Minis and Friends - South Plains’ Neighborhood

Moonshine, new pen

   Sorry, for being of-line the last few months.  Ike sorta got in the way.  Our house, barn and most of our belongings were destroyed.  But we got out with the important stuff! Our precious animals and us.

We are slowly rebuilding.  FEMA gave us a 14x60' mobile home (on our land), and we have built moonshine a new stall and corral.  The demo crew took down what was left of our buildings, plus our slab, wate lines, sewer, etc.  But, they did leave us some trees!  We had to put all that back, pus 6 truck loads of sand (two for the home to sit on) and the rest for the horse.  Tha demo left huge holes and a lot of debree behind, so we had to fill, cover and haul off what we could to make it safe for all of us.  All this was at our expense.  But thanks to our parents, other family, some very good friends and God, most of this was covered. 

   Up until 3 weeks ago, we had been living in our horse trailer, since Sept. 11.  Eight days up in Katy, Tx. at the Great SW Equestrian Center with many others in the same predicament.   Then "camped" in our friends side yard in San Leon.  Their place survived the storm, because of the higher elevation.  Most of their trees were damaged due to high winds and tornados, at least seven or so. What a mess!  But, fortunatley for them and us the house and barn made it. These wonderful ladies evacuated their mare & 4 mo. old filly, 23 cats,and 2 dogs. With 3 trucks and a two-horse trailer!  We stayed in touch through out the stom and when they had power and water back at home, we all cam back, to begin the "Recovery".  So, by now, you get the idea...

Yes, it’s true, we are having a baby. One of our newest family members, Snuggles is going to have a baby in June.

We took her to Colorado State University in 2008 to have eye surgery. Snuggles has glaucoma and we are trying to save extend the life of her eye; since she is already blind in her other eye.

The doctors, students and staff at CSU were GREAT!!!!!!! They took such good care of Dolly, a mini friend (yes, she went to keep Snuggles company) and Snuggles. Everyone was so nice and so accommodating. They loved our babies as much as we do.

We spent Monday getting Snuggles examined to see if she was a candidate for the laser surgery. We suspected that she might be pregnant, so they did a sonogram (see pictures) and sure nuff there was a baby in there. After examining her eye Dr. Garcia and Dr. Powell said the surgery could help, but of course like all surgeries there are risk. We were very worried, but decided we needed to try and save her eye. The surgery was done on Tues. and everything when great. They said Snuggles was a wonderful patient.

We came home on Wed. Dr. Garcia walked with us out to the trailer and I told him that he might have to help us because Snuggles has trouble loading. Ha, she proved me wrong she jumped right in. We feel like it is because she is seeing much better. Every time we unloaded and loaded her on the trip home, she did perfectly.

Everyone is home safe and sound. Snuggles has drops put in her eyes several times a day, everyday. Hopefully, all of this will extend the life of her eyesight. After all, she needs to be able to see her new baby next year.

I need to thank EVERYONE at CSU, especially Cheryl. Cheryl, what can I say about her, she is WONDERFUL!!! She worked so hard to get everything set up for us and took such good care of us while we were at CSU. Then, there is Dr. Garcia and Dylan. Those two ROCK!!! I wish I had two doctors like them, lucky Snuggles. Dr. Powell was wonderful also, she explained everything to us and our options….she ROCKS too. Then there were the great equine nurses (Krista, Kim and Kris), they took such great care of Dolly and Snuggles. They were so cute, they just loved our girls. When we picked Dolly and Snuggles up on Wed. the girls had fixed their hair during the night. Snuggles had braids with pink ribbon and Dolly had a cute, yellow pig tail in her mane. We love Colorado State Veterinary Hospital.

We will keep everyone up to date with Snuggles and her baby.

  Meet Snuggles.  Snuggles is our soon to be "mama" mini and is owned by Minis and Friends South Plains Co-Founder, Ed. 

   Snuggles special story on "All About Me" is coming soon.

We would like to announce the Jollyeo fund. We are creating a fund to assist people whose animals get attacked by a dog.

We know that sometimes animals are put down after they are attacked by a dog not because they cannot survive, but because the owner cannot afford the vet bills. We would like to put a stop to this happening.

We wanted to honor the memory of Jolly and Oreo and at the same time help other animals and their owners. The details of how the fund will work are still being worked out, but we are going to proceed with raising awareness and funds.

We will be selling black and white awareness bracelets, Hearts and Hooves on side and Oreo and Jolly are on the other side. I will post a picture of the wristband tomorrow.

We have adult and youth bracelets. We are selling them for $5 each.

If anyone would like to help with this cause, please e-mail and we will give details. Also, if anyone owns a business that would like to sell the bands please let us know.

We are very excited about the program and we hope it becomes a HUGE success.

Thank you for your support.

Melanie (Kauli and Kim)

Well, it's a beautiful day!  Hope it stays this way for a couple of days...  Last evening George and Moonshine was Bar-B-Queing in the back, when I got home from work.  Moonshine loves to hangout with George, when he's cookin outside...

 Take a look!

Moonshine checking out the chicken...                                 Kiwi, our tortie, snoozing in the sun.

Hyacinth

Welll....  It's Spring, and Easter Sunday, but it's a chilly day, so far...  About 66 degrees, and overcast, down here in "Sunny San Leon".  It's finally starting to dry out here, some.  It's been a really wet winter, but that's living, on Galveston Bay...

  George took a photo of this flower, (I think it's a Hyacinth,) in our back yard.  I liked it so much, that I'm useing it for wallpaper on my PC.  Everything is blooming, along with our allergies, even Moonshine has a litte bit of a runny nose, too.  Yes, horses have allergies, too...  I want to give Moonshine a bath today, and possibly get a little riding and playtime in today and tomorrow, too.  But not until afternoon, I'm afraid he'll get a little cold, while I'm bathing him, plus it's windy, too. And that's NOT FUN!  For him or me...Wet cold and wind, makes everyone cold,cold...  and the wind is coming right off the water, so that makes it even worse, down here!  We have a green lisard (Anole) living in our kitchen window and George catches flies for him/her. It's so cute!  It actually waits for George to feed him. Will come out and give him a look, like "Where's my lunch?"  It's really quite "tame" for these little guys. We're having fun with "Gizzard" as George calls it.

Lizard

Here's a photo of "Gizzard".  Waiting for lunch.

This one "owns" our kitchen window.  They are very territorial, so there is no others "living" there.  We see them all over our place, inside and outside, plus there are alot of geckos and green tree frogs.

Green frog

Green tree frog on our frount window, just "Sunning", and looking for a meal...  They are great mosquito eaters!

I hope it gets a little warmer,  for everyone, this Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter!!!

MF Family

Great News!  We have been chosen to receive a grant that will greatly help to provide a more secure environment for the Minis and Friends South Austin Minis at Onion Creek Ranch.

Our owners received a call today from Electrobraid Fencing that we are receiving a grant of Electrobraid fencing and it will arrive within the next 10 days.  Our mini-mom Sally is so excited she's got everyone excited. Thank you, thank you ElectroBraid!

Us minis are excited to - because now we can run and play and kick up our heels and fly through the pastures without everyone worrying we will get out of the old fences or sneak out to look for grass.

Pictures coming soon - we're having a "Fence Raising Party" - Wanna Come and Help Us Out? Perfect for a corporate team builder or college community group!!

Email Buckshot's mom if you do - at lsutherland@austin.rr.com

Oh and Check out the new photos - many are from Sammy's House visit this month and that cute Milli in her new sneakers.  We heard that Jonathan didn't get any matching sneakers?

Cheerio!

MasterCard and SeanMonet

Wolf & Cubs

More figurines, I have "rescued and redone..."

"Free Spirits"