My Child of the Corn...

In the twilight of the evening, Webster runs in the house calling for me to come outside.

He wants me to see the Giant ear of Corn he has found...

EEEEEEEK!

The Brat! He's going to see the death of me yet!

A Day in the Life of Webster...

We had originally planned on going to a homeschool outing but we were held up at our own home by unforseen circunstances, so instead we decided to just go to a playground near our house and eat our lunches, where there just happens to be a small pond also.

So what is it with boys anyway?

 

It's not enough to stand back and enjoy the beauty of the surroundings.

They gotta dive in and experience things up close and personal...

and find things!

Like tiny fresh water clams?

So after we ate our lunches we went to a local farm not too far away from our house, where I picked up a dozen ears of corn, a cantalope, 3 green peppers, a bag of cucumbers and two big bags of ripe tomatoes.

The reason I bought the tomatoes isn't because I don't have any but because my own Big Beautiful tomatoes are systematically being taken out one by one before they're even ripe by (said sneeringly) Rrra-a-a-a-ats!!

And it's not like they even eat them, they just chew holes in them and go on to the next one! Grrrrrrr!

Oh the indignation, exasperation and outrage!

I finally had had enough so I went out and picked all the tomatoes that were on the lower branches as it seems that is the ones that were being targeted.

I am hoping that rats don't like to climb and eat at the same time... I'm sure I'll soon find out though.

I also set out a couple of rat traps and baited them with peanut butter but for some reason I don't think peanut butter is going to appeal to a rat that has green tomato taste buds?

Ahhhhh... I guess I'll be finding that out too!

So, the plan is to can green tomato relish with mine that I picked and make salsa with the ones I bought.

Anyway, on the way home from the farm Webster wanted to drive by the old swimming hole... you know just to check it out.

Yeah... right!

Weeeeeee! Ü

I couldn't refuse his pleadings... so I let him go for a swim even if he wasn't wearing his swim shorts and had no towel.

Cause you know...says Webster

"Boys have gotta do what boys have gotta do!"

Ü

 

Quarantine

Okay... we had an incident yesterday in the wee hours of the morning, it seemed 3 of my dogs decided to make their acquaintance with a skunk on our property which unfortunately was the demise of the skunk and the stink of my dogs!

So when it happened (there was no mistaking, I knew!), I went out with flashlight, gloves and several, plus more, plastic grocery bags and bagged the demised and threw it into our trash can and shut the lid tightly so there would be no more playing with Pepe' for the night.

The next morning, being yesterday, I called Kathrine, our vet, as I know that skunks are known vectors for rabies, just to make sure everything was cool with my dogs and all.

So I told Kathrine what happened and almost immediately began regretting the phone call as I was being told I needed to call the Dept of Health and inform them of the incident. Ahhh... darn! Couldn't I have just heard... 'you're rabies are all up to date and you're good to go!' ~ 'Thanks' I would say and go on my merry way! But Nope!

So I made the call. I left a message with the DOH and Jessica was kind enough to call me back. She informed me that my dogs would need to be revaccinated, they were to be put in quarantine for 45 days and the skunk needed to be tested for rabies and I would have to call the Department of Environmental Management to pick Pepe' up as they were the ones that dealt with wild animals. Yay!

So I called the DEM who said no tests would be preformed but that a DEM officer would be out to dispose of Pepe'... okay I said but the DOH said that he did need to be tested? She assured me that he did not!

So I called Jessica back, she said she was going to talk to DEM herself.

In the meantime I get a call from the town Animal Control Officer who needs to come see my rabies certs form all my dogs and that the dogs need to be quarantined for 45 days and they would all need to be revaccinated... yes, yes, so I've been told.

So Michael, a huge hunky Environmental Policeman shows up wanting to see my rabies records for the dogs of which I was only able to find 2 at the time, Clifford's and Ace's was MIA! So he calls my vet and leaves a message asking her for that information and then leaves without Pepe' he said he wasn't going to take him.

As he is walking out the door Terry from Animal Control comes in. I love Terry she is awesome, we've known her since moving here and we adopted our cat, Cuckoo from the shelter for Webster's birthday. Well Terry had no idea why Mr. Hunky had to come as she was the one that had to check the certs and issue the quarantine... we both just shrugged and set to signing papers... these ones to be exact...

  

So now my dogs are officially grounded for 45 days, not that they go anywhere anyway, they have a 2 acre backyard to run and play in.

Then Terry bid me adieu and that left one more thing to do... the revaccinations.

So my vet called and said she was in the area in the afternoon and could stop by to which I said, come on over we'll be waiting for ya! And so she did!

She gave all four of my dogs revaccination shots and charged me $10 for each dog and didn't charge me for the house call! I Love my vet! Terry is the one that introduced me to Kathrine... and I love Terry and Kathrine, two very awesome people for sure!

And so the dust settles...

Hmmmm...

Wait a minute? What the heck? I don't get it? My dogs were up to date on their vaccines... so why were they required to be revaccinated? And why are they required to quarantined after being vaccinated a second time?

Isn't the reason they are vaccinated specifically for incidences like this? Doesn't the vaccine work in the first place? Do vaccinated dogs get rabies? And if it doesn't work what good is it going to do to vaccinate them again?? Seriously... this just doesn't make sense?

*scratches head*