Baby Steps

Pam from Sorrento who took care of us all here for a week is on the Greyhound Bus heading home. Pam had the dishes done, meals cooked and the kitty litter boxes kept clean on top of feeding and medicating the animals 24/7. Racing around here from one project to the next to stay on top of stuff i am sure she will be glad to get home and fall back into her own routine never mind seeing her family and all the animal kids. Thank you so very very much!!

Tuskers one of seniors here as been fighting a snotty nose and no matter what meds we gave him we can't seem to get it kicked for him. He eats well and is enjoying all the attention on top of the goodies but yesterday i called the vet out. Thought i better do that with Pam still here and also being pig savvy to be able to assist Brent from Ag West if needed. With Tuskers age at well over 17 seasons he thinks he is just not able to kick it like someone younger might be able too so we are doubling his meds in hopes he will bounce back.

Our Volunteers who are family and friends will cover again where Pam leaves off with the exception of me feeding breakfast now . This is my first morning since off, i just have to remember to take baby steps. Next week i will sit down here and start doing data entry as long as i am able to every day and get those receipts out.

I leave you with a picture from Karena who adopted Charlie , clearly he is one VERY happy pig!!!

From The Couch

The first two weeks from coming home from the hospital has turned me into a couch potato. I get up walk around for five minutes and back to the couch. I am sick of tv and all the shows i have been watching and watching life outside carry on from the front room window.

Theresa has been here every morning to do meds and feed breakfast to the animals. I am getting around now and able to bend down and pick up the dogs dish without worry and a cough does not make me feel like i am being split wide open anymore.

Nancy , Roxane, Amber and Brady did dinners/meds for the kids and every one is doing awesome.

Pam arrived from Sorrento on Friday so everyone no doubt is enjoying there break from being up here during the week. She will stay as long as she can as she has left behind a husband and there son to fend for them selves as well and everyone back home is stepping up to care for each other as well as the dog and pig kids while she is here looking after all of us.

I have a ton of office work to do here with year end and donation receipts needing to be mailed out after i do all the data entry, printing and envelope stuffing. Since i have been home i can only stand to sit here for an hour and that time has been divided between blogging updates , a few minutes on face book and replying to families needing a little piggy support from diet to hoof care and two pigs may be needing new homes. And i better do a bank deposit along with paying the bills as life goes on here even if i am not running at full speed.

Saturday volunteer join up turned into a crazy day when Nick went downstairs to grab some tools and came right back up to inform me that the sump pump had quit and once again my basement was under water. Thankfully Tony started his hours so both guys were paling the basement out with me freaking out about the furnace. A few hours later after getting that under control the well shut down again and it an only happen here that on the same day we can both be flooded and without water! Life in the country being on well one cannot be running the hose out front to fill waters and someone else out back running another hose to rinse off boots or grab a drink of water. I must remember to add that fact and what that other hose is for coming up from the basement with new freinds who arrive here to help the animals. The plumber tells me the sump pump was off kilter and yes i can see it looks like someone reefed on the hose, thankfully he never charged me. I know all the temperaments of this old house and while i was in the hospital the furnace quit as did the well and unable to explain the "how too" i have two more bills sitting here to be paid. ughhhhh

Of course i am still off work as i am not allowed to lift anything but every day i am feeling less week and able to keep upright longer.

Tarps and Tumours Oh My.

The morning of my last blog post had me get up from the chair here as i could feel some discomfort in my side. I had hoped i was not headed for emergency again, in a repeat attack of what had happened a few weeks ago. I don't really remember if i made it outside that morning or not but i do remember calling Carol at work and giving her a heads up of what might be before me, and her for the start of my work week there. I remember laying on the couch with my legs drawn up trying to wait out and fight down the pain. My thoughts were of the animals first, there needs to be taken care of first and hopefully i could either last that long or the pain would stop.

My mid afternoon i was on the floor, writhing in pain and this time Roxane was my ambulance to emergency. I was on the floor there for another 2 hours, waiting to get past what i will always think of as some war like check point and trying to gain access to the other side. Guarded by jaded hospital staff i am finally admitted, banded and handed the hospital garb. Wheeled to the other side i know i am safe, and they come to my rescue and kill my pain.

That was Saturday and i was kept heavily drugged until Monday nights surgery to remove not a kidney stone but a tumor attached to my ovaries the size of a baseball.

I came home from 24 hour care at the Maple Ridge Hospital on Thursday. Every hour someone checked on me , how was my pain level now they would ask. Would i like ice in my water , here is another cookie and lets check your vitals again. Exceptional care this side of the check point. ;o) The nurses rocked as did the students and of course my skilled surgeon and Doctor who removed that fist of fire from my belly. Really my only complaint was the food. Please replace this veggie chili with a nice bowl of fruit or i will surely die here lol. I then started to push away the morphine drip as the food was making me feel nauseous in fact so was the smell of my soap the hand lotion and will someone open a window and let in some fresh air? I had to get out of there!!! Maybe because of all the life saving drugs or painkillers inside me or was it because of my life style and being so much a part of the out doors . And the only time i could ever cry was when thinking about my animals and how i missed them so very much.

I would like to stress a point here , that I have a total new respect for "tumour" and have included Mouses picture in this post because she too had one removed that weighed 42 lbs. Knowing how stoic pigs are , in fact many animals can be so i question "how much did she suffer before we got her help?" and had it removed?? My gawd the pain was unbearable for me... please spay your charges when at all medically possible.

Second i would like to extend my extreme gratitude to my boss, Carol who is keeping my job open for when i am ready to return, and for being a friend and visiting me at the hospital and bringing me home. To my Mom who is 89 and has been waiting on me here as i recover as well as taking care of all the house animal children's. To my sister Nancy, Roxane and Theresa who have all arrived for the morning shift to feed and do meds here or for the night feed all doing so before or after there full time jobs.

In the short time of them being here Nancy has removed Scotch from being hung up in a wire fence. And today was removing a blue tarp so entangled in Truffles young teeth. How many times had we all enjoyed watching our pigs grab a blue tarp and shake it in fun?? The tarp was hung up on both of his lower young tusks and he had no doubt tried in vain to set himself free as it was twisted over and around again. Little Olive nose to her mates checking and never once leaving his side and now watching us help her freind. I took a pair of scissors and clipped off the bulk stating we would have to sit this pig down to get it off of him and thankfully our portable shoot was close. The girls set it down over him and Theresa stepped in and flipped him. I few gentle up tugs set him free. I could do nothing but give direction as normally a flip would of been done by me but alas i am cut threw like a magic act gone wrong and can't risk further injury. They did it and another learning experience gained with a good ending. Side note , the team had only been in the house for about 30 minutes to take a bite to eat and hear a few pig stories.

Amber and Brady , thank you so much for dinner last night and Tracey for our much needed carrots. And many more pigs can give there thanks to you the next time you visit as the sneak grapes into Jack was a fiasco as everybody had to get fed again. A pig can hear a grape being chewed by another from one block away, i am sure of it ..

And thanks to Krista from SAINTS, who is a friend and a co worker came and took on six piggy paddocks to help us this morning!!!


I better get off of here now and go back and lay down.. 4-6 weeks is the average recovery time. WEE shall see about that...

Edith, My First Goat I would Love

I met her about two months ago. I saw her out in the pasture sporting a little pink coat with a red bandage on her hoof. I was told in her earlier days she gave every one a run for there money, she was feisty and cheeky. I knew her as frail, weathered by time and now needing to be protected .

She didn't like her head to be touched and would shake her head in disgust if you touched her horns. She did tolerate her neck to be stroked and us getting that pink coat on her every morning on those cold and wet winter days.

On one of my days off she was found down in the pasture and the vet rushed out , this was the day she also became our "shop goat" at work. And she bounced back as much as she was able and i took her out to her old stomping grounds early in the morning before the others were out. On sunny days i would put a little leash on her and lead her to the garden. She would on good days follow me back to the shop without a lead . A little goat in a pink coat looking up at me with wide eyed wonder.

In the short time we would have together she would be served fresh hay ,cookies and my lunch sandwiches. In fact the table in front of her little yard in the shop had a smorgasbord of crackers, fancy salads , peanuts and cheerio's. Oatmeal cookies were her favorite for many many days. The table also had syringes and various strengthes of pain killers. Every morning before i left for work i would look in my cupboards and then scour my feed shed outside for things Edith might eat today as we struggled to keep her eating and to save the little weight she did have on her.

I did have a talk with Edith and told her that she needed to try and eat or we would think she was ready to go. That if she didn't want to be here any more to know that she would be helped to leave this world so she didn't suffer. That when she opened her eyes on the other side she would rise in green pasture's . She would have no pain , it would be like a warm rush and she would fly.

Yesterday she could fight no longer ... no matter how hard we tried we could not give her back the years gone by before i knew her.

I am sorry Edith we didn't get to spend more time together. I miss you and I want to thank you for being the very first goat in my life that i would love. .