Boring

Well, after my last entry being so "preachy", I've spent the last month trying to determine what I can do to recapture any interest at all in anything else I might want to say. Sadly, there are so many things that are "hot button" items for rescue, that it's difficult.

In the interests of not losing the interests of too many people, I'll try to keep such rants and raves to a minimum in the future.

Now - on to some boring things that have been going on around here.

It was driven home to me on this past Saturday that I have GOT to get out of my current house. I received a phone call at work from someone who has helped me for years. She had been stopped while out walking her dogs by one of my neighbors, who told her that I had YET ANOTHER snake in my yard. The dogs were going wild and he peeked over to see what had them so excited and saw the snake, but had no way to contact me. It was only by sheer luck that he ran across my friend and she was able to reach me. He couldn't tell for certain if it was a king snake or a coral snake, but I really didn't care.

Fortunately, it appears that it was a (non-poisonous) king snake and one of the dogs killed it, but it could just as easily have been another poisonous snake.

Part of my problem is that my current home is on the retention "pond" (it's actually a long ditch, but the city says that it's a pond) for my subdivision. The homeowners association doesn't keep the "pond" cleaned out because the property lines all cross the "pond" and are considered part of each homeowners lot - making it our responsibility and not theirs. I honestly believe that someone is going to have to have their child bitten before anyone will ask the hard questions about wildlife control and safety. I've already lost 6 dogs to snakes getting into my yard and it's become obvious to me that, despite all my efforts at "snake-proofing" my yard, there's no way that I can keep the dogs safe here.

For those of you who are interested, the images below are a king snake and a coral snake, respectively.

On a more pleasant note, I have received a couple of encouraging notes (along with very generous donations) to help me help my beloved seniors. They will be applied to the adoption fee and any medical issues that may arise after their (eventual) adoption. Not that I expect any, but the existence of a "guarantee" (of sorts) that a new home won't have major medical expenses after adoption might just encourage someone to take that "leap of faith" and provide a home for a senior. What's really amazing to me is that a program such as this was always part of the mission when incorporated, but the resources never materialized. Now that I'm doing rescue independently, there it is!

Enough for this entry. Going back over it, I can see how incredibly boring it is, but I'm an incredibly boring person in real life anyway. Good thing for me that the dogs don't care!

Benny