Perspective

I was having a crap-tastic day today. Everything that could go wrong did.

I woke up late.

Had to go unlock the cafe for the opener (20 minutes away) because she doesn’t have a key.

She wasn’t there. Waited for her.

Drove back home to shower. Realize I’m still driving a borrowed car and I need my own car.

Back to work. Traffic everywhere. Gas gauge taunting me. Turn off A/C….realize it’s effing HOT!

Brand new oven non baking properly.

No room in the kitchen.

Check the bank account. OVERDRAWN.

Call Bill. Get upset.

Freak out because I work a million hours, and still can’t pay basic bills.

Go back to baking.

Mess everywhere.

On top of everyone at the cafe.

Still doing manager stuff when I’m trying to bake.

Can’t get delivery out on time.

Mommy & Me group shows up so they can sip chai, and chit chat, and talk about who has the cutest baby.

I remember I’m almost 32, no kids, no real proposal from Bill (I guess I should be glad I got the ring).

Feel sad, feel frustrated, can’t talk to Bill because he’s working.

Feel like nothing will ever work out, we will never be in a place where we have a few extra dollars.

Come home to a mess because the dogs destroyed the place.

Hate being alone.

Tired of general bullshit from people.

Feel depressed.

Call from therapist who wants to see me. Fake my “I’m happy and life is great” voice.

Think about the $300.00 emergency vet bill from the weekend, on top of today’s bills in the mail.

Sit at the computer.

Look at Buddy and all the dogs.

Wish I was a dog.

Think it would be easier to just be dead.

Look on Facebook. (Because that somehow makes it better….)

NOW…..if you are still with me, here is where my perspective.

Buddy came from a severe hoarding case where 200 dead dogs were found, and only 45 survived. I wanted to send the group that rescued him a note to let them know there was a happy ending, but before I could send the message, I found this:

This picture was used for the campaign to help raise money for the 45 who survived. If that’s not enough to make you sick, think about this…….THAT dog in the picture…Is BUDDY.

I looked over at Buddy sleeping in the pile of dogs on the floor in the living room. He was sleeping along with the rest of them.

I couldn’t just shut the computer….I kept looking.

I found this picture. It’s still Buddy…but I realized there were so many more dogs….

Then I saw this….

Now a mother knows her baby…but I looked at his nose to be sure. I was right. That IS Buddy.

Suddenly all the bullshit of my day didn’t seem to matter as much.

I felt dumb actually.

Nope, we have no damn money. We barley paid rent this month. I’m driving a borrowed car because we don’t have the money to get mine from Illinois, that Bill’s aunt is driving but stopped paying on (though her new house remodel is AMAZING…..*asshole*). Bill bought it, then found out he was being deployed like a week later. She needed a car, he got her that one, then she stopped making payments right when we sold my car, and still can’t get up there to get me that one!

I need stuff for the bakery, Bill needs stuff for his business…..we are eating pasta for about the 10th night in a row, and we both probably now have a credit rating of about 200….but WHO CARES.

At night, we have 4 crazy ass dogs who love us and aren’t in any danger. Our vet thinks Buddy is between 9 and 11 years old, and we think he’s never lived in a house before. (Potty training a deaf, older dog is quite challenging!) but at night, when the bill collectors go home, and all the bills that came in today are added to the pile, it just doesn’t matter. What matters is Buddy and the rest of our rescues don’t have to worry about not having food (our animals eat before us I PROMISE YOU THAT!!) and they aren’t in a kennel too small for them, and they have all the medical care they need (Buddy learned this on Sunday when Baker caught the incision from his eye removal and ripped a three inch gash down his nose from his eye. Thankfully, I had our vets personal phone number from doing their daughters wedding cake. A few quick calls, we tracked him down, and he met us in about half an hour! He’s fine now, and even made it to a dog event we had a booth at during the late afternoon.)

At the end of the day, here is what matters:

In the event you would like to help with the cost of saving the 45 dogs who survived the hoarding ordeal, here is a link to a very cool shirt with proceeds going to Animal Rescue and Relief. You can also visit the group responsible for the search and rescue of the 45 dogs who survived, Animal Rescue and Relief. Finally, if you would like to contribute to the shelter where we actually adopted Buddy, please visit the website for Pet Helpers.

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Things We Now Know

It was an interesting week of learning at our house.

First off: having a dog who is deaf, missing one eye, and going blind in the other, is not as hard to take care of as everyone thinks. Bill and I love the shit out of Buddy, and agree our zoo wasn’t complete until he came along.

Buddy didn’t do much the first 24 hours with us, except lay around, which is all the shelter said he would do…and then his inner puppy came out when he realized he was in his forever home. As Bill said, he’s been like a 2 year old with a Red Bull and a puppy!

We also learned…….Hulk, the iguana will eat out of your fingers (video coming soon).

Children get you sick, no matter how cute they are. Meet the ORIGINAL Prince George…

George is the son of our friends Josh and Liz. The cafe we moves the bakery into belonged to Josh before he passed away last year.

Even though I was sick, I did relax for a day this week…then I actually took my first real day off in a long time!!!

We learned I’m not Picasso….

I like to paint, and Bill wants to plaster them on the walls, but I’m fine throwing them in a book!

We learned blackberries are awesome in scones….

Pies are cooler than wedding cakes….

And we learned having 4 large rescue dogs is AMAZING

Even if they don’t sit still for a single second!

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Then There Were Four

Not a week ago, I said to Bill “we should adopt an older dog as a buddy for Diesel…”

We talked about it, but didn’t immediately do anything about it. Yesterday morning I picked a local newspaper I walk past several times a day on the newsstand. There on the bottom of a random page, in nothing more than two inches of black and white print was the photo of a dog. My dog. At that moment he wasn’t my dog, but I knew he was meant to be.

The dog in the photo was a survivor of a local hoarding case. At just seven years old, “Buddy” was missing an eye as well as completely deaf. He was perfect! Diesel also has a bad eye, and likes to sleep a lot. They were a match.

I went down to the shelter, and fell instantly in love. I sent Bill a picture. He asked whose dog that was. I replied “hopefully ours” and Bill just said “ok.” The shelter wouldn’t let me take him home without doing a meet and greet with all the dogs. It broke my heart to leave him over night, but less than 24 hours later, Buddy and Diesel were best friends. It was like Diesel knew he needed to take Buddy under his wing.

We loaded all the dogs in the truck, and brought Buddy home to possibly the first home he ever has had. He did some exploring, and settled in. I hope he knows we already love him.

Finding his “spot”…

This is the one…..

How do you not love this sweet baby??? I hate how he was abused, I’m mad he sat at the shelter for over a month, and no one showed any interest in him. I’m overjoyed he’s in our lives.

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