Coffee, cats, and poor pony!

Where to start? The other night, we took a "Barista 101" course at our favourite restaurant, The Quirky Carrot in Alexandria. The class was a Christmas gift from me to Gordon, and we took along our friends Ronna and Richard. Although I don't drink coffee (I just don't like the taste, although the smell is divine!), I wanted to learn how to make the good stuff, since Gordon got himself a Rancilio espresso machine a while back that has been gathering dust since he hasn't been able to figure it out. But I think we're getting the hang of it now!

Ronna was great at tamping the ground coffee...

Richard and Ronna perusing the course notes.

The Quirky Carrot's beautiful beast.

Me taking a stab at tamping.

Vivianne, our instructor, explained the finer points of foaming milk.

Then she helped Gordon with his technique.

Ronna was an attentive student!

As for me... I have no future as a barista!

Gordon and his little baby!

Looks pretty tasty! For coffee.

Some antique espresso/steamed milk doohickey.

And now, for some cats. Or at least, A cat.

That is not Emerson.

Nope.

It's Honey, the failed barn cat. 

Sigh. Seven cats in the house, six in the barn. Sigh.

And it was a hard day for our pony Esme yesterday...

Finney and Esme today

She foundered, but fortunately I noticed early on and got the vet here immediately. They come pretty quickly if you tell them your horse is down and can't get up! (Although she did stand up after I made the call.)

 It was our own damn fault, too. Even though I knew when we adopted Esme that she had foundered before, we inadvertently fed her some hay with too much alfalfa in it. Too rich for her, and wham, yesterday she was in pain from her hooves, lying down in the snow. The vet checked her over and gave her a shot of Bute, an NSAID that relieved her pain. I am giving her more in powder form twice a day, mixed with applesauce. She also now has a thick layer of shavings in her stall and outdoor shelter, to cushion her feet. Her whole demeanour and stance were much better today. It was awful seeing her in pain yesterday.

The vet thinks she'll be fine and we learned a lesson about being more careful with the hay. I knew we had to be careful with her diet because of this, but we just didn't realize that some of the hay we bought was alfalfa heavy.

This poor pony has been through a lot in life: blind in one eye due to recurrent uveitis, foundered, and when she was seized by the OSPCA, she was in the same barn as my pig Ophelia, abandoned in frigid February with no food or water.

Despite all that she is the sweetest pony you could imagine and we love her to bits. I want her life here to be happy. I keep telling her she's in her forever home now! Here's hoping we don't make any more stupid mistakes. Our friends Debbie and Luc, who have helped me learn a lot about horses, came right over when I called them yesterday and checked Esme out while we waited for the vet.

So here's hoping for a drama-free weekend and maybe we'll give the espresso machine another try!