I didn't have any "jobs" to do today, but it sure seemed like I was busy. With all sorts of stuff, all day long. Fun stuff, mostly, but time-consuming stuff. Not that I had anything else to do, of course.
It started with waking at 3 a.m., very mindful of the newspaper deadline I hadn't completed yet. I got up and finished my article by 5 and then sent it off to the paper. Still plenty of time to go back to sleep, and I did. Until 8 a.m. Yay me.
I was doing a bunch of things on the internet simultaneously. I was checking out other people's pictures of the Lamplighters Gala last night, answering e-mail and Facebook messages, trying to catch up with things that had been posted to the Compassion site, confering with Kim about whether or not I would be taking puppies this afternoon.
It's also Monday, so I was putting together letters for all six Compassion kids. Three of them have only been with me for a few months, so I copied the Thanksgiving letter I created last year for the first three, which explains what our holiday is and is illustrated with clip art I found on the net.
The other three kids got more personalized letters, since I've "known" them longer. All of them got religious bookmarks, since I had so many of them left over after I got the Christmas cards put together.
The mail came in the middle of things and brought four Postcrossing post cards. Two cards were from the same 14 year old girl in Switzerland. Apparently her family creates postcards and sells them on the net. She gets more information on a postcard than I thought was humanly possible!
The new postcards had to be logged in and two of them (one from the Smoky Mountains and one from Helsinki) had to be scanned so I could post pictures on Postcrossing.
I heard from Kim that she would be picking up the puppies and asking how many I wanted. There were six. I said I would take 3 and she said to meet her at the Thrift Store this evening.
I finished off the Compassion letters, got them packed up along with a big envelope full of Christmas cards for non-sponsored kids and started to leave for the post office.
That was when Shiloh and Polly decided to go on a little adventure. They ran out the front door and across the street. I had this horrible thought that what if after all this time Polly ended up being killed by a car.
The two dogs were having such a glorious time there was no way they were going to come when I called them, so I finally started jogging away from them and Shiloh started to chase me. Polly went another half block, but when she realized she was alone, she ran back and joined us. On the promise of treats, they were both very happy to come back into the house.
I went to the post office and mailed off the packages,just in time to get over to the Thrift shop on time. I met Dipika and her partner, who were going to take the other three puppies.
Kim arrived with a car load of a pile of puppies whose eyes weren't even opened. I scooped up three and Dipika took the other three. We thought all six were female. I decided I'd call my three Patty, Maxine and Laverne.
When I got home, there was the usual sniff-a-thon with all the dogs. Sheila, as always, sniffed, rolled her eyes, and then walked out to the patio to lie down. "Not again," she was saying eloquently. We understand each other.
The other dogs sniffed the new arrivals thoroughly.
Polly, surprisingly, discovered she was feeling maternal and after a few minutes, she growled whenever any of the other dogs went near the puppies.
When I went to move the puppies to their cage, Shiloh leaped from the floor up and into the playpen so he could get near the cage where they were going to stay...which showed me that these puppies won't be able to live in the playpen while Shiloh's here!
In transferring them to the cage, I checked for sexes again and discovered that only two of the pups were girls. The other was a boy, so names had to be reconsidered. I think I found a nice compromise.
The first bottle feeding was a bit iffy, with Patty taking almost nothing and Max eating the most, but by the time the second feeding rolled around, all three dogs ate more and collectively finished off half a bottle.
When I went to get the puppy food and bedding out of the car, Shiloh escaped again. This time Walt was home and came out with Polly on a leash and Shiloh easily came to Polly. Whew.
When I put the pups down for the night, I got all of the towels from the first two feedings washed (the pups have no intestinal difficulties!) and found my Mother teddy bear, who needed washing before adding to the cage. This white bear has raised many families of pups and they never really warm up to any other stuffed animal I've tried.
(note the little paw I circled)
So we're off and running once again (Shiloh literally, me figuratively). The puppies seem healthy little guys and time will tell how they adapt to bottle feeding. Polly seems to be OK with them, but Shiloh wants to be in my lap too when I'm feeding a puppy, and that could get awkward after awhile.
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