November

Well November has come. There have been a LOT of changes in the last several weeks.

My mother-in-law Eleanore passed away Octber 6th. She had not been doing particlarly well for a number of months but had been much worse since, I would guess, the middle of Sept. She died at home where she belonged and in her own bed, surrounded by her family and friends. (and cat!). As you frequent readers will know she had been with us for many years and had sort of become our family/child/responsiblity. She had a unique place in our lives and although she (indirectly) caused some stress in the household she wuill be sorely missed. Dollys' having a hard time of it as you can well imagine. Although it's giving her a respite from the endless work involved with taking care of her mother it is still very difficult for her. For many years, and more so the last few months, she had tailored everything she had done to care for her mother. We had given up much for the ability to provide care for her mom. Now she is dealing with the guilt that comes from having the worry and stress of caring for an aging ailing parent gone. She looked at me the other day and said,"well, I guess we can go out to dinner anytime we want now"., and then promptly burst into tears. It is very difficult to watch her suffer so much. I know that time will be the only thing that can help her but it's still hard to watch her go through so much. It's one thing when a parent dies or is very ill and you are not there every day to witness it. It is an entirely different thing to watch (for 10 years) as a parent ages and sickens.

The outpouring of support from her daughters, our friends and others was truly an amazing thing. I have never been a part of such support from so many people. It goes to show that all my cynicism aside there are many, many truly good and decent people out there and I am fortunate enough to know a great many of them. It helps to renew my faith in people in general. God bless you all and thanks!!

On an unrelated note the kennel is doing quite well. We have arranged to have yellow page ads in all the books in the area. There are three major ones! It is quite a process and something that I have not dealt with before. Bookings are not overwhelming but steady and it gives me great hope for the future of our little endevour. We have a giant schnauzer coming in tommorrow and I've not seen one before. It's nice to be able to have the pleasure of everyones' pets and not be ultimately responsible for them. Sort of like grandkids. Play with them and then send them home!

More about racoons. We have gotten more! It's really not breeding season for them so what's up? Are they not reading the books? Don't they know that this is not the time??!! Anyway, we got three little ones the other day. They're really shy and growl their baby growls when they look at us. They do take the food though.....Scared but not stupid! Several weeks ago we had a mass escape from the interim cage in front. 7 got out and headed for the hills. 3 we recaptured almost immediately since they went up the nearest tree and were easy to coax down with food (read as bananas, their FAVORITE food!). So we recaged those and went along. The others were probably just old enough to get along on their own with any detrimental effects. Last night I was changing the cage and feeding when outof the corner of my eye I thought I saw a cat run towards me. It was one of the escapees! In a moment here comes a second one! later I caught a third! It's beeen about 3 weeks since the other booked. They had obviously been hanging around as a group.They were still real friendly (to me at least, Mr Food) and I just coaxed them back in to the cage (with bananas natch!) So we have all back but one. This weekend without fail they are going to the big release cages out back. They're too big to keep in the front cage. They have nothing too do but figure ways to get out!

Well thats my update for now. See you all soon..now that things have settled down a little I hope to be updating a little more often. Love to All