A Few Pics From Sunday

The boys were in full clown mode yesterday!! Got a few cute pictures of them. Enjoy!

National Finals Rodeo

So - last Monday - I got to go to the NFR in Vegas!! What an amazing experience that was!! I wish I could have taken my good camera.... all I got was some crappy iPhone pictures.... but pictures are proof I was there!

The pre-show was awesome! Pyrotechnics and a laser/light show, a young lady 3who had won a contest to sing the anthem and she nailed it.... and the crowd was insane!! The theme this year was breast cancer so there was a lot of pink out there.... including the cowboys!

 

It was an honor to see the very best in the world compete.... Sherry Cervi, Fallon Taylor, Cody Ohl, Lisa Lockheart, Bobby Mote, Trevor Brazile, Luke Branquino, Curtis Cassidy and Jake Vold - the Alberta boys just to name a few! Even got to see Curtis Cassidy win the steer wrestling round that night! It was humbling to be in that building with such great talent!!

 

Cowboy Christmas was also pretty incredible.... 90,000 square feet of horse and western stuff! The Calgary Stampede had a set up and I saw some neat "artifacts" there...

I also was excited to see Rocketbuster Boots booth... their boots are amazing works of art!

If you EVER get a chance to go - TAKE IT! Even though I only got to go to the rodeo for one night it was still great!! 





 

 

A Little Pick Me Up...

So - in the midst of all the sadness... I had had a friend text me Sunday evening telling me she had found a GREAT deal on flights to Vegas... for the following Saturday. Kind of short notice.... Yes. But that's how I like to take trips. I texted my boss. He wasn't sure if any of my coworkers had the Monday and Tuesday booked already, so texted all of them and they didn't. So he told me to go ahead.

Then I started to think about it.... OMG! NFR WEEK! So my friend searched and was able to find us a pair of tickets to Monday night's performance! It has been a dream of mine to go to the NFR forever! So this spur of the moment bucket list trip has been the one thing to keep me from being an emotional disaster this week. Every time I wanna cry in public, I think about the NFR. I feel really guilty for being so happy, but fate seemed to want me to go. Kitty angel maybe wanted me to stop being sad and start being awesome? Maybe between my kitty and my mommy angel they made this happen for me. And of course my very thoughtful friend who decided I needed something big and exciting to get me through this difficult time.

Saying Goodbye To My Best Friend

I am beyond heartbroken. Sathurday, I had to say goodbye to my bestest little friend in the world.
The clinic called me yesterday morning and told me that the vomiting was only getting worse.... and in her opinion - letting him go was the best thing I could do for him at this point. What was going on inside his little body was worse than we had thought. I had woken up with the feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was going to come to that.





Billy was one of those once in a lifetime critters. He has been through so much with me. It was a bit funny to be sitting with him having one last visit, bawling my eyes out and having him comforting me. He was more concerned with making me feel better than he was with the fact that he was in a strange place, with an IV in his leg and sick. He was there for me right until the end. He loved and loved with all he had and the only way I could repay him was to let him go before the suffering really started. He's been there so many times for me through broken hearts and I will always be grateful for the short 5.5 years I had with him. This is when I need him the most.... to fix the biggest heartbreak I have ever had. Oh the irony. I just about died while I was sitting there on the floor talking to the vet and he hopped up and put his paws on my shoulder. I just lost it. He did it again when he climbed up on me - put his paws on my and just looked me in the eyes... purring the whole time. Sometimes you just know when you have to let go. He was happy and purring and Billy on the outside.... but there was too much going on on the inside. I think seeing him happy - while comforting - also made it extra hard since he didn't look sick on the outside.

To some - a cat is just a cat. To me - and to anyone who has ever loved and experienced the unconditional love of a kitty - or any animal for that fact, you know that letting them go is so incredibly devastating. He was my best friend, my little sidekick... he gave me a reason to come home everyday. I look at his favorite spots expecting to see him. I know I will never find a kitty quite like him. Anyone who met him loved him - and I know a lot of people got to love him even without meeting him - having only met him by seeing posts on Facebook. Friends like him are hard to come by and even harder to let go of. Who is going to lick my armpits, try to lick vaporub off of me when I am sick, beg me to share my Snack Packs - or anything that I am eating with a spoon? I will miss when I have a piece of cheese - he would "smile" - the tips of his fangs would poke out of the edge of his mouth and he'd do the funniest little head bob. The list goes on. As far as cats go - this guy had a personality second to none. I am going to miss his little face when I wake up and when I get home from work... and his purrs and snuggles. I already do so much. Rest in peace my little friend.

Tough Decisions....

Well - as of late my cat has been experiencing health problems.
At first, it appeared to be a UTI. He was treated for that.... yet his eating habits didn't improve - nor did his demeanor. Upon his return to the vet for a follow up and X-rays - they found that he was pretty blocked up with poop. So they sent me home with a medication to soften the blockage, a pill to encourage him to eat and special high fiber canned food that is designed to draw water into his colon to get things moving. That evening, after I gave him the appetite pill, he appeared to be drunk! I made a few phone calls and determined that it was a common side effect of the pill. I sat up late with him and when he seemed to be coming off thee high, I went to bed.

In the morning, he still seemed "off". I decided to stay home from work to keep an eye on him because something wasn't right. Good thing I did... he began to vomit at about 4pm. And it had this horrible smell.... a smell like something that should have come out of the other end of him. He had one like that before I took him in the first time and then once while he was on the antibiotics. I called the clinic and they said |I should bring him back in. They did more X-rays and saw his heart appeared smaller due to dehydration. He also vomited again there after the X-rays. So they admitted him and hooked him up to an IV for the night. She wanted to check him for leukemia due to his age so I gave her the go ahead to run more blood tests.

Yesterday morning when she called me she told me he had vomited again over night and then when she had arrived at the clinic. She ran the tests and they were negative for the leukemia virus but his white cell count was really high. He was in very good spirits, yet he still hadn't pooped. MORE X-rays showed that there really wasn't much movement in his intestinal track and now she was very concerned because of the vomiting.... and the white cells. She thinks that there is something more serious lingering inn the background. That is when cancer came up.

It is tricky to tell from the X-rays if there is a mass in his intestinal track. An ultrasound may be the next step.... or exploratory surgery. That is where I may be drawing the line. I love him to pieces. BUT - now I need to look at it from a practical view. I am over $2000 into this, he is 10-11 years old. How much do I want to put him through? I am fairly certain that she wouldn't have needlessly put this type fear in my head if she didn't genuinely suspect something serious. And I could hear it in her voice that there were likely going to be some tough choices ahead of me. They kept him for a second night as he still hadn't pooped. He also hadn't vomited in 8 hours last I talked to her - but he had also barely been eating.

Needless to say - I am absolutely heartbroken as I stare this decision in the face. A lot of tears have been shed in the last few days. My whole body just aches and my heart hurts.... and I have this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I hope I come back from the clinic with good news today - but I know I need to prepare myself.

A Few More From Bowden This Summer....

I like to sit dowm, listen to the morning news and have my coffee in the morning.... edit a few photos from this past summer.... here a few more from the rodeo I went to in Bowden this year! Enjoy!

Ignorance and Arrogance... Part of Horsemanship?

Here is my vent of the day:
How can a woman - who - judging by the weathered and perma-sour look on her face appears to be in her late fifties - find it acceptable to be a bully?
Yes - I have little experience with horses. I am LEARNING... MY OWN WAY. There is more than ONE way to work with a horse. There is nothing wrong with the way I am choosing to build a relationship with either of the horses. I do not agree with her ideas and methods but I do not act like a know it all bitch to her. I try to ignore her and walk away from her as to keep it classy and not cause issues as we have a common friend and keep our horses at the same location. I have shown amazing restraint thus far - as anyone who knows me knows that I do not back down from a fight like a coward. I do not need unsolicited commentary from a narrow minded "trainer/coach" when I did not ask for it. The way she is acting towards me is as if she just strolled on out of the birth canal knowing every single thing there is to know about horses. I went to go get Scooter's dinner and asked someone else to hold Reno. Today was 'let's learn what a bit is ' day. I walk up to her and the "trainer" is holding Reno's lead and whipping him in the ass with the end of it because he wasn't walking for her. He had been walking just fine for me and that's what matters. I promptly grabbed the rope from her and told her she was done. She made some snarky comment about how she had to walk away because she couldn't watch anymore and she referred to him as being a spoiled horse. This is a woman who called western saddles "torture devices", said there are no bad horses, only bad people, said she hates ignorant people - a comment that almost caused me to DIE of laughter considering she is one of the most ignorant and arrogant people I have ever met, she said every time she sees someone grab a saddle horn she wants to cut it off and she also had a smart ass comment over the summer when I went for a ride wearing a tube top which was relayed to me by a child. If I want her advice I will write her a check. I just cannot understand why she cannot mind her own business and let me be. Walking past her is similar to walking past the mean girl in a junior high hallway. It is just flat out pathetic to think a woman of her age can be so narrow minded and out right rude and judgmental! Women are supposed to support each other and build each other up... AGAIN.... a reminder of why I have very few female friends. She is the reason people think horse people are stuck up. She makes me wanna vomit. Vent over.

Winter Photos

Here are a few pics from the farm! Winter is pretty BUT.... Lol!