Uncharted Desert Isle

So much for embracing nature, even from my wide, breezy porch. I sit down to write and a spider crawls up my side. DO NOT WANT.

Try again. Sit on the porch itself, turn around and see my cat after a lizard without a tail. Oh, wait, without a tail NOW - there's the tail, wiggling on the porch. I'm guarding the lizard while two dogs and a cat try to get to it.

The dog picks the wriggling tail up in its mouth, takes it off the porch. She's back in less than a minute, and ugh, we know where THAT went. She noses interestedly around me. Cat still trying to get past me. I build a barricade because I cannot bring myself to pick up the tailless lizard (it might, oh, WRIGGLE. Or wiggle, like a tailless thing. Or a severed tail).

Yeah, maybe I'll try this another day.

Today I hiked. I love the mountains so much, but I've not walked the trails for a few years mostly due to the health issues. However, I had promised my oldest and her best friend that we'd go hiking in the mountains before the summer is over.

At one point I didn't think I'd be able to keep my promise, but I was prescribed some meds that helped me be get moving after waking up, so I grabbed my two girls and Johnny and we headed up into the Smokies. Only a 30% chance of rain for later in the day according to the forecast - good odds, I thought. Which, like many of our local weather forecasts, turned out WRONG. A steady rain all day.

We still went. Johnny wanted to try a more difficult hike (well, difficult for us - we've none of us ever been regular hikers) because he'd had surgery recently and wants to regain his strength. (He's sixteen.) I agreed to go for the Chimney Tops, which I hadn't hiked in about twenty years! (It's not a long hike, but as this article will tell you, it's quite steep).

I frankly figured I couldn't make it, but if that were the case, I'd just sit and wait for the kids while they finished. I wanted to try. I hate owning up to being unable to do things I used to be able to do. I already do that so much, and it kills the spirit.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done, physically. My body just didn't think it could do it, and I tended to agree with it. I'm a stubborn cuss, however, and for the last half mile up the trail I sent the kids on ahead and took the climb as I could (talked to myself a lot). As I climbed higher, the wind began to blow, cold and crisp. It was rejuvenating, and really, by the time I made it to the foot of the rock climb, I was exhilarated. What a gorgeous view: clouds rolling over the mountains, wind hissing and rocking the tree tops.

Though I didn't quite make it to the top of the final 50 foot (wet, slippery) rock climb as I did twenty years ago, I got most of the way there. Only my thirteen-year old got higher than I did. My sixteen-year old got a bit freaked by the height, and Johnny didn't climb without her.

(This photo isn't mine - the others are)

my view, if a little blurry - see my daughter's red hair? :)

Not pretty, but what the hell, I did it, and I wanted to do something I know I used to be able to do.  It makes me sad to think I'll probably never do it again.

One of many reasons I love my husband: he'd just gotten off work when we came back. He immediately noticed my gait. I told him where we'd been and said, I'll probably never be able to do it again.

He said, "You might." He believes it, and makes me consider the possibility.

Cone flower by the side of the trail

A woman and two teenage kids rented next door to my mother in the spring. Then the woman's electricity was cut off, a bad thing made infinitely worse by temps in Tennessee in what was then August. She managed to steal electricity from someone else (sounds crazy, but she siphoned off someone behind her into the abandoned house on her right, came in there and took showers and such - I think hoping that she wouldn't be caught because it wasn't to her house). She was caught and was taken to jail. Apparently she has a record, or so the neighbors tell it. Her three dogs and a cat were left there at the house. One of the teens came every day to feed the animals, and let them out in the yard. He and his sister are living with their dad (ex-husband), but there's no pets allowed there, I'm assuming. Once a day is not enough to keep the animals from relieving themselves in the house. This goes on for days. The kids leash Gracie out in the back yard on a clothesline, where she howls through a couple of nights. She's an escape artist, and jumps fences and slips collars. She has been in some trouble for jumping the fence and going after people, though I don't know if she has bitten anyone yet. I go over to pick up Mom for an outing, and Gracie is free and running the neighborhood. She is jumpy, wet and nervous. Also hungry. I fed her. Her collar is screwed up - you can't tighten it, it only slips loose. She hopped in the van with me when I patted the seat. I took her home, washed her, gave her flea medicine (she was scratching miserably), and as the days passed, began to work on getting her acclimated with my cats.

The owner of the house files an eviction notice in court.

The boy who lives across the street from me happens to date the sister of the teen who came every day to feed the dogs. He told her we had Gracie. I also left word with the neighbors and the owner of the house (when I called him to tell him of the dogs still left in his house). The kids come to my house to get the dog TO TAKE HER BACK TO THAT HOUSE. There are flies in there, you can see them all over the picture window, and smears of feces. It was up in the 90s on the day he and his sister came to the house. I feel bad for the kids - what kind of situation are they having to deal with? Horrible. I tell the kids, we'll miss her, and she's fitting in, and I'll take care of her. I think I basically implied I would give her back if they got a place for her, though I didn't say it. I was taken by surprise, and I don't want to take an animal from anyone, particularly children. I hadn't planned on having a dog, for sure. My girls are really falling for this dog. However, the main problem is that the animal was going back to that horrible house. They agreed to let her stay, and asked me if I needed money for food. I told them no. The boy said he'd be back soon for her, maybe the next day.

Two weeks pass. The dogs are still inside the house. I call the SPCA, the neighbors call the police, animal control. Animal control points some kind of temperature gauge in the window and says it is 88 deg. in there and there is water for them, so they wouldn't take the animals out yet, but they'd keep an eye on things. SPCA refers me to the director, then to someone else, who promises they will do their best to get help. As far as I know they did nothing. Understand these dogs are living on their own in this hot, airless home, allowed to go out once a day. I simply do not understand what constitutes animal cruelty. Dogs need contact, love, care. Not flies and fleas and heat.

It's been three weeks. Temperatures have leveled off here somewhat (meaning: in the 80s, not the 90s). As of Sunday, I saw one of the dogs in the picture window. The owner of the house calls Mom today. He says he called the ex-husband and told them they have until 4:30 pm to get the animals out of the house. He asks Mom if she'll go next door and knock, because if the dogs are still there they will bark, and he now has a court order to get them out. (This is per my Mom. She does get a little confused sometimes). Mom goes over, but there is no barking at her knock. The owner goes to check in the house after work and was surprised to find the dogs still inside. He brings them out into the fenced yard. The tenant flies out after him. She'd been released and was apparently hiding inside. She tells him he's not going to take the dogs. She has 10 days left on her eviction notice, and begs him not to evict her. He says she has to leave. He leaves, and the dogs are still there with her in the house. Still no electricity. She tells the neighbors she's going to get Gracie back, and that she has her chipped. I don't believe this. I'm fairly certain none of those animals are given any flea control medicine, let alone real care. She reads like a woman with many problems besides a shortage of money.

I'll take Gracie to the vet tomorrow and check her out, and if she's chipped, too (I was going to take her this week anyway), but considering the woman's situation, I don't want to surrender her if I don't have to. This could get messy. I repeat, I never wanted this. Now my oldest is crazy for the dog, takes her on walks and plays with her and loves her. She is very tender-hearted, and I hate this for her, and for the dog.

Any advice/ideas/knowledge as to what I should do next? No one seems to give a right royal shit, and I am horrified and kind of heart-broken about it all.