Showing posts with label Nadia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nadia. Show all posts

Friday, May 20, 2011

A Friend’s Voyage

 

Last night I had the pleasure of accompanying my neighbor friend, Val of Fantastyk Voyage Blog, along with her youngest son, on her first voyage out to visit with her animals. It was also the first time she had been able to get up close to the newest animals on her little ranch: "The Aliens"

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Val bought them over a week ago, and while I can see them from my house, I had not been over to get up close and meet them in person until Thursday afternoon when I came over to refill Val’s horses’ water troughs. Oh my! They are so stinkin’ cute!

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As most of you know, I have two camelids, too, but they are llamas. I love my llamas and think they are beautiful, elegant, funny, and sweet. But I must admit they are not as cute, even with their adorable banana ears, as alpacas!

Thelma reminds me of butterscotch pudding and is the more curious and friendly of the two girls. Louise is black with a reddish glow and it’s easy to see that she wants to get closer to us humans, but she is very shy and cautious. 

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Before I walked over from my house, I tucked some baby carrots into my pocket, thinking I’d give them to Val to give to her horses, in case she had forgotten (Of course, she didn’t. She had even brought full size carrots for them. hehe). I never considered that the alpacas would like carrots, because my llamas don’t have any interest in carrots at all. But Thelma and Louise both liked the carrots.

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Thelma would take them from our hands, while Louise felt more comfortable eating them off the ground, at least for now. I have a feeling it won’t take long for her to come around, though.

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It was wonderful seeing Val interact with her alpacas. She’s looking forward to not only working with the alpaca fleece, but also working with and training both of them, too.

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But soon, the sun dropped below the western horizon and the temps dropped down into the 30’s and it was time to hurry over to the barn so Val could visit with her horse family, too. She had recently been up close with Nadia,("Visit with Nadia") when her daughter led her down to the house for a visit, where Val was sitting in her wheelchair. But it was the first time she had been able to visit with Annie, Yalla! and Scout up close, since her accident and surgery 4 weeks ago. And she really missed them.

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And it was easy to see (and hear) that her herd missed her, too. They were nickering and neighing for her as we left the alpaca pen and were nuzzling Val all over as she stood beside their stalls.

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Please visit Val’s blog to read more about her visit and enjoy some of her wonderful photos(Maybe leave her an encouraging comment filled with some healing vibes, too):

Fantastyk Voyage "The Big Fall" 



Saturday, July 11, 2009

My Tower View ~ Lunar

 

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(Taken with my Canon PowerShot SX110 IS point and shoot camera using full 20X digital and optical zoom, auto setting with a porch light on behind me. The extra light from behind really made a difference. Straight out of camera, with just some cropping.)

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Had another loose horse scare yesterday. Ranchman John and I had brought Baby Doll back home from the leased pasture on Thursday night. It wasn’t easy and required two people, one to lead Baby Doll out of the gate and one, me, to be the gate guard as the three horses left behind kept trying to make a break for the gate. We did it, though. It was interesting how all the horses called out to each other, even though they’ve only been a part of this new herd for a few days.

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The next day, Jenna looked out her window and happened to notice that Nadia was loose out in front of Val’s house. She ran to me and told me and when I looked outside I saw that it was true and I got that sick feeling in my stomach again. I saw that she had no halter on and I know that Val doesn’t hand graze her without one, but I tried calling Val just the same, but she wasn’t home and didn’t answer her cell phone. So, I strapped my leg brace on and hobbled down the stairs as fast as I could go, and brought Jax along with me, too, in case I needed help. I already had a halter in my van so I headed straight over there. Just as I got ready to turn into Val’s driveway, ‘D’ drove up in his truck and together we were able to halter Nadia and put her back in Val’s barn with no trouble.

Apparently, ‘D’ was moving the metal stock water tank to a location closer to our neighbor’s water spigot. When he opened the gate, Nadia slipped through, and thankfully, headed straight towards her barn. Being that she’s 26 yrs old, she’s smart enough to know to stay close to her barn, so she probably would have been safe, but the entire experience sure scared me…and reminded me of what happened to Rojo.

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Whew! I was just so relieved that she was safe and that Baby Doll and Scout didn’t get loose, too. I tell ya, I don’t know how many more of these scares I can take. Worrying about our horses is even more stressful than worrying about our kids.   




From the Tower of,