And it sounds like you could use a little rest too. You've waited this long for Valor, wait until Friday even as much as you want him. Can you lay down with some heat for your hip? It always helped mine to get all weight off of it, heat more helpful than ice.

My hearing is perfectly fine, but I have real trouble with the customer service persons in India. I think it's partly the accent, partly the connection, but I struggle, straining to follow the conversation in just that one circumstance only.

I get the frustration with your payment problems, with mixed feelings because I know the card companies can be trying to protect us...or, where they don't make us pay for unauthorized purchases, maybe its themselves they are trying to protect but I've had calls on a weekend twice now over the years about charges being made to my card that were not in my usual spending pattern Both times it was someone with my number somehow and charging really strange purchases to my account...airline tickets in New Jersey (I'm in Washington, and not DC), taxi rides in Texas, escort services in Russia...

I wish you'd had some help with the animals tonight. I've driven into the driveway tired to guests I wasn't expecting (parked in my way) - never feral hogs! Your life is more interesting than mine ;0 Please clean up a little, get some rest, make Jody help tomorrow night so you are fresh for Valor on Friday. You want to make a good first impression on that boy, hopefully you'll have him a very long time. (((((((( hugs)))))

What a day! I hope you rest well tonight so you are ready for tomorrow.

What a stressful day! I hope you sleep well tonight and the animals are all cooperative. I'm sorry, but your description of the animals was actually quite funny and I did chuckle.

I will keep Valor as long as he lives. Hopefully, he won't outlive me. I have one horse though, that is 29, and going strong.

I would like to have sent Valor to the quarantine....that way someone else would have picked him up. I hate to go and see all those horses there. They have around 300 horses there at all times.

God Almighty Marilyn......Murphys Law.

Marilyn, you could use a good long soak in a warm bubble bath by candlelight and a cold glass of wine nearby. :-) Trying days like you've experienced today only make the good days more enjoyable. Sleep well and good luck Friday.

Rosie

Good gosh, i couldnt help but to chuckle a time or two but it sure isn't funny when it's happening! I can imagine all the animals going bonkers to be fed. Have a peaceful day, Marilyn. You deserve it!

What a d@mn day! Your love for animals is admirable to say the least. I hope you sleep well. As a matter of fact, I hope you're STILL sleeping right now.

Hopefully your hip is feeling better this morning. Can you take anything for it, Advil, Motrin.....?

Valor is one lucky horse. Can't wait to see pictures. Good luck!

I don't know what to say. I wish you were cloned.

Like the others, I couldn't help but smile when I pictured all of your menagerie anxious and wanting to be fed. 15 feral pigs?? If they were pygmies that would be just adorable but hogs are huge! :-)

Marilyn

I'd love to see you on TV as an ambassador for saving horses. You are so beautiful inside and out, and so are your critters.

Ellen

Bless you for saving Valor. It will all be worth it, and maybe you can get a chuckle out of all the shenanigans when things settle down!

My blood pressure went up just reading that. I was about to send the kill place $900, too, because I know I'd get it back from you. ;)

What a day! I hope today is better. Whew.

Oh goodness! What a day and so much stress. I hope that today is calmer and that your hip feels better. Valor will be with you on Friday, hooray!

I think that Indian people actually speak English with different inflections in their pronunciation and they are high pitched and talk too fast. Impossible to understand especially when you are in an 'urgent' frame of mind. I hope that you don't have to call customer service again for a long , long time.

I appreciate that you are a savior of the wild animals out there, but feral pigs are dangerous! Did you at least have a weapon in case you got charged by them?

Dang cats care about nothing aside from the rattle of the kibble in their dish or some petting when they are in the mood for it. They sure don't make good listeners :-)

Bless your heart!! What a day, but the light at the end of the tunnel is Valor is coming home-yea!!

Omg--what a stressful day! And Anderson Cooper in the middle of it all!!

Glad to hear it worked out, although the hip pain sucks! I only have to deal with two yowling cats, a dancing water buffalo, and a snorting rhinoceros at dinner time and I think THAT is crazy lol!

Dances.

Hope that everything is calm for you today and tomorrow and that Valor gets home without a hitch.

Haha. Anderson Cooper is in the middle of everything!

Wow! Glad it turned out ok in the end and everyone got fed and you'll get your horse!

I hate dealing with out of the country customer service reps. Last one was thru AT&T and I couldn't understand half of what she was trying to tell me.

I'm so glad you survived the day! You need to spend today pampering yourself. Valor is certainly a very lucky horse to have you as his guardian angel. God bless you, dear lady, for your kind and loving heart.

Hope it's better going forward.

I didn't mention that I sent about five texts to the kill pen guy because I couldn't believe my efforts to pay kept being rejected. He didn't respond to most of them and I was thinking about how many crazy people he has to deal with every day. Then I thought this is a guy who is comfortable sending horses to a horrible death all the time. He doesn't care about an old woman trying to save one. Turns out he wasn't home. I just was tired and frustrated, and thinking about all my animals at home and trying to feed them all in the dark.

The feral hogs aren't mean....an aggravation, yes. I seii them. I train them to load in the stock trailer. I never intended to be a hog farmer but they were here and it has been a never ending saga. The boar is huge...probably close to 700 lb. He is too big to breed now, and he is a pet, so I hope when these last ones go, that will be the end of it. I say "pet"... I don't pet him and he is skittish but I like him. That's Pig Newton. The two sows... One wild (Delores) and one tame (Pig Lee) and Jody thinks we are going to sell them, but we aren't. Pig Lee trusts me....I won't betray her trust and Pig Delores is getting old and can stay. If Newt can't get them pregnant any more, I don't see why those 3 can't stay. Believe me...they aren't leaving. I don't care what Jody thinks.

Marilyn. you certainly have earned your wings.

Marilyn, I am in awe of you!!! I agree with poster above, you have earned your wings. what a kind, loving and beautiful person you are! I would love to have you for a friend. God bless you and the lucky animals.

You always go "above and beyond the call of duty" when it comes to God's animals, Marilyn and I am so glad you do. As many others have stated, you are beautiful inside and out, and I am thankful for people like you. Give Valor some loving from all of us once you get him home. Will Jody be able to take care of all of the animals once you have and are recuperating from hip surgery?

Yes, he can take care of them. He did it when I had my knee replaced. The Dr forbid me to even go to the barn for a period of time. I think it was 6 weeks. Jody needs knee surgery too but has to put it off until I get mine done. I would like to put mine off for awhile. It depends on what the MRI shows.

You deserve a medal and as many pigs as you want!!! Glad you got through your day of h3ll. Lucky Valor to have you!

Too bad you don't have someone besides Jody to pet sit even in a pinch on one of "those days".

DH always calls the bank before he makes a larger purchase. He gladly pays the fees without complaint if it's over the daily amount. He says he'd prefer to pay the fees to use the PayPal or debit as credit card bills are too easily overlooked in stressful times.

Some mornings when all six of my indoors pets clammer for food the minute I get up, I feel overwhelmed for a brief time. You put me to shame. It's a thankless job you do but so remarkable and makes such a difference in the lives of your pets. God bless you for your good deeds. You can always judge a person by the way the animals are treated .

By the way, it makes me nauseous to think of horses going to slaughter. Something needs to be done.

((((((HUGS, Marilyn))))))).....

Oh marilyn, I'm so thankful that people like you exist and do what you do for the animals. You are a great advocate for their care and protection.

Lily, I don't like horse slaughter either, but it will never end. Something was done...it was made illegal in the US and then horses were sent to Mexico and Canada. As long as there is a market for it, it will exist. I wish it would be brought back to the US and strictly regulated and over seen. I wish people would stop breeding....ain't going to happen. I wish people would see their animals as a life time commitment...that won't happen either. I see people all the time on FB and even Craig's List...looking for a horse that they usually gave away for free to a "good home" and then the horse came up missing and the person they gave it to won't tell what happened. No one will love your old animals like you do. I will put mine down before I will sell them or give them away. I don't trust anyone to take care of them. I read on FB recently where someone was saying they were going to have to put their old horse down, and people actually came on and said, "don't do that...you can give him away. Someone will take him." Yeah...someone will take him to an auction and dump him. I think if you have an animal, you have an obligation to them to be able to make the hard decisions.

I can't have anyone take care of my animals so I can go somewhere because it is too much for most people. I don't mind. I would rather stay home now than go anywhere anyway.

Today wasn't much better than yesterday. I went to the bank to draw out money to replace that $900 in cash....and found out, it had been debited from my account. So, the horse was paid for twice. I am really ticked off about it because both cards declined and then both cards paid. I have got to get hold of him and see if he will issue a refund. I am sure he will. He makes a fortune off these old, poor horses that he extorts money for from bleeding hearts like me. I need to call Visa again but I was busy all day and not up for another conversation with someone from India that I can't make out half of what she says.

Jody came home and we worked all day, getting ready to go tomorrow. He was bound and determined that we were going to leave at 3 a.m. He had to fix the lights on the trailer....and that took forever. The dogs had chewed the wires. I had so much to do but he had me standing behind the trailer to tell him if this light, or that one was working. Or to step on the brake or turn on the blinkers. He needed to change the oil in the truck....didn't get to it. I needed to wash the floor mats in the trailer and by the time we got to that, it was dark. He finally said we would just get up and go when we get up in the morning. Thank God for that! I feel like I've been hit by a truck!

Sounds like your on your way to pick up Valor in the morning. I'll look for your post when you get back. Be well Marilyn!

Getting off to a flying stop this morning. Dead battery in the truck. All that dickering with the lights yesterday. And the neighbor down the road who calls us all the time to help him, didn't even come to the door. Jody let his deckhand use his truck and she was complaining when he asked her to come give us a jump so he hung up on her and she has called back a dozen times but he won't answer. Oh, yeah....this is going to be a great day. And it is colder than heck and to be in 20's tonight and colder where Valor is.

Rats. You need a string of really good days, Marilyn!! Will you be able to go today?

Well, darn. I hope things are resolved and you're on your way by now...I don't think I saw where you said how long of a trip. It doesn't help a lot when our 'guys' aren't in cooperative moods either, but you've lived with yours a long time and you already knew that ;0) I hope the weather holds for you, it's cold here too. Unusually cold for us. Let us know when you have Valor there and under that new blanket, fed. I have fingers crossed you don't find him too thin from the photos of his earlier shape....Let us know.

Heading home. It took about 4 hrs to get here. It was 12:30 when we left. I wanted to take a picture but it was so cold and had been sleeting. Val looks bad....very skinny and snotty. He was shivering. I have a nice warm blanket on him. I have 5 bags of shavings to go in his stall when we get home. I will take pictures tomorrow. I will have him looking good before very long

You said the vet had seen him, did he check out the snotty? Poor baby, I know you'll have him warm and eating soon. Safe trip!

Very happy that you finally have Val in your possession. That horse hasn't been lucky, but he will be from now on, now that he is in your gentle and caring hands. You sure had a lot of trials and tribulations to get him. What a journey. I wish you and Val nothing but the best from now on. You both deserve an easy road together. Happy trails.

The vet gave him a long acting antibiotic and a B12 shot. I will consult with my vet on Monday.

I bet the 'before and after' pictures of Valor will be amazing.