Meet Boomer and Bessy

As I considered my topic for the day, I came up empty...
--Nothing particularly humiliating has happened to me since the "shoe incident."
--All of my friends seem to be feeling well. (Praise God!)
--Our foster-dd got engaged this week.
--I don't have 10 different kids to write about.
--We haven't traveled anywhere exciting.

All in all, it's been a fairly boring week at our house. With this in mind, I decided to fall back on stealing other blogger's ideas--I'll talk about some of the critters that live on our vast estate. Since I've already talked about our equine variety -- these would be of the canine variety.


BOOMER

Meet Boomer. He's an American Bulldog who became part of our family in early 2001 when he was about 10 weeks old. He was so cute then. Today, he's about 7 1/2 years old.



This is pretty much his favorite position.




Unless you count this. This is the only 'child' that Boomer will tolerate. He loves his girl. She can drag him by the tail, sit on him, and any number of other humiliations...but he loves his girl.

I never dreamed we would own a dog that didn't like kids. Actually, Boomer HATES kids...and that is NOT an exaggeration. We don't know why he is this way. It started when he was about a year old. We think he has an eye-sight problem and that short kids scare him. I voted to get rid of him, but as you can see in this picture --that was NOT an option.


This is his ALERT look! For some reason, FedEx and UPS drivers think this looks menacing. Frankly, it just means he is awake.






This look says "Somebody has a treat in their hand and is teasing me with it." Boomer is like a goat. He will eat virtually anything...usually in one gulp! He's so easy to entice into the dog-pen...just take a little scrap of bread...he doesn't care. He thinks its a big treat and willingly follows you anywhere!


This is his normal pose for "I'm such a good doggy, please give me some attention!" He is a good watch dog. He watches and then runs and hides if you get out of your car...unless he thinks you're a short kid (like Donna T.).

He's very good at staying at the house when dd heads out to ride her horse. But he will sit under the carport and whine and moan (you would think he was dying...) until she comes home.





BESSY

Meet Bessy. She is about 8 1/2 years old and is a full sister to Boomer...but from the litter before him. She came to live with us when she was over a year old because the folks that had her couldn't keep her in their fence. Of course, Bulldog's must be contained or you're asking for trouble--just because of the breed.




Bessy is a super-dee-duper loving girl. She is also super-dee-duper aggravating. In her earlier life, she had been beaten. This makes her nearly impossible to discipline. She cowers and shakes if you even raise your voice to her. This is her sad, "I'm in jail" look.


She is also very, very sneaky. You don't dare go for a walk without her because she will show up on your walk when you least expect it. She refuses to be left behind! She climbs gates and slides under fences (like in the picture). She is amazingly agile. Once she catches up to you on your walk, she's your best buddy and hangs right with you.





This is her "I'm just a sweet girl ready to play and follow you anywhere!" look. If we really pampered our dogs, she would have had braces to fix her weird bottom teeth. It doesn't seem to affect her ability to eat. She's a butterball!



This is her favorite position. Her 'dead dog' look. She'll sleep like this. She loves to scratch her back out in the yard!









So now you've met Boomer and Bessy...





They both make our lives a bit richer and our wallets a bit poorer...but we love them!

Just Horsin' Around

It's surely no secret...my dear daughter is a horse-nut. Not just a casual horse-nut...an absolute full-blown crazy girl when it comes to her horses! Someone told me that a young girl having a horse is like bug-spray for boys. Hmmm....haven't seen many of those pesky critters around here, so I guess it does work! Yippee! (Unfortunately, they also told me it wears off somewhere between the ages of 18-20...bummer.)

Since dd was tiny she has loved horses. We have a video of a big, Labor Day family picnic when she was about 3 yo at my Dad's farm in central Florida. Several of my brothers brought their horses. There weren't quite enough to go around. So when our dd had to give up HER ride, she was very upset and let everybody (especially her dad) know it! She was so cute giving him the silent treatment!

Since before she could actually pronounce the word, she's always said she wants to be a veterinarian. Her love for horses (all animals, really) hasn't let up so far. At 16 and 1/2, she's started getting more serious with the training and care of her animals. Very soon she's going to have to get more serious about school if she wants to be a DVM! At this point, she just wants to be outside...and she hasn't quite figured out how to do Algebra on the back of the horse!

When dd was barely 7, God put a special horse in our path. Although we weren't really ready to jump into the horse world, we couldn't turn away from this sweet 9 year old Paso Fino. Calico Jack (lovingly referred to as CJ) is an absolute dream horse for a little girl. He was well trained, easy going and extremely patient. At 19, he's still all of those things and deeply embedded in a teen girls heart.

Here are a few horsey pictures through the years. (I have earlier pictures...but only have more recent digital pics on my computer!)



CJ puts up with just about anything. Here an almost 13 yo had taken scissors and cut a brand in his rump! You can see the capital 'B' and little hearts!










He even puts up with girls braiding his mane and tail...even though its not terribly manly!







Didn't I say he was patient? This was just last year when a little friend wanted a ride.







Someone once said,"If anybody asks you what you think of their horse and you don't think very highly of the horse, you can always say 'Well, he's got kind eyes!'" CJ really does have kind eyes.




In early 2006, a pretty thoroughbred, Kodak Gold (lovingly referred to as Kodi or not so lovingly as "the Monster") came to live with our family. He's the HUGE, darker horse in this picture. Kodi is 16.2 hands tall. In comparison, CJ is barely 14. He makes CJ look like a pony. When you're on Kodi, it looks like a lonnnnngggggg way down! Kodi is retired from the Leon County Sheriff's Posse. He has arthritis in his right shoulder and can't do long trail rides.


Here's a better picture of Kodi with our foster-dd, Krystal. This was supposed to be Krystal's horse...but that didn't work out too well. She lacks the horse 'gene'. LOL!

Since he didn't get ridden very much, Kodi got quite saucy by late 2006. In October 2006, he dumped me off (complete with concussion!) and thus, kept the girls off of him. My husband was the only one who could handle him until the last few months.




This picture of dd on CJ was taken the day Kodi came to live with us. In this picture, dd is using her favorite tack. Notice her saddle and bridle! Now, she often rides him all over the pasture with nothing but a handful of mane. He's such a sweetie!




About 3 months ago, dd decided she was tired of riding double with her friends so she set out to 're-train the monster!' She's read all of the Horse Whisperer books from cover to cover and has used some of these methods to work with Kodi. He has responded wonderfully to her attention. You can see she is wearing the despised helmet. This is in response to mom's demand that if she's going to ride the monster, she has to wear protection.


Kodi loves dd so much now he'll put up with just about anything--from HER!














It's much more fun riding with a friend!











This one was taken last winter. Its one of my most favorite pic's of dd because it shows her heart (CJ) and sweet smile.






It's amazing for Mom and Dad to watch dd's progress. She has such a knack with animals. Of course, we are totally unbiased in our admiration of her abilities!