Moving - and an Adoption....

I've just spent the day moving Merlin from my old stableyard to my new one -we'd been very happy at the old place, but I was tempted away by a lovely yard with fabulous facilities.  Sadly I had to leave behind many friends including Martha and Sheena, Susan and Amy, Kim, Kelly, Leila and various others, and we had to drug Merlin absolutely off his face in order that we could get him onto Sheena's truck to make the short journey to the new place.  
Merlin will just about do anything at all for me apart from get on any form of horse transportation - we all have our little foibles I guess.   So my dear friend and equine vet Vicky prescribed Merlin a drug which virtually put him out. I think in actual fact I was supposed to take it, because once I had got it into the horse (no mean feat) he was fairly unaware of what was going on.  It took seven of us to get him up the ramp and ready for travel - not because he was drugged, but because despite being drugged, he still wasn't going up that ramp.
When we got the other end I was absolutely convinced he was going to fall down the ramp and was ready to jump for it but he managed to stay on his wobbly little legs.

Several hours later he woke up in a new stable with a new view with look of amazement on his face (trust me, horses can do amazement), not quite sure how he got there.

At the same time, we have now adopted Olly, who was the cat we had been taking care of for some time at the old stableyard - we've loved him as long as we've known him - about 3 and a half years.  He's coal black from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail and is a prodigious hunter, but he's going to have to get used to living in a house rather than a stable now - fingers crossed that our cats Harley and Mia will allow Olly to become part of the feline family without too much difficulty.  Olly's previous owner, Grace, had given him to me last year - before my darling Harry was killed on the road at Christmas, so he was a planned adoption - and I am glad of this, because I don't feel I am trying to replace one cat with another, which would never be the case.  The loss and the heartbreak doesn't get any easier and Harry is missed every single day.