I have been, for whatever reason, completely uninspired to get on my computer for the past 3 days.
Perhaps that was because on Friday, after a craptastic day, I had no idea that was only the beginning...
It's Friday morning. I overslept. I had to meet with a pet sitting clients (incidentally, one of them is one of my managers) who hired me last minute in a pinch as she remembered me talking about my side-job of pet sitting, and her daughter and she each thought the other was making arrangements...they were supposed to meet with me Thursday evening, but they never got up with me. In fact, Thursday was really when the signs of my crappy weekend started showing up, because boyfriend was acting like a 2-year-old the entire day. The supposed meeting with the clients combined with his antics also caused me to be unable to attend Victoria's birthday dinner.
Still on Thursday, we had to give my cats a routine flea bath, especially since they treated the house earlier that day. Spyro behaved well for a cat in a bath tub, but Garfield, already upset from having been kicked out into a strange room during the treatment, was not thrilled with the bath. As I was finishing rinsing him, he leaped up from Jessie's grip and swiped my eyelid and nose with his claws. He must have hit a vein, because my eye was gushing blood for a few minutes. He escaped, sopping wet, through the house, like a large sponge wringing water everywhere...
Back to Friday...I also had to fly out to the barn and take off Amber mare's sheet from the previous night, as it was going to warm up around noon, so I wanted to get that done before meeting the dogs.
So I'm flying towards the barn to snatch her sheet off and fly to meet the clients. I have NO idea where they live, and NO idea where she is meeting me to follow her there yet. And as I'm about 15 minutes from the house, I realize I have left my phone at home. Fantastic. I don't know her number my heart. Fortunately, I was passing work, and was able to get her number from my other manager and use the store phone. We picked a spot to meet and I flew out to the barn.
Except someone locked the gate so tight with the chain that I couldn't get it out. So I had to crawl under the hotwire. I removed the princess's sheet, to find the rain rotty spots had not cleared, so GREAT, now I need to wash the sheet because it's come into contact with that.
Fly over to meet the clients. The dogs were super cute. One was a chow mix, and I DEFINITELY saw pit in there, which we all know how much I love pits and bully type dogs. The other one was definitely a GSD mixed with some kind of hound.
Both were super skeptical of me. Not really aggressive, but just wary of me. I didn't have time to spend with them for long, because I was late for work. On my break a few hours later, I dropped by to feed them. They flipped out on me for about 5 minutes, and after I completely ignored them and refused to back down, they chilled and we were friends. A flicker of hope in the day. They are supposed to eat separately, so I took one out and put a bowl down for the other. Except neither would eat. Awesome. I put their bowls in their kennels, wanting them to have access to it later if they got hungry. Went back to work. For like, 15 minutes my manager left me in charge of shift...except everyone wanted to backtalk and act like assholes. That's wonderful. They did this super mature behavior all night.
Saturday. I was right on time. I was thinking it was going to be a great day. I go to check on the dogs before heading to the barn. Both recognized me, and when I took one out, she had diarrhea. I made a point to mention this to her owners, but she was otherwise acting fine, so I assumed it was just the fact that she was a timid dog and her routine had been thrown up in the air with a stranger to top it off.
I get back in, and realize she had had EXPLOSIVE diarrhea in her kennel, and threw up a few times. That's wonderful. I cleaned it up, but she had ruined her blanket (and shredded it), so I had to throw that out. Finished up and got to the barn with plenty of time to ride. Except my boots were not there...I forgot I had worn them home. So I took Amber and scrubbed her in betadine again and let her dry, and tossed her back out. Washed my brushes and still need to wash one of my saddle pads.
Now skip to Sunday. I intended to spend some extra time with the dogs since I'd been scarce Friday and Saturday, although the owners had only asked I visit 2 times a day. I got there around lunch, and no messes in the kennels. Oh, it may just be a light at the end of the tunnel! They pottied fine, timid dog's diarrhea was gone. By now they were super friendly with me and we played for a while, then I watched TV and let them chill on the couch with me. About 4, I decided to let them out one more time before I fed them up and headed to the barn for an afternoon ride. I took out the chow mix first, and let her potty. Then, I took the GSD mix. The chow mix was not happy about not being able to go back out, and as I got to the bottom of the stairs, I heard her jump on the door a couple of times. When I got back to the door, I was surprised to find the door locked. At first I thought I had walked up to the wrong apartment. But no, this was the right number...
The chow had locked me out. The only lock on the door was a deadbolt that could be locked with a lever. She had hit it. My keys and phone were sitting on the table in the apartment. GREAT. I stupidly tried to call her to the door to see if she could hit it the other way, and even if that happened by some miracle, she was now content to sit on the couch, staring quietly out the window at us. So I go down and knock on the door of the neighbor that lived downstairs. Thankfully, she was home and she helped me get up with the landlord who sent a locksmith out. I doubt she will ever read my blog, but you were AWESOME, and I really appreciated you being kind enough to take me and the pup in for a few minutes while we waited!
By the time the locksmith finished busting out the deadbolt and replacing it, it was after 6 and almost dark. So no ride for me. Owners said it was the one thing they forgot to tell me about the chow mix...
Three days of sheer crap.
Today, things lightened up somewhat. I had an overall good ride on Amber. It started out ugly, but she hasn't been ridden in a few days now, and my equitation was CRAP during the first part, so that only hindered her. She wanted to break to canter for the majority of her trotwork during the first half. When I did ask for canter it was gallopy and unbalanced.
Towards the later half, I added some transitions walk-trot, and it improved us both. At the very end, I had her trot nicely in the bad direction, and when she was moving nice I let her canter. It was GORGEOUS. Huge stride, slow, but still very forward. It was absolutely beautiful. I sounded like a lunatic, I'm sure, yelling praises to her. "Oh that's a BIG stride! Good girl! Beautiful! Keep it! That's beautiful!"
I let her be done on that note and we walked around outside the arena to cool down. She gets her feet done tomorrow, but I haven't been able to get up with Casey because her phone is busted, and I'm not sure if it's just the screen or if it's just not functional at all...so I'm just going to get out super early. If he comes later, I can just wash my blankets in the morning, and/or ride.
I hope craptastic weekend won't become a craptastic week.
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