and the countdown begins...

4 more days til the annual wishes for whiskers fundraiser which stresses us out (even tho we say we aren`t going to let it) every year.

homecoming was good in some respects..hard in others and downright pissing me off at some points too. i finally got that last several hundred of pounds of feed and cat litter out of the van and into the shop and feed shed tonight so that was hard work but it is good work too.

the barn guys were all very well behaved so i was feeling pretty warm and fuzzy with them..i didn`t get into the house til late so the dogs were all nut cases and that was irritating in the extreme. please understand this..i love these guys dearly...but a ton of crippled, wobbly and not very bright and insanely barking dogs all in your way the second you enter the house can drive you totally insane.

and there is no point in yelling at them to get the hell out of the way cuz all of the worst ones are mostly deaf anyway...it is a matter of shuffle and step...slide to the side, shuffle and step to the left just to reach the paper towels and the mop that i need to reach and by then the buggers have all surrounded me once again.

and esther is in top beaking off form..i swear she has not shut up once since i got home..if i wasn`t afraid to move, lest they all start following me again...i would go and find that freaking spray bottle and let her have a good shot to shut her up for a minute or two....she has no respect for me and my deadly pointing finger but total respect for a spray bottle aimed at her head.
she is over her excited...`oh gee you are home`.... and is now upset cuz i closed the doggy door with her inside where she thinks it is too warm...too freaking bad, i told her to go back out before i closed it and she would not go...madam butterfly is out of her cage for a walk about the house and i ain`t risking her walking about down the driveway again.
bonita and perdy had a hard time deciding to come back in tonight when i let them out for a pee..but i was getting impatient cuz i wanted to let pixie out of her cage and i needed everyone back in before i did that..they finally agreed but it was reluctantly and i think only cuz they could see my body language was getting a bit tense.

this is the beauty of living with non blind old dogs...you don`t really need to verbally explain how you are feeling to them...they can see perfectly well what is happening inside me before i blow a gasket at them....oh..this is looking like we are pissing you off..fine, relax....we will come back inside now for you then.
good dogs!

but....esther does not care if she is pissing me off..she wants what she wants and if i truly want her to shut up then i should give her whatever it is.
esther is not a very good dog, she is actually a pain in the ass.

max is bad tonight..i just gave him some more meds...i will give him til friday to settle out his neck if he can with the meds but if it goes any longer i just can;t leave him like this...he really is in too much discomfort and pain. i am trying to remember how long it took last time..i think it was almost a week back then too...unfortunately as all of us know with really bad backs and necks...you can`t fix a flare up overnight, the meds need time to do their thing to minimize the results of a badly messed up spine.
he has done really well for the past few months but i know the meds will not work for him forever. his neck has been toast for a long time...he just didn`t know cuz his med regime was working...this might just be another bad periodic episode or it might be there is no holding it back anymore.
he is such a very sweet and lovely dog....hope is floating for max for a few more days.

werll i better go brave those bloody bed buddies..i already cleaned up their mess from being shut in til i got home...but it was just a quick mop up and then on to the rest of the guys...they are waiting for me to come back and act like i missed them as much as they missed me today....which because i am in a pissy mood now (because of esther)....i have forgotten...ah well i will fake it til i make it somehow again.

and that is how you survive around here on the bad days..you fake it til you make it back to happy and cheerful again.
thank god they can`t read the blog or i would be in real trouble with them.