Life Goes On

It’s no secret that I’ve not been myself lately. Aside from having the never-ending head-cold from hell for the past couple of weeks, I’m still working through the loss of Paddy.
It has really been a struggle for me. You all know that I’ve lost a good number of much loved pets in my life. Each of those losses left a scar on my heart, but losing Paddy has been much different.
I’ve been looking out into the gardens and seeing all of the clean up that needs doing, but every time I go out in the yard I’m overwhelmed with memories.
Paddy under her apple tree

Paddy in the pond

Walking with Paddy

Teaching Paddy about picking raspberries

Paddy fixing up her house

And how empty that house is now

The memories made my heart hurt, so I’ve been just turning around and going back into the house. Too sad to do a thing.
Yesterday I went out and again was tempted to turn around and go back inside but I forced myself to walk around and take inventory of things. Talk about overwhelmed! The weeds… the work!
But I told myself… “self, just weed this one little section and then you can go back inside and be sad”

Look at those weeds!
I did it though, I knelt down and pulled those weeds and stood up and surveyed my work…

I felt the healing begin, with each weed I pulled my heart felt a little bit lighter.
I got motivated… I PULLED me some weeds! I cut back those dead perennials

And then I started noticing that the frosts hadn’t killed everything… the chipmunks planted this sunflower for me and Jack Frost didn’t kill it!

Other flowers are hanging on too…
A purple coneflower

the pot of million bells on the back deck

Salvia May Night

And this Angel wing begonia only half gave up…

While I still don’t understand why God chose to bring Paddy home to Him, I’m seeing that life does go on no matter how cold the air is or how cold our hearts feel, and even though we may have sad times or hard times that Life Is STILL Good.

P.S. Don’t forget to vote for Suzanne… EVERY DAY until December 7th!
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Checking In

10 days and counting… still full of snot,coughing, and sneezing but trying to live the day-to-day with heavy amounts of decongestants and neti pot rinses. (Couldn’t find the hose adapter Warren… maybe you could make me one?!) lol
I kindly ‘gave’ my germs to Mr.C. but after only three days he is already throwing it. (Must be the beer)

Sorry I missed your call Sister Laura-belle… thanks for worrying about me!

Got rained out of work today. Mr. C took the day off too and we went to Costco, The Big Cheap Store, and The Trough! A good day.. although Mr. C made out way better than me at all three places.
SOOOOOO not fair!

I’m still struggling with the loss of Paddy every day, but it’s not as hard to look at her pictures and I’m able to remember her without falling apart…. most of the time.
Last weekend I went to the “Call Of the Wild’ rehabilitators conference in Waynesboro Virginia with my friend Stacey. It was very interesting and I managed to tell Paddy’s story to a couple of wildlife vets (without breaking down)… they both agreed that it was a totally unforeseeable tragedy. I did put my name on the updated list of rehabilitators with the notation that I can take orphaned beavers. I’m not sure that was the best decision… but then again, if not ME… than WHO? I guess I need to risk my heart in order to have the pure JOY that Paddy brought to our lives. As long as I have the wonderful support system of Mr.C, my family and cherished friends to support me I’m able to say that I’ll do it all again. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I love you.

*SIGH*

I’m hosting a pity party for myself today. I don’t indulge in them very often but right now I’m just letting it happen.
Tomorrow will be a hard day. We’re going to bury Paddy underneath the crab-apple tree that was right next to her enclosure. She loved to eat those crab apples.
Today we cleaned out her enclosure. Many tears were shed.

The worst part of today though… I went out to Mr. Kowalski’s coop to check on them and found Mr. K. dieing. I picked him up and already knew that there was nothing I could do for him, so I just held him until he took his last breath.
Mr. C and I buried him on the back hill.
I just don’t know how much more my heart can take.

From Fairy Tale to Nightmare

…and Paddy met Wapi, they fell instantly in love and lived happily ever after. The end.
That is how it was supposed to be, a fairy tale.

But then the nightmare happened. The stress of the trip apparently caused Paddy’s immune system to shut down which allowed the bacteria inside her to multiply uncontrollably which in turn caused her stomach to rupture. She died in my arms on Saturday morning.
To say we were shocked and devastated is an under statement.
We have lost a number of extremely loved pets in the past, but usually to old age or illness, this grief is different.
Our hopes and dreams for Paddy were so high. Her death was so sudden and unexpected. The emotions are more profound and painful than anything we’ve ever experienced. It left both myself and Mr. C feeling empty and angry and confused about God’s plan.
With the blessing of family and friends we managed to get through the horror of it all and we’ve come to an acceptance, but are still left with feelings of guilt, confusion, pain and emptiness.
We both knew we would be returning from this trip with broken hearts but we were NOT prepared for this.
Please keep us in your prayers as we try to find understanding.

The Days Are Passing TOO Quickly

I’m getting a little bit queasy. In just two days we will set off on the road to take Paddy to her new home. I’ve been spending extra time with her, lovin on her, walking with her, wrestling. I swear she’s getting snugglier too which is sweet, but will make things harder on me.

People keep telling me that it’s just like when a parent has to let their child go. In a way that’s true, BUT in the case of a child, they are making the decision to go. They have stated that they are ready to go out and live their own life.
With Paddy I worry that she will feel abandoned. Will she think I don’t love and want her?
THAT is the hardest part for me… I’m not worried about MY broken heart, I worry that I might be breaking HER’S!

I know that many people will think that I shouldn’t be putting human emotions onto an animal. They think that animals are “just animals” and that they don’t feel emotions.
Well I’m here to tell you that I have surrounded myself with animals for a good part of my life and animals feel every single emotion that humans feel!
They feel scared, they feel sad, they feel happy, they feel angry, they feel abandoned, they feel lonely, they feel joy, they feel pain… THEY FEEL!
I can’t stand the thought that Paddy will feel that I don’t love and want her anymore. I just hope and pray that she really takes a shine to her new guy and that I can clearly see that she feels happy to be with him. Otherwise, how do I leave her?


I know that she will miss Mr. C. and I.

I hope that she can just walk away and be happy in her new life.

Paddy’s Getting Sexy

So I’ve been telling Paddy all about her furture arranged marriage with Wapi and she decided to get herself all dolled up and sexy to meet her new man…

(Actually, she had just eaten a plum, but seriously, she’s lookin sexy huh?)

Way Back/One Year Ago Today…

…I was working at the Wildlife Center when we got the call that changed our lives here on The Hill.
One year ago today I came home with this pitiful little bundle of skin and bones…

The vet told me later on that she didn’t think our little Paddy would make it through the night. But she did.
She did, and we battled through a number of health issues with her for quite awhile. She had fungal infections of the skin…

But antibiotics and some good clean water in the tub eventually cleared that up.

She also suffered with infections in the joints of her legs which caused them to swell so she could barely walk. And digestive problems…. oh let me tell you that a beaver with chronic diarrhea isn’t a pleasant thing!

But, sleeping snuggled up with her dad always made her feel better though…

She has truly been like a child to me for this past year. I’ve watched her grow from an adorable little furball

into a beautiful young adult

And soon, much toooooo soon, Paddy will be headed to her new home in Michigan. It is a HUGE blessing and a total GOD-THING that she has a wonderful place to go where she will be safe from hunters and trappers and predators for the rest of her life and I will get to visit her anytime I want to! AND she’ll have a boyfriend!
I will post more about that later on.
My heart, while joyful, is also very heavy with the thought of bidding her good-bye.

Dog-Duck-Deux

Well, the 2nd Dog-Duck arrived yesterday after a mix-up on the Friday arrival time.
This guy is a bit older and was rescued from even more deplorable conditions than Dog-Duck-1.
He was also housed in an outdoor kennel with dogs but the difference is that all of them were starving. It’s amazing that the dogs didn’t kill and eat the duck… just amazing!
It was clear how malnourished he was when I put him in with D.D.-1
D.D.D.’s bill and feet were extremely pale compared to the bright orange of D.D.-1’s and his neck is sooooo skinny. I can feel the bones beneath his feathers.

When first introduced, the ducks did not know what to make of each other. Neither has ever seen another duck since they were tiny babies!
D.D.-1 showed a bit of territorial behaviour at first but after only one night together they are happy little buddies that just MAY be starting to understand that they really aren’t dogs after all!

I can really see a big difference in D.D.-1’s personality already! He/she seemed depressed before but now he/she is so happy to have a buddy to swim with!

(By the way, I’m convinced it’s a SHE)

We had quite an adventure this morning when I put both of them in Paddy’s pond together for the first time I’ll have to write about that later though. Suffice it to say, Paddy was NOT happy and I think the ducks will have to stay in their own enclosure under the deck until the Crazy Dog Couple have their new home all ready for them!

Paddy makes a break!

Apparently Princess Paddy didn’t want to wait for her evening stroll yesterday!
Mr. C and I were out picking up a new chain saw bar and a few other things when Neighbor Mike spotted what he assumed to be a ground hog headed across the pasture, then he realized it was Paddy wanting to go for a swim in the pool!
I guess I didn’t put enough tension on the bungee that holds the 2×4 across the gate so she can’t muscle her way out. She pushed up the 2×4 and pushed the bottom of the gate out and she was on her way. Thank You Lord that Mike saw her and rounded her up and thank You too that Duck-Dog didn’t escape along with her!
A trip to the store for some chain to double lock the gate is on the list of chores for today.
Speaking of Duck-Dog… I found a new home for him/her! Appropriately, the crazy dog couple from down the street is adopting him/her! AND, believe it or not, I got a call from a lady whose hairs I cut telling me of yet another duck-dog that was being held at a near-by humane shelter that was looking for a home! She’s bringing it out today to meet Duck-Dog # 1 and the crazy dog couple will give them both a good home where I KNOW they will be spoiled rotten!

I have an unexpected day off of work today since it’s RAINING!!! Thank You again God!

We Got a DOG

Well…. not really, we got a DUCK that THINKS it’s a dog!
Here’s the story…
I got an e-mail from a friend telling me about this girl in town that had rescued one baby duck out of the road after it’s entire family had been hit by a car and killed.
Bless her for doing that, BUT for some reason she thought it was ok to keep the duck in a 10×10 chain link kennel with a Blue-tick Hound and a Beagle! Apparently, the dogs must not be aware that they are hunting dogs because they accepted the duck and slept curled up together in the less-than clean kennel. He/she grew into a big dirty white duck-dog.
At some point the girl finally came to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t the best environment for a duck… gee, ya think?
When I picked it up it smelled like a very dirty wet dog that had never had a bath in it’s life! I put her/him into Paddy’s pond and the poor thing had no idea what to do in deep water! So, I filled a shallow container and set him/her up in the holding pen under the back deck. It took quite awhile for the duck-hound to get into that water but I’m finally seeing some duck-like behaviour coming out.

Yesterday I put him/her back into Paddy’s pond and he/she swam and and actually had fun!


That is ,until Paddy came out to see what was going on…
Paddy slowly swam back and forth, eyeing the intruder, sizing him/her up.
Then suddenly she literally torpedoed herself towards that duck and scared the bejeebers out of the poor thing.
Apparently, Miss Paddy-Cake isn’t very good about sharing!

I will put him/her back in Paddy’s pond today while Paddy is sleeping. She doesn’t like to rise and shine until mid-afternoon at the earliest!

My plan was to release this duck at Chesley but I’m afraid it would think some coyote or fox was his friend and end up being a meal! I’m currently looking for a new home for him/her.

And Then There Were Five

I’m still feeling terribly guilty and sad that Little -Bit died on my watch.
I can’t think of anything I did wrong, but then again why did he die after coming so far under the care of others? *SIGH*
But there are still these little monkeys to take care of so I can’t dwell on my failure too much.

They grow so fast and are starting to sample acorns and nuts and stuff.
Mr. C. is an excellent assistant…

I’ll have them until next Tuesday. By then they should be off formula and will start being prepared for release. I will not be releasing them here on The Hill after the big dove incident. That makes me sad as I would love to have them stay.

Labor Day morning I worked and Mr.C. took Paddy up to the big pond for her second field trip. I never did get those pics posted from the first one did I???
Anyway, Paddy helped Mr C haul in a fish …

(not really, she mostly just got in the way)
She really does have a good time out there but she always makes sure she knows where her ‘family’ is and doesn’t let us too far out of sight.

When we have to leave she throws a little fit like a little kid being told they have to leave the pool or playground. She’s such a sweetie though!

Cuteness X Six

My days are revolving around the babies these days. I’d forgotten how tiresome it is to get formula ready and do the breakfast feeding and cleaning before I’ve even had my own coffee!
I’m usually pretty grumpy until I pick up that first one and then the cuteness makes everything all good again.
I take them one by one and feed them, help them go potty and then put them into a tupperware container until each one is finished.
“Little -Bit”, the youngest one, usually gets fed first. He is so tiny and his fingernails are amazing…

While they’re all in the tupperware, I clean the ‘nest box’ (a small pet carrier).
After getting their bellies filled they quickly snuggle in and go back to sleep until the next feeding time. Here they are in the tupperware waiting to be returned ‘home’ to sleep.

All of them except Little-Bit have opened their eyes now. It’s kind of cool to see them open for the first time ever, clearly unfocused, foggy and blinky. Then, the next time you pick them up you can tell they are really seeing things! Once that happens they start to become much more active and curious.

Today we are taking Paddy on a field trip to swim in a real pond at Chesley! It should be fun, definitly interesting! Pics will follow!

Walking With Paddy-pottamous

That is Mr C’s affectionate nickname for our girl.
She’s getting so big.

It has become our custom to take a leisurely stroll around The Hill each evening.

We make frequent stops for kisses…

And we usually finish up at the apple tree where we’ll knock some apples onto the ground so she can search for them.

She’ll eat one and then insist on taking one or two back home with her to eat inside her lodge. She knows exactly where the gate opens to get back home!


Such a character she is!

Building An Addition

Mr. C. and I spent most of yesterday afternoon building an addition… not for us, for PADDY of course!
Here’s the story… I had glanced inside of her ‘lodge’ last week and realized that she had been digging a hole to China in there! So we filled it in and put a rock over the area because there was a slight possibility that if she kept going she could tunnel her way right out of the enclosure. The next day I looked and saw that she had started another hole and it became apparent to us that she was actually trying to dig a tunnel to the pond so she could get in and out of the water right from her lodge. This is a natural beaver behaviour as they usually have several entrances to their lodges with some of them right under water.
Since we knew she would be unsuccessful and become frustrated trying to tunnel through a steel tank we decided to improvise…


It’s a small box (which doubles as a seat for ME) that hangs over the edge of the pond. There is no bottom and we cut her a new door so she can swim right up and go inside.
She likes it!

Here is the view from the water into her lodge…

Then an unexpected, very cool thing happened… you see, I was becoming worried that I was raising a very, well, LAZY beaver! She never wanted to collect sticks or try to build a dam or anything. She just slept all day and ate!
BUT, as soon as she checked out this new entrance that girl got B-U-S-Y!

She started collecting branches by the mouth-full and dragging them through the pond and through the new entrance into her lodge!
She did it over and over…

She had a plan… oh yes she did! She was going to block that old door where everybody peeks in a bothers her while she’s trying to NAP!
This is what it looked like this morning…

I’m so proud of her… she’s doing real beaver stuff! I guess I’m not such a bad beaver mom after all.

Heart-Aches and Updates

It hasn’t been great around The Hill lately. First our friend and neighbor passed away.
Then I found out that Rudy the Red-Tail Hawk had to be euthanized. He had been struggling lately, losing the strength in his legs again so he fell down alot and broke alot of his feathers. He was also losing weight. We just were never sure what was wrong with him. The vet suspected nerve damage but she couldn’t figure out why he would seem to start getting better and then relapse. I forgot to ask her if she was going to do a necropsy. It would be nice to find out what his problem was.
Anyway, I take comfort in the fact that for the past year and a half he was kept safe and very well fed.
Rest in peace now sweet Rudy, go fly strongly over that rainbow bridge and land on strong sure legs on the other side.

And next… yesterday I came home from work to find one of The Twins laying dead in the backyard… my first thought was that it was a cat attack, but no, she had been shot with a pellet gun.
It makes me so mad! I brought them here thinking they would be safe! What makes it even worse is that a previously good relationship with a neighbor is going to be very strained unless an apology is forthcoming. It wasn’t hard to piece together what happened and I’m hoping said neighbor will fess up.
So, may you too rest in peace my little friend…

Tux has some type of eye infection going on and the ointment the vet gave me isn’t doing a thing. He looks pitiful.

*SIGH*

Enough of heart-aches, let’s have some updates…

The persevering barn swallows are diligently keeping their eggs warm and guarding the nest.

Paddy is doing great and we’ve taken to having a stroll around The Hill each evening. She stays right on my left heel like a well trained dog. She still loves Mr.C. too…

We had a new visitor at the pond the other day…

I’m sure that the fish and frogs were happy when he left and hope that he doesn’t come back!

Mr. C left this morning to go fishing with that same group of guys he went with last time. This time they are going out for tuna and mahi… hope to get the freezer stocked back up!

So that’s life on The Hill this past week or so…

Being Green

Seems like we’ve finally gotten the filtering system for Paddy’s ‘pond’ figured out. While the water is still somewhat brownish looking, you can see all the way down to the bottom so it’s all good.
We’re using a sand pool filter that needs to be back washed usually a couple of times a day and I couldn’t stand the thought of all of that good ‘fertilized’ water going to waste so I came up with the idea of making a pipe sprinkler for the garden. It works great and takes only minutes to get everything watered… gotta love that!

This and That

We had a heckofa thunderstorm last night and it’s still wet and misty this morning. I’ll go shopping for plants for Chesley in a little while, but I’ll take a few minutes to update y’all on what’s been going on.

Neighbor Mike welcomed a new horse to the pasture the other day. She isn’t really his horse, he is keeping her in exchange for riding privileges. Her name is Dixie, which is also Mike’s black lab’s name, so we’ve taken to calling her Dixie Too. She’s a pretty thoroughbred mare about 20 years old…

Miracle and Delilah seem to be accepting her fairly well.

Paddy gave the unripe plums fallen from the Crazy Dog people’s tree a try and declared them worthy…

The babies are filling up the wildlife center…
ever seen a baby buzzard???…

There are a couple of baby barred owls…

The usual raccoons…

And plenty of other little bundles of cuteness.
Life is busy busy busy, the weeds have the upper hand right now and I’ve got to get out there and regain control!

Outdoor Enclosure COMPLETE!!!

It’s DONE!!! Well, except for bringing in some good sized branches for eating and building purposes. For Paddy to build with… not us. Our part is finished!

We might also have to tweak the intake for the filter as well because it seems to get clogged with ‘debris’ a bit to quickly. It’s a learning process.

As you can see, the water didn’t stay clear for very long…

Here she is checking out her new summer lodge…

Yes, it’s made of wood and she will most likely chew a hole in it. The point is that she will add her own entrance where she wants one. Maybe she block the one we made off… who knows? It’s shelter for now and she’s in charge of building herself something different if she wants to.

It wasn’t long before a new buddy moved in…

It was funny… when I turn on the filter the water goes into a whirlpool and the frog was just floating around going in circles, and so was Paddy. The frog was clearly confused and wasn’t quite sure what to do so he crawled up onto Paddy’s back for a free ride while he tried to figure things out. Of course I didn’t have the camera with me to capture the moment.

We went to Noah’s Ark Pet store and our friend Tom, the owner, gave us a nice discount on this guy…

Paddy had no reaction to it. It’s cute though.
Here she is checking things out…

She still doesn’t act totally at ease out there yet. We’ll leave her out for longer stretches of time until she feels like it’s home.

Test Swim

It’s about 3:30 in the morning, I’ve been awake since about 2:00. I knew falling back asleep wasn’t in the cards so I figured I’d give y’all an update.
Paddy’s new pond is filled up! The filter is working (with a few quirks that we’re working on). There’s an awful lot of mud still exposed in her ‘yard’ so were going to get some mulch and maybe some river rock to deal with that.
But once we got the pool filled I couldn’t wait to bring her up for a test swim…

“This is AWESOME!! Thanks!”

She dives…

She wrestles….

She likes it, hey Paddy!

We don’t have her ‘lodge’ made yet so she’ll continue to spend her nights inside the Palace. We want to give her a little time to become comfortable being in her new territory before we leave her out full time.

A Productive Sunday

And once again I will thank the Good Lord Above for good and generous neighbors who let us borrow power equipment! (imagine Tim the Tool-Man Taylor grunting noises here) It was even delivered here bright and early this morning before the Crazy Dog Lady’s hubby had his first cuppa coffee! Now THAT goes above and beyond the definition of a good friend!
The start of the day…

Gittin-r-done…
(these pics are definitly NOT flattering!)

Man, I can dig a nice hole…

It FITS!!! (after just a couple attempts!)

Now the fun part starts… landscaping and making it purty.
We have to build a lodge for her to sleep in and Mr. C and neighbor Mike have to go shopping for some plumbing supplies to get the filter and sanitizer hooked up. Then we’ll fill er up and let the Princess give it a test swim. It was a good day!