After the Rain

In the desert everthing is dusty and dirty. But after the rain everything is clean.

Wiley and the Rabbit

I was taking photos of the hot air balloons the other day when I saw our cat, Wiley, coming across the yard with something in his mouth. I snapped this shot and was surprised it actually came out. At first I though it was one of the big rats that live around here. Wiley ran to the back porch and I followed him. It was at the door when he put the creature down that I realized it was a young cottontail rabbit. I grabbed Wiley so he couldn't get the rabbit again and the little rabbit ran off the porch and Wiley slipped out of my yards and the chase was on again while I yelled at the cat to leave the rabbit alone and the dogs chased after the cat. (Wish someone had filmed it with a video). In seconds the rabbit had gone through the fence to the neighbors side. I caught Wiley and put him in the house then went back out to check on the rabbit. I hadn't seen any blood on it and it hadn't acted as if it was hurt by being hauled around by the cat for which I was thankful.

The dog at the neighbors had been barking at the hot air balloons and never noticed the cat or rabbit or me. The one little dog, a healer cross, sort of danced around the rabbit which had 'froze' once he was on the other side of the fence. That dog never seemed to notice the rabbit was there at all. I was able to take the second photo of the little rabbit through the fence, then I decided it should leave before one of the dogs did realize it was there. I shook the fence and it scooted off out through the fence to where it was in the couple of acres that are behind mine and my neighbors houses which is like native New Mexico desert which is why it is full of rabbits, rats, ground squirrels, lizards, song birds, doves, quail, and there used to be a large bull snake that lived there.

I told my neighbor about the experence and she wished someone had filmed it too. I just hope Wiley learns I don't want his 'gifts' of lizards, birds, and rabbits. He had given a live, un-injured bird to my husband a few days before.

Milk Jug Toy

No - it is not a dog fight. They play that way all the time. This is Tuffee and Ziva our dogs, and their favorite toy is an empty plastic milk jug.

Cassi and her Feather

Wild Aster

this wild aster came up right next to my horse trailer which I almost never use. It got no care and only watered when it rained which wasn't at all until recently. But it grew, and bloomed even with out any water. Wish all flowers were this tough.

Toadstool

found this toadstool under one of our apple trees the other day. We usually have a few after it rains but this is the largest I have ever seen.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Today was the last day of the balloon fiesta this year. I didn't get to see any balloons up close except for the one in the following post. These photos were taken about 8am.

Darth Vader in the center

Wells Fargo Stagecoach

And they were gone.

Hot Air Balloon

More on Ear Mites

As I was reminded in the comment on the last post olive oil is good to put on the cotton ball to help clean pet ears with when your pet has ear mites. Baby oil is also good. The medicine I got is an oil base and says it has allo vera in it to help sooth the raw ear.
And you need to remember to wrap your cat in a large towel or a blanket if they don't want you to clean their ears. My gray kitten is real good about it but the black on scratched like heck when I did her ears and scratched my hand. Don't take chances on getting scratched if you don't have to.

Ear Mites

The kittens pictured below were a couple that I adopted from our local Animal Welfare last spring. The animal welfare did a wonderful job in giving the kittens there shots, spaying them and microchipping them. But they didn't check very good for ear mites. But then it took me all this time to realize that they had the ear mites, so maybe there was no sign of them when I got them. This is the first time in about 30 years that I have had a pet with ear mites. Dogs can get them, too. And before you ask - no - my dogs and other cats don't have the ear mites. I have checked several times.
The gray kitten would get in my lap and want to snuggle up to me and she would smell horrible. I assumed she had played in the litter box but it didn't really smell like litter box smell. Finally about 2 weeks ago she got in my lap and she smelled so bad I started to push her away but decided I had to figure out what was wrong. I checked her over including looking in her ears as I had noticed her scratching at them a couple of times but real bad at it. And YUCK. There were big gobs of yuck in her ears and I knew right away that it was ear mites. Ear mites are almost microscopic bugs that prefer to get in a animals ears and live there. The pet will scratch at their ears and body and there will stuff that is sort of like ear wax but more like a dirt in their ears and there is always that horrid smell if it goes on to long.
So I cleaned their ears with a cotton ball and got as much yuck out as I could. Don't use a cuetip as you can damage the ear drum. There is an over the counter medicine you can use to put in their ears to kill the mites. I got some at WalMart. I have used it every other day for two weeks. If not better by next week I will see if my vet can do something.
These are not fun. As a teenager we had ear mites in 2 small dogs and a cat that we had. As soon as we thought they were gone then they would start over again. I do think that the medicine they have now is better than it was then.

Kittens

Kittens Playing on a Ladder