It will be a privilege to be alive in ten years. Most of my life I fully expected to be healthy and hearty at 77 years of age, like many of my friends are now.
I hope to enjoy scenery like this for many years.
I expected to be in my home, enjoying my pets and nature, traveling at least a bit to see new sights or visit friends. That’s the same as now.
Simple pleasures are all I desire.
As an example, we drove today to a place near Medina, Texas, to see the cabin Lee’s friend Matt has been working on for many years. It was fun. I got to hear a new kind of vireo and a Golden-Cheeked Warbler, found only here this time of year. What a privilege to be free to do this.
Cabin view
I’m concerned, though, that in a decade I won’t have a source of income or health care, though I’ve paid into Social Security and Medicare my whole working life. If that’s the case, things may look very different in ten years. Who knows? Things could also be better, too.
They have an old horse here.
Let’s hope we all still get to enjoy our friends and family a decade from now. In the meantime, treasure what you have. That’s my plan.
Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this one, and it involves a certain bur-headed gray gelding in my life, Andrew “Droodles” Kendall. I’ve alluded to having anxiety and concerns that have been weighing me down recently. One was Drew.
Me?
Since getting kicked in the head by Fiona the mini-donkey followed by unexplained pain on his right side, this horse has been a challenge. To be honest, I haven’t been up for the challenge, for a couple of reasons. One is that, even if he were my only horse, my schedule won’t let me work him consistently almost every day, which helps him hurt less. The other is that his aggressive behavior made me wary of him and want to work with him less, not more, even with all I’ve learned about horses and how pain affects them.
I need special stuff. Mabel says she does, too.
I’d discussed options with my trainer (Tarrin) and neighbor (Sara), who are wise and honest.
I could find him a new home with a more assertive rider with more available saddle time. I’d just hope to get the money back for his saddle, not all his training.
I could stop working with him and let him be a pasture friend like Mabel and Dusty. I’d cut down on all those supplements and medication though!
Or I’d hope to get him to a point where I’d enjoy working with him and he’d enjoy learning. I’d hope to ride, it maybe groundwork or liberty could happen.
In the meantime, I’ve let him rest and have been observing him. In the past couple of weeks, he has been friendly and let me pet him without biting at me. He’s let me remove his tail burs and some mane burs. This made me a little optimistic when our next scheduled lesson came up today.
I’ve been eating well, as always.
Both Drew and Apache were filthy from rolling in mud, both covered in burs, etc. I realized that I’ve finally learned to just do what I can to get ready in the amount of time I have. Yay. A lesson learned. I got them brushed and removed all Apache’s latest burs (not too many) and Droodles’s tail burs. I only got half his mane. But he was great about it. Just let me pick them out and chat with him, just like Apache does! I was pleased.
When we got to the lessons, I realized I’d left Drew’s girth in the tack room. So I couldn’t try to ride, with nothing to hold the saddle on. Maybe that was good, because we had a wonderful ground lesson. He did not act like he hurt anywhere, and was calm and willing to do whatever we asked, with no tail swishing or foot stamping. I realized he was coming to me to be petted when he’d stop an exercise. Nice!
Then we worked on a new skill. Tarrin started it but I finished. It involved walking while straddling a wooden pole. I’d watched Sara and Aragorn work on this one. It is a bit challenging.
I’m encouraging him to put the left rear hoof on the correct side of the pole.
Drew was very calm throughout the training, and seemed intent on learning to keep the feet on the correct side. Besides that, he was friendly and sweet. He nuzzled us nicely and even licked Tarrin.
He seemed as pleased as we were when he made it all the way to the end of the pole. It was like working with him just before he got hurt. Wow.
Almost there!
We were all so pleased! Tarrin posited that he might have had a virus in addition to hurting his right ride and neck. There’s no way to know, since horses can’t talk. But it looks like Drew and I have things we can do together! We will try riding next.
Oh yes, Apache had a lesson, too. Having them more frequently has helped him get back in shape, and he’s been a champ about working with me at home, eating at least some of his food, and slurping his powdered medicine mixed with applesauce.
I’m sorta tired, Suna.
In lessons, he’s been gaining new skills with speeds of walk and trot, and with moving off my leg. Maybe cantering will happen next year. We say that every year.
Must walk briskly.
But he makes us laugh by having to pee after a lot of trotting and getting all lathered up in sweat on unseasonably warm winter days. I’m so glad he’s healthy and his feet are doing so well (thanks to Tarrin’s gradual trims).
Pee break )pre-pee)Butt sweat only an owner could love
So, I’ve learned that I need to give my animals time to heal and learn, Apache with his feet, and Drew with whatever was causing his irritability. I want them both healthy and content. I’ll just keep trying and extend my patience.
It took a lot of patience to get this image of a titmouse snacking on an old wasp nest.
The best news is that sadness about feeling I’d failed Drew is no longer weighing on me. I have hope in at least this part of life!
Or we passed time. You can view time as going by while you stay still, or you can view yourself moving along through it. it’s all fine, because no one understands time.
Quiz time. Can you find four butterflies? The big one is a variegated fritillary.
Today was hard on Goldie. She mostly didn’t move, which is good for healing. But she’s in a hard part of her recovery. Mostly she stayed in her crate other than a little time in the sun. She is eating, though! That’s good.
Harvey seems to be having trouble with his front legs and maybe his vision. He still seems in good spirits and eats well.
Apache will not touch his food, even solid sweet feed (bad for him). However, when I opened his own, he marched over and finished Fiona’s food, which is probiotics and some rice-based stuff. Tomorrow I’ll try putting a random food dish out nowhere near where he gets medicine and see if he eats that. I’m also trying to medicate him in the morning if I catch him.
Leopard frog. Not sure why it wasn’t closer to the pond.
Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist so I will work at the office when I am done. Maybe I can have Dell cafeteria food! It will be a long day.
Could I be more dull? Every day it’s a sick animal report. Tomorrow is a new day!
Life has its ups and downs, and while I don’t talk about my family other than Lee anymore, I could use some good thoughts for our dog, Harvey. Note: I’m not asking for armchair veterinary advice, just sharing concerns.
I’m fine, thanks for asking, says Penney.
Harvey is our oldest dog now, and he’s about 9. I’m bad with dates, but he was a puppy on our first Thanksgiving in this house, which Facebook tells me was 2015. He had a very hard time when young, culminating with being dumped and shot at the house where our friend Mandi now lives. His name was Starvey Harvey because he was skin and bones with cuts and the hole in him. His ribs are still funny.
You can see his scar here.
He’s a strange but lovable guy with short wiry hair and stocky build. He looks like a Doberman or Rottweiler mix, but not a fancy one. He’s grumpy, too, and uses his growl to express displeasure at anything, often for no good reason. It’s just how he talks.
Getting gray around the muzzle
He’s been our good buddy through thick and thin, though, and really loves his people. In return, we pay his vet bills from getting into scrapes, especially the one time he made Goldie mad. He no longer tries to boss her around, though if he snarks too much at another dog, she’ll stop him. She has a large jaw.
Yep, big.
Anyway, recently something has gone wrong with him. I noticed he was having trouble going down the stairs and was acting uncoordinated. I noticed his ear m, eye, and jowl were drooping on the right side. I thought maybe he had a stroke.
See what I mean?
Lee took him to the vet (he did not enjoy the car ride to Mexia, where the vet was that day. She gave him medicine to see if it was an inner ear issue or he’d hurt his back.
Looks a little better
When he didn’t improve (causing Lee to sleep downstairs when I was away, to prevent him from coming upstairs), she did bloodwork. The idea was maybe it was his thyroid. The results came back yesterday to reveal liver issues instead.
Bald spot on his neck. There’s also one behind the droopy ear.
In the meantime, Harvey has lost a couple of big patches of hair. He didn’t rub it off; it just fell out. And yesterday we saw a big bump on his leg that made it hard to walk. Geez, poor guy.
Bump
So, back to the vet he goes tomorrow. Lee will have her look at the new symptoms, but she will probably refer him to a specialist in College Station (that’s the name of the town where Texas A&M University is, for non-local readers).
Still having fun.
We hope he has something treatable! He’s still a happy dude with his characteristic immense appetite. He is doing better with stairs the past day or two, but we still just let him up at night, then block the stairs off once he gets down. That will minimize the strain.
But I wanna go up!
All other dogs are fine. It’s Alfred’s shedding season, so I’m doing a lot of plucking. Penney and Carlton are playing a lot, and Goldie is guarding me from those pesky cows and calves.
Results of a few minutes of Alfred plucking.
I’ll update on Harvey tomorrow! No matter what, he knows he is loved.
The Hermits' Rest 