Monday, April 14, 2008

Teddy Bear Cactus

These cute little sparkly spines jump right off the cactus and right onto the wandering horses walking by. Most of these little desert horses just live with the spines until they can flick them off with a tail or someone else's tail. My little band doesn't seem to pick them up very often, but on occasion we find a "pear" hanging off a lower leg. Anything besides a human hand will do as removal equipment. Shoes, rocks, ropes, whatever is handy and nearby is used. And they usually come off in one nice piece with nothing left behind.

Bella must have backed right into a "bush" because she came home with several spines coming out of her hock. It was simple to remove them and a day later all was still normal. Bella gets a thorough going over every time she comes in from the desert. I use Swat on any and all marks and scratches so the flies don't continually bother her. As you know, she is ENTITLED. Mochie, the old gelding, and the others watch in wonder at what I'm doing to her. Brushing burrs out of her tail, checking to see her eyes are clean, putting Swat under her belly, cleaning her boobs, picking her hooves. It's all questionable to them. And then there's the bucket of happiness.

Alright. I can't put this off any longer. It's been working it's way steadily, one second at a time, 'til it's right here ready to smack me in the face. I'm turning 60 the day after manana.

7 comments:

Rising Rainbow said...

Happy Birthday! It's just a number, don't let it get you down, the problem comes when you don't have them anymore.

Molly said...

Thanks MiKael. You are very right!

20 meter circle of life said...

Oh Happy Birthday DAHLING..... Enjoy it you only get to be 60 once in your whole life. Eat Captain Crunch for brekfast, wear red underpants, howl at the moon. Go and enjoy and relish in your own wonderfulness

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated! I hope it was great and my parent's both lived through 60 just fine. ;)

JFraser said...

Hi Molly--

Love the picture of your cat.

I'm with a company called Into Productions. We're setting up a network of equestrian sites and I'd love to speak with you about what we can do for you.

You can reach me at jfraser@intoproductions.com.

Anonymous said...

happy birthday.
may your behind avoid teddy bear cacti in the coming year!

Pony Girl said...

I saw those teddy bear cacti in the California desert this year. They all grow towards the sun, they were all leaning a little. It was a sight.