Swimming in chaos

I'm trying to keep my head above water, but sometimes I can feel myself about to be pulled under, overwhelmed by the wave that is my life. When I find myself feeling overwhelmed, I try to remind myself that many people live this way too and manage. That I, we, are very lucky for all we do have. I have to admit sometimes that is enough to push it back for a short period, but many times it's not much comfort. I have this cycle where I feel completely overwhelmed then after a meltdown, or a period of depression, I will psych myself up that things are going to be ok and that I can figure all this out. However, no matter how much I keep trudging through I find myself at the beginning of the cycle once again. I have so many "irons in the fire" as they say that I never really seem to get very far without giving up some thing like sleep or down time. I'm still trying to get through this schooling. I've bought a 4 month extension and I'm afraid I'll have to buy another one before I'm actually done. I'm trying to lose weight-still-which has been it's own cycle in itself. I have 4 kids. 3 teens with busy social lives & sports that has me doing a lot of running, spending a bunch of money, and trying to keep up on them & what's going on. I have a 2 yr old who is with me 24/7 who has speech delays. So besides the usual 2 yr old stuff we also have weekly speech appts, monthly counselor sessions, and a monthly play date to help his social growth. I can't seem to find time for losing weight, schooling, my kids, cleaning house, yard work, dogs, paying the bills, marriage time, and some free time. Now basketball season is coming in & the holidays and it's going to get crazier. My husband, god love him, has so many things of his own to do so I'm still left with most of this. My husband has work, lately he's been working tons of OT, and when he's not working he's got a list of home & car repairs to take care of, and of course try to spend sometime with the 4 kids and me and get his own free time. If I manage to get my weight loss workouts in then I don't get as much school time or cleaning in. If I work on school more then my workouts get skipped and my 2 yr old is more on his own & not getting what he needs from me. My teens help out quite a bit. They feed the animals, take care of the trash daily, help wash dishes, sweeping, laundry, babysitting the 2 yr old, cleaning their own bathroom & taking care of their own rooms and such. Even if I do figure out a somewhat decent schedule to get through all of it something always gets in the way. Appts, unexpected practices/games, holidays, a cranky 2 yr old going through changes, husband's schedule changing, issues with kids that have to be dealt with, unexpected changes in the schedule of visitation with their father and so on. We need me to work b/c right now we can only survive with what we have b/c of hubby's OT, without it we'd have to give up cell phones, cable and any thing fun at all for the family. Some where something has to give, but I can't decide what it should be: more income? weight loss? being involved with my kids? clean dishes & clothes? the kids give up their sports? what little couple married time we have? my relax time? none of that sounds like something I can or should give up. Well off to go swimming in the chaos again.

Life Changes: My goal

I started Life Changes journals a few years ago when I was trying to lose weight. I haven't stopped trying to lose weight, but I have stopped writing my life changes journals. Today I decided to start them up again. When I was writing those I seemed to stick to my goals more.

My goal right now is to walk 10,000 steps a day. Whether I work out or not I know if I walk 10,000 steps a day I'll be heading to a weight loss. In the course of a normal day without exercising and without trying to get in my steps I might only walk 2,000 steps. This is how I know getting 10,000/day in will get me in the right direction. I'm having a hard time getting up in the morning to exercise regularly right now. That's why I decided to just focus on the steps first. When I get that down then I'll add another goal.

Sports are my life

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EditThe soccer momby Richelle Fair on Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 9:26am
You know that's the one sport my family doesn't have! no I'm not the soccer mom, but isn't that a common title for us stay-at-home moms with kids in sports? At least it's the only term I've ever heard for the mom of sports kids. I'm just a sports mom, too many different sports in our family to be called just one thing. We have cheerleading, basketball, football, cross country, baseball & track. I love that my kids are active and involved in sports. I love watching them play and participate. I love the pictures on my wall and talking to the other parents at the sports. What I don't love is how it seems to have taken over my life. I don't love the choking feeling of being ruled by practices, games, and the money they all need. As much as I love it all I hate that sometimes I feel trapped by the same sports. We rarely have anytime anymore that all 6 of us are even in the house together let alone spending any time together. There is some sporting thing going on every day of the week. Usually 2 or 3 a day really. I find myself getting so frustrated with the constant in and out of the house. The money that is spent on it, to the point where that is all of our "extra" money.This year Travis is coaching football so I've lost him 3 nights a week too on top of his OT. One night my oldest came home and asked me what was for dinner tomorrow night. I told him I didn't know yet. He then proceeded to tell me that I should fix spaghetti b/c it would be good for him for the race on Saturday. I told him no I wasn't fixing spaghetti just for that. He got a little upset saying his coach told him he should eat that. At that point I lost it. It was at the end of a busy week because of all these sports and I had just had enough. I started yelling that sports has taken over my life enough as it is. It dictates my days, weeks, free time and money and that it was not about to start dictating what I made for dinner! The truth was I could have fixed spaghetti, we had everything we needed for it, I was just in a bull head moment. I didn't want dinner to become all about the sports too. We all ready eat dinner all at separate times so figuring out what's for dinner is tough enough. Later, of course, I felt bad. Here's a typical week of sports for us:



Monday-CC 4:30-5:30, FB 6-8

Tuesday-CC-4:30-5:30, FB 6-8

Wed-4:30-5:30, Cheer 7-8:30

Thurs-4:30-5:30, FB 6-8, Cheer 8-9:15

Fri-4:30-5:30

Sat-Cc 9 or 10 am, FB 1 or 3 or 4pm

Sun-baseball practice



When basketball season starts, is the worst time around here. Then we have the boys with BB practice 5 nights a week-at different times, plus my daughter's cheer goes up to 3-4 times a week. Cheerleading is also at a different time b/c everyone is waiting for the gym. We even have two basketball gyms, but one is for the girls and one for the boys. Add in 1-2 games for both highschool and middle school and basketball is the most spoken word out of my mouth for months!



I know this is the point where people have told me to have the kids cut back on their sports. Obviously that's the answer to my problems over it, but it also takes away the joy I get from it. I don't want to take it away from the kids. Cheerleading is the only sport my daughter plays, it's the most expensive and does last almost an entire year minus 2 or 3 weeks, but it's her only sport. Tyler runs cross country, track, and plays basketball. Which one should he give up? My son Daniel plays football, basketball, and baseball. Again which one does he give up? He's a natural at football and baseball. This is his last year for football b/c our school doesn't have it, this is little league. Once it's gone though he's going to replace it with cross country, which would free up an extra practice 2 or 3 nights a week and a game each saturday. It would if my husband and I weren't going to volunteer to help out the football team even after Daniel is done. We want the school to add football to their programs and the only way to do that is to make the little league a success and they need volunteers to do that. We want to see football at our school at least by the time Bryan can play. Basketball is not Daniel's strong sport, but he loves it so much. He smiles the whole time he's on the floor, how can I take that away? Plus I know how important my sports were to me when I was a kid and they only have a few more years left. These are the reasons why I suffer through it all. After Daniel graduates highschool (in 6 short years) things will be slower and I know I'm going to miss watching my kids doing all of this. Sometimes right now though that seems VERY far away lol



I don't want the kids to give up their sports, sometimes though I just need to yell about it! lol

Great Weekend!

I have many things to be grateful for this Monday!



* a great weekend overall!
* My boys doing great at their sports this weekend and having fun doing it! Tyler ran 23:53 this weekend, he's shaved almost 2 minutes off his running time in the past few weeks! I know that isn't easy and I'm proud of him for working hard and achieving it! Daniel is playing much better football these past 2 weeks and you can see the joy and pride on his face now when he comes off the field. He has made a touchdown in each of the last two games. This Saturday he caught lobbed balls that are hard to catch, 1 turned into a touchdown and 1 he made while surrounded by the other team & he had to jump to catch it! His tackles have been great! BTW, the other team was the trojans, so you can imagine the jokes that come out of those games. Especially when the announcer says things like "No. 19 Daniel Montgomery brought down by a pack of trojans" LOL
* Great time with my parents visiting yesterday.
* My husband was able to fix my mom's truck without any hiccups and saved her a bunch of money.
* That my little man didn't turn into Oscar the Grouch yesterday when he had to go all day without a nap & that he slept through the night last night even though he fell asleep at 7pm yesterday evening!

Waste away Wednesday

That's what I should call this day b/c to be honest I just don't have much I can claim that I have accomplished lol



Honestly I don't feel like getting much done today either lol I should probably cook dinner, wash a few dishes and vacuum at the least.



My brain has been so busy the last two days with nonstop thinking about how to work a little from home. LOTS and LOTS of internet searches, a lot of time and way too much reading! I have turned up a few possible leads for part time pay, but I'm waiting to hear what they thought of my application. This has become a big issue for me lately. Once again school has started along with the sports and we are broke week after week. With lunches, school fees, paying to get in and watch my kids at their sports, driving to the sports, sending money for them to eat on away games and so on, it's eating up all of our extra money and extra time. I'm going to school to get a certificate in Medical Transcription, but that is more and more looking like it maybe awhile before i can use it for a job if ever. I started the schooling b/c a relative of my step-mom's married a woman who worked as a Medical Transcriptionist. She had been doing it for 8 yrs and needed more workers, so that was a possibility of a job. Not anymore though since they are all ready divorced less than a year later. The other problem I'm running into is that everywhere you look companies want you to have 2 yrs experience as a transcriptionist. Now my question is if that's all anyone wants how are you supposed to ever get experience doing it? So I'm looking for an internship, but we all know that is not going to pay well or have great hours. I'll take it though, but I've heard those are few and hard to find. I've considered day care again, but I keep talking myself out of it. For several reasons like how would I run the kids everywhere, Bryan's speech appts that I still have to sit in on and now my daughter will be getting braces in Nov. That means more dental visits on a regular basis and we have to drive an hour to the dentist just to get it covered by insurance. So it would not be a good fit. A friend of mine has been selling her craft stuff on Etsy.com so I'm looking into doing that with the crafts that I make as christmas gifts. I know I won't have an income but if I could get some extra money here and there that would help some. I've applied to get Bryan into early head start preschool. He's 3rd inline on the waiting list for a slot. IF he gets in then I'm going to start applying to some call center jobs that I can do from home, definitely not my first choice but I'm pretty limited on what i can do.



Keep your fingers crossed that my hubby can get on at the factory where my dad works here soon. If he does that will mean like a $12,000/yr raise in our income. My brother is getting to go work there again which is wonderful for his family. Kind of funny though b/c he's spent the last 2 yrs taking online courses for becoming a web designer or something that he do from home, and now he's getting a job where he'll make to much to probably ever use his degree.



Just have to keep my chin up and have faith that something will work out.

More future concerns

I forgot about the job that might be coming up for hubby. Sometime this Fall/winter there may come a job opportunity for my husband. One that if he was to get the job would be near impossible not to take it. The difference in pay from now to that job is about 18,000/yr. Yeah pretty hard to turn that kind of money down when we have kids heading to college in a few short years and need a larger house. That's more than I could make if I go to work. The down side is that he'll have to work M-F 2nd shift for possibly the next 10 yrs or more. It could be a little less but it will be many years of 2nd shift before he has a chance to move to 1st. It's just the way the company works. It means he'd only see the older kids every other weekend except when school's out and that's a lot to give up. It also means in 3 yrs when Bryan goes to school full time he'd only get to see him on the weekends too. I probably wouldn't go to work if he took this job because I'll have to be free to do all the running for the kids. That is until Bryan would go to school then I could work. At that point we'd be in good shape for helping the kids with college with both of us working and that's important to us. Being together as a family is important too. I know many families who manage with one or more members working second shift. Neither one of us is thrilled at the idea of that, but it's too good of an opportunity for us to pass up really. The reason I'm so sure this job opportunity will come up is that it's for the same place my father works for. He has worked there for 31 yrs so they'll make sure his application gets seen by the review board and with my husbands knowledge and history he's pretty much a sure thing to get offered the job if they have openings. We want to make sure that we're ready for this kind of job before we get to the interview process. As I said though it's very hard to see how we could turn it down. There is the possibility that he'll be laid off once before being a permanent part of the company. That is a little scary, but we plan to save for that possibility and he'll have unemployment until he finds another job if that happens. Usually though once you've been laid off you'll be rehired later when they need more workers and then you're usually set in the company for life if you want. For my husband to make that kind of money where he's at he'd have to become a manager of some sort, which he doesn't want to do, or be there for 10-15 yrs. I hate the idea of us all being separated though. During the weekdays it would be me, hubby & Bryan, week nights all of us but hubby, one weekend the three of us again, the next all 6 of us. I just have to remember that families all of over the world have to do things like this and no matter what our situation could always be worse.

Wondering what will the future bring.....

I've been attending school online since last October, I'm more than halfway done now. Now that it's closer to the time when I will be looking for a job and life is going to take a big change. It has my mind thinking and thinking even though it's still months away and I have no idea who I'm going to work for or what I'm facing. I really wish I could turn it off, but I don't do well with the unknown. I'm such a planner. It's not helping that getting a job is supposed to give you more money right? except that as soon as I start working we will lose our reduced lunch for the kids taking a $150/mo out of my potential income. I'll be self-employed so I'll have to take at least 10% out to save for my taxes at the end of the year. We may lose the kids having the medical card, we will definitely lose it for Bryan which means we have to add him to our insurance. That can only be done in the fall so I either have to do it this fall before i'm working and hope I get a job soon or wait until next fall and he'll have no insurance until next fall if I get a job. That is going to cost us another $150/mo out of my potential income. I may have to put Bryan in full time care, even though I'm working from home. This kind of job I have only so much time to get my work done and return it so I need to be sure I can get it done on time and I can't guarantee that with him home. So there's more cost in the fees & gas. Plus I'm having issues with the whole working from home but sending him to day care! Isn't that the point of working from home? I'm going to try to just send him to a part time preschool to modify the time away from home, gas and fees, but that will only work if I can work when he is home. So with all of this it seems as if I'll be working for no extra money at all. I've been wondering if it's worth it. Working again is going to add a lot of stress to my life specifically. I'll have to work 20-30 hrs a week plus run to appts and practices and games and clean and try to have some fun with my family. I know tons of people do this every day, that's what I keep telling myself that they do it and manage just fine. I just have a hard time seeing it b/c without working I have a hard time getting it all done. There are literally nights that from 3:30 to 9 or 10 I've done nothing but run this kid or that kid. I can't count on Travis b/c his work he has to pull a lot of overtime and it's not always planned. There are many times where he texts me to let me know he has to stay over and he doesn't know for how long. Where he'll work a 12- 15 hr day or more sometimes. I also keep reminding myself that as I get better at my job I'll make more an hour so eventually I'll be bringing home the extra income. I need to work b/c in 3 short years I'll have the first one going off to college, the year after that another one in college, 2 yrs later another one. We will really need my income during that time to help the kids with college. We want to move to a bigger house but we can't do that without some money saved for a down payment. Somehow I've got to put this to the back burner, concentrate on what I can do today and believe that it will all work out when the time comes.

I'm in an unusual place right now. In my own world of chaos for me. For once I have no plan and no ideas on a plan on how to get everything done that I need to get done. Usually I can figure out the best way to do things pretty quickly when things change but this last time has thrown me for a loop. I'm feeling lost, stressed, worried, so much to do and not sure how to do it all. My sleep is screwed up, I'm depressed, and feeling insane sometimes in my own head. My husband recently went to 2nd shift & summer started & my kids are going to their dads every other week. The list of my responsibilities is so long usually but with my husband on 2nd shift it grows. I have school that has to be finished by Oct, I have the house, the bills, the scheduling of all the family events & appts, but with hubby on 2nd the running of the kids becomes all mine and so does the yard work. Wow when I write it out it doesn't seem like so much. I know it is though when I look at my calendar and see that most days of the summer have some kind of practice, game, appt, or gathering to go to. It's not leaving a lot of time for relaxing, enjoying life, or being a couple with my husband. With him on second shift it is even harder b/c my life is on a 5 am to 11 pm schedule and his life is on an 8 am to 1 am schedule. I am a full time at home mom, this house & yard & family are my life with occasional trips to a bigger world outside of it. Keeping the house, the yard, and taking care of the family is very important to me especially with it being my main world. I feel like the servant no one can live without. Everyone needs me to keep things in order, get them where they need to go, make their appointments and never forget anything, always figure out where the money can be found for whatever they need. Yet I feel invisible because it seems no one recognizes how much I do or when I get a lot done. The hubby says nothing whether the kitchen counter is completely covered in dirty dishes or if it's spotless with everything done. Him and the kids don't seem to care if the house is clean. I realize that they wouldn't care as much as I do b/c I am in here 24/7 sometimes for weeks at a time, but can't they care a little bit? Or at least notice when I make a big cleaning change in the house? I know that I notice when they do things to help out. I feel like i"m not worth much to the world outside of my house. I have very little to talk about except with the family or maybe the dogs. No one ever calls me to just chat. I've tried to reach out to others even willing to drive up to an hour to hang out with others and yet I never hear anything from anyone. I will call, email, try but honestly after I try a few times and then I give up. I don't see why I have to be the one to do all the calling, or the one to do all the suggesting we get together etc and since no one offers I feel like they obviously don't care too much about getting together with me so I give up. All of this makes it even harder on me since I am a social person. Somehow I have to find a way to deal with all of this.

My new gazelle

Yesterday Travis and I picked up my new (used) gazelle. We found it on craig's list for $25. I decided that was worth the risk I wouldn't like it. It's the first exercise machine I've ever bought. Today I worked out on it for 20 min. Now I wasn't dying when I got done but it did give me a lighter workout. I was challenged, my heart rate was up & my breathing was heavier. I have the 2nd version the Gazelle freestyle. This one allows you to lean forward or lean back and keep going, doing either of those is definitely harder and works the front of your abs more. It's quiet with just a slight squeak but I was able to hear the tv easily over it. It's easy on the joints and doesn't take a lot of coordination so it's easy to get into a mindless motion. I like that you can adjust your stride from a short one to a longer one. I am stuck doing the gazelle only when Bryan is sleeping or when someone is available to watch him because he could get really hurt if he walked too close in front or behind of it by me kicking him. It folds up if 3 steps and stands flat against the wall except for the handles sticking out. It is a bit heavy to move around folded up or unfolded. It's small enough that I'm able to use it in my bedroom which is good my space in this house is limited. I'm glad that I am not any larger than I am though or I don't think I would be able to do it. As it is right now my thighs touch it when I'm working out, nothing uncomfortable but much wider and it would be. Hopefully though after a few weeks I'll notice that I'm not touching it anymore! lol So far I like it. I plan to add it to my work outs not replace them though. I am thinking I will do it during Bryan's nap as my mid-day workout, then occasionally at night when I know I'll be watching tv for a long time.

Music Therapy

We started music therapy today. That was interesting to say the least. My youngest has a speech delay & negative pressure in both his ears. We are trying to figure out the cause of both of those & to find out if they are related. He sees an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) Dr at childrens for the negative pressure and is going through speech therapy through the Help Me Grow Program here. Today we started Music Therapy. It's a set of 4 cd's with music only on them. We have to listen to each one for two weeks straight-twice a day for half an hour a time-before switching to the new cd. After we get through all 4 cd's then we take a week off to evaluate the situation before moving on. Sounds simple right? The music is missing part of it's tones-they took regular music like Mozart etc and they take out a section of tones. The reason for this is that the missing tones makes your inner ear work harder, contracting and such. I believe each cd is missing different tones and we see how he reacts to each cd. I was told some kids get sleepy, some kids get calmer and some get hyper-one kid literally climbed the wall the music drove him that nuts lol So you see not so simple. Different missing tones cause the kids to react differently. Listening to the music there is no doubt it makes your inner ear work! My ears feel tingly, numb almost, it eventually went into my eyes and my forehead. I couldn't wait until the half hour was over! I know it was affecting Bryan b/c as soon as it came on he started rubbing his ear, luckily no hyperness has appeared YET. It's going to be an interesting next few months.

Old Farmhouses

This weekend hubby and I made a big decision-kind of out of the blue really. It was about old farmhouses, we both love them. We were dropping off our daughter at a party & was looking at the beautiful old farmhouses on the way. We got to talking about the farmhouses, how we love them and such. Turns out both of us have thought many times over the years that we would still like to live in one. Only neither of us had said anything to the other because at different times over the years we've both said that we didn't want to move again. After I learned he had been thinking the same as me, I told him it seems kind of silly for us to stay living in the house we're in when we both would rather be in another house. Especially since it's not always common that a couple can completely agree on where to live. It will be a lot of work & time to get the house ready & finances in order to sell this house & buy another one. After we made the decision, we both felt happy, excited, & relieved. That tells me this is the right decision for us.

Spring Flowers

They are up! I was worried they wouldn't make it this year as they started coming up almost a month ago & then we got another snow. They looked like they would die but they didn't! I have bright yellow tall daffodils in the front with a few small hyacinth in pink & purple. On the side of the house I have a nice row of hyacinth in several colors. Deep purple, magenta, a few white, pink. I love hyacinth they smell so good when the wind blows. I only wish they lasted longer!
My flower beds are far from beautiful. There is still a lot of work to be done before I consider them done. That is the one thing I miss from my old house is all my finished beautiful flower beds. Each year though I get a little farther on them.

The schedule struggle

I am currently going to school on-line to become a Medical Transcriptionist. I am doing this so that I can then work as a transcriptionist from home. This will be my third work-from-home job. The first one was running a day care. I thought that was hard when I was doing it. What I mean is, I thought that was hard to do while also caring for my kids and keeping up on the housework. I was wrong! That was one of the easiest jobs I've ever done from home when you consider taking care of the kids and the housework too. My second job was working as an internet researcher. That one wasn't as easy, but not as hard as being a transcriptionist is going to be. One reason is because most of the time I was doing that I only had my three older children then. I could work while they were at school, I could work in a different room and not worry as much about what they were doing. I could also work at any time of the day I wanted & was able to be interrupted quite easily without getting lost on what I was doing. Transcriptioning won't be the same way. Now I have an almost 2 yr old whom I have to keep a sharp eye on. Plus with MT you have to where head phones and be able to hear what the dictator is saying. That is going to be the biggest obstacle. I either won't be able to hear what my 2 yr old is doing, or I won't be able to hear the dictator well enough to do my job.
As for scheduling-that is a big issue too. Before with daycare my kids just played with the other kids, or did their homework at the table where i could easily help them and watch the kids. With my internet research job my hours were completely flexible, when & how many were totally up to me except for a few times a year. This job though they need to know how many hours a week I can work ahead of time. I have a limited amount of time to finish the work and turn it back in. Right now my scheduling issue is schooling. Luckily the program is just as flexible as my 2nd wah job was. Anytime, for any amount of time I want. The problem is finding the time-or rather making the time-around my hubby's schedule, my kids, trying to work out to lose this extra weight I've all ready gained & to fight the weight I am likely to gain in the future & do all the sahm jobs that I have too. Not to mention my 21 mo old doesn't always like to stick to a schedule either. Today is the first day of the "newest" schedule I have tried to put in place. However, this time I also have hubby's weird 4 day work week to contend with. He is now home 2 days through the week. You'd think that would make it easier on me then, right? Wrong! Hubby isn't real good at knowing what needs done around the house or with the kids without asking me. He's also not good at moving at a faster speed than he's on-which is necessary for a family this size with as many activities as we have. My frustration gets to be a bit much at trying and trying and getting no where it seems. My worry is that I'm going to be very stressed out when I do actually get to work that no one is going to be happy. I can't change it if I don't keep trying though. Ironically I am blowing part of my schedule by writing this blog about scheduling! I'm my own worst enemy sometimes.

Dogs, Dogs & more dogs!

That's right, dogs everywhere! I feel like part of the Old McDonald song-here a dog, there a dog, everywhere a dog, dog! First of all I have two boxers that live in my house. I have 3 dogs who live outside in my yard. Two little llaso Apsos and one young mutt. All my dogs are loose, either in the house or outside. Keeping track of five different dogs inside & out is a good part time job. Keeping track of all the other dogs that are running around the neighborhood that like to come "visiting" makes it almost a full time job! Now I know that leaving a dog loose means that sometimes they are going to wander. I know this because despite my best efforts even my dogs leave our yard once in awhile. These particular dogs though roam the streets ALL the time. Their owners watch them leave and say nothing. Watch them chase children on bikes, amish horse and buggies, horseback riders and motorcyclists being chased and say nothing! This one particular dog is a big bully. She has charged me while carrying my newborn in my own yard. She has growled at my husband and I for trying to chase her out of our yard. She comes and tries to attack our little dogs when they are chained up and unable to get away. These people have had the dog warden called on them before because this female & her many grown up pups attacked a miniature pinscher, breaking it's hip. The grown pups disappeared and for a short time she was penned up. Within a month or so she was loose again and having more pups!
We have done everything we can to keep her out & all the other unwanted dogs in our yard. We taught our boxers to chase out dogs & cats that are not part of our family. We have shot at them trying to warn them. Some dogs get the hint, this particular female has not. It's almost a daily drama here trying to chase & keep the dogs out. Yesterday the female, a pup, & two other stray dogs were here. My boxer got into it with her and I was hoping that would help. Not sure yet though since it's only been a day. Today's drama though was with a male dog, making friends with our female mutt outside. Not only do I not want the dog visiting, but our female mutt is not fixed yet. She's approx. 9 mos old and apparently it's time to get her fixed. Calling the vet today for the appointment. Last thing I need is puppies to add to my dog drama!
I've done my time, am doing my time, with helping with the unwanted overpopulation of cats & dogs. Last July is when our female mutt showed up outside as a pup. We tried to find her a home but it didn't happen. She is such a good dog that I couldn't stand the idea of sending her to the pound. The August before that we got our second boxer, full grown running around the local town for weeks before we took her in. I can not take in anymore dogs, for financial reasons and for my own sanity!
I just wish that other owners would try to be more responsible with their own pets. Short of chaining our dogs up all the time I'm doing everything I can to teach my dogs to stay in their own yard. They do stay home about 90% of the time too. I spend many months from spring to fall walking them the border of our yard to learn their borders. We've bought a shock collar to use when they start getting the wanderlust. Even bought a wireless fence to use for the outside dogs when they also get the wanderlust. Use it for a few days and then it is weeks or longer before they try it again. I'll admit it isn't easy or cheap, but as responsible pet owners it's your job, or don't have the animals. It really gets my blood boiling when the owners are watching their dog chase kids, people, animals, etc and don't do anything about it! Yet these same owners shot another stray dog for showing up on their property! The hypocrites! In case you are wondering it is legal here to shoot dogs that are on your property if they are a nusiance. We live out in the country, in the midst of several counties of farmland.
Well the dog drama has ceased for the moment so I'd better go try to do all the other things I need to do before the next round!