Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas to all

Wow, where has this year gone? It's flown by and only speeding faster and faster, so Christmas is suddenly upon us and next it'll be 2011 :o)

Next whale watch attempt is going to be for my birthday too, fingers crossed they'll make an appearance for us end of January!

Heading to Christchurch for Christmas, I know the family will be very conscious of Mum being absent but with 4 rowdy boys running around full on all day I'm sure everyone will be distracted just a bit from the sadness which is good :o)

Pete and Marcus are going to stay down an extra couple of days to keep Dad company for just a while longer and then they'll come home on the train. Can't wait to go and pick them up and hear all about the trip up and the tunnels from Marcus, he just loves the trains and tunnels around Kaikoura.

I'm working my way through a couple of Eckhart Tolle books right now, have devoured A New Earth and onto it a 2nd time and getting started on the Power of Now too. I love the way he writes, sets it all out very simply and the 'gap in the thoughts' were you can sense a background awareness is exactly like sensing animals when talking to them, except the Awareness/Consciousness (God) doesn't have a personality like the animals do. Very good author if anyone is looking for some holiday reading :o)

Anyway, would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful New Year and some incredible bonding times with your loved ones (animal and not!)

From my tribe to yours, Merry Christmas :o)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

catch up time, you first, then me ;o)

Been pretty full on here for the last couple of weeks, a good steady workload to keep me occupied at night is great, some fantastic updates from owners of cats, dogs and horses which is lovely as I know they're all working in a better partnership to get those results :o)

A couple of new additions here, bet you can't guess ;o) Yeah OK the mad chook lady has been collecting again. A beautiful picked on baby who was getting a hiding to the point of her comb being pecked too came and made herself known to me by jumping on me. I made sure she had a feed of pellets and water and tried to take notes of what she looked like so I could keep an eye on her in the shed in future. I got up to shift and she came running after me, being attacked by everything she went past on the way. This happened the entire 3/4 hour I was in the shed. I popped her up on the feeder out of the way while I took the cart and eggs outside to the quad bike and then I went back to get her, she was gone!!!!! I looked everywhere! Disappeared into thin air! I thought to myself that she was not meant to be and went back to the quad bike and Marcus and there she was! Sitting up on the cart waiting for me! I got her home and asked Marcus what he thought her name might be, he said "I think she's Mary"... now Mary is the first ever chook who I was going to take home when the shed was due to "go" unfortunately she died in a 2 week period I was away and only 2 weeks before I could have brought her home with me :o( Broke my heart! Mary would follow me around the shed too and jump on me if another chook came to close to her, jumped onto me head once, I laughed so hard she nearly fell off again! Well this Mary is the same and when I checked with her if she would like Mary as a name she was more than happy with it :o)

28th of November and I found an injured young one, maybe only 8 mths old or there abouts. She'd been scalped, the skin stripped right away showing all the flesh from just behind her comb and bigger than a $2 coin. Her face was swollen and her eyes looked like little beady things (more than normal! LOL) trying to peer out of the swelling. She also had a big hole in her neck about the same size but thankfully all I could see there was blood not a gaping hole like in her head! Anyway I put her in a quiet place on her own and told the owner he'd need to do the deed to her. I came back the next day and he'd forgotten!!! Poor wee darling! However the head wound had dried and the skin had stuck back to the flesh rather than sliding around when she moved, and the swelling on one side had gone down ever do slightly, so I got her some food and water and she ate and drank, so I thought what the hell and told the boss I'd take her home and try to keep the flies away from her!!!

So, she came home on the Monday afternoon. On Tuesday my Father in Law in Christchurch rang to say Petes mum was in hospital and the Doctors had said she had from 2 days to 2 weeks (she had cancer) so Pete was going to head down on Wednesday and Marcus and I would follow on Friday as we were supposed to head down for the weekend anyway. Tuesday morning and dad rings saying the family has been called into the hospital as the time is close! I rang Pete and he headed straight down, just the clothes he was in and Marcus and I would follow on Wednesday morning after sorting out someone to look after the animals.

Mum died at 11.10pm on the Tuesday night, Pete had got there at about 2pm so he was able to be with her and dad when she passed very very peacefully :o)

Now of course I had a scalped chicken to deal with too! I couldn't leave her here so she came with us! Stayed in Dad's fly free laundry and got her head bioptron'd and sprayed daily with colloidal silver, she was a very good girl and altho she talks to you, she is a very quiet talker.

We came home Sunday and she and Mary now share a chook pen all by themselves. Mary is scared of Felicity (Little Flick after the fire engine in the old kids radio story, she loves that song) and Little Flick is not interested in harassing Mary. I think they'll be best buddies very soon :o)

It was Little Flicks first night out of the cage last night and I went out just as it was getting dark to make sure she knew where she could sleep. A hedgehog came under the fence into the pen and Little Flick took the 3 steps needed to have a look at it, it waltzed right up to her legs and stuck his nose into the feathers, not sure if he had a nibble or not, but Flick squawked and jumped away and he followed! They did this about 5 times, hedgie following Flick and going in for a love bite hehehe. I had to nudge him out the way with my foot to get him to leave her alone as he was ignoring my growling and clapping of hands, hope it isn't sick as it was very pale coloured too!

Had to put the girls up on top of Flicks cage in case he came over to eat their pellet and nibbled their toes while he was at it LOL.

Came home from Christchurch after 5 days away and Mac's a bit hoppy, nearly foundered the podge! So I've pulled him out of the dressage on Sunday, mentally he's still not quite right on the mounting part (showed this at a lesson yesterday!) so better to give him the time he needs than rush it and blow it.

He and Smokey got their teeth done today, as suspected Smokey REALLY needed his to be done! Unfortunately the usual dentist we get couldn't come up from Christchurch till after Christmas (and who knew WHEN after Christmas) so I booked in with another one coming up from Christchurch..... I should have asked the price first! Oh My God!!!! That was an expensive exercise! hey, good job but still it wasn't worth what I had to pay for it! Not a pleasant surprise this close to Christmas but at least the boys are done and happy I suppose!

And now of course I'm still playing catch up after being away with work! Never mind, nearly caught up!

There you go! All caught up you are, and I'm nearly caught up and Christmas is just around the corner! EEK!!!!

On a plus side, after Christmas Smokey will be coming back into work! YAY!!!