Micah: It's too hot and humid to move so it's just us tonight - you and me. I think it would be fun to start your weekend off with a smile, so I'll tell you a story.
It was a desolate area where the out of town motorist drove his car into a ditch. A local farmer came to rescue him with a big strong horse named Buddy.
What are you doing here, Buddy? I'm telling a story.
Buddy: I heard my name. Is it possible I'm related to this horse named Buddy?
Micah: Somehow I doubt it!
To continue, he hitched Buddy to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!: Buddy didn't move.
Buddy: Who's Nellie?
Micah: You'll find out.
He then hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" and Buddy still didn't move.
Buddy: I don't know who Buster is, but do you think Buddy could have been old and arthritic?
Micah: Why don't you wait until I'm finished to ask questions?
And Buddy didn't move when the farmer yelled, "Pull, Coco, pull!"
Buddy: I'm starting to think this farmer has a touch of dementia. He can't even remember his horse is named Buddy.
Micah: No, he doesn't have dementia.
Finally, the farmer said, "Pull, Buddy, pull," and Buddy dragged the car from the ditch.
Buddy: See, we guys named Buddy are very sensitive to being called by the wrong name. We're very strong and hard-working too.
Micah: And modest, don't forget modest.
Buddy: So why did the farmer call Buddy by the wrong name three times?
Micah: As the farmer explained to the grateful motorist, "Buddy is blind, and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try."
Buddy: I don't get it. I thought Buddy was the only one pulling.
MERCI: We love to tell tales on Jan, so we thought we would share a Sunday Smile with you today.
RUSTY: Jan has been a bit intimidated by the "traffic light" timer at Toastmasters. Depending on the purpose, you have to talk for more than "x" but less than "y" number of minutes.
SAM: It isn't that Jan can't talk for x - y minutes. It's just hard to say something on a particular subject when the brain is blank and in panic mode.
MICAH: Last Thursday she determined she would not stop talking on the subject until at least after the first light (green) went on. Her objective was to give a 2 minute minimum evaluation of a 5 minute talk.
PERCY: She finished her evaluation. No light. She kept talking. Still no light. She rambled all around whatever tidbits she could remember of the talk. Still no light.
CYNDI: The other members were being bored into a coma.. It seemed to her and probably to the others as if she had been talking FOREVER!
BUDDY: Eventually she totally ran out of anything to say that was even remotely related to the speech. So she stretched out her arm to point to the timing light, leaned over the podium, and exclaimed, "Isn't this EVER going to come to an end!!" That woke up everyone she'd lulled to sleep! The laughter "woke" the timer.
MARCUS: Next meeting Jan will be the timer. She hopes she doesn't "zone out". It's easy to do.
PERCY: Have you ever seen a horse line dance?
MERCI: Did you ever imagine you would see a horse line dance?
BUDDY: Watch the footwork as the horse dances in a tight space.
Merci: If you remember, we posted this old photo of me yesterday with our weekend art. If you missed the different versions, you can view them all on A Polarized Merci.
Percy: This photo and the one above it are in black and white. The difference is this one is polarized which partially reverses an image. Together, they are for the Black and White Sunday blog hop co-hosted by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Dachshund Nola.
Buddy: Our Sunday Smile is the Budweiser Clydesdale snowball fight video. We got a kick out of it. (Pun intended.) It's only 30 seconds long. Moral of the video? Who cares? It's funny!
Cyndi: We are fans of the Budweiser Clydesdales. Magnificent animals, always so patient and calm.
Marcus: This is not part of our Sunday Smile but we're adding this longer video for other Clydesdale fans.
Sam: This was the team working in a small arena when there was an equipment malfunction, a pileup and one of the huge animals went down.
Micah: The announcer did a terrific job of keeping the audience calm and quiet while the Budweiser team went to work.
Cameron: We'd like to send Marcus to Budweiser for training. He's hyper and noisy. Those horses are so well-trained, they didn't panic but waited patiently to be unhitched. Even the one that went down. Can you imagine the mayhem if those giants had panicked?
Rusty: Does anyone have the Clydesdale stable's shipping address so we can send them Marcus? Or wait ... Jan is hyper too. Perhaps we should ship Jan for training and while she's gone, we'll train Marcus.
Percy: We are going to make a very short post for our Sunday Smile this week.
Merci: This is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Marcus: Well, I guarantee it won't put a smile on mine!
Rusty: But it's a good post. Why not?
Marcus: Because I'm still waiting on my breakfast. I'm a growing boy and I'm starving!
Cyndi: But, Marcus, we're writing this on Saturday night. You just had dinner.
Marcus: Oh, right. Well, I get a bit confused writing tomorrow's post today.
Cameron: Dogs! All they ever think about is food. Hmmm, I wonder if Jan filled our crunchy bowl yet?
Micah: I think I heard the sound of crunchies bouncing into a dish a few minutes ago.
Sam: Hello, we're writing a post here. Can all of you please stop talking about food so we dogs can stop thinking about food!
Buddy: I never stop thinking about food. But I will try, long enough to introduce a very short video. We don't know any horses, but evidently they bond with friends just as much as we dogs and cats do. Here is the reunion of a horse and a camel. Yes, you heard right. A horse and a camel. Watch.
Today is Black and White Sunday. We posted all our weekly art photos together yesterday, so we will enter yesterday's Tomorrow Today post in the Sunday blog hop. Stop by if you haven't read it yet.
Jan is hogging the computer again. But she's doing it to help us so we can't complain. But so you don't forget us, we thought we'd quickly post a cute video.
This is Einstein, world's smallest pinto stallion foal. Just 14" high and 6 pounds when he was born. However, Einstein appears to be healthy and shows no signs of dwarfism.
We opened a new blog today to collect and display the project Jan is working on. You can view the first few items on Jan's Funny Farm Fair. We'll be posting some more soon. It's kind of slow going.
Buddy & Sam are in the doghouse with Jan, who is limping around on a very painful swollen toe because of their antics yesterday, so this will be short and sweet. Short because our time is limited and sweet because who doesn't love photos of a newborn snuggling with mama. We've seen the photos before and perhaps you have too, but have another awwww moment, with our compliments.
We all enjoy a good animal video and we loved this one. We're sure you will too. This is an amazing exhibit of strength (you try balancing on moving horseflesh), precision, courage and trust.
Lorenzo the Flying Frenchman and his team of grey Lusitano horses perform at the London International Horse show at Olympia in 2008.
We loved this video and we know you will too. Have a tissue handy because you might get teary-eyed, but in a pleasant way. The dogs, cats and horses are happy and the couple who has taken them in is loving and committed to their welfare for life. They demonstrate that an automatic, immediate, hasty decision for euthanasia is not necessary for animals with a disability. They can enjoy life. And thankfully, there are humans who will give them that opportunity. These two just provide a home for a larger number of disabled animals than most humans could.
This video is produced by KSPS TV in Spokane, Washington Our friend Evelyn who raised two kittens with Cerebellar Hypoplasia sent us the link.
Jan is hogging the computer again, so our time is limited. But we have permission to post another video very quickly.
To be honest, our first thought was, how delectable that little mouse must be. But he's such a neat guy, we changed our minds. In fact, with flea season coming up, we -- including all of you -- might wish he was handy.
Jan hijacked our journal yesterday so today we're going to tell a story on her to get even.... uh, we mean.... no, actually we mean to get even.
Yesterday she received an email from a friend she has rarely heard from for a while. He's been having some health problems and she's missed his humorous correspondence. So she was glad to see a message from his fun email account. She never knows what to expect from his "alter ego."
Hello, I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Nigeria for my business and personal reason's,and i forgot my little wallet in the Taxi where my money is, passport,documents and other valuable things were kept on my way to the Hotel.
The present condition that I found myself is very hard for me toexplain.I am really stranded in Lagos,I am facing a hard time herebecause I have no funds on me.I need you to help me with the hotel bill of $800 Dollars and i willalso need $200 to feed and help myself back home so please kindly helpme with a sum of $1,000.I will appreciate what ever you can affordto send me for now and I promise to payback your money as soon as i return home.
I am sending you this e-mail from the city called London and I wasgiving only 30mins to write and check your reply , I will appreciatewhat ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to payback your money as soon as i return home, you will send the moneyvia western union money transferr.Please i want you to wire me any amount you can just for me to get homeand as soon as am back i promise to pay you back asap!
Receiver's Full-Name:Motley-Hagan Address:10Kings Hotel Building,Surulere, City:Lagos Post-Code:23401 Nigeria.
Please Get back to me with this after you got it paid
Sender's Full Name: Post-Code: City: Mtcn Number: Text Qestion&Answer. Amount sent:
Please Kindly wire me some money now!!
Thanks and God Bless You!
At the bottom was the signature her friend used on his regular email account messages.
Well, Jan knew her friend wasn't going to Nigeria and if he was, he wouldn't be emailing her to send funds, so she answered:
Hello,
I too am sorry you didn't inform me you were traveling to Nigeria. However, I regret to inform you that since I seem to have misplaced my own wallet, I can not help you with funds. Let this be a lesson to you. Never, ever, ever go off without your wallet because no one will acknowledge knowing you or send you funds.
Best wishes for the rest of your trip. I fear you will be washing a LOT of dishes!
Me
A few hours later, she received a message from her friend with the subject: new email address.
Due to a scam being perpetrated with my old email address, please note that I have changed email. In the event that you receive email containing my old e-mail address, please be advised that it did not originate from me. Thanks for making the change and I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
You're kidding! Jan responded.
I'm serious, Jan, he replied. Will contact you later. I'm in the process of notifying all my contacts of the new email address.
Needless to say, Jan is in shock. Not that she received one of those notorious Nigerian scam messages. She has received a "ton" of them. But that someone got in her friend's email account and she answered a real scammer. She is curious whether the "Nigerian" got to read her message. If so, she wishes she could have seen his face.
But she feels bad for her friend. Having a stranger in your email would be like having a burglar in your home. It's personal! Someone got into another blogger's gmail account a while back and it cost her some money. And we know of a blog where strange posts appear on their blog that they didn't post.
So be extra careful!
**********************
And on a lighter note, we were sent a link to this video yesterday and enjoyed it so much we want to share it. This is adorable.
We received an email today with a wonderful story and photographs. We can't post it because Jan says we are supposed to use links, not use someone else's story/pictures without permission. And since so many emails are nothing more than someone else's work "borrowed" (a polite way of saying "stolen") without permission, they don't contain contact information or identify the source.
But this story is so good we just have to post it. So we did some research. First we went to snopes.com and checked to verify the story is true.
Then we read several blogs and sites on the subject. We searched the videos at YouTube. And now we are ready to post the story.
Molly the pony was left behind during Katrina. Eventually, she was taken to a rescue farm. There she was severely injured when attacked by a rescued pit bull. She survived, but lost a leg. Have you ever heard of a 3-legged pony ... wearing a prosthesis?
You can read some of Molly's inspirational story on The Jurga Report. The Jurga blog entry announces the book, Molly the Pony, but don't let that deter you. It gives you some background on Molly.
When you have read a little about her and how extensive her initial wounds were, her story becomes even more amazing.
This is a video made by the LSU School of Veterinarian Medicine and Molly the 15-year-old Shetland Pony is the star. It is well-worth taking a few minutes to watch.
As if she hasn't had enough loss these last few years, Susan lost Khomet today. We are shocked and saddened. Susan is devastated. Tomorrow she will have to go pick up his body and transport it home so she can give him a proper burial. We wish we could help but all we can do is send purrs and doggy kisses and virtual hugs - and Jan can pray for her. Susan is at It's Hammer, Beau's brother.
