5/14/11 Morrilton, Arkansas
We got up Saturday morning fairly early. I decided to walk up to the KOA Store to see what they had. Charlie said that all he saw the night before was knick knacks, little souvenirs, etc. and I said “I like that” so I wanted to see what they had.
Well the store didn’t open until noon, so I guess we saved some money. We decided we’d just get underway.
Charlie’s Uncle James had triple by-pass surgery on Thursday, May 12, in Memphis, Tennessee. We decided to stop and see if we could visit him. We got to the hospital and discovered that he couldn’t have visitors yet. We drove on down to Holly Springs, Mississippi and parked at the Wall Doxie State Park for the night. Charlie’s cousin, Milton, came to pick us up and take us to meet relatives for dinner. We had a fun night.
Then we got back to our campsite and just crashed. The cats and Sheila were doing fine. They missed us though and were glad to see us.
We got up Sunday morning and got ready to go down to Calhoun City, Mississippi to visit Charlie’s Aunt Marie.
When we got there, our cousins Debbie and Renay were waiting, along with Aunt Marie. We went inside.
Aunt Marie has 8 cats and several dogs. She calls all of them her “babies”. Aunt Marie had kids who are grown and grandkids, but the critters are her babies.
Later, Aunt Marie took me back to the “cat room”. I met all of her cats there. They have beds and chairs and window sills to sleep or sit on. Also there are two dogs, Polly and Chloe, who share the space with the cats.
Polly is the one who brought tears to my eyes. Back in 2004 when we came for a visit, Aunt Marie took us down the hill and to the pond on the back of her property. Polly, a brown lab, ran with us. Polly was a dog who watched for snakes and just protected Aunt Marie. She was frisky and so full of it. Today when I met her, she had a hard time getting up from her bed. She limped over to see me. I petted her and she looked into my eyes. She was so sweet. Aunt Marie said that Polly had cancer and there was nothing she could do but treat her as normal as possible. I just remembered how Polly was the last time we were there and I felt sad. But, Polly was happy and she really had a good life. Aunt Marie just adored her.
Our cousin, Debbie, lives with Aunt Marie. She has two dogs, Daisy and Susie. They are both Cocker Spaniels. Daisy is blond and Susie is black. They both have stories.
Both of them were severely mistreated before. Daisy was kept by people who shot at her with BB guns. She had BB’s imbedded in her back. They threw water balloons with rocks in them at her and other things. Just terrible stuff. Debbie rescued her.
Then she heard about Susie. Susie was kept in a very small kennel for three years. She was not allowed outside of it. When Debbie heard about her, she went to see and no one was around so she took Susie out of the kennel and brought her to a vet. Susie was a mess. Her legs were grown together. She was dirty and in bad shape. They fixed her up.
We did not meet Daisy today and we have never met her. She is still not ready to meet people because of her abuse before. Only Debbie can be with her right now.
But, Susie is a different story. She is the most loving, sweet little dog. She looks into your eyes when you’re petting her. I don’t know how anyone could mistreat any dog, least of all a dog like this.
We brought our dog, Sheila, inside to be with everyone. She was a hit. Everyone just loved her. She’s very shy, but she did well.
We had lunch and Sheila got lots of snacks. We usually limit her, but this was a special occasion, so we let her have as much as anyone wanted to give.
She had a very nice day, but a very tiring day.
We went back to the campground and rested for awhile, then we went to bed.
Monday morning, May 16, 2011
We woke up pretty early. I had set the clock for 6:00am, but we woke at 5:20am. The cats were playing and making noise. We noticed that the cabinet door was open under the sink. Jason had pryied it open. I forgot to latch it. No cats were in there though.
We got up. I fed the cats and started coffee. Charlie took Sheila out, I made the bed. Then Charlie came back and sat down.
As I was coming from the bedroom, I noticed that Jason was standing in front of the stove, looking up, measuring his jump. I yelled at him, but it was too late. He jumped up to the stove. He touched the burner, but jumped down and ran. I said “Jason is hurt”. Charlie picked him up and checked him. We could smell that he got burned or his fur got singed by the fire.
Charlie said Jason seemed fine. He got up in the kennel and seemed scared.
We kept checking on him and he stayed in the kennel. Then we had breakfast and got ready to leave. I picked him up and smelled his foot. He definitely had singed fur, but I’m not sure if his skin was burned.
Jason seemed okay all day. We had a long traveling day. It was raining and cold.
We got to our KOA campground in Cantler, near Asheville, NC. Jason ate his dinner and then later came over and looked out the window with Jonesie to look at the birds.
I’m worried about Jason because he had started sneezing a couple of days ago. We will take him to a vet when we get to New Bern, if he isn’t any better.
This is a nice KOA, from what we’ve seen. We’ll walk around some in the morning before we leave.
We haven’t had any internet since Friday night. Tomorrow we will be in New Bern, NC and they have pretty good WiFi, so we’ll probably be able to post each night.
We are having a nice trip, although it has been tiring to drive each day. We will be in New Bern from Tuesday, May 17 until Monday, May 23.
More later………..
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