M. and I wanted to be there at 8 A.M. He told me to go ahead and get him. Slightly annoyed, I reminded him that I don't like dogs, Buddy is his and that he needed to go with me to pick him up. I than waited around while he dragged out of bed, got dressed, ate breakfast and got Caleb in his truck. At 9 we pulled out of the driveway in separate vehicles so I could go to my mom's after. I left before him and so naturally I arrived at the pound before him. Figuring he would be right there I went in to get the dog. I was informed that there was a $25 fee despite the fact that the day before the animal control officer had told us there would be no charge. That, combined with the fact that my husband still hadn't shown up yet, had put me in a bad mood. I told the woman I couldn't pay till Friday and argued about the $15 per day holding fee until she gave in and said I didn't have to pay it and that she would release the dog that day if I signed something saying I would pay Friday or the police could come haul me away. (Why was I even having to sign at all? It's my husband's dog. Where was he anyway??) I then had to sign a 10 Day license for him. What? Dogs need licenses? AAARRRGGG. Ok, I sign the piece of paper saying that if he hasn't had his shots and we haven't gotten him licensed in 10 days that Animal Control can slap us with a huge fine. I'm now beyond annoyed. I've been there over 30 minutes and no Mike. (Who happened to have the leash in his truck by the way) I'm not at all impressed that I had to sign for a dog that I don't really even like that much. I walked Buddy out to my car just holding onto his collar and called my husband. No answer. I drove the 2 minutes to my mom's house and sat in the car calling Mike over and over while listening to Buddy bark in my ear and jump all over the car. After getting his voice mail 18 times (yes, I was mad enough that I counted.) I called his son's phone and asked to speak to him. I not so nicely informed him that if he didn't come get his stupid dog that I was going to bring it back to the pound. He was 5 minutes away hanging out with friends. I sent him on his way with Buddy and stayed at my mom's house the whole rest of the day to cool off. Or at least that was the plan. I figured I would breath for a while and than by the time I went home I wouldn't feel like ripping off heads. It didn't work out that way at all. I went home cooled off, that part worked. I was miffed when I got home though because he had hooked both dogs up out in the yard and they had dug holes everywhere and up rooted all my newly planted grass. I just sat in my car. I didn't get out for almost 4 hours. I had no choice, I was really that angry. (The first day we moved to the land I had made it more than clear that there were to be no dogs on the lawn. I didn't want holes, I didn't want the grass sprouts disturbed and I didn't want to ever have to worry about stepping in poop.)
Wednesday. Uneventful. Thank goodness.
Thursday morning bright and early I asked Caleb to hook out the dogs. They are house broke just as look at they are hooked out by 7 AM, otherwise the use the bathroom anywhere they feel inclined. He did bring Tracker right out to use the bathroom but only shut the screen door when he left, (which opens out with minimal effort) and Buddy immediately pushed the door open and was gone again. I jumped out of bed, got in my car and headed up the road to find him. There he was at our neighbors house, I stopped the car and called to him and he came running. To good to be true, I opened the door and motioned for him to jump up on my lap. Nope, off he went in the opposite direction. I pulled up the road a bit farther and watched him go through the next neighbors yards and into the woods headed to the main road. Crap! Ok, the theory is that I'm smarter than a dog. Think, think, think. I know. It's the first thing in the AM, he hasn't been fed yet. Starving dog + people's food = victory. I rummaged through my car (thank goodness I hadn't cleaned it out yet) and found 1/2 a broken Pop tart left over from yesterday's breakfast. I parked my car, walked up to the main road and waited. Sure enough a few minutes later he came booking around the corner at a dead run. I chucked 1/2 of what was in my hand at him as he blew past me. It bounced off his hind quarters landing in the road. Worked like a charm. He stopped, whipped around nose to the ground and started backwards towards the Pop tart. I crouched down holding out what was left in my hand. "Bud Bud, come here. Do you want some Pop tart? Huh? It's yummy." Of course, what starving dog wouldn't want a yummy bit of people food. I grabbed his collar and carried him the whole way home. Getting away twice in one week though. Probably not a good thing. I'm glad we found him this time before anyone else did.
Friday. Yes!! The best day of the week yet. My boys came home around noon. I missed them so much. It's so nice to have them back. My best friend also came over to spend the night. She and her girls camped in a tent in the yard with their dog Hope. We had a campfire and all stayed up until nearly 11 PM.
We woke up Saturday morning to the rooster crowing. Out of all the farm stuff so far, that is my favorite thing. The first hour or so went great, then we heard Lilly crying outside. She had stubbed her toe on one of the anchor bolts sticking out of the garage pad. I called her in thinking it was going to be a little scratch. Nope, she had dripped blood all the way through the camper, up the stairs and into our room before I realized this was not just a minor bump. I escorted her out to the car and had her sit on the seat sideways while I grabbed my car first aide kit and a gallon of water to clean off her foot. I poured a bit of water over her foot into my hand. Very bloody. It only took one look at her toe and I called Mike over to have a look. I couldn't assess the extent of the injury and he had worked as a EMT for 15 years. (I only have my CNA and technically only worked for like 6 months.) He checked it out and thought perhaps it called for a trip to the emergency room. I bandaged her toe as best as I could and packed gauze between her toes to help slow the bleeding and catch some of the mess. Off they went. Jen and I opted to stay at the land with the other 6 kids. An hour or so later we were all hot and thirsty. No prob. My dear husband had filled our 20 gallon holding tank a day or so before. We all drank some water but it didn't cool us down much. Around 11 Jen had to take off and asked if by chance I could watch her girls over night. Sure. No prob. Ok. Now, how do I entertain 6 kids who are hot and board when we have no electricity, no toys or games or anything else for that matter.You know, aside from a nice yard, baseball gloves and ball, a trampoline, rock wall, a frisbee, bikes to ride and a jump rope. ( I haven't really let them bring many toys because we don't have much room in the 5th wheel and I don't want to deal with the mess.) I asked if anyone was interested in walking down to the brook and playing in the water. I got a YES from everyone. We had never been down there before but it seemed like a great idea. (And it was) The water wasn't very deep in most places but it was ice cold. I'm not even kidding. It was so cold I started getting muscle cramps after a min or two. Fortunately they went away after a while. I let the kids play for over 2 hours. They caught frogs and raced them, splashed in the water and climbed on the rocks. We weren't there for very long before I noticed something weird looking swimming through the water. I couldn't help myself, I felt the need to catch it. Yep, it was a leach. That freaked Kaleb and Dante right the heck out. It took considerable effort to convince them that they were harmless and they wouldn't die some horrible death if one touched them. Kaleb fell in love with them and named them all Bob the Leach.
The people that lived across the street from the brook had a brand new looking mattress and box spring for FREE at the end of their driveway. Caleb and I grabbed it with the intent of carrying it home. We gave up part way and left it on the side of the road for Mike to pick up on the way home.
Lilly and Jayda walking to the brook
The Brook
Bob the Leach swimming
Kaleb holding Bob the Leach
Bob the Leach and his girlfriend Bob the Leach
Two of their racing frogs
It was several hours after we got home that Mike finally showed up. He had run out of gas 5 miles away and he and Lilly had been walking for nearly 2.5 hours in the heat with no drink to get home. Sad day. :( It was a bit of a fiasco but we got gas in his truck and got it home. The evening was filled with thunder showers and so we had all the kids sleep inside. All 4 boys slept on the big bed and the 3 girls slept on our new mattress on the floor. I'm not sure that the 5th wheel was meant to hold 7 kids, 2 adults and two dogs but we packed in like sardines and made it through the night unscathed.
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