Happy FriYAY all! Casey and I are headed west to a Stock Horse of Texas show. This will be my first horse show in western tack in about 15 years! Hopefully all goes well and we get some ribbons and some interest in buying Casey.

This week has been delightfully less eventful than weeks past. Still lots of prescription meds in the cabinets for various animals, but most seem to be on the mend.

Catfish and Mickey snuggles before Mickey had his surgery. Catfish is always sweet with the little dogs, even though he can’t see them.

We got nearly an inch of rain this week and the temps have been amazingly cool. The forecast for the next 10 days has the highs in the low 90s and high 80s, which is remarkable for Texas in August! I’ll take it! Sterling got the all clear last weekend for turnout (with a quiet buddy) and walk/trot rides. It has been nice to be back in the tack for some easy hill walking.

Sterling also enjoys the rain. Why is it that the horse that is closest to the color white is the one that most feels the need to roll in mud? None of the brown horses have this dirty habit.

The muppies are continuing to eat and grow,eat and grow, and eat and grow. The puppy timelines say their eyes should be open by now, but they are taking their time and appear to be enjoying their eat and grow schedule. Very few workouts for these muppies so far. I’ll probably be eating my words a week from now!

Muppy pile!

Harriet is almost done with her post-heartworm-treatment meds and is ready for YOU to adopt her! She is so wonderful and will be an amazing doggo for someone.

Harriet found/made her very own doggy canopy bed. This is her new favorite place to sleep.

Happy weekend y’all!

This has been quite the eventful week, and not the good kind of eventful. On Tuesday morning Simon came in from turnout extremely lame. Thankfully it turned out to just be a pulled shoe. I got Boot City to come to the barn to help me pull it off completely and while he was pulling the shoe Mickey, our 5lb (and fearless) foster dog kept going into the stall to try to eat Simon’s food. I kept shooing him out so Simon wouldn’t get stressed about Mickey in his feed pan WHILE Boot City was pulling on his foot. Then, all of a sudden, we hear a blood curdling screech coming from Sterling’s paddock.

I ran out the barn doors to see Dickens staring at Mickey writhing on the ground. My first thought was that he had a back/spine/neck injury. Few things are worse than a horribly maimed animal that isn’t dead, but needs to be put down. Especially at 6a on a Tuesday morning. I ran over to get him out of the proximity of Sterling, who was still munching on his breakfast and seemed curious about the commotion. Thankfully Mickey’s head, neck and spine seemed fine. He was writhing around, but it seemed to be from pain and not from the lack of ability to control his body. He whimpered and slowly calmed down enough that I was able to identify he had a very smashed left front leg and quite a lot of skin and fur torn off his right front foot.

From what we could ascertain of the situation, Mickey was probably eating Sterling’s food and Sterling took a stop in exactly the wrong spot and stepped on Mickey. Sterling isn’t at all food aggressive and doesn’t seem to mind sharing with the dogs, so I have no reason to believe that it was aggressive or purposeful. Just a tiny dog at the wrong place at the wrong time.

After a tour of North Texas vets we finally got x-rays on Wednesday and determined that he did have some broken bones.

Broken right front foot toe.

Very broken left front leg

I was really hoping this would be an injury that could just be splinted for recovery, but alas it will require surgery. Since Mickey is a foster the rescue group will be utilizing a lower cost option, but it is still expensive. Mickey and I would be GREATLY appreciative of any donations made to his surgery cost. You can click here to make a tax deductible donation to the Urgent Animals of Fort Worth rescue group who are paying for the surgery. This is an amazing rescue group that purely focuses on getting the most urgent dogs and cats out of the Fort Worth shelter. Dogs that have respiratory infections and heartworms are the hardest to get adopted and often the first to get euthanized. Every dog we have fostered has been an Urgent dog. Mickey is also currently undergoing heartworm treatment.

Mickey came back home yesterday with leg splints while he waits for his surgery. All he wants out of life is for me to carry him around 24/7. He’s always liked being held, but even more so now. Sweet little guy.

Back home and ready to pass out. Poor little guy was tired!

Other, happier, news is that Sterling’s leg is looking MUCH better! A couple more weeks of stall rest and he should be back to regular turnout with his buddies and hopefully rideable soon after that.

Very little fluid left and the holes are healing nicely.

Things have warmed right up here in Texas! Because of the heat I’ve been motivated to get up early and ride before work. I’m lucky to be somewhat flexible in my arrival time at the office, but other than today have been at my desk before 8:30a every day. It is SO NICE to be done early and to not ride in the heat of the day. Coco is a bit extra spunky in the cooler weather and my rides usually start in the dark, but sunrises on horseback are just unbeatable!

Mickey started his slow-kill heartworm treatment this week. I also gave him a haircut last week. I think he enjoys not getting so much gunk stuck in his hair when he’s busy chasing chickens through the weeds!

This toad is on our porch every single night eating bugs. I like to leave the porch light on so lots and lots of bugs gather and he gets a smorgasbord!

Dickens is the most photogenic dog I’ve ever had. He lives to strike a pose.

I have my fingers, toes, arms, legs and anything else crossed that Sterling’s stifle is FINALLY healing. He still gets hydrotherapy twice per day and I like to do it while he’s eating as bribery. He has a lot of help when he’s eating, as you can see here.

What are you up to this weekend? I hope it is a great one!

This was a relatively quiet week at the farm. The weather is heating up to typical Texas summer temps, which makes me kind of sad. The spring and fall here are delightful, but the summers really are brutal!

Sweet little Harriet had her first heartworm injection this week. She was quite lethargic the first day, but has pepped up since. She will have two more injections in a month and hopefully will then be cured and ready to be adopted!

I can’t even with these two! This is no less than 150 pounds of dog on one dog bed. Never mind that there are at least two other same-sized dog beds they can use.

This is Mickey, our most recent foster from the Fort Worth shelter. He is your typical 6 pound dog who acts like he is 60 pounds! He is also heartworm positive so will be starting treatment soon. In the meantime he is trying his paw at goat herding.

Pardon her closed eyes, but this is Coco modeling her new fly sheet. She is a solid 16hh so I have mostly bought her sheets and blankets sized for a horse that tall, which is generally a 75-78 depending on their body type. Well, Coco has a very compact body and she was tearing up her size 76 fly sheet because it was too big and didn’t fit her correctly. This sheet is a 72. She is so petite!

This photo is a barn evening in a nutshell! Peaches asleep in the middle of the doorway. Quila chasing chickens trying to find eggs to eat and chickens wandering in the barn aisle and pooping on the floor.

Happy weekend y’all!

We had some AMAZING cool August weather, but alas it is hot again.

Early mornings make for great sunset viewing

Kitties on a ’57 Chevy

Lately Tarzan and Sabrina (we are probably keeping the mama foster kitty) have gotten on top of the barn a lot. Weirdos.

Chivas and Charlotte in a rare moment of quiet and snuggling. Usually Charlotte is out and about.

Coco after a ride. She’s at that stage where she knows what she should be doing, but is having moments of rebellion that are kind of annoying and kind of cute.

Happy weekend y’all!