Siren Song

No pix o' Sammy today - I got sucked into the siren song of the barn last night. Monday is my night to clean stalls and I like to take Rosso along. I figure it's a good reminder for him about loading and backing out of a trailer and standing politely tied for a couple hours with stuff going on.

There were 5 dogs running back and forth in the alley way, a strange horse there for riding, cars pulling in, people around, poop carts rolling past, horses whinnying for their supper....one mare at the end is squealing, kicking, grunting and pissed at the stall occupant to the right... random yells to tell her to knock it off, dogs barking....

When I pulled in, I noticed this woman, T, from Divide CO was there with her horse and there was all this banging and clanging and commotion coming from the barn alleyway.

I walked around the front of our truck and poked my head over to see if my help was needed, T didn't seem to be in any distress so I unloaded Rosso and walked into the barn to tie him, right next to where the commotion is.

New Moon's stall. She was banging her empty water bucket with a LOT of enthusiasm. Who knew an empty water bucket could make THAT much noise. Hoo-eee. (Her automatic waterer is blocked because she is a hay dunker and it's been causing lots of problems, now she has a hanging water bucket).

She was clearly asking - no - demanding water from T and getting louder and louder about her request.

T had no way of knowing Moon's waterer was blocked off however and wasn't responding to Moon's communication attempt. I had to laugh (on the inside) it's like Moon was trying to talk to someone that doesn't speak the language and just kept getting louder.

We've all seen it. Someone non-English speaking and the person trying to convey a message in English talks louder and slower as if by sheer volume of voice and annunciation the non-English speaker will understand.

I filled Moon's bucket with water. She didn't give me a chance to get in the stall before sticking her head in and getting a big drink. Looks like she'll be getting an add'l water bucket in her stall from now on.

Talk about interspecies communication.....

Bequia's DNA results

Ta - da!

Bequia is 37-74% Dachshund!

The rest of her breed profile includes 10-19% of the following:
Collie, Greyhound, Scottish Terrier

And to round out the group, she is less than 10% Border Collie.

Furry was like - this is bullsh*%^.... he doesn't believe it.

DNA is weird - could show up infinite ways and like the NPR articles, there could be some random breeds tossed in there. But it gets us in the ball park of things to see in our beloved "widdle dawg" (said in a thick NJ accent). Yeah, I talk to her in a NJ accent and ask her where she parked the car, if she has a quarter and if she wants to join me for some coffee talk....

I can see the Collie...mebbe a smooth merle coat? and of course Border Collie.... the terrier and the dachshund are sort of out there....but she is pretty deep chested with a small waist and hips... so who knows? Could that be Greyhound?

Odd that Dachshund turned out to be the BIGGEST indicator. ?? Now we are calling her our "little dachsund" or our doxie mix. grin. Anyway - good, clean, scientific fun....

Next up we'll do Sammy.... pix of him tomorrow.....

DNA part 1

Happy Halloween! Isn't DNA a little scary?

K - mebbe that is a stretch...

I bought a couple canine DNA tests for Furry Husband. He'd been wondering out loud what Sammy's breeding might be. Figured it'd be interesting and fun to see. I purchased one test for each of our two mix breed dogs...

NPR did a couple stories about the canine DNA tests....

Read part one first:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127484075

And the follow up ending to the story here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127563468&sc=fb&cc=fp

In the above story, there were a couple extra dog breeds thrown in along with the two the dog turned out to be. Blood testing is more accurate than the cheek cell test. The cheek cell test seems to get you into the ballpark of breeds your dog might be with a couple random breeds accidentally thrown in.

We had the cheek cell test.

This is Bequia (pronounced beck-way). She is our 12 yr old mix breed dog we picked up at a Denver animal shelter 11 yrs ago... we've always called her our cattle dog mix and figured there was some border collie in there. She's a medium size dog... prolly about 45lbs.

She goes after tennis balls all day long like those high energy herding breeds will do... she tries to herd the horses through the fence...seems to be a strong herding instinct going on there. In fact, sometimes Sera will paw at our gate when we are being too slow about feeding.

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The tip of her hoof sticks thru the gate (don't worry, it's not big enough for her hoof to come thru). Bequia will latch on to the tip of Sera's hoof with her mouth ... mad that Sera is not listening to her herding instructions and moving along as instructed. Of course Sera can't feel a thing and there is definately no damage to the hoof or to Bequia in those few seconds.

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Or Bequia will snap with a click click click of her jaws at any horse sticking it's head over the fence not listening to her imperious command to move already. She doesn't connect or jump up to attach to a nose... she is just doing what I've always thought of as herding behaviors....trying to intimidate large livestock ... she isn't formally trained in anything other than basic obedience. No herding trials or anything like that.

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She is super smart and learns almost by osmosis. She loves retrieving and will fetch anything... the morning paper, the t.v. remote, if I drop a pen I can tell her to bring it to me and she will. I can give her something, Furry Husband will call her and she personally delivers whatever it is. She absolutely adores children and always has....which is no fault of ours since we don't have any. grin. I figured she must have come from a family with children before we adopted her.

What do you think Bequia's DNA results were?

Snow and Mojo update

So far Mojo is normal, eating, peeing and extremely happy. So happy in fact that he keeps waking us up at 3 AM to tell us how happy he is... walking over the top of our heads.... head butting Furry's chin... purring loudly.

We are happy too.... but ... well... the 3 AM thing is getting a little old Mojo! Anyway, the powers we spoke with say as long as he is acting normal and peeing and eating all is well. Shew.

Let's hope it KEEPS going well.

Last night was my night for stall cleaning. We have 40mph winds with gusts up to 50mph because of a storm hitting the CO mountains.

I like to take Rosso with me and I wasn't gonna take him but figured, it's good to get him out and about in ALL kinds of weather and to experience all the sounds of wind from the barn... scree and branches and lord knows what getting blown against the metal walls.... wind screeching in cracks, the building moaning and groaning as it withstands the buffets of wind...

I get Rosso loaded up, pull the truck and trailer out... as I shut the gate once we are out of the front pasture, there is this wall of white at the far end of the neighbor's alfalfa field across the road.

Weird. Must be clouds or fog or something....

I begin driving and it was like the movies when the people are escaping from something and they look in the rear view mirror... all of a sudden there was snow - white out snow - all over the road behind me... clear in front of me but it was following me up the road!

Got to Rex's, unloaded Rosso and tied him up in the barn and then the snow hit... 40mph wind and white out snow swirling everywhere. True blizzard conditions! I thought I was hosed for going home. It is hard enough to see at night for pulling into our driveway and pasture with the truck and trailer.... but in white out conditions at night and in snow that might be slippery? I'd be screwed.

I had 2 hrs ahead of me cleaning stalls so figured I would just see what happened.... by the time I was done cleaning, the snow stopped, was mostly melted 'cept for in patches here and there and the wind had died down. Shew!

And Rosso stood hind leg cocked the entire time...

Hmmmm. What is it I keep hearing in clinics? You have to ride the horse you have. Or how about ... you can't treat the horse like a criminal when he's not acting like a criminal.

Good theory to put into practice for myself vs. thinking 'bout prior incidents eh? Why do you suppose it's so hard to be in the right here, right now moments?

Things have moved past the threes....

'Member how our vacuum broke...then the fence went out... then our fridge broke? We were all hoping it was a case of "things happen in three's".

Well.

It was not to be.

Our giant, black kitty, Mojo was weird Thursday night. He went to the vet Friday and it was discovered he has urinary blockage... he was catheterized. He dislodged the catheter, when the vet tried to replace it a tear occurred in his urethra.

Well - the tear can heal on itself shutting off the ability to pee. That would be a life ender for the big fella. There is a small chance that may not happen.

She tried one last ditch effort to get the catheter back in place to prevent it from healing closed. If the tear could heal with the catheter in place, things will stay open ... no dice... too much blockage lining the urethra.

There is a surgery that can be done to make he into a she.

It's thousands of dollars and we just can't do it.

We brought him home and we are watching him. We are hoping he will be o.k. He's on some drugs, antibiotics... special food.

Never was a cat so happy to be home.

When Furry Husband went to pick him up at the clinic, Mojo kept head butting Furry's chin and licking his nose and face. The vet said she'd never seen such a thing... that Mojo must think he's a dog. That is what we've always thought too. Mojo goes out with the dogs and comes in with the dogs... lays around with the dogs.... I'm sure he thinks he's a dog.

There might be ... maybe... fingers crossed ... an inexpensive way to get him re-catheterized to prevent things from sealing shut. We are keeping our fingers crossed and should find out more tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted... send good thoughts to our big, black Mojo kitty.

Itty Bitty

This morning I went out to turn horses out into pasture, I had cut up a couple apples to give them (someone gave us this big bag of apples but they aren't crisp, they are mushy and so they are now horse apples and I'm trying to get rid of them! I can't eat mushy apples... gag)

Noticed Itty Bitty Opal Kitty and the dogs gathered around her. I move the dogs away. Lo and behold she has a mouse, it's dead and she's trying to eat it.

I tell the dogs to leave it but Toe is notorious for stealing dead voles/mice from the cats. sigh. I go to the horse pen - feed the horses the apples, turn them out... I see Bequia and Sammy thru the fence line and know they aren't trying to steal the mouse... but Toe is nowhere to be seen and I think he is eating dead mouse... grumble grumble....

I come back into the yard.... Toe is running up ahead on the path, Itty Bitty is licking her chops and following me with the dogs to the door... hmmm, maybe Toe didn't get it and Itty Bitty ate it after all?

I let everyone in, Toe runs to the bed, jumps up on it, circles to find a good spot. I say, "You better not have anything..."

*ptooie* (Dead mouse flies out of his mouth onto our bed.)

Innocent look. blink. blink. "Wha? Heyyyyyy, how'd that get here? Didinna come from my mouth!"

TD pix and hula hoops

Group pix of everyone who passed the tracking test... Here is me with the Little Toe-ster along with the 2 judges and the woman who put in the track for us that day.

And... the really, BIG, EXCITING news?

I hula'd!

I asked for a hula hoop and a jump rope for my birthday. Wanted to move more but have fun and play a bit while doing it. I've never ever been able to hula in my entire life. Never.

I have to admit I Google'd "how to hula hoop".... I learned it was more of a side to side motion vs. an around around motion with your hips - other than that, the site told me to practice and good luck.

I pulled my hula out last night to practice.... and I did it! I hula'd!

I was able to keep it going and once I stopped, I could start it up again! Furry was chuckling cuz I couldn't put the hula down...

I was a hula hoopin' fool last night....

Maybe today I look up jump rope rhymes and jump rope tricks. Will they come back to me from my grade school days?