We've been much too harassed in the last 3 months with Phase 2 of the house remodel, which included a two-story addition and a new roof; a job hunt for me, which seemed to involve a number of wasted Fred-free mornings in interviews and research; and an extremely painful, psychosis-inducing rehoming of the dog.
House remodel is nearly finished and photos will follow. New job took more than a month to organize but after interviewing with four different companies/organizations, I have taken a job in home health nursing, part-time, three days a week, roughly 9-5. It means I will take Fred to school myself and be home for dinner. It means I no longer have to wake up at 530am to go to work, and I no longer work weekends, or major holidays (my last shift was Christmas day.) My anxiety level has decreased dramatically, which was interesting as I hadn't realized how stressed I had become. The new company is a specialist geriatric nursing company, and I will be doing lots of wound care, which I love. I am also starting the "bridge" courses I need to enter UT's Masters in Nursing program in a year's time. I plan to specialize in public health nursing, which should fit nicely with 20+ years experience with socialized medicine. My first class is elementary statistics at Austin Community College, which will be a challenge as I stink at math and could barely understand the course synopsis. But Phil eats this kind of thing for breakfast, and I will just join Lucy and Jessica in the queue for homework help.
The dog was much harder so I'm just going to run through it quickly. She bit 5 people in the last 12 weeks. Four were workmen on our house, all unprovoked. One bite drew blood. After the 2nd bite, I called in a respected local trainer, and we reduced all her freedoms, installed a safe zone in the house for her and muzzled trained her. She continued to adore all of us, but was becoming increasingly anxious and upset, particularly around men. She barked insanely when anyone came to the house. Over Thanksgiving, she growled every morning at my Aunt Sara, a dog lover, who was staying with us. When we went out for a walk to McKinney Falls State park, she bit a complete stranger, who was a good 1/2 block away from us and had no dog with him and wasn't even approaching us. I decided that was it - we were facing a lawsuit. Austin Pets Alive! pretty much agreed and took her back to doggy rehab. Jessica was furious, Fred grieved for a few days and Lucy was happy because it meant more time and energy devoted to Ollie, our cat. I have to say I was desperately relieved and for more than a week I jumped every time I heard a neighbors' dog bark. I hadn't realized how anxious I was about her, how she would behave with our babysitter, and whether she would bite someone on the street.
She is up for adoption now, I believe, but must go to a home with no kids -- despite the fact that she never hurt any of us -- and preferably no men, and they think she would be good to be an additional dog to a household so more dominant dogs would make her behave. Very traumatic, and also a huge relief.
Fish, we think are the pet for us. Pretty fish, swimming in a cat-proof tank.
Here are some cheerful Christmas photos from our Boxing Day walk at McKinney Roughs
Lucy took 129 photos in about 2 hours on that walk. She is obsessed with photography and fills our iphoto with dozens of the cat, Jessica, leaves, rowers, sparkles on water, etc.. I was starting to complain again about it as we uploaded the camera when I looked at them again, and realized she's getting really good. Some of them are beautiful, especially the landscapes. I may make a Lucy Photo of the week side bar....
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
