Jessica Rabbit, and others.

So there is a bunny in the neighborhood. We decided that we would just continue to watch the bunny. Now I am not the only rabbit savvy person doing it. That's a relief. This email to Heather sums it up:

Heather,

I talked to you on the phone about a year and a half ago about a rabbit that was living in the front yard, in a home made cage, a couple blocks from me. I learned a lot from our discussion and decided that the best thing to do was to keep watching the rabbit and provide hay to prevent skimping to save money. I have refilled an empty water bottle more than once. I leave hay pressed against the chicken wire if it doesn't have food.

Cynthia Atayan, who lives very close, wanted me to tell her where it was so she could get it, but I wouldn't.

The rabbit, a Dutch, disappeared when the weather got cold and I was afraid it had died, but it re-appeared when the weather got better.

This year, the bunny is still outside. There are blankets and plywood stacked around the cage to protect from weather. So I told Cynthia the address. We are both making sure it has food and water. Sometimes they take down the boards and blankets so the rabbit isn't in the dark all day. We check and make sure they put them back up when it gets dark. They often don't.

Cynthia has an old laptop that she says she will trade for the bunny, taking her daughter with her in the hope that someone cares and will sell the bunny to a little girl. No one is ever home, or when they are, they don't answer the door.

Today there was still ice in the water troughs at noon. Single rabbits can survive this temperature, but not comfortably. I worry about frostbitten ears.

We don't know what to do. Can you advise?

 

Cynthia and I concluded that we would just continue to watch the bunny. Now I am not the only rabbit savvy person doing it. That's a relief.

I looked at Moo Cards. The basic card comes down to forty cents er card unless you get 500 cards. That's a crazy amount for me, Both the forty cents and the 500 cards. I think Vista Cards is better. About half the price. I still have to work on it. and then I have to make new art. New art has been a problem with first a sick dad, then a foundering horse, Then a new pony, then a sick pony. then another new pony who needed training and rehab. Then a sick mom. Then a sick mother-in-law. Then a second pony with a mystery problem that was hind gut ulcers. And building a house and new flooring in the old house.......

More flickr

I'm still working on Flickr. You can see it if you go to www.flickr.com/doublecatbatik. Check it out. At least type it into your search and go there, make sure the addy works, then report back to me, please.

I've been through so many photos........

When I get all the addy parts figure out, I will order Moo Cards. It will have my etsy store address, and my Flickr address. Should I put my blog address too?

What should it say?

Doublecatbatik

Textile Art

Doublecatbatik.etsy.com

www.Flickr.com/doublecatbatik

Doublecatbatik.blogspot.com

how about

Doublecatbatik Textile Art

Cara Drouin

esty addy

flickr addy, blog addy

email addy

What do you all think? How much is too much? Can I get double sided? That would be best. too much info can be overwhelming.

Driving with Francois and Flikr

Last Wednesday, Francois and I hooked up Yndi and Pepper single. He drove Pepper and I drove Yndi and we went trotting loops around the hot walker and drain barrier in the lower parking lot. It was fun! Not being able to use the arenas at Indian Hill limits the opportunity to do circles and figures. Normally, I just stick to the roads. I didn't get any pictures.

Francois said Pepper was kind of spooky at things that shouldn't have bothered her, like changes in the appearance of the ground. He thinks it is training and wants to long line her tomorrow. I long lined her for a year already. I think it is lack of conditioning-when she gets tired or is pushed to the edge of her ability, then she looses confidence. This makes more sense to me. He has a strong background in Parelli Natural Horsemanship where the focus is on slow training. My experience is different. I learned at Jill Munro's that a horse with pain the inhibits their ability run from danger compensate by getting an earlier start; they are more on guard. With Roger Cleverly, who is more into conditioning than I am, or most people, for that matter, I reinforced my understanding that the horse must be conditioned to perform what you are going to ask of it. So, I think Pepper needs to be in better shape.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours locating old art photos and loading them to me Flikr page. I need to get my stuff up there and organized. I think that when I do, I can make a business card with my etsy shop and my Flikr account. I need to work on that today.

In the meantime: a rabbit photo!

Pierre with Alfalfa Cube

Family at the barn

We all went to the barn yesterday. Some poop cooping. Some poop was too much in the mud so We left it. Walked ponies and turned them out. They just walked around looking for food.

Chillin' With My Poops

Here are my homies.

The rabbit around the block, who I have learned is Jessica, is still outside this winter.

The summer before last, I told Cynthia from Rabbit Haven about this little Dutchie. She wanted the address so she could steal it.

I called Auntie Heather and we talked about the implications of stealing or buying, and I decided it was best if I didn't do anything. It might motivate them to move the bun to the backyard where she could be more easily forgotten.

So I have just been taking them alfalfa pellet bags of orchard grass hay. The were buying the tiny PetsRUs bags and not giving her enough because its expensive.

Last winter she disappeared and I wondered if she had died, but she reappeared in the spring so I figured they moved her in.

This winter she is still out. They have piled boards and quilts around the cage to keep the weather out, but now she lives in the dark. So I messaged Cynthia and gave her the address.

I agreed to take her in if Cynthia could liberate her (and I would be in deep doo), so she went over to check her out. The owner was not there, just the room mate, so she was going to go back.

She is going to take her daughter and say her daughter wants the bunny and is willing to trade her laptop for Jessica. 

I am still waiting to hear.

I am wondering about a three-way bond. If Cynthia can get her, I should buy her a bale of orchard grass hay.

Please, sir, I want some more.

Pepper love her treats. The key to her heart is, truly, her stomach.

Chevy

Here it is, hooked up. The first time I took ponies anywhere, I needed the four wheel drive. So lucky we got it. Adrienne and I took Yndi and Twist to Gilroy. Harry helped us a bit in the arena and then he and Adrienne and I went for a drive on the streets.

Alone In The Dark

I have now logged on with my IPod Touch, in bed, in the dark. It's 2:40 am, I've been awake for almost two hours. I woke up getting a migraine so I took some caffeine to stop it. This has been going on three out of four nights for weeks. I'm into serious sleep deprivation. Everything's crumbling.

So I'm listening to a documentary about the Eagles. I remember hearing these songs growing up. It reminds me of being a teenager. I remember being overwhelmed and alone in my confusion. I didn't know how confused I was, or how out of touch with people, because I had never been anything else. It makes me sad that I am old now. I wish I could be young but not lost. I was so lost.

Elise Lalor posted a  article a while ago. Autism spectrum disorder in girls, how it looks different from the outside and isn't diagnosed because the diagnostic criteria is for boys. Then I read an article in the NY Times. It was my biography. Can you have a disease before it's diagnosed? Can you have A disease before it is discovered? Does it matter? Why didn't my mother like me? Why didn't she even know she didn't like me? Not liking your own daughter was such a horrible thing and she could never be that horrible.

Unattached and lost, no anchor, moving all the time.
Now I'm old. Now I can see. I maintain my anchors; ponies, rabbits, dog.
Still lonely and bewildered. I can fake it pretty well. Maintaining my anchors takes all my time.

Breakfast for animals is in an hour. Whiskers knows I'm awake. Four hours sleep. Again. Can't wait til spring.

Pirate Bun

I have adopted Kasey the Pirate Bun. I started fostering her for The Rabbit Haven in November 2014. She had a white bulging eye and so she was adoptable at the shelter.  A veterinary ophthalmologist determined that she had glaucoma and she had her eye removed.

Then she was spayed. She stayed in the living room for a long time. I didn't want her to go to a loud busy adoption fair with only one eye. Too frightening. So I waited for someone to be interested via the website.  

She couldn't even play in the living room because strange buns at large made Pierre attack Silver, who was very sick with kidney failure. We became very attached to each other.

After Silver died. I took Kasey and Pierre to a fair just so Ray could work with us and see if they could be bonded. Maybe, but it was not an ideal bond. armed with instruction and patience, I did it. It took five weeks.

Kasey now has the life I wished for her, bonded to another bun, and Pierre is happy again. Kasey is ecstatic to play in the family room and has adapted to the routine.

While I was bonding, I backed off of showing affection toward Kasey to help her look to Pierre for it. 

Now, Finally, two months later, Kasey and I can take up sort of where we left off. She has been so fascinated by Pierre that she really couldn't take time for me. Now she can. Bonus, Pierre wants more pets too!

Wagonette

The Peninsula Carriage Driving Club newsletter came yesterday, a paper one. In the snail mail. The Christmas Drive is on Sunday, the 20th. Its a potluck. The Indian Hill Ranch Christmas party is the 19th, also a potluck. I hate potlucks. I want to do both, but it makes a weekend of crazy cooking, which I also hate. Sunday, especially, trailering ponies and cooking.

There is also a wicker pony wagonette for sale. The price is good. I want it. There is a phone number. I am trying to decide when it is too early to call. I already wanted a single pony carriage. I may get lucky and get it.

kitchen counter

e bought a new truck. I didn't blog about it because I haven't taken a picture yet. It's a Chevy.

Then we had a nice Thanksgiving. Joseph was in tantrum mode all day, but when the food was on the table, he took the initiative of opening the Martinelli's sparkling cider and he was pleasant for the entire meal, which was good.

I used one sweet potato and three russet potatoes with butter and heavy cream and the mashed potatoes were the first mashed potatoes I have ever really like. They were good left over too.

Friday the counter people put the plywood base in the for the kitchen counter up at the mountain house. They put the vanity tops on too. Dave went for that.

Monday, they installed the kitchen counter and I was there because Dave was at work. They were supposed to arrive between 8am and 9am, but didn't get there until 11:30. I hurried up and drove so fast I made myself car sick. 

Lydia got to go and was happy when she heard she got to "go in the car" and went totally nuts when Dave put her yellow safety vest on for the mountain. When we got there she ran and ran and ran! So many stickers! At least I had something to do while I waited. I had to use scissors for some.

The quartz we picked out looks great. I can't wait to see it without the cardboard floor!