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Maya and the Chickens

With the skin infection clearing up we decided to keep our scheduled trip on the 3rd of July up to Wensleydale Farms, with the hope of seeing a new cria (baby alpaca). Those hopes were not realized and we are still waiting for that baby to grace us with its presence!

Regardless, it was a fun couple of days! Maya was in extreme energy mode : no dog park for a week = crazy amounts of stored energy. She made the unfortunate choice of landing her energy squarely on running around the chicken area, making the chickens run in circles. After too many times of having to get two people out there to catch her and drag her away, we made the decision to try training her on the invisible fencing. Hahaha!

The guys took her out with a collar that had puppy boosters on (lowest shock possible), she heard the beep by the chickens (was never actually shocked) and after that refused to leave the patio if that collar was anywhere outside. Leave that collar inside and she'd take off for those chickens like no other! Carry it with you, she'd stay glued to the back door. Let her back inside and she would go lay down away from the back door and watch you with betrayal filled eyes. Now remember - SHE HASN'T EVER BEEN SHOCKED.

So we tried approach number 2 - hubby went down by the chickens with collar in hand, we let Maya out after he was in place, she ran close to the fencing line, he stepped forward so the collar would beep... she ran to the back door and begged to go in. I'm now calling her my over-sensitive, free spirit puppy.

Trying a new format

Not to completely baffle everyone... well all 4 of you, but I'm pondering a move to wordpress. That way my photography site and my animal site will be merged and hopefully the blog will look more clean and professional. Posts will still be made here - starting weekly on Monday! And I'll let everyone know when we make the move permanently.

Until then - feel free to pop over and take a peak at what I'm working on:cathleenheath.wordpress.com

Cats and Crafts....

Cats and crafts DO NOT MIX. As much as I love Callie Hope, I'm becoming more convinced that cats are evil creatures who do exactly what you want them not to and then laugh at your angst for hours.

To start - I've recently discovered Pinterest and I'm a little addicted. I mean, it's helping solve all my crafty and organizational needs so why wouldn't I be! Since I've been non-crafting for years now, I forced hubby to go with me to craft stores last night and get supplies for a few projects. We got home - he went upstairs to work on programming and I got to work on a knot necklace.... Unfortunately this necklace involved string and wrapping said string around my fingers, creating knots which then began to cascade away from my hand and swing in an enticing manner....

With Maya laying at my feet I felt relatively safe from any Callie interference, but I was wrong! Half way through the knotting process Callie started jumping for the string and then running away from Maya. I finished the knot section, went to let Maya out and by the time I came back - the necklace was on the floor and being batted across the dining room. I muttered, picked it up and began the process to unknot all the knots I made and Callie messed up. This happened twice.

Trying to be smart I took a small section of string and draped it over the chair next to me. Callie dutifully took the bait and went after that string, leaving me in momentary peace. The only problem? Maya decided to also defend THAT string with all she had - which meant she pounced on Callie and swallowed the string before I could blink. So now we're on the lookout for silver sparkles in during our backyard clean up times.... But third time was a charm because I finally got the necklace finished!

Sick Puppy & Runaway Cat

This week I got a taste of how freaked out I'll be when Dave and I have kids and they come down with some strange disease I've never had to deal with before... whatever do I mean? Well...

Sick Puppy: 

Maya has been a perfect ANGEL sleeping out of her kennel at night, I mean seriously, never has the transition from kennel to dog bed gone so wonderfully! Then Monday morning arrives, its cloudy and wet so my morning photo shoot gets rescheduled and I notice Maya's been licking the same spot for a few minutes now.... I make her stop, check where she was licking and holy cow! There is a HUGE section of her under arm that is raised and welting like a rash. I text Dave to be ready for an extra vet bill, call my mom for a sanity check and then call the vet, all while examining Maya's body and realizing the rash is starting across her chest. The vet wanted her to come in but couldn't see her for 4+ hours so I throw a t-shirt on Maya and hold her until its time to go. No joke, my rambunctious, wiggly, energetic pup just wanted to be in some sort of physical contact while not moving, oh and panting A LOT.  

An hour or so before the vet I notice the bumps have traveled down both front legs... Needless to say, I was starting to become anxious. So we left for the vet really early. 

I was hoping it was an allergic reaction to the pile of ants she laid in the day before or something easy like that!

Her reaction after realizing she was covered in bugs and shaking them off...

Get the bug guy out, kill the ants - problem solved.

No. such. luck.

Apparently the cuts she was getting at the dog park from mowed thick grass had let in a skin infection.... Actually the words from the vet's mouth were - wow, that's a serious skin infection. Nothing like the word 'serious' to make me feel like a failure. The vet's assurances that skin infections pop up overnight and can become serious very quickly didn't make me feel better. BUT Maya got meds yesterday and her first oatmeal bath tonight and she's starting to perk back up! I think getting pb 4 times a day is helping her mood too. =)

On a lighter note: She's so funny/cute in shirts, her trying to walk makes me smile. I'm likening this to chicken pox for people, it's really itchy and if you scratch it (or lick it) too much the skin could break open. NOT GOOD. Luckily, unlike if it were chicken pox, Dave can help without fear. Ah yes, the walk in clinic should be very close when we have kids..... We're believing she'll be mostly better by this weekend so we can all go visit the farm for (hopefully) the arrival of the first cria!! (baby alpaca)

Dave's shirt she wears to bed to keep the licking of the lower legs to a minimum.... She looks so much like a little kids playing dress up in Dad's clothes! 

4th Bergwall pride! 

She's just the sweetest, even all sick and icky feeling. 

Runaway Cat:                                                                                  (Sorry no photos for this one!)
As I'm preparing for a photo session this morning, I look up from my computer and what do I see? A cat that looks a lot like Callie walking down the neighbor's driveway from the sidewalk! How cool! I wonder who owns that cat?

My mind kicks in: Come to think of it... when's the last time I saw Callie? I mean, it IS her morning nap time but... that collar looks awfully familiar.... I call out: Callie?

The cat on the driveway freezes, mews and starts loping towards our house.

CALLIE!

I run for the cat treats, close Maya in the house and go to the back porch door. Start to shake the treat can but Callie is sitting there, waiting for me to open the door.

MEW!

I think she was traumatized by her experience. I don't know how in the world she got out, how long she was gone or where she went on her little field trip, but let's just say she raced into the house and upstairs to her room and hasn't gone NEAR a door since.

Now that's what I call an eventful few days in the lives of the animals! 

Divya Heads Home

Bye, Divya! We'll miss you!!

June, already??

Wow it's been awhile.

Well, let's see... Destinee injured her leg in April, effectively halting our training. BUT she is recovering nicely and I'm believing that just as God protected her from injuring herself beyond repair, He also kept both myself and Des sane while she healed. It also happened to occur days before I was leaving on a missions trip, followed by finals, graduation, visitors, trip to Florida and general chaos. So spending hours riding Destinee probably wasn't in the books for the past month anyway! The break has helped her mentally as well, we did a bit of lunging at the walk and she has almost returned to her well behaved self! Phew!

In the mean time, with the extreme heat and our lack of air conditioning - Maya has become fond of swimming! As the heat advisory would go out, temps would start to climb above 90, we'd hit the pet beach to hang out in the water... At first, she was panicked and would not go in - now she LOVES it! Hooray!

I've been working on my photography when not job searching or doing other such activities. Check out the new, improved website! www.cathleenheath.com

And here's some photo updates....

 

 

Shabby Apple Shout Out!

So, I ordered my first Shabby Apple dress!! It came in the mail and was so soft and feminine! Very beautiful and good craftsmanship! The only problem was that it was too big - so I'm off to return (30 day free exchange!) and I am thrilled and impatient to get the better fitting dress back...

If you haven't checked them out yet - do so!! I have a huge list of dresses I'd like to order from them. Knocking them off as I can, hopefully soon I'll be fashionable and comfortable all the time!

The Journey Continues

Isn't she so good with Dave? And she's so in tune with when I'm really 'riding' v. when I'm not completely engaged. It's almost as if she's saying 'hey - if you aren't paying attention, I'm sure not paying attention!' And begins to ignore leg cues and be generally stubborn but I switch that flip in my head, carry it through by body and she's 'whoaing' with my seat (and words) and turning with seat and leg cues with reins just there as a reinforcement. Still working on bringing back my perfect lounging mare but we're getting there. She does much better when no one is around, I think we both suffer from lack of concentration. =)

Freedom!! (from the lead)

Saturday marked another lesson day. Des and I are working on restoring her spectacular lounging skills so for the lesson we concentrated on where she was ready to progress - riding. We had been walking with someone on a lead rope to help us and the lesson started out that way. Jodi on Des and me leading, then I detached the lead and walked along beside her, then Brianna joined and walked in front of Des with me on the side. Individually we would slowly stop, me first and a half lap later, Brianna. Until finally, Des was independent! After a couple laps of that, I got to hop on and experience a similar routine. During my few independent laps Destinee began to get bored and started testing. First she tested my guiding her by running my stirrup against the walls, then it was walking straight toward the hay and not listening. Both times I started with the realization that she didn't know many cues and I should try to be as gentle as possible. Yet I ended these 'tests' with leg cues and reigning directions that I didn't expect her to know but were more 'automatic' for me. True to her overachiever style, she understood and handled leg cues and seat cues way better than I could've imagined after such a few rides! She was 'woah'ing for Jodi with no reign cues at all, only seat cues and even managed a good hind yield with leg cues and a bit of reigns.

Oops story of the week: Colleen and I were out training my girl and Des' belly was covered in spring manure yuck. I decided that instead of getting my girth messy, I would slide on bareback. Ha. I knew it was stupid as I was doing it but I had faith that my little overachieving mare would be ok. Which may have in fact been the case, had she not been pointed at the bridge and had she not started walking before I settled in. She quickly moved into a trot and as soon as her last foot left the bridge we started cantering. I was close to finding my center of balance when we came upon the wall and Des tried a short stop/turn and off I went! Landing in a pile of dust on my back. Oh how funny her face was! We patted her, I apologized profusely and the saddle went on. Then up I went and she relaxed seemingly to say 'See? Saddle THEN you, dummy. How did you forget that?' And I've decided that bareback will be tackled again after we've mastered trotting and cantering WITH a saddle... Oh how funny this will seem in a couple years when we ride bareback more often than not. And MAN, what a nice canter she has! Even as an unbalanced nervous youngin'! Yay.

Growing (up) pains.

Since Destinee had been exhibiting strong amounts of boredom for the past month, one fine weekday we decided to up the time table a little bit! Saddle, reins, lounging and reining from the ground and then up I went! She was one cool cat - not even Michele yanking on the stirrup leathers freaked her out. Then it was picture time! Michele kept backing up to get out of the pictures and Destinee kept walking toward her like, 'What? Walk? Then why do you stop me?' We decided that was enough for one night and hopped off. LOTS of praise and pets followed. By the by - we left the stirrups "short".

Then I had a lesson - she was the perfect example of a straight A student so we started working on the next steps in lounging, introducing the canter. She struggled to understand what we wanted and kept stopping and turning in to ask, we took that as part of the learning process kept going until we thought she understood and then up Jodi went. Destinee wasn't sure about Jodi back there and me on the ground but she figured it out and we took a couple laps around the arena with me leading and then Jodi even did a little circle around me! Again, cool cat. She spent a lot of time licking and chewing, yawning and otherwise telling us she was finally learning again! And boy was she learning a LOT!

Finally, yesterday. An ode to sticking with your original plan. I got to the barn expecting to work on documents, fix the new saddle up and then get Destinee out. When I arrived I was told that the people coming to look at two adoption horses weren't coming until 4pm and I should get Destinee out now rather than later. I failed to ask someone in charge and just stumbled along, we ended up getting the saddle on but the correct stirrups had to be put on as the saddle was on Des... not something I would suggest! She got sooo antsy. And then - the worst I've ever seen her lounge! She refused to go out for me and then would get ahead and spin round and just sit there staring at me. Oy! Talk about a switch from allllll our previous times! I was pretty frustrated and out of 'arrows' as Linda Parelli says. AND not quite in the state of mind to go 'hmmm, how interesting!' Jodi came into the arena and took over - hopefully she got Destinee through to a state that we can return to our fun lounging. I had all my 'how interesting' moments while Jodi worked her through it. Apparently adding canter cues ruined all of lounging for Des! Ack! Next time, I vow to stick with my plan and/or ask people in charge if the overarching plan has changed and thoughtfully change my plans based on what I'm told. Regardless, she's still my sweet girl. I spent some time with the mares before I left and Divya and Destinee just snuggled on up, one in front and one in back, acting like no one ever loves them. Apparently they're doing this a lot these days, but I'll take it!

Destinee will get a little break from the saddle as I oil it. But the farrier comes out on Thursday so she can't get a complete break, I need to know she'll behave and stand still for him. No growing pains for the farrier!! So we'll go back to slow walk, fast walk, slow trot, fast trot - in hand and lounging. (I think she really likes to do those in hand... maybe a halter class this summer to show her off?) It's also a crazy busy week - hopefully I can fit it all in!!

Also - new mare! Name is Fermi? (I think she needs a new one, shh) Off the track, 5 year old, 16+, TB... I think I was told the owner has had her for a few years but hasn't done much with her as far as riding goes. Jodi gets to figure out how to best help her move past the racing training and onto something else. She's a darling as well! I think she'd be a good ride...

Spring Fever, yeah!

Cabin Fever!  (link)

We're at the point of the year when I think Callie and Maya feel just like those muppets! To be fair, Callie has been showing signs for awhile now, but Maya's symptoms just started yesterday and are more "subtle".

Maya keeps asking for the front door to be open so she can sit and watch the kids from the screen door. And her trips outside are getting longer and longer. Callie, on the other hand, has been trying to jump into the bathroom window for weeks now. The only problem is, the window is closed! Half the time it ends with her face planting and falling back to the floor, the rest of the time she successfully stays on the little ledge and begins purring and rubbing on the blinds. I can't decide if I feel terribly sad for her or if I wish she would realize, it's still cold out there!! The next sign in the progression of spring fever was Callie joining Maya in begging to go out. Callie wants her screen porch privileges returned so badly! Finally, while Callie had become extremely vocal before Maya, she has since turned her volume down and only vocalized after Maya was put to bed or during their play time. Now she has returned to meowing, both randomly and with purpose. Example: if Maya's outside - Callie is pawing at the door and meowing. (Interpretation: LET ME OUT)

Since it is so nice out this morning, the sun is shining and birds are signing, I closed the outside door to the porch and let Callie go sit in her chair. Despite the fact that Maya had been out for 15 minutes prior to her coming in and me letting Callie out... she acted like she hadn't been outside in WEEKS. Frantically nudging the door nob, trotting to me, licking my hands, trotting back to the door. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. About every 3-4 times I would get up and look out the window at Callie. She'd look at me, her eyes would get huge and her gaze would drop to the door nob. My interpretation: "Nooo, not yet. I like it out here, just don't do let that dog out here yet." Eventually, Maya was let out and Callie ran back inside. Callie took up meowing at me again so I asked her, What? Where do you want to go? Her response: Sit by the back door and stare at it. I got the message pretty clear.

Here's hoping this household can survive until spring!

Bird Dog, no doubt!

Background: Since it's been freezing and we did not want to have to go the the screen door to let Maya out and in every 45 min we propped our porch door open with a shovel. It's been great! Now we just have to open the back door and she goes out! Apparently last night a bird thought it was great too..... we're sure it was a break from the wind. The only problem? Dave didn't see it before he let Maya out this morning. At this point I was still in bed so Dave's report is as follows: 

The bird started flying frantically around the porch (couldn't find the door apparently) and Maya leapt up and caught it in her mouth! Dave told her to drop it and get in, and he said she immediately obeyed! What a good girl. I got a text saying Maya caught a bird... alive. Needless to say, I jumped out of bed and threw on a robe. As we peered through the glass on the back door with Maya begging to go back out, the bird was laying upside down right by the door! I could see it breathing but was worried that she had fatally wounded it somehow. After scolding her about Irish Setters needing to have soft mouths, we decided Dave would go out and move the bird with a shovel. So out he went, scooped up the bird, walked to the steps and BAM! The bird took off! He said it had been looking up at the ceiling and as soon as it saw sky it came to life. PHEW! I'm so glad it was able to do that. 

We were able to let Maya back outside and giggle as she tried to bound through snow, some drifts higher than her chest! She still stopped and smelled around the porch for the bird.... there's no doubt, she's a bird dog!

Personalities

Callie - is my roommate. Likes to hang out and we give each other attention, but also does her own thing - has her own schedule and activities that don't involve me. Makes vocal demands if I don't hold up my end of the deal - like filling her food bowl every night regardless of how much food is left in it....

Maya - is like a child. Makes almost constant demands for attention and affection. Gets into trouble if she feels neglected. Usually obeys quite well but sometimes gets too excited and overstimulated to obey... I love her to bits but she can still make me frustrated quite easily. She also has these beautiful, bright eyes that get her out of almost any trouble she finds herself in!

Destinee - is my best friend. She shows her displeasure at my lack of visits when things are busy but forgives and moves on quickly. Enjoys learning new things with me, but prefers munching hay while I have coffee/tea and just chill. One of my favorite places to think or just 'be' is sitting on one of the tires in the paddock with my head on her forehead. I see God's provision and love each time I think about how she came to be mine and I overflow with awe and thanksgiving.

Wintery days make me excited for the day that Des can be in our backyard and we can hang out without trying to get the Civic down unplowed roads... And Maya and Des can become trail buddies. Until then I'll remain eager for late spring when things are dry(ish) and warm(ish)!

The return of 'normal'

There's no doubt Callie had a great time at Grandma's - napping/snuggling with Grandpa and Caleb, hunting poor Sydney bird (seriously that bird is 19! 19!! I'm glad she didn't give that cockatiel a heart attack!!) Grandpa even said that he and Maddie might suffer Callie withdrawal. So sweet. Regardless, she was thrilled to be home! Ran upstairs and sat at 'her' doors meowing and waiting for me to open them so she could make sure nothing was ruined in her absence (because seriously - that's the best part of being a cat, getting to ruin stuff!). Finally satisfied that the upstairs was acceptable, she came down to snuggle, purr and play with Maya. And boy, did Maya love that!

They've also returned to their general self-policing strategies. Maya goes near a Callie only room (i.e. bathroom) and Callie puts Maya in her place, though Maya rarely attempts to enter these areas. Callie goes in a Maya only area (i.e. basement) and ooh boy does Maya chase her out quick! This happens quite frequently! Makes things easier for us that way, now when we see Callie at the basement stairs Dave just says 'Caaaalllie!' in an annoyed tone and Maya goes still, notes Callie's location, gives her a second to retreat and then releases into a dead run. Once Callie's cleared the kitchen, Maya comes back down and lays down on her futon or the carpet, but continues to watch the stairs... Gone are the days we had to track Callie down, coax her to us with treats, take her upstairs and try to keep the door shut. Ahh, so great.

Maya practicing her Callie 'intimidation' old time gangster style (stick = gun). 'Myeah, I've got this stick, see? Don't make me use it, see?'

Destinee is gorgeous and perfect as ever! 101 days until she turns 3! (Not that I'm counting...) She's apparently become the herd boss again, not great but things are going better this time than the last time she was 'boss'. So perhaps the temporary return of Dream and Rosie did help Destinee figure out a little better leadership.... And I'm sure Mecina keeping tabs on Destinee is helping as well!