Renewing The Offer

Increased mare care has led to an increase in barn books. These poor codexes (codexi?) have been taken to the barn and have suffered as paper naturally suffers in a barn environment. Condition ranges from almost okay to beyond sad. Some got read. Some are awful and I stopped. Either way, they are looking for new homes. I don’t dare give/send even the nice ones to folks who might get upset if horsehair or a piece of hay were to fall out. Full explanation here [Barn Books].

Last time, one person stepped up. She has been getting irregular shipments of dusty books ever since. Now, I’m giving the rest of you a chance to get in on the action.

Any takers?

The good. Worn corners. "B' written on the flyleaf to indicate a barn book.
The good.
Worn corners. “B’ written on the flyleaf to indicate a barn book.

The bad. More dusty and jumbled than damaged. I wish I could say that my barn was tidy and everything was in its place. Used to be. Now, not so much.
The bad.
More dusty and jumbled than damaged. I wish I could say that my barn was tidy and everything was in its place. Used to be. Now, not so much.
The ugly. Dusty, bent & warped. But free!
The ugly.
Dusty, bent & warped.
But free!

Update: Shame on me for not thinking globally. Yes, this offer is limited to US addresses. Anything international – even a US neighbor – is crazy expensive, USPS: Postage Price Calculator.

Fine. So Far.

Clever minion remembered the summer booties to cushion her fronts.
Clever minion remembered the summer booties to cushion her fronts.
Mathilda appears to be approaching status quo ante.

Basically, arthritis had made her stiff in her left hind. She compensated by putting weight on her right hind. Last week, she strained her right hind. Ya can’t compensate with both. She seems to be coming to a workable arrangement of weight distribution. It’s not elegant, but neither does it appear to be slowing her down. Silly cow just about passaged back to the barn after taking exception to one of the pussycats in the field. Predator alert! Predator alert!

We know she needs to be a horse. Some horses live just fine on limited turn out. Rodney could be happy with 1-2 hours of pasture and 22 hours of indoor hay eating. Not Mathilda. A life of stall rest and hand walks would be a misery for all concerned. She wants out.

We are waiting for the acute phase to be over. Waiting to see how she settles into the chronic phase. Waiting to see what her quality of life is at that point.

Waiting.

Cat Wars

Lo, the mighty have fallen.

Arthur, in better days
Arthur, in better days

Arthur, King of the Kittens, used to be a bully. He’d grump at all the cats, but the Siamese boys mostly ignored him. Ghost would take it personally. Ghost takes everything personally. So Arthur would go out of his way to beat up on Ghost.

Ghost
Ghost

Arthur regularly showed up with a new abscess on his head. The entry wounds were suspiciously fang-shaped. Given the personalties in the house, Arthur undoubted started it. And lost.

Then Blue arrived.

Blue
Blue

He moved right to the top of the leaderboard, whacking Arthur on the way up. For a while, Arthur would beat up on Ghost, Blue would beat up on Arthur, and Ghost and Blue would play.

Ghost Blue chair Feb 9 14

Then the wormed turned. Ghost noticed that his snugglebuddy wasn’t afraid of his nemesis. So Ghost decided he wasn’t afraid of Arthur either. Now both Blue and Ghost go out of their way to harass Arthur. I often have to give Arthur safe passage from the food bowl to his sleeping spot.

It’s pitiful to see Arthur peeking out from under the bed. I want to feel for him. On the other hand, he brought it on himself by being such a massive bully for so long

(Note on cat photos: These are all retreads. Ideally, I would have liked new ones. Plus I need to update the photos on the Cast of Critters page. I’m finding that my little point & shoot only manages Cat Asleep. Not riveting. Better pictures may need to wait for a real camera.)
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Perusing the News

February 10, 2014
February 10, 2014

I bought a recent issue of The Chronicle of the Horse to see how it had changed. Back when I read it regularly, the magazine was still black and white inside with the orange and black masthead and an artist on the cover. It’s been a while.

New names, color, updated layout, and more readable format for the results. Some things have changed. Others have not. Show coverage. Rule changes. People seeking to do a while avoiding b. Things change, people don’t.

I stopped reading when Previous Horse retired. I’m not generous enough to read about other people competing when I’m not. That hasn’t changed. Reading about pretty people riding pretty ponies in pretty places was not conducive to maintaining my serenity. Small sobs of self-indulgent self-pity may have accompanied the page-turning. To the rest of the world, an issue of The Chronicle is a harmless, glossy magazine. To me, it is an 80-page, sucking vortex of envy.

No more Chronicle for a while.

November 25, 1994 (Coverage & photo by Yours Truly p23.)
November 25, 1994
(Coverage & photo by Yours Truly p23.)

Getting Ready

Mathilda has undergone a few reversals of fortune lately. Mostly mechanical, mostly minor. The front end is still bright-eyed & bushy-maned … and opinionated & obnoxious. At some point, the accumulated mechanical errors will overwhelm the system. At some point, the minions will run out of saving throws.

We are in the endgame. Whether that means 3 days, 3 months, or 3 years, I don’t know. I don’t think it will be years, but neither am I betting against it.