Animal Responsibilities

This week has been devoted to trying to get animals taken care of.

Blue Top has been limping a bit and Dusty needed to be shod so Katherine can ride him in the mountains, so both of them were taken to Katherine's house for shoeing yesterday. This is always a treat because we get to see Ron the horseshoer, guru, philosopher, and old friend. I took the morning off from work to make sure there was time to visit, and it was time well spent.

The shoes didn't help BT, so I guess the next thing is a trip to the vet. This is not a critical issue, the horse appears to be in no pain whatsoever, there's no heat or swelling, and he's pretty much a pretty pasture decoration anyway. He's 22. Just need to make sure this isn't something that can be fixed.

I've been preparing to take all 4 cats to the vet next week. Am NOT looking forward to this, it's pure torture. I bought 2 more cat carriers. I needed them anyway, we are flood prone and we need escape equipment for every animal on the place. Here is the dilemma - Velcro doesn't mind a carrier but hates the car, it terrifies her. Catching Gollum and getting her into a carrier is like handling a porcupine with your bare hands. I figure the orange cat won't know better this first time (unless he was in a carrier when he was dumped off). And Charley thinks everything is a game.

I cannot, personally, carry even an empty carrier, let alone one that is full of 13 pounds of cat. Gollie is only 5 pounds, but don't forget that's a 5 lb. rabid porcupine. So I have to coordinate all this for a time when Bob is available. Bob is generally helpful, but he's been in the car with a shrieking Velcro before and isn't keen to do that again. Last time, in fact, I suggested he hold her on his lap and she peed all over him before we were even out of the driveway.

Oh, for the good old days when our vet had a mobile business and would just come to the house and treat everything on the kitchen table!