Doggone it! Owner, pet square off

Lenny and I are having a battle of wills.

I have four kittens in the house now and that means there has to be kitten food available for them. And kitten food is on Lenny's list of all-time favorite foods, along with watermelon, asparagus, any flavor of yogurt and snickerdoodle cookies.

Because the kittens are tiny, I have to keep their food on the floor. During the day, that's no problem, because the dogs are outside. But at night, when the dogs come in the house, Len goes on the offensive.

Carol Reiter -

If I'm not too tired when I come in, I remember to pick up the cat food before letting the dogs in. But if I'm hot and sticky from cleaning Willy's pen and feeding him, then I tend to just go on autopilot -- I'm in the house, therefore the dogs are in the house.

And Lenny is sneaky. He doesn't come in and head right for the cat food. Oh, no, he's not that stupid. I usually don't have to worry about the rest of the dogs, because Kate and Jan race each other for the bedroom and stake out their place on my bed.

Peg immediately goes to every window in the house and peers out, making sure there are no horses running amok outside or renegade cats dancing on the windowsills.

But Lenny sticks right with me, acting like he's so glad to see me. I usually give him a pat on the head, and tell him he's a good boy. After all, he didn't dig up the yard, all of the cats are still alive, and all the chickens still have all their feathers.

Then I get busy, eating my dinner or washing clothes or whatever. I don't think about the dogs -- out of sight, out of mind. It's usually pretty peaceful, unless Peg finds something at a window to bark at.

Then I realize that it's too quiet, and where in the heck is Lenny? I hear frantic crunching, and I realize that Len is busy gulping down as much cat food as he can physically eat.

So I yell at him, and he slinks off, grabbing a last mouthful of food before he throws himself down in his corner and pouts.

I tell him that he has his own food, he's fat as a tick, and kitten food cannot be good for him. I tell him that kitten food is expensive, and is to be eaten only by cats.

During this time, Len has his one ear up and his other one straight out, and he's glaring at me. I know that no matter what I say, he's going to try and snarf down some kitten food as soon as I'm distracted. In Lenny's world, patience is not just a good and noble virtue, it's the only virtue.

I know that I could solve the whole thing by just remembering to pick up that darn cat food before the dogs come in, but that would be too easy. And if I did, Len would just figure out another way to get to the kittens' food. I guess I should be glad that he's trying to eat the kitten food, and not the kittens.

On a sad note, just days after Ox passed away, we had another tragedy. My friend's yearling, a sweet Paint filly from Willy's second crop of foals, had to be put down. She had broken her pelvis about six months ago, and had been trying to heal since then.

But in her efforts to take weight off her bad hip, she basically broke down on her good leg. She was in pain, and our vet told the filly's owner that it was pretty much hopeless.

So we made a trip to Turlock that was too long, and at the same time, too short. We dropped off a filly who was born a year ago full of promise and life. We left a yearling who had been born on a beautiful May morning to one of the best horse mothers I have ever known. We left a blue-eyed, blaze-faced, brave-hearted little horse that will never reach her full potential. We left Lena, and we came home with an empty trailer and a truck full of tears.

But that filly had a lot of good horses waiting for her. She had Tiny and Vanessa and Prince to show her around. She had Wimpy and Casey to protect her, and she had Rosie and Bridget and Tia and Missy to mother her, if she needed it. Lena's in good hands, but we'll sure miss her.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com.