Our Little Foghorn is Growing Up!

We're so proud of him!!! Our little Foghorn had his first grown-up cock-a-doodle-doo yesterday morning!!!

Of course, it was at 6am.

Chicken or Fish?

The chickens are constant entertainment. They peep, more than cluck. They run around their outdoor pen eating bugs and grubs. They cuddle together in one nesting box at night. They generally have a great time. But don't be fooled, these are not your normal, every day, run-of-the-mill chickens. They're actually piranhas.

You see, they love to eat fruits and veggies. Especially rotten or slightly bad fruits and veggies. But their all-time favourite is  honey-dew melons. They go insane for these things. The first time we gave them one, they ate it quickly. The second time we gave them one, they almost mugged Drew at the door of the coop. He opened the door and leaned in with the melon. Foghorn made a run for the rind and started to peck at it as soon as Drew had it within Foghorn's reach. Lucy was right behind him. Drew dropped down the rind and ran for cover. They were pecking and eating before it even hit the ground.

He came back the next day, and the fruit was completely gone. They had eaten it down to the bare end. So, when it comes to honeydew melons, our chickens are really fish.

Doggie training.

So, we've progressed with the training to the point that Sabine was allowed to sniff Dinah's bum. Sabine thought it was the BEST DAY EVER.....Dinah thought she had died and gone to hell.

More training tonight. This consists of me holding the cat and watching the hockey game while Drew watches the dog. I live a tough life. GO HABS!

:)

The dog can't mountain bike, but she loves single-track!

I went for a ride with the dog tonight. We take her with us when we ride off-road. She really loves to be out in the forest more than anything else in the world (well, maybe less than chasing the cats, but only marginally). Unfortunately, she isn't very fast or able to run for very long. So rides with her are more like toodles to look at the leaves.

Except when we get to singletrack.

It's the funniest thing. Imagine this....a dog trotting along, tongue hanging down to her knees, head hanging down, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. And then we turn into the next piece of singletrack. She perks up. She raises her head. She picks up her pace, her tongue rolls back into her mouth (well, mostly)....we're moving!

The best, though, is when we come to corners. She corners "like she's on rails". She takes off and gallops around corners, through S-turns, and out the other side! And then she stops, panting, exhausted, and back to her slow, lazy self. We continue, plodding along, until the next exciting piece of singletrack filled with corners.

Pasta Sauce

Now that you've been introduced to our "farm-ily" we get to the fun stuff....the stories!

My first story is my personal favourite. One day earlier this spring, I got a call at work from Andrew. "Hi," he said "can you stop at Pet Smart and get some skunk shampoo".

Oh no.

Apparently, what had happened was that he and Sabine had been out for a walk in Simcoe forest, which is about 300 metres to the north of us. Sabine, as she normally does, was running like a maniac through the forest, sniffing everything. Eventually, Drew noticed that she had been gone for an unusual amount of time. So he called, and he saw a head pop up in the distance, look at him, then disappear behind a hill. Then he saw it....she was shaking and rolling in something....something that was already dead...something that was black and white and dead all over....something that looked and smelled like a dead skunk.

Oh no.

So Drew called her and she eventually came running, trailing a streak of stink behind her that would have stopped a freight train. He plugged his nose, leashed her up, and took her home where he tied her to the telephone post and went to work. Step 1: dish soap, no dice. Step 2: dog soap, no dice. Step 3: what else...tomato juice, tomato juice was supposed to take out the skunk smell! He ran into the house...no tomato juice. Shoot. What else? And then, like manna from heaven, he saw it. A bottle with 2 litres of pasta sauce. Full. He grabbed it and ran outside and dumped it on the dog. While he worked it into her fur, she happily chomped on mushrooms (we like the extra chunky kind).

I wish I had pictures to share with you.

The pasta sauce actually worked, though I have subsequently learned that tomatoes (in any format) contain something that is really bad for dogs. So, no more pasta sauce or tomato juice......but we are making sure that we stay well stocked on skunk shampoo (which is also quite effective).

Until next time...

Foghorn and his Ladies

And, last but not least, is an introduction to our chickens. The rooster is Foghorn Leghorn and the hens are Miss Prissy, Princess Leia, Leila and one other name that sounds like "lay"......'cuz they lay eggs, right? Drew thinks this is HILARIOUS! I'll see if it sticks. They're young yet, so won't start laying until September, so I figure we have until then to decide on names.

I don't have any pictures yet because the camera is broken, but as soon as I do, I'll put them up. Miss Prissy and Leia are black with white specks. Leila and the other one are brown. Foghorn is white. Apparently, according to Drew, they're the stupidest animals we have yet. They go to sleep every night in the outdoor part of their coop, COMPLETELY exposed to predators. Drew has to shoo them inside every night when he goes out to close the door to the outdoor part of the coop. Apparently Foghorn isn't doing his job. We'll have to see if he matures into it.

Cass and Dinah

And finally....Cass and Dinah are my two cats. Cass is a short haired cat. I think he's a mix between a Russian Blue and a Siamese. He's about 11, and VERY talkative. Cass was a gift from my good friend Erica. When I first moved to Toronto, she came to visit. I had always wanted a cat of my own, so we went to the pound. We met Cass and he was perfect. She had to stand guard over him so another family didn't adopt him while I went to get the correct ID. It's a good thing, too, as he almsot got adopted by a family that wanted to name him "Smokey", relegating him to a life of boring suburban existence.

Dinah, on the other hand, is a CHUBBY orange tabby. She's a princess, a very clumsy princess, built a little like the Buddha. She enjoys rolling around and having her tummy rubbed. Unfortunately, she will often roll onto her back on something high, like a counter, and wriggle around while her tummy is being rubbed. Sometimes, she will wriggle right off the side. Of course, after she drops off the edge of whatever she was on, she'll get back to her feet, look at you with disdain (as if to say "of course, I MEANT to do that") and toddle off to find some food.

Food is the main source of Cass and Dinah's excitement, these days (well, other than staying away fromt he Dog). Dinah has a three alarm system for food. Alarm stage 1: there is less than an inch deep of food in their dish (a good 6" x 6" square), where it might be possible that they could run out of food in about 5 days. This requires a lot of meowing and twining around of feet. Alarm stage 2: there is less than 1cm deep of food in their dish, where it might be possible that they could run out of food in about 3 days. This requires more meowing and ensuring she's in your shadow constantly. Alarm stage 3: you can see a little bit of the bottom of the dish.This is pretty serious and requires her chasing us down the hallway every time we go towards the back of the house, where her dish is. In fact, you can tell how close Dinah is to total starvation by how fast and heavily she chases you down the hallway. There have been a few close calls, but I would not say that Dinah and Cass have ever gone hungry. Of course, if you listen to Dinah, there is always that possibility tomorrow.