Nurture and Nature

On the nurture note, Major is gone. I wasn't as bad as I was Friday when L left on the plane for AZ! And L won't be gone as long! : ) I can't wait to see Major at the show.

What I didn't know is that M is planning to ride him western (we ride English) for the Bob Riley trophy. Bob Riley is a legend in the Morgan Horse World. He has won the American Morgan Horse Association's Man of the Year and Hall of Fame induction. Bob died in 2001 at the age of 92, and he was a spectacular trainer and Morgan horse enthusiast. He began training at age 65! M got to know him when he volunteered with her handicapped riding program, and he was the one who trained Major.

I rode Major Saturday morning-- it was amazing. We were doing turns on the forehand, which is hard for me to get him to do because I just need to "find the buttons." I found some this morning! B was watching, and it always nice for us to talk while I ride. I can show him when I am excited about something that I just figured out, or to vent to him when I do something stupid (like this morning, when I didn't take up the reins when I asked for a trot and nearly wound up riding the ground!).

I missed him this morning when I went to feed and didn't hear his sassy nicker. I also habitually dodged his teeth today when I went to close the barn door-- he usually tries to grab me when I get close to him to latch it closed.

Six weeks and counting...

On the nature note, I have saved more kittens. I am convinced God put me here to watch over the cats of the world!

Friday, Mark was walking around the barn bellowing, obviously distressed. She meowed loud and long like she does when she wants food, but her food and water dishes were full. I noticed that she did not go back to her babies immediately. In hindsight, on my way out to the barn Friday afternoon, I noticed that there were turkey vultures circling the barn, and thought immediately that something might have happened to Bert or Ernie. When all seemed well, I thought nothing of it.

Saturday, after I got back from my ride, I was grooming Major and decided to look in on the kittens. I noticed that they were in a tight ball, and didn't seem to be moving. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were tangled in the bale netting of the bale next to which she had had her babies! I grabbed some scissors, and cut a large piece of the netting off, circling the kittens, and dragged the whole mess out and away from the bale. What I found was so sad.

One of the kittens was dead. Dead for days. Decomposed and stinking, with flies all over it. It had been strangled by the netting.

Another kitten was close to death. He had been strangled by the netting, too, and was barely able to move. He was not able to meow.

The third kitten had his paws stuck in the netting, but not his neck. However, the netting was very tight around his paws and was restricting his movement. All of the kittens were tangled into a huge ball, and could not easily be extracted from each other.

Of course, I cut them all apart, and disposed of the dead kitten (thanks, B, my hero!). B cleaned up all of the loose hay and netting behind the bale, but we decided that it would likely just happen again. Kittens that don't have their eyes open just grope and stagger around blindly, and that is what got them tangled in the first place. We couldn't get behind the bale to remove all of the netting that might pose a threat.

So we got a cardboard box, with sides high enough so they couldn't climb out. We lined it with hay and put it back where we found the kittens.

Mark came back, and we watched her notice that something had changed. She frantically grabbed one of the kittens, and ran around the barn, as if she were drunk, zigging and zagging, looking for a safe place for her kitten. She finally settled on the tack room, as the door happened to be open from my ride earlier. She plopped down on the cold, dirty cement, and seemed content to let her baby nurse. I brought the other baby in, in his box, and left him there. She did not get him.

I continued to check on the family for hours, and finally, after about 4 hours, she had retrieved the other kitten.

By the next afternoon, however, she was gone again. The tack room door is noisy in the wind, and she is skittish. I bet she was too uncomfortable with that setup. However, I did find them behind some wood we keep in the barn. All still seems well-- she was gone, and the kittens were sleeping contentedly.

Those kittens will make four that I've saved! I had thought about cursing Mother Nature, but then realized that in all four cases, it was the human influence that caused the issues, directly or indirectly.

It's not easy saving cats, but somebody's gotta do it! : )

Happy Fourth of July!