Life and Death
Living in the desert I am constantly reminded of the struggle for life and the fight against death. This last week seems to be no exception.
Awhile back I was practically the queen of carnage, and not in the way I'd rather be known. (o/~ up on the roof top... *bang* *bang* *bang*) eh-hem... anyway, no, not like that. I'd found a dead kitten, probably four weeks old, in our hay stacks one day, and two weeks later I found a second. I guess when the hay came down from Utah and Winkie was unloading it they saw a cat jump out. Poor barn kitty had her litter in the bales and they either got crushed or seperated when they moved them from point A to point B.
Then there was the dead cotton tail that someone so morbidly strung up by it's hind legs with fishing wire over the well up in all the historic buildings. :P That was during Kid's Camp, and they couldn't find the ranger, so I went and took care of it. Then the damned gimpy roadrunner went and drown himself in Buck's water trough the day we were having broken water line issues.
Well the last three days are maybe a balance of power, I'm not sure...
Inside the barn we found that little barn cat. Starved to death and craving people... she was nothing but skin and bones. Yah, you know it, "Winkie, she's coming home." "If she'll let you catch her, you mean." "I don't care, we'll get the carrier if we have to. If nothing else she comes home till she has a belly on her." So Dixie came home, rather happily, without the use of a carrier, sprawled across my lap the whole drive... and I was the driver. She has since settled happily into our home and is adjusting nicely with Bingo and Didi. The sad thing is as she's starting to have a full belly on a regular basis her little titts are starting to engorge once more... only now there are no kittens for her to nurse. She had that litter early too, she can't be more then six months with as tiny as she is.
Mom had to put Meggie down yesterday. Meggie is the kitten she picked out ten years ago, a month after our Rottie, Cougar, passed away, and a year after her mother passed away. Meggie has always been a little slow, yet special to the family, which is why when she ended up with skin cancer we had her tail amputated. Meggie adjusted just fine to a stump but then it turned out she had disintigrating arthritis in her hip and hock and over the last two weeks she's been wobbly and falling down. If she hasn't been trying to find a dark place to hide she's been following my mother around her home endlessly trying to find some comfort. Also the lab results came back and it wasn't a fungus in her lungs, it was just as mom and I feared it would be; cancer. There was never any question what the option was, and even the vet (who kinda started off on the wrong foot with Mom) looked at her very apologetically, "I wish there was something I could do. I wish I had something to offer..." As mom says, why'd it have to be Meggie and not Sam. It's not that they don't love Sam, it's just Meggie was the sweet and affectionate one.
Last night the kids called to let us know Robert's horse Reverse went into labor. Not her first foal, but I've been watching her and Shadow and while Shadow has a good bag, Reverse had nothing. I'd felt the baby kick before, and supposedly this isn't her first baby. She went into labor last night, they found the baby dead this morning. Whether it was still born, to premature to survive, what, I'm not sure. It's sad, but it's not my horse or even my ranch's horse. This is poor breeding management on Robert's behalf, is how I see it. He indiscriminantly breeds with no real recods, and then he's not even there for when they're due, and the two he leaves in charge aren't the most capable, no matter how horse savy they think they are. I'm still waiting for the day one of them, or their kids gets hurt and they look to us as if to say, "Now I finally see what you were trying to tell me." Until then everyones fingers are crossed that Shadow makes full term and delivers a live foal too. I guess we'll turn Reverse back out with the herd, she'll probably need it because use, horses too can go through that sort of greif....
Amber just had a miscarriage as well; she's our new staff that helps on weekends. She came out to help us play horsey round up (she was actually supposed to feed for us so we could sleep in for the first time in decades it felt like, but horses had to get lose and run amuck in the park that morning.) and was really off and sick, and at first she wouldn't say it, but I got on her till she admitted it. Winkie and I were both there for her and very supportive, we sent her home, asked her to keep us informed, and take care of herself. She was trying to help out with how ragged we'd become and the fact that Winkie has a repetitive motion injury in his right elbow. Last Winkie talked with her she was feeling a bit better, but frustrated.
I said it before and I'll say it again... it's going to be a hard summer.
Awhile back I was practically the queen of carnage, and not in the way I'd rather be known. (o/~ up on the roof top... *bang* *bang* *bang*) eh-hem... anyway, no, not like that. I'd found a dead kitten, probably four weeks old, in our hay stacks one day, and two weeks later I found a second. I guess when the hay came down from Utah and Winkie was unloading it they saw a cat jump out. Poor barn kitty had her litter in the bales and they either got crushed or seperated when they moved them from point A to point B.
Then there was the dead cotton tail that someone so morbidly strung up by it's hind legs with fishing wire over the well up in all the historic buildings. :P That was during Kid's Camp, and they couldn't find the ranger, so I went and took care of it. Then the damned gimpy roadrunner went and drown himself in Buck's water trough the day we were having broken water line issues.
Well the last three days are maybe a balance of power, I'm not sure...
Inside the barn we found that little barn cat. Starved to death and craving people... she was nothing but skin and bones. Yah, you know it, "Winkie, she's coming home." "If she'll let you catch her, you mean." "I don't care, we'll get the carrier if we have to. If nothing else she comes home till she has a belly on her." So Dixie came home, rather happily, without the use of a carrier, sprawled across my lap the whole drive... and I was the driver. She has since settled happily into our home and is adjusting nicely with Bingo and Didi. The sad thing is as she's starting to have a full belly on a regular basis her little titts are starting to engorge once more... only now there are no kittens for her to nurse. She had that litter early too, she can't be more then six months with as tiny as she is.
Mom had to put Meggie down yesterday. Meggie is the kitten she picked out ten years ago, a month after our Rottie, Cougar, passed away, and a year after her mother passed away. Meggie has always been a little slow, yet special to the family, which is why when she ended up with skin cancer we had her tail amputated. Meggie adjusted just fine to a stump but then it turned out she had disintigrating arthritis in her hip and hock and over the last two weeks she's been wobbly and falling down. If she hasn't been trying to find a dark place to hide she's been following my mother around her home endlessly trying to find some comfort. Also the lab results came back and it wasn't a fungus in her lungs, it was just as mom and I feared it would be; cancer. There was never any question what the option was, and even the vet (who kinda started off on the wrong foot with Mom) looked at her very apologetically, "I wish there was something I could do. I wish I had something to offer..." As mom says, why'd it have to be Meggie and not Sam. It's not that they don't love Sam, it's just Meggie was the sweet and affectionate one.
Last night the kids called to let us know Robert's horse Reverse went into labor. Not her first foal, but I've been watching her and Shadow and while Shadow has a good bag, Reverse had nothing. I'd felt the baby kick before, and supposedly this isn't her first baby. She went into labor last night, they found the baby dead this morning. Whether it was still born, to premature to survive, what, I'm not sure. It's sad, but it's not my horse or even my ranch's horse. This is poor breeding management on Robert's behalf, is how I see it. He indiscriminantly breeds with no real recods, and then he's not even there for when they're due, and the two he leaves in charge aren't the most capable, no matter how horse savy they think they are. I'm still waiting for the day one of them, or their kids gets hurt and they look to us as if to say, "Now I finally see what you were trying to tell me." Until then everyones fingers are crossed that Shadow makes full term and delivers a live foal too. I guess we'll turn Reverse back out with the herd, she'll probably need it because use, horses too can go through that sort of greif....
Amber just had a miscarriage as well; she's our new staff that helps on weekends. She came out to help us play horsey round up (she was actually supposed to feed for us so we could sleep in for the first time in decades it felt like, but horses had to get lose and run amuck in the park that morning.) and was really off and sick, and at first she wouldn't say it, but I got on her till she admitted it. Winkie and I were both there for her and very supportive, we sent her home, asked her to keep us informed, and take care of herself. She was trying to help out with how ragged we'd become and the fact that Winkie has a repetitive motion injury in his right elbow. Last Winkie talked with her she was feeling a bit better, but frustrated.
I said it before and I'll say it again... it's going to be a hard summer.