FRANCIS'S BLOG 04/24/2026
Halloween III! 🎃
Henry has become a winged Pegasus!
Don’t ask him to spread his wings, though (we couldn’t figure that out 🐴).
Halloween! 🎃
“Either it’s Halloween or the cat-cops are taking my incarceration too seriously.” 🐴
”Hey! Inmate! Keep it down over there!” 🐺
More Cat Capers 😺
Luigi is deep in thought. He’s trying to develop a plan to integrate the new kittens into the family.
He’s also guarding an egg. Oh, and here’s a studio-quality picture Ann took:
Well, Steve/Katfish is a girl 😺
The vet has determined that Katfish is a girl, so our good friend Kellen has named her Penny. The other large kitten is a boy, so he will henceforth be Steve (aka Noodles 🐴).
The small kitten is a girl too, and her name is Finn! 😸
The kittens keep coming 😺
Well, Ann went back to the canal to see if there were any more kittens, and she found two more. So now Katfish/Steve is joined by two siblings:
Poor Steve/Katfish, we’ve forgotton which one was you!
Here’s another movie:
The two bigger cats are friendly, but the little one is shy:
Security Chief Luigi says, “They all need background checks, with extreme vetting!”
”In fact, they’re all going to the vet at 2:30 this afternoon!” 😺
More Katfish (aka Steve) news 😸
Sleepy kitty:
Steve (our good friend Kellen thinks he’s more of a Steve than a Katfish) thinks his new home in the tac room is much better than being lonely and cold by the Hennepin Canal:
Now, this is a happy cat! (We haven’t told him yet that Wednesday afternoon he’s going to the vet to get checked out 😾) Anyway, here’s a movie of him getting to know the farm:
Meet Katfish (with a K) 😸
Our Bill went fishing Sunday, and guess what crawled up into the engine compartment and started meowing?
We’re calling him Katfish. He’s living in the tac room, is eating like Iris 🐎, and can use a litter box like a pro.
Here he is exploring the garage:
And he’s drinking from the duck’s water like a native!
Glug glug 🐎
RC, Chavez, and Iris all get a drink after spending the day in the far pasture:
It looks like we need a salt block (the holder is empty).
35 degrees Friday morning
Here’s Iris visiting me in the slammer:
”I can finish my own hay, thank you, Iris."
Dust storms! 🐎
Monday night was so windy, the horses had to have their dinner hay inside:
So it’s nice that I had company:
I’m still serving my sentence for breaking out of the fence. 🐴
Coming back from AQH Congress 🐎
Mary and Jewel won 6th place, Limited-aged Mares, 11th place, Open-aged Mares, and $100!
What a pair of pretty girls! 🐴
Cat splash 😺
Schrödinger spends some quality time with the hose:
See how the ducks photo-bomb him toward the end. 😸
I fought the law and the law won 🐴
At about 8PM Friday a 911 call came into the Henry County Sheriff’s Department. The long and the short of it: I was arrested.
Apparently, someone reported a donkey outside our fence, walking along HWY 6. Preposterous!⎯I was outside the fence at that time and didn’t see anybody!
Unfortunately, the officer did not understand donkey or horse, so Deno and Uncle Bud were called (Ann and Mary and Jewel are at a show in Columbus) and I ended up in the slammer. Here I am talking things over with my attorney:
Counselor Stormy says I should just let it go, and accept my sentence of spending the nights in his stall until the fence is reinforced⎯and thank the officer and the rest of the Sheriff’s department for treating me kindly, and getting me away from the road so I couldn’t hurt myself or anybody driving by.
(But I still say it wasn’t me 🐴)
Traffic jam 🐎
Here we are, coming in from the far pasture.
Even though our bridge has been widened, we still couldn’t avoid a pile-up at the gate. We must have just stopped to admire the new work.
Kitties at breakfast 😺
Zelda, Kanna and Pumpkin say good morning. 😺
Luigi can’t tear himself away from breakfast long enough to look up. 😾
I hear you 🐴
“Yes, I hear you!”
”With ears like this, how can I not hear you!”
”Yes, I promise never to squeeze under the fence again!"
Cat Coexistence 😺
Evil Cat and Schroeder get along just fine.
Just don’t ask them to share a can of cat food.
Mea culpa 🐴
This is how I was found Sunday morning:
I discovered a part of the fence I could shimmy under. . . .
It was down by the creek, near the highway (hence my muddy hooves).
Actually, I thought it was pretty clever of me that I made my way back here. 🐴
Schrödinger is a day late 😿
Schroeder heard that we found baby mice in the hay barn yesterday, so he’s been waiting for them to come back:
He will have a long wait. 😿
Rainy Thursday morning 🐴
What’s this picture about, other than hay?
There were baby mice in the hay! 🐭
Fowl news 🐴
Sometimes the old ducks and the young ducks will sit together and not chase each other around.
This is as close as we get to having all our ducks in a row (which will never happen):
Cats in high places 😺
Luigi and Zelda keep lookout from the tac room:
Pumpkin keeps lookout from the outhouse:
Just checking out the equipment 🐴
Storing farm equipment in the stable is ok as long as they stay the heck out of my stall!
(P.S., this isn’t my stall⎯but it’s the stall next to mine so I’m getting nervous. 🐴)