Fearless & Flash Friday 11/27/09

The boys got out and socialized last week. They went to breakfast with Aaron and me, then they went to The Library Bar and Grill for our Girls Lunch Date. Both boys were very good, didn't get into a lot of trouble and won a few friends. It is very important to socialize your pets so they can be good citizens.

Here they are with Aaron and I at Perkins. They checked out my coffee cup and Fearless, being Fearless, thought he might try a bite of Aarons salad.

At the lunch date with the girls, I did allow them a bit of junk food in the form of crackers (bad Mom!), but they also had a taste of some "good" food too. That's my wrap and chips they are after in the photo on the right.

Flash got brave and tried some Franks Red Hot Sauce then needed a drink to cool his little mouth.

They even tried on Cyndi's glasses and smoozed up the owner of the place!

It was a good week, the boys are going to be well rounded, polite and be welcomed most places we go (I hope!)

Hammie Cat

One of Courtneys other projects. This little cat was shy as a kitten. Frosty has begun to hide her babies, and so he did not get picked up and loved on as a tiny baby. When he and his sibs were finally led downstairs by their momma, he was not so sure about people. The shy babies always pull Courtney to them. She spent days sitting in the hay stall where Frosty stashed them, picking him up and snuggling him. Every time she went to the barn, she looked for the kittens and he was the one that she always picked up to hold quietly for a bit. All of that positive reinforcement has paid off, Hammie is now a very social and outgoing cat. He is polite without being a nuisance and you can find him somewhere near Courtney if she is at the barn. When she is not there yet, he will socialize with anyone. Yesterday he sat on the ledge while I picked out my mares stall.
Frosty has her third litter of kittens this year, they are about 3-4 weeks old. Cyndi found them, but Frosty has moved them from that spot. Unfortunately, this batch of kittens doesn't seem to be doing as well as her kittens usually do. The little calico one died yesterday. We heard her crying Monday night, brought her down to clean off her eyes (Frosty's kittens usually don't get goopy eyes) and she was very sick. Frosty wanted nothing to do with her, also very unlike Frosty, and by morning she had passed over the bridge. I hope the rest of them are ok, but have some reservations as my guess is that this kitten had either pneumonia or some other infection and whatever it is, it's probably highly contagious. Though I understand this is the way of life, it's hard for me to see it happen.

Court and Mojo

He is such a special horse. She loves him very much and he loves her right back. When she loves on him, he gets such a soft look on his face. He just stands there till she's done and if he wants more he sticks his nose in her face. That happens more and more frequently.

She's started to treat him like a more seasoned horse than he really is and he is just taking it all in stride. For instance, to dismount tonight, she slid off his butt rather than dismount the way she usually does. He turned and asked "got cookies?". No spooking, no skooching away.....such a trust between them. I don't believe it was that he was hungry either....he had left a stall with a nice pile of hay on his own maybe 30 minutes before to wander out to the arena and look around. I think he just likes her. She does fun things with him, she almost NEVER loses her temper and it's so obvious that she likes him that you almost can't help but see why it is so reciprocated.
For those who follow and/or read my blog. Do you think animals can love each other or people? I think he really loves Court. I know he trusts her, but there is more to it than that. He is more relaxed, happier, more content when she handles him. Perhaps this is anthropomorphism run rampant for me, but honestly...he's a good boy for everyone, he just behaves very different when Court is around.

Macro Monday, 11/23/09 featuring Duncan

My Macro Monday submission. This is Duncan, he is looking out the fence to the rest of the yard while he lays on one of the steps. He is simply gorgeous, model material in a Corgi body. He's big, handsome, kind and sweet. I love my big boy!

as always click for a larger photo

I loved that he had his nose through the fence

Sunday Stills....Horses! 11/22/09

The hardest part of this Sunday Stills Challenge was trying to decide which photos to put up! I have so many photos to choose from but I took all of these new. They are all of my mare Paige and all are taken while I was up on her.

I just love this little horse. She barely qualifies as a horse, she's only 14.2h but there is so much horse packed into that little girl. She's kind, and smart. She's good and just bad enough to make me smile. She's pretty and best of all, she is mine.

Fearless & Flash Friday 11/20/09

Fearless and Flash visit the barn

checking out the saddles

meeting some of the cats
Fearless was worried and protecting Flash!

It's like a jungle gym in the tack room!
Climbing is fun!
Fearless had faith that Flash could do it too
These little guys are so much fun. They don't make much of a mess and they are pretty quiet too!

A duck from Mead Park

One of the colorful group of ducks at Mead Park. As I have mentioned before, there seem to be about 3 groups of ducks that hang together. This group consists of a muted color group, there are the ugly ducks and there are the white ducks. Do ducks see color? Do ducks recognize each other or do they recognize other ducks like themselves? Or is it who they grew up with?

as always, click to enlarge the photo