The animals I live with

 

Ducks and geese

Of course, you have seen the goose stories but along with that, we have ducks. Unfortunately most of them (all but one) have been taken out by what we know now is a great horned owl.  The C.O. saw it one evening hovering over the geese and ducks. They all ran to the front of the pen in fear. The owl did not attack that night and has not since.

I think I have that under control. Bigger birds (Peking ducks) are not susceptible to this predator. In the pictures here, we have a mixed breed of Khaki Campbell and Runner ducks. It was a pleasant surprise to get all the fluffy tops on their heads, as the parents did not display this.

The cutest one of all as you can see here was named frenchie.  

This is Mr. Ducky. He has survived six years, this is the longest we have been able to keep a duck. I guess he is the smart one and knows to go to the back of the flock. He has been through it all.

At one time, we had two separate broods of ducks.

Mr. Ducky was one of the ducklings from the duck we called Mouth.  She was the mother to all of them the Grandma. The other female called baba baba her surviving duckling from the previous year fought with mouth; I guess it was a territorial thing. Therefore, Mouth took her brood up the field to another pond. They would come back at night so I did not worry. Not until the returns were less and less, frequent.  Each day I would walk up to check on them and each day one or two would be gone. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it. You cannot herd ducks especially when they are in the middle of a deep pond.

Anyways, he spent 3 months wondering the pasture alone until one day he just showed up. The lone survivor. One time after an owl massacre night I found him in the garage under a vehicle with a claw wound on his back. He healed and was accepted by the geese as one of them.  I hope that he lives a long life for a duck. Lord knows he knows how to survive.

Unfortunately, there is not much I can do about the owl.  It comes in at night and attacks the ducks. They are not trainable and getting them into the pen is near impossible. Free-range ducks are not free range when they are locked in a pen all the time. Geese are trainable and go into the pen at night. Peking ducks are very much close to geese. In fact, one of our female geese adopted our first batch of Peking. Unfortunately, they were all males.  I am hoping that getting bigger ducks (Peking’s) will solve the problem. I like having duck around. Their comical antics and wonderful rich flavored eggs are worth the work.

Mildred is our second grey hound. As far as she is concerned everyone else gets to eat way more then she does. When she came to us she was nothing but a skeleton, I guess that how the trainers want them. I was embarrassed to have anyone see her. She is now
pleasantly plump for a grey hound. In fact she is fat and happy

The C.O. went to the greyhound adoption clinic the week before to pick her out. She seamed well adjusted so the next week after her processing we went to pick her up. The C.O. told me to get in the back seat with her. I did grudgingly because I did not know this dog and I was going to be in very close proximity of her. Well, she looked at me and laid down for the rest of the trip home. I think that is were I became her human

When we first got her home she was a wreck. She would not come to either of us and she was afraid of everything. On the first full day of us having her here. We asked her is she wanted to go for a walk and she just circled around the dinning room table  with her tail between her legs making a sound like no no, no, no, no. One had to wonder what happened to her in her 1 and1/2 years on this earth. She is now better and enjoys her life. It took a lot of love and patience though.

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Jasmine was our first greyhound together. The C.O. had one prior to her. Jasmine was a playful soul. She had a great sense of humor. She liked to chase the friendly neighborhood deer, not for the reason you would think. She wanted them to chase her back. She would start chasing them and then turn around so they could chase her. They never caught on to that for some reason. She never gave up trying though.

She never barked, well maybe just at turtles. We had her for about two year and had never heard her bark. One day we were in the house and jasmine was still in the front yard alone. There was a dog barking. It was Jasmine barking at something. We went out to investigate and it was a turtle trying to lay her eggs in the yard. Jasmine was running around and barking at her. We have no idea why. From then on every time she would see a turtle, she would bark at it.

We got her from one of our neighbors. The C.O. had gone up there and visited them. He fell in love with her. They had just gotten her from a friend and had two other dogs already. The C.O. asked if we could have her. They said yes. When we went up to pick her up I took the leash and was standing there like normal. The C.O, said you should hold on tight because greyhounds are strong. I did not listen. The neighbor opened the gate and Jasmine took off running. I went flying into the air. I landed on my right hip in the gravel.  I had a huge bruise for weeks afterwards.

She was also a great hunter. She did not want to kill she just like to play. One day the cats were chasing a mouse in the house. She watched them for a few minute. Then went over grabbed the mouse in her mouth and shock it. It dropped dead and the cats looked at her like really, now we cannot play with it. She was looking at the cats like, this is how you catch a mouse. Isn't this what you wanted? The cat turned away from her, flipped their tails in the air and walked away.

Unfortunately, we lost her to bone cancer at the age of 7years. She will always be in our hearts and our minds.  



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George came to us as a tip for one of my sons delivering pizza. He was 6 months old and the people that gave him away lived in a small apartment.  The first thing the C.O. said was but he is orange. Everyone has an orange cat. I think orange cats have great personalities. He likes to be outside most of the time so he loves it here. He is so cuddly, almost to annoyance. He has a great brrrrt that he always does when he is talking to you, and he talks a lot. George also goes for walks with me, sometimes on the road in the morning when I take Millie for a walk. In the evening when I walk though the woods and around the ponds he always goes. He gets very upset when he misses this walk.

The neighbors think it's funny to see him walking down the road behind me and Millie. One time the geese went down the road and I had to herd them up and walk them back to the yard. A neighbor driving by stopped and asked if I was walking my geese now.

A couple more things to tell you about George. When he was still under a year old he was not afraid of anything. One day he was watching for a goffer to peek it's head out of the goffer hole. One of our friendly neighborhood deer came up to him to see what he was doing. George ran over and slapped her on the nose. Was she ever surprised. She quickly ran away. George went back to his goffer hole. 

One day we couldn't find George. We could hear him but not see him. It was a quite kind of meowing like arrrr, arrrr, arrrr. Finely we found him. In a small tree hanging on for dear life at the top branch.. The tree was small enough for him to jump out of. He would not jump out of the tree, I tried to go up and get him but the trunk was to narrow. The C.O. said he would go get the ladder. I started to follow the C.O. back to the house. George stated crying. Don't Leave me is what I am sure he was trying to say. So, I stayed with George until the C.O. came back with the ladder. I went up grabbed him and put him in my arms.  He hung on very tight until we got back to the house

There was a stray white female cat that had been hanging around for a couple of weeks. She was very friendly to us but did not like our two male cats. She would go after them and attack them. She also would not come into the house so the C.O. made a little shelter for her.

Now, George must have come across her out in the woods and ran up the tree. She was no longer there but he was to afraid to come down out of the tree. This tree was only about 8 feet high.

So, I guess that there is something he is afraid of. She is no longer here, but when stray cats come into the yard he high tails it back to the house.



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Chester is our newest addition. We got him at 8 months old from the animal ark. They said that his sibling and him were born outside and that their mother had died when they were found. His sibling were adapted right away and that he had been their for awhile.

We have had him for about two years now. When we first brought him home he hid under a desk for two weeks. We put him in the spare bedroom so he could get use to the sounds and smells of the house. He would only come out when no one was around. We could coax him out sometimes with a feather than we would grab him and pet him. once he was in your arms he was fine.

Further observation after he had free range of the house resulted in he could not see very well. Crossed eyes or something. Needles to say he is afraid of everything. Including going outside. That's way to scary. The one time he went out, within seconds of him realizing he was outside, he froze. He started crying and the C.O. had to rescue
him.  

I guess it must of been very traumatic for him outdoors and not being able to see things right. The C.O. calls him wee-tard. Because his legs are short and stubby.

He is afraid if anyone that he does not know enters the house. A strange animal is fine, just people he doesn't know scares him. I am not sure how he knows if they are strangers or not, maybe their smell.


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Mr. Peacock. He does not belong to us but he is here a lot. I guess he lost his mate. She was a mallard duck that we gave them a few years ago. they hung together like pea's and carrots. He had a female peacock mate years ago but she ran away with the turkey's. I guess she thought one of them was prettier then him. For the most part our geese and him get along except for the last few weeks. Mother goose does not like him to be around her baby ducks. I wish I would of had my camera the day they got into a fight. She ran over and bite him in the chest. He jumped up and flew over he head then came back around and bite her in the butt. She went after him and we did not see him for about a week.

 

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