Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Animal Planet

Duke is doing extremely well. The swelling in his leg is going down and he is feeling so good we are having a difficult time keeping him quiet. I think there are three reasons why he is doing better than Emma did when she got bit. First, because Duke got bit on the leg and not in the face. Second, because we iced his leg right at the beginning. The vet said that helps to slow the spread of the toxins. Finally, because we are doing hydrotherapy on him. Hydrotherapy is vet talk for hosing his leg down twice a day with cold water for 10 minutes each time. This helps keep the swelling down.

On a sadder note when my husband took Kate for a walk on the river last night he came across one of our neighbors horses lying tangled up in the wire fence surrounding its pasture. When he got closer he could see that she was dead. When he got home he phoned the owner and told him what he had found. Later the owner called back and told my husband the mare was 29 years-old and had died of old age. She had died standing up and then fallen into the fence. It's going to be empty down there with out her.

Closer to home we had a couple unusual visitors to our bird feeders yesterday. I looked out the window yesterday afternoon and saw both a Red-winged Blackbird and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The blackbirds come to the feeders ever so often but I have never seen a rose-breasted grosbeak before. We are right at the edge of his range. He must like our sunflower seeds because I saw him one more time yesterday and I've seen him twice already today. I hope he sticks around until my husband has a chance to see him.

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