Well, we only have three cats aside from the two dogs... however, my dad is going to get me to help him find a senior cat to adopt once he finds a house to buy. So, then it'll be up to four but until then...
There's Kumah. He's seven now, and weighs a whopping twenty pounds. He's the biggest love bug in the world and enjoys eating people's hair and wrapping his arms around their necks for a bear hug. He's basically a live teddy bear. We got him as a kitten from my friend's parents' mechanics/feed shop after my mom went in to get her tires changed and was basically manipulated by Kumah to take him home. His mom had abandoned him and his sisters who all died shortly after we brought him home. His motor boat purr is what convinced my mom into lying to my dad about a "kitten in the driveway that looked hungry" and he told her "if he was still there tomorrow, we could take him in".
Cielo is my cat and she's about four and a half years old. We got her and her brother from the barn I ride at after both our outside/inside cats went missing. (Kumah was the first cat to be strictly indoors) She loves to play fetch and is part dog, she's also the only cat who shows no hesitation towards giving Cali a good smack if she gets too annoying. She also enjoys following me everywhere and always sits in the bathroom closet when I take showers.
Caesar is Cielo's littermate, and he's also Kumah's "boyfriend" as we call him. They spend half their time cuddling while Cielo is off on her own.
And although she's not with me anymore, I just want to post a couple pictures of Indie. I got her this past September on the 7th, after my instructor told me not to get a Thoroughbred. Better yet, she was off the track and raced for seven years. She was used as a broodmare for a couple years and was ten years old when I brought her to the barn. I think although she was sweethearted and incredibly calm (the farrier complimented her personality so many times and others at the barn did as well), she was still a racehorse at heart.
She was a speed demon when I first got her and if you even kissed once to get a canter, she'd bolt down the side of the arena. It took awhile before we could canter in a group lesson and I didn't have to worry about running anyone over. She was one smart horse though, she caught onto lungeing like a champ and always used her new knowledge to her advantage. After I taught her how to back up with zero resistance, she'd start backing up randomly before she switched to side stepping. I wanted to compete in lower level dressage with her as she had such nice movement, and had gotten a 9/10 for impulsion on her Canadian Sport Horse Association scoring back with her previous owner.
A week before she died, she had done something to her leg in the pasture and her leg was honestly the size of a stove pipe if not bigger. I had hurried to the barn when my instructor texted my mom to find her in the pasture with her leg relaxed. While I led her to the hose to coldhose it, her nostrils were flared and she struggled to walk. I started crying before we even got to the gate. But, within a week, we were having our first lesson since the injury. You could tell she was happy because she was going more forward than usual. That was Tuesday, the day before everything changed.
On Wednesday, the night of my private lesson, I was shopping. Ten minutes away from the barn, my mom told me how a parent called to tell my instructor that a horse was laying out in the field with what appeared to be blood around the face. It was Indie and she spent the whole afternoon on an IV with a catheter. Her nose wouldn't stop bleeding and my mom neglected to tell me until the last minute.
So, I spent the next two and a half hours worry and when I got to the barn... I spent about an hour and a half holding her leadrope, wiping her nose and syringing water into her mouth. I had blood all over my coat from her sneezing trying to get rid of the blood clot.
My instructor had gone inside to get a quick supper before her legs started shaking. Just as Indie reared up, I screamed and luckily, my instructor ran in just in time to help Indie get to the ground more calmly which I couldn't have done. I stood there petting her shoulder in the midst of her legs kicking out until they stopped. I just kind of stood there watching before leaning back down to pet her. The vet had been called around ten minutes before but didn't get there fast enough. Her eyes rolled into her head and I just knew, I looked up at my instructor and she just hugged me. A woman from the barn and her daughter had come after seeing my mom's facebook status, but I don't think all of the hugs in world would've comforted me. After a good fifteen or more minutes of sitting beside Indie and rubbing her shoulder, and whispering how she could crib on everything she wanted in Heaven... I knew I had to leave. Everything except her shoulder was cold, I even had my mom take a picture of my hand on her shoulder but I haven't looked at it. Indie was buried the next day in an opening up in the field.
She taught me a lot, and we had formed a strong bond despite only having two and a half months together. I only hope my instructor was right when she said they were probably the best months of her life, because I know they were the best of mine. I had waited eight years to own a horse and it was worth it. Indie was perfect.
On the left was Indie at her previous owner's and on the right (excuse my horrible position!) was after a month together. She was showing lots of improvement.
You can see her cribbing collar in the background. I always cleaned her face with baby wipes including the outsides of her nostrils, and sometimes if I went a little bit too far, the smell would cause her to "smile"...
I have loads more pictures but here is a final one. This was her "Jamaican" look, I braided her whole mane (only took about two and a half hours
). She usually only had her forelock in a french braid but I figured with all the rain, I might as well braid the whole thing... plus I had lots of extra time that day. I was usually at the barn five to six days a week with her.
She may not live thirty minutes away anymore but she's forever going to have a place in my heart and every future horse I own will be compared to her.