Tuesday's Filly

My good friend Andrea came over this morning and as she was leaving, noticed a wet little foal out in the field. Sure enough, a new baby buckskin. Here is a picture of Curt's sister Shauna, who dropped by later in the afternoon, and a van load of kids joining the horses in staring unashamedly at the new little babe. I love how horses gather round and stare. We couldn't stay long though as Sadie had to be in to the lab to re-do her blood work. The lab missed checking her sodium and potassium levels on Friday and only did the blood osmolality. I had to wake her up from her nap and take her in for 4pm. She was in a great mood by the time all of us filed in there and I was sure she was going to do a super job like last time. (She giggled all the way through at Ellie the last time.) But in the chair opposite her was a screaming little boy. The longer she waited for her poke, the more nervous she got. Her needle went over with wailing. *sigh*. Andrea, i forgot to tell you "Good Eye!" When someone spots something like a new babe, a deer or moose in the bush, a salamander in the mud, a yummy place to get ice cream they get a "Good Eye!" the compliment can be used to stop the child from repeating it 4000000 times and it can also be used to ignore the fact that you are *not* going to stop for ice cream. haa! In this case, you just have a good eye. ;)

More babies!

Well, the day just kept on building. After the litter of kittens, a second goat delivered another set of twins. Then I got a call from Curt's cousin Jeff asking if i would like to try to rescue 2 baby pigeons. He had a mother pigeon nesting in the roof insulation of the new house he is building. The roof was about to be closed in and he went up to destroy the nest... but there were babies. Darren and I watched videos online as to how to feed baby pigeons, designed a tubed syringe that would go down the chicks' throat to it's crop and gave it a go. It seemed to work fairly slick, but i guess time will tell if these very new chicks will be able to survive. I'm digging out the incubator tonight so that they will have a warm place to stay till their feathers start coming.

Mewling on a Monday

Yesterday, Curt's cousin Jeff and his wife Jessica Jespersen (yes, that's right... and there are more of us by that name too in this family :)) Came over to see the baby goats. Our Manx cat came up for some loving, rolling onto her back as the kids pointed out the bare spots on her tummy where she had shed in preparation for kittens. She looked like a hairy, hard little watermelon rolling around at our feet, so today was no surprise. I sent the kids out to play this afternoon only to have Robin run into the house breathless about 15 minutes later. Carrie had been walking past the pole shed and had heard loud mewing. She ran into the storage corner and sure enough, there were kittens. There was a problem though. Mama Cat had delivered on the wire mesh and the babies had fallen through to other levels and also to the floor as she delivered. Carrie gathered them all up as Darren prepared a straw box and rescued the lot of them to the garage. They were all still soaking wet, tiny and beautiful.