It was the first anniversary of his death a few weeks ago, and sometimes it still feels like yesterday. I still feel weird at home without him. Friend of mine just had to put down his cat, and hearing about it was like tearing open a fresh wound.

Scooter was the kind of cat that would change minds of cat 'haters'. I've seen it happen many times.

Hes the bottom kitty on my back tat.

I never once took him for granted, especially once he started showing signs of aging. I ensured he was as comfortable and content as possible, the type of treatment all elders deserve.

Choosing to have him euthanized and listening to his last purr was the most cold/empty feeling I ever want to feel. Although I know it was the right thing (I urged the vet to tell me what to do, I couldnt force myself to make that decision) I still felt as though I betrayed his trust in me. He wasn't just a cat, he wasn't just another one of my pets. He was that ONE, we all have that one pet in our lives that stand out amongst all the rest. That was him.

The one thing I don't like about the relationships I have with my non human family members, is how shortlived they are.

Sis took this, and I had to post it...

I'm NOT allowed piggies for 'biosecurity' reasons. But MEH, and fuck dat! I'll practice the same measures we take with quarrentined (sp?) boars so what's the diff? Plus the regular vaccines of course. Mr. Puss and I picked up this lil cutie this evening. Taking them away from their homes and mommies is the hardest thing ever. She squealed like a friggin BANSHEE when Mr. Puss caught her. But she doesn't freak out as much when I pick her up now, a lil squeal and thats it. She tries to crawl up and hide in my neck, and tried to find a nipple in there earlier today LOL. So damn cute, and I can't wait til she's a bit older and gets outta the terrified and skittish baby stage. I have to get a ramp for me Jeep cause when she's grown it won't be as easy lugging her around on my neck.

I can almost read the bubble above Chester (the cat)..."What the fuck is that!?"


Courtney and her cute lil squishy nose


Trying to crawl underneath me, skeered of Mr. Puss.


I have to go get a harness for her at the pet store, the binder twine I used earlier wasn't too comfy for her lol. Hopefully the cats wont eat her for dinner tonight while I'm in bed. Courtney (the piggie, named after Courntey Love... one rockin pig LOL) crashed underneath the nightstand in a mound of feed and I didn't have the heart to re-locate her to the poop friendly bathroom floor lol.

I'll open this useless blog with today's Blog Frog



Now.... hmmmm... what do say


*crickets*

hmmmmm

*a pin drops*

ummmmm

*leaky faucet*

Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, because I like to eat wooooOOOOrrrrms. Big fat juicy ones, long slim slimy ones, itzy bitzy fuzzy wuzzy werms.


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She reminded me of that character in the Looney Tunes of that old lady chicken who could never lay an egg. lol. She was the runt of the bunch (which is strange, chickens don't get runts lol). Something was wrong with her and she didn't grow much and ate constantly.

Mr. Puss came to me wednesday night and said they had picked her ass out. I wasn't surprised, chickens kill off the weak ones... They are evil bitches. So Mr. Puss stuck her neck on a plank for me. I had NO part in it, I think I mentioned "Can't you just run her over with the truck or something?" lol.

I loves everything about farming but could never do the icky stuff.

To let the buyer know that you are serious and not just a tire kicker.

Sis just sold her horse today. Shes had a lot of inquiries about him since posting his ad, monthes ago. Many people came to ride him, or to watch him being ridden. Many people said they liked him and were interesting in buying him. They said they'd be "Back in a week with the money" only to get no call back.

SO, a lady Mr. Puss knows came to test him out for her kid. Kid rode him and loved him (of course, he is a horse lol). So she said she'd take him after passing a vet exam. She called once since then and didn't seem very serious about booking him in.

Sis got a phone call, another lady was interested in him and wants to see him. She said she'd bring her trailer in case she likes him, she lives an hour away. Sis (thinking the initial interest swayed) agreed to meet her here.

THEN she gets a call from interest #1 saying she'll give 3500.00 for him (300 over the asking price) but sis informed her that there is someone looking at him soon and she's been driving an hour to get here already...

SO the lady with the trailer took him and paid the asking price, the first lady called her back to say this "Just so you know I have a crying child on my hands now and I think you're a fucking bitch"

LOL... HELLO! This is Alberta lady, there are tons of kid broke horses to be had for someone with a rich husband and a spoiled kid. Of course your kid is crying, I cried once when my 'pet' snails ran away. Get over it.

He went to be an intermediate lesson horse at some stable far far away lol, new owner called back to say how good he did on his first lesson.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2jDYVbbDA[/url]

He usually comes to me like a dog, but the green feed bucket added some extra pizazz in his step LOL. He's going through his gangly awkward teenager stage, I swear I seen a zit on him the other day... har har.

While I'm blatherin horses, we got a new client today. Two racing standardbreds (they pull the carts). They seem like nice people and were impressed with how we have things set up. They love the race track and I'm excited to see someone actually benefit from it.

Last year was icky here, too much personal drama in the barn involving some of the 'hens'. We clashed horns with a few of them constantly and it was friggin stressful as hell. It'd get to where we'd see someone pull up in their car and just cringe (DAMN anal horse people haha). We also were just learning how to run this place, we had to work out a lot of kinks and learnt a lot from it.

THIS season will be much better, I'm not going to look at it as a hinderince in my life, but rather it IS my life. I live here and should/do take a lot more pride in it. I want people to feel that their horses get the same care in our hands as they would in theirs.

I know we can't make everybody happy, there is always a genre of folk who aren't happy with ANYTHING and will always have something to bitch about. Or those people who expect constant favors and throw hissy fits when they don't get their own way.

What I am going to do this season is help Mr. Puss out more in the P.R. department. I'm shy as fuck and stutter like the bejesus sometimes, but I can't let my self centeredness take precidence over his mental workload.

Sister is moving out so it's just the two of us this year, we gotta revamp things a bit. This is OUR place, to run the way we want it and I think things will be much smoother considering we are both on the same page.

Just keepin things in perspective and mentally preparing for the winter to come, I think it's going to be a really busy one for us.

One of them killed a duck last night, a female Mallard. We have lots of birds in our pond infield of the track. I go an sit amongst the horses listening to them graze and tail swish, and watch the many birds and babies splash around the reeds.

Sis found the duck by the barn door, so its obvious who the culprit was. If I catch those shitheads in that pond again, thems gonna get it! I won't tolerate doggies that kill stuff.

I was always the one saying how much I loved my job. I would look forward to going to work in the morning and after a long weekend would find myself missing work.

Its been getting bad for a lil while, we've been losing lots of boars (the old ones are all dying off/falling apart). We just lost my two favorites the past two weeks, I think it was the straw on the camel's back. I mentally worked out possible solutions to saving one of the two, but we are contracted through these meat producing companies to get rid of their boars once they are deemed inusable. Get rid -sent to a rendering plant in a big stock trailer loose with other boars. I remember being inside the barn after one trailer was loaded with two boars, and these guys were small ones, I thought there was thunder outside.

I take pride when I am the only one who can enter a pen without being chased and barked at. New boars get the "joy" of living in crates, they can't turn around and can't lay down comfortably. They are so scared sometimes they institutionalize themselves in that tiny crate, so when you go to let them out to collect or wash their crate they refuse to exit. Instead balking at the back in terror. What I do is wait, I'll crouch down off to the side in front or I'll just walk away out of their vision. Sometimes I'll enter, right in front of their face and let them sniff me. I'll wait friggin ten minutes for one to come out. If that means that they remember I'm NOT going to hit them out next time, the time waiting is worth a well trained boar.

My manager will give them all of 10 seconds to get out, before reaching ahead and hitting them with his stick. He'll turn around back and beat him out. All the while making some of them so scared of what will happen once their out, they'll sit there and take a stick as long as he's giving it.

The white ones have tender skin, one new guy had huuuge red welts all own his back and once we moved him to a big pen in MY barn (the boys I collect) his fear hasn't subsided as I hoped. He's frightful of any openings and no one tries any other methods except beating the piss outta him. He was bleeding today after I specifically said to "Let him have some time to calm down, maybe he'll go in if you leave him alone". Well people lookit me like I dunno what I'm talking about and totally ignore me (when I've been there twice as long as them). It took an hour to get him in an collect him, when I'm sure if we'd have left him alone he'd have decided to enter in maybe a half hour.

SO many times I've moved boars and have my manager come up and just give em a whack if they aren't fast enough getting out of their pens. First of all I did not ask for your help and NO wonder they hurt themselves so damn much, they'll fall down one day and don't get up. I had one old boy fall down and smash around like a fish on the concrete floor - while my manager hit him - so much that he must have damaged his brain cause he died in his pen that night. They walk around with such bad arthritis for so long, as long as they are producing semen they don't care how much pain their in. One guy would shake, like he had parkinsons, as he walked soo stiff it'd take him forever to move ten feet. But they don't care, he still produced good semen. When their down and done, they won't get up. Something in their legs/joints prevents them to get up again, BUT my manager will come along cause god forbid his pen remain dirty underneath him for one day. Sometimes they have completely split hooves, from the concrete flooring, they'll be bleeding everywhere and walking on three legs. But HEY, get him on that dummy and everything is good to go! grr.

My favorite boy was a stout lil Yorkshire, I'd go in his pen in the mornings and he'd leave his food to greet me at the gate and wait for his pets. Sometimes he'd fall down so I'd rub his belly, then I'd have to get him up again so I could clean lol. We usually keep clear of their faces, but I thought it was funny how he'd just stick his squishy nose in my crotch and wait for head pats. I went to collect him one day and nothing but blood came out where there was supposed to be ejaculate. He seemed healthy otherwise, was eating and no temp. I know he would have made someone a good farm yard pet.

I befriended a very skittish, fast and tall Duroc who used to scare the crap outta me (I'd guess he was 700 lbs). I thought he must be scared cause he runs and bursts out of gates everywhere he goes. SO, I'd go to his pen with hay cubes and hand feed them while petting his head lightly and talking to him. It got to where he'd just come to be for full on back scratches, and I could even do so in his pen while he ate. But moving him took longer cause he no longer ran from me lol. To have an animal like that trust you is something I take great pride in.

When I come back from vacation and find a few of the boars that I took so much time to train properly just as terrified and hard to handle as before it enrages me. Everything I do with heart is completely pointless, cause I'm totally alone here. People without patience and without animal sense should never work with them.

An animal lover such as myself should never work in an environment like this.

I thought about what to dress Mr. Puss as this year, a gargoyle. Fuckin rights that will be a fun one to make. Since I have TWO costumes to make I have to go shopping for a sewing machine pronto! I already added a bunch of halloween sites to my flavorites, most of the shit I can find in stores I'm sure.

The rock station here 100.3 The Bear has the biggest halloween party, you have to call and win tickets. Mr. Puss has been trying to win them for a few years, but this year is going to be a bit more involved. I'm going to get SO sick of listening to the same 20 songs a day for two monthes lol.

Its awesome to have something to look so forward to once summer is done. I don't like christmas and new years is boring... Halloween on the other hand, I wait for it all year long.