Spread the Word - Speak Out!

make custom gifts at Zazzle

For Just One Day

We saw a sad soul laying under the pickup truck. This cat, actually still a kitten, extremely emaciated, with ants swarming on it's back leg. It was timid at first, then immediately friendly, not feral at all. It's back leg had no fur left, it was just a large open wound, along most of the leg all the way up to the thigh. We dreaded the thought of introducing a cat into our lives with the two dogs but we also knew we were both suckers for animals. The least we could do was to care for it until we could get it to the vet in the morning.

We were stingy with food for fear of harming the young cat, reminding ourselves of what we new about the history of concentration camp victims. We gave it just a little milk and a teaspoon of tuna. We did not want to bring it into the house, not knowing what other problems it might have and worried the dogs would upset it.

We took Scarlett's cage outside, put in a sheet and a towel and a container with water. It was going to be in the upper 60's and dry. We set it by the front door, facing the door. We were concerned that other critters not bother it. Sam would go out periodically during the night to check on it. It was resting fine.

The vet would open at 8 this morning and we transferred the cat into a box and headed out. It seemed to enjoy the ride, looking all around, crying occasionally.

There is only one vet in this rural town, very good people and they are always busy. Saturday is first come first serve. We pulled up at 7:45 and found 5 or 6 people already waiting. At triage we found out it was a girl. I said we should name it Sally. I don't know why except that it began with an S and sounded southern.

We finally got in to an examining room at about 10 o'clock. Sally weighed in at under 4.5 pounds. They guessed she was about six months old. The vet was puzzled some by the wound and how Sally may have gotten it. She asked us if we were going to keep the cat. We couldn't imagine what else we could do. The vet suggested before we put a lot of money into all that would need done that they do a feline leukemia test there in the office. It would cost 45 dollars. We said of course knowing full well the list of shots and care she would need would be great.

While they took her away for the test Sam and I discussed what would be the best way to introduce Sally to the dogs, how would we keep her away from them while she healed, should we keep her separate anytime we were away, how would the dogs behave and so on.

The vet came in and told us the bad news. Sally in fact tested positive for feline leukemia. Our hearts fell to the floor. We had barely cared for this cat for 12 hours and yet it broke our hearts. There is no cure. To best describe the condition is to compare it to AIDS. It is an autoimmune deficiency. Now the vet understood the way her leg was, it was not healing because of her low immunity.

I had a cat die of this 30 years ago before the vaccine was discovered. It was too late for my cat 30 years ago and because this cat never had been vaccinated, it was too late for her. I know what it is like to watch a cat die from this and I didn't want to do it again. It's not fair to them and I honestly don't have the time needed for the commitment. We sadly made the decision to have her put down. It was an awful day for all of us.

Reassured by the vet we had done the right thing and that she at least wouldn't have to die alone or in the wild we could at least find comfort in that. We cried and we drove home in silence. God sent us a cat to send home to him. We did what we could.

We gave each other a little love for just one day.

July Foxhole Update

It is still hot and I expect that won't change until October. For the long holiday weekend we did a lot of relaxing and hung a ceiling fan on the back porch, thankful for Father's Day gifts. More than cooling, though that is good, it keeps the bugs off you. Wonderful!

It rains nearly every afternoon. It either pours down like a torrent or we get lots of lightning and thunder and barely a drop. Today we had a quick downpour and had 4 inches in our rain gauge! In case your wondering, no the rain does not cool things down. It only gets more humid.

We had to take the car in for it's 60,000 mile work up, that hurt! But have no fear we are blessed and we know it and take nothing for granted. Despite it all we are happy. Having reached this age, we both can still remember a time in our own lives when we were worse off.

Sam has a dentist appointment this week and we should both be done with that for awhile, yippee.

Work continues to fill most of my time. I enjoy it but these type of projects are alwalys time limited and it seems we are always on a critical path for deliverables.

We have a new bluebird nest in the box out front, this will be our second brood this year. We imagine we'll get at least three sets of baby birds before they stop for the winter.

Sarge turned 3 on the 4th and he still acts like a pup! We spoiled him all day long. The neighbor has gotten more cows and they have been quite noisy in the mornings. It's fun to listen to them. I took the dogs on a walk to see them and neither of them wanted much to do with them. Those cows are awfully big close up.

Crops are already being harvested down here so we recently got some wonderful tomatoes and some sweet plums from a co-worker. I'd love to grow a garden but I would be battling the bugs and pests all the time out here, not to mention all the time it would take.

That's all I have for now, not very exciting but I figure that's a good thing. Y'all stay safe. Hugs from us both.

Dixie Land Update

It's warm, the air is thick and humid. Trees and flowers all fully bloomed and the baby bluebirds have left the nest. Sam cleaned it out in hopes for another brood. We've been getting spotty afternoon thunderstorms, some hits, some misses so we still have to water. We are only allowed to water three days a week.

It's actually warmer here than at our place in Georgia. Doesn't make sense to me. As you can see by our new widget on the sidebar our absolute favorite TV show will soon be in it's fourth season. It's the only show we really watch regularly and it is only on for about 10 weeks. Sam has a couple others that are also short season shows, Psych and the Sarah Conner Chronicles. Television isn't something we watch much of at all. When it is on we tune it to GAC and listen to country, although CMT still has some good stuff on, it's always just background music to whatever else we are doing.

The downside to living in the south is that most of the time it is too darn hot to get out for walks unless it's really early in the morning and sometimes even then it's stifling.

I found a short cut to the mall near work so that has become the lunchtime activity. It is too hot to sit in the car for lunch and this way I can get a little exercise in too. Just window shopping and staying cool. There is no shade in the parking lot at work and the car is super hot at quitting time.

With the price of gas so high we've lessened our weekend trips out to town. I think it has been three weeks since we made the trip. Tomorrow we will go in and stock up at the grocery, yippee! We really enjoy the morning as funny as it sounds, a trip to the local dump and then off to the grocery. Every other trip we treat ourselves to a Starbucks coffee at the Target in town. We're living large. LOL.

The folks across the road from us have been increasing their supply of cows and calves. Cute buggers. We'd like to take the dogs over to see them. They hear them all the time but can't see them through our privacy fence. Scarlett would just love to herd them. I'll get some pictures and post them later this weekend if I remember.

That's it for now. Sarge's birthday is the 4th of July, pronounced 'JOO-lie' down here in Dixie. He will be three years old though he still thinks and acts like a puppy. Hugs to everyone.

A Day at the Lake

This past weekend we were invited to a get together at the local lake around here. Lake Murray. A gentlemen from work and his wife have some lakefront property they are developing and invited the Project staff out for an afternoon of food, music and boat rides.

It's been quite warm here so the breeze from the lake was welcome. We took the first ride down the river in a co-worker's pontoon, very pleasant. We were over dressed for the weather. We wore jeans when we should have worn shorts! We'll have to rethink that next time we go out to the lake. The food was catered in, fried chicken, veggies and folks brought homemade desserts. Sam made brownies. We spent about 3 1/2 hours and then headed for home. It was about a half hour drive but quite hot. Sam was smart enough to wear a hat but I didn't. We got home and immediately took a nap. Old farts.

Sam was quite pleased on Father's Day that all three of his children gave him a call to wish him Happy Father's Day. He of course gave his father a call. I wish we could get up to Chicago again but I don't know how or when.

That's about it. We're staying cool inside and it was in the sixties overnight so the morning on the back porch was pleasant. We should get down to the sixties again this week so that makes for a nice break before hitting the 90's by lunchtime. Hugs to all.

Was I complaining about the cold a while back?

Not now. It is hot, hot hot! On average it's been 100 degrees at quitting time. There is virtually no shade in the parking lot at work so the fact that our car is black is not a good thing. The nights have not gone below 70. That would be fine if there was a breeze at least but that's not happening. We get afternoon storms almost daily, more lightning than rain and still no cooling off. It's like August up north.

The snakes are out, you can view our It's a Dog's Life blog and see an update there from the dogs about that. Spiders, boy howdy have we got spiders. Fortunately they are staying outside. We have black widows out front and all kinds building webs out back.

Plenty of birds visiting and bringing their babies to the feeders. We are going through a box of suet a day. We have baby blue birds in the nest out front. Today we had a baby red-bellied woodpecker visit the backyard suet holder, he was soooo cute. We have baby finches galore, baby downy woodpeckers, nuthatches and I'm sure the cardinals and blue jays must have some nearby though they are harder to spot from the adults.

The baby squirrels are out and about driving Scarlett crazy. She loves to stalk them. She lies in wait but alas can never catch them. Southern living is great but without those hard long freezes the bugs won't die.

We are hoping to take a little trip to the coast soon. We haven't been yet and would like to get down to Charleston and Fort Sumter. It shoud be about a two hour drive. Between the price of gas and the heat we haven't ventured out much. It so nice to just hang out around the house on weekends we really don't mind not going anywhere. Lazy weekends in rural SC, almost as good as Georgia but we still think we like Georgia better.

Check out the dog's blog and catch their update and we'll see you all soon. Hugs!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a month since we wrote on News from the Foxhole. We've been having our teeth worked on and not felt much like writing. What a wonderful way to spend your free time and 'stimulus' check. We may never get grass in this yard, Boy howdy the price of dental work has gone up! We both maxed out our dental benefit in what will amount to two visits for each of us. As much as we hated to we had to get the dental work done but it sure did hurt in more ways than one.

Not much else going on, the birds are eating a suet block per day, feeding their young. We have five bluebird eggs in the nest box out front. It's been quite warm and we've enjoyed cool mornings.

Along with the price of gas we notice chicken went up a dollar since our trip to the grocery just two weeks ago. I expect other things have as well and will continue as the costs to get things to market will rise just based on fuel costs.

Yes, I believe the grass in the backyard will have to wait. We've been very busy at work and we are on a tight timeline so I've been working some every night and weekend at home, another reason I haven't blogged much.

We're both enjoying and bemoaning the election cycle as the chaos continues. The sleep number bed is still wonderful and the dogs still love it. I think they are in it more than we are.

Scarlett has been stalking the squirrels in the hopes that she can herd them all into a corner. Sam bought her a stuffed squirrel toy and put it in the ground feeder. LOL. She stared at it for four minutes trying to see it move. Sarge just moseyed up to it and grabbed it. The chase was on then! Just another reason why I love him, he keeps me laughing. Sam is truly provides my anchor and my balance in this crazy world.

We sent Pa's father's day card out today. Ma and Pa sent us some Polish ham and some of the great sweets they like to send. Yummy! Oh, Pa sent Sam a book that he is reading now on WWII. I'm reading a painfully awful book on Lee's Army, the writer is obviously a yankee and the book is very biased against the South. I don't mind reading both sides but this writer is too anti-south. I prefer just the facts please.

We are anxiously awaiting a friend of ours to get published. An excellent author who is writing a fictional book, an alternative history on the Army of Northern Virginia. We read the first manuscript and fell in love with it and the writer! Sam will go down in history as she has made him a Captain with his real last name in the book!! That's just icing on the cake because the writing is wonderful.

Speaking of cake, Sam baked one today (another reason I love him) and I think I'll go grab a piece. Hugs to all from both of us!