It's been so long since I started fiddling with my template, I've forgotten most of what I learned and have to refer to my Dummies books. Sad, sad, sad. Image Shack has funkified the way my pics are displayed and I can't copy and paste into blogger, for some reason, and all the changes gave me a feeling obsoleteness, which I am over.

Anyhoo, I went to Ashland, home of former patient, I checked out my animal buddies I used to visit when I lived there caring for Himself--I miss them *sniffle*.

Aren't they bee you tee ful? Destined to never turn up on a plate.

Mr. Bull. He sneaked up on me while I was taking pictures of the others last year. I didn't know Mr. Owner had bought him. He just appeared out of nowhere on my left, scraping his horn on the fence. No big, he's a good tempered baby, but he scared the crapola out of me--he's huge. Mr. Owner takes a lot of guff from the folks in the area because they all have Angus or some other type of beef cattle and he has "pets"--good for him, says I.

I never named any of them except for this fella. I call him Uncle Charlie because he reminds me of my uncle--always dancing to a different beat, belching beer fumes on everyone and playing pull-my-finger whenever we all got together.

There are a lot of rescue burros in Clay County and the one in the middle (mare, jenny, Mz. Burro) is the boss of the whole pasture, even pushes the bull aside when I get there with my carrots.

Ashland is eighty miles south of where I live and I don't think rural is even the right word to call it...rustic would be more like it. It has more than its share of bugs and it sounds like a Tarzan movie when it gets dark and I spent a lot of time bitching about the lack of civilization--no Wally World, no bakeries, no you-name-it, just Piggly Wiggly and Dollar General--when I first got there but I grew to love it. When I went back today all the critters remembered me; I nearly squalled.