It's been awhile....

I've really been lacking on the blogging material lately. You can only talk about your puppies so much, you know? The last one is gone and now we're just working on training Cocoa. Horribly exciting, isn't it?

Last night we went to the CWA crab cippiono feed in Colusa. Andrew's parents are big into the CWA (California Waterfowl Association) so we go every year and spend loads of money. My parents went this year so that was cool. We bought $100 in raffle tickets which is the lowest amount you can spend and guess what we won? More raffle tickets. Woo-freaking-hoo. Those extra raffle tickets did nothing for us. The highlight of the evening was when my dad's cousin showed up out of nowhere and decided to sit with us. I guess he hasn't seen her in like 5 years or something. My mom and dad cut out after dinner as they refused to spend $100 on raffle tickets to win a gun that they don't want. Lucky them. I was stuck with the cousin who proceeded in getting utterly shitfaced and making a fool of herself and of course everyone kept asking ME about her as word had gotten out that I was somehow related. I wouldn't have even known she was family if it wasn't for my dad! Anyway, girl was sooo shitfaced that she was dancing in her chair to the auctioneer. I guess "$500 going once, going twice, sold for $500 to the man in the red hat" has a good beat to it. Then she stopped dancing and just bobbed and weaved in her chair for awhile looking totally comatose and severly disabled. Then she passed out with her head hanging backwards over her chair and her mouth wide open while she hiccupped. I bet y'all are thinking "why in god's name didn't her boyfriend take her ass out of there?" Well because he has bought $1,000 in raffle tickets andyou have to be present to win. And guess what? He did win. The very last prize. So I guess he stuck it out for good reasons but sheesh! Girl was seriously embarrassing me.

Tonight my folks are coming over for dinner for my mom's birthday. We're having tenderloin. Mm.... tenderloin. So yummy!

Oh! Next weekend we're going to Vegas for a few days. The Monte Carlo had rooms on sale for $50 a night and Virgin airlines had flights on sale for $39 so we thought what the hell!!! We're leaving Sunday night and returning Tuesday night so it will be a short trip but that's ok 'cause we're on a budget and Vegas can really suck the money out of you.

We're doing Secret Santa's at work and guess who I pulled. The damned new girl, Sara. Freaking figures! I've never spoken so much as a word to her! I had my friend do some detective work and all she could get out of the girl is she likes cherry scented stuff so I guess I'll get her some bath and body Cherry Blossom stuff and maybe some cherry lip gloss or something. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

So I leave you now with some pictures. Don't mind my bangs, they were horribly misbehaving. The folks in the crab bibs are my parents :)

Bad Panhandlers and Puppies

I was walking out of the mall today with my hands full of very heavy bags and a lady wearing sweatpants and a big jacket with a pastic bag in her hand and a kid and old lady at her side asked me if I was willing to make a donation to something (I wasn't really listening as I could tell from the get go they were panhandlers). I turned her down for a multitude of reasons. First of all, if you're going to ask for money on the streets don't involve your kid and your mom. That's just wrong. Second of all, don't cruise the parking lots carrying your newest purchase with you as you go. Third of all, be honest. If you need money for whatever reason just tell people you need money. Don't try to talk them into making a donation to some non existent cause while wearing your pj's and huge winter jacket. Get a cardboard sign and sit at the entrance like every other bum in town. Fourthly, my hands were about to break off and there's no way I was going to stop my hustle to the car for such an un original attempt at getting other people's money. Now I'm not one to automatically say no to all panhandlers. There are days when I will give them a couple bucks and I'm always willing to pour my change into those salvation army collection bins. That lady just didn't do it for me.

Speaking of the salvation army bell dingers..... They set up shop at the post office. BASTARDS. I go there 6 days a week. There's no way I can afford that so now I have to feel guilty everytime I walk by and don't donate. Especially when the bell dinger smiles at me and says hello.

So we're down to just one puppy to sell. It's cuddle bug, the one I considered keeping for a second. Boy am I glad I didn't! The little bastard is a barker and he has waaaaay too much energy. I've been letting him in the house because I have to let Cocoa learn how to be a house dog and it's just not fair to make him stay outside but I'll tell you what - he's a handful. Within 20 mins today he shit by the door, ran around the house with my kitchen floor mat, chewed on the back of my pants while I was trying to unload the groceries, chewed on the paper towells I bought, and tried to drag Cocoa around by her neck. I booted the puppies back outside and now I can hear his bastard ass barking. It's freaking wonderful considering that we just called the sheriff to do a welfare check on the consistent barker next door. Now they'll have reason to retailiate. Oh how I love neighbors.

So the sheriff that did the welfare check on the dog next door said he's fine. Granted he has no shelter from the 36 degree nights, no food, and no water but he's fine. I guess our dogs are treated as royalty then if that's fine. The sheriff did say that they've been called out to that house quite a few times in concern for that dog. Hmm... and you haven't gotten the hint yet? At least write the idiots a ticket for a barking dog. It's the least you can do. Now other dogs on the block bark as well (including mine!) but this is a non stop, consistent, I'm-freezing--lonely-and-hungry bark. I'm just waiting for the day when I come home from work and find his ass snuggled up in our backyard on one of the puppies blankets (they have two out back) under the heat lamp munching away on the puppy kibble!

A visual

My mom sent me this picture and it kind of shows where the puppy made his fall. Don't mind the random people in the picture, they're just family friends. The trailer on the right is my parents, the trailer on the left is my grandpa's. The deck/yard you're looking at is my parents. Notice the tops of trailers behind the deck on the second row behind the arrows. The staircase they climbed is in between the two back porches.

It's raining cats and dogs! Or puppies at least.....

Little dude fell off the roof and bent the cartilidge in his rib and injured his foot. But's that's not all of it. I shall begin at the beginning.....

Friday morning Andrew and I packed up all the beach stuff we needed for a night, the 4 puppies, their massive kennel, and Gidget and headed to Dillon Beach for the night because every year my family has a huge Thanksgiving feast at their trailer and all kinds of people come from far and wide and it's a blast. It's about an hour and a half trip from our house and the bastard puppies will whine the entire way if you don't have the A/C on full blast (they get hot when they're stuck together in their kennel) so I froze to death the whole way there. Andrew was fine since he had Gidget on his lap the entire time as there was no room for her in the back seat. We really need a bigger car. But anyway, about 20 mins from the beach one of the puppies went poop in the kennel and oh my god I've never smelt anything so bad in my life before! But there was nothing we could do but suffer and drive faster until we got there. We were there a couple hours before we headed off to dinner at Dinnuci's and we locked Gidget and the puppies up on the back patio to stay warm while we were gone.

*Side Note*

Now the way that Dillon's Beach is set up is that there's rows of old travel travelers that have been left there over the years and people buy them and build decks up around them and such and then people like my parents and grandparents buy the trailer and everything around it but they have to rent the land from the greedy bastards that run the place. They are pretty large (ours has an actual bedroom and a sliding glass door) but there's no electricity and everything runs off of solar power or propane. Ours has a heater with a theromsat, a telephone line, and a large TV antenna. Not everyone is that equiped but everyone has hot water and a gas refridgerator and usually a stove/oven. My dad built this massive enclosed back patio with a storage room, a wood stove, another oven for outdoor cooking and a sink. There's a picnic table back there for the cold morning and nights when you want to visit with everyone but you want to stay nice and toasty (the trailer itself is way to cramped for visiting with guests). Outside there is a regular deck with another picnic table and a stair case that goes to the row of trailers behind us. There's two levels and we're on the bottom level. My dad's assigned boat parking is behind our trailer on the upper level so he built a staircase for easy access. Also, since the trailers all used to be on wheels they do not sit on the ground and there is about a foot of space under each one. If you don't block them off completely critters like to make their homes under there. So I hope that's enough of mental picture of the upcoming story....

So we get home from dinner and let Gidget out to go potty and to run about a bit. No sooner does she get out the front gate and in front of my grandpa's trailer (right next door to ourse) but a damned skunk comes sauntering out and skunks Gidget right in the face! Andrew had to run up to the local store and buy tomato juice, simple green, and dish washing liquid to try and get the smell out of her! After about a 45 min bath she finally acceptable enough to be allowed near other humans again. No sooner had we started bathing her but some friends of ours that have a trailer on the other side of my grandpa come over and ask who set the skunk off. Apparently it went off while they were eating dinner inside their trailer with all their windows open. Whoops. Personally I feel that the people who own the beach should do something about the skunk problem but that's a whole 'nother issue. Finally we get Gidget all dried off and warmed up and we hit the sack.

About 6 am the bastard puppies wake up and they are screaming bloody hell. About 6:30 I decide I can't take it anymore I let them outside and I put them in the blocked off pen area my dad fashioned for them the day before. My mom wakes up before the sun so she came out to visit with me when she heard me out shuffling around. About 7 we hear one of the puppies straight up shrieking. We ran to pen and 3 of the 4 puppies were missing..... Only little Cocoa was left. The bastards had climbed up the steps that my dad had built to access the boat and they were playing on the roof of my grandpa's back patio! The one we call Little Shadow because he looks like his grandpa had fallen off the side of the trailer between my grandpa's back patio and his neighbor's trailer! Nobody saw him fall so we don't know how he fell or what he landed on but Andrew kept claiming he broke a rib. Nobody else could see or feel it and he was acting ok so we let it go a bit. About 20 mins later he starting limping and sitting weird so I picked him up and poked and prodded him a bit and he didn't even twitch. We thought for sure if he was broken he'd jump when I ran my hands over his ribs. Nothing. Little dude fell asleep in my lap and all was well with the world until he woke up and wanted down. I put him down and I could instantly see what I thought was the bone sticking out. His little fur was all ruffled strange around it and you could see it clear as day. So Andrew and I rushed him to a 24/7 vet hospital in Rohnert Park and they did full body x-rays on him. $420 later we found out that he doesn't have any broken bones, no interal bleeding, and no bruised lungs. He had some cartilidge that got bent out of shape and that's what we were feeling and seeing. He also had a very sore foot but all and all he's fine! Thank god! They said that within 24 hours he should start acting like a normal puppy again and sure enough as soon as we got home he started rough housing with his brothers. If nothing else he sure proved to everyone that he is definitely his grandfater reincarnated :)

Seriously disturbing

Every day my neighbor's dog parks to no end. NO END. He barks all morning, all afternoon, and all night. I know they never play with the poor thing but the daughter once told me that he slept in the garage at night. I had my doubts but whatever. The other night it was going to be 35 degrees during the night and it was advised to bring all your pets inside or to make sure they would be plenty warm for the night. Gidget is in the house as long as we're in the house anyway so she's taken care of. The puppies all had to sleep in a huge Extra Large size dog kennel that belongs to Gidget inside the house and we were out rounding them up when I told Andrew to toss a couple Milkbones over the back fence to get the dog to stop barking. He decided to investigate and peek over the fence a bit. What we discovered was that no only does that dog NOT have so much as a blanket let along a dog house but he didn't even have any food or water. At the very minimun he should have some water! Especially with all that barking he does. Now I've never called the cops before in my life and I'm not one to get nosey on my neighbors and I don't expect everyone to let their dog have free range like mine does but I CAN'T STAND to see a dog suffer. It was going to 35 freaking degrees that night and he's a short haired bastard. He could literally freeze to death! Literally. And he's doing all he can to say "hey! I'm fucking cold you assholes, let me in!" If I see it again I'm going to call the sheriff's to do a welfare check on him. I don't want to see him get taken away from his family (as if they care about him anyway!) but in my opinion you don't deserve to have animals if you can't care for them properly. If I can make sure that 8 puppies and a momma are fed, watered, warm, and entertained by billions of toys they can take care of one for Pete's sake! Assholes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe the holidays are here already! I'm not ready! Stop! Wait! Let's go back to September for awhile.....

I went to the future inlaws for dinner tonight. Yummy! We had ham and smoked turkey and my famous caramel apple crisp for dessert. Tomorrow we're headed off to the beach for a night and Saturday is the big Thanksgiving party with my family and friends complete with my dad's cajun deep fried turkey. Mmm..... Turkey. I have Monday off of work which means 5 day weekend for me! I love it! Since I don't have much to say I'm going to force some pictures of my dogs on you.

Notice how the two up front are mid attack!

Now they are making up!

My computer screwed the color up on this one but this is Cocoa, my bastard puppy. She's cuter in real life :)

Found 'em!

Andrew came home and found my keys laying in the grass on the edge of the driveway. Don't ask me how they got there but they were cold and wet when he returned them to me! I can only assume that while I was pulling the Kia keys off my key ring that my car keys slipped off as well and I didn't notice because I was too busy worrying about the Kia keys. Plus they fell in the grass so they didn't make a noise. In any case I'm ecstatic. I was seriously concerned there for a little bit!

Tomorrow we head off to Colusa again where one puppy is guaranteed to go home to a new home. They named her Lucy and I've already fallen in love with her! She's so much sweeter and better behaved than my psycho puppy Cocoa aka Runtie who is only good for A) peeing in the house B) chasing Gidget relentlessly trying to nurse even though she's freaking 8 weeks old already or C) whining incessantly because she has to sleep in the nice warm cozy house in her own personal soft bedded kennel. I want a cat instead.