Green Peace

Well this is not starting out to be a very entertaining blog....Don't give up on me, though, I start flying again Thursday. I have been spending lots of quality time with the house critters while getting over being sick. Strep throat in the summer? Really? But moving on...

The Animal Kingdom seems to have been enjoying all the quiet time...although Snuggles is definitely jealous of any and all attention paid to electronic devices! He has had ample opportunity to perfect his tuck-and-roll-throwing-body-on-the-keyboard moves this week. Oreo ("the Baby") has made peace with the black-thing-with-wheels today. Stemming from my growing frustration with trying to de-hair my suitcase for each trip, I've covered it with a towel whenever it's "parked." This seems to have generated a new monster for Oreo to wrestle, so now it goes like this: hop, circle, yoga, lick, drop-on-side-and-kick-like-mad-with-hind-feet, resume bathing like nothing ever happened, resume attack and try to bury towel-monster, fall fast asleep...etc. It's exhausting to watch!

Parker decided to take a bath today (immediately after his shower) and evidently thought bubbles would be a nice touch. And jets. Since he didn't ask, no on told him what happens when you use the jets with the bubble bath. It might be next Tuesday before all those bubbles go away! Needless to say this was a cause of GREAT concern for the bathroom monitor, Snuggles. Like the rain in that room wasn't bad enough, now we've got THIS!? Poor Boy came crying out of the bathroom to Audrey and me, trying his hardest to describe the horror of it all...Rest assured, he is now recovering in a nice ball at the end of his bed.

Backing up a bit, Audrey and I went to the barn a couple of days ago. It was the first day I felt like I was going to live and was having serious horse-withdrawal. My attendance at the barn has been really pitiful this summer with my work schedule and being a taxi driver when I am home (which has negatively impacted my whole attitude, I confess). So Audrey and I headed over to my happy-place...We packed the camera in hopes of getting some updated pics of my ponies--two sets of hands are always better than one! Historically, Bashira can go out with anyone; she's an easy horse. And so is Henry; he even takes care of the babies at the barn on many occasions. But Bashira is a girl. And possibly a little possessive with "her" people? Whenever we've tried to introduce them to each other, she does her little-mare-squeal and turns away from him. I'm sure it doesn't help that he can't read her body language like other horses. But we've been patient and just keep giving them supervised visits and praise positive results. So that's what we were anticipating.

To make a long story a little bit shorter, it seems there IS such a thing as "green peace!" It was such a beautiful day we decided to groom them outside and to let them hand-graze as a treat...It was a great start to a memorable day: the whole day was a success! Audrey and I even seized the opportunity and ponied Henry to Bashira (remember, he's blind and hasn't really been ridden in a couple of years). SUCCESS!!! She was good. He was good. And it all added up to the BEST day of my summer....sigh...