THE PRODIGAL SON RETURNS

Notice the little boy sitting with the donkey

We have 4 cats in the house, 3 males and Moogee.  Most of them are friendly and fairly resigned to not going outside.  Over the years occasionally the opportunity arises for one or more of them to "escape", which they take advantage of.  Most of them are good natured about getting caught and dragged back inside.  

Tuesday afternoon John came thru the spa room outside door and it didn't latch behind him.  I came thru a few minutes later and saw it open.  Told John we needed to do a cat check, which showed Snooky and Sunny missing.  They both were in the back yard and Sunny was pretty easy.  Snooky has always been stand offish and spooky, you aren't going to walk over and pick him up.  Nor are you going to call him to you.  Just the opposite, you try to interact with him, and he takes off, at least when he's outside.  

We would try to entice him with food or lock the other 3 up and leave a door open.  Nope, not buying that, least the first day or so.  He was having a great time hanging around with Julius his brother and Hobo his mother.  In the afternoons they would all 3 lay on the wall around the back yard.  

By this morning he was getting hungry I guess.  John saw him wallering a dead dessicated bird so we locked the other cats up, opened the back door and it didn't take long for him to walk in far enough I could get to the door and close it.  So he is back inside, but we haven't seen him.  He's up on top of the closet, John put some food up there, but so far he hasn't eaten it.  Wait till he does get down and Moogee gets ahold of him, he'll be trying to get outside again.  Ha!  She likes for her boys to behave and be very subservient. 

If he would be happier outside I have nothing against that.  But he can't be an indoor/outdoor cat it's either, or.  I don't think he knows how to feed himself, even though there is dry food on the back porch most of the time.  So we'll see how the next few days go.  

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for Pepper I guess.  Yesterday morning he was trying to figure out how to get up on Frijolita, much to her disgust.  She finally took off, with him trailing behind at his usual snail pace.  

I was gone most of the day, goofing off visiting with some friends.  Krista has recently moved to Cochise County from the Phoenix area.  She has a beautiful home and a gorgeous area for her 2 horses, so Patti and I just had to go and be nosy.  Had a great visit, pizza and cookies for lunch, what more could you ask for.......!!!!  LOL

Got home and John said you should have been here and saw Pepper up on Ruthie in position and doing his best to accomplish his task.  How the old buzzard got up there I'll never know, determination I guess....!!  I asked John how he came down, it wouldn't have surprised me if he just fell off, but John said, No, he came down stiff legged enough to keep his balance.  This morning he's frisking around checking out the girls, haven't seen him try anything yet.  

One time there was a retired vet here for a tour and we ratcheted up the tour chatter to a little heavier discussion of the different maladies the donkeys have.  John was telling him about Pepper and how "frisky" he can be.  The vet said pergolide can do that.  Hmmm, never had heard that before, but something sure keeps the old guy going. 

 

 Moogee hasn't figured this move out yet, thank goodness

Well, I think Boaz & his partner in crime BlackJack are trying for a world record for losing fly masks.  It's become a daily occurrence for Boaz to come in without a mask.  John has spent a LOT of time looking for them.  I even went out this morning looking, hoping a different way of searching might turn at least one of them up............NOPE 

A nice couple that came to visit this summer, obviously thought some of the masks needed replacing, & sent 5 brand spanking new ones.  Two of the ones Boaz lost are those, & I refuse to put another new one on him.  This morning I went thru the masks I have laying on the sewing machine awaiting repairs from a hard summer & picked out the one easiest to fix.  Now it's out there too, & I guess I'll dig out another one tonight to put on him tomorrow.  I could get in touch with Renee at Colorful Equine, but if I can get thru this year with what I have, I'll order a supply of masks in the spring for next year. 

It wouldn't be so bad, but he is one that really needs a fly mask, because of habronema damage below his eyes.  When he comes in without a mask, his eyes are all watery.  You'd think by almost December the flies would be gone, especially after a couple of nights earlier this month of 19 degrees.  But there are still plenty of them flying around.

The weather this week-end for the Open House is suppose to be sunny & in the 70's.  Last year it was cold & miserable, so Mae said she would bring hot apple cider this year.  I called her & told her as warm as it was going to be, hot cider probably wouldn't be as appreciated as it would have been last year.  

This afternoon John FINALLY got the concrete poured for the rubbermaid water trough to sit on.   Lysa & I have been after him for a year, & he kept saying he'd get to it.  I think we'd given up or maybe he was just waiting for us to quit harping about it.  When we went out for chores tonight, someone had gouged a couple of divets out of it.  Donkeys don't miss anything & if it can be messed up or even better, totally destroyed, that's what will happen.

I'm having a hard time adjusting my feed.  Jack ate over half of the mush I mixed up each feeding.  So far I'm mixing up too much every time, so I put what's left in the refrigerator till the next feeding.   I don't want to not have enough, but at the rate I'm going that's not going to be a problem.

Rusty seems lost, he just stands around usually around the pen area.  Boaz didn't have a shelter in his pen, so we moved Daisy to Jack's pen, down by her girlfriends, Frijolita & Tula.  John took the corral panels down between Daisy & Boaz, so now not only does he have a shelter, he also has the largest pen.  I hope we can find Rusty a mule buddy. 

If you notice, Nigel's head is on my mouse-pad.  This is a rather common happening, he & Moogee, both seem to think I need their help to "computer".  I've tried "wallering" his head to hopefully irritate him enough to make him leave.  Hasn't worked yet, & don't have high hopes that it will.  

This is going to be an "interesting" week-end.  We race both Sat & Sun night..........well we race Sat night & hopefully the car will be in one piece for racing Sun... no guarantee.....!!!  Have a tour coming out Sun morning.  Monday we are going to do 2 home studies, one for Ruger & Pancho.   BlackJack & Boaz are going to go out for a couple of weeks of weed control.  I hope a couple of weeks away will give Boaz a chance to learn some manners.  He can make Frijolita run by chasing her.  She seems to be afraid of him at the time, but the next time you see them they are shoulder to shoulder, so I'm not sure what the game is. She has string halt, which usually doesn't bother her very much, but she doesn't need to be racing & crashing thru the brush trying to get away from a bully. 

Pepper except for his bum knee is back to "normal", in fact he has taken to hanging around with the Tula bunch.  How he keeps up with them, I have no idea.  

Jenny is a little slow these days, she has a big piece of hoof missing from one of her front feet.  Don't know if that is her problem or not.  Courtney was talking about coming out this week-end, if she does the week-end will REALLY be busy. 

Poor little Buddy Brat is having to stay in the pens 24/7.........!!  He & Honcho were returned after about 1 1/2 years with a family.  Unfortunately their diets weren't adhered to while they were gone.  Buddy I think has been insulin resistant since birth or soon after, he was fluffy when we got him about 12 years ago, & he is still fluffy.  His crest is really thick & even being in the pens is not making much of a difference.  The new hay is pretty low in sugar & starch, but I think we're going to start soaking it anyway, hopefully if will make a difference.  He understands he is being mistreated & voices his displeasure every chance he gets, poor little guy. 

NOTHING LIKE COMPLICATING MY LIFE....!!

Yesterday morning I noticed Julius, one of the outdoor cats was stalking something in the back yard.  I went out, yelled, "no birds", I don't bother to see if that is in fact what they are after.  I just teach all cats to run like hell when I yell "no birds".  

Anyway went out & there was a little baby rock squirrel by the back wall.  It was very lethargic, growled a little but other than that just laid there.  I yelled for John to bring a cage.  Put it in the cage, came back in the house & when I checked on him, he was gone.  Guess the openings in the cage were larger than we thought, or he was smaller.  

Looked out & Julius is after something on the porch........guess who?  I picked him up, no growl this time.  I got a syringe of water & he latched onto that like he was really thirsty.  

Right now he is living in a small hav-a-heart trap, on a towel, in our bathroom.  Our house has an open floor plan & 4 cats...............do you see a problem?  I had him with me at the computer yesterday afternoon until Moogee "discovered" him. 

He prefers cow's milk with karo over kitten formula, & has fleas.  Ugh!  John went to town yesterday & when he called asked if I wanted him to get some flea powder?  John is a wonderful person in a lot of ways, but sometimes his animal knowledge gets short circuited.  Of course my knowledge is rather dated sometimes, they might have a flea powder now you can use on "nestlings", but I don't know of any.  So far I've "captured" 3, & haven't seen any "cavorting" since yesterday afternoon.  Maybe they are gone, I hope so, I hate fleas.  

Over the last few days we had found 2 other little guys.  Lysa found one out by the pens & I put it down a squirrrel hole, close to where she found it.  The other one John found dead about 60 feet from where the other one was.  

We're thinking the mother probably got killed, (snake?)  & they were close enough to coming out of the nest to make the effort.  Wish I had known when Lysa found the first one, I would have fed it too.  

Have no idea how long he'll have to be fed.  We'll be hauling Mocha & Tucker to Las Cruces this afternoon, I guess he'll be going with us, so I can feed him every couple of hours or so. 

John wants to name him Pascagula, have no idea how to spell it & neither does my spell checker.  Anyway Ray Stevens sang a song about the Mississippi Squirrel Revival, in Pascagula, Mississippi a LONG time ago.  I told John if we name it that, it will have to have a nickname, Pasca or Gula.  I'm not going to try to say the whole thing on a regular basis.