The kitties have a new toy so thought I would share some cute video of Carmel playing with it.

I had been looking for a couple of littermate kittens to take over for Gadget and someday Beauty (didn’t think that would be so soon…). I thought Beauty would be around to show them to hunt but wanted them to have each other to play with and grow up with as I knew Beauty was already 12 years old and like wouldn’t want to play with them. I was right about that as she would hiss at them if they approached her. Carmel and Butterscotch were trapped by a person when she saw their littermates killed on a road. They were born in an abandoned house next to them. I was not having any luck finding a shelter or rescue to adopt kittens from as they all wanted them to be permanent house cats even if they were formerly feral kittens so I put an ad on Craigs List stating what I was looking for. I heard from some wacky people but then the rescuer of Carmel and Butterscotch contacted me. I brought them home that day (early May). When the horses are in the barn they are in a large dog kennel for their safety but now can be out running around the barn during the day/evening (with the door securely tied shut). They are having a great time exploring every nook, cranny and rafter of the barn. Carmel is a little girl and Butterscotch a little boy but don’t worry, they are already spayed/neutered, we took care of that last month at a “Spayathon” hosted by the Dane County Friends of Ferals, great program.

Cookie had a romance with Scotch Bar Man in June and we are happy to announce today’s ultrasound showed she is indeed in foal. So we will be expecting a large bundle of joy in mid-May of next year. Scotch has really nice conformation and a great temperament. He is also homozygous for black/tobiano so we are expecting a dark colored, colored foal. If you followed the story of Cookie losing her foal last year then raising a “foster son” for 6 months you will understand how happy, yet anxious we are about this new foal. We’ll keep you posted.

I’m sad to report that Gadget’s sister, Beauty, has now joined him at the Rainbow Bridge. Kent found her dead on the road in front of our house, hit by a car. She lived out here for 9 years and I guess I never expected to have such a sad ending to her life. I miss my sweet kitty. We were counting on her to train the two new barn kittens (I’ll save them for another post) to hunt.

After two years and lots of patience one of our little foster mares, Spice, has been adopted along with another one of her acquaintances from Spirit Horse Equine Rescue, Copper. She arrived frightened of everything (including people), a scrawny youngster and left as a beautiful, outgoing, confident mare. I was so proud of her when she got right into the horse trailer to leave. We will really miss her but she has a great opportunity to help others as she is being adopted by someone who does Life Coaching and Equine Assisted Coaching. Her “sister” Sugar is still here and actually is doing just fine without her. Hopefully she’ll come out of her shell more as time goes on but she has always been more cautious/wary than Spice so she may end up being a “permanent foster” here.

When we bought our farm 6 years ago two barn cats were included, Inspector Gadget and his sister Beauty. Gadget was the greeter here, very social, would visit agility classes (and try to steal the bait people were using for their dogs), mingle with our dogs, follow us around, etc. Beauty is friendly to us but more reticent with strangers.

Last night Gadget didn’t come into the barn when we were bringing the horses in for the night. Usually he will come running when I call as he and Beauty usually sleep in the barn at night. Beauty was hanging out in the barn but just seemed to be acting a little different so I went to look to see if he was locked in the garage as he sometimes goes in there when we pull one of the cars in or out. No Gadget but that wasn’t totally unusual but I felt a little uneasy for some reason. This a.m. when we went down to the barn there was still no sign of Gadget but Beauty was still just hanging around in the barn. My husband went to look around for him and found him in his bed in the milk house (we had a round bed in there that was heated and we could plug in for them in really cold weather). He was gone. I’m glad he didn’t suffer as there were no signs of any injury or trauma. He probably had a heart attack yesterday. He was about 12 years old and is survived by his sister Beauty who is missing him already. We did show him to her, the dogs, and the equines so they know he is gone. He is buried near the barn yard and agility area. Each time I go down to the barn I will be missing my “Gadge Man”. I thought we still had a few good years together.

RIP sweet Orange Man. You were loved and will be missed.

It’s been quite a summer having both a litter of puppies and a foal to watch grow up and become more independent. Foster has been here since May 3rd. He has been eating grain and hay on his own, drinking water from buckets and nursing less. He leads fairly well and stands for grooming and the farrier. Lately at times he and Cookie would even be a pasture apart from each other (but a gate opened in between) and they were fine not being right by each other. Foster also had become good friends with my gelding, Nick.

Seeing how he was getting more independent his owners felt it was time to wean him and take him back home. On Friday we loaded Cookie in their trailer and in a short time Foster jumped in with her and they were off to Foster’s owners’ farm. Cookie stayed there with him all weekend to help him with his transition and tonight she came back home, her job done. She didn’t have a problem leaving there but now she has been galloping all over our pastures whinnying and looking for him. Nick was calling for him (and probably Cookie) Friday night until quite late so Nick had to wean from Foster, too.

I know it will get better with time but right now we are all sad to have come to an end of life with Foster. Fortunately he is only 5 miles away and we can visit him. Plus through this experience we have made new friends. Maybe some day we will have a foal of our own to raise here. Thanks to Foster our experience with raising him has eased the pain of our loss of our own foal for both Cookie and ourselves and we’ve learned a lot.

If you hadn’t read the story about Foster the original post is here: http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/2010/05/foster-story-about-a-foal/

Sugar and Spice, our foster ponies/mini horses, would love to have permanent homes. They enjoy attention and both come up to the fence immediately when people come to visit. Spice can be haltered and lead around, stands nicely for the farrier and can be touched pretty much anywhere if you move slowly.

Sugar is gaining more confidence but still hasn’t had the halter actually fastened on her, I can slip it over her nose but that’s it so far. She is very bright and will take direction from me without being haltered including getting on the pedestal which is pretty amazing considering how fearful she was a year ago.

The best thing for them would be to go to a home with patience who does not put pressure on them. They can be separated and adopted separately (which actually might be best). They do fine with regular sized horses as well as with our mini donkeys so they could be a pasture mate for a lonesome horse.

They are very easy keepers. All they require is a thin flake of hay each evening right now and a few hours of pasture during the day (they cannot be on a rich pasture 24/7 as they could develop issues such as founder or colic besides getting too fat).

They are able to be stalled but they prefer being outside so we have a “dry lot” with a run in shed for them. Even in the winter last year they preferred being out there and only were in the barn in the most bitter weather. They would make a wonderful project for a 4H member.
They are available through Spirit Horse Equine Rescue but contact me if you have questions about them.

Never a dull moment out here. Friday evening I was planning to have a quiet, relaxing evening as Kent was gone with the band that night. Before I sat down I wanted to burn off the weeds that had grown in our fire pit so I could dig the ashes out of there. I had a large cardboard box that I set on top of the weeds and lit it on fire. Everything was burning nicely when I heard screams coming from the fire pit and saw a baby bunny’s head coming up through some of the charred area. I had to get him/her out of there so reached in and pulled him to safety but still heard crying. I ended up pulling 3 more baby rabbits out of the ash and fire. I felt terrible that I had destroyed their nest but had no idea they were in there. Fortunately their mother had dug fairly deeply or they certainly would have died. They had a couple of singed patches of fur but seemed okay otherwise but what to do with them. Beauty and Gadget the barn cats were already alerted by the crying and stalking around the area where I had laid the bunnies down. I knew they were too little to just let loose outside and I knew not to handle them too much.

I gathered them up and took them in the house, put them in a box with a heating pad and hit the internet to look for help. I knew they needed someone with experience to take care of them. Fortunately I found a link to an emergency vet clinic that said they helped with wildlife rehab. They in turn gave me the number of the Four Lakes Wildlife Rehab Center which was open until 9 p.m. I rushed the baby bunnies in to town and got them to the center before it closed. They applied ointment to their burns but felt the bunnies would be okay. Their eyes were open and they were jumping around when touched. Hopefully the little guys will do fine and end up released back into the wild. Next time I burn anything I’m going to do a thorough check for nests under the weeds or brush!

Foster, the foal that our mare Cookie is fostering, will be 2 months old tomorrow! Cookie is doing a wonderful job mothering/raising him and he is huge now. When he first came to us he could literally walk right under Cookie’s belly. He is about 6 or 7 inches taller now.

Foster is like a clean slate waiting to be written on. He is very curious and has to taste almost anything that is in his environment. His owners come often and Foster has been introduced to many things over the last few weeks — having a halter put on and learning to be led around and walk nicely, having a towel draped and rubbed over him, having his feet picked up and cleaned, being brushed, moving away from pressure, doing a little circling, eating small amounts of grain, grass and hay, etc. He will be here until he is weaned. The timing will be whatever is best for him. IN the meantime we are really enjoying him.