Loving on Ted

Ted is so sad looking. I am absolutely hating it. I am working on just loving on him every morning and during the evening, too. I do not want him to feel like he is being abandoned or alone. At this point, he would probably welcome some peace since I am forcing fluids and medicine down him. I usually sit and let him lay in my lap for a bit after all that. He just looks so tired and sad. I know this is part of it, but I do not like this part. It is hard on me. I love these animals and do everything I can for them. I know they do not live forever, but I hate when they go. I hate when they are sick and look like they are suffering. I am going to keep loving on him and hope for the best. 

Daisy and Eggs

You know, I do not know why or how she even decided to try, but Daisy loves to eat raw eggs, shell and all. She knows where to find them, too. Daisy somehow got a hold of 2 eggs at once and took them in the backyard to eat. As she was eating them, Twilight and Ginger came over and started to try to get in on some of that. I was afraid I was about to have two less chickens with Daisy and her food aggression. She only had to snap at them once and they both took off. I was glad they left when they did. Daisy ended up eating all of the eggs. I try to stop her before she gets them, but sometimes I am not fast enough. I do not think you can break a dog from doing that either. 

Another Rainbow Cloud

I have been seeing more rainbow clouds lately. I sure do like to look up and see those rainbow clouds in the sky. They are so beautiful. I always want to be able to stop and take the time to notice things like that. I am one of those people who has a difficult time when I do not have a lot of things to do all at once. It is like my brain can never stop, but when I see those rainbow clouds, I make myself stop and enjoy them, even for a few minutes. We all need to stop every once in a while, even when it is hard to do. 

Athena

Athena is my unfriendly cat. She is not mean; she just does not want to be handled. She is a tortoise shell cat, and they are known to not be friendly. I do surprise her sometimes and get to pet her or grab her and love on her. She will allow it for a minute and then she makes a noise and I know she is about to go crazy, so I put her down. But she needs to know that I love her even though she is not too friendly. She has been hanging out in the sheep pen a lot more lately. I am not sure what that is about, but I found her completely asleep in there. She was actually sound asleep. So, every once in a while, I get to pick Athena up and hold her, but it is few and far in between. 

Foxy Roxy and Jealousy

I was loving on Ted, and he was halfway across my lap trying to make him feel better. I want to make sure he knows he is loved regardless of anything else. Next thing I know, I feel some clawing on my shoulder, and it was Foxy Roxy. She was jealous because I was giving Ted attention and not her. I then decided to give her some food from my hand to see if she would eat it, and she did. I think it is funny that she decides to fly up on my shoulder when she wants my attention. She definitely will get it that way. 

Good Friends

I had some good friends go down to the house while I was at work to check on Ted. He was not doing well and I was so concerned. So, I called and asked for them to go check on him if they got time. I am telling you what, Ted got up for them. He walked around with them a bit. He was engaged with them while they were there. They sent me pictures of him so I could see he was up and around. When I got home, he was drinking water on his own. He even took some bites of the mineral block. He still won't eat anything else I give him. That makes me stay concerned about him and I can tell he is losing weight. At the moment things are looking up though. We will see what happens. 

Treats

I took some treats out and was giving them to Willow. This is the first time Willow has taken treats from me. She has always been apprehensive about taking treats from my hand, even with watching Noma and Mattie taking them from me. After she took the first one, she was ready to take the rest. It is so interesting watching these animals learn something new. I have worked on that for a long time and finally she will eat the treats. Of course, Mattie had to come over and investigate. He did get some treats, too. 

Oh Ted

Ted is still not feeling well. He is still lethargic and he is now not eating. I have been drenching him with electrolytes and water and B12. I have been working on feeding him, but I have tried everything: alfalfa, treats, oats, their regular feed, he wants no part in any of it. He is just laying around and looking miserable. I feel awful for him. I just love on him every time I can. I will sit and hug on him. He does not particularly love that, but it makes me feel better. We are doing absolutely everything we can to make him better. We will see what happens. If he does not start eating, the outcome will not be what we want, but we are trying. I just hate this. It breaks my heart. This is the part no one wants to talk about, but it is reality. 

Dirt Storms

It seems like spring is already here and it is only February. The dirt storms here in West Texas have already started. I do not look forward to those. I do not like doing chores with dirt literally hitting me in the face, but I live in West Texas, so there is not much I can do about it. They come and go. And it will continue until spring is over. This one was not as bad as some I have seen, but it is still not much fun for anyone. 

Donkey Teeth

My sister is one of a kind. For whatever reason, she likes to see donkey teeth. Every once in a while, I will get a good picture of some donkey teeth and send it to her. I know it makes her laugh and that is why I do it. Sometimes those donkeys will sure give me a big smile so I can send pics. The donkeys make everyone smile. Willow gave me an opportunity to see her teeth recently. She is such a sweet girl. She does not show me her teeth as much as Mattie does. I know it is a little different, but it is entertaining. 

Jeb

Jeb is a unique horse. He loves to lay down. It is like he is the leader of the herd, but he will lay down and watch the others. I used to stress over it when he would do that because I did not know any better, but he has done that since day one. He has always been comfortable enough here to lay down and relax. Now when I see him laying down, I just know he is comfortable and taking a rest. He does it every morning while the rest of them are eating. I am glad to know he is happy here. 

Boxes

I opened up a box and immediately after the stuff was pulled out of it, Ursula crawled into it. She stayed there for quite some time. I think it is so funny that they stuff themselves so far into those boxes. I caught Oreo in the box later. I left it there for them to use for a bit before throwing it away. I decided to do some research on why cats like boxes so much. Apparently, boxes help to reduce stress and give them a safe zone where they cannot be seen. I thought that was something interesting to learn. And now I know. My cats do not usually stay in the boxes long, but they do like to play with them for a while. 

Jealousy

Sometimes we definitely have some jealousy between the animals. It is funny to watch. They do act a little like spoiled children at times. That is the best way I know how to put it. I had picked up Ollie. I think it was Ollie to love on her, really to check her over. Foxy Roxy decided she was jealous and flew up to my shoulder. That is too funny. Ronnie was able to get some pictures of that. I could not believe my eyes. I was not expecting that. I do not think that has happened since they were all in the coop full time.  

Ollie

Ollie is my problem chicken. I know I have talked about her before. She is the one who likes to get stuck in different places. I wish I knew why she did that, or at least how she does that. I caught her looking like she was stuck in a tumbleweed. She was not stuck, but from where I was standing, that is what it looked like. Then this morning I saw her looking stuck between the two houses in the chicken coop. I was able to get her out of there. If she had turned around and gone back around the back of the bigger house, she could have gotten out on her own, but I was there, so I moved her. Ollie is definitely my problem chicken. She does keep me on my toes though. 

Quilting

I do enjoy quilting and usually spend my Sundays watching some TV and quilting. The weeks are so busy, by Sunday I feel like I cannot talk to any people and do not have the energy to go anywhere. It is a problem, but by Sunday, I have nothing left in my tank, so I have to rest. I like to quilt and do things for others. I was working on a throw quilt, nothing fancy this past weekend. Oreo and Ursula both wanted to be all over that quilt. I do get them off the quilt quickly once they get on it, but it cracks me up that they do that. It does not matter which quilt I am working on; they try to get on it. They are funny cats for sure. You never know what they are going to do. 

Ginger

That Ginger is something else. The day I had the bad migraine; she must have been missing me. She crawled up on Ronnie's arm and just talked to him. He sent me a video which really meant a lot to me. Ginger stayed with him for a good long while. Ronnie sent me more than one video. He said it was like she was looking for me. I guess I have spoiled her. I usually come home and she squats down so I can pick her up and hug her at least once a day. I mean, why have them if you do not spoil them. That is my opinion anyway. I was glad Ronnie gave her some attention; he thinks it is wild that Ginger wants to be picked up or will crawl up an arm. The next day, I made sure to give her extra hugs and love. 

Saverine is Declining

Not only are we dealing with Ted being sick, but I feel like we are literally watching the life go out of Saverine. It is so heart breaking. I do realize that is life and she was an older horse when we got her. She is close to 30 years old now. That is an old horse. I see the decline daily and it is so sad. Jeb continues to run her around all the time, to the point that sometimes she has little drops of blood from her nose, which apparently is in her bloodline anyway. She tries to stay away from Jeb, so she does not eat as much hay as she probably should so she can stay away from him, so she is losing weight. Saverine also has an injury she has had since she was a baby on her leg, well, that has gotten worse. I just see the decline and I hate to. I will continue to love her and do what I can for her. She allows me to get close to her and love on her. Saverine is not a particularly friendly horse, so she does not let too many people close to her. Having animals is a tough job, but I am grateful I get to be a part of it, even when it hurts my heart. 

Ursula

I have been having a lot more migraines lately. I do not know what the deal is, but I have been having more than normal and definitely more than necessary. I came home one evening and could barely keep my eyes open due to the lights and the pain. I am not one to complain too much. I worked all day with that migraine, but it is no fun. Ronnie came home earlier than normal knowing I was not feeling well. He told me to go to bed, and he would take care of all the chores and stuff. I was so grateful. He brought me an ice pack, and I put it on my head and went to sleep. The whole time I was in there, Ursula was right beside me or literally on top of me making sure I was okay. She is a one-of-a-kind cat, that is for sure. We are lucky to have her. 

Ted and The Vet

Ted did end up going to the vet. Getting him in the trailer was a terrible experience. He was so weak that it was hard to get him in there. He did get to the vet, and I think she made a comment to Ronnie about the sheep looking for somewhere to die. I know sheep are hard to keep alive and I am hoping that was a joke, but we will see. She gave him a shot of a stronger antibiotic and said to keep giving him electrolytes and liquid B12. I am hoping he will snap out of it, but she said his lungs were scarred up from the pneumonia, so he was in pretty bad shape. We are not giving up on him. The vet visit was traumatizing to Ted. Bill did not like Ted being gone either. It was a traumatic situation for all of us. Apparently, the trailer ended up with a flat tire on the way home from the vet and Ted was unable to stay upright. He was so tired from all of that we about had to carry him back to the pen. Then once he got to the pen, he had difficulty with staying upright due to fatigue. He is definitely not back to normal and he may never be, but we will doctor him and love him just the same. 

Cat Toy

The cats liked their new toy so well, I decided to get them another one. They would take turns sleeping on top of the toy, so I thought they could both use one. They sure did go after that new toy as soon as I finished putting it together. Whatever I can do to make them happy. Both Ursula and Oreo do seem pretty happy. That is what matters to me. Ronnie laughed when he saw I had bought them another one. 

Pigs and Food

If you have ever watched pigs in a group during feeding time, it is one of the funniest things. Each of them go back and forth to different bowls until all the food is gone. If they would just stay at one bowl, they might get more to eat. I do not know though, they seem to get plenty to eat. I know they do. It really is fun to watch. I wish I knew why they did that. It would be interesting to know that. But, at the end of the day, as long as they are being fed and they are getting plenty to eat, I will still laugh about the way they choose to eat it. 

Missing Chicken

I am weird about my animals. Anyone who knows me, knows this. I want them taken care of and I want to make sure they are okay. When I see any little thing off, I want it fixed. Well, I count the chickens in the morning, the ones who stay in the coop at night. I noticed I was missing one. I told my husband about it, and he just said she was probably roosting somewhere else on the property. For days I kept my eyes out for her and searched in various areas to try to find her. I did not see her. I knew she was missing though and she had to be somewhere. I also know my chickens well enough; I knew which chicken was missing. As I was out feeding the goats a few days after she went missing, I turned over a feed trough I had not been able to reach and out that chicken ran. Poor girl, she was so scared. She looked miserable, too. Her comb was laying over and turning colors. She was skinny and dehydrated. She went right for the water. I went over and picked her up and carried her to the coop and put extra food out for her and made sure she had plenty of water. She looked awful. I was worried later that she may not make it because she kept falling over and having difficulty with getting up, but the next morning, she was up and ready to go with the other ones. Ollie was the one missing. She is my problem hen. She liked to roost up in the tree on her own but now stays with the others. She is also the one who kept getting stuck behind the chicken coop. She is my problem hen, but I sure do love her and I’m glad she is doing okay.