Happy Anniversary!

Hubby and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary at Rosa Mexicano. The decor was excellent and the food was delicious!

Autumn on a Horse Farm

If you really want to experience the loveliness of autumn, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place for it than a horse farm. Something about those rolling hills, colorful trees, dark fences, and, of course, beautiful horses.

After being away from the barn for a couple weeks, I was back volunteering at HorseNet Horse Rescue. It was a busy visit! We stacked bales of hay, raked hay scrapes, folded and stowed away horse blankets, and folded tarps. We also picked up piles of pine tree brush in the paddocks and moved it to the pond for burning later. Hauling all of those pine branches and needles smelled like Christmas.

The barn cats, who shadowed us through all of these chores, were a big help.


The barn recently got in a few new horses from a Humane Society seizure earlier this month. With the addition of more horses, there had to be a little shuffling around of paddock mates. One new arrangement was turning out two of the younger horses -- Elsie and Oreo -- out with some of the older, mellow horses.

Elsie, running circles around Cody.

Everyone coming in to say hi.

So far my favorite newbie is Tula. She was there to greet us at the fence and was happy to get lots of scritches.

And dole out some kisses.

Of course, the old horses are still there! Viceroy has a pending adoption, but he was roaming his usual places this weekend.

Giant horse under a little tree.

And who can forget the minis? All three miniature horses are now sharing a paddock together. They all seems to be getting along famously.

Oh, hello!

My favorite horse, Gobie, was moved to the gelding paddock. I'm a little bummed out not to have him closer to the barn, and it actually took me a while to figure out where he was. But it is pretty out in that paddock, for sure.

Welcome to my autumn paradise.

Gobie has loads of company out in the gelding paddock. When I trekked out to visit they were all around round bales eating, except for Gobie who was in the middle noshing on scraps. He looked happy to see me and came right up to say hi.

Looking heroic.

I gave him some good scratches and a couple of treats. He was his usual charming pony self -- checking out my pockets, giving smooches, and trying to eat my keys.

I'm a sucker for a pony muzzle.

Halloween Mail

Today I had so SO MUCH fantastic Halloween mail waiting for me. Not one, but TWO packages. They were sent, independently, from two of my favorite people: my sister, and my aunt.

Package One
Package One was sent by my sister. It actually arrived yesterday, but it was delivered to the office because it was TOO BIG to fit in my mailbox.

Thick, squishy envelope -- I wonder what's in it?

Locksley was super interested in what was in this package. He insisted on being involved in the opening process.

'scuse me, dog!

Inside the package was an envelope and four smaller packages wrapped in excellent halloween-themed tissue paper!

What an adorable group!

Inside each tissue-papered treasure were treats! Since my sister didn't think she'd be getting any trick-or-treaters, she thought she'd give treats to her favorite "kids";) Super cute!

Yum!!

I can't wait to try them all! Some highlights: "cat butt" gum, pumpkin truffles, candy corn saltwater taffy, and sour pumpkins.

Locksley says, "I know these aren't dog treats, but can I have some anyway?" Nope, sorry dog!

Thank you, dear sister!

Package Two
Package Two was sent by my aunt. Earlier this month she had sent a card to my dog for Halloween so I was DELIGHTED to get my own autumnal salutation. Her envelopes are always easily identifiable in the mail. Bright ORANGE! And a great E.A.Poe stamp.

I should note that this envelope was ENCASED in packaging tape. It was great fun getting in to. Although it might look like it, Locksley did NOT help.

Riiiiip!

Inside was a Haunt House Halloween card, WITH STICKERS!

And a mysterious bubble-wrapped package.

...biodegradable bubble-wrap.

Inside the bubble-wrap was a CD of custom-made tunes, perfect for the autumn activity of exploring graveyards.

Complete with headstone cover art.

I can't wait to give it a listen! Since I don't know of any good, old cemeteries in this area to visit I will listen to it while going to visit the horses in New Windsor instead.

Great CD color, too, don't you think?

Thank you, dear aunt!

Jack-o-Lanterns

We made jack-o-lanterns! A bat, a wolf, and (because I'm a giant nerd) the Alley Cat Allies logo. I brought the logo pumpkin to work and the President of the organization took it home :)

Primed for Halloween

HorseNet Fall Festival

This weekend was HorseNet Horse Rescue's Fall Festival. It was held at the Mt. Airy barn which I have never been to -- I volunteer at the New Windsor barn. There were pony rides, t-shirts, raffle, auction and all kinds of yummy good offerings. But the highlight, of course, were the horses.




My favorite horses at this barn were Ben and Jerry -- two "matching" stocky bay ponies. They had their own small paddock with a shelter and were loads of fun.

Jerry -- my favorite of the two.

Ben -- who was a total treat fiend. Here he's streeetching to reach grass.

The two together, coming and going.

There were a few horses hanging out in stalls so you could purchase a cup of carrots and feed them. They were all rather well behaved, and pretty polite about taking treats. They're all available for adoption.

Rey. Young and completely adorable. I was impressed with her manners.

Sahara -- one of several horses seized from a case of neglect. Doing great!

Bo, half blind and a total sweetheart.

Infact, this barn has an entire blind herd! They live in their own private paddock. They all seem to get along quick well despite their limitations. They're permanent residents.

They can be sponsored, here.

The farm also has two miniature horses: Harry and Jake. They're best buddies and are, of course, super cute.



The festival was fun! It did make we wish I was at MY barn, playing with Gobie. But it was nice to be around horses again after not being able to go out for the past couple of weeks.

Dorsia is not a fan

We have a Halloween household, but apparently not everyone is on the same page. To bring a little Halloween cheer, I got a small pumpkin to put in Dorsia's cage.

Cute, right?

If you've ever known a bird you realize they're not super thrilled with novel objects in their cage. They usually snub them for a while before getting anywhere near it. Dorsia snubbed her rope toy for days and day and now it's practically her boyfriend.

This was Dorsia's reaction to the pumpkin:

Hello up there!

She flew out of her cage and on to the deer skull hanging above the porch door. She's since been back in the cage, and while she isn't interested in the pumpkins she's not scared of it either. Maybe in a couple days?

I could take this to mean that Dorsia hates Halloween but I am heartened by the fact that she landed on the skull. That's pretty Halloween, right? She did look rather nice on it. In fact, I half expected her to croak "Nevermore" while she was up there.

There are no ordinary cats

Two weeks ago, my husband's parents were found by a stray cat. They were telling me all about it one day at dinner and almost on cue I heard some imploring meowing from the open kitchen window. There it was -- a bag of bones with the exception of a very round belly. Just what the neighborhood needed -- a pregnant stray cat. The cat was pretty friendly, and it wasn't long before we decided that we should help out this little lost soul.


We made a shelter, gave it some food, and soon the cat was trying to convince us that we really SHOULD let it inside. And since it was going to be raining, with a chance for flooding, and since a raccoon had been harassing the poor thing the night before, the cat won out and moved in to the basement.


Days and days passed and no kittens. The cat was eating more, dutifully used the litter box and was seeming to prove its worth as a good house cat, and not some vagrant free-loader.

We decided it should probably go to the vet so we could determine what was going on. Last night my mother-in-law got an appropriate prophecy in her fortune cookie: "There are no ordinary cats."

We walked in to the Langley Animal Hospital today.

The cat was a trooper about being in the cat carrier and didn't fight to get in it at all.

Though there was LOTS of talking, while inside.

At the animal hospital we talked to the front desk person and told her our story. She offered helpful conjecture:

"It doesn't look actually black - there's white on the belly and patches of brown -- maybe its really a calico."

"It could be part Siamese with the way its face is, and all that talking."

We weighed the cat: 8.6lbs. And we moved into an examination room and waited for the doctor to appear.


The cat was really well behaved and let the doctor look in its mouth, feel its belly, and other routine check ups. We learned some interesting things:

1. the cat ISN'T pregnant! What a relief.
2. the cat is a MALE, and neutered at that.
3. judging from his teeth, he's probably around 8 years old.

Nothing what we expect, but a pleasant surprise! One cat is easier to find a home for than an entire litter.

The doctor suggested we give the cat a full work-up: blood, urine, and fecal analysis, a bath, vaccination, and test for common feline diseases. My in-laws are extremely compassionate people and agreed to foot the bill for all of it.

(heart)

They don't really want a cat and are planning on looking for possible adopters. But, if that doesn't work out it sounds like they're okay with keeping him around. This cat found the right place to come to.