More cat pictures? Oh, all right.

A good way to get Dee to make this expression is to scratch her back. She will then attack you.

My parents bought the cats a nylon condo. I walked by and saw this sticking out, thus prompting the "where is the rest of this cat?" photo.

On June 27th, I submitted my 6-month update to New Vocations. It read:

Royal Vindication is being fed 5 lbs A.M. & 5 lbs P.M. of Legends 11% Show & Pleasure pelleted feed plus 1/2 lb Legends Omega Plus Rice Bran A.M. & P.M. as well. He is also getting fescue & Bermuda mix hay and fescue mix pasture. Due to the summer heat down here in the South, he is currently on night turnout with a group of geldings. During the day he is in his stall, which has a box fan to help with the heat and the bugs. The trainer at my barn is still working him twice during the week either in the round pen or on the lunge line. I am doing round pen, lunging, and under saddle work with him on the weekends and some evenings. He has really improved over the last 3 months with the regular work schedule. He is much calmer and more focused when being worked. He responds to voice commands for his upward and downward transitions as well as halts. As far as working with him on the ground, he is great to groom and bathe. He did show some minor issues with having his ears handled, particularly with having Swat put in his ears (which is kind of a necessity with how bad the gnats have been this year). I was able to overcome that with the consistent application of carrots while he had his ears handled. I can now put Swat in his ears without a problem as long as I have a treat to encourage him to keep his head within reach. He is current on his vaccinations, having received his Rhino/Flu booster last week. He is now back in steel shoes on the front and is doing fine in those.

These are the pictures I submitted with the update.

Vindy’s treat of choice is peppermints. They are the reason he comes running when he sees me and the way I motivate him to do things he doesn’t like, for example stand still in the crossties or tolerate having his girth tightened. But on this day, Lorie gave him an apple, and it made for an amusing picture.

The look of pure bliss on his face really makes me laugh.

Posing after a lunging session.

On June 18th, Lorie was kind enough to hold Vindy so I could take 6-month update photos to send to New Vocations. In the photos he looks like a lean, mean, fighting machine with his shiny, sun-bleached coat and muscled, athletic build. These are some iPhone pictures that I also took that day. For some reason, they remind me of photos from one of those old “All About Horses” books.

It occurs me to that this page has a dearth of cat photos, so here is a small attempt to remedy that.

Our girl cat Diesel sitting in the window.

And Ro displaying his two best talents--relaxing and being a fur monster.

The gnats were really bad this summer, so I had been trying to get Vindy to let me put Swat in his ears. He did not want to cooperate with this procedure, so I started using carrots to get him to lower his head and allow me to handle his ears. With a bit of patience and consistency, he finally tolerated the application of Swat to his ears.

Ears successfully slathered in Swat.

Here are some other pictures from that day.

Jhays calls this the "we have to talk" photo.

One of my favorite photos I have taken of Vindy.

Cue "The Lonely Man Theme."

One of the other things that keeps me busy is serving as a quarantine foster home for Georgia Rat Rescue. I started doing this a while after my last rat died. Losing a pet rat is always tough, and as much as I love them, I wasn’t sure I was ready to go through that again. But then I found out about the need for quarantine foster homes for rescue rats. In this capacity, I give rescue rats a home with proper housing, food, and health care while they are quarantined for a standard period of time. This ensures that any rats already owned by the adopter will be safe from parasites or disease that might be harbored by the rescued rat. At the end of May and into June I was dealing with a mom and her litter of 8 babies (1 of which sadly didn’t make it). A litter of growing baby rats is full of energy and constantly looking for trouble (and snacks), so they can keep you busy. But it’s worth it for the sheer amount of cuteness they bring to the table.

Rat pile in the tube--their favorite hangout.

A pile of babies. Getting them to sit still together for a photo is almost impossible.

The mom, Josefina, with one of her youngsters.

Some of the champagne babies. They look all white, but they have hoods that are a lovely light champagne color.

The dark babies. These girls were my favorites of the litter.

Another shot of one of the dark girls.

I rode Vindy on both Saturday and Sunday, but the heat was so brutal for May (with a high of 91), we didn’t stay out there long.

He posed very nicely for me considering no one was holding on to his lead rope.

Photo under tack. Yeah, I might have cut off his nose. The sun was glaring so badly I couldn't even see him through the viewfinder.

Another one of those photos that shows off that Seattle Slew influence.

Yeah, so we're not completely in the frame. But I love this one anyway. Plus it could double as a Crosby ad.

Thought I’d showcase some of my amazing iPhoneography from that day. If you’d like pointers on how to capture stellar images like these, just let me know.

He likes to see what's going on.

Well-executed self-portrait.

This one really amuses me for some reason. This is me and my horse's snout.

Vindy’s coat faded fast as soon as spring started. The change in the color of his coat is very evident in some of these pictures.

These next few are my attempts to get both of us in the frame of a cell phone picture.