Double Trouble / March Playlist

I mentioned in my last post that I might be adopting a Special Needs kitty. Well... He's home!

Meet Marshall Lee. He's a cuddly cat who likes to knead on your chest and give kisses on your face. Marshall came in through a confiscation case. There's only so much medical we can do at the shelter so when it became apparent that he had some sort of issue with his back legs, he wasn't able to be an adoption candidate. I waited to see if a rescue would step forward. They didn't. Knowing how sweet he was, I knew he deserved a second chance. So instead of being euthanized, he came home with us a few days ago after being neutered. Today was his first appointment with my vet. Speculation is either back trauma or neurological issues. Even if we spend an arm and a leg for x-rays, we wouldn't be able to fix him if the bones have healed wrong. That's if the x-rays even picked up anything. Neurological problems are very costly and hard to diagnose. So what we all decided was to leave him be. He can walk and jump (he just does the Bambi on ice thing where his back legs splay out or don't catch up with his front). He eats, drinks, and goes to the bathroom normally. He's just a little on the wobbly side. Unless his condition or quality of life worsens, he's happy to live his life as normal as possible.

Marceline wasn't so sure about him at first. Oh wait... You remember her right? This was the little kitten we ended up keeping last year when I fostered a litter. She's grown quite a bit since then and she's a handful. Her favorite activities are wrestling with Quiche and watching us shower. Her obsession with water is very strange. Also, you get cool points if you get the reference on their names!

Anyways, she was curious about her male doppelgänger the first couple of days but would hiss when he came up to her. Luckily Marshall is an easygoing fellow and just ignored her. The easiest way to intro cats is to make sure they both have separate safe areas where they can be kept away from each other. I only ever let them socialize when I was there to supervise. If Marceline became agitated, I removed her from him and tried as much as possible to end any interactions on a positive. Introducing cats can be harder to do then dogs, that's for sure. It's really important to try and find a suitable personality match before even adopting. The last three days, they have been spending time together and greeting each other properly. It went easier then I thought it would to be honest. 

So we are very happy to have another addition to the pack. That makes 3 dogs, a foster dog, 2 cats, 2 finches, a rat, and a hedgehog. WHEW. Quite the menagerie we have! I think it's safe to say our animal family is complete for awhile.

I also thought I would end this post with a playlist of songs I've been listening to on repeat lately. Sometimes I can go months without listening to new music. However I've been coming across a lot of good stuff lately and wanted to share it with everyone. I've already got some of my coworkers hooked!

 

Snapshots Lately 3/14/17

How's it going everyone? It's eventful as always over here. It's barely Spring but already feels like summer which means I'm layering on the sunscreen and overheated after every playgroup but it's worth it! I'll be honest, most of these photos are a few weeks to a month old. My phone had an untimely accident with my bubble bath and I'm waiting for my replacement to come in. So older photos will have to do.

The shelter is busy as always, spring means puppy and kitten season. We had a newborn bull terrier puppy dropped off not too long ago (who I'm babysitting above). She was the sweetest thing and born with a deformity where she is missing her front legs. She's luckily gone to a rescue and seems to be doing really well! I also celebrated a year of working at the shelter (feels like so much longer!) , cuddled a variety of cute pitties, and we made Quiche an official part of the family on Valentine's Day. She even got her own photo shoot to celebrate!

To drive my boyfriend even more nuts... It looks like I'm adopting a special needs cat within the next few days. Don't worry, we are still at legal limit with our pack of animals and this little guy couldn't find a rescue which means if I didn't take him, nobody would. Johnny's really ok with it, I swear! Since I've just come to realize that I gave Quiche more of an intro then I did for Marceline when we adopted her (and she came first!), I'll post something special for the cats of the family once he's here.

Sprocket is also still with us. It's turns out he has chronic heart failure and then gave us a very scary day when he had some kidney issues. However he is now spunky as can be and doing so well. Hopefully after his next checkup he will be adoptable but for now he remains as our single resident foster.

That's about all I think there is to catch up on for now! Hope everyone's enjoying the extra sunshine and longer days, I sure am!

Back to the Gypsy that I was

Happy 2017! Maybe a new year will motivate me to update this more frequently.

I feel like so much has happened recently. For Christmas, Johnny surprised me with tickets to see Stevie Nicks. That woman is my spirit animal, she was absolutely amazing. I recently found this star print jumpsuit that was so Nicks and inspired this self portrait shoot, I couldn't resist. Also the fact that I now own a romper when I hate them so much just goes to show how much I'm opening myself to new possibilities this year.

A few other things that have been happening:

+ I've started exploring Wicca and Witchcraft again. Before you guys get your panties in a twist, no it's not about worshiping the devil. Pagan religion focuses on a nature based religion, respecting the earth, elements, and all those around you. Do what you will as long as you harm none. I practiced when I was in middle school and then got distracted by... well growing up really. Recently I had a few signs over the months and an itch I needed to scratch so I joined up with a school, found a wonderfully inspiring group of people, and slowly doing solitary practice. There's so many kinds of witches and wiccans, I'm still doing my research and trying to define exactly what my calling is, reading a lot of books and such. However my crystal collection is growing and Johnny blessed me with a wonderful tarot deck so I'm learning every day!

+We have decided to adopt Quiche, our little blond crazy Chihuahua mix foster that nobody seems to want and yet fits into out household so perfectly. We also have a new foster named Sprocket. I was one of the only people able to touch him at the shelter, he's an older fellow with 5 rotten teeth and heart failure. Poor guy. He's been with us for about a week and just started meds so we remain hopeful for him. If his heart failure turns out to be terminal though, he will stay with us for as long as he lives.

+ Can't begin to express how much I love my new department at work. It's not always easy, having to make those choices of who passes to adoptions and who doesn't. However I love being able to work with the animals that need that extra TLC so I can try to get them shelter side. I've been filling in for someone on maternity who is finally back, so now I'll be solely focusing on my Playgroup position. My job literally consists of watching dogs play together and making sure everyone gets along. Seriously, I get paid to watch dogs play. I'm a lucky girl.

+I'm finally going through photos from last years WPPI shoot that I never got a chance to edit. About time right?

My goals for 2017 are pretty simple. Keep rescuing, find inspiration and motivate myself back to photography, keep learning and growing as a person.  Keep searching my crystal visions.

Romper: Charlotte Russe (currently on sale!)

Dreamcatcher: Thrifted

Hat: Thrifted

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Rock the Vote

This is an important election. Imagine the world you want to bring your kids into, the mistakes we have seen in the past of leaders gone wrong, the weight of the natural world that should be sitting on all our shoulders. While these aren't the choices we wanted, ONE of them will become President. Don't throw away your vote or choose not to cast it all. And remember, the nightmare is either almost over or just beginning. It's your choice.

Vote vote vote. 

Remember Me?

Oh hey! Sorry to jump out at everyone like that but just letting you guys know that I'm still here!

I know I post on and off this blog a lot but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. As much as I would love to be a full-time blogger, my other passions won't allow it. I've even put my photography business on the back burner for awhile after some creativity burnout. Working a full time job at an animal shelter takes so much out of you. It's the most rewarding work I've ever done while also being the most draining. However, now that I've just gotten a promotion (yay me!) into a better position where I'm focused more on the dogs and less on talking to crazy people... I'm hoping to start up both again.

So what did you guys miss out on in the last few months?
--I turned 30. That's crazy. I celebrated with my closest friends in San Diego, went to Tijuana, and got a taco tattoo. Because why not?
--Added to the ever growing zoo by getting Johnny a hedgehog for his birthday and adopting one of our foster kittens permanently.
--Johnny and I went to Portland for a few days and it was the best vacation I've had in awhile besides being much needed. I love that city with my whole heart.
--Went to Life is Beautiful which was a whole lot of fun with good friends.
--Recently got promoted as Canine Playgroup Specialist at the shelter.

Besides the constant revolving door of foster animals I take in, that's pretty much it. Life has been hectic, busy, stressful, and fun. Of course there's always behind the scenes stuff that's too personal to mention on here but everything's going really well for me lately. I would love to promise to update more regularly and of course I'm going to try. Thanks for hanging in there with me even when I'm not consistent, I appreciate every single one of you reading.

Cool for the Summer

It's officially triple digit weather here in good old Las Vegas which means finding the best ways to keep cool in the summer while still having fun. I love hitting up one of the local pools on the Strip and having a Pina Colada with Johnny. But what about my four legged friends? They want to have fun too! While Murderface loves hiking, it gets hot fast unless you head out at the crack of dawn. However he's just like his mommy and is a water dog at heart!

Sometimes we head out to Lake Mead and spend a day with the Bighorn Sheep, sharing the lake and swimming. However when my days off are limited, we love to just hang out in the backyard. I picked up a kiddie pool at Walmart the other day since we don't have a pool of our own. The security guard helped me out and asked me if it was for my kids. I sheepishly responded that it was for my dogs and he laughed and said "Hey, they are your kids!" My kind of guy right there.

Murderface is water obsessed. However Jasper is not into getting wet AT ALL. So we found a way for him to enjoy summer too! I like to fill up a mini muffin tin with water and then place a piece of Pup-Peroni in the middle. I place the tin in the freezer until I have frozen Pup-Peroni popsicles! Jasper loves them!

I'm a big fan of Pup-Peroni. Not only do I use them at home but it's the number one treat we use at my shelter! The large sticks are easy to break so we can split them into a bunch of little pieces and use them as training rewards. It's not often that a shelter dog will refuse one.

How are you spending the summer with your best friend? Pup-Peroni wants to know! Take the Beef Up Your Summer Quiz and you could win up to $300 in toys and treats for your pup!

Khalessi of Kittens

If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat (jraquel702), you might have noticed I took on a few more fosters. 4 to be exact. 4 more dogs? She must be crazy! Except these guys don't bark... They meow!

It's kitten season at the shelter which means that our cages overflow with nursing mothers or abandoned kittens that need help if they are going to survive. Now I'm primarily a dog person (if you couldn't tell) but I've been missing the presence of a cat ever since Sinatra passed away. I figured I could do my part and help out by fostering a litter. I have to say, it's been a totally different experience from fostering dogs but in a way it's a little simpler. My little guys were given to me around 5 weeks of age so they were already pretty self-efficient and using a litter box, eating canned and dry food, and starting to groom themselves. They still are a little stinky and sometimes miss the box and need an extra bath but for the most part they are really easy little guys. After day three of having them home, they already follow me around wherever I go or greet me at the kennel gate when I get home from work. I feel like Dany and her dragons.

As they have learned how to climb over the baby gate and I can't trust them alone with the dogs, they live in a large dog crate when they can't be supervised. When they are 8 weeks of age they will go back to the shelter to be vaccinated and adopted. This one little light gray girl though might just stay behind with us. She's definitely the ringleader, fearless and easy with the dogs. She's very affectionate and playful. Even Johnny said we could keep just one....

Consider fostering for your local shelter! It's a wonderful way of giving back and you can foster for as long as a few weeks to a few months. Fostering is one of my favorite parts of rescue and it's not limited to just dogs and cats. Find out more about fostering here and if you're in the Las Vegas area please check out how to foster with Animal Foundation.