Well lil G and I hopped in the truck on Sunday and drove 400 miles East to Orofino, Idaho for a few days of fun in the country with our friends Asya and KC. It was G's first long road trip and my first time on that stretch of highway in 6 years. Our trip went smoothly- and it was a beautiful drive. I was surprised at how the first 6 hours of the drive have been permanently etched into my memory having driven it for the six years I lived in Pullman- Snowqualmie Pass, Cle Elum, Ellensburg, Vantage, Royal City, Othello, Washtucna, Dusty, Colfax, Pullman. Then we went down the grade to Lewiston and got onto 12 E which follows the the Clearwater River to Orofino. Asya met us in town with pizza and we followed her home- up the Greer Grade which is 30 minutes of switchbacks to her little slice of heaven on top.
On our first day Asya took us on a scenic drive on the Musselshell Road to Kamiah Idaho where we had delicious lunch of quiche and salad (G had chicken soup of course) and shared a huge chocolate chip cookie for dessert. We went in the little shops to get some trinkets and postcards. G made friends with a little girl named Vicky Lynn in the card shop until Vicky Lynn didn't give her back her mermaid!
The highlight of our trip was getting to spend time with Farmer Keith and his horses. Grace got to ride his pony Angel both days. We were treated with lunch by 'the farmer's wife' (as G called her) Shirley- hamburgers, home made potato salad and incredible home made raspberry pie. When we left Shirley brought us a loaf of freshly baked zucchini bread- yum!
Our second day we had a little bit of 'work' to do. Farmer Keith had a couple of barn cats that needed neutering and Asya had heard of a woman that had a crazy tom cat in her trailer that she couldn't afford to have neutered. Being an advocate for spay/neuter I happily brought along the supplies for castrating cats. Keith had trapped his adult barn cat and made his own squeeze cage- it worked perfectly for giving him his injection- then we started to prep him for surgery and realized he was cryptorchid! And I couldn't palpate his second testicle anywhere. So unfortunately that cat is only half neutered now. I needed a sterile pack and suture if I was to find and remove the hidden testicle.
Then we headed out to the trailer park to meet the crazy cat for what we thought was going to be a quick neuter- well, he had a different idea in mind. He was anesthetized without any problems and then neutered-but he started bleeding a bit from the right side-this has happened to me before with some bigger tom cats- more of an annoyance than a serious complication- I held some pressure and ice on it and then he started seizuring. At first I tried to convince myself he wasn't really seizuring, he was just having a more violent reaction to the Ketamine then most cats. But he kept doing it. Then he started to spike a fever and pant. Pretty much the worst scenario for an anesthetic complication- at a trailer park in Idaho with no other drugs or fluids available, and no access to a veterinary clinic. I had the owner watching and she was convinced he was dying. I didn't think he was dying but I couldn't drive away and leave him like that and say "Good Luck".. so we loaded him into the truck with us and took him home for the night. Luckily he stopped seizuring and by morning he was hissing, spitting and growling and ready to go back to his owner!
We saw lots of wildlife in Idaho besides the wild tom cats- we also saw skunks (which G calls "Stunks"), deer, coyote, bunny, cows, horses.. and fresh bear poop. Some other firsts- I got to ride on a 4-wheeler and shoot a gun! And I even got to ride "Woppy" the Peruvian Paso.
On our drive back home yesterday we stopped in Pullman and said hello to our old friends Bill & Cristi at "Barnacle Bills"- it was their first time meeting Grace. They looked great, and the town, for the most part, looked the same. We bought the dogs some pig ears and the cats some catnip toys. We drove by our old house and it looks like the people who live there now love it- there was a bigger deck, a new fence and a playset in the back yard. We didn't make it up to campus on this trip but we plan to pass through more often because we want to go back and visit Asya again real soon!
The Story of "Roy"
Well tonite's shift was unusually slow and the triages just trickled in. It's harder for adrenaline junkies like us when it's slow- there's too much time to look at the clock and wonder why it's not closer to the end of your shift. I could have single-handedly seen all the patients tonight but since there was three of us we took turns and I saw every third patient or so. I had a cat with flea allergies and a cool eosinophilic plaque on her tongue and kind of weird owners that of course had limited funds (which was OK because their cat was stable and the steroids and Frontline will make her feel better for probably a month). Then I saw a 10 mo old Boxer with a 106 temp and severe neck pain and an infected uterus (pyometra)- owned by a young Army girl with some money but not enough to do everything that the dog needs. I had a sweet black Lab with an abscessed puncture wound who got surgery and will be just fine. Then I got an injured stray cat brought in by a good Samaritan.
We get a lot of stray cats and dogs that are sick or hurt that the general public find. We provide basic supportive care and transfer them to Animal Control to go to the shelter the next day. Some are so sick or hurt they need to be euthanized. This cat was a dirty skinny intact male Tom cat probably less than 2 years old. He had multiple infected oozing old wounds on his body. The end of his tail (probably at least 3") was missing and the stump was scabbed over. And his left front leg was broken. Dangling. It had been that was for some time because it had oozing wounds all around it that he was licking. And here's the kicker. This darn cat would not stop head butting and arching his back with great force and enthusiasm while we petted him. In the kennel he was making 'biscuits'- trying to even with his broken leg! He had been out there all broken and infected on his own.. no one even ever bothered to neuter him.. and all he wanted was to be pet and loved. I was amazed by his spirit and his will to live.. He was so excited to get food he didn't even care that we made him wear a big Elizabethan collar so he couldn't lick his wounds.
All night I kept telling myself 'stop thinking about him, you can't afford to rescue him (having recently spent quite a large sum on a rescue) and there's too much paperwork involved in fostering a stray'.. 'besides, he probably has FIV (kitty AIDS)'... But I kept going back to check on him (because it was so slow) and little by little he crawled deeper into my heart. Because if he goes to the shelter tomorrow he will just be put to sleep. He needs an amputation and they just can't afford to do surgeries like that down there. So finally I asked one of my techs to test him for Felv/FIV- thinking.. if he tested positive then he was not adoptable.. But lo and behold.. he tested negative.. So, now i ponder at 2:40am.. will i deal with all the red-tape/paperwork to foster him? probably. will i come in early for my shift tomorrow and do his surgery? probably. will i find someone to help find him the perfect home?? i need to make some phone calls in the morning...
Some may call me a sucker, or a crazy cat lady.. And maybe they are right. But there are some animals that are just worth saving.. And loving animals is part of why I do what I do. Should I be spending a lot of money on rescues? No. I should be saving it for retirement or establishing an emergency fund or paying off my credit cards. I know that. But sometimes I sleep better at night knowing that I can offer some great animals a second chance at life. I think I'll call him "Roy" (the name of the town he was found in).. Anyone looking for a new best friend??
well my sister blogs and i never have (except for my big trip to samoa) because she really is the writer of the family. but who says you have to be a great writer to blog? i know, it helps.. she has humor, sarcasm, and her brain is a thesaurus..but i don't think my friends will judge or compare us too much. i find myself these days on my nights off wide awake (i mean WIDE awake) in the wee hours.. just can't reset that time clock when i have been working graves. during the day i feel like a zombie.. at night i can't sleep. so usually i spent my time shopping. online of course. which probably isn't the best use of my time. tired of tv shows. it's summer. there's nothing good on. could clean, organize, scrapbook, photobook.. i COULD do a lot of productive things.. but i don't. i never said i was martha stewart. (oh, and for those of you who don't like that i am not using many capital letters.. well get over it. at work i have to use them. here anything goes.)
so i had a day off today.. one entire day off this week. not too much happened. i picked up my g at the zoo (she had camp), we had lunch at panera, i got a brazilian (ouch, but i am addicted), took g to sports class, then went to the apartment to pick up some things i forgot and drop off kitty litter and garbage bags. then we got a call from a friend who reminded me i needed to register g for ballet today so we met them at the Y. then they invited us over for dinner (take-out TacoTime) and homemade chocolate chip cookies. the kids got to play, we got to talk. came home and ordered some baby stuff for lindsey (who sent me a photo today of her tattooed baby bump!) and made a photo calendar of grace online.. g went to bed and now i am blogging. feeling guilty because i didn't work-out today which is very unusual.. especially since i ate my way through my 4 grave shifts that went from boring/slow to hella busy (with a bout of nausea in the middle- bad food? virus? not sure)
i have to work the next 3 nights but they are swings so they won't be horrible. then i have 5 whole days off in a row! looking forward to roller derby on saturday and a road trip to idaho to visit Asya on sunday. it will be g's first road trip and my first time across the state in about 6 years.. excited to see the wheat fields again. gonna make a stop in pullman to check out my old stomping grounds and say hello to the Barnacles.
i discovered the beauty of craigslist this past week. found a leather sofa/love seat set for half the price of a new leather sofa (and they were only a year old)- snatched them up (since my old sofa was recently peed on by sammy)! sold my two extra jack johnson tickets and a pair of keen sandals that don't fit g anymore just 5 minutes after posting them! so i plan to put a couple of other things (exercise bike and bugaboo stroller) up for sale soon- it's so much simpler than a garage sale for things that you really don't just want to donate or give away.. the picture above is of g and ochie on the new leather sofa..
