Adventures

I've had a busy weekend. On Friday I took my last exam and packed up and came home. I left everything in my bedroom and then went to Outback with my family for dinner, only to return to find my hamster cage on the floor from where the cats knocked it over, and no hamster in sight. It's been two days and I still haven't found the little booger. I just hope she doesn't starve to death 'cause that'd be inhumane, but I won't be heartbroken if I don't find her again, either. She's a bitchy little hamster.

Yesterday I went with my aunts and my cousins to some fancy girly luncheon place and ate lunch and celebrated my aunt's birthday. She gave me more drugs. Yea for drugs. After lunch, we went to the wedding dress store where Laura's dress is so she could put it on and let everyone gush. It's a gorgeous dress. Some of the dresses in there were really frilly and lacey and junk...defintely not what I'm looking for. But her's isn't too lacy or frilly or anything. Then we came home and I went into Decatur to meet Christin for dinner and pick up the fish from her. The rest of the night was spent transporting the fish to my house, cleaning out the tank, and loading the fish back in it. Unfortunately, our flourescent light finally died, so I've got to go get another one soon. I spent several hours on the phone last night with Dustin, which was nice, since he's not in town this weekend. :-(

Today I woke up at noon, then ran errands for most of the day. I returned a book to Borders, picked up a new flourescent light in hopes of fixing the fish light (nope), and dropped off mine and Mom's engagement rings to be appraised. Her prongs were loose so they'll be fixing those, as well. Mom said she feels naked without her e-ring on and I have to agree. I've put my promise ring back on that finger, but it feels funny because it's not as heavy or thick as my e-ring band. Alas, they'll be ready on Wednesday, and then we'll feel normal again. Or at least, as normal as we were before.

I went to Valvoline today to get my oil changed, and much to my surprise, obliviousbobby was working today! So he changed my oil and made my car happy again. AND he gave me a discount. 'Cause he's absolutely awesome. I called Dustin out of excitement that I got to see Bobby and he was so nice to my credit card, and I told Dustin that if he ever kicks the bucket, Bobby shall be my replacement husband. Yesh.

Anyhow, then I came home and cleaned out the attic a little bit. We have so many old boxes up there and styrofoam pieces from computer and printer boxes that it's just gotten to be a mess. I carted over 9 garbage bags full of trash out of there, and I hope to clean up more this week. It's such a mess up there! I found the partial remnents of some animal, although I'm not sure what. Raccoon, maybe? Definitely a putrid smell, definitely something dead, and definitely not a squirrel (wrong coloring). I didn't clean it up, though. lol Then I went over to the farm for dinner, then came back and watched The Simpons while cutting the cat's claws and putting blue Soft Paws on them. They're not too happy with me at the moment, though. Oops.

Tomorrow will be spent at the farm, doing some computer work for my grandmother and baking tons of Christmas cookies!

Unfortunately, the colt on the farm died during the nite. :-(

With pregnant horses, the mare isn't supposed to eat fescue grass for at least the last three months of pregnancy. Apparently there's something in the composition of the grass that poisons the mother's milk and amneotic fluid and will harm the baby. Typically for mares that have been eating fescue the entire time, the horse is a stillbirth or miscarriage. The horse on the farm was off the "bad" grass for a month, but it wasn't long enough. When the horse was brought onto the farm, it was rumored to be pregnant, but the owner didn't get it checked out for sure with a sonogram until later in the pregnancy. When it was confirmed, the mare still wasn't taken off the bad grass despite my grandmother's concerns. About a month ago, she was moved to a different field with "good" grass. She had the baby Wednesday nite/Thursday morning, so it was about a day old when it died. My grandmother woke up this morning and it was laying in the ring. She called my dad and left a message at the house, then called his cell phone. He came over, as did the owner of the horse(s). The owner just kept on saying "Nature sucks". Dad buried the colt in the field that we always bury the horses in. My grandmother wanted to call me but knew I was taking a test this morning. She called Ben at school to let him know, considering his kids were coming over to the farm for a field trip today.

I knew something was wrong when I stopped by home to get my mail before going to the farm (to help with Ben's class), because the answering machine was blinking (and it was only 9 a.m.) and the message was from my grandmother, upset, telling Dad to call her. :-( I figured it must have been something with the baby, and when I drove up and only saw one horse in the ring instead of two, it was confirmed. We talked about it for a few minutes, but then the bus load of kids showed up.

I feel so bad for the momma, though. She was just pacing around the ring and neighing often, looking restless. Mary Ann said that when they tried to take the baby out of the ring to bury it, Momma kept nuzzling it and trying to keep it inside the ring with her. :-( I wish there was some way to explain to her what happened, but I know she's grieving in her own way.

It just sucks, though. This is the first time there's been a baby horse born on the farm since before I was born. I didn't even get to see it, although I hope to see the pictures that the owner took. As much as I'm used to wildlife failing and dying on me, it's different when it's a pet, or when I was looking forward to it this much. To quote Adrienne, "blar". I pet the Momma today, though I wish I could do more.

Horatio is my fake horse. Actually, he's a real horse but his owner lives in south Georgia so I've adopted him as my own. :-) I went to the farm this morning to get Horatio's hooves cleaned out and met the horse ferrier. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't too happy about getting his hooves trimmed and cleaned (he has a fungus and it's a little tender), so he kept on being uncooperative despite the peppermints we gave him. He acted more dog-like than usual. When he didn't like something, he nudged his head into my side like my dog does. It was entertaining until Shelia (horse ferrier) started washing his back legs. He got upset and really started to slam his head into me. Poor guy. It was funny, but at the same time I felt bad for him because he didn't enjoy it but I was forcing him to stay there.

I won't be surprised if I have giant bruises on my right arm, boob, and hip though. Oh well.