05/15/2015 My life has changed in a way I never dreamed it would. I rescued a dog with a bad leg that had to be amputated and a month ago yesterday she gave me 7 gorgeous babies. I guess they were my gift. For the first two weeks they were pretty easy but that has changed exponentially. Frito is not too into these little milk suckers now that they have teeth and I have been designated the surrogate mom. They are eating a formula made up of evaporated milk, egg yolk, water, yogurt and Karo syrup. I mix powdered baby rice cereal and a dog food gruel of a good puppy chow. The gruel is tiny little puppy chow nuggets softened to mush in water. They go through one whole can of evap. milk mix a day. All I do is make puppy food, seriously. Well, that and clean up puppy pee and torn up newspapers and wash their bedding.

These guys and girl are big healthy puppies and they are active and OMG, they are so loud.  The loudness proof follows, and if you think to yourself, “oh that is so cute” imagine it at 1 AM and again at 4 AM. NOT CUTE. Click HERE. We have a huge pen for them on the covered and protected downstairs concrete porch. They love it down there. They also spend a lot of time in the grass chasing each other and climbing on Lola but they are only in the grass if we are there to watch them. I wish I weren’t such an anal dog owner, but I am. I’m afraid to have them downstairs after dark because of the Boa Constrictors. Granted we have never seen one at the house but one is all it takes and I could never live with myself if something like that happened. This may no longer be paradise. When it gets dark we bring them upstairs and they run and pee all over the living room. I may as well just keep my steam vac out here and filled. We have a wooden pen for them up here too but they hate it and howl when we put them in there. Hence, the sleepless nights and I can’t stand to let them howl because #1. They are loud (have I mentioned how loud they are?) #2. They get so upset from crying I’m afraid it will hurt them. No sleep sucks.

Last Friday evening a new friend and her husband came over. We had never met except on Facebook. She and her CHIROPRACTOR husband are considering moving here. YAY for a chiropractor! They came to the island for a week and drove down to our house Friday afternoon. The 4 of us went to Cal’s for dinner and then came back here and hung out for a bit. Michael was kind enough to give me a treatment for my upper arm that has been bothering me for almost a year. He did acupuncture, cracked my neck and taped me again.

Saturday was my airport gig day. I got there at 10:20, first flight was due in at 11 but it came in @ 10:30. EARLY??? It was a busy day however we did get an hour break in between flights so I had some time to chill. All the other times I did the greeter thing I came home and could hardly stand up my feet hurt so bad. This time I wore my Crocs sandals and my feet and body were fine. I could have danced that night! If only. I really enjoy volunteering there, I get to talk to people from all over the world, some making their first visit to the island, some returning year after year. Once we get all the passengers in the immigration building and sorted into the proper lines we then ask them to have their passport ready, get all the papers out of it, and we talk to them about the areas they are staying. We do this because the Immigration officers are from the mainland, they don’t know the island. One of their questions is “where are you staying?” Parrot Tree Plantation or Anthony’s Key mean nothing to them, they don’t know where they are on the island. We get everyone ready in hopes we speed up the process and then we just chat with them and try to keep them from realizing how long they are waiting. Sometimes a LONG LONG time. It’s fun, I like to talk to new people and always hope I display the persona that the visitors wish to see when they get somewhere new, a friendly face. I’m filling in for someone again this coming Saturday.

Sunday the pups had been so active that Bill went and got groceries alone. I stayed home to keep them in the pen. The whole week was filled with puppy care, feeding, cleaning up, playing with, kissing holding and snuggling and that’s pretty much it. When Nidia from Because We Care messaged me to see if I was up for a school drive on Thursday I said, HELLS YEAH! Bill was home working on re-making louvered shutters for Craig and Cleo’s house so he was in charge. Unfortunately I was up until after 11 with the pups and they had me up again at 4:44 AfreakingM. I was zombified the next day.

Sherri was here at 7:30 in the morning and we met Nidia @ 8. The first stop was mid island at Santa Maria, I was there with Because We Care for the Christmas food drive and TOMs shoes deliveries.

After there we went to a school in Brick Bay, we also delivered shoes there. It is right down on the water and there are mangroves and I am sure mosquitoes in the standing water.

When we were done there we went east to Politilly. This is a school that my good friend Janice and her husband Don do so much for, it is in their ‘hood. These kids probably don’t know how lucky they are, the view from the school is absolutely amazing.

When we were finished there we headed down to Crawfish Rock. I was also there during Christmas doing the food and Santa drive. This school is situated on the water too and Sherri and I were getting eaten alive by the sand fleas or mosquitoes, they liked us, I couldn’t wait to get in my car!

After we left Crawfish Rock we traversed the mountain (hill) to the last stop of the day, Hottesparrow. I had been spelling it Hottest Sparrow but I was wrong. The road from Crawfish to there was bad to say the least, thankful for my AWD car.

We got a lot accomplished in a few hours Thursday morning. After we had handed out all the supplies we loaded all of the backpacks and supplies I had in my car into the truck Nidia was in. Next Friday we are headed to Helene with 20 more desks and LOTS of school supplies for the students there.

Sable and Bandit’s future parents came over on Friday to see their babies. It makes me feel so good to know these two will have a good home. Last night we had them all inside and they were really good, we put them in their box as soon as they woke up and had no accidents on the floor. They all slept until 5 AM when Highway barked. Then they were up, we fed them all and took them downstairs. I went back to bed for awhile because I could and I like to sleep.

I had to do my airport thing again today, I really enjoy that except I sweat like a freaking pig. I am going to invent and patent some sort of under boob deodorant, I’ll be rich in a few months, rolling in the dough with dry boobs. I mentioned earlier that we are asking people where they are staying; well today I asked a young girl and she said, “with my dad.” I asked where her dad lived but she didn’t know. I asked who her dad was. She told me and I said, “Oh, XXXXX, the Lionfish Hunter?” She said “yes, do you know him??” I told her no, only on FB and that his birthday is the same as my son’s, Sept. 17th. I also told her where her dad lived. Small island.

We just fed the pups for the umpteenth time today and now they are running all over upstairs. I never wanted puppies, never in my life. I have owned dogs my whole life and aside from my mom breeding her toy poodles, we never had puppies, we always had our dogs fixed. This is new territory to us. We are both busy enough as it is, add in 3 dogs, then #4, who has 3 legs then 7 puppies and this house is sheer bedlam. But at the end of the day I can sleep (when they allow me to) knowing we are giving these pups the best start at life that we can. I kiss each and every one before I feed them and after, they are ALL held several times a day, they are used to people and other dogs. We are trying our best to be responsible puppy parents and can only hope and pray that the new owners of these dogs love them and give them the care that they deserve.

It’s been a busy fulfilling week and I’m fried. I’m signing off with a fresh glass of wine in my hand and am headed to the couch, that is until we have to feed the pups again.

P.S.  I was messaged this morning by my friend Stephanie about a dog with mange and starving that she saw near our house. I had to leave for the airport early but told her I would go look tomorrow morning. Bill ran to Oak Ridge today and said he saw the dog also. Stephanie set some wheels in motion and some fabulous people will take this dog and rehab her. Bill and I are going to go look for her early in the morning and bring her back here until Marc can come and get her. Hopefully another dog saved by the fabulous people willing to shelter them. Thank you so much Olivia and Marc, you two are amazing!

Adiós Amigos!