Won’t Come In From the Cold – Wordless Wednesday

image: Vincent; from martha0stout’s phone

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Put Them Down!

So my sister got goslings to help with the weeds in a part of the yard we haven’t done anything with yet. They’re doing pretty good with it, but they’re not fenced in yet. (Because, for some reason, this is how we do the ‘get animals’ thing. We get the animals and then get the fencing.)

Anyway, our oldest dog, Vincent has spent almost two years trying to teach our second oldest dog, Helena how to safely pick up our birds. She’s not the best at it and seems to take a terrible delight in pulling their feathers. We lost a chicken the first fall up here because of that.

They both have soft mouths and can hold raw eggs in their mouths without breaking them. Of course, there’s no way to get the eggs back after they show that they can safely hold them because they eat them.

Now Vincent has realized that the goslings are supposed to wander around, but every now and then Helena decides she won’t stand for that and picks them up to carry them around in her mouth. Whether because she wants to ‘put them up’ or just likes to do it, I have no idea, but she’s not supposed to presently do that and she does actually know that. She keeps doing so today, but half the time before we can even get outside or the window open to stop her, Vincent’s getting on to her and making her let the gosling go.

The gosling, which isn’t missing feathers and is completely unharmed.

No One Calms The Goslings Like Vincent – Wordless Wednesday

image: Vincent and his goslings; image from martha0stout’s phone

Animal Whisperer – Wordless Wednesday

image: (counterclockwise starting at the brown cat and ending at the human) Jackdaw, Locutis, Vincent, Helena, Chris; from martha0stout’s phone

All Smiles

Perhaps I had forgotten
Until you saw her face
Peering into the case

We got a puppy a few weeks ago. Ironically, from the same people we got our dog Vincent from. She’s from the last litter they’ll have as their mother was a stray that wandered into their yard and decided she really liked their two male dogs who weren’t fixed. They have a happy little pack, but only recently was the female comfortable enough with her new humans to let them catch her and take her to be fixed. Vincent is three years older than his little sister and he’s from one of the first litters they had.

Moving has been hard on Vincent and we had already decided we’d get him a companion once we’d moved. (We have, in fact, moved and are still unpacking at the new place.) We didn’t expect to be able to get him a puppy which he is just over the moon about. I’m pretty sure he was happier over her than the rest of us put together. He adores his little sister.

Buzzing Worries

I have often found
Mem’ries given way to stress
Relief I still there find

Each year when spring starts, I receive a reminder to make sure my dog knows not to eat any bees or to be on the lookout in case he does and needs any medical attention. Even though I live on a farm, I find I haven’t ever needed to worry about Vincent eating any bees. We keep bees and when he was still a pup (though he was almost full grown at that point), he followed my sister when she went to check on the hive once it had become warm enough to safely open it.

My sister had no idea he was with her, or she would have made certain he wasn’t there when she opened the hive.

I was with the chickens and ducks with my nephew and niece because we were clipping their wings when my dog came barreling around the gate trying to get the bees out of his fur. We dropped the birds and immediately helped him. He had a few stings, but was otherwise fine and the baking soda/water mixture I use worked just fine for him. It was a while before he’d walk over by the house on that side.

He does try to eat other bugs, but I’ve never had any problems with him and bees since then.

The same cannot be said for my eldest nephew’s cat, Little Brother…

Guard Dog

Because
All
Residents
Know I will protect them

This little thing popped into my head while my dog Vincent was chasing a skunk away from the hen house a few minutes ago. He does regular round around the property at night at random, but he spends most of his time either near the hen house or the garage so that no predator, however small, gets to the chickens, ducks, turkeys, or the rabbits. I’m pretty sure he would chase them away from the goats if we could leave their gates open at night.

(I think the only reason Vincent doesn’t get grumpy with us for cutting off his access to the goats is because the goats are bigger than him and aren’t afraid to use their horns on anything that threatens them.)

I guess the biggest difference in his behavior now versus in winter is that he pretty much stays outside all night. In the winter, Vincent would wake someone up (usually me) to let him outside to check on ‘his’ animals and then wanted back in again because it regularly gets below zero here at night in the winter. (The winter of 2016-2017 it actually reached -15 degrees several times. Vincent as a nice thick coat, but it wouldn’t be good for him to be outside in those temperatures for too long.)

And now I’m going to sign off, because I am reaching the tired-rambly stage.

Kids, This isn’t a Joke, Get Off the Couch – Wordless Wednesday

image: Little Brother, Jackdaw, and Vincent (from left to right); from martha0stout’s phone

 

Teleporting Dog – One-Liner Wednesday

Vincent how did you get he-you’re to small to be my dog.

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My thought process when I came to spend a week with my nest oldest sister. She has a long-hair black cat named Elphaba who likes to sprawl under her kitchen table just like my large black dog does. I have no idea how I could look at small and elegant Elphaba and think of my large farm dog. They have the same color fur and they both have this ruff around their necks, but those are the only common things about them.

Make sure to check out the original One-Liner Wednesday.

Sleepy Time Adventures – One-Liner Wednesday

I know people talk in their sleep (my third eldest sister and her college roommate had long conversations into the night. I know, I was there on some weekends to visit. There was no sleep those nights), but my dog growls in is sleep sometimes.

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He’s doing it right now as he sleeps under the piano. Every now and then he’s just snoring, but sometimes he’s growling at whatever he’s dreaming about.

Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday.