Friday Foto

One Shot

I have been meaning to give Yalla her shots for quite some time now. Finally, last weekend, I coerced my son into helping me, at least to take some photos. Unfortunately, I chose the windiest, coldest day to do the deed. The weekends are the best time for us to get together and I wanted someone to be there with me, for safety's sake. Both Yalla and I felt a little stressed because my son wanted to "get it over with." Yalla was acting a little restless and wouldn't stand still. Here I am gearing up mentally for the deed. I REALLY detest giving shots!

Can you see my anguish over the sharp needle?

Poor Yalla! She was fidgeting and I was freaking. Did I tell you how much I hate giving shots? And she wasn't staying still like Annie does. I've had to give my horses shots before and I can, but it's so different when you just have to stick them, than when you have to stick a moving target. You have to be really sure of yourself and I knew I wasn't.

I got the needle in and she was squirming, so I pushed the plunger. In horror, I watched a stream of fluid squirt into the air. How stupid could I be? If only I had waited a second or two more for her to settle down again before I pushed the plunger! The needle had come away from under her skin and was in her fur and the precious fluid was completely wasted! I looked at the ruined shot and it was the East West Nile. I told my son, "well, at least there aren't any mosquitos out at this time of year." lol. I guess if I had to waste a shot, that was the one to throw away.

So now, it was time for the Flu vaccine. I knew I wasn't up for the task. Yalla was looking at us like, what the heck? My wonderful, heroic son offered to do the deed. I gushed, yes, please! So, I held her and he gave the shot. That is why we don't have any photos of him giving the shot. I do have to say that even though Yalla was fidgety, she was a trooper and took it better than I really expected.

In a couple of weeks, I have to give booster shots. Oh my! Trevoooooooor! I neeeeeed you, please?

One Shot - song: One Shot, artist: Tin Machine featuring David Bowie, album: Tin Machine

Sunday (pets 12/6/09)

My usual desktop computer is on the fritz right now so I am using my alternate source, my laptop. I am telling you this because all my pictures are in cybernet suspension, or computer jail, at the moment. I dug around on this computer and I also took some recent ones for this competition at Sunday Stills. Here are my pets:

Here's Buddha. He's a 5 year old Japanese Chin. He weighs 4 1/2 pounds and thinks he's a cat.
This is Simba (left) and Terra (right). They are brother and sister although Simba is half Siamese. They are 12 years old. Terra adores me (she thinks she's a dog) and Simba ignores me. This is last year's photo of my recently deceased German Shorthaired Pointers, Daisy (front) and Gunnar (back). They were both eleven years old when they recently died of cancer of the sinuses(?).

I like this old photo of me as a teenager with my menagerie. Max was the Great Dane and the other two were Japanese Chins (like Buddha). The smaller one, closer to me, was Kiku and the big one was Chen.

Happy Anniversary to Ed at Sunday Stills and thanks for giving us the opportunity to participate.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen

how much I missed her

Someone once told me that it didn't happen if you don't blog about it. Well, I've been kind of living by that recently. But it doesn't help. It still happened.


In October, Gunnar went in for surgery on an abcess on his forehead. He was riddled with cancer in the sinus area and had pieces of disintegrating bone floating around. The vet recommended putting him to sleep so I let him go right then.


Shortly after this, Daisy started sneezing and spraying blood. The vet said it could be allergies, cancer, or something unknown. He treated her with antihistimines and antibiotics. We hoped it was an allergy because she seemed to be improving...


Then she began misting blood out of her nostril again. I called the vet about it. This bleeding went on for five days. I locked her up in my bathroom and had to do a washdown of everything in there because of the blood. She was spraying so much blood around the house that my son and I decided to put her outside.


My daughter was with me for the night and in the morning we went out to see Daisy in the dog run. Previously, she and Gunnar had dug big holes in their yard and they used to like to lay in them. Well, overnight, Daisy had fallen in one of the holes and couldn't get out. My daughter and I picked her up and carried her into the house. We took off her sweater and covered her with a blanket. Daisy wasn't doing very well at all. She was crying and shaking and had trouble walking. I asked my daughter what we should do?


We gave her some warm beef broth and a raw egg. She seemed to be settling in, no longer shaking, and she could walk some now. She kept looking for some place to go, the back corner of my dining room, behind the couch, somewhere, away from everything. She was staggering and restless.


My sons had gone off to their schools. Then, my daughter needed to leave (escape?). I was all alone with Daisy. Was there any chance for her to get better? I wasn't emotionally ready for this after having dealt with the loss of Gunnar so recently. What should I do? Winter was coming and I knew she couldn't be outside. She couldn't be inside spraying blood everywhere either.


This was probably one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. All my children were conveniently absent so it was all up to me. I didn't want to have to do this alone. I really, really wanted someone to be there with me, to say that this was what I had to do.


I called the vet's office. He said that it was the right time. I loaded Daisy into the back seat of my car. I carried her into his office. They were waiting for us. I carried her into the examining room and put her on the cold steel table. He told me that I was doing the right thing. He could see how debilitated she had become from a few weeks before. He patted her and she looked at him with her sad, brown eyes. He gave her a shot in her paw. I thought it was funny that he dabbed the area with alcohol first. She tried to pull her paw away because it stung. He continued injecting. She lay her head down in the palm of my hand. I stroked her head. I watched her beautiful eyes close. I felt her final gulp as the life ebbed out of her. I noticed her ribs shudder. She was still warm and I continued to stroke her head. I didn't want to leave her. The doctor stayed with me and stroked her too. He told me she had crossed over and was now at peace. It was a peaceful end to one of the sweetest dogs I've ever had.

What are the chances of both my GSPs getting nasal cancer at eleven years old, at the same time? I used to call Daisy the 'sin-eater' because she would lick Gunnar's open wound on his head. Did she catch it? My son says she got sick because she wanted to join Gunnar and my husband.

I was watching Buddha laying in front of the wood stove like he used to do with Daisy and I was wondering what he thought about his missing friend.

RIP Daisy, you are greatly missed!

how much I missed her - song: Sorrow, artist: David Bowie, album: Pinups

Friday Foto

Labyrinth Canyon, Green River, Utah

Friday - song: Friday on my Mind, artist: David Bowie covering EasyBeats, album: Pinups

It's so cold!

This afternoon, Scout had icicles hanging from his coat. You can see a big one hanging from the bottom of his side, a white blob. The snow let up a bit so I decided to run the horses, well, horse, as Yalla seems to be the only one to run these days.

Here's a little bit of her polka dot face.

Here are clips of her pushing snow

And running

LOL, I noticed in the running clip how dirty the camera lens was. Earlier, I dropped the camera in the snow and it got all wet. Then it iced up. I tried to clean it and it only smeared up. I also lost my camera lens cover somewhere out in the barn area. Drat!

It was coming on evening so I decided to feed them an early, and big hay dinner! Since Annie is so thin skinned and the temperature was 12 at 4:00 this afternoon, and dropping, I decided to blanket her up for the night. However, she was covered with crusty icy and snow. Fortunately, I was able to curry the ice right off of her back. I was really glad to see this because it means she is staying warm enough. I bought a fleece blanket at WalMart for $2 and I put this under her blanket so that it would be warmer and would absorb any wetness on her back without making her cold. (After currying her, she had a small wet area around her withers.) Hopefully, this blanket and liner will work to keep her warmer tonight. Scout and Yalla are thick furballs and Nadia, although old, seems to be holding her own, as well. As long as they seem to be warm enough au natural, I'd rather not blanket them at all.

It's so cold! - song: Nite Flights, artist: David Bowie covering Scott Walker, album: Black Tie, White Noise

Baby Universal

There is a new documentary coming out next year (April 16, 2010 release) that looks rather interesting. It's called Babies. The movie is about four babies, from birth through their first year, living in four very different places around the world: Mongolia, Namibia, Japan and San Francisco. Here's the trailer for it. Isn't it fantastyk?

Baby Universal - song: Baby Universal, artist: Tin Machine featuring David Bowie

And it snows on you

It was snowing this morning so I decided to bring my camera along when I fed the horses. I love how the snow collects on their coats. It makes me feel good to know that they are healthy and fat enough to keep warm. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing and all the snow was going into the stalls. I sure wish I had more enclosure for them but we don't have bad weather too often fortunately. Yalla had lots of snow on her face before I fed her. Then, I guess from the movement of eating she shook it all off. Too bad. She was really cute as a polka dot horse!

This is Scout's rump. Look at how the hairs are standing up with the snow piled on.

Here is a final parting shot of Scout.

And it snows on you - song: Fall in love with me, artist: David Bowie

Sunday ("T" 11/29/09)

This week's challenge is the letter T.
Here's a thinker to get started,
my Terra, trees and train depots, a tiger,

and how about three horses?

For more Sunday Stills, visit here.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen

keeps all your dead hair

A week ago, I received a letter back from the Arabian Horse Association about registering Yalla, actually two letters, regarding the DNA testing of both Annie and Yalla. The AHA requires all horses to be DNA tested before approving registration in order to verify parentage. Annie's papers say that she was blood tyed to prove her parentage but I guess it's not enough anymore. Both she and Yalla needed to have DNA testing done. In each envelope was a form with an area to "Affix the Pulled Hair Sample." One form was marked Fantastyk Gal and the other form was marked Yalla FantastyKheema so I guess that will be her name, lol.

I asked my son to come out and help me (well, take pictures!) so that I could get the hair samples sent in. They need 25-50 hairs pulled from the mane. They suggested wrapping a few strands around your fingers and yanking because the root must be enclosed. As you can see, my horses' hair samples aren't as long as the form allows. There is a box to place the roots and then stretch the hairs along the form, taping down the middle and other end. I hope I got enough hairs there. Yalla was easy to halter and I didn't have any problem pulling hairs from her at all. Matter of fact, just look at her mane and forelock! I think she has the longest forelock of all my horses!! Isn't that crazy?
In fact, she was very curious about the entire process!Annie was easy too. I didn't even bother to halter her. I just figured I'd leave Yalla haltered a little bit longer than I needed, as a little lesson. She loves to be with me so it sure wasn't to keep her around. Here I am trying to sort out Annie's mane. I have way too much hair in this first photo. I'm not sure what this picture is all about. I'm holding the pulled lock of hair but I must have gotten a hair in my mouth?? I think Annie looks cute, kind of quarter horsey with all that winter fuzz, don't ya think?

The really good thing about Annie and Yalla being different colors is that I had no problems keeping the hair samples separated and, with my son's help, we affixed the samples right then and there.The letters state that they do not send results of the DNA testing back to me. Isn't that unfair? I paid $65.00 for each sample test! I'm going to submit a stamped, self addressed envelope back with each sample, requesting a copy of the results. I would love to see them, wouldn't you?

These are the photos I took the other day, before Yalla's leg stretch. She looks fat there, doesn't she?
Annie looked really cute with her head tucked under but when she saw me she lifted her head. It's crazy, I'm standng several hundred yards away from her, at my back porch!Scout was still asleep here. He lifted his head and then it began dropping again by degrees. He doesn't pay as much attention to his surroundings as do Annie and, especially, Yalla. Yalla will neigh to me every time I step outside of my house, even when I drive up. Just like a kid, she sees all!I didn't take a photo of Nadia because she was the only one standing, I guess. So here's a picture I took of her a few mornings ago.

keeps all your dead hair - song: Jean Genie, artist: David Bowie, album: Aladdin Sane

Friday Foto

Friday - song: Friday on my Mind, artist: David Bowie covering the EasyBeats, album: Pinups

Unfurl the flag

This weekend, I took a quick trip out of town. As we drove through Moriarty and Stanley, two of the towns near Albuquerque, we were surprised to see fire trucks and police cars stationed at every crossroads.

Then we came upon this display.

At first, my son and I wondered what it was for. Then, as we passed the Stanley cemetary just ahead, we remembered. Our Ex Governor, Bruce King, had died last week and was being buried. He was a resident of Stanley and the owner of the King Ranch. It seems that we had come through just after the funeral processional.It felt strange driving under this HUGE American flag.

RIP Governor King. You will be missed by many.

For more information on our three time governor, check here.

Unfurl the flag - song: Boys Keep Swinging, artist: David Bowie, album: Lodger

Sunday (Horses 11-22-09)

How could I possibly miss this one? ;)

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, Album: Heathen

Friday Foto

Friday - song: Friday on my Mind, artist: David Bowie covering EasyBeats, album: Pinups

Sunday (11-15-09 Fins, Feathers, and Fur)

This week's Sunday Stills photo challenge is Fins, Feathers, and Fur!

I was at WalMart the other day and this tree was in the parking lot. I was impressed with the yellow leaves against the blue sky. Then I noticed all the big black birds in it.

Can you see the birds? I think there were five or six!What kind of bird are they? They're all over the parking lot!

I haven't taken photos of my cats for a while. Here's Simba from last night.

And here's Daisy snoozing.

Okay, so I cheated on this last one! I took this photo at our local aquarium a few months ago.

So here's a poor photo of one of my very own fish. For more sunday stills, please visit here.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen