The Yin and The Yang

Laura and I had a fun time on Wednesday.

We ended up here and did some shopping.



We had a yummy lunch on the patio at Applebee's.

There were rain clouds threatening, but they didn't bother us much. We were enjoying the afternoon too much to be bothered by a little rain.

When we left it didn't look like stormy weather over our house. But as we continued our drive south and saw storm clouds gathering over the mountains, I became a little worried that I had neglected to give Sophie her sedatives which sort of help her during thunderstorms and fireworks.

Surely she would do fine until Dave got home a couple of hours later. Right?

Our fun afternoon was brought to a screeching halt by a simple text message from Dave which included a picture of what he found when he returned home.

Apparently, the storms were a little more severe over our home less than 15 minutes north of where we spent the afternoon shopping!.

Needless to say, the picture kind of dampened my spirits! We finished up where we were at and ran through the rain to the parking garage. Looking back I think we should have stayed at the mall, but all I could think of when I saw the picture was how much it was going to cost to fix, and shopping is not a good thing to do when a huge unexpected expense is looming.
Sure, the carpet is old and needs to be replaced, but other changes will be made when we change the flooring and we are not in a position to make those changes right now.

A couple of days later Dave came up with a good solution - a carpet repairman. Of course! The carpet is not that damaged (despite what the picture looks like!) We are so fortunate that the rips were straight and not shredded. The repairman will come look at it on Wednesday, hopefully he can fix it. He sounded concerned to tell me the charge would be between 79.00 and 149.00! I wanted to jump through the phone and kiss him! I hope he can fix it.

I have recovered from the shock of it all. Sophie is still amongst the living and still in our home. I have even started to talk to her again. I came to an understanding about the whole thing that you can read about on my other blog - The Musings of The Mama B.

Storms, Sophie and Sedatives...

Listening to the radio as I drove into work this morning I was concerned about the forecast calling for thunderstorms. I immediately thought of my dog.

Sophie is terrified of thunderstorms, fireworks and the sounds of gunshots coming from the distant shooting range. She responds to this stress in very destructive ways. It's not pretty.

I was very concerned that she was home alone facing the impending storms un-sedated and without me there to monitor her behavior. I left work early, just as the rain started to fall. I hurried home, hoping I was not too late.

Sophie had been holed up in her sleeping area, but greeted me happily when I walked in the door. She seemed a little disoriented and stressed and did not want to come upstairs with me. Finally, I was able to persuade her to come up to the kitchen for the "treat" I had for her - two sedative tablets buried deep in a chunk of butter.

It was only a matter of minutes before the thunder started to rumble through the skies and Sophie started to shake and drool. I could tell she was happy not to have to face the storm alone. I gave her another 1/2 tablet for good measure, turned on some peaceful music and we sat it out together. The sedatives did not cure her responses to the stress, but they did keep her from running around the house like a crazy lunatic!

I am glad I was able to come home to be with her this time. I hope the drugs work without me here in the future.