State of the Ewenion and other animal news

Sarai is outstanding in her field, but I don't think she is pregnant.

I have been keeping a casual eye on the three ewes who were in with Spot last fall. Sarai is the easiest to eyeball, because she is Johnny-on-the-spot for handouts whenever I'm around. In spite of the extra calories, she doesn't seem to be getting any thicker or rounder, so the other day I put my hand on her belly below her flank and gently pushed, then waited to see if anything 'pushed back.' Nothing. So today after the girls came in from the pasture, I checked Sarai again, then caught Vienna and Blaise to do the same and compare. Vienna and Blaise definitely felt like they had more 'stuff' inside, with maybe a suggestion of movement in Blaise and definite changes in her vulva. Blaise is moving differently as well. She's a small, compact girl, so it makes sense that lambs would make her waddle more than the bigger, longer girls. So my best guess is that Blaise is definitely pregnant, Vienna is probably pregnant, and Sarai is not pregnant. A shame, that, as she is a beautiful Shetland in every way and I would have liked a ewe lamb from her and Spot to keep. But she is 11 years old now; I don't plan to try again.

As for the boys, Spot continues to be a tail-wagging charmer; he and Poppy have become friends and sometime-playmates (which I try to discourage). Bing is his usual pinball-sheep self; Bittersweet has gone almost completely blind now (no, I don't know why) but does fine by sticking with his buddies.

Chuckie is ever the attention-hound, following me around, hanging out at the front or deck doors of the house, looking in the windows. I swoop him up and love on him often, which he appreciates so much that he eventually has to BITE me. Cats. 🙄

Poppy, on the other paw, is not the same full-speed-ahead girl as ever. She did something to her good front leg (the left one) yesterday, and has spent all of today but for two potty breaks laying on my lap or on my bed, neither eating nor drinking, acting much worse than a sore leg would seem to warrant. On the other hand, now that both her front legs hurt (she still often favors the right one) maybe she's depressed. I know I'm tempted to be when multiple joints hurt, which they often do anymore!

Yesterday morning Poppy was fine; I snapped this photo because it showed her front legs so well. You can see that her right leg, which is the one that was broken and splinted, is not as substantial, and her right foot is splayed.

When I got home from work I took her over to the neighbor's for a short playdate; she's been feeling so deprived. One of their adult sons and his dog is staying with them right now, so Poppy got to play with three dogs. I don't know if she strained something then; I didn't notice anything until hours later. We went down and did evening chores and she seemed as active as ever. But when I cleaned off her paws to come inside afterwards, she yelped when I toweled off her left foot. I looked more closely at her foot and couldn't see anything wrong, and she didn't mind me looking. Later, I realized the inside of her "wrist/ankle" was swollen – and she definitely DID mind me touching there.

When Rick gets home tonight – if it's not too late – we're going to do some diagnostic imaging to see what is wrong in there. I doubt we'll be going to agility class this week. 😔

At least the chickens all seem fine!

That's it for now from . . .