Welcome To The Zoo – Page 13

Does not share well with others.

My Bailey girl does not like to share.

Doesn’t matter that she has no interest in eating that bone.

Rudy wants it, so he ain’t getting it.

Doesn’t matter how nicely he asks, either.
The answer is no.

Do you remember when your little sister or brother might have

coveted that ratty one-armed GI JOE or naked Barbie with a bad haircut

that you no longer glanced at? And just maybe when he/she showed interest,

suddenly it was your favorite thing and no-way no-how were you giving it up.

Even if you STILL weren’t gonna do more than glance at it.

I took it away and gave it to him.
It was the right thing to do.

The bucks stopped here…

Last night while we were sitting out on the screen porch, look who wandered over the hill to graze…

I counted nine.. all bucks. I had no idea they traveled together.

I assumed they had “territories”.

Once they saw me taking pictures…

far away, using zoom with no flash!…

They hightailed it out of here.

Did you ever wonder where that saying came from?

When I met my husband and we decided in quick order that we might be cohabitating in the near future… I warned him that I came with critters. I told him I’d always have a horse, a dog, and I had no idea what else, but a menagerie was pretty much a given.

Now I KNEW that he did not grow up with animals… the one dog the family had did not work out very well, and they keep beautiful, immaculate homes. He was used to a very neat and tidy order of things and I had a feeling this might be a HUGE adjustment for both of us.

And it has been. However in his defense, he has risen to the occasion many times and has even gone above and beyond, much to his own chagrin! I do keep an acceptably clean home, but I have two signs in our house, just to keep it light, you see….

What’s a little dog hair among friends?

and

Welcome to the Zoo!

oh, and this one too…because it applies…

The buck doesn’t even slow down here

So, yeah.. there’ve been adjustments. *ahem*…

and cats and rabbits and fish and hamsters and chickens

and a rat (briefly.. I think for 24 hours… he drew the line.)

Right now, these are our other kids…

Bailey is below.. terrier mix extraordinare. Wonderful dog.

Rudy.. the pisspot. He is called this because..

at every chance, if you aren’t looking, he will pee on something to mark it HIS.

He liked it better when he was briefly an only child.

This is his way of telling us he is not thrilled to have siblings.

When Bailey came to live with us Rudy wouldn’t eat.

For days.

I took him to the vet… and the vet said
“Anything new in the house? He’s depressed”

Ofcourse the new thing was Bailey.

Then the vet said
“Let’s try antidepressants”

I said “Hell no, he’ll just have to SUCK IT UP, thank you”.

Don’t judge me.

Rudy has been a pain in the a** ever since, but we love him anyway.

Rudy is lucky my daughter, in particular, really loves him.

When she moves out some day, he goes with her.

My Big Boy Ben….

It’s hot today and he’s slack’n.

Actually we all are.

Opie, my QH gelding

Coady & Lacey, my minis….

Now I have promised, since we are building a barn again…

that I will keep the numbers down.

You all will keep me to it, right?

Right.

Location, Location

For weeks we have been ~~laughing at~~ observing a male common house sparrow who has taken residence in our recycled- house-parts birdhouse. This year we placed it on the edge of the brick patio in the backyard. He has been sitting on it, chirping forlornly, occasionally puffing his feathers and defending it fiercely whenever another male bird came near. I wondered what he was doing, as there did not appear to be a female building a nest or co-habitating in any way. So I googled…

“The mating habits or courtship of the House Sparrow can begin as early as January and continue through July. The males claim their nest sites and defend its immediate territory. There is no defined area outside the nest that the bird defends.
The male chirps by the nest site trying to attract a female. When a female comes by the male chirps louder and more quickly. Sometimes the male will follow the female a short distance and hop or wing quiver around her if she passes by him. Other males may join in trying to attract the same female. Mating occurs throughout the breeding cycle, (March through early August) near the nest site, and may occur several times during the day. Once the birds pair, nesting begins. These birds are monogamous, usually for life.
Although lost mates are quickly replaced during the breeding season. ”
(what else is new)

So there you have it. I figured this guy has been trying real hard for a while now.. perhaps it was the location of his house that was making it impossible to attract a girlfriend. All the males defending the bluebird houses had mates already.. those were located away from our patio. My son and I moved the house and wouldn’t ya know… within 24 hours….

The girlfriend moved in.

Sometimes, location is everything.

16 days

Grey Gardens

The one where she’s really random….

Can you believe these guys? They’ll be ready to fly the coop soon!

This is my favorite chicken… Dorothy

She is the wisest, calmest, friendliest chicken of the girls

and she’ll be the biggest – a Black Jersey Giant

Ask me how much I love peonies…

And this color combo in the patio pots…..

Glorious weather here today…

Can’t stop thinking of all those people who have lost their homes

and loved ones in that series of tornadoes…

The destruction is just devastating to see, let alone live..

and I’m not even gonna post a picture of that hideous

Casey A*thony trial.

If the story she is spewing isn’t true…

and I doubt it is, for she has lied a thousand times..

..then she is just pure evil.

I hate knowing people are capable of

inflicting this level of horror on each other.

ENOUGH said.

Miracle Grow

I am amazed at the amount of growth I’m witnessing

among the chicks-to-chickens and baby birds-to-Robins.

Chicks four weeks ago…

And just four weeks later – feathers, chicken shaped body… quatrupled in size.

By the way, chickens are very hard to get a decent picture of.

They are constantly worried or curious about you and move perpetually.

Hence – crappy pictures.

Baby robins just six days ago…

Now that’s pretty amazing.
It actually looks impossible! But this is truly six days growth.
From that tiny translucent skinned creature that emerges from the egg,
it takes just 14 days for a baby Robin to grow a full body
of feathers and be able to hop around and flutter it’s wings.

Coady & Lacey

Besides my quarter horse, Opie, who long-time readers have met, I also have two miniature horses. When we decided to buy This Old House and renovate and the old farm went up for sale, it was clear I’d have to find them another living arrangement until I had a place here for them again. Opie went to a boarding barn nearby..and the minis have been living on a sheep farm.

Long story short, they are now back in my possession and I just didn’t realize how much I missed these two little horses. They are living in their old quarters on the old farm (still not sold) until we can get something up for them here. And while I’ve tossed and turned about the decision to build another barn, we’ve decided to bring Opie and a boarder home too. After twenty five years of having my horses right outside the door, (and all the work that entails) and then having a respite… I’m taking the plunge and bringing them home again. This time the barn will be smaller and easier for me to care for…. (oh, my aching back!) and I’ll have a boarder who will share in the work.. that’s a huge relief.

Here we are … IN THE RAIN!…because it is …still… raining….

They are smaller than Ben. (my Dane)