Cat and mouse

The cat, caught a mouse the other day. The 7yr old suddenly yells that Annie has a frog and the 3yr old opened the door so she could go out and rescue it. Annie, being proud of her catch and wanting to show off, brought the mouse inside. Horrible memories of being the cause of a mouse loose in a house last year flooded into my head so when I saw it was a mouse I leaped, nay sprang into action. The first hope is to get the cat out without her dropping the mouse. The cat, upon being hassled by 3 children and a grown up, dropped the mouse in indignation. It was, happily, very sick and slow but not dead. The 3yr old, being closest, picked it up. I relieved her of the burden immediately to prevent it from biting her. She asked if she could pat it and I figured it wouldn't hurt since she already had mouse on her hands.

It was pretty sick which made it very docile so it sat comfortably in my hand while we took it across and let it go in the swamp. Afterwards, when I told my boss she said I should have given it back to the cat. I said I wasn't going to do that in front of the kids. In their eyes frogs and mice are both to be rescued from the mean cat.

Horse and wind

Last night we were putting away the horses and it was pretty windy and feeling like it should storm. The new horse watched us put away the others and then I went to get him for his turn. I went in the gate and he trotted up to me, then when I reached out to touch him, he rushed off and bucked, reared and jumped all four feet into the air as high as he could. Then he rushed up and sniffed me again, then went charging round the paddock. It took five or six goes off this before he let me put on his halter and lead him to the shed. It was a bit like he knew he had to go to bed but he wanted to use up some energy first.

Rush up to me then say "Wait a minute I just gotta..." then leap around like a puppy, then come back and say "Ok I am ready... no wait" and rush off again. In a 15 hand horse this is a bit scary but cool to watch.

Dogs

Usually it is Friday the puppy who is in trouble for being a pest, this is because she deserves it. We leave anything out there for any length of time and she will swoop in a steal it. She used to put everything in the garden nearby but now she is going further afield. There is a definite sense of knowing mischief in her behaviour, today I saw her look round and then quickly jump up to grab a horse brush and run away. She was extremely quick as I was standing about 2 meters away at the time.

The old dog though, she can usually do no wrong. Her name is Simba and is usually good and is too old and slow to cause much damage anyway. However, if left to her own devices for long enough, she will engage in a bit of trouble making. This is like great grandma playing a practical joke and only being suspected because she is the only one around. Yesterday I went to collect the kids from school and as I left I thought "I should kick Simba outside or she will mess up the bin." I didn't and when we got home one of the kids said "what happened to the bin?" I said "If it is spread all over the place, Simba came in a riffled through it again" She was lying innocently in her bed.

Today is a nice day and there is no reason for her to be inside but she barged past my leg and went trotting through the house to her mat. She is deaf as a post so if you want her attention you need to touch her. I caught up to her and she looked round then went faster and stood on her mat. I opened the door and indicated she should vacate but she pretended to obey then hurried back to her mat. This behaviour in a younger dog would be like "Ha ha you can't catch me" While dancing nimbly out of reach. Simba is so old it is just funny though.

Chickens

We have 6 chickens here. They are purely eaters of scraps so the dogs don't. This is fine, though my least favourite job is emptying the chook bucket. Today however I noticed an egg lying on the ground, then another one. I looked n the box and collected 17 eggs all up. Now the question of what to do with these eggs looms up. I don't think we can eat them because we have been feeding the chooks incorrectly. Now we have 17 eggs to deal with ????????? Who knew chooks lay eggs :)

Puppy Training

I have stopped horse training for a while because I have been busy and disinclined, though I will need to start again as he has gone completely mental recently. I have begun puppy training. This is a useful thing to do I suspect because, as someone pointed out, she knows her name, when you call out Friday, she runs away.

First and obviously she was taught to sit. I did not teach her this, every one else did when she was really young.

The next thing was to wait till I said she could before eating. This is valuable in a Labrador since they are so keen on food they will knock you down and breathe it in. I try to get everyone who is giving her food to make her wait till they have put it down then said "eat it up". This was funny when one of them did it with a toy and she said "go" and I said to try "eat it up" and she did and Friday grabbed it.

The next thing was for her to not barge inside whenever we open the door, this has gone backwards of late unfortunately.

Then, for fun, we have all begun to teach her hide and seek. I used to play this with Roger, my dog. One person goes into the laundry with the dog and the others hide in simple places, like behind bushes, then Friday is let out and the person with her says "go find" and she goes to find her pack. The kids hid behind 3 bushes and she found them, then they hid behind the same bushes again and Friday must have decided that the key was looking in these 3 places, because the third time they hid in different spot and she was sorely confused. She seems to have the general idea now though which is nice.

Today I was teaching to sit, stay come. To lie down and to crawl. She is much quicker at picking things up now and it is a rewarding experience to teach her things. I was also beginning to teach her to come when she is called even if she has something in her mouth. This may seem odd but usually it is somebodies shoe or shirt or similarly desired object.

Exciting moments

We took the Labrador puppy down to the dam to teach her to swim. Everything was going swimmingly but she did not seem to be very confident at it. She can do it but she is not really a huge fan.

When she would go in to get a stick, she would wade in and when it got to nearly her chin she would do a funny little jump. This pushed the stick out of reach. She did this a couple of times until she got the stick. She had thus far only gotten the stick while standing, the effort of plunging valiantly made her sink under the water. We all went "oh look" the OH LOOK!!!", she came up just as I was going to grab her. This appeared to shake her confidence because she did not go out of her depth again.

When we had all gotten out to dry off and go home, one of the kids yelled "snake, JULIA, just behind you!!!!" I looked down in time to see a snake slide between my feet towards the water. We left after that and I considered that it is the kind of excitement we did not really need.

Horse Training part 3

I have had a break from training Arakei because of adverse weather conditions and other interruptions of life. Yesterday I was feeling energetic, the weather was ok AND my boss had told me she wanted the jump stands I was using. I got some sacking and cut it into three or four strips and hung it onto the "Terrifying Face Flapper" I also built a little jump, about fifteen inches high, and decided to make use of the "Revolting Puddle".

I had brought Arakei with me and he watched me set all this up and then obediently followed me around and through the obstacles. Only a slight difficulty with the "Revolting Puddle". I decided he needed a harder task and went and found a small tarp and weighted the corners with bricks. He had a little sniff at it, tried walking around it but when that received no rest, he walked on a stood there. This brand new obstacle was over come without a halter and without batting an eyelid.

Today I added a wooden board raised onto bricks, again he did not bat an eyelid and followed me first time without a halter. The whole Obstacle Course ran like this. We trot over the jump, walk through the "Terrifying Face Flapper" over the "Tarp of Crackling Death" around a corner then over the "Scary Wooden Board" and a circle around a single pole then halt.

We completed it a few times then I came and invited my boss to come and watch, she was meant to be studying but seemed ready for a break and came to sit on the fence to watch. In spite of an audience, he was perfect and did everything calmly and nicely. She suggested teaching him to stand with his front feet in a tyre (The Tyre of DOOM it shall now be called). We thought it would be comparatively easy, BUT apparently he either didn't understand what was wanted and became frustrated, or it is more scary then I thought.

I put the halter on for the first time since starting, and helped him to understand what was wanted. Eventually he stood with his front feet in the tyre and we did the Head Down to relax trick. After that we stopped and he went to his paddock, that way we finished on a high.

Another suggestion was getting him to walk over the "Scary Wooden Board" as a seesaw. Since he had issues with the tyre I will leave that one till we have conquered the "Tyre of DOOM"

Cat Communication

Those of you who have been in the vicinity of cats for any length of time will know that cats train their humans and they have a number of commands which we obey usually unhesitatingly. The most common three are

1) FEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEE, I am STAAAAAARVING. This is both a vocal command and, if the response is not instant, rubbing against legs and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

2) Up now, let me in/out this instant! This is mainly vocal but usually includes the death stare if one does not respond quickly.

3) This is one that I did not realize even existed but it is "go and sit down or lie down somewhere so I can sleep on you." This is the most tricky to work out, it sounds and looks the same as the first commandexcept that when you go and look there is already food there. Romeo has given up the verbal bit and just falls over in front of where I am walking as seen here.

Rub foot and roll

Lay still for a moment, confident in the irritating nature of his position

Look up and say "come on, what are you waiting for?

After a hard days sleeping on a chair, he is ready for a nap on my stomach.

Dogs and Dirt

I have not said much about the dogs yet. Simba is a really OLD Golden Labrador, Friday is a four month old Chocolate Labrador Puppy. This photo was taken a while ago when she was about
2 1/2 months old. She is nearly as big as Simba now.

Friday needs to go to the vet today for a needle in the car that I drive. Beca

use it has been raining a b

it recently, all the lovely red dirt has turned to red mud. I knew she was dirty (even

though you can't see it) So I gave her a bath and because I could see that SImba was not a yellow dog anymore but a blotchy red and brown dog, she had a shower. I did not think to get a photo of the bath water after just the puppy had been in it or a photo of Simba before her bath but this is them after and the bath empty of water (but not of dirt).

Horse Training

Arakei is a little pony I have already mentioned in previous posts. He is a keen learner and a well coordinated little bloke. I had previously taught him to come and follow me without a lead rope or halter and, even after 2 weeks spent too far away to even see him, I was pleased to see he remembered his lessons and after a brief run about the paddock, followed me around the bending poles.

Today, I set up a curtain of bailing twine hung from a stick and set it across the top most setting of a jump stand. It was a simple and comparatively non terrifying piece of equipment and easily disposable since it is made of bailing twine and we have it coming out of our ears. This is the first step, I think, to teach him to do other such scary things as walking over a tarp, walking through a sheet, or walking in a puddle.

I walked him round some bending poles to get him in practice and to give him a success and then led him up to the curtain, I let him look at it for a bit then encouraged him to come through, unsurprisingly he bolted. I brought him back and tried many times before noticing that he would bolt to the side even before he approached the curtain. I did not want to teach him to run out all the time so I made him run around for ages and then put on the halter and led him to the curtain. I used the halter to guide him through and to discourage bolting out the side, after a very little bouncing around I moved a section of the curtain aside and he dashed through. He went through a lot more times after that, from both sides, and then I tried it without a halter. He bolted every time so I hunted him round the paddock again for AGES and then tried again and again. Knowing that he would be ready to stop soon and wanting to end on a high, I put the halter on him and led him through 10 times and eventually got him to be able to walk through pretty calmly.

The next step for tomorrow is to get him through without a lead rope. I need to work out how but I think it will involve the round yard.

Training ponies

There are 2 little ponies that are around 12 hands high (Their backs come up to my ribcage). It has been a long held, and much confirmed theory of mine, that the smaller the horse or pony, the meaner and sneakier it is. There are some exceptions to this rule but usually it is the case. I reckon this is mainly because people see a miniature pony or similar and they go "awwww, what a cute little boy. Does oo want a carrot?" and they treat a dangerous intelligent animal like it is a dog. Dogs are naturally friendly, horses naturally indulge in self preservation.

These two ponies put a considerable amount of their intellect into making up tricks to get out of doing things they don't want. This means that if I teach them tricks their intellect will be used to find out what I want so I will stop bugging them. At the moment I want to teach them to jump over a jump without a rider or a lead rope. I got Arakei to jump one twice this evening without a lead rope by teaching him to follow me then leading him over a much lowered version of the jump. Once he worked out what I wanted he was more then happy to comply and trotted and jumped beautifully. Next I hope to teach him to jump without me having to lead him.

Contrary cats

I am a dog person. I like cats well enough, but I am a dog person. Romeo, the indoor cat, is a contrary beast who sits on my lap over anybody elses. I respond by moving my hands away from him and telling him to go away and sit on somebody else's lap. He takes this as an invitation to lie down and generally make himself comfortable then purrs a funny squeaky purr and, if he is really happy, he dribbles on me.

My theory that cats go to the one who doesn't want them was confirmed the other night when he came stalking into the room where about 5 of us were watching tv. I called him and coaxed him to get onto my lap and he looked away from me in disdain and began to look for someone else to sit on. I said "YES!! fooled you cat." and he turned back and jumped onto my lap and proceeded to go through the lie-down squeak dribble routine.

Cats are Contrary

helpful animals

Yesterday I had to wash Bluey, the old grey plodder pony. We have lovely red dirt that shows up beautifully on white ponies so I washed his legs and neck and tail, the bits that stick out from his rug. This morning He had another bath because he spent last night pooping then lying in it (he only does this when we need him to stay clean) so he had big green patches on his legs and tummy. Then when we went to load him up on the float he had red patches on his legs where he lay down in the mud again.

Like children, horses know the opportune moment.

Cats again

Romeo is a big, gorgeous inside cat. His view of people, as I discovered today though I have suspected for a while, is that they are here purely for his convenience and entertainment. Yesterday I was lying on a lounge chair reading James Herriot and was completely absorbed so that when Romeo jumped up onto my stomach I nearly fell off the chair in shock.

After completing his usual poking and prodding of my stomach he finally fell asleep with his head up against my chin. I continued reading until I was tired and I put down my book and began to doze off only to be woken up minutes later by Romeo whacking my face twice with his paw in a bungled attempt at catching a fly. We settled back down and he went back to sleep and we were comfortable until, once again the fly interrupted his slumbers and he hit me on the face again.

Today, in the afternoon, he came out from wherever he had been sleeping and walked around my ankles and lay down just where I wanted to walk in a clear indication he wanted something. Since he already had food, I concluded that he wanted his human cushion to lay down obediently on a chair so he could once more sleep in comfort.

Puppies and mops

We have a new puppy where I live, she is about 14 weeks old now and a is Chocolate Labrador. Because of the almost constant rain, the mud comes into the house, and especially the laundry, with a constancy that is irritating. I decided to quickly mop out the muddy dog and people prints from the laundry where is shows up on the white tiles and Friday the puppy joined in. As I mopped back and forth, Friday raced about trying to catch the mop as it swooshed past trying to mop up the never ending puppy prints being created as I mopped and she chased.

Horse and rain

Where I live there are horses. These horses need to stay warmish and dry and things or they will grow winter hair and be shaggy looking for competitions and things. One day, it was about 3 o clock so a not unreasonable time for them to go to bed anyway and it began to rain those big, singular blops that promise a lot of wetness in the near future. I deemed it prudent to go and bring in the horses out of the rain before they got wet.

I got the two white ones in while they were still dry enough to not need change of rugs. I went to catch Choice and usually she is pretty good except for the occasional need to try to assert authority. All horses and children do this and I am fine with it and I know how to deal with it. What was irritating was that she chose the day it was pouring down so hard I could barely see and I was soaked in seconds while she trotted cheerfully about, cantering gaily past when I got too close.

It was enjoyable in a twisted, walking in the rain, kind of way.

Cats

I have never had a blog before so I am just going to launch in.

I have never lived with an inside cat before, but I am noticing, now that I am, that they make jobs and activities... if not easier, then certainly more interesting.

Who knew that folding washing would be made challenging by a cat chewing, chasing and lying on whatever you are folding. Who knew that a cats favourite place to lie down is on a computer keyboard, but only when it is in use. Who knew that, while a cat won't walk over dirty washing with her dirty feet, she will find the ONE white shirt in the basket of clean wet washing to cover in footprints.

I am a dog person but right now I have a cat helping me with my typing by sticking his head under my hand every few seconds. I think I will remain a dog person.