When's the Race? Skunked, 'Legacy', Horse Pics, and Book 7!

This is Audi's World enjoying his exercise on the training track at Woodbine (photo taken by Martin).

Keep your fingers crossed! He is training well, and a race has been tentatively selected for him. He could run on June 1st!

We hope he continues to make good progress.

We'd like to thank Franz Crean, his breeder, for including us in the ownership (with other partners), and Julia Carey, his trainer.

See below for two more horse pics.

Skunked!!

Raven, my dog, has proven himself to be far inferior to Kelly.

As you know, Kelly is Meg's beloved border collie. She is smart, loyal, and courageous. Raven is part border collie and sadly has only a fraction of Kelly's brainpower.

How do I know this?

He got skunked for the second time the other night, just as we were about to head into the field for our pre-bedtime walk.

Meg has never been sprayed, and I'm absolutely certain she never will be.

I'm not so sure about her best buddy Jake, but we'll have to see.

The stench has diminished as a result of special shampoo, carpet steam cleaning (I couldn't stop him from frantically rubbing his face on the utility room carpet), opened windows, and lots of laundry.

PS Curiously, the cats don't seem to mind the smelly dog!!!

Legacy

This is a piece I wrote during a ten-minute on-the-spot writing challenge at a Uxbridge Writers' Circle meeting.

The prompt was a bookmark that included the word 'legacy'.

Joseph heard the prognosis as his heart thumped and sweat oozed from the palms of his shaky hands. He was angry with himself. He'd known it wouldn't be good. This was no surprise. Get a grip. But it hit hard, nevertheless, as the grey figure told him he had two months to live, at the most. His only advice was to stop the chemo because recent studies showed that it didn't help in palliative care. In fact, all it would do would be to reduce his quality of life in his remaining weeks. 

            He emerged from the building as if he was climbing out of a trench dug in World War I, complete with the scars, physical and psychological, of battle. Self-pity made an attempt to swell inside him, but was rapidly quashed by panic. What sort of legacy was he going to leave? Nothing. Absolutely zilch. He had only two months to turn this around. 

            Joseph had had a rough start to life, brought up by a single parent, in a cramped, noisy, leaking, pest-infested room in North Etobicoke. Somehow, he broke free, got himself educated and had landed a reasonably well-paying job. Were there other boys like him out there who just needed a helping hand to get on the right track? He knew there were, although he hadn't visited his childhood neighbourhood for decades.

            He called his friend, Lucy, who worked for a children's charity. He told her he had to meet that evening. It was urgent. He lined up a session with a lawyer the next day, and also texted contacts he thought might help.

            He planned a gala.

            Whoops, the two months were up. (He was still alive). With even more urgency, he organized a board of directors, got by-laws passed, and launched the North Etobicoke Youth Opportunity Charity.

            We hope that Joseph knows that his charity has helped 124 youth to date, and continues to do great work. 

Vicky Earle Copyright 2025

Horse Pics

Good news! Prized Spirit (Mimi) is back in training.

She's in her stall after having enjoyed her exercise earlier that morning.

(Photo taken by Martin).

And here's another pic of Audi: trotting onto the training track, about to start his timed work.

Remember to keep your fingers crossed!!

Book 7

As you know, I've decided to write a seventh book in my Meg Sheppard Mystery Series. I've reached 25,000 words, but life has got in the way recently and my characters have been left in limbo (and not in a pleasant situation!) for a while. I hope to get back to writing soon and help them to get out of the dangerous circumstances they found themselves in (because of me!)!

Stay tuned.

Thank you for reading my post. And thank you to those of you who share my posts. I appreciate your support.

Happy reading!

Vicky