Trigger Update

I went out to see Trigger again tonight, and was going to help the trainer/seller (she's helping me sell him) take a video of him, but she was running late from her day of barrel racing.  It was my first time visiting her new property, so it took me a bit (and the help of her husband and son) for me to find him on the vast property.  In fact, they have a couple of large barns, and one is older and empty, and walking through it in near pitch black was kind of like walking through an abandoned sanitarium or something.

Anyway, I did locate him, and it was nearly dusk, but I managed to get some photos that included both him and the moon, which was kind of cool.  I'd given him some treats, plus the food cart was making its rounds but he hadn't gotten his portion yet, so he was VERY interested in me.

HEEEEeeyy!  (Or should it be "Hay"?) 

Looking a little more serene here, though he was pacing and whinnying in between posing for me, between the hay wagon roaming the property and the other horses also pacing and whinnying.

I don't like jinxing it by talking about it before it goes down, but it hasn't helped to not talk about it beforehand in the past, so here goes.  There are currently TWO nibbles on the line--a woman in Florida wants to have him vetted ASAP, so the trainer will call a vet tomorrow.  If she can find a shipper, and he passes the vet check, she'll take him.  If that deal falls through, there's an endurance rider in Arizona that wants him (though not sure he'll want him if he doesn't pass the Florida buyer's vet check, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it).

While I did get him from a six-hour drive away from here, I find it absolutely crazy that people from so far away are willing to consider buying him sight-unseen.  I mean, he's a nice horse and all, but he's not registered, not pure Arab (for the endurance guy--not sure what the Florida gal plans to use him for), not a proven endurance horse, barely trained, and has barely been ridden in the past six months.  But hey, more power to them.  I just hope if one of these faraway people get him, that they get a GOOD shipper--I've heard horror stories...

Craigslist Follies

I was poking around on Craigslist, and saw a headline that made me wonder if the person doesn't speak English as a first language:

      Clubs and you wanted for horse riding and training clinics

The text of the ad:

[Name] is available for training lessons and sales. Do you want to excel suceed and become a great rider trainer for your money spent? See for yourself that [name] is one of the top riders trainers clinicians you will ever find from beginner to world class rider. We all know how many people think they are such great barrel racers reiners , western profesional trainers... ALL welcome who are honest and want to join a team to suceed by riding a great world champion producing system that you will know is [name]s [no apostrophe in the original] God given talent. Do the right thing and call today. Available for clinics lessons training and more! Older rider? Do you want your kid safe and riding great? Do you want your horse treated wonderfully nd trained to the highest levels possible? Trainer of National title horses in Appaloosa ,Paint, Quarter horse, Arabian and morgan. [Name] wants to train you!

There are a lot of links to the trainer's website, which is a scary-looking homemade site with just photos of horses he's supposedly trained.

The clincher, though, is the photo.  I know it convinces me that he's an expert (or even that he's the same person pictured in any of those photos).  Oh, and his name is a totally American-sounding name, so it doesn't explain why the only public mention of his skills, apparently, is in a foreign publication.  

Okay, different ad.  The description of the horse is nothing notable, but the photos leave a little to be desired:

A different ad, presumably the same seller.  Seriously, people, can you not SEE what the photo looks like when you post it?  Do you have cataracts and this is what you always see?

Someone is advertising that they have a blue-eyed buck (i.e. male goat), but these both look like does (i.e. female goats) to me.  Dontcha think?

Oh, here's a good one.  Yeah, good luck with that:

I am just starting out in my horse 4-H project, and I need a well trained mare or gelding that gets along with other horses, trained preferably English, and is 5-10 years of age. The horse must be 15+ hands and have a jumper build. I don't have much of an income, so i'll need the price to be under $1000.

This person wants a well-trained jumper horse for under $1,000.  Wonder how she'll be paying for the horse's upkeep and lessons and show fees on her limited income.  I looked on DreamHorse and within THREE HUNDRED miles and with her other search parameters, I got five results.  One is already sold (not sure for how much, but was listed at $1,000 including tack!), and the other four are leases or part leases, which is probably what this person should be looking into anyway, but of course (especially for the part lease) she'd need to look a little more locally than that.  :-)

Oh, man:

Free to good home to Parakeets. I bought them for my friends son and he couldnt take them back to montana! Also have a nice big cage for sale for 100.00 with all of the toys and food and extra parakeet items. birds must go together

Who buys LIVE animals for someone without making sure they'll be able to KEEP them?  Crazy!  Also, parakeets themselves are pretty cheap, so depending how nice the cage is (or isn't), this probably is a really crappy deal, considering you won't get to pick out the animals yourself.

Wow.  Seriously, people, if you can't figure it out yourself, borrow a friend to help you (a) spell, and (b) rotate your photos:

     Mini horse studd & through bread - $400

Through breed mare , great as a first horse great with children and teenagers. Won racing ribbons. Mini studd horse. Needs a little work. Both for $400.00 OBO

Oh, here we go again.  Unrideable horse, but want someone else to pay to feed it:

8 year old quarter horse. She is a very gentle horse. I can touch/brush her all over. She would be good for kids to pet/brush. Not sure on the ridding I would say no. I can catch her...getting better about that. She does fine once on lead line. Once caught she just stands there and lets you do whatever.
She can only be used as a pet for someone or a buddy for other animals.No ridding or breeding period.
Her leg seems to hurt her...she does alot of touch toe weight. However she is all over the pasture and can move if she wants too.
I have had her feet trimmed and wormed.
The farrier thinks she hurt her leg got a bone spur and arthritis has set in. The home she came from said she hurt it over a year ago...they were giving her bute.
Perfect situation for her would be to just be out in the pasture forever with a buddy/ or for kids to give her attention. Someone not worried about feeding another horse.

Maybe, and this is just a non-expert talking, you should get an actual VET to take a look at her, possibly X-ray her, and give you an actual diagnosis and prognosis.  If she's in pain and would need drugs to keep her feeling good, but in such copious quantities that it would cause other issues, maybe the kindest thing to do would be put her down.  If there's something you can do to make her actually rideable (even if it's slow walk-only trail rides), then do that and sell her to someone with full disclosure of her limitations, but at least fully read to do the job she is capable of.  Don't just pawn her off on people with a "think it might be" comment from the farrier and no other knowledge of what's wrong with her.

Okay, this is one I'm actually not going to bitch about.  This particular one is for all the people who say they can't keep weight on a thoroughbred or an older horse.  This is a 19--year-old TB, apparently:

Wow, these are GREAT conformation photos:

Humane Society

Even though it was Nathan's week with his dad, since we didn't do much at the Humane Society last weekend because it was so crowded, I picked him up today to go again.

The first thing we did was check on the dog Nathan and his dad, stepmom, and brother had looked at earlier to potentially adopt.  They had filled out the forms, but the HS needed to check with their landlord to verify they were allowed to have a dog.  Unfortunately, the dog got adopted before they reached the landlord (apparently they've been out of the office the entire past week).  That bummed Nathan out, but I think he saw the bright side--he'd actually been pushing for a cat instead of a dog, and now he had a chance to voice that opinion again.  :-)

We looked at the white board on which they list the cats that need their photo taken, and picked Smokey first.  Someone was in the process of putting him back in his cage, but he wanted to keep cuddling.  So I just took him directly from her.  She mentioned something about him only having three legs, and sure enough, he was missing a back leg.  He hopped a little awkwardly when chasing the laser pointer and/or feathers on a fishing pole, and he had a hard time balancing on just the one back leg when trying to reach up high, but it didn't dampen his personality AT ALL.  He was a total love.  Whenever we'd pet him, he'd shove his head into our hands, and raise his head to expose his neck so we could pet his favorite spot--his chin and neck.  In fact, when he got really into it, his leg stump started twitching like if he still had his leg, it would be kicking just like a dog.  Anyway, he was TOTALLY sweet.  Another one that I totally would have brought home if I could have.  On the bright side, a family was interested in him, and when Nathan and I left for the day, was actually filling out the forms in a visiting room with him, hoping to take him home.  Yay!

Here's Smokey:

Unfortunately, his nose is in focus instead of his eyes, but I still thought it was a cute photo.

The only other cat whose name was on the photo list and was also still present in the building was Justine--there were five cats on the list, but apparently the other three had been adopted during their "Black Furday" event (name your own price for any animal).  Justine had much less personality than Smokey, but was still a sweetheart.  There was another young volunteer (but a couple years older than Nathan), who she really seemed to get along with, so most of my photos have that girl's hand and/or arm in the photos.

Then we went into the kitten room for a bit, but there was only one kitten, and she was hiding, then some other volunteers were holding her, so we didn't really get a chance to cuddle her.  She was pretty stinkin' cute, though.  Her name (with unfortunate spelling provided by the Humane Society) is Sassafras.

Next we went into the other "cattery" (they have two rooms dedicated to housing cats, as opposed to the cats living in cages and only getting to visit a larger room when visiting with humans; one is for kittens and the other usually has two or three adult cats), and visited Lia and Fabio.  Lia was not very photogenic.  You know how some dogs look like they're always smiling?  I think some cats always look unhappy, even when they're not.  Lia was agreeable enough to us petting her and whatever, she just didn't LOOK happy.  (My own cat, Cookie, is a total sweetheart, but is not photogenic at all, either.)  Fabio, on the other hand, looked very handsome with his flowing locks.  :-)

This is Lia.

See what I mean?  She was actually purring.

And this is Fabio.

Lastly, we visited with Miss Romeo.  I have no idea why they named her that, but she was also a sweetheart.

And that concludes today's visit to the Humane Society.  I dropped Nathan back off at his dad's house, and thought I'd have to break the news about their potential dog being adopted already, but apparently they'd already figured it out by checking the website and seeing her disappear, and they're pretty ticked at the landlord for not being around.  Once the HS does reach the landlord, though, they'll be able to adopt or place a hold on an animal without waiting.  Hopefully they find a pet that's an even better fit for their family soon.

New Orleans Photos - Travel

I took photos during the plane rides both directions (some just on my phone).

Taking off from Salt Lake City at sundown

About to land in New Orleans (from phone)

Also approaching New Orleans, from my real camera (this and the next two photos are from my camera--the others are all from my phone)

Ships in the Mississippi River as we're just seconds from landing

Getting close to Salt Lake City on the way home--lots of snow!

Not quite as much snow right in the city, but still a decent dusting

The taxi to the terminal showed that the airport, anyway, had more snow than it had looked like from the air

This is what the window at my seat looked like when I sat down.  Sure enough, they said we had to be de-iced, and it ended up delaying us an hour and 15 minutes or so.

There were two de-icing stations.  This was our view of the other airplane getting de-iced once we pulled up to our station.

Here comes one of our two de-icing trucks

Wonder what it's like to be that guy.  It's kind of like flying, but he's got to be very aware of where he is in relation to the plane so he doesn't hit it.

My window, mid-de-icing

New Orleans Photos - Death, Destruction, and the Macabre

We visited the Lower Ninth Ward, where Katrina did the most damage.  It felt voyeuristic and macabre to be gawking at other people's misfortune and loss of both property and life.  But in case you'd like to see them, they're here.  We also visited a cemetery, probably the one most visited by tourists, as it's the closest to the French Quarter.  There were a ton of tour groups there.  So again, gawking at the macabre.  Finally, when we saw a dead pigeon and I realized I'd also seen a dead cockroach, and later saw more dead critters, I figured I had a bit of a theme going there, too.  I'll leave a gap and a warning before the dead critters, though, for those of you that don't want to see them.

While some of the existing homes are being repaired and probably look the same as they originally did or with minor changes, some of the empty lots are being built up with some very modern-looking houses.

And now we're switching over to the cemetery, so if you don't want to see that, leave now.
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It's amazing how old some of the oldest dates were

The combination of the gorgeous script, French language, and old dates made this stone especially interesting

A butterfly on a crumbling tomb

This is apparently the grave of some famous voodoo priestess or something.  The XXXs are written on there for luck, and people leave bizarre offerings to her, like lipstick and (empty?) booze bottles.

We didn't realize this while we were there, but apparently this site was purchased and tomb was commissioned by Nicolas Cage.  I don't know if it's known whether he plans to be laid to rest there, or has other plans for it, though.

I saw this, and wondered aloud to my sister whether it's possible for marble to BEND.  Apparently it is.

Mrs. DeJoie is the most recently interred person we noticed

And now, a few photos of dead critters.  Again, if this bothers you, please close this window/tab/whatever now...
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