Permanand

Why do you feel you need boots for everyday riding, especially hacking? They cost money, they cause heat buildup in the legs, and if a horse is so clumsy that it needs leg protection for simple hacking, it's too clumsy to be safe to ride. I'm not convinced that boots are actually beneficial even for more extreme sports, and I know from several decades' experience that my horses have never suffered any problems from lack of leg "protection" while riding or driving on steep, rocky trails or hard roads or jumping up to 3' cross-country or low-level dressage or working cattle.

So please, other than "Everybody does it this way", what solid reasons do you have for using leg boots?

Look what the cats drug in! I assume that's how it got in the house. It was scurrying around one bedroom for a day and a night, then tonight one cat said 'meouf' - it's hard to speak clearly with a mouth full of young rodent! I thanked her for bravely catching the little critter then separated the two. It has shown quite a bit of spunk, escaping my grasp when I tried to feed it some watered-down yogurt, which seemed like the best emergency option at the time. I caught it again, let it settle down and went into the small bathroom, closed the door, sat on the edge of the tub where it would have a hard time getting out if it escaped again, and tried to give it a drop or two of yogurt. I held it by the scruff of the neck, but of course it wouldn't eat while being held that way. I got a good-sized drop into its mouth and massaged its throat, trying to make it swallow. No happening. When I put it back into the little plastic cage, it tried to jump out and almost succeeded - there's obviously a lot of life and spunk left in the cute little furry-tailed rat.

It has significant front teeth, so maybe it is weaned already? It's about 3-4" long from nose to butt, and its tail is another 2-3". There's at least 125 years' combined experience with critters in general, in this house, so we should be able to bring this one along if it wasn't too badly injured by the puddy-tats. Just looking for a bit of guidance regarding chipmunks specifically.

Thank you!

That got your attention, didn't it? My car obviously leaks somewhere, into the front floorboards. That in itself is not such a mystery - I don't know just where the leak is, but it's clearly somewhere in front. The really weird part is that although I have wet-vacuumed repeatedly and we've had no more precipitation, the water continues to collect. If I ignore it, it just stays the same depth/amount. If I vacuum it up, it should stay gone, no? No. It will stand to a depth of an inch or more, when we've had no additional precipitation for days.

If there was a repository of water above the level of the floor, why wouldn't it all flow down at once, and get vacuumed up at once? I get it as dry as I can, then the next day or just several hours later, it's 1" deep again.

I've had it suggested that there's an issue with the air conditioning hoses, or the drainage from the windshield is plugged with debris - but I haven't used the AC yet this year, and dang it, it's been days since we got rain and I've vacuumed up a gallon or more 4 times so far --- So where the heck is this water coming from?

There is more on the passenger side than the driver's side, and the bulk of the refilling seems to happen on the passenger side.

The back doors used to slosh after a rain too, but I haven't seen that happening lately. The trunk leaks too, so there's always a puddle in there, but not as much as up front, and it doesn't refill after being sucked dry.

I'm considering drilling a hole in the floor to drain this stupid mess. I'm certainly not going to invest any money in trying to fix it up - I intend to use it up and throw it away within the year - but if anyone has any ideas of what might be causing the problem, maybe I can fix it myself or at least understand what's going on.

Thanks in advance, and if you have any equine-related questions, please feel free to ask.