| This is Binky, who is the queen of the Little H-Bar Ranch.
Binky was supposed to be a barn cat, but she had other ideas.
Binky bosses everyone around, including Nugget and the horses.
Here, she's just enjoying the afternoon lounging around on our
back deck in the shade. She was rescued by a friend of J. Robert
Dobbson's. Binky is a real party animal and loves to follow
everyone around. Once, she even went horse-camping with us,
as a stowaway in our trailer! |
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Binky |
| Nugget is the newest member of the Little H-bar menagerie.
We got him from the Marin Humane Society in January 2004, at
the age of five months. He is part border collie and part blue
heeler. Unfortunately, this means that he tries to bite the
horses' tails, which they don't like at all. He is very sweet,
rather shy and afraid of Binky. Here he is sitting on the futon
couch in the office, where he looks quite at home. |
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Nugget |
| This is Hannah, my very first horse. She's 29 years old,
and has seen quite a few trails in her time. Right now she's
comfortably enjoying the later years of her life in retirement,
and occasionally giving rides to visiting children. Hannah is
very good with children and seems to enjoy giving rides. Hannah
is a registered Quarter Horse. |
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Hannah |
| Beau is thirteen years old, and is my husband Garrett's
main riding horse. He is very smooth, very fast and the boss
of the horse herd. He is a registered Appendix, which means
that he is half thoroughbred and half quarter horse. I guess
that makes him only one-eighth of a horse! |
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Beau |
| Mr. Ed is a registered paint, who is Hannah's son. I
found him on the internet by sending e-mail to the American
Paint Horse Association Registry His father is a champion working
cow horse named Tommy's Doc Bar. Mr. Ed is fifteen years old
and is my riding horse. He is not really paint-colored, as he
only has a small patch of white near his right front leg. This
makes him a "Breeding Stock Paint". But he is not doing any
breeding either, as he is a gelding! He loves cows, however,
and knows much more about them than I do! |
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Mr. Ed |
| Blazar is our newest horse. He is a Morgan-quarter horse
cross, and is 8 years old. We found him through an ad in the
Press Democrat that said he was "young, strong, willing and
handsome!" The ad didn't lie - he is turning into a great trail
horse, even though he is a very wide-bodied ride. He is our
"spare horse" and we take turns riding him. |
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Blazar |
| Gizzy is the last of the original barn cats who came with the ranch. She is
rather shy and eats on top of the tack room. She used to meow all the time
but it turned out she had an enlarged thyroid. Now that this has been
fixed, she is very mellow. |
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Gizzy |
| This is our most beautiful cat, Tracy. Tracy was rescued
by our friend Lauren Novatne, who was teaching in the city of
Tracy at the time (although she and the cat were both living
in Stockton.) He is a neutered 5 year old, purebred Siamese
cat, with blue eyes. He is very affectionate and has adjusted
well to ranch life. He is often seen hunting in the fields next
door by the vineyard. |
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Tracy |
This is Smoky, who now gets fed in our garage. He was
abandoned by the former neighbors, when they moved away. After
two years as a feral cat, he showed up to eat one day by the
fence, where I was putting food for Dragon, while walking Clancy.
He used to follow Clancy around, but now tries to play with
Nugget. The
only problem is that Nugget thinks he is another dog!
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Smoky |
| Patches is the most recent cat to adopt the Little H-bar.
She was abandoned by the former neighbors along with Smoky,
but it took her an extra year to get up the nerve to come over
to eat. She gets fed in the garage with Smoky and spends most
of the day hanging out by Garrett's tool bench. |
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Patches |
This is my husband Garrett's first horse, Ziggy. Ziggy
died at the age of 13, on September 18, 2003 after he broke
his leg in a pasture accident. Please visit his
memorial site.
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In loving memory of Ziggy |
Clancy was a border collie mix who lived at the Little
H-bar Ranch until 12/3/2003. She died at age 12 of a recurrence
of canine osteosarcoma after 13 months as a three-legged dog.
She was a great ranch dog!
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Clancy |
Amby lived at the Little H-bar ranch from July 2002 to
January 2004. She was very sick when she first showed up in
the barn during NASA Educator Ambassador week (after which she
was named.) She had a happy life living in the barn until she
died of terminal kidney disease at a very old age.
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Amby |
| Dragon died in September, 2004. He was one of the original barn cats that
came with the ranch in 1997. He was blind in one eye, and lived over the
tack room. As he got older, I could pet him when I fed him, but I could
never catch him to take him to the vet. |
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Dragon
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