Something Fishy

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that there would soon be news on the new critters to keep me company in the studio...


I've always loved all animals, fish included.  My childhood was full of critters of all shapes and sizes and for a while I had a 10 gallon aquarium in my room.  My mom had a few 55-gallon aquariums and even for a brief period, a 135 gallon one!  Some of my childhood stories about animals include fish stories.

Later on, once I was out on my own, I almost always had a Betta fish or two, but no more aquariums.
That is until the era of the "Fish Room".  For a while, I had converted a spare bedroom into a fish room and I started breeding Bettas, Guppies, and some Cichlids too.

Betta spawning tanks

Grow out tanks and cups

Betta males

I had a great time with my fish room.  Sadly, it was around this time that my life went off the rails and so then my fish days were no more.  I found homes for the fish, sold/gave away most of my equipment, and that was the end of the Fish Room.

In the time since, I've had Bettas here and there, including more recently "Mr. Fish", who lived for an astounding 5 years.  My last Betta boy found a home with some friends of our when we made the Great Move.

Jeff knows I like having a little fishy friend or two around and so shortly after we got here, he bought me a Dwarf Puffer Fish.  I named her Momo, which a friend told me is Japanese for "peach".

I've been on the lookout for a fish tank and ended up finding one for sale just a few days ago.  It was a complete setup, including a few fish.  We bought it and then I had to decide where to put it!  I wanted to have my new little friends in the studio with me and so I decided to put them on a shelf next to my desk.  I had some concerns about the shelf holding the weight, so I ended up using the center (structural) shelf and laying another shelf on top of it for extra support.

The fish included with the tank ended up being a little bachelor group of young male guppies.

Here they are in their traveling conditions from when we bought them, with low water in the tank.  I think they'll look good there:

A closer look.

I took several closeup pictures, trying to capture the fish themselves, but they are quick little buggers and this was the best I could do.

We stopped at a local store on the way home with them, to pick up food and water conditioner.  I also picked out this cup of live plants.

They are so pretty!

Here's the food and water conditioner.  Not being able to read the packaging, I'm thankful there were guppies on the label - haha.  Actually, the girl who sold us the tank showed me her bottle of conditioner and I took a picture of it with my phone...  I then showed that picture to an employee at the store and she pointed out the bottle that we bought.  Yay for modern technology helping out with a language barrier!

The tank now full of water again.  Lots more room for the little guys.

Then I added the plants and turned on the filter.  Looking good!  I love that there are several pieces of sea glass on the bottom of the tank.  It is very pretty and an appropriate local touch, since we have found a bunch of it on the beaches here.

Yep, I think they will do well here, surrounded by model horses.  ;)

Another note:  Back when I was first setting up this blog, I was digging around in all of the options and found the fish gadget.  I thought it was so awesome.  It's been a part of my blog for many years now and yes, I feed them and watch them swim around a bit whenever I am looking around on here.  ;)  The gadget gives the options for all sorts of colors, but I thought the black and orange looked most realistic.  Someday I would love to have a fish pond, but for now my blog fish work for me.

Our Pets - Bo

For today I thought I'd do another installment of the planned series featuring our menagerie of critters.

This time about the (currently) only equine member of our family - Bo.

In the summer of 2001, I came up to visit friends here in South Dakota.  During the visit, we went to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary to look at horses.  In addition to hundreds of wild mustangs, the Sanctuary had a breeding program of registered Paints and Quarter Horses.  Foals were sold to offset the costs of keeping the Sanctuary running.  I have always had a love for flashy spotted Paint horses and I thought I might shop for a horse.

At the end of the day, I had a few possibilities written down.  One was a solid black colt, with a big star on his forehead.  He was a little bit bigger than other foals his age.  He was a favorite, but I also liked a few others.

That night, at my friend's house, I pulled a random horse book off of her shelves and flipped it open to the middle to read.  I had landed on the page about Alexander the Great.  I read that his horse, Bucephalus, was said to be a black horse with a large white star on his forehead.  I told my friend right then that I was going to buy the black colt with the star.  I also decided that he would be named Bucephalus, but that is a mouthful, what could I call him for short?  My friend suggested "Bo".  "That's a good ranch horse name", she'd said.

Baby Bo with his mom:

(I have often joked about how I was drawn to a Paint horse ranch by my love of flashy Paints...  and picked out a solid-colored colt!)

I returned to Arizona, where I was living at the time.  When Bo was weaned, he went to a boarding place where my friend also kept some horses.  I went back up to stay in South Dakota for a while, during the time he was a weanling and yearling.


Bo as a yearling - the only picture I have on the computer:  (I have several other pictures of him as a youngster that I still need to scan in)

I moved back to the southwest, this time to southern California.  I sent a hauler to go get Bo, and my other horse, Joker.  They arrived in California in October of 2003.


Lazy Bo, getting some love from "mom":

Over the next several years, I started Bo under saddle - though I didn't even own a saddle at first, we just rode around bareback.  He also started adding the first batch of many people to what I call his "fan club".  His great disposition has won him fans everywhere he goes.  At first I wasn't sure I would leave him as a stallion, I figured I'd just wait and see.  He got a little bit naughty when the hormones started kicking in - around the age of three - but after that period of time he went back to his normal laid-back self.

Bo and I posing together, February 2005:

I remember one night there was a get together going on at the stables.  A bonfire was going and people were hanging out talking, eating, and having a good time.  One of the little boys asked if he could ride Bo.  I tossed him up there, bareback, with just a lead rope tied to the halter and turned them loose in the arena.  Over the next two hours, Bo must have packed around five or six kids and I think the oldest was only six years old.  One of the ladies there asked me how old Bo was and I told her he was three.  She was amazed that he was so well-behaved for that age.  Then I told her he was a stallion!

Out for a ride on my "wild" stallion.  Puppy Jessie along for the ride.  This was a first for all involved - Bo had never carried a dog, I had never ridden with a dog, and of course little Jessie had never been on a horse!  We all did fine:

My favorite way to ride, even after I owned a saddle:

After several years in the southern California desert, Bo and I found ourselves back in South Dakota in late 2007.  It's funny how the world works sometimes.  We are now about an hour or so from where he was born, after being so far away for many years.  I guess it's fair to say that Bo has been well-traveled at this point.


Bo and I on our first snow ride, winter of 2009:

We also got started in an exciting pursuit - mounted horse archery!  Specifically, Plains Indian style horse archery.  I've been to a few clinics and during one I took Bo with me.  I think we both did outstanding.  I had always dreamt of being able to ride with no hands, (at a run!) but these pictures still amaze me when I look at them.  I was so focused on shooting the bow that it wasn't even until I saw the pictures that I realized I had done it!:

Bo is my "main" man and he's been there for me through so much in my life, including a marriage, divorce, another marriage, and several moves.  Other horses have come and gone in my life, but Bo has stayed.  In dark times, I've thought that he may have to find another home, but I'm so glad he is still here with me.

Last summer I achieved a dream I've had since I was a girl and that was to show a horse.  I wasn't after ribbons or fame or fortune (probably a good thing!  haha), but we showed in a local circuit of three shows over the summer.  At the end of it all, I was stunned when we won the Year End award for High Point Halter Stallion!  We also won our first blue ribbon in riding at the last show of the year - another unexpected, and very welcome, surprise.

At the very first show in our Halter class.  We didn't do very well - he fidgeted, I fidgeted - we were both nervous!:

The second show, in Halter, we were both much calmer.  The judge, who is a respected horsewoman in the area, exclaimed, "He is a mannerly boy!"  (yaay!):

I didn't ride at the first show, but at the 2nd show I was brave and got on.  Here we are in the arena during warm up time.  If you see worry on my face - you're right!  The arena was packed with 30 or so horses, all going different directions at different speeds.  We had never been in that sort of situation, but Bo didn't miss a beat.  Once again I was so proud of him:

Riding in our first class, I was SOO nervous.  I think we placed 5th, out of 9 or so:

At the 3rd, and last, show for the season, we won Halter.  The judge seemed to really like him.

Again at the last show, I heard our number called for first place in our riding class!  Yaay!!

What's next?  I'm not sure, but I still have plenty of horsey dreams and I hope Bo will be the horse I reach them on.  He is still a stallion and can still be counted on to give pony rides to kids and adults - with or without a saddle.  He truly is a one in a million (or more) kind of horse. 

Our Pets: Neytiri, or "Kitten"

I thought it might be fun to start a series of blog posts for our menagirie of critters.  Between Jeff and I, we have: 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 salamanders, 2 rats, 1 horse, and a betta fish (in a pear tree). 

I thought I'd start this series with one of the cats.  We often joke that we have 2-1/2 cats, because two of them live inside, while the third is a stray who "adopted" us a few years ago. 

The youngest of the group is Neytiri, or as we usually call her, "Kitten".  She has quite a story...

Last year, in late spring, a little of kittens appeared at the barn where I kept my horses.  It wasn't unusual to see kitten there; the resident population of barn cats has babies now and then.  What was unusual is that these kittens were tiny, barely walking, and didn't seem to have a mother.  We starting bringing them some food and water and realized that they didn't really even know how to eat or drink yet.  I found out from the owner of the property that the kitten had been dumped at the barn - they didn't have a mother there.

One of the kittens was a tiny calico, the others were orange tabby colored.  The little calico became my favorite, I used to scoop her up and love on her whenever I was at the barn.  I heard her learn to pur when being held, stop and go at first, then a steady, tiny, rumble.

One of the kittens, a tiny orange tabby, didn't make it.  I found him one night very weak.  I took him home and tried to save him.  I called my vet and he told me to try some maple syrup on the kitten's gums to spike his blood sugar and give him enough energy to eat.  Sadly, he was too far gone and passed away the next morning.  We buried him in the wooded field behind our house.

That night, I went to the barn and heard a kitten crying and crying.  I searched until I found a tiny kitten inside a wood pallet on the floor, crying out.  It was the little calico.  I carefully got her out and was horrified to see that she was as weak as her brother, she was like a little ragdoll and couldn't even hold up her head.  I called Jeff as I was holding her.  I cried as I told him that I had thought I should bring her home too when I took her brother and tried to save him and now I was afraid it was too late.  I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to take another kitten home and watch them die.  I set her back down on some hay and decided I would let nature take its course.  She kept crying though and I picked her up again.  That time, as soon as she was up against my chest she started purring.  I cried even more and told Jeff that I was going to bring her home.  I didn't want to watch another kitten die, but at least she wouldn't die alone. 

When I got her home, I opened up an odd can of cat food we had (we don't feed canned food, but we had one around at the time).  We couldn't get her to eat anything, she was just too weak.  I remembered the maple syrup tip my vet had told me about and I went to grab it.  I was trying to figure out how to get the syrup into her teeny tiny mouth when she started licking it off my finger.  There were happy tears as I said, "Oh, you're a little fighter"  I then left her with Jeff and went to our small local store to buy more canned food and some kitten chow. 

As I returned home, I was surprised to see the kitten sitting up in Jeff's lap, looking around.  He told me that shortly after I left, she just sat up and seemed fine.  We tried to get her to drink some water from a little syringe, but she didn't want it.  That's when we came up with "meat juice".  We sucked up some gravy from the canned food, and mixed it with water in the syringe.  She didn't like plain water, but the meat-flavored water was a different story!  She was eager to drink that!  We got her to take a couple syringes of meat juice and she ate some tiny pieces of canned food, then she was sleepy.

We let her sleep in my lap for about an hour while we watched a movie.  We were watching Avatar.  I decided then that if she made it, a good name for her would be Neytiri, after the beautiful, fierce (and cat-like!) female character in the movie.

After about an hour we woke her up and I was devestated when she awoke a ragdoll again, her head was floppy, she couldn't sit up or eat or drink.  So we got out the maple syrup again.  She licked it off my finger and then I saw the miracle for myself.  In about a minute, she raised her head, sat up, and seemed fine.  We gave her more meat juice. 

I put her to bed in a box with a heating pad on one side.  I got up during the night to check on her ad see if she was weak again, but I found her sitting up in the box looking at me.  After her two doses of maple syrup it appeared she had pulled through! 

Here is the itty-bitty kitty soaking up a sunbeam the next morning:

One of our dogs is Max, a 105lb Newfoundland mix who has an oddly strong maternal instinct.  He had raised two other kittens prior to this and he immediately decided that it was his job to mother the kitten. 

She didn't seem to mind...  except when he got carried away with the licking.  Max knew kittens needed to be licked.  The problem is that his tounge was about as big as she was and Max makes a fair bit of drool at times.  So... he would soak her in his efforts to keep her clean.  When she could escape his tounge, she'd come and find me to dry her off. 

Here she is in my lap, in the sun, getting dry and warm.





There were a few times right after I'd get her dry that Max would find her again.  Ten minutes later, a soaked, disgruntled kitten would come and find me again.

 

We took her to our vet where we learned she weighed a half a pound and needed to gain a pound!  He guessed her age to be about 4 weeks.  I thanked him for the maple syrup tip and told him that it really did save her life! 

 

Here she is, growing up:

 

Despite my initial plan to nurse her back to health and return her to the barn, I just couldn't do it.  The life of a barn cat is not always easy or safe and after we, quite literally, brought her back from the brink, I hated the thought of something bad happening to her out there.

Here she is now, picture taken just a few weeks ago, lying in one of her favorite spots, at the foot of the bed on my side.

She has gotten quite big and is such a beautiful cat.  Her orange patches are tabby striped and she has a very distinct large black heart on one of her hips.  She is a pretty girl.  Sadly, she is terried of anyone but Jeff and I.  I have tried introducing her to friend of mine more recently, but the last time I tried, she was trembling at being close to another person.  She may always be a kitty who hides from strangers.  I had named her Neytiti, but we most often just call her "Kitten" and she answers to that better than anything.  I think she will always be a "kitten" to me (no matter how big she gets!) and I'll always remember the night we saved a teeny-tiny kitten. 

Oh, and Max?  He is still her "mama" and she likes him the most out of the dogs.  She still cuddles with him and even nurses on him from time to time.  Here is Max and his kitten, last summer and a year later: