I was thrilled to see the roof start to go up on my house. I was so frustrated when I first went over to the garden because I didn’t see any progress, but then I noticed lots of material inside the house in preparation for a major step forward. I just need that roof, the walls, the windows, and the doors, and I can move back in, right?
I did a lot more pruning of plants like the rosemary and the younger plum tree so I can see the old fountain and cleared the metal steps. Watering the plants will hopefully make a huge difference, especially because I have never seen the lemon tree so distressed before. I ended up taking the most stressed small plants back to the rental for some TLC.
I unplugged some of the outdoor items like an Alexa, outdoor lights and the large fountain. I’ll bring the two solar trees to the rental to see if they are working also. One of them flickered on, so that would be a nice win.
I’m still finding random melted metal pieces that I don’t recognize from the “before time,” which might be an artistic touch to the garden at some point. Maybe I’ll make one piece out of several melted pieces.
Here’s a sign that progress is being made: the steps outside of the side yard:
Bonnie and Snoopy share a peaceful moment here while I do some gardening and read Barbra Streisand‘s first book “My Passion For Design.”
It’s a different experience to read that book this time now that I’m rebuilding a home after the fire I had. I’ve also been watching a lot of videos on home rebuilding after a fire just to understand the steps better. It’s heart-wrenching to see so many families go through what I went through, and I’m not even looking for families who lost pets like I did. Once in a while, I’ll hear about such things on the news and people losing their human family too. Shea made a good point the other day. Why do houses still burn? I’d really like to know that answer myself.
Today the Humane Society of the North Bay newsletter had an article on my adoption of Bonnie and her surgery this year after the fire that took the lives of five of my dogs in January. I’ll cross-post it here.
On January 18, 2024, Joseph Hayden’s home (back patio pictured above) was devastated by a fire, resulting in the loss of five beloved rescue dogs of the seven pictured here. Hayden was away helping a neighbor take her two dogs to the vet at the time. Two of Hayden’s dogs survived the fire, including a foster dog that is back with her original family (pictured on the ottoman near his leg) and Snoopy, the black dog with the white chest. Two of the dogs that died were blind. Most of them were seniors. Not getting to say goodbye to these souls that were lost before their time was what made this tragedy all the more devastating to a dog lover and board member of HSNB, on top of the complete devastation to the home.
Hayden could not imagine what the future would bring after this tragedy, particularly as he had only been out of a ten-year relationship for nine days at the time of the fire that left him with seven dogs. As the rebuild takes place, he focused on finding silver linings. During a Zoom board meeting for HSNB, Hayden overheard that there was a “difficult to place” blind dog that had been languishing in the shelter for over a year. He was immediately intrigued, as this seemed like a sign. She was even the same size and approximate color as the two blind dogs he had recently lost, but she was only about six years old and needed many drops a day in her eyes to address her constant pain caused by two types of permanent blindness. She was human-selective, meaning she growled at every stranger unless introduced in a very specific way. The fostering went well, and she immediately bonded with Snoopy, who surely was missing his many lost companions.
Just a few months after fostering and then adopting Bonnie, the recurring ophthalmologist appointments took a daunting turn. Bonnie’s extremely limited eyesight was suddenly no longer there at all. The glaucoma was so bad that she was in constant pain, which the eye drops could no longer manage to stay ahead of, even though they had increased to 22 drops a day over three intervals, together with an oral medication. Unfortunately, it was determined that the only humane way to proceed was to do a bilateral enucleation, which means both eyes should be removed completely. Hayden had experienced this with one eye of a dog he had years prior, so he was familiar with the process, although that dog continued to be able to see with the one remaining eye, even if depth perception was lost. While the cost of the surgery was many thousands of dollars, over time the cost of the customized eye drops and other medications were going to add up as well.
Bonnie had her sutures removed a month after the surgery and is now pain-free and medicine-free. She navigates amazingly well, even up and down the stairs in the rental house, jumps on the furniture, and has a higher quality of life without having to sit for eye drop after eye drop, although she was admittedly very patient with the process because it was probably soothing for her. She gets to do all the fun walks and car rides while using her other senses. Fortunately dogs “smell in color” so she’s living her best life and loving her new family.
Today marks four years since I bought my house and moved to Vallejo during COVID, before the vaccine, and during the fires that made the skies bleak and orange, as you can see in this picture taken at the time!
So much has happened since then, but I have no regrets about moving to this city and community that has been so kind to me. I still love the house I chose, even though it’s in pieces and has months left to be rebuilt since the January fire. I’m looking forward to finally having the housewarming I never got to have, hopefully sometime in 2025.
The temporary home I’m in is where I’m storing the things that I want for my real home under renovation. While this house has a little charm, such as a nice view when we wake up in the mornings with trees and hillsides, I still long for my corner lot and my unique backyard layout. I miss the spots in that backyard I could go to any time of day to bask in the sunlight with strategically placed seating and lots of nap areas, not to mention the hot tub I miss so much. I’m still deciding what furniture I’m going to bring or donate or “stage” for donation in the garage, not to mention repurchasing some of the same items I loved to make me feel like I never lost them. A Turkish lamp, three Tiffany-style lamps, and even the Barbra Streisand barbie-doll I was gifted are examples of things I try to convince myself were the same ones in pictures from before the fire. There’s something to be said about mass production when it comes to nostalgia. This brown glider chair is another example. It looks so much like the one I previously had, and gliders are so much safer when you have dogs with tails, but especially BLIND dogs with tails. Not only did I get this brown glider for inside, but the blue outdoor couch I just put together is also a glider itself, so tail and blind dog safe!
Shea and I brought a few things back from the ruins of my garden which we tended to a bit yesterday. I had a sudden inspiration to try to resurrect a few more items. I think I can bring this plant back to life, and some of these other items can simply be washed, including this vase from Spain that my family had since the mid-1970’s. I’ll always be able to point to these items (among the less than 1% of things that I used to have) and say that they were among the few things that I had in the “before time.”
Clippings from this plant, which is more of an indoor plant that I had in a covered patio area, have been propagated by me several times, so it will be a big win if I can resurrect it from the dead when it’s been subject to the fire and exposed to the outside for over eight months. Some of the clippings were in my home office that perished.
The contractor suggested I periodically stop by and work on my garden which was great advice. Rather than feeling sorry for myself for not getting home sooner, it’s nice to stop by the house and make some concrete changes that will help my garden to be ready for me incrementally. Shea helped me water the plants while I cleaned up a lot of the materials and did some serious pruning to be able to see some of the garden features and release the windmill from the newly grown bamboo and other overgrown plants. Snoopy and Bonnie were happy to chill out while we worked back there. I found it very therapeutic.
About 7 am there was a fire in a boat at Glen Cove Marina as we were getting ready to go out with the whaleboats. People were asleep inside, but fortunately, the battery that caught fire did not hurt anyone as far as we could tell in the end. The couple in the boat only bought it a few months ago. I don’t know what damage was done, but I’m glad we were up and rowing nearby to smell and see the smoke. The fire truck arrived after we called 9-1-1. Solano Rowing Club saves the day!
This was my first chance to show my daughter the damage from the fire in January. Only Snoopy joined us because Bonnie was convalescing after surgery.