Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Sad Beginning, Happy Ending

As I was feeding horses on Friday afternoon I did a double take when I saw not one, but two, black dogs standing by one of the run-in sheds. I became quite concerned when I watched this clearly elderly dog walk in a very disoriented manner, with a very crippled gait, to the point where the literally walked into a fence twice. I went into the barn, grabbed a leadrope, and got her into Igor's air conditioned office.

My sympathy for this sweet, old dog continued to grow as she drank the water I offered to her like she had just crossed the Sahara desert. She scarfed down the food I gave her an hour later. As I was tending to this sweet old gal I texted a picture to Jason of Ewen and our poor stray dog. I sent it with the caption, "apparently we have two dogs now." As a reminder, Ewen showed up two years ago in late August, 2015.

Our sad visitor had a collar but no ID, so Jason got in the truck and started driving around and knocking on our doors. We only have two neighbors in walking distance, and they are still quite a hike away. No one knew who our visitor was. We began posting on social media, posting on lost and found groups, and generally putting the word out to as many people as we could reach that we had a lost dog. Still there were no takers.

In the meantime we used one of my longe lines to contain our visitor to the barn so she could not start wandering again. She was very sweet and friendly to us, to Ewen, to Igor, to Carter, to everyone. She ate all the food we put in front of her. By Saturday afternoon after some rest along with plenty of water and food, she was acting a lot less crippled and senile.

The only problem with our sweet, grateful visitor was it was clear that peaceful coexistence with Ewen was not going to be possible. This sweet, very old girl wanted to spend most of her time sleeping hard. All Ewen wanted her to do was play and he wouldn't stop trying. She was very patient with him while Ewen jumped around like a monkey invading her space for three days, but she clearly wanted him to stop. And he just wouldn't stop.

Jason reached out to our friend Leslie who has kindly fostered many dogs through the years. We threw ourselves at her feet and asked Leslie if one of the rescues she worked with might take her into their program. We offered to do all of her initial vet work to help either rescue out financially. I wanted to cry tears of relief and happiness when Leslie agreed to take her as a foster.

On Monday morning I drug our poor visitor into the car and drove her to the vet. Aside from having cataracts in both eyes and being almost deaf our visitor was overall healthy. Amazingly she had no heartworms, and she also had a clean fecal. She was vaccinated, received some flea and tick treatment, and I put her back in the car to drive her to her foster home.

Leslie named our poor, lost dog Abigail Rose. Abigail Rose had an uneventful introduction to Leslie's other dogs, and ignored the cat. Abigail Rose proved to be housebroken. Abigail Rose slept quietly through her first night with Leslie. On her second day Leslie bought Abigail Rose a rose colored collar with ID tags, and declared her a foster fail. Abigail Rose had found a home.

We don't know what Abigail Rose's story is prior to Friday. Clearly she had been someone's pet. She's housebroken, leash broken, didn't have heartworms and overall is a healthy senior dog. We don't know if she got loose and wandered off and got lost, if she got dumped, or how she came to be in her desperately sad circumstances when I found her on Friday. We do know that whatever her story was prior to Friday, that Abigail Rose found her pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with Leslie.

Jason and I could not be more thankful to Leslie for opening her home to Abigail Rose. If only every lost, scared, dehydrated and exhausted animal could have such a happy ending. There aren't enough Leslie's in the world.

We let Abigail Rose borrow one of Ewen's extra dog beds. I had to drag her onto it several times before she got the idea that it was a comfortable place to rest.

Abigail Rose was severely dehydrated when she showed up

Igor kept a close eye on the interloper in his barn


Abigail Rose in her new home (photo courtesy of new mom Leslie)

this picture of her rose colored collar with the tag made me tear up . . . 

. . . and this one made me actually cry; what a happy ending

  
Remmy and Bruno being silly

MyLight, Calimba and Renatta

Cisco and Hemi having play time



the grey horse club claimed their own section of their pasture; Gus, Asterik, Cocomo, Silver and George

Homer and Moe

Mick

Lotus and Romeo

Gus and Cocomo

Rocky and Toledo

Gus, Asterik and Cocomo

Rip, Revy and Grand

Norman and Dawn

Lily and Dolly

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Sunday Stills


Squirrel and Sushi

Convey rolling, Chance standing

A two way grooming session; Bruno and Alfie, Fabrizzio and Havana . . .

. . . a closer look at Bruno and Alfie . . . 

. . . a closer look at Fabrizzio and Havana

Gus and Roho grooming

Asterik and Gus grooming

Paramount and Miel

Sam and Lighty

Elfin, Trigger and Hemi

Apollo, Thomas and Levendi

Rip and Grand

Sushi, Walon and Johnny . . . 

. . . a closer look at Sushi and Walon

Cino and Bruno

Ripley and Magic

Flyer and George grooming

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Timbit Wars



A few weeks ago I heard a lot of squealing and what sounded like running around from the mares and ponies as I was feeding another pasture breakfast. When I had everyone in that pasture eating I looked across the driveway to see what was going on. To my stunned surprise I saw Traveller, Dawn and Dolly engaged in a battle with each other, and they were each trying to herd Timbit away from the others.

Traveller standing with his "prize"


Timbit seemed to think it was really cool to watch them mightily vying for the right to claim him. After a few minutes though he decided he was tired of being nipped at and herded around. When he had a moment when Dolly, Traveller and Dawn were all consumed by each other and not watching him, he stealthily slipped away. He went behind a treeline and joined Cuff Links and Lily.

Lily studying Timbit in a way that would make you think she hadn't seen him daily for years; "hmmm, I think I might want this little one" . . .

. . . except Cuff Links won the showdown and had the honor of Timbit invading his space


I thought it would all end since Timbit was now gone, but this strange morning kept getting more strange. Cuff Links and Lily proceeded to face off to determine who got to stand next to Timbit. The surprises kept on coming as Cuffie won the "right" to Timbit.

Dolly looking pleased to have won Timbit . . . 

. . . on the mornings she won Timbit she would groom and nuzzle him from his ears . . . 

. . . to his tail


For the next several mornings in a row a different version of this same scenario played out, minus Cuffie and Lily. For a couple more mornings Dawn, Dolly and Traveller continued to "claim" Timbit. After a couple of days Dawn came to her senses and realized this was not a battle worth fighting, and certainly not worth winning. But Dolly and Traveller continued with the Timbit obsession. Some mornings Traveller "won" Timbit, other mornings it was Dolly.

on the mornings Traveller won he would also nuzzle and groom Timbit (that's Dolly watching the victor with his prize in the background) . . . 

. . . and generally express his adoration for his prize


Typically Timbit is part of a clique with Sparky, Bonnie and Sabrina so the whole thing was just weird. I should add that Bonnie and Sabrina seemed content for someone else to claim Timbit, there were no efforts to win him back from them. The daily Timbit Wars continued for a couple of weeks, and then they stopped as quickly as they had started. Dolly and Traveller both realized that winning Timbit was not like winning the showcase showdown on the Price is Right. Winning Timbit is more like winning a day with Steve Stifler from the American Pie movies. For a short while all the stunts are funny, then you just want to push him out of the car and drive on. That's what it is like to hang with Timbit.

________________

Cocomo, Gibson and Asterik

Gus and George

Merlin and Cino grooming

Bruno and Duesy

Taylor and Merlin

Happy and Digby

Miss Lyle and Mina, two of the World's Cutest Fainting goats

Rip, Grand and Elfin

Sebastian and Blu

Miel and Mick

Cisco and Moe

Sushi and Squirrel grooming

Blu and Taco

Lofty and Gibson

Magic and Johnny