At Peace

Rest in Peace My Friend, Rest in Peace

Family

I grew up in a family that always had pets. My husband grew up in a family that didn't have any pets until his youngest brother was in grade 10. One of the things he wanted once we had a place of our own was a pet. Within the first 3 months of having our ow home we had acquired a cat and a dog. The cat was a birthday present for me from one of our friends. Tiger is a Manx/Tabby/barn cat cross. She is also a rather rare orange female. The dog was a birthday present for hubby from the same friend. Hubby had always wanted a German Shepherd. Misty is an SPCA find who it is speculated is a female German Shepherd/Husky mix. (I've had people stop us in the street saying she is undoubtedly a Norwegian Elk Hound. Others think she might be part Keeshond.)
We have since added another cat (Siamese/Tabby) and dog (border collie cross). But it was Tiger and Misty that set the tone of our home. Misty was about 2 years old when she came to us, but you could tell she had been around kids and cats before. Once she realized this was her forever home, she settled right in to turning us into the owners she wanted. We became regular walkers and could understand the various 'looks' she would give us. She never barked for your attention. She would move into your view and look at you. Once you had correctly deciphered the look, she would give you a restrained wag of the tail.
The last 2 weeks have been heart breaking for us. Misty has always gone for 2 daily walks (depending on weather). The last month she has only wanted to go for one. Since she is 16 years old we put it down to her age. But the last few weeks have seen her lose weight, refuse to go for walks at all, and generally deteriorate. She even refused to eat for several days. On the weekend I resorted to bribing her with chicken (she even turned down fish which is her favourite food). We have worked up to 2 meals a day, but she is very weak. The boys have been carrying her outside if she can't do it herself. Once she is out she does her perimeter sweep and then lays in the sun for a while. Inside she lays for hours on her rug in the living room. She is alert and watches everything we do.
Tomorrow hubby and I will take her to the vet to see what decisions need to be made.

Small Town Libraries

What a busy night it was. Wednesdays are the days our inter library loans come in. We're averaging 10 cases a week and it can take a while to unpack and process them. The regulars start coming in about 4:30/5pm, before I've even got things unpacked.
Tonight I realized how satisfying it can be to know who something is for even before you scan it. Being able pull stuff off the shelf before people can ask for their items always gets a smile. Saying hi and knowing a person's name makes me feel good.
I am very luck to have the job I do. Not only do I get to connect with a wide range of people, but I also hear what's happening in town, the good, the bad & the ugly.
Another good thing about my job is the lack of boredom. Since we are a small staff we all have to be able to do what ever needs to be done. Sure we have a general division of responsibilities but any one of us might have to finish something that we don't regularily do. And there is always a "mystery of the day". Something that makes you shake your head and spend time trying to find out what happened, where it is, or who did it.
Being helpful can be quite rewarding.

Giving Thanks

It's beautiful day. Hubby and I have managed to spend some quality time together, doing laundry, walking dogs and visiting our new niece.
It's the first day in about 3 that our eldest dog (16 years old) has wanted to go for a walk so we took her and youngest dog out. We didn't go far but we were out for about an hour on a fabulous fall day. This week had so many rough days for old dog that we have started the 'what are we going to do...' conversation. We've had each other in tears a few times. She has been an amazing dog and we hate to see her struggling. It's probably harder because we know she'll be the first we lose of the 4 geriatric animals we own. One cat is 14, the other is 12 and youngest dog is 9. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it.
The bright spot in the week was the birth of our niece. Sister-in-law had a c-section yet got to come home after 2 days. Good thing brother-in-law can be home to help. Baby doesn't sleep for long yet, so we've been going over in the afternoons, just about the time they've run out of energy. Today my father-in-law was there enjoying his girl. It's been 80 years since there has been a girl in the family so the baby is big news. Once we arrived sil headed straight to bed. Father-in-law handed over cranky baby to me, while brother-in-law made a late lunch. I managed to get her to burb, which helped some of the crankiness, but it took hubby's magic touch to get her to go to sleep.
Tonight will be another gathering of the family to finish off the Thanksgiving leftovers. It is one of the traditions we have developed over the years. The best change has been making most big family meals potlucks. This has really spread out the work load. I expect the young cousins will be fighting over who holds the baby again tonight. Last night, from the time sil and bil got there that baby did nothing but pass from family member to friend to family member. These big gatherings are an integral part of our family life. Our boys know there are family and friends that love and support them. And are just as quick to give them grief when they get in trouble.
To give thanks can seem so minor but we have to acknowledge when we have good things in our lives. How else are we going to grow as human beings?

Welcome to the Family

Congrats to my brother-in-law and his partner for having the first girl in this generation. My father-in-law has had to wait for a long time for a granddaughter. She'll be spoiled well.

The Library

The last few weeks have been quite busy at work. Several programs have started and several events are coming up. I don't think we, the public, give enough credit to the number of people and the amount to time they spend on preparing programs and events for us. If it weren't for our programming partners and our dedicated volunteers the library wouldn't be able to offer the amount of things it does.

In the last week alone:

• Friends of the Library worked a casino fundraiser for our expansion
• Parent Link has helped the library offer a toddler & preschool story time, 
• the local chapter of the Alberta francophone association has helped the library with a french language story time for preschoolers
• the local Arts council has helped promote a series of NFB screenings
• Community Outreach has partnered with me to hold Teen Lunch Club every Tuesday during lunch for the next 14 weeks
• our regular volunteers have returned (most of our volunteers take the summer off to work or vacation) and new ones have signed up
• the Annual Halloween story time is being planned with several young volunteers offering their assistance and a mom offering to make cookies again (I believe this is now 8 years in a row)
• One of my coworkers and Community Outreach have started planning a seniors' event at the library
• the staff are planning training sessions for library month, some in the library, some with local teachers - volunteers will be helping with these
• and planning for the annual Scholastic Book Sale has begun with the local elementary school

I feel very fortunate that we can offer these opportunities to the public. I shudder to think what would happen if we didn't have partners and volunteers.

Date Night

Hubby and I had a great date night last night. We went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice first. It's a light fantasy without gore. It was perfect for the mood I was in. After we went for dinner at the local Earl's restaurant. Hubby hadn't been there for years and was pleasantly surprised at the changes. The food was great and so was the service. I had to laugh, our eldest works in the kitchen so helped prepare our meals. He won't cook at home so this is the closest we'll get to having him cook for us.