Lack of aides, a good read

Hello friends,

I thought I'd switch gears and talk about my nursing assistant situation. I have three nursing assistants who have been with me for a number of years. I have another nursing assistant, who came back after a two year hiatus from Home Health Care. I am forever grateful to all them, as well as my nurse. They are all wonderful and I try to let them know as often as possible how much I appreciate everything they do.

My situation is this. I am in need of a couple more nursing assistants to cover my weekend shifts. This has been an ongoing dilemma and it's frustrating. My boyfriend is the "fill in" by default and he really needs time off. He is a nurse throughout the week and likes to utilize the weekends for stuff he needs to do around the house. Hopefully this situation will reverse itself and I can find a weekend warrior. :) I have considered posting on craigslist or care.com, but not sure how "safe" it is.

On another note. I recently finished a great book by Vivica Sten, called Still Waters. It is the first story in a series of five, called Sandhamn Murders. The story was based on a popular vacation spot in Sweden, called Sandhamn. It begins with the investigation of one murder, then another, and another, and yet another. I highly recommend this book. I will purchase the second story and post my opinion at a later time. :)

Cooper in training part 2

Training was once a week for six weeks. Every week seemed like a repeat of the week before, as he just was not able to focus. The trainer was discouraging. She  did not hold back her feelings about his bad habits, his size, strength, and aggression. The bottom line was Cooper had learned a lot of bad habits before we got him and it was hard to undo what he was doing wrong. He apparently had been roaming the streets without a home for a long time. It makes me sad to think about him not having a home for so long....

On our last day of training the trainer expressed her feelings. She felt Cooper needed to continue training somewhere else that was more advanced and more experienced with dogs that had control issues. She admitted that Petsmart training was not good for dogs with behavior issues. It was fine by me because I had no intent on bringing him back there for more training anyway. Her and I were on the same page, but for different reasons....

I met with another person about training, which was the same lady that groomed both our dogs. It was a Mother/Daughter team that did grooming, boarding and training. For training they wanted to do one on one (without me) once a week for three weeks. After three weeks, training would continue at their business.

They also had experience in training dogs to be service dogs. When I inquired about Cooper getting trained to be my service dog, they immediately voiced the reasons this would not be a good idea. :(

I was okay with Cooper not being cut out to be a service dog. He was still a sweet lug and offered so much love! 

Cooper in training

After Steve and I realized Cooper was going to be a keeper, I signed him up for a much needed obedience training class.

Steve worked a lot and did not have time in his schedule to go. He felt it would be best if a nursing assistant went with me anyway because they would need to learn which commands to give, etc.

On Cooper's first day, Mandy (my nursing assistant and I) loaded him up and took him to Petsmart. The trainer seemed nice, and I was eager to turn our ornery boy in to a star pupil. There were three other dogs in training, which were small and better behaved than my big black wild lab. Cooper wanted to play with them the whole time and kept lunging at them. He was so strong and almost too much for Mandy to handle. The trainer showed a dislike of his behavior and the owners of the other dogs were giving us dirty looks. It was insulting! We were there to get his bad habits remedied, not get judged. Grrr!

Little did I know that our first day was going to be our last day as a group. LOL Anybody who has seen the movie "Marley and Me" know Marley got kicked out of  training because of his shenanigans! I felt like Cooper was a Marley in disguise. :)

When we returned the second week, Cooper was the only dog in training. The trainer had moved her schedule around with the others because she felt like Cooper needed one on one. I appreciated her for recognizing this, as she probably didn't have to be so accommodating.

To be continued...

Goober Part 2

It was decided that Goober needed a new name. He became Cooper.

As soon as we brought Cooper home, he got a bath. Steve got a bath too, as it was quite a struggle to keep Cooper in the tub. :) The poor guy was muddy, needed brushed and also needed his nails clipped.

He seemed to ignore the cats initially, but that quickly changed. He was determined to chase them every chance he got. Riley was more bold and held his own. Alexandra on the other hand was afraid and stayed hidden. This was not fair to her and we hoped it would change.

After a week or so we questioned whether we could keep this crazy Cooper. Aside from tormenting the cats, he jumped up on everybody, counter surfed, and was basically too much too handle. The thought of  giving up on him made me cry. The thought of keeping him made me anxious. My biggest concern was my nursing assistants and their well being. I didn't want him to hurt them on accident. I asked myself, "Would they quit because of this crazy dog? Would they be okay with his shenanigans? Would they help me with his training techniques if we did keep him?"  It was a lot to think about it.

Each time Steve and I planned on taking the trip to Indiana to return him, we would find ourselves not following through with.it. We didn't talk about not going, we didn't talk about giving him more time, we just didn't talk about it at all. We simply ignored the elephant in the room. :)

Too be continued...

Goober

After we lost our Buddy, we lost a piece of our hearts. Steve was ready to get another dog much quicker than myself. The way he wanted to fill the void was too get another dog. Me, not so much. The pain of losing Buddy was so great, I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to  get another dog. We all grieve differently and no way is the right way or the wrong way, it's just individual.

After a few months had passed, Steve was getting relentless. :) He was itching for a new dog. Lady needed a friend, and I was ready to start looking. I searched Labrador Rescues, Craigslist, Petfinder, and the Humane Societies in our area. Each day I opened Petfinder, I kept seeing the picture of a black lab who was being fostered in Indiana. His name was Goober. His picture revealed big ears, big brown eyes, a long tongue that draped over his teeth on the outside of his mouth, and a blue ball between his front paws. He was just the cutest and the name Goober seemed fitting. :) He looked mischievous, which made me gravitate to him that much more. :)

Steve and I filled out an application to adopt at Lucky Lab Rescue. Once approved we made the trip to Indiana to meet Goober. When we pulled in the gravel driveway we had to drive slow because of the bumps. At the end of the driveway, was a rustic log cabin home. On the right of the cabin was a dog shelter that housed probably 8-10 dogs. On the left side of the driveway we noticed a tall man holding a leash up in the air. At the end of the leash was a big black lab bouncing up and down 10' feet in the air. He  was barking his head off in excitement. Was this Goober, that cute mischievous dog in the picture? I wasn't sure if I should be excited or mortified. Steve felt the same.

Steve, Lady and I got out of the van. The couple who ran the rescue seemed nice. Lady and Goober got along well, which was a plus. We visited awhile and played with Goober. I had a gut feeling the couple who ran the rescue was getting impatient with our unwillingness to commit. She began to show a need to wrap things up because she needed to feed the dogs. When Steve asked to see other black labs, we sensed an attitude. After he looked at the puppies he felt as if we should give Goober a home. Steve felt as if the other dogs would be easily adoptable unlike Goober. It was apparent that Goober had learned a lot of bad habits in his short life and we were up for the challenge. :)

To be continued...

Buddy

During my hiatus from blogger, we sadly had to say Good-Bye to our beloved Buddy. Buddy was our 11 year old black lab we adopted when he was just 8 months old. I say that with a smile because he was so ornery his first day here. He immediately came in and shat on the floor in my office. Directly afterwards he found his way in the kitchen. He nosed around and was distracted by the hand towel draped over the handle on the oven door.  He quickly chomped down on it  and flung it in the air as if it didn't belong. LOL He made himself at home, and brought us enjoyment for years!

Anyway, back to my story. It was Easter Sunday. We took a trip with the dogs to visit Steve's dad, who lived in Pennsylvania. As soon as we arrived, Buddy and Lady were greeted with a large bowl of water. Being the typical lab and alpha dog, Buddy didn't hesitate. He drank until it was all most empty. The thought of leaving any for Lady would have never crossed his mind.  After Lady drank her water, they  began to run and release hours of pinned up energy.  Soon after we went inside, I noticed Buddy seemed out of sorts. He began to bump in to the walls, he was dry heaving, and tinkled on the floor. We immediately took him to an emergency vet clinic. After X-rays were taken, they informed us he had developed bloat. For those that don't know, bloat is when the belly flips and kinks the intestines. They said the surgery would cost $3,000 and he could not leave for a couple weeks.  Well, as difficult as the decision was, we only had the option to let Buddy go. Buddy was 11 years old, we were four hours from home, the surgery and stay would cost thousands of dollars, and lastly  the chances of him surviving the surgery were slim.The four hour trip home was long and quiet. Our border Collie Lady didn't seem to notice Buddy's absence until the next day. She moped around for days. Here is Buddy and Lady fighting over a ball. :)

Where does time go?

Wow! Its hard to believe my last post was over 4 years ago! My last update was about training with the company Se*rs and about the cute cat that walked up to my boyfriend at Marathon gas station.

Well, we decided to keep that adorable cat. His name is now Riley and he has brought us much happiness!! He is a bit ornery, but there is rarely a dull moment! In the beginning he would attack anybody that walked by. While some of my nurses and aides thought it was funny, others did not see the humor. Thankfully, that phase didn't last long. Riley also learned how to open doors with his front paws. He seems to have a phobia with closed doors. Every time he passes a closed door, he jumps up, wraps his little paws around the handle, and pulls down until it opens. Because of this talent he possesses, we had to change the knob on our front entry door to a knob that he could not grab. :)

I do not work for Se*rs anymore. It was a temporary position during the busy Christmas season. I later obtained a position through a company called Postmates. It is an online platform where customers can place take out food orders. After they input their food order and clicked send, we would get the order on our computers, then call the restaurant to place it. I worked for almost two years until they made the decision to get rid of their work from home order placers. I loved that job and miss it everyday. I'm again looking for a job, and hope to find one soon. :)