Thursday, October 25, 2007, 14:55
Isabelle in Training
It all started late Monday afternoon when the neighbor stopped over with two of his children. The youngsters had been out riding their horses earlier in the day, and the other neighbor's horse, an old gelding in his 30s, had come trotting up to the fence.
The old gelding is thin and looks rather rough. The youngsters were afraid the horse was being neglected. But the gelding is just ancient, that's all, and when they get old, they are sometimes hard to keep weight on. The gelding has 20 acres of pasture to himself. The owner buys the best hay, and he gets easily digested senior horse feed, too.
The kids felt a lot better once they realized the horse wasn't being neglected -- that he was just a senior citizen.
Randy has seen the neighbor kids out riding their horses when he has been coming home from work, so I asked them about their horse project. The kids are homeschooled, and horses are one of the things they are interested in.
Well, one thing led to another. I found out that the boy wants to be a horse trainer when he grows up and that he has been learning training techniques from a professional trainer. He was looking for a horse to work with to apply some of the things he has learned.
I mentioned I had a filly who could use some work.
Tuesday afternoon, Levi came over and started working with Isabelle. They are both amazing. He is very good with horses, and Isabelle learns fast!
Levi came over Wednesday, too, and he has started to teach me some of the same techniques as well. And he is planning on coming Thursday afternoon, also.
I think Isabelle and I are going to learn a lot!
Little black kitten
The little black kitten continues to improve. She is now eating as much as her siblings. Her meow is stronger. And she's moving around much more. All three kittens are eating and sleeping and crying when they are hungry. Bless their little kitten hearts.
Guinevere
My old kitty cat Guinevere is on antibiotics again. She was on a combination of antibiotics for six weeks and looked pretty good, all things considered. She was off the antibiotics for two weeks and went right back downhill again. Her face swelled up, and her nose became stuffy again. She has been on the meds for two weeks now and is just starting to feel better now. The vet has advised me to keep her on antibiotics for 10 days to two weeks, take her off for 5 days to a week and then put her back on antibiotics again. At the moment, she is crouched over a plate of canned kitty food and is working at licking it up.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, October 24, 2007, 03:48
Little Black Girl Kitty (update)
When I went downstairs Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. to feed the kittens, the little black kitten was feeling stronger and managed to eat 5.5cc of formula.
Monday evening at midnight, she ate 7! Tuesday morning when I fed them, she consumed 8! And Tuesday afternoon, she was up to 9!
So, the little one is definitely feeling better. She is moving around more, too, and I have to watch her closely to make sure she doesn't crawl off my lap. She still can't meow very loud, yet, though. She's not as loud as the others when they are hungry and I am not getting the formula to them fast enough.
I am continuing to get a few drops of amoxicillan down her each time I feed the kittens as well. She tries to back away when I have the syringe with a tiny bit of amoxicillan in my hand. When I put a drop on her tongue, she really makes a face.
The other two gray kittens are doing well. All of them are purring. They have been since they were 3 days old. They purr when I pick them up and they know they will be getting some formula.
It is just the funniest thing to hear these tiny little scraps of fur purring. They like to nuzzle my hands, and sometimes they will suck on the edge of my thumb or on my forearm. They also like to crawl up the front of my sweatshirt to my face, and then they nuzzle my chin or my neck.
The kittens, at one week old, also now know which side of the box I take them out of when I feed them. While I am feeding one, the other two are facing me inside their box, yelling for food, and are trying to crawl up the corner of the box.
In not too long, they *will* be crawling up the side of the box. That's the thing about kittens. You can't keep them in anything for long because they learn to climb so soon. After the kittens start climbing the box, I will have to make use of a plastic bucket to put them in. They won't be able to crawl up the plastic. I always worry about kittens climbing up to the top of the box and then falling on the floor and hurting themselves.
LeAnn R. Ralph