stephanie is: 
hrm…
i have the day off! my second day off since i started on the 7th. i have to work tomorrow, but i have sunday off. i don’t know beyond that because they didn’t have next week’s schedule up yet on thursday.
my day has been very animal related. my whole life seems to be lately. i had a grooming appointment for simba (my himalayan cat) at 9am so i only slept till 8:13am (woke up 2 minutes before my alarm went off. the groomer had me wait while he brushed and bathed him to make sure he’d be ablee to handle being groomed in a new place (i’d used the vet before but they now only do anesthetized lion cuts and he can’t do that due to his heart murmur.) simba is really good about being groomed as i brush him often and got him used to having his paws handled at an early age. once or twice a year he starts to shed like crazy and if i don’t make an appointment for a bath/brush-out our house ends up looking like 5 cats exploded. i was pondering getting him a lions cut on top of the grooming, but i decided to wait until spring so he will be nice and cool when he needs it most. the groomer found no mats at all so no shaving was necessary right now. simba wasn’t fond of the bath, but he doesn’t try to bite or scratch – he is a sweet kitty. he just didn’t want to stay in the tub while the water was on. so i rolled up my sleeves and held his scruff which always soothes him. the groomer jokes “you’re hired” because with teamwork we got him bathed quickly and with little stress to his heart murmur.
when i got home (simba still at the groomers being dried) danny told me india had thrown up a lot on the stairs, and there had been pieces of the greenie she ate at lunch yesterday. shortly after danny went up to bed i heard her heaving and looked up to see her projectile a couple more times. poor babyhead dog. i cleaned it up and put spot cleaner on that area too, then rubbed her head and belly. she seemed in a little better spirits after i got back home with simba at 1:30pm. but when she ate a bit of food she threw it up within a few minutes. i cleaned that up and made a vet appointment for an hour from now. i assume she’ll be put on the special vet food, but i do want to make sure she didn’t catch something serious at daycare or something.
the past two days india came with me to work. i was worried she would be naughty and hyper and loud… turns out she was timid and sweet and quiet. she started out in the big playroom because i thought she’d like to run around more since she always did at the dog park. ut it turned out to be way too stressful for her. she wanted to lay and watch the others or wander around mingling. but she’d end up surrounded and she’d get very stressed. she would mostly yelp and look for me (if i was working in that room at the time) but one time she got so upset she spit up the water she had just drank. at nap-time she only ate part of her lunch cause she was standing in her kennel looking for me the whole time. i talked to everyone and we decided to switch her to the small playroom since she is fine with small animals. there are large dogs in the small room – the ones that need a calmer environment. she did much better there.
on her second day she went right to the small room and i had to work the first 2.5 hours in the big room (i was alone in there for and hour or so because one girl was out for a family emergency. when i got up to 16 dogs it was more peeing and pooping than i could clean up on my own and they brought in someone else). india spent the entire time standing against the playroom door looking out the window for me. she is very attached to me and is only just getting used to when i leave her at home. (both dogs have been getting used to it these past two weeks and danny says they don’treally cry for me anymore). once i was in the playroom for my shift she was more relaxed. she layed watching everything, made new friends (she really liked noka the chihuahua), and she even played a little. at one point she peed herself cause she got a little overwhelmed while roughhousing, but she did well. for the first hour of nap-time she was an angel in her kennel. she ate all her lunch and was laying down every time i peeked in the window. but that must have been because my chore had me going into the room occasionally. i was eating lunch and in a meeting for the last hour and when i let her out for potty break i found she had scratched her nose trying to get out of the kennel to find me. i took her to the first aide station to clean it. afterwards she started galloping down the hallway towards the playroom, grinning like a fool and telling me to hurry. she ran right into the room happily. i may have to try putting her on a tie-down next time she comes with me… maybe with her martingale so she doesn’t slip out.
she has been a tired pup when we get home at 3:30pm. i took her on walks straight out of the car since she was too tired to pull at all and i’d like her to remember walks that way. plus she doesn’t like pooping at the day care yet…
i’ll post a few more pictures tonight. hopefully i will get to spend some time with danny tonight – even if it is just for dinner. i am not bringing india to work with me tomorrow since she is sick (though i was planning to give her a break anyway since she’d had so much to absorb the past few days.) maybe sunday danny and i can drive out to the country for pumpkins and autumny leaf goodness…