The atmosphere at the barn the past few weeks has been of cheery and sometimes sad Christmas music. Our little radio has been blasting out memories of Christmases past and loved ones we dearly miss. Sitting there with my girls often allows me the opportunity to get out a good cry. I’ve lived away from “home” for over 20 years. I’ve had to substitute really loud phone calls to my  family instead of being there. Since beginning our pet sitting business some 14 years ago, we’ve also worked every holiday so it’s just not possible to enjoy traditional celebrations.

Eva waits for Cass to finish so she can check her bowl.

I miss my Dad. He passed away 2 Christmases ago. That sure puts a different spin on my already tender emotions. He loved Christmas! It was his tradition to wait until Christmas Eve to do any shopping. Our big celebration was Christmas Eve so as family would be arriving to begin the festivities, he’d rush in with bags in tow and I’d secretly wrap the gifts. He always got Mom the coolest jewelry. I remember one Christmas he had me wrap up a framed photo of Frank Sinatra, her absolute favorite singer. She was so confused when she opened it then it was revealed he’d bought tickets for his upcoming concert! I used to fuss at him for waiting to shop and making me have to frantically wrap. Wish I could do that for him this afternoon.

My far away family will be gathering today for tasty food and drinks. There’s a new crop of great-grand-babies awaiting Santa who will entertain everyone as they open presents. It will be loud. Kids will scream and laugh. There will be music playing and butts shaking. There may not be dancing into the wee hours as in the past (they’re all kinda old now) but they can still shake those tail feathers, our Momma, too!  Christmas is about family and love. I may not be there with them but I feel them always in my heart.

Santa visited my girls a bit early this year. He brought their favorite cookies, which they haven’t had in a while due to their weight-loss program. He told me Christmas is in your heart, not where you are.

Where else would you hang a horse's stocking?

"I can have them? Really?!"

Sweet Santa made Eva & Cass honorary elves! They fill my heart with Christmas cheer no matter the day, though Eva may not look too happy about doing so…

Guess we can call her Angry Elf

Cass is, of course, Sweet Elf 🙂

This is the soundtrack to the Christmases of my youth – we are quite a funky, bluesy family. Enjoy!

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Social media sites and news agencies have been buzzing the past few weeks about the possibility of horse slaughter houses opening again in the near future. There are a lot of skewed views being presented, either for or against the action of horse slaughter itself. Sometimes things are just not right and in my mind, horse slaughter for consumption is just not right. Americans do not eat horses. A few European countries consider horse meat a delicacy. It also happens to be considered completely unsafe with the amount of drugs used in all horses. Since the U.S. slaughter houses were closed down our horses are still being brutally killed, it’s just being done in Mexico or Canada. It’s not right now matter where it’s done and bringing it back onto our soil will not solve the core problems of horse over breeding, abuse and neglect.

One of the most perplexing attitudes I’ve encountered in the “horse world” is that people don’t hold them (sometimes) as dear as we do our dogs and cats. Would you ever think of sending Rover or Fluffy off to the butcher to make a last buck off them instead of “putting them to sleep” when the time comes? I don’t think so. Maybe people think humane euthanasia for a horse is slaughter – it’s not!

Please read the following for the facts – recent legislation affects our horses

I will let my friend Jenna Girman tell you her thoughts on this issue:

“The horse slaughter thing has got me thinking. Would I ever send my horse to slaughter if he was underweight and couldn’t be ridden?? No! I couldn’t even think of that. It’s a horrible thing. Horse slaughter will never get better. If we bring it to the United States it won’t get ‘less cruel’. What will happen is the horse population will grow because people will get money for BREEDING their horses to go to slaughter. It will become a business. Americans don’t want a business in killing animals. Plus, for slaughter, they aren’t going to take the underweight, abused horses that nobody wants. Technically, slaughter is for FOOD, for CONSUMPTION. They don’t want skinny horses. They aren’t going to have any meat on them for food. Instead of letting a skinny, abused horse horse sit in a slaughter yard waiting to get fat for FOOD, why don’t we set up Euthanasia Clinics so that the horses won’t be treated badly before they pass on? They get a shot and can pass with their owners or people that love and care for them, instead of sitting in a feed lot in chaos and being cruelly slaughtered… Slaugh-ter (slaw-ter) noun; 1. the killing or butchering of cattle, sheep, etc, especially for food. 2. the brutal or violent killing of a person. 3. the killing of a great number of people or animals indiscriminately; carnage; the slaughter of war. If that’s the definition of slaughter, how is it ok at all?”

Jenna & her horse, Seri.

Seri was saved from the brutal death at a slaughterhouse. She was one of the lucky ones. You may read Seri’s story.

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