Sunday afternoon

Well, everyone spent the better part of today grazing happily despite the horrendous heat.  I had planned only to let Ladybug graze in the front yard since she's the tidiest one of the three.  But this morning while I was cleaning out Duke's stall, I heard someone running toward the barn.  I figured it was probably Duke since he's generally the only one who races around, but it turned out it was Lizzie.  She ran full out from the back of the pasture into her paddock, then slowed down and walked into her stall . . . and pooped.  Then she calmly ambled back out to the pasture again!  Can you believe!  She obviously thinks THAT's where she's supposed to go to relieve herself.  Well, on the plus side, it IS a lot easier to clean the stall than to clean up the pasture, so good for her!  But that also made me think it might be okay to let her graze in front with Bug.  They liked to hang out together over at Al's so I thought I'd give it a try.  So I just opened both of their gates into the front.

Lizzie's paddock on the left and Ladybug's on the right.

When Lizzie first went out to the front, Ladybug took off as if she were offended.

But Lizzie paid no attention to her to begin with.  Instead she went exploring to check out the new space.  But Lizzie is a different sort.  She started up at the front gate and walked down the driveway, across in front of the garage doors, and then turned to follow the concrete across in front of the porch -- as if she were driving a car or something.

Unlike Bug, Lizzie likes places that are NOT just grass.  At one point, she climbed up onto the covered porch over at the barn and "relieved" herself up there!

Then she stepped back down and walked over to the house and went up the ramp to the side of the front porch!   There's a tarp hanging there that kept her from getting all the way onto the porch, luckily.  The  ramp is there because the golf cart used to be parked and charged up on the porch, but we had hay stored there this last winter, so we put up that tarp to protect the hay from rain being blown in.  Anyway, Lizzie probably thought that ramp was a trailer ramp since it's about that size.  And she does try to go load herself up into any trailer she happens to see open!    

It looked at first like they might not be going to hang out together after all, but I decided to leave them both out there anyway.  Within a half hour or so, though, Bug started  trotting along behind her, keeping an eye on Lizzie while she continued to explore.

So I sat down on the chaise on the porch to keep an eye on things and make sure no one got into any trouble doing anything like fooling with the cars or anything.  The "formerly feral" cat who lives in our garage joined me there like a regular domestic kitty!

Garage cat helping me keep an eye on things.

Here she is saying "What was that clicking sound I just heard?" after I took her picture.

We both nodded off for a little while!

In just a few more minutes, Lizzie and Bug settled down and started hanging out together like they used to, so I went on inside and got myself some lunch.  

When I looked out about 2 or so, they were both standing still in the deep shade under the trees by the front porch, both visibly panting.  It was HOT.  

But by 3:30 it began to thunder big time, so everyone went back to their stalls and I came up here to the office to catch up on the mail and FB entries.  LOVE that painting Bill Manns posted that used his gorgeous Arabian, Cody, as the model!  I'd definitely love to see some more of Roseta Santiago's work.