We have a couple new family members on the Sundog Ranch. Every animal on the ranch are intrigued by them….especially the Sundogs. When we go to the barn to feed the first thing on the Sundog’s to do list is to check on those new little critters in the barn.
We have this sliding door to the hay room tied so it won’t open all the way and BIG animals can’t get in thereby giving the Manx Brothers some recluse.
But the tie is not working so well. Lassen is able to muscle his way in. Poor Manx Brothers.
I yelled at Lassen (I mean gave him a command) to come out of there and he actually listened to me. Until all hell broke loose and almost all of the Sundogs burst in to greet the Manx Brothers. The Manx Brothers live on top of the tack room. They are our new barn cats. You see we have quite the wood rat population and something has to be done about it.
Here you have them. I could hardly get mad. Yolo of course was posed for the photo and little Milton Manx posed along with him. Lassen is trying to get closer and find out were Mangus Manx is. Mangus is Milton’s brother. Maisie is trying to keep her cool because she thinks the Manx Brothers may be tasty. Nevada looks at Maisie wondering why she is acting so weird. Sasha is a bit weary of the Manx Brothers since that other BIG kitty we used to have gave her more that one swipe across the nose. 
Sasha stays outside and Momma Maisie joins her. If was not so hot she’d be chasing dragonflies. The temp is already in the low 90’s.
Maisie returns salivating at the mouth now…but not foaming yet. You can’t hear her whining, good thing. Yolo is still posed in the best spot for kitty viewing and brother Lassen stays nearby for support. 
Milton gets closer to the Sundog Brothers and lets them know it is NOT OK to come any closer. Mangus is tucked away in the box refusing to come out. 
Somehow between the time I went to grab something out of the truck and then turned around to return the Manx Brothers decided to make a bold run past every body and make a dash for the tack room. I tie the door to the tack room too and the tie stays. The brothers are able to poke in and out and tease the Sundogs. Here is Lassen doing what he does….sitting very still and drooling over the brothers. Here is Mangus posed to sprint back to the hay room since Lassen won’t stop drooling over him.
Here he goes.
Milton makes a dash too staying with Mangus but oh no! The Big Brothers are working together now.
The BIG Brothers are closing in…what should we do?
Somehow Milton made it back to the tack room. The BIG Brothers don’t care. One kitty is tasty enough.
What is a kitty to do?
“Maybe I should hiss and swat now but I’m frozen” Poor Mangus. I’m proud at how he is handling this. Do you hate me now for not rescuing him? Don’t worry I trust my Sundogs. Besides they had a big breakfast.
I know this looks like Kitty abuse but it is part of getting to know kitty. After this look CAMERA DOWN kitty in my arms. The Sundogs still have a ways to go to quell their obsession with the Manx Brothers. We will do this routine every morning until the Manx Brothers are no big deal anymore. I’ll make sure we don’t have any unsupervised visits with the Sundogs and the Manx Brothers down at the barn. AND I will make sure I feed the Sundogs well before our visit.
Adios Amigos 🙂
I love it when my birthday, June 8th, falls on a Saturday. On June 8th, about 2 weeks ago, the scheduled temps in Chico, Ca. were around 108 degrees. At Sundog, up in the foothills, the temp might ONLY be 103 degrees (how do I make a degree sign on a computer?) So I asked Rockin’ Roy…if we could do one of my favorite things. Camping in the cooler mountains and not just regular camping, horse camping, even better. You see, I have my Appaloosa gelding named “GQ” trained so good right now I can just about let anyone hop on his back for a ride and that means Rockin’ Roy gets to ride him. Lucky Roy. I can hop on my newest ride Chiron. Chiron is pictured above after loading into the big tin can trying to sniff the big black thing in his face and asking “where the you know what are we going now?”
I tell Chiron “you are going on a trip with your buddy and staying right next to each other all day and night ” He does not care about anything else. Like the fact we are going to a place called Skillman Campground about 2 hours drive from here where it might be 10 degrees cooler. 
The feeling of driving away with the horse trailer and camping gear is just about as good as it gets. Only one problem. No Sundogs are aboard. The campground we are going to requires dogs on a leash and some of the trails go too close to highways. Taking a Sundog or two would be way to complicated and even dangerous. Besides, it is good for us to have vacations away from each other once in a while. Just like Rockin’ Roy and me go our separate ways quite often…I mean once in awhile. AND it is not like the poor Sundogs are deprived. They are staying home lounging by the pool being spoiled by some lucky Sundog sitters. 
“On the fly” to me means spontaneous, not fly fishing. Non tent living quarters pictured above is part of the “on the fly” theme. Spontaneous is fun and makes me feel young again but it has some drawbacks since neither Rockin’ Roy and I are all that organized.
Like…..I had to immediately wash all the camping supplies due to ample amounts of wood rat droppings in the camping stuff bin. Of course it was not MY fault because I did not pack the truck. The person who packs the truck with STUFF is supposed to check the STUFF since this was the first trip of the year….. but I did the dishes anyway. Doing the dishes when you are camping is like playing house when you were a kid. Plus the scenery is nice. I was a bit embarrassed to put up this photo of me doing the dishes but I wanted you to see our “on the fly” set up. Please don’t laugh at our camping gear, we keep the thrift stores in business.
What a nice fire huh? I built this fire while being left alone for an hour. Left alone because someone (who me?) forgot to put everything we needed in the cooler. Like coffee and cream which is a must for waking up on my birthday morning. And another someone (not me) forgot to bring along the lantern, another must have camping item. Making a fire with dry wood is a piece of cake. In fact with this fire who needs a lantern? GQ and Chiron are into their busy bags. The best part about horse camping is sleeping near and looking at your horses all the time. It’s like we are living together. I think I will title this photo “Life is Good”.
“Life is Good” came to an end when in the morning I had to clean the stalls. Lots of horse poop is a fact of life having horses, unless you have a poop picker upper. Which most of us don’t. But the duty is not so bad since we are in the cool mountain air and the flies are at bay.
While cleaning the stalls the horses had to be tied up to a hitching post. A wood hitching post is an old fashion invention. Why they make them out of wood I’ll never know. Standing still while tied is a horses job. As you can see in this photo Chiron is not exactly doing his job well. He is starting the annoying habit of pawing at the ground due to boredom I quess. GQ watches me wondering why Chiron gets all the attention all the while misbehaving.
The pawing kept him busy for a while. I tried not to make much of it.
He built up some pretty nice soft soil there around him to stand on. Maybe that was what is was all about?
It is all he can do to deal with the situation. Being tied to the hitching post with Chiron is about as bad as it gets.
Eyes closed, head down, nose to post. “Maybe nobody will notice me”.
Secret whiskers on alert.
Time to wake up goober nose.
“Mom come and get me now “!
Chiron on the other hand has other ideas.
As you can see a wood hitching post has its disadvantages. Notice how nice and straight Chiron’s teeth are? No I DON’T brush them daily. Also notice the orange drips on the hitching post?
Habanero sauce, which usually works to discourage wood consummation. Chiron did NOT do all this damage to the hitching post. The many horses that visited here before did it. Chiron was just doing his part.
After a bit of Habanero sauce Chiron quickly lowered his head under the hitching post as if to say…..”I think I’ll just hang my head low and be a good boy like GQ”
“Or maybe not” As you can see this horse has some pent-up energy. Lucky me I get to ride him today, my birthday.
Speaking of birthdays look what I got! What more could a cowgirl want? No not the Corona…..a new tool. Besides a couple of knives it’s got wire cutters and a bottle opener. Even though it was only late morning we were camping and it was my birthday so off popped the cap on the Corona Light which is like drinking water almost. It is good to loosen up a bit before a ride
Being an experienced trail horse GQ goes back to snoozing while Roy has to check the map one more time. He knows all about conserving his energy before he has to work.
The warm mountain sun is starting to get high meaning we are REALLY late getting started for our ride today. Do you think GQ cares?
Absolutely NOT!
But the time comes to ride. I tack up the horses because Rockin’ Roy is allergic to them. 
Doesn’t GQ look fabulous in his new headstall?
Chiron finally calms down knowing he is going to get to move his feet soon. Saddlebag not needed today. 
Whoa Roy! Heels down, shorten that inside reign, lower those hands, elbows in. GQ wonders “who is this on my back and why is my usual human standing on the ground in front of me?”
What is better than an afternoon snooze on mom and dad’s bed? That’s why I could not help but pull some of these “bedtime” photo’s out of the archives. It is a joy to find this many Sundogs snoozing on our bed together. I turned one into black and white which I love but Golden’s and the color purple ROCK. Enjoy!
On a gloomy afternoon in March while I was cleaning out my bedroom closet Sasha got things started and out came my camera. Being the baby of the family she needed and still needs lots of naps along with her cherished purple monkey. Although the purple monkey was so cherished it recently went to stuffed animal heaven.
Miss Maisie Rose being the ham she is had to get in on the action and somehow the purple monkey lies on the floor. 
“Oh well, there is always something else to hold in your mouth to pose for the camera. Why here’s a sock!”
“Oops! I was so enamored by the camera I dropped the sock. Now Rockin Roy’s sock lies on top of the purple monkey. I can surely fit BOTH of them in my mouth”
“I’m a little embarrassed now. I’m going to slink away to the floor for my treasures”
Meanwhile Miss Maisie Rose, my English Cream beauty, basks in the glory of being alone. She gazes out the window in wonder. “Will this gloomy day ever turn to sunshine?” 
After putting the camera down and going back to cleaning out my closet I come back to the bed with a different scene. Yolo takes center stage (OF COURSE) while Lassen and Maisie watch Sasha ruin Rockin Roy’s sock.
By now Rockin Roy’s sock is clearly destroyed. Yolo, Maisie and Lassen watch with approval. “We taught her well.”
Sasha is done with destroying so she slinks back up on the bed to snooze with the gang. Like good dogs they all turn around to face me and my camera. Photographers dogs usually get good at posing. 
“We need our beauty rest.”
OK you guys. “Good night, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite”.
The Sun Dog Drift 