Just a quick post before surgery to show you pics of all of the horses in their new/old digs.
Finn. He chose to be in back of the barn.
Dominic looking majestic on the driveway – story on Dominic coming.
This is Missy Miss. She is with Finn and Mo, behind the barn. As you can see, I had to create a cat ladder because my cats couldn’t remember how to get down off the roof.
This is Dominic. (We had to replace so much fencing, I’m mostly showing this because it shows the fence!)
We’ve had to do a ton of work on the house to restore it. (Don’t ever rent out a property that you want to live in again…). It looks the exact same color, but we did paint the house and the barn. The room downstairs with the light on is where I will be recuperating.
This is 27 year-old Gwen (Mama Tess’ first baby). She is happy to be back home. She went back into her pasture which was the one in front of the house.
This is BG. I thought being home might help with her hives, but not so far. She is in the pasture above the barn so that she can get her meds securely. She is much more at peace, being home.
Poor Princess Buttercup Pebbles…she was in the barn for 3 weeks while we tried to cure her snotty nose… to no avail. The vets want to do sinus X-rays but she wasn’t having any of that. So… for now, while I’m healing, she’s back out with the others. Unfortunately, the gnats are bothering her ears, then she rubs them raw… and I am the only one who can put the Swat on her so … the next few weeks will be tough unless the weather cooperates.
Ethel Merdonk is very happy. Her face is covered in burs because she loves to root around in the tall grasses. I learned that she is hard of hearing and sight after I let her out and she couldn’t even hear me shaking the bucket to bring her back in. And, she couldn’t see me very well, either. I think she is older than first surmises when rescued.
Norma Jean. She is coming up on 30 years of age. She’s greying and holding on to some of her summer coat… but she’s sharp as a tack. She can hear and see very well.
And of course, King Rocky. He is super full of himself and rules the roost in the donkey pasture. He loves Dominic and wants to be in with him, but I’m afraid someone will get hurt.
WRIGLEY AND DALTON
Dalton is still in training with Thru-Rider, Gillian Larson. Wrigley, and I still cannot believe it, passed away suddenly right after we arrived back to GV. He appeared sick, we brought him to the Equine Hospital and within a week, he had passed (Oct 20). The diagnosis was a bacterial infection that went to his heart. Even though he was on serious antibiotics, if the heart is not functioning well, the other organs needed to wash the blood of the infection/antibiotics cannot do their job. So, basically, his kidneys and liver failed while we were trying to save his heart. It was a delicate balance and we lost. I still cannot really talk about it. But I promise a tribute soon. He was MT’s last baby… and he was born right here in the barn at the Grass Valley house. I am truly thankful that he got to come home before he passed.
I am glad you are back home. Hope your recuperation goes well. So very sorry about Wrigley. Hugs.
I’m so happy you and your fur babies are home in GV. I am heartbroken to hear of Wrigley’s passing. I’m so sorry. Take care of yourself and heal. Love you, Debbie
So nice to see everyone again, especially Norma Jean. I’m happy you’re back at Grass Valley. Take care after your operation.
A word about tenants, Dawn. Not all of us are evilly destructive deadbeats. I am sorry you are facing so much trouble with your wonderful Grass Valley property. However, there’s another narrative about tenants I must share with you. I have been a landlord AND a tenant for decades of about equal for both. I have had wonderful tenants when I was working across the country and did not want to sell the properties. Actually, Dawn – never had a bad one. I checked references. I also was a generous landlord working with tenants in emergencies of assorted descriptions because those tenants tried hard to overcome their emergencies. I also had been a tenant before I became a landlord, too. And knew other tenants starting from the apartment building while I was in college and grad school and early work life. We had the best small building ever – we were straight women and all the guys in our building were gay or trans, and every last one of us not only cared well for our individual units we also helped around the building including pool duty and when our landlord was in the process of physically failing from mesothelioma (career Navy guy) we took turns driving him to dr appointments and cooking/cleaning his on-site residence. And some us all these years later on Memorial Day still place stones and flowers at his resting place. Now semi-retired I’m a 20+ year tenant of a farm in the Pacific NW and three other families are also tenants on the grounds which host four residences. We ALL of us work hard to maintain the common areas and that includes exterior cleaning and repair, brush mowing, and the eternal blackberries the curse of the areas west of the Cascades. We ALL pay on time every month. We don’t whine over the little stuff we take care of the little stuff ourselves or out of our own pockets. We ALL repair at our OWN expense any damage our assorted critters cause. We have a wonderful landlord who because we do all of this has kept our rent affordable in this vastly overpriced part of the USA, and shown his appreciation of our LONG TERM tenancies by never letting us forget how happy he is to have us. So, Dawn, though I’m sure you are a good landlord, please believe that there actually ARE great tenants out there. I and my 3 tenant neighbors are proof and we are putting OUR landlord near the top of our THANKS list for Thanksgiving right after thanking The Big Guy for our animals’ continued health. Believe, Dawn. Believe.
Love your new/old place…. I bet those equine who remember do too!
Viewing your photos I did notice in a couple of them “twine/bale string”…yes a freak about that stuff left on the ground THEN horses/donkeys etc. trying to chew or consume it. So dangerous.
I apologize for that observation…
Enjoy being home & speedy recovery to you!