Boxing Day

This is Roscoe’s favorite day! Like most cats, he loves boxes.

Mondays and Tuesdays are my days for barn chores. I got lucky today – it was mild early in the morning. The temperature had risen overnight. It soon dropped back down, and we are in for one more very cold night. On my walk to the barn this morning, the ginger boys were waiting to join me, no longer holed up in the shed. I got a heated pad for the shed this year, which has worked much better than the heat lamps I tried previously. The cats were intimidated by the lights! I am gratified to see them using the heated pad. They will not join the “spoiled” barn cats in the heated tack room – the two dedicated shed cats (Licorice and Marmalade) are wild creatures. Tom Morris likes to rough it at times, but he is not above warming up in the tack room for several hours.

Some snow arrived with cold this afternoon. The horses were unhappy and wanted to come in early. They get terrible ice balls in their feet, which is not much fun for them. And removing them can be more difficult than you might imagine!

When it was very, very cold a few days ago, I got pictures of Harry in his cold weather gear.

The birds were ravenous today. They can feel the cold moving back in.

This marks the end of a lovely, quiet Christmas.

The day after Weedy was caught in the steel leg hold trap six days ago, I found the trap reset when I took Jane to show her the scene of the horror. I sprang it with a big stick. The sound it made was sickening and will haunt me. Harry called the neighbor, Wayne, to tell him about what had happened, in case it was someone trapping without permission. It turned out that Wayne had allowed a guy to trap on his land.

Well, it was depressing, but there was no animosity in the conversation. Then, on Christmas Eve, Wayne called Harry to tell him that he had told the guy to lift all the traps, and that the property is now safe again. It was a very nice Christmas present, and quite unexpected. We are not sure whether we will let the dogs adventure any more, though. It was a terrifying thing, and we can never get so lucky twice. Still, a nice gesture from a good neighbor.

Be safe, be well. Sweet dreams. Slava Ukraini! Peace.