What A Good Dog!

A little over 5 years ago, Toby came to live at our house.  I got him from a very nice lady who lived far enough away we had to ship Toby via air.  At the time I got him, my health was deteriorating so quickly, I felt there would come a point I would need a service dog, and a dog that would be a help around the farm.  I figured before I was so bad off I absolutely needed a helping dog, I’d get one and train it.

As so often happens in life, things didn’t turn out quite like I expected.

First off, I discovered it was difficult to do a lot of training.  Not Toby’s fault; he’s super smart.  It was my lack of energy at the time that was the problem.  By the time I managed to do all my “have to” chores, I didn’t have any stamina left to work much on dog training.

Still, he learned the important stuff.  He obeys the commands of “sit” and “come”.  He knows he is not allowed to jump or otherwise cross fences, and he doesn’t go through a gate until he knows I’ve given the okay.

What I have never managed to communicate to him is herding.  His idea is to run through the critters and scatter them.  He has never shown the least bit of interest in bringing animals TO me.

Nevertheless, he is a great companion.  He’s also a good guard dog, so by default watches over the other critters.

He has grown big and stocky, with a lot of muscle.  You can get an idea of his size maybe from this picture of him beside my son, who is over 6′ tall.

He and Neffie are good buddies, and hang out together a lot of the time.

However, the neighbors dogs are a different story.  He doesn’t want any other dogs to encroach on his farm.  If another dog is walking down the road, he goes nuts.  He grabs the woven wire fence with his teeth and shakes it like mad, jumps up on the fence, and barks and growls.

But when he and I are outside of the fences, walking to the mailbox or on the road or even in the woods, it’s a different story when another dog comes around.

He totally ignores it.

I mean, the other dog can be barking, prancing around and having fits, and he acts like it doesn’t even exist, or at least is so beneath his notice he can’t be bothered.  I don’t know if it’s because he figures he’s with the alpha of the pack and I’ll protect him, or if it’s because we’re not in his “patrol” area, so he just doesn’t care.  Whatever the reason, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen him totally ignore other dogs getting right up in his face and barking and growling.

This past Saturday, however, was a little different.  The Farmer and I were transplanting some trees from beside the driveway and putting them alongside the main pasture.  Toby was supervising as usual.

At one point, I had to go out of the fenced in area to get some more trees.  Toby went with me, and when I went back to the main pasture, I left him to his own devices, sniffing around on the banks by the road, still on the outside of the fence.

Now the neighbors across the street have a dog who considers her patrol area is not only their property, but the property of the neighbor right next to them, and the unfenced front part of OUR property which is across the road from them.

As you can see from this picture of Gracie beside our garbage cans at the end of our driveway, she isn’t exactly a petite little thing.  Nope, she’s a fairly good-sized dog, but she doesn’t have Toby’s height or bulk.

Anyway, the point is that she and our other neighbor’s little beagle decided to take on Toby.   I was not with him.  He was outside of HIS usual patrol area.  The other dogs escalated from growling to actually getting up in his face and then jumping on him.

BIG mistake.

Toby exploded into a frenzy of  growls and lunges.  He was really tearing into those other two dogs.  I was afraid he’d kill that little beagle, and Gracie wasn’t faring too well either.  I knew I needed to somehow stop the fight.  From the way things were going, I wasn’t so much worried about Toby, but I didn’t want him to hurt the other two dogs.

Although I’ve never had this work once dogs are embroiled in a fight, I mean it has NEVER worked before with any other dog I’ve ever owned. . . I called him.

“Toby, come!”
And he did.

Oh. my. word.  If a dog will hear and obey you when in the middle of a fight with two other dogs… wow.  What a jewel.  I’m so proud of him!

What a good dog!!!

Guineas, Please Come In Out Of The Rain

Guineas aren’t the brightest set of critters God created.  At least the guineas around here don’t always act like they’ve got good sense.  In fact, most of the time, they do some pretty stupid stuff. 

Let’s just say their receiver is off the hook.
You know, if brains were taxed, they’d likely get a refund.
Or you might say that they’ve got a hole in their bag of marbles.
Maybe even mention that someone needs to check the air pressure in their heads.
Or perhaps talk about how if brains were dynamite, they wouldn’t have enough to blow their nose (beak?).

You get my drift, I’m sure.

The thing I notice most often is how they run up and down a fence looking for a way through.  Now guineas are great fliers.  The often fly up in the tops of our big, very tall, walnut trees to roost at night.  So it’s not like they couldn’t take a short flight over the top of a 4-foot fence with ease.

Instead they run up and down the fence line, up and down, all in a panic trying to find a way to get to the other side. 

Duh!

But at least I’ll have to give them this… they know enough to come in out of the rain.

Well, sort of anyway.  That birdbath doesn’t exactly shelter them very well, but at least they’ve got the idea.

Guineas, it’s time to come in out of the rain!

Why would you do that?

If you’ve been reading this blog very long, you know I have an African Grey parrot.  She’s a corker, and always getting into some kind of trouble.  With the emotional level of a 2-year-old, and the intelligence of a 5-year-old, you can just imagine the escapades!

A while back she took it into her head to fly into the den.  I’d went out to the mailbox, and evidently she was trying to see where I went.

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I rather surprised her because I went out the back door and came back in the front door.  That’s when I heard her calling, and discovered her sitting on the shelves by the door.

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Of course, sometimes she gets herself places she’s not sure how to get out of.

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The Farmer thinks she goes a lot of places just because she likes it when I pick her up and carry her back to her cage.  For whatever reason, there’s no getting around the fact parrots like to go places.

There’s also no getting around the fact if you have a parrot, or any other pet, you get attached to them.  Parrots are intelligent, inquisitive, funny, challenging, and a lot like a little feathered toddler tearing up your house.

That leads into my question, “Why would you do that?” 

It’s like this.  Yesterday The Farmer and I were in town.  We started out at the jeweler’s (no, not for any expensive trinkets – they can solder glasses back together and I was tired of my more-than-usual cracked-pot view of the world).  Since it was going to take a while for the repair, we decided to walk over to the pet store (any excuse will do). 

They have an African Grey parrot at the pet store named Richard, and like our silly parrot, he absolutely loves to have his head scratched.  Naturally, I oblige him whenever I get the chance.

While we were there, I picked up some food for OUR African Grey, and that got me and the pet store owner talking about them as I was checking out.  About their antics, and the things they say and do.

And THAT’s when she told me about a phone call she’d got that morning.  It seems someone had their house broken into, and in the process of vandalizing / burglarizing the house, the creeps killed their African Grey parrot.

And I really have to wonder, “Why would you do that?”

The parrot was in a cage.  It couldn’t hurt them.  There was no need to kill it.

However, the parrot’s owners think it was some people who were upset because they wouldn’t let them hunt on their land any more.  So that’s the deal?  If someone else doesn’t let  you use their property the way you want to, you retaliate by breaking into their house and killing a beloved pet?

What next?  If you don’t like what someone does, get even madder and not only break into the house and kill a pet, how about a person?  Where does it stop?  To paraphrase Yoda a little, it’s a steep and slippery slope once you start down the darkside.

A defenseless creature sitting in a cage.  And they killed it out of spite.

Why would you do that?

Backyard Chicken Raising

There are a couple of orphaned chicks on the farm.  I really think they belong to Peepers, but hatched out after she had already left the nest.  I made them into pet chickens and kept them in a birdcage on the back porch until a week or so ago.

By then they were getting a little big for the cage, and I figured they could fend for themselves.  I decided it was time to turn them loose, but first I wanted to introduce them to the other critters.

So The Farmer carried the cage out into the backyard for me.  It wasn’t long until our two most curious creatures were checking the new chicks out.

Hey Lady, WHAT are these little critters???

The sheep were a little more wary, and just looked on from what they considered a safe distance.

Whatever they are, we’re not going near them!

However, with Cinnamon the goat and Keira the llama, curiosity wins out over caution.

Let’s get a closer look at these pet chickens that crazy lady put out here.

I guess since nothing jumped out at them, they decided to move even closer.

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Even the guineas decided they needed to check out this strange contraption and it’s inhabitants.

We don’t care if they ARE your pet chickens, we don’t share our food!

One guinea decided to get up close and personal to check out these newcomers.

You don’t look so tough!

Neffie gave me the evil eye, no doubt figuring I was just making more work for her.

Thanks a lot… that’s two more critters I have to watch over!

I finally opened the door so they could come out.

They were a little tentative at first, but it didn’t take them long to want to get out and explore.

That was when some of the old Buff Orpington hens decided it was time to check out these new additions to the backyard flock.

Hey look! There’s some new youngsters!

Now they’re right out there with the rest of the chickens every morning, looking to see what I’ll throw out for them to eat.

They seem to have blended in okay with the rest of the chickens, and are growing fast.

I love my little chickens.

Chimera Chicken Bird Update

Remember the chimera chicken bird?

It started out as this cute little chick with reddish-brown fuzz:

Then got older and became ….
chi·me·ra kī-ˈmir-ə, kə- noun –
an individual consisting of diverse genetic constitution.

I was hoping when the head feathers came in, they’d stay reddish-brown.  Alas, that was not to be.  When the new feathers started coming in, they were an off-white.

And today, the chimera chicken bird no longer looks strange.  Nope, it just looks like a regular chicken now, with dark brownish-gray and off white feathers.

Too bad.  I rather liked the looks of the reddish-brown headed Chimera Chicken Bird!