Monday, October 21, 2013

Settling In

We've been settling in at Miller Creek RV Resort in Johnson City, Texas since the end of August.  We were treated to this beautiful sunrise!  No filters on the camera to create this beauty!  We've been catching up on old friends travels, meeting new friends, visiting favorite restaurants, getting dental exams, and glasses updated!  Roy is workkamping, and the fun planned events at the park are beginning! 
We've gotten ourselves familiar with the area, as we knew it a year ago, and have been getting acquainted with what's new!  This is a luxury vacation rental being built on a hilltop along Highway 290 heading toward Johnson City!  It has three floors plus a rooftop deck with porticoes.  The three floors are reported to be a total of 5,636 square feet and with the rooftop deck added in comes to 6,738 square feet.  It will have 4 luxury suites ranging from $200-$500 a night!  It's construction is for the owners of the Lighthouse luxury vacation rental located atop a nearby hill.  This vacation rental will be call Arc de Texas (Arch of Texas), as it was inspired by the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumphal Arch of the Carrousel) in Paris, France.      
Meet Gonzo!  We got a surprise when we got settled into our RV site!  I stepped outside one evening to find an extremely skinny sick cat at our doorstep!  Despite his terrible condition, he was an extreme lovebug!  This area primarily operates a trap and release program in regards to homeless cats, as there isn't a local animal shelter.  The notch in Gonzo's left ear marks him as having been neutered through a trap and release program.  His right ear isn't missing, but is disfigured through untreated ear mites.  He was infested with fleas, and had a deep chest congestion!  He has three fangs broken off and yellowed worn teeth!  He was quite emaciated.  My prognosis is that he had about one more month to live!  He came to the right place for help!  Over the last month he has made a steady recovery.  Of course, we've all fallen in love with him, and have decided that if he wants to live with us he's welcome!  We'll figure out how to make it work later!   
I've been extremely busy with the Spring through Fall influx of animals into the shelter I volunteer for back in Michigan.  I'm still posting pet pictures on petfinder.com and writing letters for the animals to promote themselves on the shelter's Facebook page. I'm proud to be part of the team that promotes the shelter animals for adoption, as Chippewa County Animal Shelter just received recognition for their 96% save rate and coming in second out of 60 open admission shelters in Michigan!  We have branched out to listing lost and found pets on the shelter's Facebook page. Community networking via Facebook has been very successful in getting pets back home.  In the last two months life has been extremely busy with promoting a millage election, an adoption special, an adoption fair,  a dog trot fundraiser, and a new collaboration between the shelter and prison for training shelter dogs.  Life is busy, but very good!