Random Updates

 I just wanted to share some random updates.

Tongue!

Hubby won't let me have a hedgehog so I got Jackal a stuffed one.  He loves it!

Jackal is doing well.  He has lost 7 pounds in the last six months which is a really good thing.  It is difficult getting weight off of dogs, especially older dogs, but a pound a month isn't that bad.  A pound of extra weight on a dog is like ten pounds on a human.  You can tell he feels so much better.  I'm glad my grandparents are finally taking me seriously and stopped feeding him.

He has fatty tumors popping up in several places.  It scares me because one is pretty big.  There is nothing we can do about them though.  It just makes me realize how old he is and scares me thinking how little time he has left in the grand scheme of things.  He turns ten in January.  I can't believe he's almost ten!  Where does the time go?  I'm enjoying every second I have with him. 

He was so lonely after Storm died, so now he spends the days when I'm at work at my parent's house with their dog (mom stays at home with my brother because he's disabled) so he has company all the time now.  He loves going over there and he's not depressed anymore.  It's actually a good thing for my brother too because Jackal will let him pet him, but my parent's dog Mac doesn't because he's a cranky little get.  My brother actually told my parents that he wants a dog like Jackal because he can pet him.  It's so sweet and kind of sad too.

We had a scare with Shadow.  She disappeared for a couple of days and when she showed back up she could barely stand up.  It scared me so bad!  Hubby took off work and took her to the vet.  She had a blood parasite.  I forgot which one it is, but it's not contagious to people.  The other cats could get it if they share ticks or fleas, but we switched tick control products so hopefully that won't happen.  She had two injections and some other medicine and completely recovered.  Sadly there is always the chance it could come back if she is ever very stressed out.  :(  It's so sad.  If you have cats that spend time outside make absolute sure you keep tick meds on them and don't be late....


My job has been a bit better lately.  We have new management and the new manager isn't afraid of spending money (the previous manager pocketed all of our unspent budget), so we got some much needed upgrades.  New chairs instead of the ten year old ones and new monitors instead of the old CRT monitors (you know the big kind that weighs fifty pounds).  It was ridiculous how outdated our equipment was when our company claims to be up on current technology. *rolls eyes*  The new manager also got other things that help us save so much time like a label printer, website access that allows us to get reports instantly instead of sitting on hold seven minutes and then having them faxed to us and a scanner that we can use to scan to our email instead of having to wait on a manager to email it to us. 

All of these improvements mean less overtime because we can get our work done faster.  They are also hiring a full crew instead of running us shorthanded on purpose to save budget money.  Some other improvements are fun incentive programs like a pumpkin carving contest where the winners get gift cards to the place of their choice.  It encourages team work and some fun in the office instead of the place being like a prison.... anyway my team won the pumpkin carving contest!!

Chomp chomp!  I love the little pumpkin's terrified expression.

 Here it is in the dark.  Isn't it awesome??

We had a fun Halloween.

So it will be so nice having less overtime.  Unfortunately since the time changed I still won't have a lot of outside time in the light, but I have high hopes for the spring.  Maybe I'll actually get to ride my horse!  I also no longer want to quit my job haha!  Well that's all for now.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I can't wait for the year end reviews because that's the absolute only way I'm going to be able to get caught up at this point.  I miss you guys!!