It’s always a bad omen when I find a dead mouse in Silk’s heated water bucket. This morning at 6 am, I found two. They must have made a date to meet in the Jacuzzi. Who knew it would end that way. The good news is that her stall didn’t flood again, even though we got two inches of rain last night.
All night, I lay in my bed listening to the wind and the rain, expecting to find my poor girl cowering in the back of her stall with a lake near the door. Instead, she was snorting at her water bucket. I have a net that I got at the tropical fish store which I used to scoop them out. It makes me so sad that I have to close my eyes when I dispose of them.
The rest of the day was grindingly difficult. I put the horses out in the pasture, dumped a bag of wood pellet bedding into Silk’s stall since water was beginning to bubble up and ooze around my boots as I mucked. Just moments after I led the horses inside, the heavens opened up, and it poured again. Once the horses were safe and dry in their stalls, I drove around town like a possessed woman, taking care of business, kids and husband.
Late afternoon, fog moved in, making the “way back” behind the barn very dreamy. I scrubbed out the heated water bucket and refilled it in Silk’s stall. She made a very funny face, lifting her lip and “flemming” at it. Since it was 60F degrees outdoors, I really wanted her to keep drinking. The mice carry the Lyme ticks and give them to the deer around here. Fortunately, the horses refuse to drink the water if they find a “floater” in it. Both of them will slurp from a bucket if I hold it under their noses. Silk drank some, but nowhere near what she needed to drink each day.
I used to be very superstitious. Working in film and theatre can do that to you. Today, finding not just one but two dead mice, I forced myself not to believe it put a negative curse on my head. It wasn’t a terrific day, but it was just fine.
7 comments:
Victoria,
I just came over from The Kittens' Mother and I'm so glad I did! Your blog looks delightful and I plan to spend time here reading.
Your horses are beautiful!
Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage
I love fog.
You've got 2 very good girls. I hope horses don't get illnesses from ticks. Ticks are common on track dogs, and infect the dogs with a deadly virus called Babesiosa.
Good luck with the rain; there are flood warnings all over here.
EWWWW! I'd rather confront a live snake than a floating mouse. At least Silk has the good sense to leave them alone til you come to her rescue. Maybe that'a a mare thing. I once found a dead, trampled, partially torn-apart jackrabbit in Lyle's feed tub, and I know he put it there.
Boy do I understand this disgusting occurrence. When we left the Pierce College facility in December 2006, we moved to a boarding facility in the very expensive Indian Springs development of Chatsworth, north of the 118 (Ronald Reagan) Freeway. A week or so after we got there, I noticed Ace wasn't drinking. When I looked in his 5 gallon automatic waterer, I discovered a dead rat. Yuck, yuck, yuck. The worst day there were three of them. I'm still not sure how they got in there, but I guess they liked scampering long the pipes, would fall in the water and not be able to climb out again. Nice to know that even "good" neighborhoods have to deal with rats.
My friend Lira's horse Lark is extremely good at stomping vermin (and opening gates.) Unfortunately, that extended to baby rabbits on occasion.
I've never found a floating mouse in a water bucket, but I did find 2 on 2 different occasions in the big water barrel I use as a sort of "sink" beneath the water pump in the barn.
We do have four cats, though, so... :)
Keil Bay last week snorted and pranced at a dead mouse he found while grazing in the barnyard. It had obviously been caught, half-eaten, and left there by one of the cats. Keil was NOT amused.
Mice and Rats, eekk, don't like them very much, but it's a fact of life with barns. I saw one the other night in the wash stall and am very proud of myself for not screaming,which I usually do, (it's the startle factor). Hope we catch him soon.
We boarded at one barn that was overrun with rats, and every morning we would have to take the flattened ones out of Mellon's stall. Apparently he didn't like them disturbing his sleep.
I hate those floaters too. Although I wonder why you use that term, mine sink to the bottom like rocks. Do your really float?
One time I actually found a mink swimming in the horse's water. That was a trip. Mink are very agressive. While it needed help to escape it wasn't convinced that help should come from me.
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