Sidequest: Skunk

There are a lot more animals around here than just horses (and cats). I caught a pair of birds resting in Ernie's shadow on one perimeter walk.

I'm trying to start daily perimeter walks as a part of our normal. The heat doesn't help.

I can't help, but think the horses look at us and think, "If you have AC why aren't you using it?"

Sunday, it was a full family walk. Carrie, Shane, Loki, and I started on the south side. Shane got frustrated and and lagged behind to show dramatically how unhappy he was.

I didn't believe him when he yelled, "Skunk!"

Carrie's laser eyes spotted it.

A young skunk flopped and half-dragged itself across the bridle path and into a pasture. "Something's wrong," Carrie said.

I grabbed Loki before he put his nose into trouble. Carrie was already on the case. She crawled under the shock-wire.

"Take a picture!" I said.

Yeah, I thought about that...but back to the story at hand.

The skunk was clearly in distress. It walked right up to Carrie and collapsed.

Shane crawled in after. I gave him my shirt and he ran it to Carrie to scoop the skunk up in.

Loki and I ran ahead to the house. I needed to get him out of the picture and find a way to contain skunky until we figured out what to do.

I threw Loki's pen in the back and drove the gator back out to offer a ride, but Carrie and Shane had marched double-time.

Ticks covered the little fella. Shane said there were at least 13. Carrie said it was really over 20! They were "all over."

We put the skunk in a bin and she passed out. We brought her in the house to cool down. Carrie looked up what sort of food a juvenile skunk would need.

The skunk laid there, breathing hard. I was worried the little guy couldn't lift its head up to get to the water bowl, so I poured a little water out into the out rim of the bucket. It pooled under her mouth and she sputtered awake. I felt a little bad, but then she started to drink before resting her back back down.

Carrie called people in her horse network while this was going on. She figured out where to take skunky and asked if Shane and I "wanted to go on an adventure." I *thought* Carrie would be coming with us. She said she wanted to stay on property "Just in case" (Hmmm.....).

Well, sidequest accepted. Have audiobooks, will travel!

Skunky started to eat by the time we hopped in the Subaru.

He cleaned his plate and was moving by the time we reached the animal rescue in Waynesboro.

A masked woman came out and asked us to set the skunk barrel down. She picked it up and took it around back to get checked out by a vet. She asked us some questions to see if the skunk needed to be reported to the state for possible rabies testing and then gave us a number to check up on skunky later.

"We're not far from Uncle Patrick," Shane said.

So we visited Patrick! I called first. Patrick woke Shelby up from her nap to say "Surprise! Visitors!"

Shane said, "Surprise! Hugs!" to Giles.

Any cat that can put up with Shane is a good cat in my book. Giles is the personable sort. He helped keep Shane entertained while Patrick showed me his solution to sinus and culinary problems!

Patrick's been on a spice craze. He had quite the variety.

Shelby came out with a pack of post-nap Pop Tarts and Shane immediately dropped to the floor and begged like a dog. No, we don't train him that way. Patrick and Shelby were kind enough to open their pantry while Shane drooled over everything they had that we don't!

It wasn't a long visit. We had plans to grill on the back porch with some barn people and had to head back home. I never expected or would have hoped to have found a skunk on our walkabout, but it morphed into a fun sidequest and family visit. I love when things work out that way. 

Quest complete!

I didn't expect to find a one-eyed mule when we got homem, but that's a different chapter in our story.

Back to Normal

It took a few days, but things got back to normal around here. Saturday was getting ready and recovering from the clinic. Sunday and Monday were unpacking, laundry, dishes, and cleaning up.

It's anti-climatic being at home with just the three of us after being packed into a house of twenty! Shane was still going a hundred miles an hour in a 25 mph zone!

We did have one bit of excitement Monday night: Carrie ordered a cat tree.

Really, she ordered it days ago, but it arrived Monday.

Happy has been sinking her claws into the couch. We talked about getting a scratching post until Carrie said, "Give me a budget."

She found a great deal or I was more generous than I thought. Carrie and Shane picked out a fancy thing! Shane helped some with the build before he wandered off (chanting "Electronics.....electronics...").

Happy was the first cat Carrie plopped on to it. 

Shane ran over when Carrie told him.

Of course, Loki followed.

Carrie added some hay twine to further bling the tree and cycled cats.

"Why are you looking at us, humanz?"

"They are looking at us, right?"

Bucket doesn't like to co-exist with the others, but Max and Happy tolerated being on the tree together.

They like the tree! Normally only one cat hops on at a time. Bucket stays away, because it's in too high traffic of an area.

Loki prefers when the cats are lower down and more....accessible.

The garden started to produce some produce while we were out. Grandma came by to visit and drop off more plants.

Carrie kept Shane and I up on the porch. We were under "re-quarantine regulations" after having been around so many people.

Not that anyone knew how to social distance once we were in the house. I laid on the couch and had a dog and boy drop on top of me!

That's always been the normal here! I'm happy to be back home and resting. I wish I could recharge and then hop in the car again for another trip, but we're going to take it slow.

Ewww

It was a long day. I was tired when I came home with Shane, but Carrie was stressed and I wanted to help out. I walked some stuff out to the garage to clean and then stopped by the cat litter. I could smell pee, so I decided to be conscientious and change out the litter pad.

There are three things you need to know about this.

1) We have a litter system that reuses pellets and collects pee underneath. We've had the system for years. Normally, a pee pad lasts about a week.

2) It's Shane's job to clean out the litter and keep an eye on things. Frequently, I do the pee pad, but I've shown him how.

3) The cats knock the litter pellets everywhere, so Carrie put the litter bin into a box from Costco. It's a tight fit and the bin has to be tilted to fit in and out.

Back to the scene of the crime.

It occurred to me as I bent down to get the litter box I didn't remember changing a pee pad over break. I'd been too busy doing other stuff, but Shane was supposed to come in daily. The smell was awful, but I reached in, tilted the litter box up. It was heavier than I expected and the edge got a little stuck as pee poured out.

That wasn't right.

I stood there like an idiot in total shock. I felt what had to be a month's worth of cat pee sloshing around and pouring out onto my hand, coast sleeve, into the box, and onto the floor. A golden puddle was forming and my eyes were watering up when I finally yelled for help.

Carrie came running and you can imagine her reaction. My brain was still reeling, but I eventually got the idea to carry the bin into the garage.I was able to rip the litter bin out of the box (which seemed far flimsier as the pee ate at it). Then I tried to remove the pee pad.

The pee pad was so swollen that it had outgrown the tray. It squished and more piss wrung out of it as I tried to extract it while my senses were assaulted.

The scene of the crime looked like this.

Carrie was going to work on the ammonia scented lake inside. She drilled Shane. "How could you not notice the smell whenever you scooped the litter!?"

"I always held my breath!"

Shouldn't that have been a sign something was wrong?

By the time we got things cleaned up (though the smell may never leave) it was time for horse chores. I made Shane come with me part as a punishment and part to get him out of the house (Carrie was fuming and the fumes in the laundry room weren't roses either).

But that's not all.

After horse chores, dinner, and putting Shane to bed, I took Loki out for his bedtime bathroom break. It started off normal. Loki peed and then we went around back so he could poop.

If you have a dog, you know what a dog pooping looks like.

Loki dropped into a squat, but he didn't come back up.

If you have a dog, and your dog has a lot of hair, you may now where this is going.

Loki hobbled around the yard a bit without leaving poop position. He hobbled up to me and I already knew what to expect.

There was a full moon as I had the dog trapped and struggling between my legs as I tried to hold his tail up with one hand and help extract a turd from his fur with the other. There, I had a thought. My neighbors may have thought I was insane if they heard my laugh.

"The night started off piss-poor and ended on a shitty note."

Animal Trouble - Grounded!

One of the quickest ways to get under Carrie's skin is to bother an animal. 

So imagine how quick Shane got in hot water when he launched himself on the couch next to a sleeping Bucket! The cat bolted awake and ricocheted off the wall with a parkour move! She ran down the hallway in a complete panic.

Carrie was watching and Shane was smiling when he should have been showing some remorse.

I drafted Shane for some afternoon errands, because electronics-free and with energy he tends to burrow himself further under Carrie's skin and into more trouble. 

We tried to go by Northside library, but it was closed. I dropped us by a used book store instead.

I miss going to the Book Rack in Beaumont when I was a kid. My sibs and I bought and traded a ton of books there! Prices have gone up since then, but with rent the way it is I'm not surprised.

I tried to point Shane towards Runaway Ralph, but he had other ideas. He picked out some books and then ogled at the store's fish.

We went by Costco afterward, because it's a great weekend stop. Shane wanted to be "the cart claw" for me. I let him and even encouraged it....by pushing him into the cold area on his own.

"Get some milk, Cart Claw!"

Shane stuck to his job and used his claw to drag himself over!

I had him check the dates and everything before going in to get him.

I sent Shane outside with Loki some when we got home. Shane had Loki running circles around the arena to catch him! Shane would climb up the fence and jump up whenever Loki got close. That led to another lap for Loki and both boys worked out a chunk of energy.

Shane took a long shower near bedtime and we survived his grounding a-okay. I don't know if he really learned his lesson or not, but hopefully the seed is in there somewhere!

New Barn Cat

Wait a minute......why is that thing back out again?

Carrie brought home a new barn cat! The coyotes seemed to have faded back and the mice needed to be brought to heel, so the timing is fine.

This is actually old news. Carrie brought home the cat when she trailered Annie and Oakie. Sonya's friend Pepper met Carrie with the kitty. Carrie threw the cat in the back of the truck and that was that.

"I don't know if she farted or pooped, but it started to smell terrible part way home!" Carrie said.

Poop. It was definitely poop.

Kitty initially went into run and hide mode.

We weren't sure if kitty was a guy or a girl at first. "I didn't look for fuzzy balls."

Kitty didn't stay in hide mode forever and we confirmed it's a she. She's incredibly friendly and under a year old. Pepper claims she's a great mouser. Carrie's taken to calling her "Happy."

Happy wants to hop up on the lap of anyone who goes into the tack room. She'll make biscuits and purr up a storm.

It's Shane's job to clean the litter out, but we've only remembered to make him do it once or twice. It takes nearly half an hour for him to do a 2 minute job, because he gets distracted playing with Happy.

It'd all be happy, but Carrie uttered words that filled my stomach with dread: "She might be pregnant."

Cats can breed before they're a year old. Happy does have a round stomach......I really hope she's not pregnant. We could ask a vet, but the cheaper option is 'wait and see.'

Carrie and Shane have both commented Happy would make a fantastic house cat.

I do NOT want a third house cat (much less a litter of them). Bucket barely manages to keep her mania in line as is.

I do want a cat that will kill mice.

Especially mice in the barn.

So far, Happy has been on tack-room detail. Carrie's a little nervous about letting her out since Lester disappeared, but we'll have to let her roam at some point.

Thanksgiving 2019

Thursday.....Thursday was a day off. There was a lot of napping in the house. Loki found a sunbeam on the kitchen floor.

Max found her sunbeam on the kitchen table.

And Bucket.....Bucket discovered she likes to hide in our island for hours on end!

She can open the door and crawl in on her own. She'll hang out there and then make me think I'm going insane when I hear the cabinet growl at Loki as he trots by. She can let herself out, too, so......I guess I'm going to have to be careful putting the toaster away from now on.

Speak of Loki, he stunk. I tried not to do much work outside of the normal chores, but he got a bath!

Loki hasn't been feeling the best lately. He's had diarrhea for several days in a row. We tried to switch his food to help, but there was no change. Carrie put him on a fast today to restart his system.

Shane and I went on a couple of walks around the property with him. It entertained us and him! 

Loki really, really likes to chase cars. It's both funny and terrifying. I can stand along the front stretch of our property and he will try to zip and keep parallel with any car that drives by. They're always faster, so sometimes he gives himself a head start. He'll start trotting along and as the car catches up he pours on the gas!  He sprints his little heart out.

The dangers are obvious. If he were to ever try to go in the road.....

Thankfully, it's unlikely. Loki is afraid of the road and the cars. 

When he was younger, I tried to check the mail with him on the leash. He was terrified. He stood next to me tugging and shivering as I waited for a car to go by before stepping up to the road. Then he dug in his heels, slipped the collar, and ran away when the coast was clear! I had to pull him shivering out of the ditch and haven't checked the mail with him since! He has been on the leash as the school bus pulls up and he's shied away from it, too. 

So far, the fence line has been a solid boundary. If Loki looks like he's going to duck under the wood fence for any reason I scold him and he turns back.

The cars give him a great workout as he zips back and forth. When we turn the corner, Loki gets to chase Shane onto the horse jumps.

I normally have the leash on Loki whether I hold it or not. It slows him down slightly and gives me a way to catch him in a hurry.

There are downsides to letting him run dragging the leash behind, though...

Loki was tucked our by midday.

He curled up and slept beside me on the floor while we watched some Dragon Prince on Netflix.

It was largely a do-nothing day with some food. I didn't want it to be unmemorable, so Shane got his first driving lesson!

He'll get more in the future. Consider it a perk of farm-living. 

I'll eventually be able to send him out on errands in the gator, so there's something in it for me, as well!