The story of our new barn kittens started with a post from Sonya.
Sonya is an "animal lady." People tell her when there's abandoned horses in fields, dogs needing new homes, or stray kittens come calling.
Sonya's neighbor had noticed that there were some new balls of fluff frequenting her property. She put out some food and when she got a good look she passed the word on.
Sonya answered the call.
However, it turned out there was more than one kitten to be concerned about.
Living on a ranch with a husband who occasionally enjoys hunting left her well equipped for the task at hand. We certainly don't have game cameras lying about.
Sonya caught two more kittens two days after the first catch. She thought she had them all, but a fourth kitten was waiting in the wings.
Kitten #4 held out for a couple of more days before Sonya caught it.
Kittens #1, #2, and #3 adapted quickly to Sonya and their new home. #4 was shyer.
Of course, Carrie was following along on Facebook the whole time. She was ooing and aahing over all the cuteness.
Which is why I started to see the writing on the wall before Sonya started looking for new homes (she has plenty of animals).
"You cannot drive down to Sonya's to pick up any kittens," I said.
"Okay," Carrie said.
I didn't need to look hard to see the gears turning as she processed my exact words.
I said it that way for a reason, too. I assumed kittens were going to appear, but I wanted to have some control of the situation. Carrie's really wanted Sonya to come and visit our barn. Sonya's somewhat of a physical recluse. She'll post online and talk on the phone, but leave the property? In these times? She hadn't come to visit Annie, Nibs, or Pippin.
I didn't necessarily want more cats, but I did want dead mice and a happy wife. Shane would probably gush over kittens, too.
I wasn't surprised when Carrie told me Sonya was going to come for a visit. "And she's bringing a kitten, right?"
".....kittens."
That was unexpected, at least. Not surprising in retrospect and knowing Carrie, but I missed the possibility on the first go around!
We adopted kittens #1 and #4. Sonya named them Aria (#1) because she was so vocal and Burrito (#4). Both kittens are girls, so we don't have to rush and neuter anyone before they cross-pollinate and have me swimming in cats.
I thought it was really clever how she used a pair of old stall doors, hinges and all, to start her project.
My only contribution was hauling heavy objects and collecting tools.
And I lifted a bale of hay.
Otherwise, the whole project was Carrie's from inception to completion.
I would have been a lot more hesitant about cutting into the wall.
Carrie framed everything out with scraps we had laying around. Farms are great for having a lot of space to leave random junk you might (or might not) use one day.
I married for for many reasons. Mad skillz was on the list!
Not that we had everything laying around.
"Busy day here getting ready for two new additions...... ❤🐾🐈" Carrie posted.
"We’re getting a TIGER?!?!" Ellie replied.
"More like two miniature panthers 😁😉. Couldn't resist getting that blanket for them, hehehe." Carrie said.
That's when Sonya jumped in. "The rare black barn panthers. :)"
Sonya delivered a pair of kittens the next day.
They were part of a quartet she rescued.
The kittens were about 6-weeks old.
Aria was the adventurer of the pair.
She was the first one Sonya caught and the first one to venture forth.
Sonya named her Aria, because she sang for her food!
'Burrito' was more timid. She has a patch of white on her chest to help tell her apart from her sister.
Sonya thought she was a little boy at first.
Carrie's decided to rename her to "Tsuki." It plays off multiple references including the 'moon' on her chest.
Somehow, Shane was in his own world and never realized what was going on. I'd told him Mommy was working on a surprise!
Carrie spent hours on Friday in the barn getting things ready. \
Saturday, Sonya drove up for the delivery. She rolled up in a Charger. I heard her roll onto the property. I said something and it went in one Shane ear and out the other. I went to the barn to play photographer and he didn't notice I was gone!
I made him come outside to say "Goodbye" as Sonya was leaving, but the boy remained clueless.
He didn't ask any questions either, so Carrie and I decided to let it roll. We'd surprise him with the kittens after the beach trip.
If Shane was old enough for Facebook he would have had to have been truly oblivious to remain ignorant.
Carrie posted all sorts of pictures. Some were her attempts to handle the cuteness overload.
Others were dealing with the challenges kittens bring.....like Aria using her arm to climb to new heights!
And if there's any doubt that Carrie posted the pictures: Notice the Starfleet insignia on the saddle pad!
May the kittens grow up to be great mousers......because we already have enough moocher cats living here!
Carrie's been doing a lot of thinking about Annie. She remembers Annie as being a brave and curious horse.
However, the Annie we've seen here has been an anxious horse who's scared of everything the first time around (and sometimes the fifth when she forgets it's okay).
Carrie thinks it's due to trauma.
This is a photo of Annie before she moved to us.
That's Jeff in the dinosaur costume. Annie and her friend wandered right up to say hello. Sonya is a photographer. She sometimes does silly things to make a good photo or just to be silly.
Annie's friend is dead. He was a sudden case of colic. He died right in the aisle in front of her stall.
Horses are large animals.
They didn't immediately have the equipment necessary.
Not long after, Annie's sire was rushed to the vet and didn't return. I can't recall if any other horses were sold/transferred after that.
I do know Annie came to us. She'd never been off property before. She immediately tried to bond with Nibs who started to terrorize her. She didn't really have a buddy until Kitty came along.
Trauma wouldn't have occurred to me, but when Carrie laid our her reasoning it seemed to fit. It would explain why she's seemed so fearful. Horses have surprisingly good memories, and Annie went through a lot of change.
Fast forward to present day: Annie and Nibs are in the same field at Tori's. Nibs has learned a lot about how to get along in a herd. They are doing well together.
After talking to Tori and her mom, Carrie decided that Annie is the horse we're going to sell. That was the original plan and Annie's demeanor means she should fit in easily to most homes.
Annie's still under training and it's not a seller's market. There are people posting "Coronavirus sales" where they need income quickly. We're hoping Annie finds a home fairly quickly to have her off the payroll.
"You don't get into horses for the money," Carried said.....and I can confirm! It's like being a professional gambler! There are those top level people who can turn a buck, but most people are cruising for a losing (unless they're the House!).
We bought Annie to help a friend, so we weren't looking to make a profit. It'd be nice to come out even or money in the pocket, but the main goal is to get her to nice home for Carrie and Sonya's sakes.
Carrie gave our new boarder a 48 hour ultimatum: the pony had to go.
He was overly attached to Lorelai. He acted like her lackey or goon (or Scrappy Doo!) and would chase off any horse that came too close to her. When separated, he'd become anxious and agitated. He charged past Carrie out of his stall once when Lorelai was let out before him (She had to dodge). Another time, he started to rear in his stall when Lorelai was away from him (Thankfully, his owner was there to see his behavior. Carrie was worried his feet are small enough he'd get a hoof stuck in in the cattle mesh between stalls).
Carrie said it wasn't safe. The pony had to go.
Aquilla only came on Saturday, but he'd already started to affect our other boarders, too.
Madeleine came to ride Kitty, but pony intervened. Lorelai and Aquilla were between Kitty and her owner. Any time Kitty started to head towards Madeline it was too close to Lorelai for pony's liking. He'd chase Kitty off and Madeleine would be back to square one catching her. Carrie saw it from a window and had to go out and grab Aquilla's halter to help.
"This will not do," Carrie said.
The pony had to go.
Ironically, Kitty got her courage up to fight back the Wednesday night. Aquilla kept trying to dodge around Lorelai and nip and kick at Kitty, but Kitty gave it back in equal measure. It went on a lot longer than we liked, but no one was hurt and pony was forced to accept a field demotion.
If we had a larger set of fields, we would have separated the pony from Lorelai. Anywhere we did put him, he'd be able to see her and there was a chance he'd risk charging through the fence lines to get back to her. Aquilla's possessiveness of Lorelai seemed to be the root of his problem, but we weren't the right place to treat it. A larger barn with multiple herds could do that and find a herd with the right alpha to put pony in his place.
It turned out Carrie had a friend willing to help.
Sonya was willing to take on pony as a project. They've got space galore and she was connected with many possible homes. If the behavior could be fixed, Aquilla might be able to go back to being a lesson horse for some 4-H or young rider who couldn't afford a pony of their own.
Aquilla's owner relinquished her rights to him on Wednesday. Carrie was checking tire pressure in the truck and ready to haul Thursday.
Aquilla was only 13 hands, so Carrie removed the center partition from the trailer. She was worried he might somehow wiggle underneath it during transport and hurt himself (The pony had to go, but Carrie is all about helping a horse rather than getting rid of one).
Physically, the equipment was ready to go before all of the boys were fed their breakfast. The girls were fed early to help with the next step: Carrie introduced Maddie to the herd.
Carrie was concerned about Lorelai's reaction when Aquilla was removed. Horses need familiarity and he was the horse she was most familiar with. Kitty was the other horse she liked, but Kitty's owner was getting ready to move back home with her! Maddie would be the only mare left! She and Lorelai hadn't been introduced yet, because Maddie had been in the tough-love fat camp instead of in the field.
The girls got their food early and Maddie was turned loose with the rest of the field.
The horses all ran around like banshees for the next fifteen minutes or so. Maddie was the first one to put her head down and say, "Grass! Time to eat!" The others eventually calmed down enough to coexist.
This picture is pretty telling.
If you look at Maddie, she's at full stride. Kitty and Lorelai are following, but their ears are up.
Do you see the pony's ears?
Probably not, because they're flattened. He was coming in aggression and not offering a "How do you do?" Aquilla would not let Maddie stick with the herd or approach Kitty and Lorelai. He'd break off and swoop at her.
Whether by her choice or his design, Maddie was off on her own to graze. Maddie's not a total pushover, so she didn't get bit or kicked. She'd threaten to kick if him whenever he got too close her!
However, that's not a healthy herd dynamic.
The pony had to go.
So Carrie had me lure Lorelai over to the fence with the promise of grain. Pony followed. That let Carrie grab him while I forked over the bait to keep her occupied..
She was right by the trailer to help him not worry about her being far away. Carrie stuck a bucket of feed under his snout and Aquilla walked on hesitation free.
I felt a little bad for him, because I don't think Lorelai noticed or cared. She went on eating and didn't move or even look for him when the trailer walked away.
No, I think she's gay for Kitty.
She was squirting out in the field while Kitty sniffed at her. They've been shoulder buddies every since.
Madeleine came to ride Kitty and Lorelai stayed by her stall looking in. When Kitty went to the arena, Lorelai trotted to the fence and kept eyes on her (and was winking according to Carrie!).
But back to the pony at 13 hands.
Carrie rolled off our property before 10 AM to journey south to Sonya's. It was a two hour drive and she hauled Aquilla on our dime.
He transported well and behaved like a gentle pony for offloading. Carrie really believes that the separation from Lorelai will be the best thing for him.
Sonya's a professional photographer, so she had some fun snapping pictures of the little guy before throwing him into quarantine.
Jeff wasn't as impressed. He wanted to know why there was a new little bugger on the property (Sonya has a tendency to 'collect' fuzzies).
Carrie pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and told him she was delivering it to Sonya (they're all out around where they are!). The pony was a prize that came with it!
Which explains Sonya's post that night.
Aquilla's in a good place. Carrie trusts Sonya's ability to find homes for horses and he's off our property.
It would have been nice to have him around generating some extra income, but there will be a less crap in the fields for now (literally and figuratively).
Bonus video:
This didn't really fit in the earlier flow of the post, so I figured I'd post it here.
Carrie wanted to make sure Lorelai and Kitty had some time to bond. Pony made that impossible, so we started to let Lorelai and Kitty out together to see how they'd interact without Aquilla in the mix.
They hit it off the moment he was out of the picture. Lorelai led Kitty off into the far fields and didn't look back for her little friend (I couldn't help but feel a little bad for the badly behaved guy!).
We weren't about to leave Pony up all day and going bat crap crazy in his stall, so we had to turn him loose. Here's what it looked like.
They were too far over the hill to see it well, but after Aquilla made it to Lorelai he started to charge and chase off Kitty. This was in the dark times before she put him in his place and things calmed down (right before he left!).
Shane and I went with Carrie to check on Nibs. It's old hat for Shane now. He complained about the drive.
He enjoyed listening to Disney songs and running around the barn, though.
He found all three cats (and they all found me).
Note: Natural sunlight doesn't aide pictures with broken cover glass.
Carrie gave Nibs her first bath.
Nibs was nervous and unsure about the whole procedure, but she did well. She was much more obstinate and worried about going in the round pen.
I took a much clearer picture with Carrie's phone.
Physically, Nibs is doing better, but not perfect. Carrie dropped off a fecal sample on Friday and Nibs has some sort of stomach bug (If it's not one thing...).
Mentally, Nibs is a bit of a basket case. She trusts humans, but not other horses. When Sonya puts her out to pasture, she doesn't seek out her fellow equines. She begs to be let back into her stall. It's become a safe zone. So far the other horses either disregard her or bully her. We haven't found a companion horse to teach Nibs how to be a horse.
Orphaned foals are a lot of work. Carrie trusts Sonya and Jeff implicitly, but it's enough of a drive I've asked Carrie if there's anywhere closer. No one wants to deal with an orphaned foal for a reasonable price near us that we've learned about. The drives will have to continue for at least several more months.
I opened up Pandora's Box by giving Shane a booster pack of Pokemon cards on the ride home. I wanted him to do something awesome so it'd be a surprise reward. He was okay, so I just gave them as entertainment for the ride home.
He's probably never going to stop begging for more.
He got a ~$12 fancy foil on the first try. Shane ooh'd and aah'd the whole way home.
We grabbed dinner in Lynchburg. We sure do scoot around.
Other horse note:
Carrie's trying to ride Korra more regularly now that she works from home. She built a little jump in the arena and we took Shane out for a ride once.
I don't know how regular Shane riding will be, but I'm all for it. It's a nice activity he can do with Mommy.
Hopefully, Shane will learn and behave enough Carrie gets comfortable enough to take him out there on their own. Neither of them have my sun or horse allergy.
