Thank You

I just wanted to post a brief note and say thank you to everyone.

All of your support, kind words and good wishes have meant more to me than you know. I know it has been a while since I wrote anything here but I have been checking in with and following along with many of you on Twitter, your sites and Facebook. It has kept me from focusing on my sadness.

As I'm sure was evident, this has been a very hard time. It's hard to explain how painful this situation has been. I've experienced sadness and loss before but I have never felt such grief or felt as bereft as I currently do.

Right now I am getting up and going to work because I have to. The husband and I have been taking care of the other pets and he has been doing major work to keep our two girls, Meg and Gertie safe going forward. Sadly they are feeling the loss as keenly and have kept themselves inside the coop since Saturday. We hope that they will begin to feel more secure soon.

It is hard to know that each day I will no longer see Napoleon. That I will no longer get to talk with him or hold him or see him running over to me. It's even harder to know that I wasn't around to stop his murder and that there is nothing I can do to help him or bring him back. It's hard to disassociate this from the fact that I continue to live in that same place and that each day will remind me of him and what happened. He was such a huge part of our lives. It's hard to know how to go forward without him in it.

I'm trying to find my way back. It is slow but I hope it will be soon.

Again... thank you.

Poochie

1.17.2009

I'm going to be away for a while.

This says pretty much everything I can't say right now.

Updates and Reminders

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to send you some updates on how Mr. Napoleon is doing. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and good wishes. Here's how he normally looks. As I mentioned, he lost almost all the feathers on his back and tail. Frankly, he's a bit of a mess right now. If you want to see how he's doing, you can click here.



But, he's still alive and that's what matters to us. Were working out a system to keep him calm and for giving him his shots and the meds. We decided to give him his pain shot in the morning so it calms him down during the day.

Yesterday, we had our webcam on him and I was able to peek at him throughout the day. He spent a lot of his time looking out from the porch over to the coop. When I got home I saw that the two girls were up next to the coop yard fence looking over at him. Sweeties! I know they miss each other but we have to keep him safe and clean right now. So they must be apart of a while more.

I also wanted to send a quick reminder that I'm still looking for your shoe story! The anniversary celebration is on through Sunday! So drop in a comment or send me an email at princesspoochie (at) shoedaydreams (dot) com.

Please Send Good Thoughts

If you've ever looked at my profile you would have seen that I have another blog that I write called The Daily Coop. I'm not as good about updating it but it's all about my three chickens who we've only had about a year.

My main love is our rooster Napoleon. Napoleon loves me and I love him. He comes when I call him and he likes to snuggle down in my lap when I sit down. This is even more unusual as we have not had them since they were chicks.

Today Napoleon was attacked by a dog and hurt severely. I rushed him to the emergency vet and was there with him for hours. They've asked us to have him there for a bit and then call them back. I don't know what is going to happen with him. He's is so little.



Napoleon got hurt because he was bravely defending his girls (who were able to run and hide) from this large spaniel dog. The dog may have meant no harm but Napoleon is less than 5lbs and does not know that. He just wants to protect the two hens. They were unharmed but he was not.

Almost all of his feathers were ripped off and he has a puncture wound in his back. I was able to stop the dog, gather up Napoleon and rush him to the nearest after hours vet, which is actually not that near.

I'm sitting here in tears and covered with his blood. I know this is gruesome but please please please send any kind and healing thoughts his way. I don't' think I could bear it if he did not make it.

Thank you.

UPDATE: Napoleon is home right now. We have to give him pain shots in his chest every 2 - 4 hours. We have to give him liquid antibiotics orally. He has to stay by himself for a while too and not go into the coop. We're not sure for how long. We bought an XXL pop-up dog crate. It's soft and has good ventilation which will also keep out flies, we hope. We have him in the basement right now which doesn't have bugs and is dark and draft-free. He's out of shock but he's very very tired. We just left him in the cat carrier that we used to take him to the vet. We took off the door and put a towel over it. We're hoping he stays sleepy. I have the dryer going down there so maybe the noise will soothe him.

We'll keep updates going on The Daily Coop.