- Joined
- Feb 19, 2001
- Messages
- 34,872
- Purraise
- 77
Woke up to a pile of kittens jumping on me. Mike has decided to make them a living alarm clock and when he wakes up at 5:00 a.m. he opens the door and they run lickity split into the bedroom and jump on the bed. They learn early where the best place to lay in the house is.
Went upstairs to do litterbox control and found that they have graduated from using the litterboxes with strips of newspapers in them to using the big kids box with big litter. Fergie and Massey and Ash followed me all the way up the stairs. Told Mike later I felt like I had a living carpet underneath my feet.
Turned on the big fans upstairs (supposed to be 98 degrees today) Will sweep and mop the floor later, for now the kittens are downstairs in the living room. I have draped dark blankets over the front window. The heat is oppressive to Fergie and I want her more comfortable than she was yesterday. No air conditioning in this old farmhouse, at least, not yet! The blankets should help.
The Tag Team comes running at food call. All are finally accounted for. Had lost track of two since the 4th of July. Cleo my big manx and Bailey my orange adventurer. I was able to pick up Cleo and check him to see if he was okay, he was, just covered with cockleburs. My but he is a stout cat! He will be 10 years old soon!
Kenai and I went out to see the horses. Let them graze in the pasture for 10 minutes (getting them used to the new grass) Racer and Trav really hate not being able to get into the good stuff all day, but with the founder scare of late, I can't chance it. Put them both in the round pen and fly sprayed them, but their fly masks on and gave them both good scratches. Led them back to the old pasture, gave them their grain/supplement and their hay. Checked their water trough and then we walked down the orchard together. THERE ARE NO CHERRIES! Darn birds! The cherries would of been ripe for picking today, but all the trees are stripped bare. I vow to have the pruner come out in Jan. and prune these massive trees back so we can net them and have cherries.
Neighbor hollers at me over the fence waving buckets at me. I go over and she has filled 4 buckets with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and logan berries. Looks like it's jammin time! I thank her and we catch up on the news of the day. Then I give her some elk and some fresh corn in thanks for the wonderful berries.
Back by the creek now with the horses following. I am doing a fence check to find out why the electric wire is clicking. Find a big old deadfall laying across the wire, and remove it dragging it to the burn pile. As I am moving it, I hear this funny splashing noise? Thinking the horses are probably in the creek, I look......but nope...they are grazing nearby. So I go over to look and there in the middle of the creek is my Kabota kitty! He is up to his belly in the water and doesn't notice me right away. His paw is under the water and he is batting at something I can't see? I just stand there and watch, and soon his head dunks under and he emerges triumphantly with a crawdad in his mouth! And this is the cat I can't give a bath to? I call to him (crawdads can pinch) and he turns to me with this creature wiggling in his mouth growls and darts for the bushes. I am not going to follow him into the blackberry patch, so he is on his own with this trophy. I call back to him and tell him that he better not bring this trophy in the house! Lord have mercy a creek cat, who would of thought? He was coming home in the mornings soaking wet, and I just never thought he was playing in the creek. I figured he had fallen in the water trough or something.
Then it was back in the house to make coffee, spend some time on the computer catching up with friends. I still have to rototill the floor of the round pen, muck out some stalls and clean the cat room. But I need my coffee and my cyber time first, after that the day is young. After all it is only 8:00 in the a.m.
9:00 a.m. Neighbor called and said my one horse is rubbing his head funny. So I went out to check and sure enough, my Mustang Racer has a gummy eye. I halter him and tie him to the hitching post and go about the not so fun business of looking into his eye to see if I can figure out what is going on? Now, he is only 4 years old, has been on a few trail rides with me, but he is not this dead-broke bomb-proof wonderful older horse. He is just now a teenager, and he is dancing his head all over the place not letting me have access to his eyes. Finally I growl at him and tell him to "Knock it off and lower his head!" He knows the command "Put your head down!" And as he lowers it (finally) I glimpse a hair caught in his eye. Boy am I lucky, the light was just right or I would of missed it. Now comes the even more challenging task of rinsing his eye out with clear water. I have had this wonderful horse since he was 6 months old, but even he has his limits, and soon I am drenched and his eye is still gummy! So, it is off to the feed store now for some Calm-N-Quiet (for him not me..*G*) and I will attempt to try and remove this hair when I get back. Gee anybody want to help me try to keep a 1,200 pound teenager with four big feet quiet enough to remove a hair from his eyeball? *G*
Went upstairs to do litterbox control and found that they have graduated from using the litterboxes with strips of newspapers in them to using the big kids box with big litter. Fergie and Massey and Ash followed me all the way up the stairs. Told Mike later I felt like I had a living carpet underneath my feet.
Turned on the big fans upstairs (supposed to be 98 degrees today) Will sweep and mop the floor later, for now the kittens are downstairs in the living room. I have draped dark blankets over the front window. The heat is oppressive to Fergie and I want her more comfortable than she was yesterday. No air conditioning in this old farmhouse, at least, not yet! The blankets should help.
The Tag Team comes running at food call. All are finally accounted for. Had lost track of two since the 4th of July. Cleo my big manx and Bailey my orange adventurer. I was able to pick up Cleo and check him to see if he was okay, he was, just covered with cockleburs. My but he is a stout cat! He will be 10 years old soon!
Kenai and I went out to see the horses. Let them graze in the pasture for 10 minutes (getting them used to the new grass) Racer and Trav really hate not being able to get into the good stuff all day, but with the founder scare of late, I can't chance it. Put them both in the round pen and fly sprayed them, but their fly masks on and gave them both good scratches. Led them back to the old pasture, gave them their grain/supplement and their hay. Checked their water trough and then we walked down the orchard together. THERE ARE NO CHERRIES! Darn birds! The cherries would of been ripe for picking today, but all the trees are stripped bare. I vow to have the pruner come out in Jan. and prune these massive trees back so we can net them and have cherries.
Neighbor hollers at me over the fence waving buckets at me. I go over and she has filled 4 buckets with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and logan berries. Looks like it's jammin time! I thank her and we catch up on the news of the day. Then I give her some elk and some fresh corn in thanks for the wonderful berries.
Back by the creek now with the horses following. I am doing a fence check to find out why the electric wire is clicking. Find a big old deadfall laying across the wire, and remove it dragging it to the burn pile. As I am moving it, I hear this funny splashing noise? Thinking the horses are probably in the creek, I look......but nope...they are grazing nearby. So I go over to look and there in the middle of the creek is my Kabota kitty! He is up to his belly in the water and doesn't notice me right away. His paw is under the water and he is batting at something I can't see? I just stand there and watch, and soon his head dunks under and he emerges triumphantly with a crawdad in his mouth! And this is the cat I can't give a bath to? I call to him (crawdads can pinch) and he turns to me with this creature wiggling in his mouth growls and darts for the bushes. I am not going to follow him into the blackberry patch, so he is on his own with this trophy. I call back to him and tell him that he better not bring this trophy in the house! Lord have mercy a creek cat, who would of thought? He was coming home in the mornings soaking wet, and I just never thought he was playing in the creek. I figured he had fallen in the water trough or something.
Then it was back in the house to make coffee, spend some time on the computer catching up with friends. I still have to rototill the floor of the round pen, muck out some stalls and clean the cat room. But I need my coffee and my cyber time first, after that the day is young. After all it is only 8:00 in the a.m.
9:00 a.m. Neighbor called and said my one horse is rubbing his head funny. So I went out to check and sure enough, my Mustang Racer has a gummy eye. I halter him and tie him to the hitching post and go about the not so fun business of looking into his eye to see if I can figure out what is going on? Now, he is only 4 years old, has been on a few trail rides with me, but he is not this dead-broke bomb-proof wonderful older horse. He is just now a teenager, and he is dancing his head all over the place not letting me have access to his eyes. Finally I growl at him and tell him to "Knock it off and lower his head!" He knows the command "Put your head down!" And as he lowers it (finally) I glimpse a hair caught in his eye. Boy am I lucky, the light was just right or I would of missed it. Now comes the even more challenging task of rinsing his eye out with clear water. I have had this wonderful horse since he was 6 months old, but even he has his limits, and soon I am drenched and his eye is still gummy! So, it is off to the feed store now for some Calm-N-Quiet (for him not me..*G*) and I will attempt to try and remove this hair when I get back. Gee anybody want to help me try to keep a 1,200 pound teenager with four big feet quiet enough to remove a hair from his eyeball? *G*
