My Rueben.

I hardly know where to start, I cannot believe Rueben is gone. Rueben. My Rueben. With the cancer he had we knew we were on borrowed time, but I think this past week just tipped the scales for him. The stress of the attack, the injuries, all the additional medication.  We went to Seaside on Saturday and he had a ball playing with his tiny friend Piggles, eating cheese, chicken, crackers, lots of pets and hugs for my guy! But Sunday - we could tell he was starting to work and the swelling in his abdomen was worse. Everytime I sat he moved to be near me, he was so quiet and sad - but he tried. Everytime we spoke to him, said his name that tail wagged, his happy face for a brief moment but....

I knew it was time. 

The funny thing is the first couple of weeks after Molly passed I would look at him and think he wouldn't be with us too much longer - no, I don't think I'm psychic or I can predict the future, it was because they had been together so long and so perfectly it was hard to imagine Boo without The Boss. He was quieter after she left us - but still happy. That tail of his wagged the day away, even if you just went to get the mail when you returned Reuben greeted you like you had just come into port from sailing around the world. Loved to snuggle and spoon - early morning David and Boo had a routine that he would sit up in bed with his coffee and Rueben layed on his back with his head against David's chest - it was his greatest joy to start each day with the human he loved best in the universe. And he loved David with all of his fiber - and all of it was returned and more. 

Reuben was born happy and hyper, rarely destructive. He had one incident as a puppy, we had just started keeping him out of the crate while we were out and he had been so good! But I came in and our other dog at the time ran up the stairs - I walked into the livingroom into a sea of ?? foam, fabric, wood? and Rueben. He had taken my brand new wingback chair down to the frame - I got a hold of his collar and quietly put him outside so I wouldn't kill him. I was so mad!! Yet....greatly amused. Rueben was the most cheerful, nonaggressive dog we've ever owned - he never met anyone he didn't like and everyone was a friend. We often laughed that he was a Guest Slut since anyone staying overnight he felt it was his duty to sleep with them and maybe share the pillow. He was the sweetest dog we have ever owned. 

On Monday I called our vet, at 2 pm we arrived - I just wanted to put him back in the car and go home, just for a few more days. Years. There was a blanket on the floor so we could sit with him - it's a quiet room away from everything else. The vete gave him anesthesia first - like with Molly all the stress just flowed off of him, he fell asleep and then as we held him and kissed him goodbye he left us. This is so hard - the house is so quiet now with no boisterous dogs bouncing around, no one eying me for a biscuit. Obviously I know dogs die. I understand that the life span is so much shorter than ours and if you wish to be a dog owner you'll be saying good bye a few times before you yourself pass on. But some dogs are harder to let go of - Molly and Rueben were two of the best dogs I've ever had the honor of being thier friend, companion and family. I'm sure Molly has been waiting for Rueben to continue thier adventures. I hope they're running the elysian  fields together, the sun on thier backs through the tall grass. It was an honor my beloved Rueben, it was an honor. 

 

Shoot me now.

This has been a long haul, hasn't it? Do not ever get bit by a wild animal, the attack takes moments, the aftermath just goes on and on. I am very sore. The bite on my thigh where it really clamped on and caused a lot of soft tissue injury is now black, blue, red, purple and continues to leak - I'm guessing it's due to the depth and according to the doctor I saw today it's also infectioned. My other leg actually has about a dozen puntures ranging from very small to sorta big, not to mention the claw marks parading up the sides. I had posted the pictures on the local community bulletin board to see if anyone could identify what type of animal it was and general consensus is what I originally thought - raccoon. Despite thier cute trash panda persona they're also known as fierce, aggressive and relentless. Other suggestions have been

coyote

bobcat

honey badger

a very short vampire

chucacabra

The multiple injections I've had along with pulling various muscles adds in to the fun and I'm just tired in general. But last night I slept finally! really slept and I'm taking tylenol for the pain, I feel a bit better today. After I got done with the ER I had to make an appointment for the rest of the injections  - ugh. Calling to make a set appointment for  3 days specifically  is a nightmare around here, trying to do it after getting out of the ER makes it worse. You don't call the clinic itself, you call the Scheduling Department (which is about 100 miles away),they look at the schedule and put in for the next available appointment - which works well for things like physicals and evals. I will admit part of the problem is I was not thinking clearly so what the woman was trying to tell me was not getting through. However, the bigger part of the problem was the genius on the other end was trying to make a video appointment for me. For an injection. At the end of the month. Then told me I was being difficult. This went on for about 20 minutes until she said well, maybe I'll transfer you back to the ER and MAYBE THEY CAN HELP YOU. I told her that would be fine which further annoyed her but she did it. The doctor in the ER got right on the phone with me and 5 minutes later I had an appointment for today,

My appointment was for 9:30 and I was all set to drive myself. David took one look at me back in bed again and said maybe for this one he would drive me. Off we went. Got there, in a room, assessed by the nurse, then.......sat. And sat. After an hour the doctor came in apologizing as they are running behind, I completely understand that and was relieved to get started. She proscribed another week of antibiotics for the infected bite, then went off to order the injection and get the camera for pictures of the wounds. I waited.....and waited.....about 40 minutes later the MA came in, took pictures and then down to the lobby ........so I could wait for the nurse to call me to actually get the shot. Two hours after I arrived I finally left, my poor leg was throbbing by then as I cannot sit on hard surfaces for long as it aggravates it. David had forgotten his phone so I was not able to call him, I felt terrible he'd had to sit in the car for over two hours, but I was done, finally

We put on our seat belts.......and the car wouldn't start. 

Thank goodness for AAA! My battery had died and the bolt that holds it on was so corroded he couldn't get it off. But we were only a mile from the shop so he jumped the car, we followed him back to the shop and about 20 minutes later we were on our way home for real.The next two shots will not be as bad - one of the things that took the Dr. so long is rabies vaccines need to be registered with the state or something, that was part of the hold up. Rueben is better today too, the swelling on his back leg is almost gone and he has full use of it again. Kim and Steve stopped by yesterday and brought pizza for lunch, I've been doing Noom for about 6 months and have not had any pizza so it was a fun treat. But on the upside I've lost over 30 pounds - 30 more to go! David has been great through all of this, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate him. 

 

Morning Shinanigans

So, what exactly happened this morning? I got up a little after 4am as usual ( I know it's weird but well, it's me).Since he's on prednisone which makes him pee like a madman Rueben goes out right after I get up.  I put on my shoes, coat, his electric collar. There are no lights and I don't turn on the porch light, I just beep the collar so I can see where he is, it works for us. I know the yard well and enjoy looking at the late stars while Rueben sees a man about a horse. This morning it was raining,  I let him out while I got my umbrella and the next thing I hear is Rueben yipping and barking at something - I still don't know what - growling and snarling - I dropped the umbrella and ran, yelling Rueben's name at the top of my lungs. He was on the ground and in the pitch dark I could see him locked in a fight, I screamed his name and started kicking towards them, not hard but trying to get whatever it was to leave. My foot connected a little, I kicked out again still yelling  expecting it to stop and run away - and that's when it turned it's attention to me. 

It sank it's teeth deep,deep into my thigh and I really started screaming then - you cannot imagine the panic and pain, it would not let go. It finally dislodged and went right back at me - I have about 4 bites on my right leg, claw marks down the entire length. David first could not make out what all that noise was and then bolted out of bed, it was bedlam out in the yard, Rueben was in full gear, I was screaming blindly and that thing was still going at us. He put the light on and started yelling and finally, FINALLY it left. Rueben staggered up to the door, David not realizing I was injured was looking him over. By the time I got to the door the blood was just pouring  - you read about a pool of blood but let me tell you, standing in your own personal pool is a little freaky. David ran and got towels to hold pressure - I could not stop shaking, Reuben got a couple bites on his back leg but seemed ok. I finally calmed down enough to think clearly for a few minutes - I took a quick shower to wash out the wounds, dressed in a skirt to make it easier and off  we went to the ER. David pointed out on the way there that I could now cross Being Attacked By A Wild Animal off my bucket list. 

I enjoyed when asked why I was there to say "I was attacked by a wild animal", it is also the most epic sick excuse EVER. I had texted my equally early riser co-worker to ask if she could let them know I wouldn't be in and after a little sympathy got a request for pictures which I sent because I would have asked for them too. I got some bandages before I went in as I was still rather cheerfully bleeding all over the place. After I got settled on the gurney the doctor came in and a few other people because believe it or not it 's not every day someone comes in looking like a meat pie. The doctor agreed that it was most likely a large racoon, the wounds are not large enough for a bobcat and I'm not sure if I would have survived that. At that point it was decided I would be getting a full course of rabies injections, a tentanus shot and antibiotics since the alternative would be hunting down the animal, killing it and bringing it in. Not to mention it's not normal behavior for a wild animal to keep attacking like that. I sent David home to check on Rueben and  come back. With coffee. Please. 

So, rabies shots. 

They do not give them in the stomach anymore. 

It's given with a large, IM needle and it's multiple shots as they inject around the bites. I got about  8 around the bites on my right leg which hurt, but tolerable. The two deep IM injections I got into my left thigh was historic and epic and any other word you can think of. Wow. Ouch. Not done yet! One more rabies vaccination on my right detoid and a tetanus on my left. Oh, the wounds needs to be washed out, don't they? The nurse asked me to scale my pain as the tech was washing out the deep one on my thigh, I casually scaled it at a 41 until she was done then it was a 4. David came and got me and we headed home, Rueben's back leg was swollen now and he was limping. So off David went AGAIN, this time to the vet. Mr. Boo is now on predinsone, antibiotics and  pain medications, given his current terminal condition this is the last thing he needs. We gave him his pain meds and the prenisone he missed this morning and are just letting him sleep. I have my second rabies shot on Friday morning - yes everything really hurts, I suppose it could have been worse. But honestly, this is bad enough, thank you. 

 

Lost And Not Found

Ugh. One of the things about moving repeatedly is every move you ALWAYS lose something you need. You think you packed it away carefully but no, sadly, you didn't. Whatever it is it's most likely laying on the bottom of a bin which is mismarked Important Papers and shoved somewhere you can't see it. In the past month I've been pulling out boxes and riffling through them, some of them over and over again. We have some attic stuff (but no attic) - things that belong to Jackson and Adam, family things, etc... I had the lion's share unpacked, sorted and either put away or gave away  but what remains is annoying. There are a number of empty plastic bins that look like there's something in it so we don't lose the lid. Other things have been put  in bins but we never changed what it said - since we move around quite often we have a lot of big, plastic bins we use over and over again. And then we consolidate as we go along and that really throws a wrench in things! 

I've found a lot of my things, my wireless headphones were in the bottom of a box full of medical coding books, pots and pans in a bin way in the back. I had drastically downsized my knitting and found almost all of it over the past 3 months.......except for 3 sets of sock needles. 😦. I'm sure if you know me that you also know I have a very large collection of all sorts of needles - but there are three facts about these that I'm looking for -

They are bent in the middle 

They are VERY small

They are VERY expensive.

I bought them before I left and packed them carefully so I'd have them when I got here, I've never used this type of needle before and the way things are going, I probably never will. 

So, where to start? I went to the loft in our garage which the stairs are blocked off to prevent Ruebin from going up. He likes to do that but it's steep so he can't get back down which means he has to bark his fool head off until David goes up to get him. I waded through tools, attic stuff, Christmas decorations, found my Lily bags!, grandma's mink stole (that is now hanging in my closet), no needles. I headed down to the basement the next day and that was a chore. The box marked Important Papers has a pillow with half naked cowboys cavorting around on it, a platter with a duck, 2 empty wine bottles and a hat to give you and idea of the incredible system we use. In the event of a nuclear holocaust we are not your go to people trust me. I started at the back and unpacked EVERY SINGLE BOX AND BIN. Found my other  headphones, a book I'd been looking for, a pair of shoes, no needles. Then upstairs to the bins in the closet there, unpacked them, emptied every knitting bag I own - nope. So I've decided to invoke Murphy's Law as you know the best way to find something is to pay for a new one. The old one will usually show up on the same day. I'll let you know what happens!

 

Yard Sailing

David is starting to get closer to finishing the Astoria house - we've had a few lookie Lous and he's currently speaking to a local RE. He had one man and his adult son pull up and when he asked David what he was going to ask for it, immediately told David he knew what he'd paid for it. David then invited him and his son to vacate the premises - why people think what you paid for a foreclosure is some how a bargaining chip for them is beyond me. But it will hopefully be done by the end of the month and then it's my turn! David will be taking an extended break and can work here and there on this house, but he is taking some time off. He's renovated 3 houses in sucession and he needs a breather. We are still trying to figure out what we will be doing - we'd like a puppy, but we need to see what will happen with Rueben, Mr. Boobins, my Boo. We've been giving him prednisone and it seems to alleviated some of it but we really don't know how long he has. He's been eating a diet of chicken, fish, beef, treats - bones to chew on. For now, he's holding his own.

He sees his friend Piggles weekly and they are the odd couple, aren't they? Anyhoo, we've been frequenting yard and estate sales for the past month as I figure out what we're going to do. This house looks almost Summer campy on the lake, doesn't it? The guest room upstairs is nautical - for the main reason the decorations,lamps, tables and quilts came out of a painting job Kim and Stephen were doing and were all free. Hoarders had been living in a rental -but they were high end hoarders! You should see the cookware I got, some of it looks crazy expensive. The owners wanted to house emptied, the junk people were coming next week but they wanted the volume down. Kim had me come out and we got first run at it before she opened up to the neighbors, so hence the boating theme on my upper floor. But it does look over the slough (pronounced "slew)which is what we call the creek around here. About a month ago we went to an estate sale and wow. It was a 92 year old crafter - the husband had given away the quilting things to friends but this woman did embroidery, knitting, crocheting,sewing and beading. The woman running the sale told me she had $30,000 in bead supplies alone - there were tons of knitting needles, yarn, dodads all of which I picked up and put down - let someone else be a winner today. But what I cleaned up on was cloth napkins, tablecloths and placemats - all beautifully hand embroidered over a lifetime. On the 3rd day they just gave away EVERYTHING - I pulled up and starting going through it - the woman looked at me and said just take the whole box. And take the other one too - I filled my car! Kim got a full bag, I have a bag of embroidery stuff for Brandi, good times my friend, good times. But it does make you think about all those things we hold near and dear- this woman must've been a true master, I have tablecloths with matching napkins painstakingly stitched and edged - and all went to a stranger. I washed and ironed the whole lot, I appreciate it. 

The thing with estate and yard sales is the same with rules of shopping - if you can't use it, even if it's a dollar, it's worth nothing. We come with a list and  frequently leave with nothing. Sunday is the best day - they are fewer but people are usually wanting to get rid of it and as you saw, they even give it away. You can bargain - I finally found a chair like my grandmother had - it has a little stepstool you can pull out and looked like it had never been used (it still had all the stickers on it). Amazon - $98, yardsale -$25, my price - $20 because in my universe 5 dollars is 5 dollars. You can't get stuck on an item, I'm a sucker for 1)yarn, 2)old cookbooks and magazines and 3)table stuff. When you pick it up - do I really need this? How many do I have at home? Do I have room? I put a lot of stuff back. If you're not sure walk around with it while you're looking at other things, most of the time it goes back where it came from. A box of stuff for a dollar is often worth it, you can donate what you don't use. And decorating things are the best, the stuff they sell at Home Goods I can pretty much have 90% off - I got a pair of beautiful matching plant stands for ten bucks, solid wood and carved. An oversized champange glass to hold my wine corks - 50 cents. And honestly? It is way more fun and interesting than going to Home Goods or Pier One, there's no thrill to the hunt if anyone can one!