i have camels!!

shirley, in order to get my certification for the nursing program, i have to take a month of extra schooling and then i have to work for six months in Oklahoma to become certified and it all concerns being licensed to administer psych meds. soooooooooo, i have to stay in Oklahoma for awhile. Austin has to wait..i can make tons more money after getting all this extra certification. Texas has a reciprocal agreement with Oklahoma.

old, old friends have an animal refuge ranch and they asked me to live there. i am going to move. it has tons of guesthouses and acres and acres of wilderness. there are llamas, camels, elk, deer, donkeys (minis and large) a donkey/zebra cross (pic coming), armadillos, foxes, coyotes, wildcats, etc. i get to care for the ones that come up to eat cattle feed. and i will check the guesthouses for mice and such. no one likes to empty the traps, so i volunteered.

i will have a loft, in the huge barn/garage bldg for my crafts/jewelry/photography work. it's unbelievable.

they put wire all around the big animal corral so my dogs would have a huge area to be safe in. there is a house for the cats to sleep in at night. the only time the animals will be inside with me is in the loft/barn/garage. the house is too pristine and fragile for large dogs and cat hair.

the cats will be outside when i'm there. there is a huge yard for the house that the dogs can also use. BUT the elk can step over the 4 foot high fence. soooooooooooooooo. we'll see how we handle all of that.

i imagine that i'll sleep in the loft alot. it is as nice as the house, but not as fussy.

i'm incredibly blessed. no rent, no utilities...BUT no phone. no cell signal either. don't know what we're going to do on that one. phone line is $600 a mile. and there are many, many miles that they would have to go. guess i'll get homing pigeons.

there is a negative that i'll deal with. rattlesnakes and copperheads. first we will clean up every leaf and brushpile that is close to the house and in the big corral. stella and bella will be watched closely when they play outside.

my vet gave me injectable steroids to administer immediately if a dog or cat gets bitten. cats never get bitten. they are too smart. dogs sniff at snakes and get bitten on the nose/face/legs. a dog would die only if it got into a nest of rattlesnakes and received more than three or four bites.

there are copperheads all over and John has killed really large rattlesnakes in front yard. so every leaf and every piece of brush will be gone! anti-venom only has a shelf-life of three weeks and is too expensive for me to buy. steroids work. my dogs have been bitten by copperheads and water moccasins and he said that that helps build up an immunity to any other local venom. soooooooooo, this will be an adventure.