I haven't had the strength to blog till now because I've finally recuperated from last week. I've discovered that a 17 year old cocker spaniel, a 3 year old golden retriever, a 7 year old cat and an 8 month old baby when put together will give you an eye twitch. No really!
Two Thursdays ago, my friend who houses my now very senior cocker spaniel and my cat (because Greg is extremely allergic to them) went to Colorado for a ski trip. Naturally I was going to sit them since they are of course MY pets. So it was agreed that I would move into his house with the baby for a week and Greg thought this would be a good time for him to embark on a whirlwind work trip that took him from Vancouver to Seattle to San Fran to Washington to home in 5 days. We agreed that from Thursday to Saturday night before his departure, the dogs would come up to the cabin with us so Greg could be with Ashiah longer and he could walk and play with Calum the very enthusiastic Golden and would endure the sniffles for a few days. Then on Sunday, he would help me pack up the herd and all our belongings and help us get settled in our new digs and off he would go. The cat would be okay for a few nights alone. Good plan?
Wrong. Bad plan, very very bad plan.
For starters, Greg is still sniffling after a complete sterilizing of the house and about 10 loads of laundry, all blankets sheets cushions clothes etc. I'm still not done the laundry and am back trying to figure out some reason and miracle cure for poor Greg's animal allergies.
But that's really not the bad part. We ended up getting the snowstorm of a century and were snowed in at the cabin till Monday. Greg had to hike up to the highway through knee high snow in his runners (no need for boots where he was going) with his luggage and grab a cab to the airport to catch a very delayed plane. Meanwhile, I waited for the bulldozer to come dig us out. After 7 trips from the house to the car, the car was finally packed. Whiskey, my 17 year old cocker is having terrible bowel problems now and had pooh'ed in my car on the way to the cabin so that now it was frozen in the middle of the console and smelled fabulous. I hacked away at it with a knife swearing to myself in the freezing cold. I finally got both dogs, the baby and all the luggage in and off we went to Ottawa.
Once established in town, it was a week of picking up pooh, running after dogs and baby (who is now very good at crawling and getting into everything) and keeping them separate. On Wednesday I went to speak to the neighbors about Whiskey's now incessant barking and the wind slammed the door to the house shut and I was locked outside with only my boots on. Thank God I'd dressed Ashiah. Half an hour and $60 later, the locksmith who couldn't pick the very complex locks took a crow bar to the patio door and we were in. Great, now I'd broken my friend's door, something else to stress about. I hightailed it to Ashiah's doctor's appointment in Wakefield (half hour drive) and an idiot woman who thought she had enough room to pass side swiped me and the parked car beside her despite my waving no, taking out a huge gash in the parked car and denting mine and she took off. I got to the doctor's appointment and they said there had been a mistake and we were an hour early - this after I undressed a sleeping baby. Fast forward to 7 pm when I just want to sit and eat and my sister called with a frantic nephew needing assistance so it was back in the car and off to Hull where I helped bathe, feed and put to bed my 1.5 year old nephew and console my poor sister who had a hell'ish week herself back and forth from the hospital with my nephew sick with the flu.
Anyway, I survived the week but was sad that it wasn't the "cuddle with my pets fest" that I'd hoped it to be. I was frazzled and my nerves were shot by the time Greg got home at midnight Friday.
Despite everything however, I miss my boys now... Whiskey, Calum and Wookie. I miss them all terribly. I hope they somehow know that I still love them even if I can't always be with them or look after them the way they deserve. They will always remain my first babies... but furrier.
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