From The Mommybot

Today was the first day we had a significant snowfall, tho it didn't stick until night fell and even then its just a trace on the grass. Unfortunately Madeline has decided its cold and wet and she didn't want to run out and play with falling snowflakes like they were the bugs she so avidly hunts.

--Moony

I realized I'd forgotten to take my old monitor and the red muck bucket to the storage unit, so I went over to uncover my car, and met the neighbor who lives in #101, who pointed out some stuff I needed to know re: storing it over there and the snow plow, and invited me to park my car to the outside of his.  Apparently the snow plow does go down in that little gravel lot because he has to clear the way for the garbage truck, so the guy was going to talk to the plow guy and arrange for him to scoop out from behind the cars anyway.  Where I had it parked, tho, would have stopped the plow from clearing behind the rest of the cars, and most likely gotten my car buried under the tons of snow plowed from the gravel lot.  Its also okay with the neighbor if I leave the tarp on his front stoop during the times I'll need to use my car.  So I carred the stuff over to the storage unit then parked and tarped in the spot the guy asked me to.  Its also quite probable that the reason my hood rusted so quick over last winter after the paint was damaged was because the salt/chemical stuff used on the sidewalks was sprayed onto the hood.  The tarp will prevent that this year, tho I know it won't stop the rusting, just slow it a little.

With the muck bucket going to the unit, that meant the Purple Dragon carrots had to come out.  As I thought, they're less than half size, tho they did grow and are definitely useable.  Maybe I'll use them for part of Thanksgiving dinner.  They're drying on a towel out on the porch right now.  I'm pretty sure part of the problem was the fact that the bucket had no drainage hole, so judging when to water them was tricky and putting them where they could get rained on was out of the question (they'd have rotted).  I'll get one of those outdoor pot indicators next year.  I have no plans to put a hole in the muck bucket...its more useable all around without one, and it was Brawn's water bucket so it has sentimental value.  That's also why I put it in the storage unit, so it won't freeze and crack while holding slightly damp dirt.

Madeline is feeling better today, tho she's going to be on the echinacea for another day or two.  She also unbloated - she tends to swell up a bit when she's having a pancreatic problem.  She loves the giant  pink superball I got her at the beginning of the month, in the same store where I met that kitten.  Its too big to lose under things, but just small enough she can just barely grasp it with her teeth, and doing so doesn't cause it to lose pieces like the foam one she had before.

--Moony

Commercial US Swine Infected by Swine Flu..and a Kitty!   Fortunately the only thing I like from poor pigs is bacon anymore, tho I wouldn't be surprised if cheap turkey dogs contain some pig.

Sewage Sludge Effects On the Environment  Important because apparently its being marketed to farmers as equivalent to compost.

Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Contaminates Wells and Other Water Sources, and Laws are Not Enforced

On other, slightly less yucky topics (except for one):

A discussion on whether biotech foods can actually cure world hunger.  I agree with Raj Patel that the real problem is poverty.  You guys know I'm into organic, but speaking just logically, so what if biotech foods increase production if the actual hungry people aren't either given it or can afford it?  Growing organic and heirloom is more economical in that your fertilizer, dirt, and seeds are FREE.

Autism Spikes, Toxins Suspected

And last but not least, the other yucky.  Three of my favorite ice cream brands still use rBGH milk...and if you read about its effects on cows and the milk they produce - ewwwww!  So I added my voice to the campaign, and likely will join the boycott because looking at it will make me think of the ick.  Tell the rBGH Profiteers Why You Buy Organic


On personal notes, Madeline has a cold, and I'm finally feeling better after the two day migraine I had over the weekend and subsequent tiredness.  I bottled up a little bit of echinacea tea for Madeline, and put several drops in her food.  She doesn't mind it at all, and it will help her immune system.  Yep, its a holistic remedy recommended for kitties, along with adding some probiotics to her food, too.

--Moony

Well, just a few days to November, and the broccoli and carrots as well as the strawberries and yarrow are still alive outside:And a President who doesn't support organic like his wife does.

--Moony

The last two days I've caught two black Labs and returned them to their owners...well, the second only sort of, 'cause no one knew the dog but one of the local pastors had had a really annoying barky black dog in his yard when I lived in the apartments nearby and the gate to his yard had a broken latch and the dog had an anti-bark collar on, so I guesstimated the dog was his and left her in there (the gate was tight enough to close without the latch).  Last night I spent a few hours talking to the owner of a black Lab that I helped catch, because he'd been chasing the dog all day and was so tired he had just pretty much collapsed and was sitting against his trailer calling the dog kinda weakly.  Everybody knew THAT Lab, tho, including me.  Giant 2 year old puppy named Sam.  His owner gave me some seeds from the deep purple hollyhocks his grandparents had planted many many decades ago, and invited me to garden over there next summer if he's still there.  I probably won't, but I suspect that won't happen anyway.  Its actually a nice corner lot with a somewhat dilapidated single wide trailer on it, but apparently people are interested in buying.

Today its very nice, in fact its spring-nice.  Warm breezes and all.  I'm wondering if this long winter is going to start late like the last couple of years and last loooooong into spring.

--Moony

Looks like I've got most of my Christmas shopping done, but not as much as I'd hoped.  The flea market and vendors at our local street fair have been a great resource for me that way the last few years, finding really cool stuff for not much money.  But not so much this year.  Even tho I usually buy ahead, I just haven't been doing it as much this year.  I have a bad gut feeling about Christmas, really.

My neighbor asked if Madeline was okay, since she and her grandchildren hadn't seen her out on her tie for several days.  I don't put her out if I don't want to get dressed, like I didn't yesterday. In fact, I slept most of the day away.  She's doing fine after that day o' barf.

Me, I spent last night feverish to the point of sweating, and kicking myself for not ordering earlier the herbs I KNEW I needed to.  Of course, I did that last night, while also sucking down echinaea and Vit C tea.  I feel better today, but my savings are going down the drain.

--Moony

Miss Barfy is now Miss FEED ME!  She got a broth of canned chicken water (because I opened the wrong can, was supposed to be tuna) and slippery elm bark with a bit of dried greens, and now she's sleeping.  She's the only cat I've ever had that wants to eat right after barfing, but I made her fast for a few hours at least.

After taking the Bragg's aminos I'm feeling better, but its going to take more than just one application.  At least just taking them is cheaper than buying lots of meat, corn, etc., and a little less crazy feeling.  I actually already had tamari soy sauce in the fridge, but I couldn't find any comparisons of the amounts of aminos left in the tamari versus Bragg's Liquid Aminos which is essentially unfermented soy sauce, so I just went ahead and bought the Bragg's to get as many as possible.

GARDEN NEWS:
Harvested:
Basil - the entire plants of all four, save for stumps with a few leaves that may grow back.  They're drying in the baskets, and I will separate the seeds from the few dried seed pods for next years crop.  Four plants seems like a lot of basil for one person, but I have no idea how much I'll actually use this winter.  I'm kind of hoping the stumps will give me a small second harvest, too, like the feverfew is doing (and should have been working on a third, if I'd harvested the first at the right time).  I might even move the feverfew indoors, if it can take that.

Garlic: My single successful planting's greens had mostly died back, so I went ahead and pulled it up.  Only to discover...it was just a single, perfectly teardrop-shaped clove.  Drat.  Oh well, did turn out that it was the fancy purple striped one.

Rosemary: It wasn't in an ideal spot, and basically grew one super long branch and a few tiny ones.  I cut the super long one, which turned out to be two feet in length with really long leaves, so it was a surprisingly sufficient harvest.  The tiny branches are left, and I'll let the plant overwinter in the ground, then I might choose to move it to a pot where it can get more sunshine if it survives.

The thyme, oregano, chives, onion, carrots and sweet potato are still to go, once the basil is dry and I clear a place for them to lay out and dry. There's a LOT of oregano, and the thyme liked the spot its neighbor rosemary didn't.  The onions haven't even STARTED dying back.  I hear its actually a common problem this year - tomatoes especially didn't ripen for anyone that had them until late August.

My Purple Dragon carrots got a haircut today of the top 5 or 6 inches, in hopes that that will force them to grow more substantial roots berfore the end of September, plus the brown tops were just unsightly.  I'd have done it to the Minicors, too, but I don't want to cut the netting.  The broccoli is producing nice yellow flowers for the bees, and I hope the seeds are produced in time.  I'll try to get pictures tomorrow or so. 

Interestingly, a lot of people are complaining about the yellowjackets this year being more aggressive than normal, but I haven't had that problem.  Its just a matter of giving them something to eat, like with me leaving the hummingbird feeder out partially filled.  They also enjoyed the saucer of beer under the sweet potato more than the slugs did, but several died of drunkenness in or near the saucer.  Huh...guess I haven't taken this month's pictuers!  The sweet potato took off, slugholes in the leaves and all. I will have to dig them soon before the first killing frost.

--Moony

Madeline started upchucking this morning, so I gave her some Pepcid.  Then I went and snagged myself some animos because I realized I haven't been eating enough protein lately and catching up with it would suck my savings and my annoyance level would rise.

I'd left her loose in the apartment, which went fine.  When I got home, she wanted to go outside and I put her outside on her tether.

This went fine, too...until after lunch.  See, I leave the door open so she can come back in, only she decided to come back in specifically to barf, all over her cat tree, with extra helpings on the carpet right inside the door.  So I put cat and cat tree outside while I cleaned up the carpet and the cat tree.  She was still barfing, so I decided to leave her out there until she was done, and came back in and got on the computer, closing the screen door behind me.

Then I heard it.  About 5 feet behind me.  I turned around to check on her.

To find she'd pushed out a corner of the screen in order to COME BACK INSIDE TO BARF. 

And she did it to the inside corner, which will be hard to temporarily repair until HUD replaces it.  The door already has an open corner where she busted through last year, but I was able to flip the door so its on the top corner.  Not this time, obviously.

And terrific...upon turning in the work order paperwork, I've been informed that I will be charged for it.

--Moony

I discovered yesterday that Madeline no longer has a kitty friend.  Yes, Smoky, the cat who liked to come in and steal her toys, doesn't appreciate being punched in the face with that special Kitty Fist after sniffing noses.

--Moony

Seems like I hear that at least once every time I take Madeline with me on the two block walk to the post office.  People are just darned amazed that a cat will willingly walk on a leash.  Apparently the idea of training cats just blows people's minds, too...generally people who've never bothered beyond the litterbox, if that.

She actually hates going in the building once we get there, but she gives me the 'you're leaving meeee?' look and meow if I leave her behind on her tether.  Of course she also doesn't like to encounter dogs, but we usually don't have a problem with that as most people (MOST) that bring their dogs to the post office have them on a leash, too.

She panics quite a bit still, but I've applied something I learned when training Brawn to her.  When a horse is calm, their head is low, neck even with their back or lower.  If you teach them to give to pressure on the upper neck on or near their poll (for non-horsey types, that's the bump between their ears), you can induce that state of calmness in a fractious horse.  One thing a cat does when they're calming down in a stressful situation is sit.  So...yes, I've taught Madeline to sit on command.  Its handy, just like it is with dogs, for keeping her from trying to dart out in the street as well as getting her to calm down. :)

I got my TFA: The Arrival today, so decided to sit on a bench up the street and read it and have her watch people, but it started sprinkling.  Madeline was running as much as possible home...but guess who decided twenty feet from the porch to stop dead?  Yep. :P

--Moony

In cats with white paws, dirty ones can indicate a cat who's feeling poorly.

I noticed Madeline's paws were dirty as we were walking back from the post office today.  Then we got near the porch, but not within tie distance, and she flopped over and refused to move any further.  I had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way to where I could clip the leash to her tie.    She was eating grass like it was going out of style, too.

Actually, it all started yesterday, when she stopped wanting to eat her Prowl with slippery elm bark, and I had to keep scooping the litterbox because she suddenly had the runs.  I gave her half a tablet of Pepcid last night, double her usual dose, but it didn't last her the night, as she loudly announced at about 3 am.  I got up and gave her another quarter, which allowed me two more hours of sleep after I finally *got* myself back to sleep before she began meowing again.  I gave her her usual breakfast, the aformentioned Prowl and SEB (along with vitamins, aloe, and probiotics), and she licked it but didn't eat most of it.  She did eat some kibble I put on top, so that was something.  And I got to sleep for a few more hours.  As I'd been roused by something spiritual at 3 am and it took me until 5 to try and get back to sleep...well, you can see why I might not be all that coherent with this morning's details.

I let her out on her tether while I watered my plants, which she didn't get to do the day before, and she really wanted to walk to the post office with me so I unhitched her leash and off we went.  She was much more confident this time, and actually sat most of the times I asked her to 'Sit' when we needed to cross roads and not get run over.  She did get freaked out by all the people who were coming and going in the post office, tho, and REALLY wanted me to hurry up so we could leave, but of course people ask questions when they see her out and about with me like that.  I ended up picking her up, and it was then that I noticed she's significantly lighter than she was just last week.  The vet wanted her to lose weight and we've been working on that slowly (mainly by using the SEB to bulk up the food along with its tummy soothing properties), but she's now at optimum level if not lower.  Since she came back in, too, she's just been laying on her side by the sliding door or on top of her cat tree.

Definately different from last night when there was a fledgeling pine siskin on the porch that she was begging to be let out to kill.  I'm hoping that a bit of vanilla yogurt will help with the diahrrea, but if the probiotics didn't I'm not entirely confident the yogurt will.

--Moony

That's what I liked about glass thermometers.  You could stick it in an animal's butt, get it all crappy, then wash it off in the sink, and still have it for years.

Yes, I ruined the thermometer I just bought because it got covered in petroleum jelly and their instructions actually say to use water and soap to clean the damned thing...F***.

At least it was only $3, and her temp is upper normal.

--Moony

Its 80 outside already, but a nice comfortable 60 or so inside, even with windows open and the AC off.  I just closed the sliding door because the manager is about to start mowing.  Reminds me I need to go pull my plants back from the edge, too...brb...

Back.  Looks like the extra water has already been helping my pepper.  One of the small peppers is already half again as big as it was yesterday.  But of the 15 blossoms and buds I had, only 4 remain to become peppers, including the three that were already growing.  But again, that it produced any is an accomplishement over my last attempts, and maybe it will flower more later.

Madeline has been acting a bit funny since last night.  She's been wanting to lay on me and sleep, just like WAY back after she got spayed and all her health issues hadn't been diagnosed and alleviated.  And last night apparently she slept in or next to the bathroom sink instead of in her carrier.  Consequently she's still tired.  And she didn't want to snarf down her food like usual - but that could be because I let the slippery elm bark sit in water by itself a little too long and some of it gelled before I mixed in the Prowl, so her food looked and shook like gray Jell-O instead of the usual light brown slurry.  She did meow a lot last night after I put her to bed forgetting her Pepcid, but quieted down after it started working.  She's been off the Rescue Remedy since the beginning of the month, and there hasn't been a significant change in her behavior, but she did start losing weight.  Even when she's hyper now its a NORMAL cat hyper and doesn't last for more than an hour if that.

The wanting to lay on me brings up the most concerning thing, tho...she's doesn't feel warm to me, which she should since cats have a higher body temp than we hyoomans, plus the fur.  I'm going to have to dip into my tiny savings and see about getting a thermometer (I don't keep one about the house because I need it so infrequently that the batteries in digital ones die).  If that reveals what I suspect, that her temp is a few degrees low, I don't know what I'll be able to do. 

--Moony

I had to go to the post office before things get too hot here, and Madeline really wanted to go for a walk, so we went on a walk to the post office.  Previously I'd tried walking Madeline the entire two blocks, only to have her get too scared when we got to the end of the one that contains our apartment building.  The other block is what passes for the entirety of the 'business district' in this town, and therefor is more scary than our block. 

She wasn't too sure about going that far once we got to the end of our block, but since there was not a lot of activity and no dogs in sight, I decided to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way.  This went well after one false start where I tried to carry her with one arm and she freaked out and jumped, hanging herself in the harness.  Since it constricts around her chest and not her neck, she's okay and after sitting her down and loosening it back up  I picked her back up in both arms and she relaxed all the way to the post office.  I tried the one-armed hold again when we got there and again she started to freak, but then decided to just put her down.  She was nervous, but curious, and wanted to go back out the door ASAP.  I had no mail, so we headed home.

She walked just fine on the way home, in fact she really wanted to hurry, but at the same time she had her tail up in usual happy cat fashion, so I know she wasn't too scared.  I think I'll have to teach her to heel, tho, for crossing the street, or just reel her in closer first.  She wanted to run out in front of a car.

The only dog we met was while I was holding her, an elderly Lab sitting in a car.  The dog was curious but wise enough to not make a sound, so she didn't even know he was there.

Now she's enjoying the last of the shade outside, before I make her come in where its cool.  Supposed to be in the 90's today...100's in Colville, just across the mountains.
--Moony

Madeline finally got to go outside, then got to go on a walk because she had Serious Exploring Biznez to conduct.  Part of that included looking like she was going to use the lawn as a toilet, so I dragged her back to the apartment 'cause picking up cat poop on the lawn was not part of the deal.  Then we sat outside and chatted with the neighbors and frightened her scaredeycat dog just by being within 10 feet of him.

We went in when the mosquitos became too much.  The bats still haven't returned.  I fear that they've died off.

--Moony

That's what I keep telling Madeline - along with 'the sprinkler is going', and 'I have to clean this stuff out on the porch' but she's still yowling to be put out on her tether.  So she climbed to the highest point she could get to to watch all the action she wasn't getting in on - on top of my 'new' sewing machine.

I also needed to go to the secondhand consignment store, then the organic store for a couple things I forgot.  Took my wicker hamper and some art to sell - two of them mine (a giclee print of 'Wings of Love' and the original for my hippocampus from my one and only male portfolio), the rest ones I'd gotten at auctions.  I figure this will be the best month and certainly the best weekend for selling stuff there.  I'd have taken more of my inked drawings, but I didn't have mylar sleeves or anything else to protect them.  I also sold my white wicker bathroom cabinet thingy (just like the one seen in the 6th season of Buffy!) - or I will as soon as my manager brings me the $25 I'm charging for it.  I found a VHS copy of All the Marbles there, too - hee!  Cheesy fun 70's/early 80's films - win!

I might think about organizing a yard sale for my building for the weekend of my town's big shindig, since the art show that was in our common room isn't going to happen this year (the former manager's baby it was).  Shouldn't be too hard, I would think.

--Moony

I decided that since I'm doing a cleanse, I might as well add to it, since my tooth has been bugging me a little.  Not pain or anything other than 'I'm here!' kind of slightly very tiny 'loose' feeling that tells me the infection is acting up.

The 'Cure Tooth Decay' book I have recommends something called 'oil pulling' with expensive flax seed oil so I looked it up this morning to see if there was anything else about it like other oils I could use.  Yep!  A lot of cures attributed to it, but it seems to boil down to 'wash your mouth with this for 15-20 minutes before eating in the morning and before you brush your teeth (without flouride!); pulls out/washes out toxins and gives you your EFAs in a quicker, more efficient way', and that essentially will cure a hell of a lot of things simply by making you that much more healthy.  Its an Ayurvedic treatment that's been around for hundreds if not thousands of years and has worked for a lot of people.

Best ones to use turn out to be sesame and sunflower, which aren't that expensive, so I took some of the last food money I have for the month and went looking for either.  I do have olive oil, but apparently that's a heavy and gross oil for this purpose even if you really like the flavor, and I didn't read until later that I could have used the safflower oil that's been sitting in my cupboard for a year.  Oh well, I'll use it when I'm out of sunflower.  Peanut and canola oils are BIG NO-NOs (canola because its not a natural oil and peanut because it molds quickly), but I didn't have any of those anyway, having used the last of my peanut oil for cooking the veggies in my peanut butter noodles a couple nights ago.  Canola is a big yuck to me, tho I tolerate it in some organic prepackaged foods.

I'm still easily fatigued, but its all good.  Adverse effects when you start a cleanse are signs that your body is kicking out toxins.  Laying around all day yesterday didn't turn out to be good for my plants, as a couple of them really needed water this morning.

In other news, Madeline wanted to go visit the cowardly rat terrier mix and the neighbor this morning, so I took her off her tie and she walked on her leash over there.  The dog retreated in the house, but she got petted by the neighbor.  Then she wanted to go meet the little kid who was following his mom while she was doing yard stuff.  Hopefully the fact that the kid decided to sneak up on her and roar in her ear won't turn her off kids, but for right now she's paranoid and wants me to watch her back for her, which will go on for a few days at least.

--Moony

Well, the last of the indoor sewn plants is sitting out on the porch getting acclimated.  Its my single Tashkent Marigold that I'm going to hang in a Lion King bag.  The orange pot now has 7 peas sprouted - it did have 8, but one was too close to another, so I pulled it.  And 'cause I'm a softy, I planted it in the big pot.  It won't take much from the potato, if it lives.  4 onions are poking up, out of 15, and the green beans are still struggling.  I'm beginning to think the acorn squash seeds I got for free were too old (they were 2005 seeds).

My pepper is being counterintuitive.  The upside down planters are supposed to cause the plants to curl upward toward the sun...but mine is curling upward AWAY from the sun, toward the roof of my porch.  Probably has something to do with curling away from the windstorm that happened shortly after I hung it up.  But since its growing bigger and putting out a lot of new leaves, I'm assuming its happy with what its doing.

I did end up having to spend ten minutes yesterday putting my branch with the star back up, after some errant kids were allowed by their parents to kick a ball around the courtyard, which isn't quite big enough for that kind of play.  Boyyyy, they were LUCKY they didn't hit my pepper...REALLY LUCKY.  Everyone in the complex would have heard me going ballistic. 

I also finally took my red muck bucket and, putting some of the plastic containers my bought plants came in on the bottom for drainage, planted my Purple Dragon carrots.  Since I don't want it to get saturated due to not having a drain hole, I pulled it back under the root so it won't catch any rain.

Then yesterday, I did something that hadn't been done since the day Brawn died.  I cleaned his purple bucket and the items that were within.  It still had remnants of his last meal, including the spoon I'd mixed it with, and his hanging ball-and-apple-treat toy.  Scrubbed them with the yellow brush I'd bought just for scrubbing stuff back then. When we were at his first stable, every horse in the barn knew that purple bucket, and he knew it was HIS, because that's what I mixed his daily grain in, and that it meant dinner was coming soon for the rest.  He got mad one day when I was dosing Nipper with some medication using an identical purple bucket, and snorted then gave me 'talk to the butt'.  I don't know what I'm going to do with it right now other than keep it, but I figured out I can reuse the clips on the toy, as well as possibly turn the apple part into a suet feeder at some point.  The ball, dunno about that just yet.  Put a hole in the top and small holes along the bottom and it could be a camp shower.

Still battling the occasional carpenter ant...there seems to have been a queen or two set up in my strawberry pot, but I'm hoping to starve them out by keeping the pot dusted with DE and the workers smooshed.  Its not as bad as it was last year, at least.  I did vinegarize what looked like carpentry happening right under the apartment wall, too...that was kind of fun.  I'll have to revise my trap bait, too, as I guess the protein powder didn't exactly entice them.

--Moony

Its going to be in the 80's today, and there's a memorial in the park about a mile away, so I'm planning to drive to that.  I'd walk, but I don't trust that I won't get heatstroke.  And something on the bridge in between, then stuff at the Legion.  I don't have anything to wear other than my old 262 CBCS hat and one of my old black shirts, at least that still fits me or isn't for cold weather.  Might see about digging out my old 262 shirt, tho.

There's a lady in town with a new, young white cat, who I thought was Madeline yesterday, and who a former neighbor ALSO thought was Madeline and brought her to my door today.  Fortunately she does have an owner, and I walked over to her house to let her know where her cat is.  I wouldn't have normally, since she's only a block away and the cat was friendly and not lost, but the cat seems to have inflamed spay stitches and let me and the former neighbor know in no uncertain terms that they HURT when they're just barely brushed.  So her owner is going to have her looked at.

--Moony

Someone who my ex-roommate Faye Neff, the one who I lived with on what she laughably called a 'ranch', claimed as a friend, Tames Alan, is in my town today doing a lecture on historical food service or something like that.  I'd have to look at the flyer again to be exact.  I'm not going anyway.  She's also the owner of Celtic Curlies, and leased one of her mares to my ex-roommate, who then later traded back the foal and kept the mare, Cerridwen.

Here's 'Carry' as she was at Celtic Curlies  That's also her on the main Celtic Curlies page.  It was apparently the last time she saw grass.

Proxima, you won't want to look at these later pictures.  They were taken in 2004, before the law was strengthened, so they're useless as evidence of neglect.  But...I'm at least saying something, and giving names this time, along with my previous rants.  There wasn't much I could do to change things, other than make sure MY horse was well taken care of to the best of my ability.  I did have to get help with his vet bills near the end of his life, tho...and refused to allow any piece of him to stay on that land.  I kept his brand and part of his mane, and had the vet put him down at the vet hospital so the renderer's truck could take him.

Here's a picture of how Carry lived at the 'ranch', in a pen that the ex-roommate claimed was an acre but was less than that, with a quarter-assed mangled wire and fallen sapling cattle fence, and allowed to lose weight as she nursed her foals.  Since Carry was one of the boss mares she didn't fare as badly as most of the others.  You can't see the badly starved mares in the pen picture, but you can see the back half of the pen.  The palomino and pinto had just arrived from Canada, and the palomino was shipped out to another farm within a week, so she got lucky.  Nipper the stallion is the roan, and was also a lease, but from local people who barely knew her (I was told by a mutual aquaintance they were quite angry when they got him back, and had to do some rehab with him).  Yes, she felt that crappy, weak wire fence was appropriate pen fence for a stallion and his mares.  So of course they regularly got out at least twice a week.  Usually more.  This was before the ex-roommate bought her own stallion...and kept HIM in with the mares, and Nipper in a small pen instead of returning him to his owners in a timely manner (he was returned after I left, as was the gelding she was supposed to have trained and sold for them).  Thus stallion battles, and injuries, were added to the fun when they inevitably escaped.

Kara Mia here, who was one of the leased mares and in this picture is being loaded up to be returned to her owner with 7 others, was typical of most of the middle rank mares for most of the summer, with two MUCH worse.  In fact, at the time this picture was taken we'd weaned the foals and had been giving the mares double their food so as to fatten them up for their owner.  Some of the others had fattened up enough that they look almost normal in pictures, that's why I'm showing this one.  That's the ex-roomamte holding her, btw.  Kara Mia had also become so headshy because she was hit when she'd dive into the food cart that changing the halter for an unbroken one was only able to be accomplished once she was in the trailer.  BTW, she's one of the Curlies who never grow a mane and tail, and have individual corkscrew hairs instead of the waves.

I bring this up because its on my mind whenever I see Tames' or Tammy Denault's names now...they knew about the place, and visited while I was there.  Tammy even built her own place next door.  With good fence and barns and plenty of paddock room.  And they both took MUCH better care of their own horses...but they let her keep the horses she leased from them, and did nothing, even when one of Tammy's orphan foals was in danger of being injured or killed by a stallion.  The foal had been put in a 16'x8' pen together with a foster mare and her foal, and then Nipper was added.  Nipper, who'd become very bitter by that time.  Yeah, I could tell tales...LOTS of them.

The question is 'why'.  Why didn't they do anything like remove their own horses at least?    And if they both knew Faye for as long as I was led to believe, they had to know how she kept horses and had a record with animal control in another area of the state (which I didn't know until it was too late to escape there)...why did they give her mares in the first place?

I'm not really sure I want to hear or would respect the answer.  And maybe I'm wrong that Tames visited...but I'm pretty sure she did once.

BTW, the sherrif also visited once, and vets had as well.  But it seems they couldn't have done anything anway, since the law didn't change until December 2005, months after I'd left.  And I don't know if anyone has done anything since.

--Christine