Nasty weather this week. Temperature hit 98F today (heat index of 109F) and tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be 100F with thunderstorms in the evening. Looks like the girls will have tonight and tomorrow off. Some good news for Isis: The barn owner called me back. Isis seemed to be better around noon. She was eating her food and was back to being her lovable bitchy self. Phew. Related Images:
Continue reading...2011
IR horses and heat
We’ve hit the first heat wave of summer. Two weeks ago the highs some times reached 80. Suddenly, the temperatures are close to 100F all this week. High temperatures plus high humidity means that the horses (and their humans) are feeling the heat as if Atlas’ burden was sudden dropped on their shoulders. Two out of three of my bay wonder mares are relatively okay in the heat. Kasane gets irritated in the...
Continue reading...The Squeakitty
I realized it had been a while since I had posted any pictures of Kiesha (aka Squeakitty because she squeaks). One of the ladies on Deviant Art was looking for pictures of cats to include in a series of paintings. (Natamon already did a painting of Ambush a few weeks ago.) Here are some recent pictures of Kiesha, my little furrball. Related Images:
Continue reading...Equine herspesvirus outbreak in Western states
My Mom told me about an outbreak of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) amongst horses that had attended the National Cutting Horse Association’s Western National Championship show in Ogden, Utah, from April 29-May 8. EHV-1 is a highly contagious disease that can be spread horse to horse from skin contact, on tack, etc. One of the initial symptoms is a slight fever of 101-102F. The virus can be detected by laboratory analyses of nasal swabs...
Continue reading...Seven years later…
The first blog post on Ceffyl.net was on April 11, 2004. At that time, I had two horses (Isis and Logan) and four cats (Basette, Ambush, Stella, and Kiesha). Seven years later, I have only one kitty and three horses. I started this blog as an outlet for dealing with the medical issues my cats and horse had. Basette, my sweet little black cat, was a diabetic who never responded to insulin treatment....
Continue reading...RIP Elisabeth Sladen, 1948 – 2011
The first Doctor Who episodes I saw featured Tom Baker (fourth Doctor) and his companion, Sarah Jane Smith, played by a very young Elisabeth Sladen. Many more Doctors and companions have followed in their shoes over the decades, but Sarah Jane was always a favourite. One of my favourite episodes from the new series of Doctor Who (“NuWho”) was School Reunion, which featured a previous companion, Sarah Jane, meeting the Doctor and his...
Continue reading...Signal boost: Foreclosure and cross-country moving book sale
Vera Nazarian, of Norilana books and author of Mansfield Park and Mummies, needs your help. Like many other people, she has been hit hard by the economy and an impending foreclosure. You can help her by seeing if some of the books available (see links below) would find good homes with you. Great ideas for gifts for you or a friend. Or anyone. Quite a catalog of available material. Originally posted by norilana...
Continue reading...Lego stop-motion melee
Gizmodo featured this stop-motion animation of Legos gone wild. The video has it all: sex, violence, and AT-ATs. What’s not to like? When you consider how much animation went into this project, it’s really pretty slick. Ah from studio shelter on Vimeo. Related Images:
Continue reading...Update on Isis
On the way to the barn, the vet called me back. Here is the surprising thing: the vet thinks that Isis might not have had another EPM episode/relapse. (Granted, she can’t say for sure since she hasn’t seen Isis.) She said that she thinks Isis might have had a head trauma. Blindness in horses can be caused by head trauma, and it usually resolves quickly. In June 2009, the blindness caused by Isis’...
Continue reading...EPM redux with Isis
Yesterday morning around 8:00, Chris, the barn owner, went out to give Isis her morning hay. Isis startled when Chris walked around the corner of Isis’ shelter. Isis was shaking and seemed to have trouble focusing her sight. She was anxious and would not lead unless Chris walked next to Isis. Isis would pull back on the halter when she was tugged on. Isis was also quiet and subdued instead of yellow and...
Continue reading...Really? That day? Again?
I woke up by grabbing my cell phone and then dropping it by running out of power cord length. Dropped it. Alarm reset and then never went off… and well I’m late today. Not feeling great. Would rather stay home but might as well go to the barn. Heck of a way to start a birthday. 🙂 Related Images:
Continue reading...Flowers, fragrance, and funerals
Orchids and chrysanthemums smell like death to me: the cloying sweetness of casket-side flowers, wilting from the heat of bodies pressed too close as passersby sob their payment to Chiron. The trees outside my apartment complex have a sickeningly sweet scent: not pleasing like honeysuckle, but of something decaying like fruit left too long in the sun. The blossoms themselves are beautiful white flowers sprinkled like snow across dark branches. Bradford pears or...
Continue reading...Meta Supernatural episode
The next Supernatural episode goes meta: the Winchester boys get swapped to another reality where they play actors playing themselves. An article in
Continue reading...Memories of horses past
A dear friend of mine lost her mare, Cedars BlueMoon, today. Blue was 23 and, in her day, was a mischeivous, playful, smart little Arabian mare. She was also a 3/4 sister to Isis’ dam, Cedars del Taliah. Blue was a bay with four white socks and a pretty white marking on her head. I tried to explain to a friend what it is like to lose a horse. There is nothing that...
Continue reading...The Eagle
I’m going with a friend of mine to see The Eagle, a new movie based upon Rosemary Sutcliff’s book The Eagle of the Ninth. The movie gets mixed reviews. The review site Rotten Tomatoes gives The Eagle 34%. We’ll see how it is. None of the reviews are really good, and some of the reviews are really bad. I’m seeing it with a friend so we’ll both either like it or hate it....
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