3 posts tagged “pets”
This weekend was just excellent. For some reason I got really active on Friday, meaning I got most of my house more or less cleaned up even before the weekend had officially started, leaving me with a little more time to do fun stuff.
Waking up early on Saturday morning (I've been waking up earlier and earlier ever since I got the kitten), I snoozed for a little bit, half awake, half asleep and groggily took up the idea to load up the horse and go to Kootwijk for a bit of a trail ride. Solon has been a bit of a git again lately, so I wasn't 100% sure about it, but I went with the flow, and around 11 we were driving along the A1 towards the Veluwe, one of our biggest national parks. The nature around there is just stunning. Looking at it's Wikipedia entry just now, I learned much of it goes back to the last ice age! I never knew! What I love best about the area is the huge sand drift, which apparently is the biggest in Europe (I did know that). Riding across it on bareback, the wind and a few drops of rain falling around you, you consider yourself almost alone, surrounded by vast amounts of nothingness. It makes you feel pretty insignificant and small, and really gives the "poor lonesome cowboy" idea. I absolutely love it.
Passing that brought us through heath lands and then into the forest. I only encountered other people maybe three times, but for the rest of the 2 hours, I was alone with my horse. Absolutely glorious. Solon started off a bit rocky and overexcited, but settled down very nicely, allowing me to leave him with a long rein to enjoy it as much as I did. He really got into it after a while, galloping for miles on end, jumping over puddles and branches ear pricked forward, trying to look around the corner for the next bit of excitement. He didn't get stroppy again until we almost got back to the trailer, where he refused to get onto the parking lot. He probably decided the fence just there was spooky or something, then decided to throw a temper tantrum when I wanted to go there anyway. He's a real monster when he gets like that.
He got over it pretty quick though, after he's had some water and feed and found some grass to nibble on. I sat on my car's bumper, shielded from the rain drops by the back door and watched him graze. Perfectly content, perfectly relaxed. A little monster at times, but also a little star. He's such a character that horse!
Speaking of characters, there's Sterre my 3 month old kitten. She's like a little rubber ball, bouncing around my flat. Poor Storm takes the brunt of it, as she thinks his tail is the best ever toy she's ever had! So she'll sneak up on him and jump on his tummy when he isn't looking. Poor chap. Anyway, Sunday I was taking it slow, lounging on the couch for a bit, watching Sterre play on the balcony with some flowers or whatever caught her attention that very moment.
Well, he attention was captured by a bumble bee, buzzing around her head. She lashed out with her little paws and caught it. For a few seconds anyway, until it stung her. I wasn't quite sure if she really got stung or not, since I couldn't find a stinger or anything. She was sucking her paw though. About two hours later, her entire front leg had swollen to twice it size and she was very quiet. I started worrying a little, her being so small and all. For all I know, a bee sting may kill a kitten, so I called the vet. Nothing to be done about it, just cool it and put some cream on her paw against the itching. I was a bit reluctant to leave her alone after that, but I did have to chuck some food at Solon as well.
By the time I got back, her paw wasn't her main concern however... Keetje was. I was dog sitting our Tibetian Terrier for the evening, while my stepfather is in the US, and my mum had some evening with friends. I'm not entirely sure who was more scared of who. Keetje spent most of the evening as close to me as possible, even climbing onto my shoulder, quivering in fear, while Sterre would sometimes tip toe closer, only to hiss at Keetje and run off again. Through it all, Storm just slept and Keetje weed the bed...
A very laid back, pet filled weekend then, though I could have done without the weeing of the bed.
This week I have a few cool thing coming up. My birthday this wednesday, thought I have decided against the Scissor Sisters gig. Thursday is Rufus day, and Saturday I got on a week's vacation to Texel with the "whole" family (my family isn't that big) and the horse to celebrate my mum's 60th birthday. Quite looking forward to that actually, though it would be nice if the weather would clear up a little.
Everyone who actually knows me a little probably knows I'm really into my animals, especially horses and dogs. Now I've had my horse Solon for almost 5 years now, which is pretty cool. I have been pining for a dog though and would really love to have one. Given that I work a minimum of 40 hours a week, it wouldn't really be fair though. So while I still would love my very own doggie one day, I have settled on something else: a cat. I have been investigating and chances are I will find myself with a roommate (or two!) fairly soon. The general idea is to get one (or two!) from the pound, and probably one that's a little older already, but likes to cuddle up. I have been looking at some of the websites and for some reason most of them seem to be black or dark tiger, which I don't really like. Ideally, I'd have an orange one, but I suspect that if I go to the pound, I'll come home with any old mutt. Like it matters, really :-D
On an entirely different note. I took Thursday off, so was a little miffed that after I had just curled up in bed to go to sleep I got called by someone from work to inform me one of our branches had lost connectivity altogether. Grrr. Turned out there wasn't a lot I could do about it, but wait for our supplier to fix it, but it was well after 2 am before it got fixed. This more or less ruined the big plans I had for Thursday. The idea was to get a grip on the house, but it didn't really work out very well. It looks slightly more organised now, but there's still a lot of junk to trash and get rid off.
Somewhere in the afternoon, I kicked back and watched the new and kind of made a doubletake when an ex-boyfriend appeared in it. He was the first one, and I suspect my mother always viewed him as the perfect son in law. I'm not sure that's entirely true, but I've kept her in that illusion :) It's brought back memories though, and suddenly I feel older. Strange... I've never had that. I also noticed there'll be a reunion of my old school soon. I'm quite curious how that will go.
Rumours abound for 2007! Bowie might play Oxegen, T in the Park and/or Werchter. Then there's the U2 rumors. Sounds exciting. Exciting and expensive. Let's hope none of it is true :D
Pets:
Loads. Fish and all that jazz when I was a kiddie. A tabby cat called Mickey and a Bassethound called Snoopy Cat was an absolute gem and was crazy about me. He'd pick me up at school at 3 and walk home with me. Sadly, he got an infection and died rather painfully when one of his organs got damaged, as a result of having been so skinny. Sadly enough, I was the one that found him. I must have been 10 or something.
Snoopy the bassethound was another gem. Big long dog, with very very long ears. My parents got him out of the pound when he was only 9 months. He'd already been through two homes. Not surprisingly since bassets are dogs with a big manual. Basically, when you get a basset, you adjust. This one couldn't stay home alone at all, and would dedicate his deep, baritone voice to letting everyone in the neighbourhood know he was unhappy. So he rarely ever was home alone, instead, he went everywhere with me, my brother and my mum in our Citroen 2CV.We almost lost him when he fell of some stairs and hurt his back (a common problem in dogs like these, with very long backs), but he battled through it. Moving from a flat to a "real" house when my mum and her boyfriend moved in together probably saved his life, because the stairs at the flat would have killed him. In the end, he lived until he was 14 and basically died of cancer which had grown throughout his head and body.
After that, my mum never wanted a dog again. 3 Months later we got a little black puppy called Sammie. Another 4 years later, she got joined by her half sister called Keetje. They are now 14 and 10, as mentioned before, and could not be more different in personality.
Then on to the horses... Cisco, my first pony, I bought/got when I was about 15/16 from a distant family member. He was only a yearling then. The little critter was not a bad pony at all, and I did have a lot of fun with him, but I was forced to sell him when I moved to Ireland in 97. Kind of an interesting name, considering I didn't start getting into the Cisco stuff (which makes up 95% of my job these days) until many years later.
When I moved back to the Netherlands after the Ireland episode, I fairly quickly bought my current horse, Solon. A little impulsive maybe, but I suppose I am slightly impulsive (only a little, mind, heh). I've had him for 5 years now, which means he has spent most of his life with me at this stage. He was only 2.5 when I bought him. I have backed him and brought him on myself, which wasn't always easy and I have the scars to prove it. While he's still a little git, we're so in tune with eachother it's almost scary.
Maybe in the near future I'm hoping to get a dog of my own, but I'll need to sort out dogsitting arrangements if I want to do so, since I work full time.
So that answers the "horse with no name" QotD too. His name is Solon :-]
Then the "Strike Up the Band" question.
No. I don't play any instrument and in fact, am about as a-musical as can be, much to my regret. I did try my hand at bass guitar once, but it never really materialised. In fact, I'm not even sure what happened to my bass guitar, or where it is. Ahem. I do love the sound of the bass though, probably my favourite instrument.
So for all the musical skills I don't have, I look at music all around me and make up for it by drinking in as much musical exposure as possible.
