No more new animals…

The declaration of “no more new animals for a while” apparently made God laugh.  A stray kitten immediately found its way to Glory Farm, which in itself, is no small fete.  It is a tiny thing, mostly skin, bones and a few ticks.  It had been seen but not caught until it went into the hen-yard, where it drank chicken water, curled up in a ball surrounded by calm black-speckled Cuckoo Maran chickens.  The Marans who are afraid of their own shadow, didn’t seem to mind the small cat at all.  Caught and calmed by the older-shorter teen, it is happy to have food, water and a warm barn bed.  Tigger & Pooh have adapted to the additional fluffy feline, “Roo” quite well, so we could possibly have 3 fierce and mighty barn cats.

The hen-house has had lots of activity.  If there is a pecking order for chickens, I’m guessing our Marans are at the bottom.  Our tiny (still cute) Rhode Island Red chicks were showing signs of flying out of their brooder, so the teens and I gathered them up and put them in the big yard with the Marans.  We’d been instructed to ‘watch’ them to make sure the little ones did not get picked on, hardly a worry.  Only one Maran rooster felt the need to strut its stuff at the tiny chicks.  However, one tiny red chick took him on, sending all 10 larger, older chickens running for safety.  We were assured that the little reds would be just fine, right as they all walked straight through the links in the fence, which sent the teens and I in a flurry of chick catching, scrambling to catch all 6 and reconsidering exactly where in the world they were going to live .

Moses Squeaker Pants and his lunch box have been kept away from all the other animals in the safety of our master bath.  Moses is ready to be ‘kicked out of the nest’.  He will be released a few miles away, so that if one of our cats catches a sparrow, we’ll be assured it is not him.  In the mean time, we do need to remember to keep the toilet lid down, as he has learned to fly, but we’re quite sure he hasn’t learned to swim.