Here are some photos from last weekend of Beau and Gracie, two of our sanctuary residents at the horse rescue. I’ve written about both Beau and Gracie before, both of them were horribly abused and were completely untouchable for the first several years that they were at the rescue. They were terrified of people and did not even want someone to approach within 15-20 feet of them.

The three pictures below show just how friendly Beau is now. He followed us around the whole time last weekend (several hours) and was really enjoying getting scratches on his forehead. He kept trying to “help” Dawn check things on her cell phone and even let Dawn spend some time getting the tangles out of his mane. He wasn’t too sure about having his mane brushed, but he did let us get a few big knots out.

Last summer, myself and some of the other volunteers at the rescue spent a lot of time working with Beau and Gracie and we had some pretty big break throughs! Both horses are now pretty friendly and will seek out interaction with people. Beau will even do this with new people who he has never met before! Gracie, on the other hand, still usually prefers people who she knows well.

Both horses are still not halter trained — they are very, very sensitive about hands and objects around their head because of their former abuse. However, that’s one of our big main goals for these two horses for this summer and I think that we will be able to make lots of good progress! I have also already started working some with Beau on the beginning steps of picking up his feet for hoof care, and I plan to continue working on that with both Beau and Gracie this summer.

Last weekend, Dawn and I had a great time hanging out in the pasture for a couple of hours with Beau and Gracie, as well as a few of our other sanctuary residents. Beau and Gracie have been on another property for the past several months and they only recently have been moved back to the rescue’s main property. Gracie had some itchy spots on her back, shoulders, and neck and was really enjoyed getting scratched! She also let me brush all of the tangles out of her mane. She doesn’t have nearly as much mane as Beau does, so she doesn’t get the same amount of knots and tangles that he does.

I love how relaxed Gracie looks in all of these photos. She has always been much more skeptical of people than Beau. We do not know the exact nature of the abuse these two horses went through. However, it must have been pretty awful.

Beau’s reaction to people before we started working with him was always to run as far away as he could get. Gracie, however, would hold her ground and whirl and kick if she felt threatened or afraid. Because of this, we have gone much more slowly with her training. We never wanted to push her even a tiny little bit because we did not want anyone to get hurt. You can read a bit more about CAT training, the type of training that I have done with Beau and Gracie, in this post.

One more photo of two of our old timers at the rescue. The black gelding is Shadow and the white gelding is Jim. Both are over 30, which is quite old for a horse. They are the best of buds and have a great time hanging out together at the rescue. You can read more about Jim’s story or Shadow’s story on the rescue’s website. Beau and Gracie get along well with Jim and Shadow and I know all four horses were happy to see each other when Beau and Gracie were brought back to the rescue’s main property recently.

So, I’ve been enjoying this nice spring weather and trying to spend some time outside. This is hard, since I do have the end of the semester coming up and lots of school work to do! These photos are of a neat little caderpillar who I met at the horse rescue a couple of weekends ago. He found his way onto my shirt accidentally. So, I pulled him off and he had a nice time crawling across my hand before I set him down on a tree branch.

I hope that you are enjoying spring and getting to spend some time outside playing with your animals and enjoying the weather. Below is a picture of two of our old timers at the rescue, Jim and Shadow. I snapped this picture the same day I met the caterpillar.

These two geldings, both who are around 30, are the best of buds. They are definitely enjoying this nice spring weather and were having a pleasant breakfast under these shady trees when I snapped this photo. You can read more about Jim and Shadow’s stories on the rescue’s website. Here is Jim’s page and here is Shadow’s page. We’ve recently updated our website and added new photos and information for some of our resident horses, such as these two, so please check it out!

Who doesn’t love cute kittens? These are some photos of a few adorable kittens who were brought to the Denton Animal Shelter recently. These kittens are all very young. They are in a foster home currently so that they can be bottle fed, but they will be available for adoption once they are a bit older. Which photo is your favorite? I couldn’t pick just one, so I had to include them all!!

Unfortunately, many animal shelters and rescue groups get swamped with kittens in the spring, as the weather gets warmer and cats start having kittens. The shelter will be able to find homes for these cute kittens. However, the many kittens who will be brought to the shelter this spring are a reminder of our country’s huge pet overpopulation problem.

We can all help with the pet overpopulation problem by spaying and neutering our pets and encouraging our friends to do so as well. Also, if you have friends looking for a new pet, please encourage them to check their local shelters or check Petfinder.com.

Petfinder (and animal shelters) aren’t just for dogs and cats. Many people are surprised when I tell them that my three new rats came from our local SPCA. All three rats were owner surrenders who were unwanted by their previous owners. They have been great so far, I’m so happy I adopted all three of them.

Thanks to a generous donation, the adoption fee for all cats at the Denton Animal Shelter is $30 for the month of April. If you have friends in North Texas, please ask them to check out the animals at the Denton Animal Shelter. Also, as always (thanks to another great donor), the shelter’s feral cats are fully vetted and then available for adoption for free as barn cats. This is a great way that the shelter is able to save these cats from euthanazia, while still providing them homes with responsible pet owners. There is one orange tabby named Dwanye who has been at the shelter for quite some time now. I sure hope he finds his forever home soon! There’s a picture of him below. He’s too cute, I just couldn’t leave him out of this post! I’m sure that he will make someone a great barn cat.

Many people think of dogs and cats in shelters, but don’t realize that many rats, bunnies, and other small animals end up in shelters too. All three of these very sweet rats were surrendered by their owners to the shelter. I couldn’t believe that sweet Chloe had been at the shelter for 80+ days.

Many people don’t realize the amount of time, energy, and even money that is needed to take care of a small animal. Or, some people buy a small animal for themselves or their child and then get bored of the animal. Then, the animal ends up in a shelter. If you are thinking about adding a small critter to your household, please check your local shelter and also the the small and furry section on Petfinder before you buy from a pet store.

I’m keeping the new girls separate right now, to give them time to settle in and to make sure they are 100% healthy, before I start introducing them to Georgie and Lucy. They are in a smallish cage right now, which they are a little grumpy about. However, they are getting plenty of playtime to romp about. I’m starting to learn their personalities–Amy is all about adventure, she is always exploring and trying to get into trouble. Isabella is a bit shy, but loves to chew and shred things up. Chloe seems to be the ringleader so far, but she loves to snuggle up with Isabella for naps. They came from the shelter with their current names, which I will probably keep.

In the top photo below, Chloe (brown and white) is on the left, Isabella (rose grey and white) is in the middle, and Amy (black and white) is on the right. I have lots of fun training plans for these girls, so check back soon! Once they get settled in and introduced to Georgie and Lucy, the training will begin.

The first night I let the three new girls play in the bathtub a bit. Amy is definitely a puzzle solver and quickly figured out how to climb onto a paper sack to get a bit higher so that she could jump out of the tub. After that, she would not stay in the tub! I think she’ll get along great with my rat Georgie, who also loves to explore and is always on the go. Amy is in the rat in the two photos below.

My rats came home from the SPCA in a Hide-Perch-and-Go box. If you’re not familiar with these boxes, you can check out their website. Many shelters use these boxes for cats. The box definitely didn’t make a good rat carrier, as my new rats started chewing their way out of it on the way home. However, the box makes a GREAT addition to their play area! They love crawling through it and climbing up on top of it. I can get some better pictures, but you can see it in the photos below. It’s the box that says Petco and Petfinder on it. (In the picture below, Chloe is on the left and Isabella is on the right.)

I’ll keep you updated on my three new ratties! Once I’m sure everyone is healthy, introductions will begin, which hopefully will go well. (Usually it is not too difficult to introduce female rats to each other). Right now, I’ve been letting the new rats run around their play area in the mornings and evenings when I’m at home. They have been a hoot to watch so far. All three are very active girls and they love racing around and climbing on all of the boxes and containers in the play area.

Yesterday, Eva gave us a presentation about dog agility and then we headed outside to practice some agility foundation lessons with the dogs. This was a lot of fun and also gave me a lot to think about. We played around with some really interesting ways to shape behavior. I’m working on a longer blog post about the day but, for now, here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

The brown and white dog is my parent’s dog, Ginger, who appears on my blog from time to time. Ginger had a great time! However, she was completely tuckered out afterward and slept the whole way home.

The last photo is ORCA (Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals) advisor Jesús Rosales-Ruiz working on teaching Ginger how to go over an agility jump.

I met Pierce about a week ago. Pierce came to the Denton Animal Shelter in a trap. He was terrified at first, so the shelter thought he might be a feral cat. (The shelter gets quite a few feral cats who are brought to the shelter in traps. Most of these cats have had little, if any, contact with people and cannot be petted or even touched.)

However, Pierce has completely warmed up to us and has turned into the biggest sweetheart. This big boy just loves sitting on laps for petting and attention. If you check out Pierce’s petfinder page, there’s a great video clip of him sitting on my lap, soaking up some attention. Hopefully this sweet boy will find a great home soon!

Unfortunately, the shelter environment can be incredibly stressful for cats. Lots of new sights, smells, and sounds, including lots of people, other cats, and even dogs. It can be hard to assess an animal when it first comes to the shelter–is the animal truly terrified of people, or just very unsure about being in a totally strange environment? We try to continually assess the cats at the shelter to catch cats like Pierce, who seem pretty wild when they first arrive, but who turn out to actually be big sweethearts.

On (almost) Wordless Wednesdays,
I feature a rescue animal in north Texas.

This past weekend was a great weekend because we took Blossom to her new adoptive home! Blossom’s new mom is looking forward to lots of fun times with this sweet little mare.

Some of you probably remember Blossom from past articles on the blog. Blossom is a little breeding stock paint mare who has been at the rescue for awhile. (Breeding stock paint means that she was suppose to have lots of spots, but got the wrong genes and ended up solid colored. This is one reason why she ended up at the rescue. She was “worthless” because she didn’t have flashy spots.)

Blossom came to the rescue with a large group of quarter horses and paints that we rescued. She arrived as a yearling, skinny, wormy, and knowing nothing about humans. She was initially curious about people, but was also somewhat shy and unsure. It took us awhile to get her halter trained and to get her to the point where she really trusted people.

For comparison, here’s a photo of Blossom when she first came to the rescue and then a photo from this past summer. It’s amazing what a bit of hay, love and TLC can do for a horse!

Last spring, Blossom participated in a special foster program with a local high school. She learned lots about ground work and got exposed to lots of new things while she was at the high school. When she came back to the rescue at the end of the school year, we had a lot of fun starting her under saddle.

Blossom is a brave and pretty laid back little mare, especially for a three year old. After lots of rides in our round pen, we started riding her on our horse obstacle course and taking her for fun rides around the property, sometimes even bareback. (You can see a video of Blossom on the obstacle course here.) The second picture below is me on Blossom (on the left) and my friend Meghan on Tex. Both ponies got their start with clicker training and are turning into awesome riding horses.

The very first photo in the post, of Blossom’s ears sticking up over the hay bale, is one I took when she first arrived at the rescue. Although you can’t tell it’s her, it’s always been one of my favorite photos. She does have pretty cute little ears!

I know Blossom’s new mom and her family are going to have a great time with this sweet mare. This is one of the best parts about rescue work–watching the horses learn to trust people during training and then finding great new homes.

Here’s a handsome little gray and white tabby that I met yesterday at the Denton Animal Shelter. His name is Bean Dip and he’s a total sweetheart. That’s the name he came to the shelter with, so the shelter kept it. Hopefully, his new family will come up with a great new name for this sweet boy.

But, maybe his former owners had some funny story or reason for naming him Bean Dip? We’ll probably never know the reasoning behind his silly name! But, I’ve known other animals who had some pretty creative and unusual names.

Most cats, even friendly cats, are pretty scared when they come to the shelter. Bean Dip, however, settled in immediately after arriving at the shelter yesterday morning. He was ready to play and ready for plenty of attention. I wasn’t at the shelter in the afternoon, but Bean Dip must have still been impressing everyone, because someone who visited in the afternoon decided to adopt him. The family that adopted this sweet boy is going to get one awesome cat!

I’m going to start doing wordless Wednesday posts. If I have any really fun training photos, I’ll post them. But, most weeks I’m planning to feature some of the rescue animals I work with. I work with the dogs and cats at the Denton Animal Shelter and also with rescue horses at Never-E-Nuff Acres Horse Rescue and Sanctuary. These posts won’t be completely wordless. Sometimes I’ll cheat and include a short description or some information about the animal.

This week’s adoptable pet is Archer. He’s a gorgeous Russian blue who’s available for adoption at the Denton Animal Shelter starting today. This handsome young man is also quite a sweetheart. He had a great time playing with us yesterday when we let him out for some play time. Hopefully he’ll find a great new home this week!

Note: Please feel free to link to my wordless Wednesday posts or share them on facebook, especially if you live in Texas or have friends in north Texas who might be interested in these animals.

These are some pictures from last summer that I just ran across. I know they are old, but I’m still posting them because I LOVE them! Most horses are naturally VERY curious. Especially if they are given the time and space to explore something new. Horses get scared when we force them to interact with new things, instead of allowing the horse the time to investigate at his own pace.

Temple Grandin says that what animals are often afraid of is “forced novelty”—when we push the horse into new situations that he does not understand. Confidence increases when the animal feels like he has control over his environment and surroundings. (More about this here).

The following pictures show Luna checking out the new hay ring the rescue got last summer. (Luna’s the pony I wrote about in this post about a week ago. She made SO much progress last year.) Luna can be very skeptical about new things. However, given time to investigate and explore, she approached and retreated from the hay ring, even approaching close enough to smell it. Then, after a few more approaches, she walked all the way through the hay ring! After that, she turned around and walked back through it the other way. What a brave little pony.

If you are working with a horse who is scared of something, DO NOT try to force the horse to approach the scary object! Instead, use other strategies to help the horse build his confidence. For instance, make the scary thing smaller or less intense, if possible. You can turn down the pressure on a scary water hose or fold up a scary plastic bag to make it smaller. Find a place to start working where the horse can remain comfortable and relaxed.

Let the horse choose when to approach and honor the horse’s requests to move away. If the horse needs to take a step or two backward, let him, rather than trying to pull on the lead to keep the horse in one spot. You can practice approaching and retreating from the scary thing, gradually getting closer.

That’s what I did with Autumn when we found a crinkly balloon in the yard (pictures here). With a clicker trained horse, this quickly becomes a fun game for the horse because the horse learns that she will get a click and a treat for approaching and touching new objects. Novel objects then become something fun to investigate, rather than something scary to run away from.