New Title: Wrangler

I think I have officially traded in my title of mother for the title of Wrangler.  Being a single mom while my husband is deployed has been an eye opener both this deployment and the last! 

Today, Megan, Inara and Esme (our two kitties!) all joined me on a visit to the veterinarian.  We've recently taken a stray black lab into our house, so Inara, he is already a bit of a hellion, has been on her worst behavior and hisses and lashes out if you get within about 2 feet of her.  Due to this, I couldn't put her in big cat carrier I have that both cats typically go in.  So off to the vet we went, one cat each in their own carrier, and a 2 and a 1/2 year old along for the ride.  Trying to get them all into the vet clinic was an interesting experience.

I had to convince Megan to try to "help" me carry the big carrier (basically just holding the handle with me), then struggle to open the two doors to the inside, as the receptionist sat there and watched my humorous (I'm sure it seemed so to an outsider anyway) plight.

You truly do need more than two hands as a mother!  Luckily on the way back out, Inara and Esme both went into the big cat carrier together (as they banned together in fear of the ebil vet), and Megan could carry the little cloth/mesh carrier all by herself to be a big girl!

Animal Lover to a Fault

Today I had two strays find me.   I think theirs a sign blinking on my forehead that says "ANIMAL LOVER, WILL HELP STRAYS!!!!"

One is a male orange cat that is half shaved.  I don't know if someone was being cruel or trying to shave him for "heat control" because he's long haired.  But he stayed with us all afternoon while Megan played in the sprinkler, and I wound up bringing him in and putting him in the spare room for tonight.  I took pics of him and put up a found ad on craigslist.  If no one claims him I'll take him with me to the vet Tuesday and see if he's microchipped.  If no luck then, I'll find a no kill shelter in the area and take him there.  I wish we could keep him, he really is super sweet.

Then as I was leaving to go to the store, a young black lab came RACING over to me.  At first I was freaked out because he was half jumping and I had Megan in my arms, and held my purse out as a buffer (it's huge!) but he sat down immediately.  So I took Megan over to the neighbors, and had her watch her for a minute, and walked all up and down the street and knocked on doors to see if he belonged to anyone.  No dice.

I put him in my backyard (I couldn't just let him run around the neighborhood, he could have gotten hit, or hurt), and went to the store.  I wound up picking up the disposable litter box, and a huge water bowl and a small bag of food for the pup.  He's trained.  He knows sit, lay down and shake, and he's REALLY good with Megan.

I wound up checking him for fleas, and the cats are currently in time out in my bedroom (they were being butts to Megan), so I let him inside for a bit.  He was giving me puppy dog eyes. :(  He's now laying at my feet chewing on a bone I got him.

I put up a craigslist ad for him as well, and looked for any reports of lost black labs, but no luck with him either.  I'm really afraid that someone just let him out because they didn't want to keep him or are PCSing.    Hopefully he just got away and someone will claim him.

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