I sat under the house yesterday with my two guys. I was assured that it  was safe. Finally. You see our house  was not safe before but ignorance is bliss.  The red house is actually four building under one roof. The first building is now the dog room - the largest building and best constructed. It was originally a sleep station for the Railway men built just after the second world war. It came  complete with a cold room under the floor - we found it when we removed the old floors down to the original flooring - beautiful pine planks but too expensive to refinish - I seriously thought about it though. The truth is - it wouldn’t have been practical for the dogs and this is all about the dogs. sigh

The hatch - it will be nailed shut and the new, improved, sealable, shiny floor laid on top.

Inside the hole we found some history!
Two broadaxes, a handforged horse shoe and a curved knife - possibly a trade knife??

Squire checking out history. Topley is in the middle of tie hacking country!

The other buildings are mismatch add ons. All of them were sort of leveled - none had true foundations. We don’t have rooms. We have entire small buildings. Then someone decided to put one entire roof over them all and build a false front to look like t had a foundation - all cosmetic - all done to sell the house and land.

A support log to nowhere - see the small blocks - those supported the entire length - two small blocks and the sill had only 4 nails the whole length.

The rotted sill log that supported the entire building behind the make believe rock and cement wall.

A rotted support - no wonder the floors were uneven, the bathroom door stuck.

With money running out the rest of the digging is by hand - Stan alone! There is a pile of digging with removal by wheelbarrow. Stan works until dark then comes in for dinner, a short time to relax before bed - for early to rise the cycle starts again.

The front wall is doggone hard to keep stable. It keeps sloughing!

Squire watching a tiny avalanche.

Dave and his Apple Dumplings watching Stan work - or supervising!!

So we definitely needed a secure, safe foundation. The whole is only as good as the foundation for houses as for life. Dave’s date for  his foundation (cast removal) has been set for October 22nd!!!)

No foundation, no home, no place for the dogs. I have multiple dogs all year but a lot less in summer thank goodness. In fact there is only 7 or 8 on petfinder today. This would have been disastrous if it had been during our high times - cold weather. It will be much higher after this weekend as  dogs will die if they can’t come in. So ready or not TG is up and working full bore again. The first arrivals will be on Friday - the Burns Lake Pound dogs and Layla a black lab mix who had 5 pups who will be sold  - they look very lab but the mom is not wanted. He says it is not his but a neighbour’s who left her behind when he moved. I didn’t argue -  the dog needs help or she will die. And on Saturday two rottie mixes mom and son - mom is injured and needs veterinary help. Their owner cannot look after them  - he is not capable of remembering to feed or care for them. I am never sure of how many come in when Linda or Lorraine bring them! They know thta once i see their eyes - I won’t turn them away. So sponsors will be needed for th enewbies and positive thouhgts/support needed to keep me sane!

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

I read a very insightful verse today from Patience Strong

Go your way with one day’s load - but not along tomorrow’s road. You are not asked to walk that track- until it’s on the almanac. Until today has faded out-you do not need to think about-what tomorrow’s going to bring. A good thought,  that, to which to cling.

Do not face until you must- tomorrow’s problems- Let the dust of one day’s troubles settle first. Don’t anticipate the worst. When the going’s rough and tough - One day’s journey is enough.

So I won’t worry about the money to pay the backhoe - the bill arrived today - $1015.00 

Or that this big pile of wood needs to be treated before the forms are built for the cement foundation- that just means it has to be painted with special oil/paint/stuff?!

Or of the dogs waiting to come in very soon - I will be ready for them when they arrive. And there is quite a few waiting in dire need. They can’t wait much longer so this weekend will see new arrivals. But I won’t worry about them today.

The hydro was out until 4pm today. I had time to read and think about what to write.

A very good and kind thing happened today when I opened the mail.  It was from the Bulkley Valley Credit Union in Smithers. The letter said:

As you can see by the enclosed card, were pleased to provide the Bulkley Valley Credit Union tent for a personal event earlier this month. In lieu of a rental payment for the tent, we asked the Ottesen family to please consider making a donation to a local charity or organization of their choice.

On behalf of Bruce and Christine, please accept the enclosed cash donation of $25.00 as their charitable donation to a very special fund in our Valley.

Yours truly,
Valerie Purnell - Executive Assistant
Bulkley Valley Credit Union, Smithers, BC

Turtle Gardens thanks you very much.

To meet or beat the challenge up to $5000 - your donation is doubled:

Petland Terrace – challenge other pet stores to meet or beat - $113.00

From pop cans – challenge other recyclers to meet or beat – Donna - $37.50.

From the professional beggar – Rayla – at the TG Fleamarket - $60.00

In respect for the abandoned dog on Forestdale Canyon Road : $50.00

Sassy from Courtenay : $50
Canines North Dog Club – challenge other dog clubs to meet or beat : $100

Miss Maxine: $50
Molly : $50
Razz: $50
Mia : $50
In memory of Shadow: $50
in memory of Rever: $50.
in memory of Kiro: $50

 Please help us reach our objective!

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

And I did it with my inept computer skills. I was trying to put in a link and somehow erased all the sidebar! Now Dave is trying to find time to fix it - and I am told it is a very big job I am so sorry Dave - I won’t do that again.

I have the cutest little guys on my petfinder site - baby potbellied piglets looking for homes.

This is mom and family! And below some of the babies!

They live at Hearts on Noses Mini Pig Sanctuary in Maple Ridge. www.heartsonnoses.com/index.htm

  For further information and an adoption form, contact heartsonnoses@shaw.ca. 

The little kitten is doing very well.  He is being fostered by Christine - the vet tech from my Burns Lake Veterinary Clinic who emailed me that HE (not she as I thought but then I never did look  ) -  2:30am, just  finishing feeding your little orphan who we did eye surgery on.  For my own little heart I have named him Giano or Julian, as they were just talking about Pavaratti’s first name having been Luciano? and I know our little orphan has quite the vocals
And today:
Little Giano has this cute feature of stretching out his right paw to draw the syringe near to his mouth, rather impatiently and with such pinpoint claws, it did my heart good to be nurturing such a vulnerable age of a kitten, my first time.

He is being fed special food to help build his immune system and to help him heal from his surgery and injuries. He will need a special home and sponsors to help pay his medical care. I feel responsible for him as I brought him to the Clinic. He is a survivor!!

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

The digging was done early yesterday - 4 pm, although Stan still has some hand digging to finish.
The backhoe digging is done. He will be coming back to fill it in once the cement foundation is poured and the wooden walls in place. The backhoe fees alone were almost $1000. !!!

Another view of the big hole! Tara is checking it all out.

Taking a picture as the dogs watch me.

Dave inspecting the new improved crawl space - it will be easier to fix things with more room. All of his dogs are with him. The house is stable and level.

  Stan having a Harley moment. He sure is a hardworking man!

The back wall.

The front wall with the hand digging pile waiting for Stan.

Dave is calling Raven - Fraggle! He is looking better now with his grooming. He sure is enjoying his wide open view of his world. I wonder if he could see with all that hair?

This is what happens when you park your car at TG!! Faye - enjoying the view from up top of Bear’s car!

Stan and Dave are gone to Granisle  to fix Bear’s roof and finish her porch. Her renovations took a back burner to ours! Today Stan is finishing hers while the gravel soaks up the water - the water table is quite close to the floor of the big hole.  Our house is on the  old river bed -so the ground is gravel under river sand! There is good percolation so the water sinks down. The excess gravel will build up the dyke so we won’t have to worry so much about the spring flooding. Maybe next year I can plant my greenhouse early!

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

Work is progressing well. Poor Stan is working himself into the ground from 9 am to dark he is in the hole digging. The hoe cannot reach the middle so it all has to be dug by hand. And there is only Stan to dig - we don’t have the extra money to hire a helper.

  The morning start with Desi watching Stan digging.

Merlin in the hole - both sides are open on one end!

The backhoe piles the dirt near the hole - we don’t have the room between the two houses to pile the dirt so he has to move it to the end of the yard.

My yard!!! Dexter and Faye are lying in the path at lunchtime.

Stan digging out the middle so the backhoe can pick it up.

The blip!! This rock hit the water line! So Davy remarks " Well now the water will be updated!!!" Another job for poor Stan. Dave and Bear went to  town to buy the necessary parts and try to rent the only crimping  tool in the Bulkley Valley! It was already rented so Stan managed to fix it so I had water last night to cook supper! The two dogs are Dave’s Sasha and Patches. Dave is supervising!

Here’s Dave! Notice Desi is right with Stan.
Where we are now. The big pipe is the sewer line - thank doG it is A-Ok.

Almost done - today should see all the digging done. Then Stan has to build forms to pour the cement for the foundation. Then the dirt goes back - I hope!!

Faces of TG!! Sasha, Raven, Boots and Lilianna.

Lilianna has most of her hair back BUT it is coming in darker than her normal coat - she still looks patchy!! Dexter is lying beside her - they are very good friends.

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

The digging starts very early and th epower and phone lines are disconnected while it is going on! So today’s blog is early.

Adoni’s surgery was Tuesday - here is his update:

Hi Yvette & Dave

Adoni came home last night with quite a hangover except he couln’t remember
the party.  He came through his surgery very well.  The surgeon wes very
pleased.  Because his foot was turned a full 90 degrees to the right he was
unable to turn it fully, so there will be a little offset.   We were  told
not to take him through an airport as the metal plate in his leg might set
off the alarms.  He may wear the plate permanently, but that remains to be
seen.  I looks like early November before the splints come off, so in the
meantime he is a three-legged hopper.

Too our eye it looks like the one leg might be two inches shorter but it’s
too early to tell.  But the leg looks a whole lot straighter.

Adoni was very happy to see us when we picked him up yesterday.  The staff
told us he was very good and they all liked him.

Last night Irene and I slept downstairs in the livingroom to keep Adoni off
the stairs.

When I came up this morning to turn on the computer he beat me up the
stairs.

He is eating well.  His walks are very short, just to take care of the
necessities, and are quite painful.  In a few days he should stop hurting as
the effect of the surgery wears off.  We have painkillers and anti-biotics
for his post surgery.

We will pass on updates as he progresses and we will send a photo after the
splints come off.

In the meantime take care.

Regards

Guy & Irene.

And little Ivan - he and his brother Max came in with broken legs!

Here he is with his fancy splint!

Hi!
 
I haven’t emailed you for a long time, but I found your site again and figured I better let you know how little Ivan is… Well he’s not as little as he used to be, we kept his name Ivan, which you may already know, but he’s inherited quite a few nicknames. He’s not as little as he was at first, but he is hyper most of the time. Not to mention spoiled rotten! He loves toys tthat make noise so we bought him a mini TMX Elmo and he loves it, but his favorite is my brother’s ferret, sometimes we have to put Ivan outside because he scares the ferret. He is an extremely fast runner though, I take him for quite a few bike rides. He doesn’t like water to much though, he usually jumps out of the bathtub when we bath him, and when we go camping he only swims to where he can still somewhat touch the ground, he goes past that to get sticks sometimes though. Well that’s all for now! Buh-Bye!!
 
-Amanda
 
P.S. I Attatched A Pic, It’s Not To New, But He Looks The Same Now As He Did Then, So It’ll Work!

Beautiful Ivan

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

It was 10 pm last night when I received a call from a Houston RCMP. He had spotted a tiny kitten near a box on the side of the road. What he found in the box filled him with sorrow - two dead kittens - flattened by a vehicle. The survivor had an injured face - her eyes were puffed closed. Because he had found a dog the day before he knew from the District of Houston that Turtle Gardens helped animals. So he called us. I told him " of course bring the kitten to me". I would care for her  and get her to the veterinarian as soon as possible. Stan met him at the gate because Mom doesn’t do dark. He talked to the young officer for a half hour and then brought the baby inside. She was in the crate we had prepared for her arrival. She answered to "kitty kitty" with a soft meow and came up to my fingers - she wasn’t a feral, she was used to people. How could someone be so cruel? She started purring  and mewing softly , looking for something to eat. Her eyes though puffy were slitted as she tried to see me. Poor little mite! I put in a dish of water and a small dish of canned food - she soon had a dirty face as she hungrily ate. Stan took her to the atco where he sleeps so she would be more comfortable than with all the dogs in the Blue house. Our veterinarians will put her into their foster care and she will be well cared for. Thank  you Dr. Martin.

Today is back at digging. Stan says we are finally where we were before Dad broke his leg. The work is coming along very well!. But my front yard is a disaster! A lot of work to turn that mudhole back into the front lawn we had!! Another big job coming up!!

The digging from this side now all the way thru!

Tomorrow’s digging starts here!

My beautiful front lawn!

While Stan and Dave were busy with the digging - Dave supervising of course! I decided to shave Raven! He is the last of the "woo" dogs - he looks like Fraggle Rock!! Well he did. Now I think he needs a new name to go with his new look! What do you think? He doesn’t look like a Raven anymore!!

Raven the "WOO" dog

The silver poodle - Raven????

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.

I woke up this morning to dogs clustered all around me and some under the covers too. Cooler weather has arrived! The trees are changing colours and there is a definite nip in the early morning air. The final digging is being done in a half hour so this is a quick blog. The power will be shut down and the phone cord disconnected so here are a few of the dogs keeping warm on this very chilly morning!

Colby (15 years old ) and Grizzly Adams (8 years old) with Redman just beside them(14 years old)

Gopher now 14 years old with Sasha beside him (16 years old)

Harley and Kingston on the bed! Harley is 3 years old while Kingston is 7 months - he will be going home soon.

Lillianna is growing her new coat but the patches are darker brown than her original coat!! She has a prospective home too.

©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.