a dog's tale

gibson has a home! 

it's a foster home, but at least it's a home.

 i had been all over the internet searching resuces and sending emails.  i was at the car wash the other day and there was a guy with his dog telling someone about how he had really spoiled the dog.  i asked him if he knew anyone who could take him.   my vet even told me i was going to have a hard time finding someone.  i was totally discouraged.

then friday i had a message from the original girl that said she couldn't stop thinking about gibson and wanted to take him for a day to see how it went with the other dog family members.  she was to call me sunday to make arrangements for monday.  i also had a email from a rescue called muttville in san francisco that said they could foster him.  their site looks good and the foster guys emailed me also. 

i don't know why, but the girl did not contact me sunday or monday, so i decided to take the foster guys up on their offer.  i called and spoke with rob and he told me they lost their old girl in november & were looking forward to taking in gibson.  they plan on walking him every night and taking him to the local off leash dog beaches when they can.  he will have a dog door to go in and out.  i feel good about it & am excited for gibson to have people that will take him on more walks then i managed to take him on.  he does love his walks.  i can't imagine what he will think of the beach.

unfortunately, the girl called today (tuesday) to say she wanted to take him this weekend.  i had to call her back and let her know that because she did not call, i assumed she was really not that interested and accepted another home.  she just left a message appologizing for the misunderstanding and that she know gibson will be loved in his new home.  she sounded sad, but i had no choice, if it was that important, she would have been in contact sooner.  she knows i'm running out of time.

anyway, it's with very mixed emotions that i write this.

i'm sooo relieved that i have a home for gibson, i wish it was a new home, but maybe rob & victor will grow to love him so much that they will keep him.  that's how it happened with me.  i resuced him with the best of intentions of finding him a home, i just did not think it was going to be my home.  

i am also very sad and discouraged and guilty that i'm even doing this.  i feel like i should have done something else or better to keep him with us.   i just can't imagine it being a good life for him to be closed up in a trailer all day without being able to get out to go to the bathroom.  he definitely can't be left outside alone as he would be a sitting lunch-a-bunch for some wild animal. 

i hope he knows how much he is loved here. 

i hope he knows how much he will be missed.

i have been telling him

i think he understands, he follows me around more than usual and always stands where he can touch me

i hope rob & victor love gibson and take good care of him and take him on lots of walks and feed him el pollo loco chicken and scratch his butt when he streches like he is bowing and keep him til they can find him a really really good new home

i hope gibson doesn't think he did something wrong to be taken to a new home

i hope gibson loves rob and victor and his new house and new yard and new dog door and new neighborhood and the dog beaches and new dog friends and new people friends

i hope gibson's tale is still a good one and that there are many more chapters and a very happy ending

i hope gibson's tail continues to wag happily in his new life as much as it did in his old

when push comes to shove

oh crap!   when we started this thing (i can't even call it an adventure right now, i am so overwhelmed), we were worried we wouldn't be able to sell the house in time for the tetons, let alone sell it at all.   well, it's sold and we are running around like crazy people.

the buyers want in right away and we want to stall till the 29th.  they are pushing for sooner and we are shoving for later.   the winner to be determined at a later date.

i thought i was orgainized in the packing department, but this part time job is really getting in the way.  john has taken alot to the storage unit already, but i think the crap in the cupboards and the mess in the garage are like bunnies and reproducing faster than we can keep up.  i'm at the point where it all looks like a bunch of nothing and i'm getting ready to start throwing it all away.  unfortunately, the wanna be hoarder in me kicks in before i can really do it.   then i have great ambitions of a yard sale, yeah right, like that is going to happen.

then there is the frustrating mess of trying to find a new home for gibson.  i had someone who told me they were interested and really excited about taking him, so i did not pursue looking any further.  well, she called to say after praying about it, she can't take him.   i thought i had a backup plan with a rescue in washington, but that person seems to be trying to kindly get out of it also.  she says she will send his info out to other rescues.  i have been on the internet nightly looking for rescues, but alot of them look pretty hokey to me.  they all want donations, but don't seem to be too interested in taking a dog.   a couple of them actually told me my only choice was probly to "let him go".  what kind of rescues are these people?  what are they rescuing?  i understand they are swamped with requests like mine and are doing the best they can, but jeez, if you are so dedicated to saving animals, how can you so coldly tell someone to put a perfectly fine dog to sleep without even trying?

i'm trying to live by the old saying and just take it one day at a time.

that's all i can do.

i will focus only on what is needed to be done today and just add the rest to my to do list for later.

it will all get done and in time for us to be in the tetons by may. 

it has to.

otherwise, john & i will be on the side of the road

pushing and shoving our boxes down the highway

or possibly

pushing and shoving each other

with gibson following behind

much ado about nothing

we had all the inspectors and appraisers show up.  you would have thought the pope and the president were going to be here.   jeez!  so much running around and cleaning and trying to look at things thru their eyes and fixing and stressing.  looking back, we should have just said "screw it" and left it at that.

the termite inspection report still has not shown up.  the inspector advised john we had termites in the back deck, but until we get the official report we can not start any repairs.  he made it sound pretty bad to john, but if it's too bad we will get a 2nd opinion

the home inspection came back with alot of silly little notations.  we can fix a few of them, like the fan in a bedroom, plate over an electrical outlet, smoke detectors in each room.  however, we will not be tearing out the tile on the master bath tub to allow access to the motor, we will not be replacing windows or the locks on them, we are not going to replace the doors in the master bedroom out to the deck because they stick just a tiny bit.

the buyers offered to take a $1200.00 credit in lieu of us fixing the items.   our realtor did not even wait to hear our answer, answered for us and it was a big fat NO. 

so it is still just wait and see. 

wait for the people that hold our future in their hands to make their decisions.

hurry up and wait

well, we rushed the termite inspection and the appraisal, which were done on monday.  it's tuesday evening and you guessed it...waiting to hear the results.

both results will drastically affect the outcome of all our plans.  if the appraisal comes in too low, we lose moeny.  if the termite inspection determines we need to exterminate great herds of termites, we lose money. 

meanwhile, we can't go out and find an rv until we know what kind of money we will have.  same goes for starting to pack and move things into storage.  if we are going to end up not being able to close on the house and we rent a storage unit when we don't really need it, we lose money.

meanwhile, i'm working full time for the next 4 weeks trying to get a bit of money in my pockets now that i'm off disablity and not yet approved for unemployement.  trying to drive an hour and a half each way, work 8 hours, and then come home and pack really is not that easy.  i am truly lucky that i have a very wonderful husband who had dinner ready for me tonight and cleaned up after himself too.    that's one of the reasons i love him.

so i'm just going to hurry up and do nothing.  seems like it's the only thing to do right now.  because if everything happens the way it should, in the next couple of weeks i will be hurrying up and doing alot of everything trying to meet the may 5th deadline. 

so i'm going to enjoy the nothingness while i can.