Humane Society Visit

Had fun today with the grands and my DIL. We took T and D over to the Humane Society for a tour and to visit with the animals. They were very excited about this as we have been talking about doing it for some time now. It's school vacation so this was the perfect time to go.

We visited all the hamsters, guinea pigs, mice and rats first. The little mice running on their wheel was a bit hit. Then the bird room with the ring necked doves and parakeets. The doves not only coo but make a funny giggling noise! The two babies that were featherless and tiny only three weeks ago are almost the same size as the parents and are starting to fly.

Next we went into the cat area. We had to put antibacterial stuff on our hands after touching each cat that we petted so that we didn't inadvertently spread any kind of virus that might be floating around. D fell in love with Pork Chop a big gray male tabby that loved attention. He won't be there long!

On to the dogs where we have quite a number of different breeds in now. One we really liked was a Border Collie-Corgi mix! He is the cutest thing, looks like a border collie with SHORT legs! Another one we liked was a big Newfoundland named Andy. He was shy but a real nice boy, just BIG! D said we could ride him like the ponies!

We saw all the other rooms where surgery is done, training, kitchen where their food is prepared, intake area, isolation area where the strays are put until they can be checked out, given shots and have a check up. They have a nice little store there with all sorts of products for cats and dogs.

The kids enjoyed it and some of the pictures that I took D is going to use for a school project that is due soon. We went to Longhorn for lunch which was delicious and then headed home.

The lady that owns the stable where I board my guys in the winter had a bad accident on Monday. She was up high on an aluminum ladder cleaning snow off the barn roof and for some reason it slipped and she came down landing on her back. She couldn't move so had to lay there until her husband came home which thankfully wasn't too long. They took her to the hospital and after a long day of tests found out she fractured a bone that's around her spine. It's in the lower lumbar region and could have been so much worse then it is with paralysis involved.

I went up to the hospital to see her on Tuesday and she is being fitted for a body brace that she will wear for possibly three months. They don't think they will have to do surgery at this point which is good. She still is in a lot of pain even with strong pain meds so I hope that subsides once she gets the body brace on to give her back some support.

Obviously she won't be able to do anything in the barn for quite some time. She has an adult son and her husband is retired so they will do a lot of it plus we will all help out. There are three of us......ahem......'older' women that board there so we will help feed and do anything else that needs to be done. She's in her late 60's and not one to sit around so this is going to be hard. We sent flowers today so that she knows we are thinking of her. To land from roof high on to frozen ground is just a horrible assault on your body but I'm just glad it wasn't any worse then it was.

Want to send a big THANK YOU to Mikael over at Rising Rainbow for awarding me the Van Gogh's Ear Award! It always makes my day to receive an award from one of my fellow bloggers! Mikael is one of the most knowledgeable horse people around and her posts are wonderfully written. I have learned so much about training horses from her and always look forward to whatever subject she is talking about. Thanks Mikael!

Apparently, this Van Gogh's Ear Award is for blogs that are making a difference in the blogosphere. It's creator said, "We are all artists in our own way, be it art, photography, writing, philosophy, comedy, or blogging, and we all go a little crazy sometimes. Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else."

Now I am supposed to pass it on to 5 people and I will do that soon. I'm going to try to pick five that I have never given an award to yet so this will take some thought.

Several of you asked for the recipe for the apple turnovers that T and D made here this weekend. It is as follows:

Quick Apple Turnovers

1 cooking apple peeled and chopped

3 T sugar

2 T chopped walnuts

2 T raisins (we didn't have any so left them out)

1/4 t cinnamon

1 can (8oz) refrigerated crescent roll dough

cinnamon/sugar for top

Preheat oven to 350* then mix together the apples, sugar, nuts, raisins and cinnamon in small bowl.

Then you separate the dough into 8 triangles stretching each one slightly.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of apple mixture into center of each triangle

Fold corners over filling and pinch edges together to seal.

Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar and pop them in the oven.

Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown. (I cooked ours a bit too much) Cool about 20 minutes on wire rack before serving with ice cream. Makes 8. Enjoy!

Guess that's it for tonight. We're expecting snow tomorrow! Yippee!