It is officially autumn. The clocks have gone back, the leaves are changing colours, and the days are getting colder. It always makes me want to curl up at home with a book and a warm cup of tea. But instead I’m trekking to school daily. “Up the hill” or “on the mountain” to SFU Burnaby.

Henry takes over the couch pillows

This is an older photo, but so good. My sister's cat Saasafras looking guilty after killing a flower.

Abby is a CatLoaf. My mom got upset and thought I was calling Abby names. Actually, my sister and I call this pose "CatLoaf" when they tuck all their limbs under them.

Sassafras is the Cat in the Hat. She is sitting inside a purple velveteen top hat. Yes, she is that small. Yes, she is full grown.

Henry is a bookworm

Chico was sitting on my lap so please excuse the craptastic lighting in these photos.

Henry, however, adores it. It’s a blue corduroy fabric and it is slathered in orange fur. Even me using the chair to pile crap will not dissuade him from using it:

Henry, on his chair, on a pile of crap

Crap includes: backpack, sweatshirt, laptop bag, quilt, mesh curtains, and (underneath everything) Henry’s blanket pad. If it wasn’t for the quilt, I’m really not sure how that would be remotely comfortable.

I’ve loved horses since I was a little girl but haven’t been riding for a few years. It felt so good to put on my paddock boots and slip into the familiar rhythms again.

I went for a two-hour ride with Langley 204 Stables, located directly across from Campbell Valley Park. Unfortunately, the sunny Sunday turned into an overcast Monday with a few drizzles. But the good thing about Campbell Valley, is most of the equestrian trails are under cover of trees.

In just two hours we managed to walk, trot and canter along the Shaggy Mane Trail, a 14 kilometer trail circling the perimeter of the park. I was on a lovely Arabian-Quarterhorse named Quincy, who I also got to groom before and after (one of the best parts about riding in my opinion). There were five of us on the ride, one of whom was the owner of the equestrian centre. It wasn’t really a guided trail ride, but they “accompany” riders so we didn’t get lost or take off with the horses.

Fields were a little waterlogged, but it made the birds happy. Can you see the duck?

Throughout the park there were trees marked for removal, stumps chopped up, and then new saplings planted. Sometimes they didn’t bother clearing the stumps away if they were rotting inside since they made great hosts for new trees. Our guide told us that Campbell Valley was doing general maintenance; clearing thousands of trees out and planting hundreds of new evergreen saplings.

New saplings planted

Cross-country equestrian fields (closed for the winter I believe)

The only downside to the day wasn’t the weather. It was the small pony, Ebony, in front of me. The rider was also celebrating her birthday, but her pony didn’t have a very quick canter or a long stride. When we were trotting or cantering I kept having to rein back on Quincy so he didn’t run up into Ebony’s butt. I still had a great time but would have loved to go running a bit more.

After our ride, I gave Quincy a treat and brushed him again. Then I went to visit with some of the other horses on-site. Above is Reno, the big black and white Paint. He was so huge and kept going under the roof and then lifting his head too high and bashing it on the underside. Poor guy didn’t realize how large he was. The other little mare was just in a box stall at the end of the stables. She was super friendly but there was no nameplate on her stall.

Quincy posing for a photo

One of my favourite parts of riding isn’t just hopping on a horse and running, it’s bonding with the horse and pampering it. During grooming you can really get to tell a horse’s personality and also how it’s feeling that day — if it’s grumpy or jumpy or excited or playful.

Brushing the horse before tacking up is essential to make sure they don’t get saddle sores or rubbed raw, but brushing afterwards is like giving the horse a good scratch and saying “thank you”. I like to brush, pet, and scratch the horse to let it know that I appreciate the ride.

As you can see in this photo, Henry has his own pillow covered with a lovely fleece blanket right beside my pillow. This is because he used to always sleep beside me and when he got tired of it, he’d move to my pillow.

Recently I got a new memory foam pillow to help my neck. I figured Henry could have my old pillow since he liked it so much.

Not so fast. Turns out, sure he likes sleeping next to me, but what he really likes is sleeping on my head. Or, he just likes the new memory foam pillow even better than the poofy fibre-fill one.

I don’t know, but nowadays it is not uncommon to find him on my pillow in the morning. Then causes my head to slide down the pillow to accommodate my rather large cat, and results in my neck no longer being supported. Thus rendering the new memory foam pillow ineffective.

Not to mention that he also likes to lick my face and “groom” me. *sigh* The things we do to keep our furkids happy, eh?

As awful as this situation is, we should all take the opportunity to increase awareness about abused animals. There is a meme on Facebook right now that says:

In memory of all animals who are living a life in abuse, or have lived lives of abuse, and in memory of the Sled Dogs from Outdoor Adventures: Change you Profile picture to YOUR pet, whether it be DOG, CAT, BIRD, RABBIT. Animals feel pain and they have emotions too.

So I changed my profile photo to this picture of Henry and Chico:

P.S. I very nearly went dog sledding this winter. While I would love the chance to do this at some point in my life, as I began to think about it (and look at the cost for a 2-hour tour) I think it is more the bond between the person and dog team that I am interested in. I would rather work towards doing a longer trip — perhaps an ecological study of some sort — that would involve working with a dog sled team.

And after about 5 days Henry stopped hissing at Abby and let her sleep on the bed too — but they couldn’t be touching! Although in this first photo, Henry got scared and hissed when he realized she was on the other side of the duvet pile.

On a normal night Henry flip-flops between sleeping at the bottom of the bed beside my feet to his blanket beside my head. While Abby was visiting, I put her basket and/or blanket pad beside my head and Henry stayed near my feet. It worked out quite well.

As you can see in this second photo, any time the camera came out, Abby was immediately like, “what’s that?” ::drops everything she’s doing to look at the camera:: And today I was over for dinner at my parent’s house and she still does it — twisting her head in every direction.

Henry + Sassafras + Abby = Catmas

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday season (whatever you celebrate). I’ll be celebrating Catmas! My parents are out of town so I’m looking after Abby for a few weeks. And for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve I’m looking after my sister’s cat Sassafras. Henry knows and likes Sass, but he and Abby didn’t really hit it off. Hopefully they’ll get a little more comfortable over the next couple weeks.

I made a quick trip earlier this week to Pier1 for home décor items… but not for me, for Chico. When I was in Salisbury, England, I stopped by a pet store and found these 100% willow wood, woven wicker balls (isn’t that a tongue-twister!). Willow is a chin-safe wood and they came in a natural, untreated version (as well as a blanched and flavour/colour).

I bought one for Chico and brought it home in January (earlier this year). When I presented the willow ball to Chico, he literally devoured it! It took him less than 24 hours, and he absolutely loved the thing. I have since been searching for them in Vancouver because I refuse to pay $5 per ball at the local pet store (he devours them too quickly).

Then, I discovered them for $3 each on Pier1′s website! I have made Chico such a happy boy:

Please excuse the really crappy photos. Whenever I went over to the cage with the camera, he ignored the willow ball and paid attention to me. Of course I couldn’t resist giving him a scratch, but I then had to try and take photos on the sly!

P.S. I gave him the first willow ball on Sunday night. Tonight, Wednesday, as I type, he is chewing the very last bit of it (the part still tied to the top of the cage in the bottom right photo).