Shakes, Scrapes and beautiful shapes

Yesterday, we had a cookout at my mom's.  My mom had been talking about a small female cat that had been hanging around her in the field lately.  I've been trying to catch a glimpse of her ever since but haven't had much luck.  I had been out talking to her neighbor about all the strays that seem to be showing up and talking about his two orange cats.  (the female is orange as well and wanted to make sure it wasn't one of his)  I walked out of the paddock after petting the horses a few times and I was on my way back up to the house when my husband yelled at me, 'I guess you found her huh?'  I looked at him like he was crazy, spun around and then looked again like he was crazy.  I didn't see a cat and I hadn't found a cat so what was he talking about.  He tells me she's been following me for about five minutes.  She walks like a ghost and I never knew she was there.  I eventually got her to come out of the paddock after one of the horses moved away from the gate.  (she's afraid of all animals)  She immediately went in search for food.  I felt bad for her so I went inside to look for a can of cat food.  I didn't look very hard before I decided I'd just take a can of tuna out instead.  She ate the entire can.  A weird thing about her, she growls the entire time she's eating but you pet her and she purrs.  She finished off the tuna in no time but wouldn't let any of the other barn cats eat with her so my grandma went in to get them some cat food.  She managed to eat that can too as she gulped down the little bit she was given and then went to everyone else's plate and batted at them till they gave up on eating it.  She's on the skinny side but after that meal, I thought her stomach would explode.  She spent the rest of the day lounging around on the nearest lap.  She growls and purrs at the same time if you pet her roughly.  I don't think she's been fixed so if an owner isn't located (and I don't think she has one anymore) then she'll need a trip to the neuter scooter.  Once the bugs really started coming out we headed back indoors.  I went to trim the dogs nails and did Molly, my mom's border collie/spaniel mix.  After I was done, she went to my grandma's bedroom.  I then started on Snoopy who is usually a real pain in the butt about doing his nails but wasn't too bad this time.  We had the video camera out and I was trying to get him to sing when my grandma called my mom's name from her bedroom.  I think I was to her bedroom before my mom even got the camera turned off.  Molly was having a seizure.  It's her fourth one this year.  It took her quite a while to fully recover enough to get up and come into the kitchen.  I told my mom I don't know if I can cut her nails again.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with the seizure but it completely freaked me out about doing it again.  The last thing I want to do is inflict harm on an animal, even unintentionally. 

Today, we went to a cookout at my husband's best friend's house.  I knew as soon as I woke up it wouldn't be a good day for me.  I was already dizzy before I even made it to the bathroom.  I was ok once we got there but still didn't feel fantastic.  After we ate, I began to feel a lot worse.  I wasn't sure if I was going to need to run to the bathroom or not.  Needless to say I was fairly anti-social after that.  I tried sitting outside, hoping fresh air would help but I still felt the same.  Soon after, we went home. 

I laid around for a little while but just hate not being able to do anything.  I decided to force myself to get up and go outside and do a little planting.  I got all my carrots in the ground with my husband's help and finished getting my cucumber's planted.  When I got home, the bunny was out there eating my flowers again.  Anytime I left the front yard, he was back at it.  I need to find something that he'll find more yummy than my plants.  I also got what was left of my sunflowers in the ground.  For whatever reason, they all suddenly started to die so I had to get them into the ground fast in hopes of saving a few.  Once that was all done, I knew if I stopped I wasn't going to be able to do anything else the rest of the evening so I also went out in the backyard and planted about twenty morning glories around the cat house.  I have quite a few more that need planting so I'm going to need to get creative finding places to stick them.  All while I'm doing this, Jasmine has managed to fall several times.  She just couldn't seem to stay upright for anything today.  She has scrapes on her knees and even one on she shoulder from doing a face plant on the cement.  (well I guess it was more of a shoulder plant since her face didn't get much damage)  By this time it was getting close to ten so we went in the house for the night.  She fell asleep on the couch for about a half hour.  She has a canker sore in her mouth and I think that's what woke her up.  It's really been bothering her but if I try to do anything to help her, she screams.  By the time she woke up, I was again feeling like I was going to be sick.  I made us a couple ham sandwiches hoping that a little food would help.  (it didn't)  Afterwards we went and took a shower.  I took Mia with us, my husband's border collie because she was in a bad need of a bath and I figured if I was already going to be soaking wet, it would be a pretty good time to wash a dog.  She couldn't have agreed less but I'm bigger.  Afterwards, Jasmine wanted to stay in the bathtub and play with her dinosaur so I let her.  There wasn't any water in the tub, just a little in a cup so she could "wash" her dino.  I took Mia in the other room to brush her out real good.  I was planning on grooming her a little to clean her up.  I had just started the clippers when Jasmine appeared in the living room.  She first asked what I was doing and then said 'My Owie!  Mommy I need go to the doctor.'  She was crying pretty badly so I knew something was really wrong.  Plus, she never wants to go to the doctor.  When I got closer to her, I saw a small puddle of blood next to her foot.  (I cringe even now as I think about it)  I have seen a lot of nasty things and have taken care of a lot of nasty wounds without so much as flinching but when my kid is hurt, I just lose it.  I got her to the love seat and saw she had a pretty good gouge in her ankle.  I knew immediately what it was from.  Since our toilet has been broken, the lid has been off to make it easier to flush and whatnot.  The lid is also broken from when Princess (a previous foster) knocked it off the back of the toilet.  Jasmine must have stepped on it as she was getting out of the tub and cut herself on the porcelain.  I went and woke up Shawn.  Again, I feel like crap and I don't do well when my kid is really hurting, especially when I don't know what to do.  She's screaming and shaking and he's being completely indifferent to the whole situation.  He said we were both freaking out over nothing and it wasn't like she was going to die.  Keep in mind, he has even LOOKED at her ankle.  There are times I really hate dealing with him, particularly when he's just been woken up.  He just went back to bed, despite the fact that I was upset.  Although, it didn't help matters that I said something about him acting like an asshole.  I was so pissed.  I was sitting there crying, trying to decide if she needed a stitch or two.  I STILL think she could've used one but it's hard to know for sure what to do.  And the last thing I want to do is put a two year old through several hours of waiting in the ER only to be told it needs a band-aid.  Lately, it just seems like all the major decisions with her are left solely up to me.  I get no input from him whatsoever.  It makes for a lot of pressure on one person.  If I make the wrong decision, it's going to be completely my fault.  And let's face it, I don't think anyone ever really knows what their doing in this world so it's nice to get some input once and a while.  She wouldn't let me leave her side for almost an hour.  We just sat there on the couch, both soaked still from the shower until she was calm enough to let me get up.  It was quite a while before she would let me put a diaper on her.  (YESSSSS, she is still not potty trained and NOOOOO I have no plans of pushing the issue... she's doing just fine on her own... in other words, I've had all the "input" on that subject that I can handle at the moment)  While she watched cartoons, I went back to grooming Mia.  I only did a little on her before I moved onto a more willing volunteer, Molly.  Molly will let you do anything to her as long as it means she's getting attention.  A lot of people don't like her but she's fine with us.  She let me shave up her legs and under her tail.  She even let me do her ears.  She actually looks really good.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out considering most of my "groom" jobs that haven't been a full shave end up looking a bit... odd.  She looks very smooth and clean cut now.  After winter, the longer haired dogs always look a bit ratty.  I went back to finish up Mia.  I'm sure she was hoping that I was done with her completely.  I shaved around her rear end really well but not to the point that she looks weirdly shaped.  I also did her legs and cleaned up her chest and stomach.  She looks good but not quite as good as Molly.  It's much easier to do a good job when you have a willing participant.  I had to shave Mia's rear well because she's the type of dog that would rather pee herself than bother you.  At least this way, when she does it, she'll be easier to clean up.  It's not that we don't let her out often.  She's just a weird dog.  I really wanted to do all the dogs but the aussie's may have been a challenge so I decided to wait till another day.  By this time, Jasmine finally decided that it was ok to leave the couch and she wanted to use the sweeper to clean up the mounds of hair.  She actually did really good with it until she caught a piece of paper and then she just dropped the hose and held her ears.  After I retrieved the paper, she went back to cleaning.  I'll have to wait till she's good and asleep till I can really take a look at her ankle.