Happy Halloween!

Notice the chick all in brown amongst all the beards? Well that chick would be me. I know you know, but whatever. That's my Ren costume for this year. Or as much as you can see of it from the pic. I am a Huntress, or Woman of the Wood. The big black and white kitty is my pregnant boss. All the bearded women are my clinic girls!

It was a good day at the shelter if very busy since one of the girls scheduled for the clinic was stranded in Austin and another went home sick. Very sad since Halloween is her FAVORITE day. Sorry Lori.

Six and Jason and I went to a sale this past weekend to show him off, get a little publicity, and help Sam (my old boss, not my dog) get a little better prices for his babies. It went well. Six did splendidly! Acting great and we rode for most of a morning. Had a great time, and came back fighting allergies due to the dust! Miserable! Here are pics of Six from that day. If you'd like to see pics of the babies we sold of his go to: http://www.moonwillowstables.synthasite.com/ and click on offspring. They sold for between $450-$900. Not bad considering most of the babies that age were selling between $200-300. His averaged around $650. One baby they brought sold higher. A stunning little black colt.

I plan to try to get him in some training in the spring, just not sure yet when. Then maybe a few shows. We'll see. Also, some fun things at work in the planning stages. Not allowed to talk about it yet, but hopefully soon.

Happier news

Sooooo, Sammy and I decided to give chance a try and we went to another vet for x-rays today. There was great news and there was weird news! So the Great News is first.

His cancer appears to be in remission.

All the lumps are still gone from his gums. And there is no sign of it in his lungs or enlargement in his lymph nodes. So we might just have beat the deadly ailment for now.

Now the weird news. There is also no apparent reason for his ataxia (falling about) and proprioceptive deficits (not knowing where his hind legs are). His spine, joints, and vertebrae all look great on x-ray. Two pairs of eyes could not find anything more than a tad bit of arthritis (normal for a 10yr old). His hips look excellent!!

SOOOO!!! That means he either has something soft tissue impinging on his spine or its a disease affecting his nerves. So we will try him on some antiinflammatories and steroids for a couple weeks to see if there is any improvement. If not, we will try a specialist for a procedure called a myelogram (injection of dye into his spine to better see the spinal chord on x-rays) and possibly surgery if that's determined to be of help.

So until then, Sam gets to borrow a wheelchair from work! Its pretty awsome. He's not sure about it yet. He's still a bit groggy from his sedation today so I'm not forcing the issue, but it should work great once he gets the hang of it. AND he can go jogging again.

Tomorrow I will take some pics and you can see how he looks in his.

ALSO

I have two new additions to my household. My roommate and I are currently sharing a foster kitten named Angel, aka Creepy Kitten, aka Oracle Kitten. I think you see the fact that she might be a bit "different". She has no eyes. She came to us as a 4wk old kitten with empty sockets. I had to send her back to her owner as she was too small, but told them we would find her a new home if they brought her back in a month. Well they did. She's so gosh darn cute! And friendly. She had no eyes, a small nose, and no ovaries, of all things. She is playful and affectionate and a real spitfire. Right now she has a cold, and we are technically seeing if she would fit well into either of our households for permanent.

The other addition is a 5 year old black Quarab mare named "Moonless Night" or Luna. Luna I purchased over the weekend after a small scuffle about the missing Coggins test. She took about 30minutes to get in the small trailer but otherwise did well. She is still too skinny and a bit jumpy, but she did very well in her first lesson today. I think she has a good head on her shoulders and if that proves to be true, then I shall keep her and breed her to a Friesian stallion this spring for a 2010 foal. Very excited about that. She reminds me a little of Quana 15years ago, so I see potential. Will keep you posted and post pictures as she gains some weight. For now here are a few of her as she arrived. SO VERY DIRTY!

More bad news!

So the day after I posted the update about my Sammy, I found my little bird, a black capped caique named Charlie, had passed away over night. No known symptoms or cause. He'd been growing more and more scared over the past 6 months and had even stopped trusting me. So there is a theory that perhaps he had an infection in his brain that was affecting him, but we will never know.

May God Keep my wicked little lovebird happy now.

He was the one in the midground of this picture....

My Sammy

So I have some bad news to post today.

For those of you who have known me a very long time, you will, of course, know my Sammy. AKA Sam, Samson, Ransom For A Song, Sambo, etc

Sammy was diagnosed in Feb with Mouth cancer. He had surgery and they removed as much of it as they could and sent it to the lab to figure out what it was. Unfortunately they could only limit it down to two different types. One was melanoma which is fatal within 3 to 12months and the other fibrosarcoma which is curable only with full removal which is impossible in Sam's case. In neither case did the vet specialist feel it was a "normal" cancer behavior.

We have mourned and kept moving and Sam has been doing really really well. 8months later and we were doing great. He's had some very bad days when he has trouble breathing (the next step for melanoma is moving to the lungs) and discomfort. I have controlled the pain with medication and he's been doing very very well.

This weekend I noticed that the lesions in his mouth have greatly reduced in size! It was amazing to see his beautiful gums back to normal except for some reddness! Then Monday we went jogging and I started hearing drag click drag click. I look over and my poor boy is dragging his toes. Dogs don't drag their feet like people do when they are tired. They only drag them when they can't feel them anymore.

So I tested him and sure enough, he has no clue where his back feet are. No idea where to place them. His walking is spastic and his hind limbs are weak. I plan to put him on some steroids to see what happens but it doesn't look good long term. As a vet, I would tell his owner to enjoy their time together and let him tell them when he was done. So that as the owner is what I will look for. The time when he says he has loved being here but it is time to return home.

Scorpions

So picking back up where I left off.

We spoke of many things. I don't remember most, but I do remember talking about Giant Scorpions....

Why, might you ask, do I remember a random conversation about scorpions that occurred over a year ago. Well, I will tell you. I hate scorpions. HATE them. I have been stung several times. One incident, which left a particularly deep scar occurred when I was but an impressionable 15years old.

I was sleeping all cozy like in bed when a sharp pain in my side awakened me. And before I was fully awake, as I started moving around trying to figure out what was causing the pain, the little bugger had stabbed me a full 6 times!!!

He ended up being the Rasputin of scorpions, taking a swim with turtles, a squashing, a stabbing, and finally being drowned in alcohol to kill him.

So needless to say I do not like the creatures. So Jason and I were glibbly discussing my dislike. We went our separate ways, he out with his compatriots and me back to my little barn apartment for the evening. I got there late, having talked with my parents for a while, went on my run and come back to shower. I undressed and walked across the room towards the bed. My foot was suddenly on fire!

I squeeled and hopped on my good foot across the room to make sure I didn't put my other foot down on the surely scurrying creature. For there was no doubt in my mind what caused the pain. A scorpion! There were dead bodies littered around my apartment each time I cleaned and I'd found a few alive. I fell to my side and dramatically clutched my aching extremity.

I called my mom to ask if she had any meat tenderizer and for sympathy. She sent my brother over with some ointment, no meat tenderizer, and some benedryl, cause I am allergic minorly and my tongue had started to swell.

My brother left and I texted the young man I believed to be responsible for my misfortune. I had no ulterior motive. I swear....

He did exactly like a knight in shining armor is supposed to do! : Oh that's terrible! I wish I could make you feel better!!!

So come over and keep me company. I suppose I will be up for a while now...

Sure! And I will bring some meat tenderizer with me. I am already at the store.

Excellent.

So I of course put my clothes back on and brushed my hair and waited.

He arrived and made the paste for my foot but gave it to me to put on, somewhat tentative to touch me.

We sat and chatted through most of the night. Me giving him all the hints that I wanted him to make a move on me, him ignoring them. Finally, after putting my feet purposefully in his lap and leaning over to touch his shirt to "inspect the fabric", he finally broke down and told me that he really liked me and wondered if we could go out some time. When I said yes, he asked for his first kiss. It was so romantic and sweet.

And the rest is history! We have been dating ever since and pretty much inseparable.

Next I will include a few tidbits about some of our other adventures but first I wanted to include some cute pictures of my big kids! The horses were out about the house a few weekends ago and got curious about what was going on behind those big tv screens called "windows". I don't know what they saw, perhaps their own reflections? But this is what we saw.