Monday, April 9, 2007

If it's not one thing...

The past few days have been crazy. I have a whole list of things that desperately need to get accomplished, but every day there seems to be something urgent that comes up and must be dealt with.

Last week it was a stray dog. A crazy boxer pup (about a year old) showed up at about 5:00 am and set all the alarms (sandy and the chickens) off. I recognised him as belonging at a little house down the road from us so when it got light I tried to take him back. There wasn't anyone home, the front window was broken out like the dog had jumped through it, and there was no way to contain him there. I couldn't, in good conscience, leave him there so I left a note and he came back home with me. I chained him up in the yard and hoped that the owners would call. He proceeded to interrupt the rest of the day and most of the following night with his incessant yipping and barking. We checked several times to see if the owners had returned, but no one had. The next day we checked again and then took him to the animal shelter. (We have, in the past, adopted strays that showed up on our door, but this one needed more than we could give him.) The folks at the shelter thanked us for bringing him in and told us that the people who lived in that house had abandoned several pets in the past that animal control had had to pick up. We finally saw some signs of life at the house three days after the dog showed up at our place. The people never called. I feel sad for the dog and frustrated that someones irresponsibility cost me almost two days and will probably cost the dog his life (Coshocton county doesn't keep dogs at the shelter very long. They don't have the money or facilities to do that.)

Last night, after getting home from a whole day of Easter celebrating there was a knock at the door. It was our neighbor Eddy. He had been busy harvesting pest deer while the temp was cold and had brought us one. He thought we would enjoy having some venison. While I do like venison, having a deer hanging in the barn that I have to deal with wasn't what I had planned for the day. I guess I should be grateful for the gift, but I don't want to spend the day butchering a deer.

Like I said, the urgent seems to be getting in the way of the important lately. My favorite management guru, Tom Peters, would tell me to focus on the important, but what do you do about the deer hanging in the barn that will start to rot tomorrow, or the yapping dog that will terrorize your animals if you don't find a solution? Sometimes urgent wins. Somehow I will find time to do the important stuff on my list this week too.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You are braver than I am. I only like to think about living an eco friendly life. I'm happy to have found your blog. Despite your crazy few days it sounds like the urgent is not out weighing the important in the long run. More later. Nathan

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