This Just In...

Justin! For readers who missed the original announcement, Justin belongs to Tess, who will be heading up Farcical Farm while David and I are in Tasmania (leaving in ~3 weeks...eek!). He rolled into town early this afternoon, surveyed his new domain, and quickly recognized that Tonka is easy to conquer. Ever since then he has been eating, drinking, and merrily picking on Tonka* whenever the spirit moves him. He did do a few laps of the paddock at a half-hearted trot when he saw me coming with his blanket, but Tess had warned me about this possibility in advance. So far he has been a nice addition to the farce -- handsome, goofy, cheerful and cooperative. We did have one altercation at dinner time when he had the audacity to paw at the paddock gate, and I had the audacity to send a feed tub whirling at his nose from the shadows. He was duly surprised, so let's hope he has learned that Bad Things come to those who do not wait more patiently.

*Don't feel too bad for Tonka. He is a very subordinate horse and this is his lot in life. Justin has not done him any physical damage (who knows about his ego), and I firmly believe Tonka enjoys being pushed around more than being alone. I would never want to see him in a large herd environment, but he does well in the company of any other single horse.

Making Space

About a year ago I broke out two new orange rain sheets for Tonka and Raven. And today, with no small sadness, I packed the 72" one into my car (along with three others) to take down to my neighbor Wendy tomorrow morning. I decided several weeks ago that I would sell all of Raven's clothing -- she used it respectfully, and it is too soaked in memory for me to want to keep. Furthermore, when the time comes to get another horse I don't want to have a collection of size 72" gear subconsciously directing me. Wendy has a variaty of QHs, Arabs and Quarabs and I'm hoping that she will give it all a new home, just in time for winter. On a happier note, Justin arrives tomorrow! Tonka has been obviously lonely lately, and we are all looking forward to having a second horse around again.

Buy In Bulk

Titan is the pickiest, least stomach-motivated dog I have ever known.  Since he was a puppy we have been experimenting with different foods, but he has never eaten anything consistently or with gusto.  We have always let him free feed on Canidae kibble, but he tends to go days without touching it followed by gorging himself on a full bowl – feast or famine!  For a while he was happy to get the raw mixture that Tilley, Willow and Watson eat, but it costs $1.50/pound and Titan needs four pounds per day (the other dogs eat three pounds per day between them) -- for the same annual price we could keep two horses fed.  We tried switching to chicken carcasses (something the other dogs also eat and love) for the more reasonable cost of $0.50/pound, but half the time he would simply let them rot.  Not only is that wasteful and disgusting, but also very frustrating…what kind of dog won’t eat raw meat?!?  In desperation I bought a case of Lean Cuts canned food from Costco a few weeks back and, of course, he loved it.  For Titan “loved it” means “ate it within an hour of being served” and not “hoovered it down” , but it was still a good sign.  He has been eating a can twice daily ever since (still with the free-choice kibble) and we think that we’ve finally found a long-term solution to keeping the 120-pound dog eating regular meals.  The only hitch? We are leaving for six months in six weeks time.  So today David and I stormed the Costco and bought 20 cases of Lean Cuts…enough to last 220 days.  Let’s hope he continues to like  the stuff…