June 11, 2001 ~ Money in the mail
Sometimes things just seem to work out. Funny how that happens. Months ago, I went down to the local USDA office and filled out all the paperwork for last year's livestock disaster assistance program. Oh, you didn't know we had a disaster? Don't worry, most folks didn't. So you aren't alone. Last year we had a nasty little drought here. Just like the year before that, as well as the year before THAT one. So droughts are getting to be an almost regular, to-be-expected thing. Not that we ever get used to them... but we do seem to manage somehow. Those of us who stay in business, anyway. We only have a few cows and a few horses and we used to raise hay, back before the drought killed the grass in the hay meadow in '98. Drought has also killed the grass every time we've reseeded since then. Anyway. (Got sidetracked, didn't I?) ANYway, as I was starting to say, I filled out all the papers for the disaster assistance program, and promptly forgot about it. Might as well. It's never much money, never covers even a fraction of what we lose, but it IS nice, don't get me wrong. I mean, it's free money. It's there, available, whether you ask for it or not, so you might as well take it. I guess.
The payment notice arrived in today's mail. The money was directly deposited to our bank account. So convenient. And the amount... well, that's the funny part. It's just enough to pay for Sam's vet bill. I'd been wondering how we were going to pay that. Oh, the dogs' people promised they would pay it, and I want to believe that they will. I'll be happily surprised if they do. But these are the same people who left these dogs here to begin with, who abandoned them at a vacant home and thought that was really an acceptable thing to do. These are the same people who, when told what the dogs had done to my cat... these folks called someone who came and picked the dogs up, and apparently dumped them off somewhere far away. About a two-days' walk, by my estimate, because that's how long it took the dogs to get back here. Nice, huh? Do YOU think they'll pay the vet bill? No? Well, I guess anything's possible, isn't it. But today I went ahead and wrote the check to the vet, just in case. Before I had the chance to spend that little "windfall" on anything else.
Funny how things work out, isn't it?
All rights reserved
_______________________________