Cute with a side of Fluffy

April 10th BF and I went and got a puppy!! I had seen him online and it said he was at an animal shelter "San Diego Animal Rescue" I called and made arrangements to go see him. The place is about 30-45mins from us but meh I'm not scared of a drive. We pull up to a house...if you can call it that. It was more of a shack that should have been condemned. The pup was sitting on the driveway in a small pen with an igloo shelter for coverage. There were about 6 cats just wandering around, and another inside the pen with him. I could hear at least 5 different barks coming from behind the big wooden fence and the SMELL oh my the smell. It was awful! Checked over the pup and he was in decent condition, didn't look like he had anything really wrong with him except a few extra teeth. Good personality, very alert and sweet around BF and I. He would cower to the point of being on the ground to the caretakers though. I met 3 human adults while we were there and it looked like they had one whole set of teeth between them. Once we brought him home I did a little research on this "Shelter" and found out that the founder and owner has a police record. In 1998 she was convicted of animal hoarding and cruelty via starvation. The next day I contacted the proper people and let them know where and what I had seen. Who knows what will happen now, but at least I feel like I did something.

It took us 3 whole days to pick out a name for him. I wanted something strong or ironic. Rommel (since he looks like a little fox) or something Irish to match his red hair. BF was rooting for Mars or something Greek. We finally agreed on Argos, as in Jason and the Argonauts.

I took him to the MY vet asap and got his rabies shot and set up an appointment to get him fixed, teeth pulled and microchipped. Doc said that over all pup looked good but still gave him a strong dewormer. Which was good because I knew he couldn't have come out of that place scot-free. Now he is all good though.

 That sunday I was sitting in the backyard reading while Argos explored and all of a sudden he had a sneezing fit. Not just 3 or 4 sneezes it went on for about 20 mins straight. When I could finally get a look at him I could see his little nose was bleeding. So off the the emergency vet we went.

You can hear BF in the background making fun of me for recording this but it really is super cute. Even the nurse asked if I had gotten one of his fits on video.
They were super nice and not too too expensive THANK GOD BF helped me with the bill though. They say it is pretty common out in this area for dogs to get a grass called Foxtail in sensitive areas. This one just happened to be up his nose. So they put him under and went up there to fish it out. About 30mins later we got a very groggy Argos back. Next day he was good as new.

Since his first vet visit though his belly has been upset. After a few days of solid dog food going in and nothing but liquid going out I called the vet again to get advice. Now I get to be Argos' gourmet chef 4 times a day. Little punk is spoiled!! Pumpkin, cottage cheese and white rice. Guess I need to hunt for a good dog food for the little guy. But we have defiantly seen a HUGE improvement since I swiched his food. When we first got him the "shelter" had him on purena puppy which he wouldn't eat at all. I gave him some beneiful and he would eat a little but not much. Now he sits at his bowl and whines if his meal is 10mins late, then licks everything including the smell off. I would say he is doing much better.
Next week is his big appointment at the vet May 7th. Wonder if he will still love me the same after that. LOL

I am already making him in to a GeoPup too. We went out on friday to hike Mission Trails down in central SD. I made it about 4miles according to gps and found 7 caches. Argos kept up mostly. Since he is little I did carry him through some of the heavy brush and by the end he was exhausted. We both took a nap once we got home but no worse for wear. I think he liked getting out and sniffing all the nature.

That is all my excitement, at least all I want to bore you with for now.

OHHHH shiny stuff!

This weekend we went to the Oceanview Mine in Pala Ca. It was a blast!! Back in the early 1900's or so a gem called Pink Tourmaline was found in the area. The then Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi of China loved pink tourmaline and bought large quantities for gemstones and carvings. And that is how San Diego county became the hub for pink tourmaline. 

Fast forward to now and 95% of the mines in this area have shut down, if not totally then to the public. However the Oceanview Mine still lets the public come and sift through the trash pile. This is how it works....During the week they blast in the actual mine and do the money making thing. Then they take all the trash and rubble push it into a pile for the tourists to sift through on the weekend. You pay $60 a person and drive WAYYYY out to BFE, follow these tiny signs on to private property, turn off the paved road and then a lady in a ATV meets you to take your $ and release forms (It is No-Fun-Afornia so there HAS to be legal stuff) Then you drive up the mountain to the circle of stations and the pile. 

We had a great time and will be going again. I would highly recommend adding this to your list of adventures in the SD area if you are out here. Reservations are a little shady but take my word for it TOTALLY LEGIT. SUPER FUN!!

They actually have a really nice set up not to mention the view. One of the miner guys says they can handle about 71 tourists at a time. 71 x $60 = A pretty decent profit for cleaning out the trash and baby sitting tourists. Anyway all the stations come with 2 screens a larger grated one and a smaller one, toothbrush, trowel, bucket, and water bin. All this is propped up on a table with the top cut out so all the dirt and junk can be thrown right underneath.

Right at 11am the heard all the people around and give us a little tutorial on how to do this the most efficient way and the rules of the pile. Lead guy says "You only need 15 secs at most at the pile. I don't want to become the pile nazi but I will if I have to. DO NOT pick at the pile, take your bucket scoop and go." Since I can't lift a full bucket roomie and BF we nice enough to bring me my allotments. In return I would clean out the water bin. This is something else they were VERY clear on. Because if you don't clean your water after every 2-3 screens it will turn to cement-ish gunk and break the watertub. 

Away we went! Bucket dumped in to screen one,which is stacked on screen two. Pull all the giant pieces and wash them toss underneath if they are junk place on ledge if they are keepers. Shake all dirt and small pieces so they fall on to screen two, dunk in water and wash everything off. Once you pick through screen one repeat process with screen two. We did this for two hours and then took lunch.

You have to bring everything with you, food water, hat sunscreen ect. (Remember to bring dish gloves, our hands are TORN up!)  We stopped at the store and got sandwiches. I think they were planning on sharing with EVERYONE on the mountain. Some people brought beer we will plan better next time.

We didn't leave till they kicked us out at 4pm. Other people started straggling out at about 2 but we were in it  till the end. This is a HUNK of Green Tourmaline that BF found. They say that 1/5 of it can be cut into a setting. He might just keep it as a pretty paper weight though. 

This is what made these mines famous. Pink Tourmaline!! This is a gem quality piece that Roomie found. They were all oohing over it at the mine. Very very nice find.

Other random semi-important finds: Watermelon Tourmaline (Green rind with pink inner) Kunzinte (glass looking stuff lower left) Aqua Marine (Upper left)

Till next time.....