Rescue Journal

i woke up with a headache

Alison  ·  Nov. 10, 2006

and before anyone feels too sorry for me, it is because i slept til 9 am...what the heck is that all about?

but the good news is...i woke up with maudie in my arms! i am not going to worry too much about a new and nervous siberian who has the self determining drive to help herself to my bed at night. and she has joined the exclusive twosome club who can actually jump up on my bed without help (tyra and phoebe, tyra has to think about it and most times now opts for the bed on the floor) maude might still bolt if given half a chance because siberians are not meant to live in saintly zoos (it took cole almost a year to decide that this is in fact home and come to contented terms with his curtailed lack of freedom and new extended and extensive family.)

and that is my new (and very late in the morning) thought for today....The Adjustment....sounds like a reality series. SAINTS really is a wonderful place, where all the animals (even little jerks like Hank) get to live and be accepted for who they are. the only real rules are my litany to all of them as i leave the house each day..."no fighting, no biting, no peeing, no pooping, and stay out of trouble" the only two i really care about is the first two, but the others would be nice once in awhile too. no animal (except maybe lola) is meant to live in a home like this and yet they all make the adjustment eventually and find some contentment and happiness. and why is that anyway?...well, pizza helps and so do oreo cookies but there is another reason too. it is because of example. even if someone is freaking out when they suddenly find themselves here, they still watch and learn. and animals are way more flexible than humans...if an animal is surounded by a bunch of happy others, they eventually join the happy club and participate fully too. humans however sometimes view a happy club as something that needs dismantling and start with subterrainian renovations to undermine and start a new club of discontent.

i see it very occasionally in nursing. i have the very best job in nursing in the entire world and someone actually pays me a pretty decent wage to do it. and still once in awhile i hear and see the undergrounders, mining away in discontent and actively seeking to make it something it isn't because they think it should be more. i am hoping to retire before the foundations collapse. animals don't do that, they try real hard to get with the program, or at least get out of the way. and if they can find the secret code into the happy club, that is really all they want.

my third favorite saying is...fake it til you make it. and if you want to be happy then you fake it on the hard days and teach yourself to think positively so you can get thru them and move on to happy as soon as possible. i just finished my last set of hard, now i am working back up to happy. maudie is helping because she won't find happy if i can't. she needs someone in front of her to lead the way. so here is me, today with my headache feeling happy. it is raining to beat the band, it is just me and the animals today and nothing much to distract us and no where we really have to go. so happy can be here in between the mopping and the shoveling and the feeding and the laundry because that is where we are right now and we make the choice if it is good or bad. today...i choose good and i am hoping that maude is there right beside me.

i do kinda wish that jack would give it a break tho til my head feels a bit better.

Comments

Chris Thomas

Keifer just scared me by going to the back of the property where I could not see him. I think something scared him as he came bounding back after a couple of minutes. We need a fence!!!!

Carol

soooo...maudie bolted tonight...right thru the front yard fence,,,she knows she doesn't belong here and she really wanted to run. luckily she likes me already and came when i called her, i think she wanted me to run with her...tempting maude, but i am afraid neither one of us can take off yet.

Jean

Great post. I have to add the story of our conversation last night, Carol, because it speaks so clearly of the sort of place SAINTS is:

Last night I was sitting in the kitchen at Saints chatting with Carol when I suddenly spied a beetle scurrying across the floor. Without thinking, I got up to step on it....and caught myself at the last minute, asking Carol "can I kill it?".
Her response was a shocked "No! Jean, this is SAINTS!!!!"
I was humbled. She was absolutely right. What was I thinking???
However, at three o'clock this morning I suddenly thought of what my next line should have been: "Then can we spay or neuter it??"

Chris Thomas

Great post. I love that saying 'fake it till you make it.' Much of our behaivour is habit and if we can somehow change the habit to something positive we are able to make changes.