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.

Hocus Pocus Night

This evening a few friends and I had a Hocus Pocus Night. Think of it as a Halloween pre-game. It all came about because we were reminiscing about a childhood Halloween movie favorite: Hocus Pocus.

We decided on my house for the venue (it looks like Halloween year-round I'm told) and we quickly whipped up some extra decorations from the Halloween storage bin, and concocted some delicious Halloween dinner.



Locksley helped decorate.



The table was set!



Dinner included: roasted pumpkin and shallots, wild rice, pumpernickle bread with goat cheese, spinach salad with pumpkin seed oil and apple cider vinegar dressing.



And wine, of course. Plus pumpkin beer and hard cider.



And for desert: spice cake with buttercream frosting.

The company was excellent, the food was delicious, the mood was seasonal and the movie was everything I remembered it to be.

My Favorite Creeps

I've been on a bit of a German Expressionism kick lately. It's aesthetically pleasing to me -- something about high contrast black and white, crazy angles, severe brush strokes and over all creepiness of it.

Visually speaking, I'm rather fond of two German actors in particular: Conrad Veidt and Max Schreck.

Conrad Veidt

Aw, handsome right?

young veidt


mature veidt

How about that hair, right? Nothing says sophisticated like white on the sides. And then there's the long nose and those super dark eyes. Angles and contrast, friends! Dear Veidt was in two pretty excellent films:

The Man Who Laughs

That grin! Holy god.

And The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari


Watch the full-length film, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari:


Max Schreck

No, not THIS Max Schreck:


THIS Max Schreck:


He has been described as being "pointy" and "rat-like". And it's true. But it's the best kind of pointy and rat-like. This is my favorite photo of him -- the fixed gaze, dark around the eyes, pencil thin pursed lips, pointy ears, equally pointy eyebrows and... of course... a widow's peak.

You're probably familiar with at least one of his movies: Nosferatu.


Oh hi, Max!

I am so entertained by Max Schreck, that I made some t-shirts. In an era of lame vampires, his seminal depiction of the undead is refreshing.

Watch the full-length film, Nosferatu:

GWAR

We went to see GWAR this weekend. And because it's tradition, we brought an unwitting victim who has never seen GWAR live before along for the ride. (Apologies to Molly.)

Pre-GWAR, with my Max Schreck shirt. You're SUPPOSED to wear white, but I don't have any white t-shirts.

Molly's first "blood spatter".

Sam, looking a little green!

The floor, after the show. We were standing by that black pillar.

Molly. Even her pupils are red!

Me, looking like some weird barf rainbow.

The dog was not amused by our face paint, or our late night interruption.