The Joys of Petsitting

So last week from March 2-8, I had an interesting experience. It was my first time petsitting ever. I also happened to watch the house, but the pets were the big deal. I took care of three big Pyreneese dogs. Think husky type dog, but white and much, much bigger. They are really cute and really friendly, but also very adventurous. They liked to explore, but when they would run to the other side of the creek and wouldn't return when I called - they really tried my patience! I had to walk or drive clear around to the other side and park by the side of the road and try to catch them before they molested some neighbor's dog or cat and before they got hit walking in the middle of the road. Thankfully, someone usually stopped to help me catch them. Three big dogs are quite a handful, especially if they have a mind of their own. But they were very cute and very friendly.

My other aspect of the adventure is that I discovered on my first day into the week-long job that I appear to be allergic to the dogs. So every time that I touched the dogs I had to wash my hands. I washed my hands so many times that week! It was pretty rough on my hands too. I have excema on the palms of my hands and that much soap and water was overkill for them. They were peeling a lot by the end of the week. I was so relieved when the week was over!

I also watched 50-60 peacocks and 20-30 chickens. They had enough food in their boxes that I didn't have to worry about that, but I did need to water them every day. Some days, the water dishes that weren't heated would freeze over. I had to break the ice out of those, scoop out the chunks of ice, and then pour in more water. The chickens were really cute. There were Mini Bantams and they were cute because they were small adult chickens. They also laid eggs that I gathered everyday. The other chickens were big (regular size) and fluffy. They also had feathers all the way down their legs and even covering their feet. That was pretty cute too. They also came in the most beautiful colors: Black feathers with the tips edged in gray, Brown with similar gold trimming and others.

But the peacocks... they were beautiful. I only saw them open their tails a few separate times when I took the time to stand and watch them for a bit. It is amazing, especially the ones with really long tails. He has all varieties of peacocks as well. He has several of the normal blue-green variety and a few with extremely long tails. He also has some that are all white, or white with a few grey or black spots. One of my favorite white ones had a long tail and a few black feathers that were well placed so as to be striking, not odd. There were also peacocks that were mostly brown. There were two different kinds of brown peacocks: both a dark, striped brown and a light brown mixed with white. The most interesting ones were the ones that were crosses between the white peacocks and the blue-green ones. They were generally white all over, but on their necks and other places, they had patches of the blue-green coloring. It was different, but striking and interesting to look at because of the contrast.

In Spanish, the name for peacocks literally means royal turkey. As I have had the chance to examine them more closely, I can see the similarity to turkeys, but they are much more beautiful. I secretly hoped that a peacock would drop a long tail feather while I was there and that I would get to keep it. No such luck, but that is okay. I enjoyed them while they were mine anyway.

The most adventurous day was on Wednesday when I finished the morning chores and headed out down the driveway to go to my morning class. I didn't get very far before I discovered that the driveway was blocked by a ... very large branch?... no, two small trees! I tried to pull or push or move them out of the way to no avail. I was able to untangle them and get the smallest tree out of the way. Its trunk had merely bent while the other one had snapped but not completely broken. Even though I am not a wimp by any means, I was not able to budge that tree. I couldn't believe it because I only consisted of three larger branches and a lot of smaller ones. Luckily, I had the number of the guy who plowed the driveway and I called him asking for help. He couldn't come until much later that day because he was working. So I contented myself to missing class and I spent the day doing laundry instead. To top off the day, two of the three dogs ran away later that day when I let them out of their pen to go pee and to play for a little while. It ended up being the hardest day of chasing dogs for me. I got plenty of exercise while I was there and I had no problem sleeping because I was so exhausted every night. I also got up at a reasonable time every morning since I had to take the dogs out to go pee and water the peacocks and chickens.

I wish I had taken pictures while I was there so that I could have some to post, but I kept forgetting my camera. I apparently did a good job last time because the guy wants me to petsit again the next time he needs someone. I will wait until then to break it to him that I discovered that I am allergic to his dogs and would really rather not. I also discovered that I really like my comfortable be and my comfortable apartment and that is why I made them that way - because I like to be comfortable. It is like living from your suitcase on vacation or even visiting home (like your parents' house) when you are staying at someone else's place for a week. Not entirely uncomfortable, but not entirely comfortable either.

So that is my long spiel on my first (and possibly last) petsitting experience. I'll let you know if I am ever brave enough to try again in a less demanding situation.

International Year of the Potato

Okay, so I know I have a lot to catch up on, but I found this video on a friend's blog and I had to post it here to share with everyone because it was just too randomly cool!
Please enjoy!