The zookeeper's Mother's Day gifts!

When you take care of two children, a home, and some 30 animals, you had better think long and hard about what you ask for when Mother's Day comes up. At first I thought about luxury- how nice it would be to have someone else file my nails and rub my feet and put pretty polish on them. That idea got thrown out as I realized that the polish would last maybe 3 days on my hands, with all the washing I do, and my toes never show, because I wear running shoes 24/7, literally. So, I thought about what would truly make life easier. And my dear husband surprised me and did it before I could ask. While I was out with Em, Jon cleaned my upstairs room/office. You see, Miss Gracie Rose had found the Crayola Clay in four lovely colors and had taken her sweet time in getting into each color, leaving clay and paper EVERYWHERE. It was more than I could deal with, so for two weeks I ignored it. Yes, I know, you are wondering HOW I could ignore it. Well, I don't go up there except to sleep once in a while, and I stepped over it and went to bed. There were also various items in the upstairs hallway that needed to go to the battered women's shelter store but had gotten stuck in the hall, just waiting. When I got home, the hall was CLEAR and my room was CLEAN. I could have cried. In addition, he helped me trim 9 sets of dog toenails, 4 beaks and 12 parrot toes. This is no small feat, if you pardon the pun. Then, to finish it off, when our disposal died, he called a friend and installed a new disposal and the instruction manual was my Mother's Day card and I LOVED IT!!! I told my children that all I wanted from them was to sit on the floor and play some games together and be a team about getting the birds fed and watered. I got two lovely homemade cards which are two of the most beautiful ones I have EVER GOTTEN and I felt so loved and special. I love being a mother- I am blessed with two gorgeous and lovely acting girls, a very thoughtful husband and 30 other "children" that are worth all the trouble they put me through. :) One good nose kiss or bed snuggle from a dog is enough to make my day, ANY DAY. And enthusiastic hugs from my girls are the best gifts I could ever get from them. I am a blessed woman. Thank you Lord, for my family, my own mothers, and for my life.

For Donna

My dear friend Donna who blogs like a fiend bugged me about my recent lack of writing. I don't know why I haven't written, I just haven't. Nothing amazing or spiritual or even amusing has happened until last night. Pepper, our African Grey put on a show last night like we have never seen. Pepper was rescued from a sad home that was dark and from someone who didn't believe cleaning the cages was HER job and he had very little interaction. We've had him almost two years and we think we are seeing him almost at full blossom just now. (Bird rehab much slower than dogs.) She (we don't know if he's a he or she's a she so bear with me- we refer to him/her in both ways all the time.) has a vast repetoire of voices and sounds and words. Here are a few of his favorites. "Good girl!" (He says this whenever a dog comes in as we have had to praise Maggie SO MUCH for coming in as she used to be terrified of thresholds.) "Good night Pepper bird" "Goodbye" "Hello" "Wanna go out?" (Again in regards to the dogs), "Woo HOOO"- heard by me all the time as my kids can't hear me over their stinking radios unless I use the grandma yell. Well last night he cracked us up. He loves to dance with me- which for him consists of him bobbing his head and saying Hoo hooohoooo." Last night I snapped my fingers and he started "cracking" his beak while dancing, and then he made a PLLLLLLLLLBBBBBBBBBBBB! sound like a kid sticking out his tongue and blowing- and then he burped and started laughing. It was a LOUD BURP. We were all just dying laughing - he has finally relaxed enough to open up and show his true colors. He still won't allow us to touch anything but his head and his feet, but I think in another 10 years we'll be able to cuddle him. Good thing they live so long.

God doesn't take his gifts back!

God gives all of us gifts. We can have gifts for teaching, counseling, raising children, showing compassion, or rescuing animals. And as much as we would like to sometimes, we cannot give those gifts back. I have a new squirrel who was brought to me very very deyhydrated, near death and covered with fleas. It took 4 injections of subcutaneous fluids and hours of trying to get him to eat before he finally TODAY he figured out how to suck on the syringe. Now, I am exhausted and was talking to a friend. She said out of love, " You've got enough on your plate, you need to not take in any more squirrels, etc." I wanted to say, "Well, YOU NEED to quit dragging your plants in and out of your garage and just let them deal with the cold." She has taken her plants in and out of her garage at least four times due to this nasty weather. To me, that is "too much on HER plate". But I wouldn't tell her to stop caring about her gift- loving plants. I would love to have the ability as some people would be able to- to fling an almost dead squirrel into the woods and never give it a second thought- but I am physically unable to do that. Nursing that squirrel is my gift and as tired as I am I cannot give it back. Nor, can I give back the gift for taking care of my husband and children and teaching them everything I think they need to know. I have a friend with six adopted kids with special needs and people think she's nuts. IT"S HER GIFT- SHE CANNOT GIVE IT BACK. While you may not agree with other people's gifts, don't argue about them, because God gave them and I don't think you want to question HIS wisdom.

God's grace

I am short on time but wanted to say that there are no accidents with God. I took Sassy to Petco last night to get groomed and at the last minute had to get some dog food- on my way back there I ran into a friend that I had been praying I would see. We talked for a long time about a certain situation going on in my life that has been very trying. And while I was there, there was a very lovely young woman who had a litter of puppies that were to be euthanized and she rescued them. I don't EVER STOP at adoptions- after all- I am a rescue- retired, but still- I don't adopt puppies. In fourteen years of doing this I have NEVER adopted a mixed breed puppy(Sassy was five when we adopted her) or even LOOKED at mixed breed puppies in pet store adoptions- literally. But something made me stop. And there in the middle was this tiny little mixed puppy and after talking to the rescue woman, I discovered that she needed a foster home for this little tike, as she needed to be fed four times a day (she's the runt) and a ton of TLC and this woman is a teacher. Now, she didn't know me from Adam's house cat, but when I asked her what I could do to help (God was telling me that this young woman was hurting and needed some TLC of her own) she said, " Could you take this little girl home and give her some attention and foster her for me?" Now, she saw something in me that she instantly trusted- was that God in me? I hope so. So we have a little mixed breed pup who weighs three pounds who we have named Gracie- (It is by grace we are saved and not through anything we do ourselves). This little dog and her littermates were saved by the grace of this woman. So next post, I"ll post pics of Gracie- now named Gacie- I leave out the R. She's so cute and I am so glad that I could allow Ana to sleep a bit better last night. Right now, I have puppy poop to clean and pretty girls to feed. :)

Shut up about the pink shirt- where is everyone's BRAIN???

I am so fed up with the cops doing the investigation for Haleigh. First it was the 17 year old girlfriend put her to bed, then it was she was in the bed with Haleigh. Now they are saying there is a possibility that she wasn't home at all when Haleigh was taken. Now, if I put a child to bed and then got into my own bed, I would remember that. If I slept with the child in the child's bed, I would remember that, so why is this girl having such a hard time sticking to one story- either you tucked her in and slept in another room or you got in bed with Haleigh- how hard is that to remember????Then it was "she was wearing a pink shirt and undies" and then it was "no pink shirt- we have the pink shirt." Ok, maybe I am the only person on the planet who thinks like this but WHOEVER TOOK THIS CHILD SURELY PUT DIFFERENT CLOTHES ON HER AND PROBABLY CUT AND COLORED HER HAIR. So why is the media still stuck on the damn pink shirt. We are not looking for a child in any certain outfit, for God's sake- we are looking for a child who could be wearing ANYTHING- boys' clothes, a baseball cap, overalls, you name it- kidnappers do not keep the child in the clothes they found them in -that is just common sense, or at least it is to me. I know this because it is a well known fact that when kids are abducted from stores like Walmart, the abductor takes them into the bathroom, cuts their hair, throws different clothes on them (making them look like the opposite sex) and then walks out of the store and no one notices. So can we please post photos of this dear child with a progression of what she would look like with a boys' haircut, red hair, blond hair, black hair, or a buzz cut? Because at this point, she could look NOTHING LIKE HER PICTURE and no one would notice her as a boy, or with short red hair, or dressed in a purple dress. COME ON MEDIA- quit wasting time asking about the damn pink shirt- surely your minds are quicker than this??? And the investigative team should quit wasting time giving us updates every day only to say, " There is no pink shirt and no, we cannot answer any questions at this time." WHY IS THAT AN UPDATE??? Is that supposed to make Ronald FEEL BETTER??? Stay off the TV and look for the child, please. Don't get me wrong- I so want to find this baby- but I am so sick of the investigative am holding these ridiculous update press meetings only to tell us nothing. Does anyone else think about the possibility that the child could look totally different now? Why aren't new pictures of her being posted? SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME!!!! We care about every missing child because we are parents, so I pray for Ronald every day and for Haleigh's safe return, but having lived in Florida my whole life, I have to say that after 10 days, I don't think she will be found alive. Miracles do happen and I am still praying for one, but if I was Ronald Cummings I would be skinning the media and the sheriff's office alive for wasting every one's time with updates that have no new information and for not posting new pics of how Haleigh COULD LOOK NOW. In the meantime, I will continue to pray and send this post to the Times Union. Maybe then someone will think of updating her pictures. Heavens.