Well - at least there won't be any horrible fires starting next door anyway . . .

Those trees that were taken down in the pasture a couple weeks back were piled up over in Vickie and John's property next door, but we hadn't burned them at all to date because there had been no rain in about the last month so we were afraid that if we set those on fire, the entire acreage full of trees over there might ALL go up on fire and even burn over into the houses nearby!  But I'll tell you what -- despite the fact that Hurricane Patricia that's moving east from Mexico hasn't hit Louisiana yet, still over the last two days there has currently been PLENTY of rain here!  

It's storming so much that not only the pond has filled up, but so much of the pasture itself is coveredwith water as well!  Well -- it's good that the horses are closed into their paddocks because tramping around out there would be killing the grass big time.  Gees!

But fortunately, this Saturday morning Mark and Jerry put up four new pasture gates and repaired a number of the other former gates as well.  That was done so that we could close Arthur inside his porch so he couldn't get out into the rain at all.  But as it turned out, even with his porch gate open, he isn't going out into the rain since both Duke and Shadow have been staying there on their porch right next to him, so he's happy to stay there on the porch out of the rain right near them.  So I didn't lock the gate that closes him into his porch.

There are Shadow and Duke, both in Duke's paddock, and behind Shadow
on the other side of that gate is Arthur on his porch while it's pouring down rain.  

Unfortunately, though, we're still going to have to remove Arthur's boots anyway once the rain stops (if it ever does!!) and clean them up.  That's because, although Arthur doesn't stand out in the rain and get them filling up with water (which is what I was concerned about), he has gone out there when the rain stops briefly so he could poop out in his yard and not in his room or on his porch.  I'd be proud of that normally, but unfortunately, when he does go out into his yard, he walks in so much mud that those boots are absolutely covered with the stuff!  Yuk!  So even though he doesn't get rained on directly, his feet may no longer be nice and clean and dry. We'll have to check, but even if there's no water inside them, we'll still need to clean them up and get all that mud off the outside.  Well, we're going to wait to do that until this storms stops -- if it ever does!  Sure hope Hurricane Patricia doesn't come through here in a day or two.  But I think it won't -- I think it will be moving up NORTH-east and going north of Baton Rouge.  Hmmm . . . we'll find out, that's for sure. (Fingers crossed.)  

What a relief!. . . Arthur is getting better - finally!

Thankfully, the LSU vet school vets came by every few days over the last week or two dealing with Arthur's limping feet. And when they come, they bring students with them as well, so it's great that there are several people here who can deal with him without us having to hang onto him! 

What they had US do was to keep him inside his paddock and away from all the grass, and give him meds each day.  

Apparently, toward the end of the summer the grass gets a bit different somehow -- I can't remember what they said about it exactly, but apparently was what had caused Arthur's feet to get sore.  And one of his feet was shown as swollen inside when they x-rayed them.  

Originally, they had put something or other on the bottom of his feet, then wrapped them in fabrics.  But he had managed to quickly kick those off.  So they brought us a couple of really good boots for injured feet.  Those were $250 but they have definitely been well worth it!  

He's had them on for more than a week and he not only hasn't been able to kick them off, but he also seems to be happy walking in them!  He's not even TRYING to take them off. 

 Love those things!

Note that inside HIS paddock there is no grass -- just sand.  He's not allowed
to eat grass until winter comes when the grass is completely gone finally.

Actually, all he ever gets to eat these days is his minimal amount of feed WITH his medicine mixed into it, and a small amount of hay.  That's because he's supposed to be losing weight because having him fatter than normal makes his feet even more of a problem apparently.  

Arthur spends a lot of time standing out there on the walk next to the fences around his paddock watching Duke and Shadow in their paddocks and out in the pasture.  (He's SO disappointed that he's not currently allowed to get out and stay right next to Shadow as he's been doing ever since we got her - well over a year ago!  He LOVES that horse!)

Well anyway, we sure are glad he's not limping anymore over the past couple days! 

We're also extremely happy that we're able to have access to the LSU vets. They have been SO wonderful every time we need help.  We do generally take our dogs to normal vets generally unless there's something really extreme necessary. But the mule and horses . . .   hey -- they get the LSU vets ALL the time.  Excellent!

Oh my . . . poor Arthur, our mule -- AGAIN!

When we let the horses out after all those trees came down last weekend, they were all just fine -- and SO excited about finally being allowed to go run around out in the back pasture since they'd been kept inside the paddocks for days while those guys worked on those trees.  So they all really enjoyed being back out in the pasture at last.  But then the next morning, when I went out to feed them, Arthur was limping -- apparently lame AGAIN.  Good grief! 

That happened with him back in April.  But at that time he had a tiny hole in the front of his left front hoof and we would have to soak that foot with meds each day, then put cotton filled with another kind of medicine inside that hole and cover up his foot each day.  But this time, although it was his front left foot AGAIN, there was no hole that I could see. So we called LSU and a vet came out last Monday.  (The regular vet, Ann Chapman, was off that week so the vet who came was new to me.)  Anyway, they found that there were problems on BOTH of his front feet, so they put some materials on the bottom of both feet so they wouldn't touch the ground directly.  Then they wrapped both feet up and they told he needed to be kept inside his paddock all the time.  So he's been in there all this week.  

But then yesterday Ann Chapman, our normal vet, came over and took x-rays of both his feet.  The right one was almost back to normal, but the x-ray showed that the front bone in his left front foot is shaped a bit less normally.  So he's getting medicine in his mouth now, instead of needing to put anything into his foot.  And they're planning to come back a couple times a week to redo those foot wraps. 

But for our great discovery, one of the students who came by with both vets said she loved our horses and she would be glad to come by and bathe both Duke and Shadow for me since I told them I was having problems doing all that stuff these days.  So she came by this morning along with a friend of hers (also from LSU Vet School) and the two of them bathed both the horses.  They did a great job!  And after talking with them for a while, I found out that they both love horses but although they had some previously, neither had one at the moment.  So I told them that they would be welcome to come ride Duke and Shadow anytime they'd like. They were really happy to hear that - very excited.  So I'm really looking forward to seeing the horses get ridden regularly once again at last!  

As for Arthur, though, although those covers they put on his feet are still on there, he's still not able to walk normally.  He still limps a bit despite the fact that he's getting his medicine each day.  Unfortunately, if those two girls come over to ride Shadow and Duke, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to join them on Arthur anytime soon.  Gees!   

And poor Arthur gets SO upset when he sees Duke and Shadow heading out of their paddocks into the pasture when he can't join them any more!  He absolutely screams bloody murder!  (I'm sure all the neighbors hear him as well!)  Mules definitely scream a whole lot worse than any horse could.  But eventually he does go back inside his room and lays down there for the night.  

Compared to the other horses who are 12 and 15 years old, Arthur is only 8.  And mules live well into their 30's.  So I sure hope they can eventually get him back to normal -- and I hope it happens sometime soon!  For one thing, he really REALLY wants to go out along with the horses - he adores both of them.  But it's also very difficult for Mark and me to handle those feet of his on a regular basis.  Our backs are a real problem!  And although the vet is glad to come handle his feet a couple times a week, I imagine the cost will be getting up there.  So I hope that won't be necessary indefinitely!  Well -- we'll find out eventually, won't we? Sigh.

Arthur is MUCH better now - thank goodness!

But although Arthur seems fine, Mark and I aren't doing all THAT well -- changing out all the things on his foot took us a while and we both ended up soaking wet . . . me because it was hot, hot, HOT out there, and Mark because he had to sit down on Arthur's water bucket and unfortunately it was entirely full of water.  Uh oh!  

But we did finally figure out exactly how to more easily deal with Arthur and he actually doesn't seem to mind at all wearing that boot filled with all those things he needs to have on his foot to get it past his abscess.

For a few days Arthur -- well, all three of them, actually -- had been kept
inside the paddock where there was next to no mud so it couldn't get into his boot.

But over the last two days they've all been allowed out into the FRONT yard where there's plenty of grass and absolutely NO mud.  And now Arthur doesn't limp and he never bothers to  hold his foot up anymore.  He walks on it perfectly normally now.  

So there's Arthur's boot on that left front abscessed foot -- that boot is keeping
anything from going inside that little hole on the bottom front of his foot.

Since it was super hot yesterday, the three of them all stood close together
in the little bitty shade under one of the Magnolia trees for quite a while.
There are lots of bigger trees over on the other side of that yard,
but for some reason they all prefer to be under a Magnolia.
Well, everyone who drove by then could certainly check them out
while they were all standing out there close to the road.

Well, I guess I now need to find out from the vet just how long it might take for that hole in Arthur's foot to close up.  I guess we're going to have to keep changing out all that stuff for as long as that takes, so I hope it won't take a really really LONG time! 

Well, I sure am glad we've been having really good weather over the last few days so Arthur hasn't had to be locked inside his stall.  There's already a hurricane just west of us over in Texas (Hurricane Bill), but it's been warm and sunny here all the time -- great for Arthur.  But then that storm is going to go all the way up north and go across Ohio. Uh oh!  I sure hope it doesn't make too much of a mess up there by Wendy and Gerard! 

Arthur, Arthur, Arthur . . .

Last Friday evening Mark saw that Arthur was walking a bit strangely -- he didn't seem to want to stand on his left front foot.  When he would stop and graze he would hold that food up off the ground.  I I went out and cleared out his hoof and found that one of his previously cut off hoof edges had gotten stuck in the center of that hoof.  I thought that was his problem so we decided to keep him inside his stall until Monday when the vet could come and check him out and tell us if anything more needed to be done.  But as it turned out that piece of hoof stuck in his foot wasn't the problem at all. Instead, a little hole in the front of his hoof had gone all the way up into his foot and it had gotten abscessed.  THAT's why he didn't want to stand on that hoof.  Poor guy.  

He grazed right there in the same spot the whole time I watched him --
he didn't want to walk apparently.  And he kept that left front leg held up.

So when Ann Chapman, the vet at LSU, came by yesterday she checked out all of his feet, but that left front one was the only foot with a serious problem.  So she and one of the students spent a couple hours cleaning it out and putting meds on it and covering it up well.  Now we're supposed to remove all that stuff every other day and do it all over again for at least another week. And doing that is sure going to require BOTH of us to handle that, that's for sure!  Arthur not only tries to pull away his foot, but he also hollers big time!   Gees!

Oh - and just before the vet arrived we went out to clean out his stall where he'd been locked in for almost three days but we saw him all the way out in the back pasture! What the heck??  His two paddock doors had been completely locked up.  So how on earth did he get out there???  

Well, as it turned out, because he's smaller than the two horses, he managed to go through that little center hall -- it's only about 2 X 4 feet -- maybe less wide than 2 feet wide at one end of it!  There's no way the horses could go into that space.  So what did Arthur do?  Well, obviously he just stood in that hall for quite a while because we had to clear a LOT of his poop out of there!  But then he broke open the interior gate into Duke's stall and he was able to just go on through there and out Duke's door into the pasture!  

But on the plus side, he was a little more able to move around, although he was still having problems with that foot. But he was perfectly willing to follow Mark who had his feed bucket and get back into his stall before the vet arrived -- thankfully!  Anyway, once she got there, he was a soaking wet filthy boy.  It had rained and he had obviously rolled around on the wet muddy ground back there.  Yuk!  

Anyway, Mark put in much larger and stronger hooks for closing those interior gates.  So I HOPE Arthur can be kept inside his stall for at least another day.  Once we replace that covering on his foot, the vet said if it's not pouring down rain we should then let him out into his smaller dry paddock for HALF of each day, then put him back in so he can't eat grass for the ENTIRE day.  That's because she wants us to get him to lose 70 pounds over the next 2 months.  We're also going to change out his feed to help with that as well.  So I'm hoping that Arthur will be back to the perfect little guy before too long.  Now -- if only there there someone who would come by and ride him regularly . . .

Well, we'll have to check that out later.  One thing at a time.

Oh my . . . always SOMETHING!

Well, since the vet was here Thursday afternoon I thought everyone was just fine now.  Ha!  When I looked out the window first thing this morning I first saw Shadow standing out in the sun apparently asleep.  That was nice -- except she has never been out there by herself since we've had her that I know of.  I kind of wondered why that was. 

 

 

But she looked pretty darned comfy, so -- oh well.

 

But when I looked out again just a few minutes later, Arthur was right back next to her.
But when I looked more carefully, he wasn't JUST standing there --
he obviously thought he could be more than just a "friend" . . .

And sure enough! . . .

 

What I found strange was that Shadow seemed to WANT him to mount her!  He used to try and mount Lizzie when she came into heat, but she used to try and kick the crap out of him when he did that!  NOT Shadow!

 

When I hollered down at them, he did drop off of her and after they both looked up at me, he began to move away.

 

 Arthur actually began to walk away --

 

. . . but Shadow followed right after him!!!

 

So  I went down and fed them all - separately.

But between every bite, Arthur would run out of his stall and check on Shadow next door!

Then when they finished eating, I locked Arthur inside the paddocks and just let Shadow and Duke back out.  At first Shadow hung out on the other side of the fence from Arthur for a good half hour.

But once she figured out that he would NOT be coming back out with her, she began hanging with Duke instead.  But (thankfully) he made absolutely NO attempt to mount her.

 

Shadow at first went around right next to Duke.  But he apparently wasn't impressed.  ;-D

 

When Duke didn't pay any attention to her, Shadow began standing around like this --
apparently hoping SOMEONE would come by and mount her!

 

So they are hanging out separately and she is NOT getting mounted. 
That seems like a huge improvement to me --
although I'm sure Shadow doesn't agree with me about that!

So obviously she is in heat.  But since Duke isn't harassing her in the least - thank goodness - maybe I need to get the vet to come back and check out Arthur to make very sure he is completely gelded.  Sigh. 

Happy horses . . . but UN-happy Gigi !

I HOPE the surgery Gigi had today will make her feel much better eventually, but at the moment she is NOT happy!  She has to wear one of those e-collars for 10 days.  Yikes! 

 

But her right eye did obviously hurt before because over the last month she gradually got to the point where she generally just kept that right eye almost closed all the time.

 

And by the time I took her in to the vet yesterday to get her final shot, it had gotten to the point where that eye was red and a thick yellow discharge had begun.  When her vet saw that she said Gigi needed to have a "preliminary surgery" to prevent those lashes from scarring her cornea.  She could have lost her sight in that eye without some change right now.   So she had surgery this afternoon and her eye is wide open again now, thankfully.

 

Here's Gigi when she first came home today -
wearing a clear plastic e-collar and with her right eye wide open!  Yeaaaa!

 

But unfortunately, she is going to have to wear one of those e-collars for the next 10 days!  Poor baby.  But it's really nice that her vet put  a completely clear one on her!  I've never seen one of those that's clear before.   Every dog I've ever had before who had to wear one had  a white one and they couldn't see anything except straight ahead.   This IS better - although she still can't move around without bumping into things constantly. 

Nice CLEAR e-collar. 
(Too bad you can't see her right eye here, but it IS open finally.)

 



And she has to have antibiotics put into her eye THREE times a day, and pain meds every day as well.  She's actually a bit easier to deal with while wearing that e-collar, but it's still super-difficult to hold her still enough to put that antibiotic stuff in her eye.  Don't know if I'll be able to put it in at all once Mark goes back to work next week!  I can't hold her still with one hand while putting anything in her eye with the other!  Well, I hope her eye is better after this first week!

 

********************

 

Well, at least we don't have to spend all kinds of time dealing with the separated horses now.  They aren't separated at all anymore.  The three of them have been hanging out together all the time ever since they were put out together for the very first time early this afternoon.  They are VERY happy about that . . . ALL of them!

 

We let Duke and Arthur out of their paddocks first.  Then a couple minutes later once they began grazing, we opened the gate and let Shadow go out and join them.  Here's the video I took as she went out -- it's more than 5 minutes long, but I kept it going in case they finally had a problem.  But they never did.  Nice!

 

Shadow goes out with Duke and Arthur for the first time.

 

Both Shadow and Duke were completely calm.  But then there was Arthur.  What a hoot!  He is about HALF the size of Shadow, but he already seems to be extremely fond of her!  Good grief -- I hate to think what she will have to put up with when she comes into heat with Arthur around!!  If you watch that YouTube video, you'll hear me laughing all the time because I could see Arthur better than you'll be able to see him on the video and he was pretty darned funny!  He's been crazy about every mare he's ever been around ever since I've had him.   He behaves as if he's a tall, handsome horse -- he doesn't seem to know he's actually a very short mule.   What a guy!

Great weekend -- and maybe a new Rottie!!

Mark and Jerry got the barn completed, and Jerry cleaned up all the walls today.  They are all IMMACULATE! 

 

This is Arthur's stall (you can see that Mark has all their equipment over in Lizzie's stall
(on the other side of that left "window") -- for now.

This is Duke's stall.  He used to have a giant hay container there on the right,
but we moved it outside now that the hurricane season is past.

Our barn is NOT "typical" -- this tiny center hallway opens into all three stalls.
(That round thing is covering a floor drain.)

 

 

 

 

I put a small hay container like the one in Arthur's stall inside after I moved the big one out,
but apparently Duke prefers his big one -- here he is last night at midnight eating outside.

 

Jerry filled the Hay Hut that sits out between Arthur and Duke's paddocks with hay today as well.  We haven't used that for years.  We got it originally for use over at Al's before we got the barn built and brought the horses home since they couldn't get into the barn by themselves over there.  But we finally decided that since we have waaay more hay than we probably need since there's just two of them now, we might as well put some out in the HayHut as well as in their stalls.

 

But Arthur hasn't figured out yet that he has access to it from his own side, and he's afraid to stand as close to Duke as that other window in Duke paddock.  But he doesn't want to go far enough from Duke to go over on his own side.  Sigh. 

Tonight when we feed them, I'll close the gate between the two paddocks
so Arthur will be forced to discover his own side of the HayHut.     ;-D



Talked to Juliette, a good friend of Jan's, about riding over at Farr Park, the city park equestrian center on the River Road near our home.  I think she and Jan are going to haul their own horses over there and I will rent one from BREC to be sure I'm okay enough to ride well finally.  If I am, I'll be looking around for another horse later on.  But tomorrow, we're going to call the Iberville Parish Animal Control and see if they need to have any of the horses they took in this week cared for.  Jerry told Mark there were several that were starving here on this side of the river and Animal Control picked them up.  I wasn't aware that the Iberville Parish center had any space for horses, so we'll check to see if they need some help.

 

AND I got a Facebook note from Rescue.Me Animal Welfare about a young female Rottweiler named Joy.  SUCH a cutie! 

 

 

Mark and I have been considering adopting another Rottie for quite a while, but I wanted a female and for whatever reason, almost all the rescues close by have been males!  So I contacted Rescue Me right away and today I filled out their adoption application and e-mailed it back to them.  We're holding our breath.  I really REALLY hope we get a chance to go visit with her.  Unless she doesn't deal well with Joey we will certainly adopt her!  Rottie's can be SO great.  The vet I used in Cincinnati bred Rotties and a female of hers would come to work with her and hang out in the waiting room playing with all the dogs!  So I am really excited about getting one who was NOT a seriously aggressive guard dog!   That should be a real joy.

 

Niki, our Russian Terrier, was trained over at AAA Guard Dogs and apparently Ken thought I would be good at adapting one of his Rotties, Bruce Lee, from a dog trained to attack anyone he saw other than Ken (he was dropped off at auto dealers over night each night), to a regular, "friendly" pet.  And like an idiot I thought I could do that, too!  Bruce was no longer able to work as a guard dog because he had hip dysplasia.  Well, initially, I had Ken take him over to AVS to be neutered and I picked him up and took him home before he was completely awake.  I closed him into our bedroom and a  smaller dog yard separate from the others, and in the beginning I would go outside with a book and a stun gun and sit there reading out loud while he decided whether to come after me or not!  In the beginning, he would stare at me and there would be a continuous low growl!  Only having that stun gun gave me the nerve to stay out there close to him. 

 

Here is Bruce Lee the first week I had him (November 2004). 
That chair back there is where I would go out and sit and read to him. 
(He obviously was not yet friendly there, huh?)

But he never actually attacked me, so I never had to use the stun gun.  And over the course of just a week or two, he became absolutely friendly . . . followed by very protective of me!  When Mark was around, he would always get between us!  And if anyone else came anywhere near the house or yard, well . . . they would have to be assured that he was closed in for sure before they would come in!  

He absolutely loved Gracie, the boxer who showed up at our house skinny as a rail, and they hung out together. 

 

But he did NOT get along at all with any of the male dogs we had, though.  He attacked Ben several times over the years.  The last time he did, Bruce didn't appear to have any damage whatsoever, so we took Ben to the vet and got him stitches.  But then the following morning, Bruce had died!  As it turned out, Ben had bitten his mouth and his bottom tooth had punctured a hole in the top of Bruce's mouth.  We did see a little blood on his mouth at the time, but we assumed that was from the huge bite he had taken out of Ben's chest (the stitches Ben had to have).  But apparently, he swallowed all that blood draining out of his brain, because after he ate that night we never saw any additional blood.  And after AVS examined him after we found him dead, they said that the hole in top of his mouth had gone clear into his brain and caused his death.  I was devastated.  So since that time, we have adopted ONLY dogs who get along for sure with our other dogs.  And that's why we wanted a FEMALE Rottie this time.   I'm sure Joy will be just fine with three male dogs, none of whom want to attack anyone!

 

So -- fingers crossed.  Let's hope her adoption works out. 

What a weekend!

Had Thanksgiving over at Jan and Mike's house -- and was that ever INCREDIBLE!  There was not just a terrific turkey, but also oyster dressing that was amazing, green bean casserole, asparagus casserole, stuffed pumpkin, pecan pie, multiple kinds of cheese cake, and we added honey baked ham and layered salad.  Whew!  Ate more yesterday than I'd eaten the whole rest of the week, I think!  AND we got to bring home several helpings of everything so we get to do it again today!  Yippee!   Jan also gave me a packet of chocolate covered coffee beans she picked when she and Mike were down in Costa Rica with friends last week.  I actually thought those would be awful, but I tried them last night and in fact they're pretty darned addictive!  Who knew!

 

Mike's mom and brother came down, along with Delilah so it was a really nice afternoon.  I'll tell you what, it's almost impossible to believe that Mike's mom is actually 94!!  (Wish I had remembered to take my camera!)  I can barely remember my own name at this point, but she's sharp as a tack AND gets around on her own perfectly well.  Amazing.  They'll be doing Christmas up at Jan's mom and dad's place.  Her mom turned 90 this year, and I think her dad is 94.  Wow. 

 

It  HAS been pretty darned cold for Louisiana the last couple days.  Seriously.  I mean it was in the 20's last night!!   But it's going up to the high 50's today and is supposed to turn 70-ish tomorrow or Sunday.  That's sure a relief!  This morning it was probably in the high 40's or so - still cold to me, but obviously Duke and Arthur were seriously enjoying the sunshine!

When I FIRST looked out, Duke was completely flat on the ground, but when I opened the window upstairs to take these pictures, they heard me and looked up.  But it wasn't long before Duke was obviously completely back to sleep!

 

 

For that matter, ALL of us were laying back enjoying our weekend today:

Boo asleep in Rocky's (too small for him) bed

Rocky asleep on the entryway carpet
(in daylight, thankfully -- it's hard to see him at night on a patterned carpet!)

Boo looking at Rocky and Joey sound asleep.

And Joey - sacked out on the sofa -- looks comfy, doesn't he?



But then Boo thought he heard something outside. (He pays WAY more attention to that than anyone else does.  If we ever get robbed, he'll be the one who lets us know it's happening!)


He looked out, then looked around and saw Rocky and Joey sound asleep, so he began to bark.  Ha!  That's all it takes for Rocky.  He jumps up and joins him.  But Joey . . . he does wake up (briefly) and wait to see if someone is actually coming in, but unless there is someone there, he rarely joins them.

About a minute later Joey was back to sleep.  And forget sending him outside.  There is no way he will put up with weather lower than 80 degrees!  THEN he will bark . . . continually until he gets let back in so he can climb under the first blanket he can find!

Wendy, on the other hand, is up in Buffalo, NY at the moment where it is NOT getting anything close to warm anytime soon.  That's a town that is constantly having "lake affects" . . . brrrrrr!  NOT a good thing.  But I was relieved that she did make it up there Wednesday.  We kept seeing national weather reports showing icy conditions on those highways between Dayton and Buffalo, so all of her family and friends pretty much held our breaths while she was driving up there!  (She had to text us all when she got there so we could relax.)  But now that she's there, I'm sure she's having a really lovely holiday weekend.  And if the weather doesn't get too horrible, she'll get to go meet Gary's mom.  That'll be a nice thing since his mom is also in her 90's!  So I'm glad Wendy decided to go ahead and drive up there after all. 

 

Life is good.

Okay guys -- wake up! . . .

Since I'm keeping all the critters inside their paddocks until Mark gets home and gets all the doors to that storage building locked up, I felt like I needed to step up their comfort in each of their stalls.  So I put plenty of shavings and padding on their floors and supplied them all with lots of hay and nice clean water.  And it worked!   When I got up and let Joey out at 1 or 2 AM,  there was Duke - laying out flat on his side in his stall looking VERY comfy.  He's been doing that pretty regularly ever since he came to live here at the house instead of over at Al's place.

But then this morning when I went out to give everyone their breakfast, there was Arthur -- laying out fast asleep on the floor in HIS stall as well!  That's something he's just now beginning to do!  So I went in and got my camera, but when I came back in there to take a picture of him sprawled out on his floor, I apparently woke him.  He sat up and looked around at me like "WHY are you waking me???"

Since it was still dark outside, I guess I can understand why he might have found that a bit inappropriate!  I generally go to work at 7 AM so that I can get off in time to make it over to physical therapy before they close at 5.  So when I'm feeding them it's always waaay earlier than when Mark does it -- or even when I do it on the weekends!  Poor confused horsies.

But starting tomorrow, they won't have to wake up early in order to have breakfast since Mark will be coming home EARLY!  Because he's been working on the rig at the dock and not offshore, he gets to come home at quitting time on Tuesday evening instead of waiting for a boat to pick them up at 1 or 2 or 3 AM, and then not even getting onshore for another 5 or 6 hours.  Back in those days, he usually made it home late on Wednesday afternoon.  Tomorrow he will probably be home before I even leave for work!  Excellent!   (And the horses will be VERY happy.  He will no doubt go out and feed them mid-morning -- once they're awake and hungry!)

Tuesday is (finally) over . . .

Went in to work at 7 this morning so I could come home before Mark left for work and still have time to get up to my MRI appointment at 4:15.  It worked out pretty well, actually.  And that MRI wasn't really bad after all.  I DO wish they had suggested I take off my wedding ring, though.  Once I was inside that "tunnel" and they turned that thing on, the ring started to tremble as if I were touching the electric fence!  It wasn't actually shocking me, but it felt like it was going to!  It took me a good 5 minutes or so to accept that nothing was going to shock me and to let myself relax!  Gees!  And I kept forgetting to breathe, too.  He told me not to move, so my inclination was to hold my breath the way you do when you're having an x-ray.  But of course THAT doesn't work at all well during a 20-minute-plus procedure! So I had to keep reminding myself to breathe quietly and NOT hold my breath because when I did hold my breath, I would suddenly feel I had to take a deep DEEP breath and that could NOT be motionless!  But apparently it all worked out well enough.  The guy seemed to be perfectly happy when it was over.  So now it's just a matter of waiting to hear from the ortho doc about what the results were, apparently.

 

Right now it is POURING down rain here with a LOT of thunder and lightning, too.  I looked out earlier and was surprised to see Duke standing out in the rain in his paddock while Arthur was standing inside Duke's stall eating his hay!  What the heck! 

Don't tell me Arthur has become the one in charge these days!!  If he has, Duke is for certain losing his mind!  Duke probably weighs twice as much as Arthur - hard to understand why on earth he would let him take over his stall!  So I got out my umbrella and went out there to "rearrange" them.  But when I got there I found that Arthur had managed to remove his halter so there was no way to "lead" him over to his own stall.  But no problem . . . trying to put a new halter on him DID get him to leave Duke's stall!  So it all worked out in the end.  Besides -- once he was gone, I got out the cookies.   ;-D 

 

Yep -- anyone who knows Duke knows that when it comes to cookies he is always first in line.  So to get him to come in, all I had to do was stand there in his stall and ask him if he wanted a cookie.  He came flying inside in NO time.  And since Arthur had gone back over to his own paddock, I locked his gate to keep him in there.  Then I gave everyone more hay and filled their water buckets.  Now everyone will stay inside and away from the lightning until morning, I'm sure.  And I'll be able to happily sleep through the stormy night.  Now that everything is done, it's after 9:30 and it's still pouring down rain. I need to get in to work early again tomorrow so that means getting up at 5 am, so I'm heading for bed now.  And I DO love sleeping under the sound of heavy rain.

Arthur definitely has a "big brother" these days . . .

Looked out this afternoon and saw Arthur laying in the sun having a nice nap, while Duke and Lizzie were grazing a hundred or so feet away.

 

 

 

 

Then as I watched from upstairs, Lizzie first began grazing in Arthur's direction, then suddenly began heading quickly over toward him.  I wasn't sure if she just wanted to get near him -- or if she wanted to kick the crap out of him while he was down!  (She DOES have her moments as far as he's concerned.)

 

 

But apparently the same thing occurred to Duke because as soon as she headed for Arthur, Duke stuck his ears back,  looked threatening, and walked quickly over to get between Lizzie and Arthur.

 

 

As soon as he did that, she went on by and acted as if she hadn't even noticed Arthur.  Duke didn't go after her, but he DID stay there near Arthur -- just in case.

 

 

And Arthur slept through the whole thing - pretty unusual for him.  Usually the slightest noise or movement and he's up and running.  Apparently he has great trust in Duke these days!  Out like a light!

 

 

As a matter of fact, he's been trying to sleep near Duke at night these days, too.  Instead of sleeping in his own stall, he goes over and lays down on that porch outside Duke's stall.  Duke sleeps inside, Arthur sleeps outside.  Darned good thing Arthur doesn't try and go inside and lay down NEXT to Duke!  Getting up might be a bit of problem if he did!  But those two are definitely attached to each other anymore, that's for sure.