AAAAHHH - the county fair is over.
Super Night has come and gone.
Carriage Classic is now 9 days past - where does time go?
Congratulations to my children - Zachary and Rachel - for their hard work and dedication to their pets during the fair.
We showed two rabbits, two cats on Thursday night, and one wonderful Standardbred horse known as Remmie.
Zachary took a white ribbon on his rabbit Thumper. Who was to know that white rabbits with blue eyes and lots of black spots on their ears were basically utterly undesirable by judges? Live and learn! Rachel's rabbit, on the other hand, took a first place in her division (Lop-eared doe under six months). Rachel's bunny is brown with a white cottontail. The judge loved her.
The cat show was a scream! The judges were warm and friendly - helpful - and comical. They gave out trophies for such things as longest tail, scariest face, cuddliest, and so on. Zach showed Oreo the black and white domestic short-hair, and Rachel showed Adam (formerly an orphaned kitten who was the only one in his litter to survive distemper, and bottle fed by us). Adam is a short-haired tabby cat. Well, the kids did well again! Zach got a red ribbon for Oreo and a trophy for shiest cat, and Rachel took a blue ribbon with Adam!
Zach won second place for his picture of domestic animal (Magnum in the creek), and a white ribbon for his landscape picture (water with no buildings).
And last but not least, Rachel took home the trophy for the walk/trot class on Remmie! She also took a blue for the costume class, and a red ribbon for the halter class. She placed a first in something else (can't remember which class), but the 4-H club took home a merit award for Rachel and the other members' hard work in keeping the area clean, horses fed and watered, and
horses exercised. During the four day stay at the grounds we were once again chosen by the man upstairs to have three kittens under the manger board in Remmie's stall discovered. The mother, a feral cat, was scared away by the fair activities on the first day. She must have come home at night to nurse them, but by noon the three kittens were screaming for her loudly. Remmie put up with the incessant meowing, but others had a tougher time tolerating it. After much debate, and a report from another woman saying that the fair groundskeepers will kill the kittens if found because they hate feral cats, we called Tabby Town Cat Rescue. Marie and I met at 3:30 outside the gate and I handed over three very hungry baby kitties to her rescue.
The very neat thing is that they have set live traps for the mother, hoping to find her. If they do, they will bring her back to their place and she will have a whole room to herself to be with her kittens. Then today I got an email telling me that the fair groundskeepers asked them to remove the live traps. This is very upsetting to all of us, as we know there is a cat desperately searching for her kittens right now, and no one at the fairgrounds appears to care. We'll keep you posted.
Thanks to Alice and Ray H. and Danielle S., Super Night was a huge success. I managed to get a heavy box with display materials down to Ray and Alice in time. They had the privilege of bringing Pistol Pete N to the track to share with the public during the races, and got to hand out brochures to anyone interested in adoption. Danielle manned the table down near the clubhouse/race office area outside. Alice said each time she looked Danielle seemed to have someone at the table. We were also part of a live interview done by Joshua Potts, thanks to Danielle!!! Joshua reported to me that Danielle did an absolutely excellent job of representing ASAP. The 60 second dvd was shown in between races to promote ASAP. We are very grateful to Debra from Balmoral for all of the assistance and support this year! And Danielle and Ray and Alice - you are tops!!!
Ray and Alice, in addition to all of the above, even went out of their way to haul Cam's Matte Finish to their place after they left the track that night. ASAP is made up of many many people - it is such a great feeling to know that you are out there for the horses! Thank you again and again.
The Carriage Classic was very interesting, and thanks to Mike Rider, we were able to have a table set up there for the weekend.
It was a first time for me to see the events at the beautiful Villa Louis. The best thing about being there was seeing Ray and Alice, who had traveled from Gratiot to Prairie du Chien to watch the driving classes. I have never seen such elegance and beauty. The carriages were superb! There was only one Standardbred in the entire show that weekend, and it was a half Standardbred at that. Maybe us being there will create some interest? We can only hope. My mother was a trooper that whole weekend, going back and forth with me two days in a row. She really enjoyed her chat with Ray!
So now is the time to recoup. It feels good to be back at work and back in the routine. There are horses to ride! Timesareachanging had his first saddling and ponying experience two Sundays ago. We took him on trails, roads, and across fields and creeks. He did about six miles that day and was very well behaved! I almost think I could have ridden him!
I will send pictures.
Updates on horses:
Wawatassi adopted!
Allie in second foster home.
MANY HORSES NEEDING PLACEMENT.
We are only $300 behind on our feed bills at this point after a tough summer. We are praying for enough donations or adoptions to get us paid up on hay and feed and vet bills. Thanks to Laurie for her donation towards Chevie Silverado's vet bill!!
Soon,
Susan
