Nickeled and Dimed

As I continue my life's journey, I find myself reflecting more and more on the things I heard my parents say when I was growing up and realizing just how much they've come to apply to my own life. Usually in the same way they applied to my parents life - disastrously! "Nickeled and Dimed" was their expression for all those unwelcome, unexpected expenses that keep you in poverty. The last two months, I have been getting "nickeled and dimed" at every turn!

How, you ask? (well,okay - you probably didn't ask!)

Well, in a recent thunderstorm, my cable modem got fried - through the cable! It took out my router through the connected ethernet cable. This brought me to screeching halt, internet wise. Since it's kind of hard to maintain a website without internet access, replacements had to be purchased.

The computer monitor decided it was time for it to go to "monitor heaven".

I lost my battle to save the vision of my personal pet, Lucky. He's not uncomfortable (physically), but psychologically he is having problems adapting to the loss of his vision. Whatever it costs to keep him comfortable will be money that is well spent, but that doesn't mean that it's easily available. Unfortunately (to use another of my fathers expressions), "I don't sh*t nickels and dimes".

The well that provides water to my home has needed three repair calls (at over $500 each time) since I've been here (1 year next month - yay!) and is showing signs of imminent failure. It will need to be replaced soon, but I don't have the resources available for that. The best I can do is keep it limping along until I have the construction loan for the new home/sanctuary and have a new one drilled at that point.

The 30 year old single wide mobile home that I had hoped would last until the new home/sanctuary was built has started to fall apart - literally! The floor has two 6 inch deep depressions it it, running the width of the building. One in the main living area and one in the main bedroom. The trailer is literally bowing down into the center of itself. It appears that the trailer frame is bending, probably due to age. If it fails, I have no place for the dogs and I to live.

So, where am I going with all this? Well, I'm going to ask for your help. No, I'm not asking for donations or gifts. Things are too rough for too many people right now to ask that anyone risk their own situations for the benefit of myself or my sanctuary babies.

No. What I want is for people to bookmark and use isearch.igive.com for their next internet search. No, they're not google™, but for each unique, qualified search performed, they will give me 1¢. I know that a penny doesn't sound like much, but pennies do add up. If each of my unique site visitors make only one search a month, that's a bag of dog food each month. Since I go through two 30 pound bags a month, that's a big help!

It's always been difficult for me to ask for help. I'm asking for it now. Please do that next search on isearch.igive.com. It won't cost you a thing and if enough of you do it, those pennies will soon add up to the "nickels and dimes" that I've been putting out for the last few years.

Thank you for indulging my begging and groveling and please accept my apologies for doing so. The simple truth is, things are getting desperate for me and desperate times call for desperate measures. I've always been willing to debase myself for the benefit of the animals in my care and unless something good happens for me soon, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to continue.

Benny