I'm back

Where oh where to begin?

I guess an update on Miss. Sherry and Lobo is first up. Missy (as we call her) is doing fine. Sutures out and healing as we speak,er, type. Lobo is coming along nicely also and his foster mom Debi told me yesterday that he is getting a new collar as the one he had when first coming to them is too small. Yeah he is getting healthy and gaining weight. His ears are cleared up and he is wallowing in the luxury of having good care. Debi also shared that he greets her by talking to her and giving kisses. He still has more weight to gain and his treatment for heartworm but sooner than we know he will be ready for his forever home.

This entry may be discombobulated (is that how it is spelled?)! I guess my mind might work better if I began now and work back to Christmas.

This has been a tough month so far here at the farm. On Wednesday the 20th we sent Lexi our almost 14 y.o. English Setter (and our last) to the Bridge. We had spend a rough night before up with her and we were grateful that I had access to some serious drugs so we could keep her comfortable until Adian our vet came the next day.   I don't have a recent photo handy but Lexi was Micki's sister. They were both Blue Beltons and lovely show quality bitches with great personalities and very loving ladies. If you will remember Micki passed in the Fall preceded by Skittles our orange girl. We have had many English over the last 25 years and Lexi's passing leaves a huge hole in our hearts. Also in our home as when we moved to Mendocino Co. in 2006 we brought with us 8 dogs and we are now down to 2 Kelsey and Spinner.

That same day we had Adian assist Fannie our 10 year LaMancha doe , grandmother of almost every LaMancha doe in the barn, to the Bridge also. She had begun to go down after that intense arctic weather we had in December and just never bounced back. It was most certainly time for her to go where all good goats go. The photo above was taken two years back and is the last we have of her. Fannie earned her SG title from American Dairy Goat Assoc. which stands for superior genetics. We are very happy to have her three year old daughter Walnetto Farm Fannie's Lucky Penni in our herd along with many granddaughters sired by her son Walnetto Farm Nite Rider. Rest easy Fannie.

And if that all wasn't enough on Thursday I began to notice that Kelsey , 6 year old Border Collie/Aussie X, was beginning to exhibit subtle neurological symptoms. As they became more pronounced I called for an appointment with our vet. in Santa Rosa and on Saturday packed her and I into the truck and headed out down the hill. We spent 3 hours there with blood work, films, exam and so forth. The bloodwork is to be back today. And so far all results are negative for  anything from spinal myelopathy on down. She has been on Robaxin, Tramodol, Metacam plus herbals and seems to be doing better. We are hoping that she just tweaked something between the L3 to L7 doing something stupid with her barn cats. We are guardedly optimistic at this point in time. Photo from event two years ago with foxtail but she pretty much looks the same only no lampshade!

When getting ready for Christmas I managed to snap this photo of Tabby Tabby one of the barn cats. Evidently she was in a birdie mood that day.

Then Christmas happened and we weren't even looking for it. We didn't have a "real" tree this year as I was leaving the day after for the "Berg" and we had been working our fannies off to get the house in shape for a change of venue. Which reads "new relator" so we had a wonderful little tree that Geoffrey's Mom had in her collection. Made by someone unknown from New Jersey. Enough said!


That is all for now folks. It is getting late and I need to get supper going. More soon I promise. Stay tuned for the trip to the Berg and the big storm that will float California to ????