Day 16 - Josie
Josie was our family’s first entry into fostering. When you do the analysis, we had 2 dogs when we first fostered Josie and her kittens. Now, we have 8 cats and 6 permanent dogs. Josie and her litter might be the root cause of our chaos. She likes to come sit on the arm of the chair next to you when she wants pets. Josie’s whiskers are the reason we have a jar where we collect any cat whiskers found around the house.
Day 15 - Fussy the Tolouse goose
Fussy was our first goose. We moved her mate on to another owner because he didn’t get along with the ducks. Fussy fit right in though. Here she’s headed out of the barn this morning.
Day 14 - Marble the Alpine goat
Marble came to us from a local dairy that makes goat milk cheese. She was bottle raised and stayed in the house and yard until she was ready to be on her own in the pasture. Marble is a doe, but exhibits very bucky behaviors often. When the sheep shearer came last year, she reared up and gave him a nice bruise on his hip from her headbutt. Marble now ends up being leash walked if a shearer, vet, etc needs to work with her or other animals.
Day 13 - a Pekin duck
At some points, strange things happen. We live down the road from a kennel and people drive by to drop their dogs and cats off for trips. They can see our various animals as they do so. One day last year, a random person showed up on our porch. They had 3 Pekin ducks they were raising in their backyard, but predators had gotten 2 of them. They boarded their dogs at the kennel and therefore knew we had ducks. Would we be willing to take their duck so it could live with our flock? This was not something anyone had in their mind when we first started keeping livestock, but here with are with a Pekin duck now.
Day 12 - Shaun the Tunis sheep
Shaun is the compatriot of Timmy from day 3. His face is white instead of brown like Timmy. Yes, they are named after the Shaun the Sheep TV show. They are both pretty aloof, but Shaun is even more so. He'll come up to you like he really wants some scratches on his head, but then as soon as you reach out he backs away.
Day 11 - George the Great Dane + basset hound
George was a foster fail. He loves to eat and is always hungry. But he only eats while he’s sitting on a piece of furniture. I don’t know why either.
Day 10 - Nicodemus , the classic tabby
Named after the scene in the Robin Hood movie where a cat scares Marian, Nicodemus was a bottle fed kitten since he was found with his mother. He had to go to the vet today, so he’s full of the good stuff and the technician still had to get out the gloves. He’s also our trick cat because he’ll jump up into my arms.
Day 8 - ancona ducklings
This one is from a few years ago. Every few years, we do hatch some of our eggs both to sell the ducklings as well as replenish our egg-laying flock. Those years provide some cute photo opportunities.
Day 7 - Cecilia-Camilia (CC), a cayuga duck
CC is one of the first batch of ducks we got. Her two sisters we got at the same time have already moved on. When they are young, cayugas are all black with some iridescent blue and green coloration at times. Just like many humans, ducks go gray over their lifetime, and you can see that in CC feathers here. CC definitely held onto her black and iridescent coloration for far longer than her sisters.
Day 6 - 2 cotton patch goose, one regular and one pied
Two more member of the sus squad. A standard female cotton patch goose has the gray coloring with a little white on the head and underneath. They also come in the pied variation seen here. Traditionally, the geese would be put in the cotton field to eat any grass or other plants you didn’t want, hence the name.
Casey Hadden