Be Honest...

Does this jacket make my ass look big?

No Days Like Snow Days

Bully Hill got about a foot of snow last night.  It was a pretty snow that stuck to all the trees.  It did bring down a few branches on the pine trees, but it was pretty nonetheless.  Here are a few shots from today:

It was a good day to work from home and enjoy the company of the animals.

On another note, I just read that Charlie Sheen was hospitalized today for stomach pains.  If he has leptospirosis, we know who to blame... that's right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  If he could only have warned us sooner.  Nonetheless, all of us on Bully Hill Farm, Petunia included, wish Mr. Sheen a speedy recovery.

A Few Concerns

I was reading the CNN website this weekend when I came across an interesting article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  It was entitled, "A furry dilemma: Sleep with your pet, risk catching his bugs."

Here is a link, just in case you want to read it for yourself:
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/22/a-furry-dilemma-sleep-with-your-pet-catch-his-bugs/?iref=allsearch

The central theme is, if you sleep with your pet, you risk catching his bugs... but I suppose that was sort of set forth in the title.  The story has a few examples of people contracting meningitis or even the plague from their pets.  One or two of the examples actually had something to do with the pet sleeping in the individual's bed.

Now I'd like to make fun of this article, but we had the household leptospirosis pandemic caused by Petunia and her late sister.  Thus, I know that there is a risk associated with bringing animals into the home.  Still, as the article points out, if you properly care for your pet(s) and routinely see the veterinarian, it is extremely unlikely that they will be spreading zoonotic pathogens to you as you sleep.

And yet, I still recall picking Petunia out of her kennel at the city animal shelter, looking into her little brown eyes, and stating, "You're going to be the death of me."

(Here she is a few weeks later... after she grew some fur)

She almost succeeded with the leptospirosis bit, but that is all behind us now.  I mean, it's not like Petunia leads a high-risk lifestyle.

OK, she occasionally gets into the pond and might ingest some filth while trying to catch frogs...

and she eats poop, but what dog doesn't?

(Yes, that is actually my dog eating poop)

Well, there is her friend Mr. Skitters, the rabid raccoon, with whom she likes to spend time.

That is a little concerning, but it could be worse.

OH GOD NO, not Charlie Sheen!

Well, it looks like Hepatitis Pea is going to need to go back to see the veterinarian... and possibly rehab.  I'm going to see if they can write me a prescription for antibiotics too.

Bad dog!

The New Guy is a Jackass

We had been keeping Gino separate from the horses for the past few days.  We wanted to make sure that he did not have some terrible donkey plague that would kill us all.  We went through that already when we rescued Petunia and her sister.

Plague or no plague, we have allowed Gino to join the horses.  The introductions went well.  Snow was desperate to meet him, so we let her out first.  She was very gentle.  Surprisingly so.

Next we let Ellie Mae out.  I had no concerns about Ellie, she is a gentle and understanding horse.

It all went swimmingly... almost too good to be true.

It was pretty clear that we made an excellent decision in adopting little Gino.  He's very cute,

and quite personable.

Just when we decided that this was one of our best decisions ever, it started. 

He likes to chase the other horses...

and bite them.

He also seems to enjoy biting my leg.

So, it's sort of like one big happy family.

I think...