The Secret Of My Survival

I thought about titling this post "The Secret of My Success".  But honestly I don't think you can really call anything about my life a success.  Except for the foster pets that get adopted.  They are each a success story.  So I decided to go with the more accurate title of "The Secret Of My Survival". 

Sometimes people ask me how I manage to work 40 hours a week, care for my own pets, volunteer at adoption events each weekend, foster multiple dogs and cats, and still have time to write blog posts.  It sounds like a lot, but I have a few secrets that I will now share with you.   

The majority of the credit goes to one person - my husband.  If Dave had his way, I would only foster one dog at a time, and no cats.  When we first discussed fostering, he had no idea what he was signing up for.  But he makes the best of it.  He shares equally in the responsibility for the dogs (the cats' care is all up to me - he draws the line there!)  We usually work different shifts, so he has the dogs most of the afternoon and early evening while I'm at work.  He spends time with them, makes sure they get dinner, and even plays and wrestles with them. He's the one that helped Ziggy invent the Ziggy Dance!  (Side note: The Ziggy Dance is catching on in Las Vegas now!) I would not feel good about fostering so many dogs if he wasn't around, since many nights after work I'm either running to the vet's office or doing a home visit for a foster pet or attending a fundraising meeting or bribing someone to cook for me.  With Dave there, I don't have to worry about leaving the dogs alone all day while I'm gone. 

Speaking of cooking - I don't.  Neither does my husband.  We also don't go out to dinner at a restaurant very often (maybe once a month).  You might be surprised how much time you can free up if you don't cook or go out to eat!  Fortunately Dave and I work different shifts, and when his daughter Rachael isn't here, we pretty much fend for ourselves for dinner since we eat at different times.  So last night for me that meant a Pepsi and two pieces of buttered bread for dinner.  Hey, I heated them in the microwave first - yum!  Oh, and I had a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.  Maybe two cookies - I can't remember.  Anyway, my eating habits aren't the best, but on the plus side it does leave me more time to take the dogs for walks or clean the cat litterboxes.  Besides, no one ever said cereal for dinner was a bad thing.  Did they?

Work.  It pays the bills.  And I'm fortunate to have a job and a boss that are very flexible.  First, they let me fill up my cubicle with pictures of foster pets (the pictures seen here are foster dogs I had last year, photos credit: krazykatlady).  Second my wonderful boss (I'd say that even if she didn't occasionally read my blog!) lets me change my hours and come in late on days that one of my fosters is sick - or has an accident in the house - or finds some other way to make me late for work which happens on a regular basis.  I am very grateful for the flexibility since fostering presents many unforseen circumstances in life! 

So every evening I try to fit in some time for playing with the dogs, petting the cats, doling out medication to anyone who needs it, scooping litter boxes, cleaning the house, taking pictures, and playing Farmville.  Sometimes I even take the dogs for walks if time allows.  As long as it doesn't cut into my Farmville time.  Hey, just being honest here.  And in the spirit of honesty, I'll tell you about my blog posts.  I cheat.  Since the majority of my free time is on weekends, I write most of them on the weekend and schedule them to automatically post each day during the following week. I also don't bother actually planning what I'm going to say.  I pretty much just look at the pictures I've taken during the previous week, type whatever I'm thinking about, and that's what you get to read.  Most of the time no planning or editing or improving actually takes place (as you may have noticed).  So I hope you'll forgive me for that.  As you can tell from reading my posts, it's not so much about success around here as it is about survival - and  hanging in there until each foster pet gets his or her own success story. 

Coming soon - Barney Rubble (the cat as old as the cartoon character) and one or two new foster dogs!