Feline Homecoming and various

Taminy-cat is home--just brought him in and set up the guest bath for him. He's much improved, temp is normal, wound looks gross and needs regular treatment but I was expecting that. The original meds didn't work, the vet said. The new ones have been working. So we persevere. He was terribly glad to see me, and immediately stopped growling and swearing. He never did have great vet manners. He didn't even fuss in the car coming home--he kept reaching out of the carrier and pulling my hand over so he could rest his face on it.

And O wonder of wonders, I was expecting a massive bill and it was cheaper to leave him in the hospital for two days than it was to get him diagnosed in the first place. I do so like negative sticker shock.

So now he has a bunch of meds, a wound-cleaning kit, a lengthy set of instructions, and will have to see the vet again in ten days unless he gets worse in the meantime. Standard hurt-cat stuff. He doesn't handle infection well at all: has a poor immune system and a lot of allergies, and gets granuloma in his mouth, which means prednisone, which means even more immune problems. It amazes me that he's lived to age 14 without major health problems--just the allergies for the most part, and the occasional traumatic injury that goes septic too fast. From day to day he's a healthy, happy cat who eats his head off and tells the other cats to stuff it.

(The stripped weight on this cat--than which the vet does not wish him to go lower--is 14 pounds. He is a Beeg cat. He's been up as far as 20 pounds; is hanging at about 15 right now.)

I was surprised to be seriously stressed out yesterday--fell over early and crashed until morning. Horse vet never showed: in one of the calls before mine, he injured his shoulder. He's better today, apparently, and can use the arm, so things look good for a new appointment next week. I didn't get details; I would guess a horse took issue with something that was being done. Will find out next week, I'm sure.

Meanwhile I did a fair bit of horse stuff yesterday (as well as a bit of Pages). Ponied ze keed off Capria in the morning, which was lovely. I am not a morning person and prefer to ride in the evenings, but Arizona summers make it difficult to ride more than one horse late in the day. It's too damn hot. So, in summer, I make my best effort to feed the troops, clean the corrals, then work one or two horses while it's still cool. Yesterday, with the vet due in the afternoon, I opted to go into summer mode. It was a beautiful, clear, not too warm morning, and not windy yet though a gale blew up later. Very pleasant, and the honey mesquite is blooming in the washes--gorgeous stuff, doesn't look like much (stubby little blown catkins in greenish-yellow) but smells like honeysuckle. A wash full of them is olfactory heaven.

Later, after the vet cancelled, I grabbed Camilla and took her out for a little bit of groundwork. She hasn't done any work in two months and was a bit nonplussed at first, but once she thought it over, she was delighted. I even lay across her back, though I wasn't about to sit on her bareback with a halter, with no one around to scrape me off the floor if she took exception to it. She's 'way too green and Opinionated as yet for that. She was quite happy to have me on her back again, even sack-of-grain style, and we had a pleasant time wandering around checking out this and that.

Which reminds me that it's about time to teach Ephiny to ground-drive. Must Find Time.

Discovery of the morning: Gaudia is as tall in the butt as her daddy. She's deceptive--she has that cute, short face and that baby look, but she's really quite a big girl. She'll be a nice-sized, imposing mare. Just what I hoped in wanting a smaller stallion to breed to the larger mares: classical conformation and substance, awesome movement, and correct Lipizzan size, which means ideally around 15.1 hands (the height standard is from 14.2 to 15.2, and horses over 15.3 should not be bred).

Quizzies!

kaygo rides again.



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And Number One on the List of Things Not to Do with A Green Riding Stallion Is...

...see a bit of electrobraid glommed onto the metal fence, reach out with whip (while riding stallion) to pop it loose, leaning just a little bit out of the saddle...

Owie.

Capria or ze keed wouldn't have budged--maybe stepped sideways a bit, that was all. I forgot I was riding Mr. Green As Grass, aka Mr. Hormone, aka The World's Most Hypersensitive Equine. Who was already In A Mood for the evening. He leaped sideways. I found myself hanging over air. He leaped back. I grabbed for the bucking strap.

Missed.

He took off bucking like a maniac. I stayed on for a while, saw it was a losing proposition, let go and bounced about fifty feet. Literally ate dirt. Scraped my arm up nicely. Have a huge bruise on my right hip. Am very glad I always wear my helmet when riding the boys. I may look like a mushroom, but I'm a safe fungus.

He was terribly upset and sure the forces of doom would come to annihilate him. He Lost His Human!

Took a while (after some time spent lying down, then sitting up, then limping around and making sure all the parts worked)(oh yeah, sprained thumb, too) to convince him it was OK, I was the world's stupidest human and it wasn't his fault.

Then I got back on and rode back and forth by the Scary Spot until he was sure it wasn't going to pop out at him again. And then he had to help me untack him and put the saddle away because I wasn't walking so well. By that time he had his equilibrium back. It's a terrible humiliation for a Lipizzan to lose his human.

Now I am sitting on a package of frozen peas, having taken a lot of Advil, and feeling like a complete dork.

On the up side, the boots made a nice difference to the steering and the half-halts, experiments in warp technology aside. And da Pook is untraumatized, as he didn't get blamed for me being stupid. (Fairness is a very big deal with Space Aliens.) I see some sacking out in his future--doing various weird things from the saddle, taking jackets off and on, and such. But I'll wait and do it when someone is there to grab him if he goes splooie. Also, will be prepared for said splooie-tude. Preparation is everything.

I didn't have any nerves at all about getting back on. As long as I'm not being an idiot, he's a very safe horse to ride. Just have to get him through the green bits. And not be a complete dork.