RIP Molly Goat

I won't go into lots of detail about everything that occurred. It's a very long, disturbing story about a worthless scumbag of a neighbor. The short of it is that this abhorrent lowlife deliberately shot and killed Molly the goat (I think out of malice and spite). She never harmed him in any way, shape, or form. The saddest part of the story is that this despicable loser has two children, and this is the kind of example he is setting for them.

Some people should be sterilized for the betterment of society.

Late this year, but...

...As the saying goes, "better late than never." I always send out a picture collage for Christmas to close friends and family. I showed last year's result in this post. I finally chose my design to use this year. Hopefully my cards will reach everyone before the new year. All of the pictures I used (except for the very nice Layla pic) can be found in the blog in one post or another. Enjoy!

Goat in the house!

When I said my new roommate (Michael) is an animal person, I truly meant it. He was excited to have me bring the goat to the house. He had never been around goats (grew up a city boy) and wanted to learn more about them. I warned him about some of the peculiarities of my goat in particular. Such as how she would climb on the roof if possible. He thought she sounded pretty cool.

I brought Molly over on Saturday in the cold, dark and rainy early evening. My roommate had already fallen asleep when I arrived at the house, so I put Molly in the barn with hay, water and a ticked-off Quimby to keep her company in her new environment.

The next morning, dreary and frigid weather kept me in bed late. Finally, I dragged myself out from under the warm covers to let Quimby and the goat out of the barn. Michael had gone on his weekly Sunday morning breakfast run to McDonalds. I threw on a sweatshirt and some pajama bottoms and slipped outside into the grey chilliness of late fall.

Molly and Quimby burst through the door of the barn as soon as I flung it open. I didn't linger, as the cold was seeping through my inadequate clothing. Molly followed me back through the open garage door and up the two stairs to the "mud room." I left her outside while Quimby and I entered the house.

Michael arrived home not long after, surprised by a hairy beast with curved horns charging at him upon his entrance to the garage.

Michael's dogs and cats were instantly fascinated by this strange-looking dog with horns. He allowed Molly to come into the house (well aware that she was not house-trained) to check out her new surroundings. She stuck pretty close to me, at first. She guarded the kitchen from the unknown animals while I peeled apples to make an apple pie.

Eventually, Molly felt comfortable enough to lay down in the hall outside the kitchen entry. Occasionally, one or two of Michael's dogs would bark at her. The kittens were transfixed, as you can tell from this picture with three kittens staring at Molly standing on the landing of the stairs.

I headed out later in the afternoon to wash my laundry and check on the ponies. When I returned, well after the roommate's bedtime, Molly was laying outside the closed door to his room. I ushered her out the door and into the mud room, afraid she might try to climb into bed with me if I kept her inside the house. I didn't fancy the idea of my goat trying to squeeze enough space at the foot of the bed to sleep next to Quimby. There wouldn't be room left for me!

I'm sure I'll come home to a goat in the house many times this winter, as Michael doesn't like the idea of her getting cold out in the barn by herself. I don't care, as long as she doesn't try to sleep in my room and I'm not expected to clean up any mess! This should make for many interesting stories and photo opportunities...

Three's company

I think I called my new mare "Layla" in my last blog without mentioning that this would be her new name. Layla in Arabic means "dark beauty," and it's very appropriate for my lovely black Arab.

Last weekend, I allowed all of my ponies in together. Zeplin had already spent a week in the same pasture as Layla. Jazzy and Layla were acquainted over the fence. I wanted to make sure when I introduced them into one group that I had plenty of time to observe.

My troika of horses trotted all over the pasture together when I allowed Jazzy in with the others. I took some pictures and videos with my phone (since my regular camera is not yet fixed).

I was pleased to find no arguing when I threw them some hay. Layla is very submissive and will move to a different hay pile if another horse pushes her away. Zeplin sometimes moves her to prove his dominance, although he himself is quick to step out of Jazzy's way when those ears go back.

While Zeplin might push Layla away from his pile, Jazzy doesn't mind sharing her own hay with Layla. I think these two mares will bond very well.

Goat on the Roof!!!

Thanks, Julie, for sending today's amusing shots! Molly is such an adorable goat. Julie thinks she goes on the roof to look for me. I think she wants to see her old buddy Quimby. However, she's been making do with Julie's wonderful Tyler and beautiful new Doberman pup, Riddick:

My latest craze

Not only do I enjoy photographing my critters, I also love to take short video. Lately I've delved into taking still frames from the video. I've posted a couple previously, but today's post will be completely dedicated to this newest obsession of mine. The only thing I don't like is that video stills have a lot lower resolution than regular photos, but if they didn't I would run out of storage space on my SD card quickly!

My Christmas letter this year featured a still as the background picture. One morning I headed outside for work, but the ponies were on the far side of the pasture at the bottom of the small hill. Zeplin looked up and when he saw me, he immediately hustled up the hill towards me. The ladies followed. I just LOVE my ponies :-) I don't have any sophisticated programs to manipulate the resulting images, so I just use my limited resources.

What a neat backdrop for my holiday ramblings!

The evening of the blizzard a couple weeks ago, I watched my crazy ponies playing in the falling snow. I liked the stills where they stirred up clouds of snow around their swiftly moving feet. Their legs appeared to be swallowed up by swirls of powdery snowflakes.

This past weekend when I took the photos from yesterday's blog, I also took some video of the horses goofing around. Jazzy stood next to me at the top of the hill (the steeper part). Caly picked her way down the slope through the dried weeds. Jazzy decided to pursue her. Halfway to the bottom of the hill, Jazzy picked up a gallop and flew past Caly. Together they raced across the back of the pasture and back up the hill on the other side. Zeplin watched them and wanted to join the fun.

Zeplin galloping furiously to catch up. "Hey guys, wait for me!!!"

The ladies reached to top of the hill again:

Channeling his inner Thoroughbred, Zeplin closes on Caly:

Wow, Zeplin really has quite a long stride! Towards the end of the same sequence, Jazzy practiced for the pro rodeo tour by giving a little buck:

See the goat watching her, thinking, "What the hell are you doing?!"

Later, Zeplin displayed a similar disregard for gravity:

I love how you see Quimby observing their antics in the foreground.

Another great thing about taking stills is that I can clearly demonstrate the suspension in Zeplin's trot and his athleticism.

Poor Zeplin, it's taking me forever to get all those burrs out of his mane and tail. He looks like he's hovering above the ground in the first few pics. Zeplin loves to prance. He has a very showy trot where he throws his tail over his back, arches his neck, and moves almost in slow motion, exaggerating each step. It's beautiful to watch and always makes me smile.

That's all for now (quite a few frames here), but rest assured there will be more at a later date!

Photographing the critters

I don't claim to be the world's best photographer, but I do try to capture the essence of each animal's character as much as possible. Sometimes this can be extremely difficult, especially with overly friendly ponies. Let's take Zeplin, for instance.

Hey, fuzzball, look at me! Yes, let's capture your GOOD side so that you don't look so much like something the cat coughed up.

You've seen the camera a million times!! No, you can't eat it! I just want a nice head shot.

Yes, Zep, you do have a pretty eye, but I want your whole face!

Closer, boy, but still not what I'm going for (nice forelock, by the way).

Ok, now I've gotten both eyes. Will you cooperate, boy?

Well, I guess this is as good as it's gonna get in the winter with my dirty, hairy boy. Caly on the other hand...

...Well, this girl loves to pose. "Did you get my good side, Mom?"

Jazzy is rather indifferent. "Go ahead and take my picture if you must."

Still, she looks like she's smiling, to me!

This is Jazzy's "bad" eye. I think she still has quite a bit of vision in this eye, though.

I just love this picture of Jazzy's face. I think it captures the softness and trust in her eye. She really is a sweetheart!

"Can't leave me out, Mom!" says Quimby. She gets sooooooo jealous if I pay too much attention to the horses and not enough to her :-)

"Look, Mom, I can lick the top of my nose with my tongue!! Can the horses do THAT? Huh? Can they?"

Quimby always has a comment about EVERYTHING.

Molly the goat looks about as round as she is tall this time of year.

Of course, the indoor pets aren't immune to "capture by camera:"

You better watch out, you better not cry/ Better not pout, I'm telling you why... because otherwise Santa will sic LASER CAT on you!! Is that what you want? Yeah, didn't think so.

Kit Kit does not look particularly thrilled at having her photo taken. Chyornee was lucky and escaped the round of pictures... this time!!