Their Fairy Petmother

Whoa, just when I start to get on a roll artistically speaking, my second job picks up. Yes, I am a fairy petmother to many cats and dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, chickens, fish, and even an aquatic frog in my local area. It's something I happened into just as I lost my full-time status at the small non-profit where I work. I love my 4-day a week schedule, but it doesn't pay the bills. I was glad to pick up an overnight stay here and there. It got bigger and bigger. People with swimming pools & hot tubs--lovely old and new homes. Some of them became like health spas to me! Normally considered a "cat person," I met many sweet dogs and found that I "have a way with them." I never advertised and I don't have set prices.

Right now I'm on the last few days of a 3-week session in a nearby town with two dogs.  While there, I also picked up two catsits in the same area, so now my mornings and evenings I make the rounds to feed the cats, then settle in with the dogs for the evening and overnight.

As you can imagine, half of what I need at any given time is at an alternate house. When I'm home, I don't have this and that, then I get "there" and have forgotten a critical item at home. Luckily home is near the office, so I stop there morning and evening too. The first week at this place left me baffled. I drink decaf coffee in the morning with soy creamer. So I packed up the commuter cup, the creamer and coffee and moved in. The first morning I looked and looked-no coffee filters. I thought I had packed them. This is a tea drinker's home, no coffee filters! So I folded up a paper towel to fit in the cone. No cone! I tried holding the paper towel and passing the water thru, it broke and flooded the sink with grounds. I tried a paper towel in a colander. Well-try getting that into a cup. I should have used a big bowl. (Not to mention all the volatile chemicals in the paper towels!)

So I packed up my creamer and went to work. Drank regular coffee there. The next day, you can be sure I had my filters, but I still forgot the cone. I used a funnel with passable results. You just have to keep lifting it and checking it. It's really slow. If you are not careful the bottom of the filter splits open. Finally, after two tries, a cup full & NO CREAMER!! About the 4th day I managed to actually have the real thing. On the fifth day I brought my small coffee can back home to refill and forgot it. I had hot water, filter, cone, creamer and no coffee.  This is how it is to live as a fairy petmother on the edge of daft...

I'm seriously looking forward to next week in my own home. I am reading Somerset mags like crazy to keep my artistic brain working. I want to create! I don't dare start bringing all my art things to these places, I can't imagine how many days one piece would take when the scissors are here and the glue is there, the clippings here and the pictures there, etc. (Not to mention how long it takes to move out!)

I'm trying to come up with an idea to keep the coffee hot longer. The cup is insulated stainless steel, but the top is just a plastic lid with a hole. I cut a nice circle from a soup box-one of those tetra boxes- and it fit right in and kept the coffee hot. But I couldn't get it out. I had to stop the car and pry it out with a key. Now I've stuck a piece of tape on it for a handle, but this is really a temporary fix. I'll keep working on it. Now I see a project with recycled tetra packs, buttons, stitching--maybe a cozy made from an old sock? HMMM. (Did I mention daft?)

OH NO, not Brutus! (more pics of Brutus on the Dream Vacation 2 slideshow) Though someone did ask me to come and milk his goats. I was appalled--He said it was fun! Well, maybe for a goat farmer, but not something I can imagine myself doing before going off to the office-I'm not even a morning person!

Hopefully I'll have my sanity back next week! Y'all have a lovely one and "Ramble on..."

Sherry