Good Person Award!

So, do you ever meet people that seem to go above and beyond what they need to? This week I had the privlege of meeting a fantastic woman and getting introduced to her organization -- Camp Companion (www.campcompanion.org). Michelle Quandt deserves a big hug or at least a pat on the back from all of you if you ever meet her.

To set the stage -- when I bought the barn there were 8 feral cats. OK, one was almost friendly, but the others were completely wild. Luckily they looked healthy, and I completely understand that a barn needs cats to control the vermin problem. However, 4 of those cats are calicos -- for you non-cat people, those are guaranteed mommies.

So, one week after I closed on my place there were 21 kittens. After we pulled them out of the walls of the barn at five weeks and I had a stall collapse on me in the process we found 13 kittens and then there was a whole lot of X rated kitty activities going on.

Being an animal person, I realize this is going to get out of hand FAST. So, I start by finding homes for all the babies -- I'm down to five kittens... not a bad start. Then I start calling around... $210 to spay a cat, then how am I going to catch them? $1600+ to fix my problem? Not an option. I call the humane societies, animal control, thinking maybe they will take some and I will spay and neuter the rest. Everyone was full, no one would help. One group suggested euthanizing them by tying them in a bag attached to my car exhaust -- I was sick. And I was frustrated-- I was trying to be responsible, do the right thing and help these animals and no one would help me.

Enter Michelle and her program that spays and neuters feral cats for a very reasonable donation (or none at all if you can't afford it). They trap the cats, take them to the vet, and bring them back with their ear notched so they can keep track of the cats in SE Minnesota that they've helped. Their program has been going since 2003, and they just altered their 1,000th cat!

And why does Michelle do this? Is she a crazy cat lady? She actually told me she doesn't even own a cat, she just saw there was a problem and she knew there had to be a solution, so she started Camp Companion.

THANK YOU MICHELLE-- for helping people like me. :)



Picture of the day: Some of our babies playing in the summer sun.

The Sound of Music

Yesterday I learned how long a 6 year old can yodel.

1 hour and 15 minutes.

We took out a fantastic and nice family in town for the long weekend. A mom, dad and Jake. Jake was very cute, 6, and had LOTS OF ENERGY.

And for an ENTIRE hour and 15 minutes he yodeled. I asked him his favorite movie, his answer, "No clue yo-do-lay-he-hoo!"

Hey Jake, do you know any cowboy songs?

"yup."

Okay sing one....

"Yodel-y-yodel-y-yodel-y-hoo!"

And even as he left he said, "thanks yodel-y-yodely-hoo!"

It's a good thing they didn't want an overnight ride...

The Rules of Pheidi

For the next 6 weeks I get to babysit Pheidi Jean. Pheidi belongs to my friend Lori who's doing her surgery rotation in Scottdale. Since I was the one that Lori got Pheidi from as a baby I get to babysit. :) Pheidi is an interesting kitty and a bit of a diva and there are a few key rules that need to be followed in order to play with Pheidi:

1) If you are female that great. I will love you forever. If you are male I will claw your eyes out. I don't like boys.
2) Keep me out of window sills, I've been caught lunging at the screens trying to escape.
3) RUB MY BELLY. If I run up and flop over you better, otherwise I'll sink my claws into your ankle.
4) SINK TIME. When I come into the bathroom you better turn on the water so I can play in the sink. If you don't I'll howl until you give in.
5) DON'T MOVE WHEN YOU SLEEP. People are pillows and I expect them to act that way.

Pheidi is also sort of a dog. She meets me at the door when I come home!

Even though she's a diva, I'm excited that we get to love her for 6 weeks and Lori -- your baby misses you. :)

This is Pheidi when she was younger -- can't you see the attitude???

Horse Show Fun

Sunday was the first local show of the season and we had a blast! I am still tired from a weekend with no sleep, but we took one of the baby stallions and he was a trooper. His first bath, mane pulling, and then going to the show, standing all day. What a good boy!

The girls that went to the show did great and the highlight of the day was Dominic's leadline class. For those of you non-horse people it's a class for kids 5 or younger where they go in and get led around and all get ribbons or trophies.

Dominic had a blast and I almost cried I was so happy for him. He didn't win, but he had fun and was SO PROUD of his accomplishments, and that's all that matters to me. :)

Horse show season

In horse world Mother's Day is not just Mother's Day -- it signals the start of show season. This means EVERY Sunday from now until the end of time (and some Saturday's too) there is a horse show. The ladies and I at the barn decided oh, at about 4 PM this afternoon that we should go to the show tomorrow. Granted, we decided this on a trail ride, so by the time we got back and had dinner it was about 8 PM.

Not a big deal you think, but there's a rediculous about of prepping that goes into getting ready for even a small show. After all was said and done we tallied 7 horses. That's 2 trailers, 7 horses, 4 adults, 2 -- 12 year old girls, 1 -- 4 year old boy and two puppies. We all have to be ready to LEAVE the barn at 6:30 tomorrow morning. But the fun gets better... everybody needs to have their show gear ready:

Hat, boots, show pants, spurs, show shirt ,vest (for some), showmanship pants, make up, blah blah blah. Then each person needs to clean their respective saddle and bridle which involves lots of leather cleaner and silver cleaner.

Then, each horse needs to be bathed, clipped (which they LOVE) -- every whisker, hair out of their ear, leg fuzzy and extra eyelash must be gone. Then we band the mane-- this involves pulling chunks of mane out until it's thin enough to put 100 tiny bands in to make it lay flat. This is a literal underestimate. Then we trim it to make the ends all pretty and even.

Remember when I said we started late? Yeah, we just finished. And the help started dropping like flies at about 9 PM. First it was the wee boy (OK he IS 4, so he does have an excuse), then the girls and various adults until it was me and Lynelle bathing by the headlights of trucks and putting VERY tiny bands into the mane of a baby horse who was not very happy with us.

Then, when they're clean and banded we wrapped their legs to keep their whites white and put spandex blankies on them (called slinkies, or sleazies) to keep their hair slick and pretty 'til the show.

And after all is said and done I'll get a whopping 3 hours of sleep.

Happy show season!

Picture of the day:

This is what happens to little cowboys when you take them to Arizona and they get too hot for clothes. :)

Mayo wants their money back !?!

So, as most of you know, in a previous life I worked at the WFMC. Today in the mail I recieve a letter saying, "I have recieved the paperwork staing that you were overpaid on your last pay check, I have calculated your payback amount and it is $228.89, please make your check out to the 'Mayo Foundation' you can send me your check using the US Postal Service, my address is: blah blah blah. Sincerely, Mark the Mayo Tool"

Note: The Mayo Tool is not Mark's real last name.

Is this for real???? I guess so...

UGH.

So now I'm torn-- do I...

1) ignore the letter
2) call Mark and waste my day in red tape
3) send in the check
4) send in the wrong amount just for giggles (devious, I know, but it would be funny)

Picture of the day:

Addy on the lawn...

Dogs are supposed to be bigger than cats

So this all started this winter when I went over to my friend Pottsie's house. I knew she bred poms and I knew I liked big dogs (hence being the owner of two mastiffs and a lab). But, then I saw these little cute fuzzy puppies that looked like cotton balls with eyes and I HAD TO HAVE ONE. Note to any animal lovers: Pottsie is nice, but NEVER go to her house. You will come away with a puppy.

I named her Honey and then she never grew. Well, I guess she grew -- sort of. As of Tuesday night she topped off at just under 2 and a half pounds. How do I know this -- well she was weighed at the Emergency Vet Clinic. Why? Because she fell off the bed. Gerbils apparently are not bred to sleep on beds. They break when they fall off. And that's what happened to Honey. What made it better is that Honey wasn't sleeping in MY bed, she was in Lynelle's bed. See, Lynelle is my barn manager and I made a deal with her daughter Gabby that Honey and Uno (her brother -- you can't have just one!) could spend the nights with Gabby instead of crated at my house.

So, at about 11:30 Tuesday I get a phone call from Lynelle saying that Honey fell out of bed and her leg was swollen and it didn't look good. So she brought the dog, I brought the checkbook and we met at the vet.

To set the scene: in walk two EXTREMELY dirty women (still in barn clothes--and mind you I had been riding a dirty pony bareback so my butt was looking especially nice) and one very tiny dog. We meet the vet, tell him Honey fell off the bed and he informed us that yes, "the angle of the dangle" looked bad and she probably broke her leg. What made it better is I think HE thought that Honey was in bed with BOTH of us. He had a hard time deciding who to talk to, who should sign the medical release and basically who wore the pants in the relationship.

At one point I said, "Lynelle is my barn manager." To me who was sleep deprived and slap happy that obviously cleared it all up, but I think that just made him think we weren't out of the closet yet.

By the end of the night we came away with a pretty good prognosis, but a puppy who needs to wear a cast for 6 weeks and the confirmation that Lynelle and I make one of THE oddest lesbian couples EVER. It's a good thing we have Chris and Trevor around to keep us straight. :)

Welcome to my blog

So yes, I have officially broken down and entered the world of blogging. My life has changed so much in the past month it's hard to believe. Almost all of it revolves around the opening of my business: The Stables of ChesterWoods (www.thestablesofchesterwoods.com). It is an amazing an exhausting feeling to own your own business, and a little scary too. I've learned quite a bit in the past month... among my observations:

1) It is possible to go long periods without sleep -- I'm working on day 33...
2) After all the $ I have spent I think my vet's children will be going to a VERY nice college (at least they better be).
3) Cats can reproduce at an amazing rate -- especially when you buy a barn that comes with 8 mature adults.
4) It's a nice feeling to go to work grubby and have no one care.
5) It's awesome to work long days and wonder where the time went because you LOVE what you're doing instead of watching the clock all day.

Here's a photo of Max today that I took :)