09/17/12 Packing,packing and more packing

Hi pals,

Today daddy spent most of the day in the garage tearing down the walls that he put up to turn the garage into his machine shop here in California. The garage has to be put back the way it was in order for the humans to rent the house out. Early this morning the trash management brought a huge dumpster and left it in our driveway so of course Puffy and I had to bark our heads off at them.

Momma continues to remove pictures from the walls and wrap them up so they don’t get damaged during the move to New Mexico.

And barking about New Mexico, we don’t have a clue as to what is happening there. Daddy’s handyman hasn’t called today so we don’t know if he is getting the wallboard hung like he is supposed to or if he got the cement slabs poured our side each door entrance. Momma is tired of asking daddy what is going on and judging by the sour look on his face I’m guessing daddy is very worried about getting everything finished. The handyman did call last week to inform daddy that he couldn’t pour the cement because a big rain storm came through and washed away the dirt that he had packed where each slab was going to be (had the handyman showed up for work when he was suppose to before we left New Mexico he would have had the cement work done and the rain wouldn’t have been an issue).

Arleenton has not been a happy bunny because momma gave away the two bunny hutches. Both were old and since it gets too cold for my bunny sister to spend the winter outside in New Mexico she will now become an indoor bunny with a cage to live in. The plan is to potty train her to use a litter box like the kitties do and once she masters that she will be allowed to play in the new house freely unless she starts being destructive.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

09/16/12 Yard sale results

Hi pals,

Well the yard sale came and went but Puffy and I were not invited to help. Momma kept on telling Puffy that she couldn't trust him not to bite someone so we weren't invited. And if that wasn't insult enough, she shut the shutters in the sewing room so we couldn't even watch everyone who came to the yard sale.

After the sale was all over, I head momma telling daddy that people took most of the FREE stuff that was out there even when momma told them there was something wrong with the item. A good example is the patio umbrella that she had out marked FREE. A man said he would take it and momma tried to tell him that he might want to re-consider that because the umbrella and stand were very old and falling apart. He didn't even bother opening the umbrella but said he could fix anything so he took it. The humans had a 32" Curtis Mathis TV that works great but daddy just doesn't want to bother taking it to New Mexico with us and no one would take it. Daddy had even hooked the TV up to electricity and had a VCR plugged in with a video playing so anyone could see the tv was operable, but no one was interested. No one bothered taking the fish aquarium either, instead they took broken down junk. I guess it's true about one mans junk is anothers treasure. Momma made a whole 70 dollars in four hours. I hope she buys Puffy and me some more treats because we are running low.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

09/14/12 Yard sale

Hi pals,

Things have been moving along with the move. Daddy got a phone call from the plumber in New Mexico stating that he was finished with the work and that everything passed inspection. Daddy wasn’t all that happy because the plumber should have been done LAST week and daddy isn’t sure that the plumber actually got the work inspected.

Tomorrow before the birds are out of their nests, momma has to get up and put some things in our drive way for the yard sale. One of the local realtors coordinated this event and it is supposed to have “lots” of our neighbors participating. The last time we tried to do a yard sale here no one showed up even though momma paid to advertise in the local news paper. If any of you happen to be in our neighborhood stop on by. I’d love to meet you.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

09/11/12 The tile saw motor

Hi pals,

We have been back in California for several days and the humans haven’t done too much of anything. Daddy had to operate on the tile saw motor that stopped working when momma was cutting tile at the New Mexico place (just her luck it would clunk out when SHE used it). Daddy asked momma all kinds of questions:

Daddy - Did it smoke while you were using it?
Momma – Not that I noticed, but maybe it was a closet smoker.
Daddy – Did it make any funny noises before it died?
Momma – I didn’t have my bionic ears on so it could have been singing an opera and I wouldn’t have known.
Daddy – You’re not helping me.
Momma – What do you want from me? All I can tell you is it was working and now it’s not.
Daddy – Well it’s broken and all I’m trying to do is figure out why.
Momma – Yah, sure….

Anyhow, daddy says the motor is now working so afterwards he got comfortable on his sofa and napped the rest of the day away. Puffy and I decided daddy had a good idea and we went to the big bed and took a nap up on it.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

09/10/12 Well done Albuquerque

This last weekend 400 homeless dogs in two different Albuquerque animal shelters were put up for FREE adoption. Yes, that’s right; the adoption fees at the city's two animal shelters were waived for dogs one year and older; of the 400 available for this offer, 374 found new homes.

As many of you know, my family and I will be moving to New Mexico shortly. Momma has been looking for a big dog to adopt and was considering adopting a German Shepherd from a local California German Shepherd rescue group but the $500 dollar adoption fee was just too much. For that price we could easily find a nice German Shepherd puppy that we could mode into the type of pup that we desire without taking a chance on a older pup that was tuned into a rescue group for reasons unknown.

Checking out some other animal rescue sites found that the each had their own policy regarding fees necessary in order to “adopt” one of their pups. Some were quite reasonable as they ranged from $35 to $150 dollars, but others had huge fees and other requirements mandated if you wanted to adopt one of their homeless dogs.

One rescue group visited required that adopters purchase the six week puppy training session at a local Pet Smart. When the volunteer was informed that my family would be moving to New Mexico and that there isn’t a Pet Smart anyplace close to where we will be they just shrugged. Now I admit it has been about 6 years since I’ve taken a puppy training class and three years since Puffy had the private training classes here at home, but still, should it really be necessary to require adopters spend an additional $100 for training at a facility that maybe they do not endorse or need? The team that was doing the adoptions were lead by one elderly woman and the others looked to be high school students, so don’t tell me they know more about what a dog needs than my family does. Additionally, even though both Puffy and I passed our respective puppy class, judging from the many times that momma has had to go running down the street shouting “Coco – STOP!”, I don’t think the training did either of us any good, but it’s nice to have the certificate indicating that I passed my class because that is the only proof the humans actually have – BOL.

One of the most pricy sites found was for giant dog breeds and they said that their fees ranged from $490 dollars to $990 dollars, but most were somewhere in between the two amounts. If this wasn’t enough, they also require that you feed any adopted pup THEIR special blend of dog food for the remainder of the adopted pet’s life, unless the pet’s new vet supplies a valid reason why this should not occur. Maybe their special blend of food is much better than the stuff one normally finds in the pet store but isn’t this just allowing them to collect additional fees for the duration of the adopted pet’s life? One bag of their food costs approximately $35 dollars for a 37.5 pound bag of kibble. Now depending upon the size of the dog, this food might go fast so it is quite a money maker for the animal rescue if you ask me.

With all of the different requirements that some of the rescue groups are putting on adoptions it’s no wonder that many dogs and other animals fail to find homes. I’m all for making every attempt to verify that homeless animals go to suitable homes where they will be cared for and loved. Additionally, I also support spaying and neutering of homeless pets to help control the animal population, but please keep the fees for adoption reasonable so that the animals can be placed in homes. If more rescue groups would follow the lead that the Albuquerque animal shelter has set forth, there would be fewer animals put to death.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

09/08/12 New Mexico house inspection

Hi pals,

As Puffy already told you we are all back in California now, even though daddy is hoping our stay will only be a couple of weeks before we all move to New Mexico permanently, but everything hinges on if the code enforcer signs offs on all of the inspections.

The day before we left, the code enforcer for the electrical division came over and Puffy and I were locked away in the nasty trailer so we would not growl or try to bite them – BOL. The inspection went well except that the wiring for the TV’s had not been completed (daddy was doing them but got tired) and the inspector didn’t like the wires that daddy used even though they were made for this application. Anyhow, after having some tense words with daddy the inspector went ahead and signed off on the inspection although he is requiring that daddy take pictures of the completed wiring and emailing them to him. So that’s two inspections down and only about four more to go.

We left New Mexico on Thursday the 6th and on Friday the 7th, the code inspectors for the plumbing and framing were supposed to come over and do their thing. Right before we left, the plumber approached daddy requesting that he receive some more monies but daddy informed him that they had agreed that he would get the remainder of the monies once the project was completed and passed inspection. Daddy relented and gave him part of the monies left owed with the plumber stating that he would have all of the work done. Too bad the plumber didn’t keep his word as he neglected to show up again to finish the job and when the inspector arrived the work wasn’t completed. The plumber tried to blame daddy’s helper saying that he didn’t get the framing for the tub done but since the helper was there and the plumber didn’t show there really was no way for the plumber to know if the framing had been done or not, he just took a wild guess.

That same day, the code enforcer for the framing department arrived and failed the framing of the kitchen. They require the ceiling beams be bigger in the kitchen so daddy’s helper has to rip out some of the framing beams and replace them with larger ones, other than that nothing else was found wrong with the framing so it should pass next week’s inspection.

After both of these inspections are done and signed off, the helper will put up the dry wall and that too will have to be inspected by the appropriate code enforcer. When that is bought off the electrician will come back in and install all of the light fixtures and switches and again the electrical code enforcer will again have to come out and do another inspection.

The final inspection will be everything as a whole and when it is bought off then the humans and us furry kids can move in.

There are a lot of inspections needed and with each failure, the humans have to reschedule and pay again, to have the inspectors come out and re-do the inspections. It is a very timely process so one always hopes the inspectors do not find anything wrong, but thus far every inspection has failed on the first try. I should also point out that we only have one day a week that the inspectors work in our area and therefore we might not be able to get the inspector to come back the following week, it all depends on how many other places they have on their addenda. Daddy is now worried that all of the delays might force our move to be delayed also.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

09/05/12 The code enforcer is here!

Hi pals,

As this diary is being typed so is the inspection of the the New Mexico house. Yup, the code enforcer is doing the plumbing, electrical and framing inspection currently. We are planning on leaving New Mexico tomorrow to head back to California but a lot still depends on how the inspection goes.

We are still having problems with workers not showing up like they are supposed to. We haven't seen or heard from the handyman who is supposed to be helping daddy for three days now. The handyman is always complaining about how he needs money but apparently he is allergic to working for it.

In other news, momma found a bunch of matts on Puffy and sadly she decided to "trim" all the hair around his ears down so the matts would be gone. Now you know that momma tends to get carried away so lets just say poor Puffy no longer has any long, flowing hairs from his ears. Puffy doesn't seem that upset about the whole thing maybe that is because momma keeps on telling him that he will have beautiful flowing ears again once the hairs grow back. What she is neglecting to tell him is that is will be quite a while before that happens - BOL, BOL.

Puffy and I are really enjoying walking around our New Mexico property without being on a leash. We sniff and explore to our hearts content. We went out and looked for antlers for our pals but none were found. Daddy informed us that they would most likely be found up higer in the mountains since we have not observed any boy deers hanging with the females in our area. He also said it is probably too early for the antlers to come off the bucks anyways.

Please keep your paws crossed that this inspection goes well and that we get the okay to start wall boarding the walls.

Hugs and kisses to all!

Coco Rose

08/31/12 More updates from New Mexico

Hi pals,

We have been in New Mexico for two weeks and things still have not been completed. The workers continue to show up when they feel like it and thus we can not schedule the necessary electrical and plumbing inspections that need to be done before the wallboarding. Daddy has been trying to contact our California neighbor who is taking care of the kitties and bunny while we are gone to see if he can do so for another week but he keeps on getting their answering machine. We might have to stay in New Mexico for another week.

It's so peaceful when no one is working on our New Mexico house that daddy can hear the male Elks bellowing. Yesterday there was a herd of deer feeding on the grass that grow where the lake has receeded. The lake is drying up due to lack of rains and the center is more like a marsh than lake right now. The deer and elk like feeding on the grasses and since it is a "no hunting" area they are pretty safe. This trip we have not seen any antalopes at all so they must have wandered to a different area.

I scared momma this morning because I took myself for a walk and she couldn't find me. Five acreas of proprety has a lot of areas for a little dog like me to hide at - BOL. Anyhow, momma was calling and calling me and Puffy and of course Puffy being the brown nose that he is, went running over to momma, but I chose to ignor her. I continued on with my adventure and didn't care that her calls were now becoming more frantic. Daddy was buring trash and he stopped what he was doing and helped momma to look for me. Turns out that I was under the trailer checking things out when daddy found me. Once I came out from under the trailer momma made Puffy and me go inside the trailer to spend the day.

Well pals, that all for now. Hugs and kisses to you all.

Coco Rose

08/27/12 No one showed up for work today

Daddy is beyond mad! He wanted to have the code enforcer come out and do an inspection of the plumbing and electrical this week so we can start doing the wall boarding, but the electrician, plumber and handyman didn't show up for work today. The code enforcer only does inspections once a week in our area so everything has to be done before the appointment is made, but since the workers didn't bother to come to work, it is unlikely that we will have an inspection this week.

Daddy was out in the hot sun for hours today mixing cement that is needed to bring the area where cars will park in the garage level with the driveway. Each bag of cement weighs 80 pounds and he had no one to help him. He is currently taking a much deserved nap. One of the things the code enforcer told daddy was that has to have concrete pads outside each door opening and we have a total of 6 counting the two for the garage/workshop so there is much more concrete work needed.

We only have six weeks to finish this project but since we still have to finish packing up the California house, get it painted and then rent it out, we can't sit around here in New Mexico waiting for the workers to show up. This is very frustrating.

On the positive side, we ate our first summer squash from our garden the other night and it was yummy. The two corn plants that Puffy keeps on piddling on are much bigger than the rest so they must like what he is adding to the soil - BOL.

Anyhow, I got to go check on daddy.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose

08/24/12 Noisy, noisy day

Hi Pals,

New Mexico hasn't been that much fun today. Daddy has some people with backhoes and other big construction equipment putting in asphalt (did I spell that right?) on our driveway. They showed up before 8AM and are still outside with their equipment working on our driveway. How is a pup supposed to take a nap with all that racket going on? For most of the day Puffy and I were forced to stay in the trailer because momma wanted to make sure we didn't run outside and get run over. After spending most of the day in the trailer we were let outside to do our business and then put into the garage/workshop building.

And to make matters even worse, all the rains have turned the dirt into mud so Puffy and I have to have our paws washed several times a day if we want to sleep on the bed.

I heard daddy telling momma that tomorrow they were going to get up early in the morning and go to Alburqueque (Sorry, about the spelling) to buy tile and other stuff needed for the house so that means Puffy and I will have to spend another day in either the trailer or the garage/workshop.

Puffy has decided that he is a big dog in a tiny body and has taken to chasing after anything on wheels - BOL, BOL. Daddy bought a four wheeled ATZ that has a large work trailer attached to it and Puffy runs right in front of it and barks and barks at it to make daddy stop. Momma says this is not funny because he could get hurt so we she is going to work with him to stop doing that.

Anyhow, it looks like another storm is coming in so I better get off daddy's computer before I loose internet connection.

Hugs and kisses,

Coco Rose