So many posts in my brain

So little time spent typing them.

So here goes.

I love the Habitat for Humanity's RE-store!!! It allows people like me (broke people) to manage home repairs and still pay the mortgage. Tuesday around 4pm I get a call from my younger son. At the end of the conversation he says (very casually) "Oh you know the toilet's broken don't you?" Of course I didn't know. It was fine when I left the house and I haven't been home since. How the @#$@ would I know it was broken??? I ask for details and apparently some time during the day he had dropped a ceramic pot (also broken) onto the toilet and cracked the bowl in half. I'm a middle aged woman with occasional bladder problems. His message is looming as a big problem for me. Thankfully he called in time for me to get to the RE-store and even more thankfully I was able to replace the toilet for $35. Did I mention that I LOVE THE HABITAT FOR HUMANITY'S RE-STORE? And it's even kind of a cool looking toilet. As far as that goes anyway.

That was Tuesday. yesterday was Fergie day. We picked her up around 7pm. She's a love bug. Very very sweet and as soon as I get her leash trained she will join me at the shop on slower days. There will be a picture in the window that says if she's in the shop. Just in case you are afraid of big dogs, or in case you want to stop in and meet her.

The vet said benadryl. It so did not work. Took quite a while to get her into the car. She knew something was wrong and was having no part in it. Finally she had to be carried into the car. Being stressed and a slobbery breed she then slobbered a LOT. Tommy looked like he had taken a shower in dog spit. (serves him right for breaking the toilet) As the ride progressed she got better and calmer. We stopped by Grandview McDonald's and got her a plain burger (sans bun) which she loved. So now the car's not so bad. There was meat involved. Then we get home. She doesn't know where she is and the car's not so bad, so she won't get out. It took another 15 min to get her out of the car. it's very hard to make a great dane do anything they don't want to do. Next she gets to meet Puppy who is Bessie's dog. That goes well. Panda (cat) comes up and decides it's time to snuggle. That freaked her out a bit. But not as much as the stairs. Her 1st family lived in a ranch style house. I have a split level and Fergie doesn't know what a stair case is and why I want her to go up it. Eventually Dan carried her up. Good thing she's small for a dane. Fergie comes in and meets the other animals. Stinky (ancient zombie-pom) is excited. He has a thing for big dogs. Always thought he was going to get lucky with Zelda even though he is smaller than all of our cats. Bless his poor determined heart. He just kept trying. Paul (my daughter's cat I am watching for a few weeks) is interested. She's an attention whore and loves any person or animal who will pet or lick her. Zcat was not happy. On the best of days Zcat is psycho with other animals. She can be flat out nuts most of the time and goes from purring to hissing for no apparent reason. Meeting a new dog does not make for a good day in Z's view. Hissing and swatting ensued. Zelda knew to leave Z alone. She was the only animal who could push Zelda away from the food dish. Fergie is smart, I don't think it will take time for her to learn.

By bedtime Fergie seemed to be relaxing, but she didn't sleep much. Too many new noises and smells for her to relax totally. When she finally did lay down it was on my bed. I don't care. I used to let Zelda sleep on the foot of my bed. Big difference. Although Fergie is smaller than Zelda she takes up twice as much room. Kinda like Bessie and another human being. She's little, but can fill up a king size bed leaving no room for me. Zelda curled up, Fergie stretches out. We finally worked out an arrangement where she slept by my side close to the bottom with her head on my hip. Worked pretty well until someone got up to pee. Fergie gets up to see what's going on and Puppy bounces over. He will take any spot that opens up. If someone else had it, it must be better than his spot. He also licks. Which is what woke me up. Eventually we did all settle in and get a few hours sleep.

Today Fergie really needs to go outside, but won't go down those steps. She's house broken, so she (thankfully) doesn't want to pee inside, but she is afraid of those steps. Tommy carries her down and leads her to the backyard. Everything is fine until it's time to come in. She does NOT like the leash and lays down when he gets it for going back in. After 10 min of trying he decides to go in and watch her from the window. She gets up and waits by the gate. He comes out, she sees the leash and lays down again. Eventually he got her out of the yard and up to the front door. had to push her in, but she went up the stairs on her own. From his reports the next potty trip went better.

I'm sure she will settle in well and quickly. Tomorrow I will post pictures.