Rodents and emails

I rescued a squirrel today. Its name was Tony. I have decided.

(I walked out the door to go to work, and heard Faith behind me as I approached the car. She was trotting across the porch with a live squirrel in her mouth. This is because she figured out a long time ago that we didn't like her bringing dead animals into the house all the time, so she started bringing live ones instead. She put it down and I put her inside, then picked the poor thing up. I was afraid she'd broken its spine, though I couldn't see any blood, but I put it down on one of the cushions on the porch swing and it lay there wide-eyed and motionless except for its panicked gasping. I was afraid that it would die of shock, if not internal injuries, but it was gone when I came back home. I'm hoping that it recovered and scampered off.)


Man when I'm on this POF website, there are a handful of cool people it seems like, but mostly I just want to send people obnoxious snarky emails. And I mean that's fun, but then sometimes they email back when really I just wanted to say that one thing...

Aaaand I'm a jerk.

Or anyway, sometimes they DON'T email back when I was actually making a possibly not-that-humorous attempt at conversation. So I guess it all works out.






I really felt like I had more to say than that, but I guess maybe I didn't. POSSIBLY I'M JUST BORED OUT OF MY MIND.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

The family dynamics of the small horse herd that lives here are endlessly dramatic. Jojo and Esau, the two that are boarding here but owned by another couple, are bullies; Angel and Duke used to be pretty sweet before their dorm mates moved in, but have now grown aggressive and skittish, respectively. Coco has been recently added to the mix. She is wonderful with humans, but has been mercilessly picked on, kicked at, and bitten by the others, and has grown aggressive in defense. Today the horses were screaming out in the back pasture, and I discovered from Missy that they've been wanting to add the horse in the neighboring field to their little family. This morning four of them crossed the fence where a tree had fallen to go visit their neighbor, and left Duke behind--he's well-behaved, apparently? Missy just said, "Duke doesn't do that kind of thing." But he was so upset that he went running frantically at the gate when she tried to leave for work.

When they aren't kicking or biting one another (and sometimes when they are), the herd spends a surprising amount of time hanging around the house. They have twenty acres to roam, but they're usually outside the back door, or standing in the shelter under the porch where we clean fish. Weirdos.


In addition to the horse drama, whenever they're shut up in their pen (which is very nice and of a respectable size, by the way,) the lambs are constantly yelling "fuck you!" through the fence. Seriously. They woke me up this morning. I guess I can't blame them all though, because half the time it's just Pepper. Marie and Salt will be grazing peacefully in the background, and Princess (the goat) is just lying around minding her own business, but Pepper is right up on the gate, screaming fuck you*! All the time.



This evening I was discussing with Missy and with Sara (separately, as Sara is in Scotland) the possibility of telling my parents that I was going to devote myself to my art, and then moving up here to paint and take pictures and make stuff. Sounds good to me, right? I mean, any road trip instantly becomes a business expense! FTW.


























*Missy disagrees, and says that they're merely yelling "Mom!"