It’s been a while since my last post.  I left off with the upcoming Crippled Critter Benefit hosted by Dixie Thunder of Aiken County where I am a member and have lots of great buddies.

Riders on the Crippled Critter Benefit Run

The economy has hit everyone and this years event was a little slow.  The regulars who show up every year were there, Karen and Richard who always work really hard for this event.  They are both animal lovers and have been to my kennel and know what kinds of needs we have.  Both took part in the wheelchair ramp build and when they were here were eager to get started on the kennel expansion.

Richard (Red Ball Cap) at the Iron Horse where the run ended.

Karen and Rick at Hozes where the run started from

I had seen Donna at GoodWill the day before the event.  I was there trying to find some new clothes since every picture always has me wearing the same clothes, either my Green Word to your Mother tee or my Brown Love the earth one…I wanted something a little different…anyhow she was looking forward to seeing Ginger the elderly doxie and I let her know the old gal would be there.  Gingers tail went to wagging when she recognized Donna coming in from the run and it was a nice reunion.

Donna and Ginger at Iron Horse where the run ended

Rick was in town and wasn’t expected to be here for the event as things turned out I got to hug my sweet Rebel Troll, he came to the event, spent some time with Ginger and it was just cool to hang out with him again.  Rick has always been a great help to me, he and my son have tackled a few projects together, they built the kennel wheelchair gate and made a huge dent in the ramp build before the rest of the crew got here.  Rick has helped my son wire up some out door lights so I could get around the yard safely and has brought me truckloads of savaged things like insulation, some filing cabinets desks for my office…oh my this a salvage King for me to worship.  I love the reduce/reuse/recycle and salvage ways of doing things.  The wheelchair ramp, gate and 99% of my repair and rebuild projects have been done with salvage and recycled items that friends of Dixie Thunder have helped me obtain.

Rick (Rebel Troll) Becky and Ginger, Sidney is in the cage.  At Iron Horse where the run ended.

Fred brought his 3 legged pup Misty.  This was the first time there was another crippled critter besides the ones I bring.  This was awesome and I hope Misty comes again next year.  She is a beautiful gal.  Fred rescues reptiles and always supports the Crippled Critter Benefit.

Beautiful 3 legged Misty and her family.  Misty went on the Crippled Critter Run and enjoyed the day.

Judy came in from the run tired as one could be, but she made it as she always does. Father Time and Bubba of course came, they have come every year and it was great to see them.  Many others whose names escape me came for the event and we thank everyone for their time and help.  While we can’t start the kennel expansion project there are many smaller things we needed to tend to and are able to take care of before winter.

Judy had rescued a little kitten with a paw injury and brought him to our shelter last year.  He grew up nice and healthy and was rehomed as a rural cat where he would have room to roam.  Kennel confinement was not his satisfaction.

We immediately went out and bought a good supply of the much needed high quality natural canned cat food for some of our special feed cats.  Got Ginger into the groomer to have her claws tended to and ears cleaned.  Ordered a back up supply of our dehydrated raw pet food so we will not run short between shipments.  Picked up another carrier to use as a solitary feed cage for one of our cats who is on special feed.  We have some repair projects we need to tend to to get the kennel office ready for winter so we got a reciprocating saw on sale at Harbor Freight.  We need to finish one more wall in here then we will apply some epoxy floor resin to the floor and bring the resin up several inches onto the walls so we can get use better kennel cleaning products and get a good flush of the floor without risking damage to the wood.

The existing kennel needs some repair, we need to get some guy wires to support one of the kennel walls and need to replace a few cross beams because they have collapsed and the cats are finding the gaps to tear open the netting and get out.  They love to get out and get into the woods in our back yard where they have room to run, climb and do what cats do.  Where I live though, this is illegal.  Once we have the yard opened up they will have two trees they can climb.  They can’t climb the tree that is in here now as the kennel wall is close to the tree and if we allow them to climb the tree they will get out of the kennel.  Once we expand the kennel walls will be too far from the trees for them to jump out of the kennel so they will have their trees again.

As for our ongoing projects, my son completely rebuilt the utility room floor.  This time we have a layer of plywood as the sub floor and a layer of OSB on the top and it’s is sealed up.  We are going to put an epoxy floor covering in the utility room.  After we finish the office there should be enough left over for this tiny room.

Boys did a good job installing the new utility room floor. We used some recycled metal from an old appliance to sandwich between layers of flooring to give strength to the areas that hold the washing machine and the water heater. This floor is now solid enough to hold anything. Next step is to apply seal it against future possible water damage and put the appliances back in.

The left over wood from the utility room repair was just enough to allow us to completely rebuild a bathroom floor.  Picking up the reciprocating saw to saw out some of the bad beams in the kennel helps us in the area because now we can properly cut that horrid particle board out of the bathroom and lay down some real plywood in there.

Bathrooms should never have carpeting laid directly over particle board!  Ok that is just my opinion, but dripping bodies coming out of a shower stall or toilets that occasionally overflow..where does that go when you have carpeting in a bathroom?  Uh…it seems down into particle board where it stays forever.  Well, now that particle board is coming up, plywood is going down and this bathroom will have a floor that will not absorb water from dripping bodies or that never intended…yet always seems to happen…toilet overflow.  Whoever remolded this house for the repo sale evidently did not consider that a real family would live here.  The fix ups were little more than itty bitty band aids designed to look good for sale but fail miserably after purchase.

A friend sold us a lawnmower, well he didn’t actually sell it we had to nearly twist his arm to take some money, but he eventually gave in and let us buy it rather than accept a gift.  My son quickly tamed the front yard.  Our weed eater is still out of commission though.  We had to get rid of all our weed eaters we had on hand for spare parts…part of that ordinance that doesn’t allow you to live within your means because it disturbs your neighbors.  So now we don’t have any spare parts mowers or weed eaters and can’t afford to pay for repair so we are saving up to buy another cheap one to handle the job this year.  Because we can’t salvage the discards of neighbors to use as spare parts we wind up having to buy a new cheap one every year.  We just couldn’t afford to buy another one this year though and the new mower needs a new blade in order to tackle the back yard which is mostly brush, not grass.

We need to install Privacy Fencing!

This privacy fencing is very important, not only for the animals but to allow me a wheelchair accessible space while we are working on fixing the mobile home for handicap accessibility. Modifying a home is not as simple as making doors wider and lowering cupboards. This will take time and money and will happen very slowly.

I have an office where I spend 16+ hours a day, it also doubles as a building where I care for animals. Dixie Thunder of Aiken County built wheelchair ramps so me and animals can travel safely between this building and my bedroom so I have a safe and accessible set of rooms to use but the ramps seriously reduced the size of the kennel and there is no room for anything else.  Those who built the ramp are very interested in expanding the kennel.  We have the support and offers of labor, we just need the materials.

We are mostly vegetarian by dietary restriction for medical issues, due to many food allergies we must eat safe foods but the cost of these foods are growing very expensive. We can handle this with wheelchair accessible raised gardens but we need access to the entire yard to do this. We can handle several major issues with a simple property privacy fence, but the fence must be in compliance with county ordinances and this raises the cost of materials. The benefits to full property privacy fencing are:

– Handicap accessibility to a large space that can be used for growing food, cooking food
– Hand washing and drying laundry to reduce electrical costs,
– Collecting salvage building materials and other materials that can be used for repair projects
– Storing recyclables which is responsible and offers small cash to go towards other needs
– Composting, especially since we are a mostly green family
–Organic waste control of animals through natural decomposition which is only safe and beneficial when there is enough space for the animals. Bluntly put, animal matter in a small space is not healthy to anyone. To control this we need to buy hay and shavings for organic breakdown. Having a larger yard with grasses and plants and recycling our own grass clippings is safer and seriously reduces cost and odor.
– Natural habitat for animals. We are a green family and we also keep our animals as close to nature as possible. Cats like grasses and bushes especially rescued hard strays and ferals who don’t really care for buildings and in most cases don’t like humans much either. Cats do eat some plant matter and we would like to be able to grow cat friendly herbs since we keep them on as close to an all natural diet as possible.
– Proper feed station for animals. Right now we have a raised table for general population feeding but my caged feeders must be inside a building to feed. We would like them to be a part of the general population as much as possible by having an outside enclosed hutch style feed station for those that require special foods. This is something we can build on our own, but we do need land space to build it on.
– Better exercise for the elderly or disabled. The current kennel that was once large enough, is not longer large enough for adequate exercise for elderly or disabled animals. Pavement is also not a good place for animals to walk so we don’t walk them on the road. We can of course have them walked outside of the kennel in the yard but for an animal already limited these forced walks are not enjoyable and are more stressful. An animal is happiest when they can move freely when and where they choose to go.

All the way around, a full property kennel which is also a privacy fence is beneficial to all humans and animals in our household and will enable us to take care of many other issues on our own.

If you are willing to give a hand we do have have a Chip In page set up.

If you would prefer not to give cash, offers of Lowes or Home Depot Gift cards would be of great help too.

If you wish to donate materials only we need 6 foot tall stockade fence panels of the least expensive variety that will enclose an acre of property and we need the posts and hardware to install this.  We have no issue with recycled fence panels if you know someone who is tearing down a stockade fence.  The idea is privacy, code compliance and durable enough for large dogs.

http://rayhawk.chipin.com/kennel-modifications