tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27016998458027811352024-03-13T02:29:58.954-06:00Studio FoxhovenNotes on urban farming and other animal adventures, along with moments of looking back.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-56566874763684566882020-02-26T12:30:00.000-07:002020-02-26T12:30:01.489-07:00Voles
Cricket caught a vole the other day.
Voles are not mice, though they are somewhat related. Voles are more closely related to hamsters, which means they are cute. Really cute. They also seem to be a bit slower moving than mice and, at least the ones we saw, were a bit slow realizing they should run away from our dog. The sun was out, it was warm, and the critters wanted to sit in the sun.
One Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-22262049825847029282019-04-21T05:06:00.001-06:002019-04-21T05:06:28.298-06:00Happy Spring! Happy Easter!
Twenty-six years ago, on April 20, 1993, we were getting ready to go to church for Easter Mass and asked Patrick, then 9 years old, to make sure the animals had been fed. He went to do his chores, then ran back in quickly. Our goat, Bonnie, had given birth to two little ones just moments before he had gone outside.
It was a year of babies at our little urban farm. Bonnie's twins, Blossom Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-53904714807444692372018-09-16T22:52:00.000-06:002018-09-16T22:54:18.904-06:00The Puppy that Meowed"Oh, what a cute puppy!" my dad exclaimed. He loves animals, especially dogs, and loves it when we bring our wee fosters to visit with him. This time, however, it wasn't a puppy. Curly is our first foster orphan kitty. Dad couldn't remember this detail, however many times he was reminded.
"IT'S A KITTEN!" Mom shouted at him from across the room.
"Huh?" replied Dad, cupping his hand around his Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-45165350525839884142018-06-29T13:33:00.002-06:002018-06-29T13:49:45.944-06:00Newest Puppy Adventure
New fosters! Cricket is a great little Mama dog and, as opposed to the Kaylee last year, she doesn't mind if Bennie plays with the pups. Anything that keeps them out of her fur is fine by her. She's letting us know, in no uncertain terms, that the pups are growing up and won't be needing her too much longer.
Cricket getting to know us.
Cricket and Bennie got along from the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-73105105321280128012018-06-27T19:11:00.003-06:002018-06-27T19:11:32.816-06:00One More Try - new chicken nesting boxes
Well, we've got a couple of new nesting boxes made in hopes that the hens will not be able to reach their eggs. It's kind of hard to see, but those are paint roller pans in the boxes. The idea is that the hens will lay an egg, then the egg rolls down the slope to the tray. We'll see if the hens will use it!
See! Under the board, there's an egg. Okay, this is a fake egg, just to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-42175568212451910282018-06-01T00:09:00.004-06:002019-03-03T12:16:23.706-07:00Cannibal Chicken UpdateWe've managed to get our daily egg tally up to 5 or 6, only when we're able to check for eggs every 15 minutes or so, especially in the morning. One day, we brought in 8 eggs because I checked so often, I practically caught them before they hit the floor.
Chris is letting the hens out of the smaller chicken yard so they can eat the weeds during the day. They love it and they repay us by laying Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-15669833463311657372018-05-28T16:52:00.002-06:002018-05-28T17:10:42.227-06:00Landscaping and Gardening on a Budget
It's time to work in the garden and there isn't a better way to spend the day... until it gets too hot, anyway. Chris has the main vegetable/flower garden in hand and it's looking better than ever this year. We have dozens of buds on the rose bushes and almost as many on our columbine. We've been adding arugula to our salads and juices already. Arugula grows so well and will come back every Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-42329062698500289212018-05-10T23:06:00.000-06:002018-05-10T23:06:00.134-06:00Cannibals, Golf Balls, and Mustard EggsWe were naive when it came to keeping animals, almost as naive as we were about having children. This didn't mean we thought it would be easy, we just knew we'd be up to the challenge. It would be fun.
Nobody told warned us that chickens are cannibals. We learned it quickly enough, as soon as one hen cut herself on a sharp bit of fencing. We rescued her in time, but just. A feeding frenzy had Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-52515466638372806532018-04-29T20:29:00.000-06:002018-04-29T20:29:20.700-06:00Puppy Family Reunion
Family Reunion! Two of Bennie's three brothers came to play yesterday and the pups had a marvelous time. They knew each other almost immediately, played, wrestled, came back and checked in with us every few minutes. They remembered us, too. I got very enthusiastic greetings from both Cooper and Simon!
These pups came to us in April of 2016 when they were 5 days old. They had been left as Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-27505391951694709522018-04-28T19:31:00.000-06:002018-05-05T23:25:30.604-06:00My Shadow Pup
The wee beastie needed a foster home. Something about his photo made me email and say we'd take him. He's tiny. He's cute. He had hair that was begging for either some hair gel or a collar with spikes. He had short hair all over except for a long Mohawk which extended from the top of his head all the way down his back. It was a totally different texture, too, kind of like a horse's mane. We're Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-83282337614212077822017-12-31T17:29:00.000-07:002017-12-31T17:29:36.014-07:00Christmas PuppiesBert and Ernie joined us right after Halloween. Ernie went to his forever home just before Christmas and Bert, just after Christmas. They came to the rescue with mange, something I wasn't prepared to deal with, so they stayed at the care center for the first couple of weeks. Our last pups had just left and we had been puppy free since the middle of August. I wasn't ready for more
Then the email Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-41302975188635871222017-07-22T14:11:00.000-06:002017-07-22T14:16:57.098-06:00The Dog Who Didn't Want To Be Adopted
We are used to getting attached to the puppies we foster. It's inevitable, especially as we often have them for 3 months or morel We tell ourselves we can't keep all the puppies we fall in love with or we'd have dozens of them and we can't keep fostering newborns if we have too many of our own. So we plod along, taking care of the wee beasties, falling in love, and saying goodbye.
Sometimes Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-45575081699129721432017-07-10T21:46:00.000-06:002017-07-10T23:12:44.153-06:00Dog FireworksWe had seven dogs in our house on the 4th of July. Bennie, our own lovable chiweenie pup; Grover, the last of the last litter of orphaned pups we raised by hand; and Kaylee, the Mama poodle mix with her four 4 week old puppies, more fosters.
What could go wrong?
River
Mal
When I offered to help foster Kaylee and pups (Mal, Wash, Inara, and River), I knew it would be a bit of a challenge Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-20516592443467720522017-07-04T22:35:00.000-06:002017-07-04T22:35:20.717-06:00Why is the Hen Crowing?We bought chicks in the spring of 2010. We bought 14 chicks. They were all hens. Though we had a rooster for awhile, Napoleon, the bantam Mille fleur who ruled the roost with an iron claw met his Waterloo years ago.
The six hens who are still with us, 7 years later, are still laying about 6 eggs per week. It's unusual to get any eggs from them at this age, but we never forced them to lay throughUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-4553540730807347282017-05-16T23:08:00.000-06:002017-05-16T23:08:20.653-06:00Puppy video and photos from EmmaThis is Grover, one of the three in the litter we are fostering. We've been amazed at how they jump and turn and twist around and run. They are incredibly athletic little guys. Thank you to Emma for the videos and photos!
Springs in his legs lifeisbetterrescue.org #puppies #dogs #terriers #fosterpuppies #lifeisbetterrescue
A post shared by Emma (@capnstarwhale) on May 12, 2017 at 9:Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-28311655162046335592017-04-28T22:54:00.000-06:002017-04-28T23:03:30.870-06:00When a Cat Decides to Sleep with YouI stayed with our grandchildren last night. It was our sleepover party at their house because their parents are both out of town. Everything went well with the children. They know their routine so well, they probably could have done it themselves. I know their routine quite well by now, too. It works. All three children were asleep by 7:30 pm. There wasn't a sound from them until early morning.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-41232811523229026802016-09-24T21:03:00.002-06:002016-10-27T23:32:45.099-06:00Pee Pads are for Puppies
...at least this seems to be Bennie's impression. At seven months old, Bennie is the senior pup in the house and much wiser than those tiny bits of fluff and claws (and now teeth) we brought home two months ago. He knows if one is going to pee in the house, one chooses an out of the way corner of the good carpet or the blanket that was just washed and dried two hours ago.
He's actually doing Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-29993189040802445402016-09-24T21:03:00.001-06:002016-09-24T21:08:26.369-06:00Raising Puppies - Round 2 ... and 3
A funny thought went through my head a few weeks ago. Now that I know how to take care of newborn pups, wouldn't it be cool to do it again while Bennie is still young? Sounds weird, I know. Bennie is a loving little dog and, well, it would be kind of like having siblings close together. Maybe this is just one of those maternal/menopausal feelings of ooh, babies again!
Obviously, I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-51277600165111849972016-08-06T20:39:00.000-06:002016-08-06T20:39:27.476-06:00End of a JourneyOur last little puppy was adopted today. Hammie, aka Alvin, was given a spot on the local news channel's "Pet of the Week" segment. We cleaned him up, trimmed his toenails, and dressed him in a bow tie. It was probably the bow tie that did it. When the family came to pick him up, their 11 year old dog was also wearing a bow tie.
It's quiet around here... at least for the moment. Bennie will haveUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-48943170479435607272016-07-18T11:08:00.000-06:002016-07-18T11:08:15.826-06:00Dog Days of Summer - 2016Two of the three puppies have been adopted. Hammie is still waiting for his forever home. I wanted to make a photo book as a birthday present to Emma to remember our journey. The link below is to the book. You can click to make it full screen.
Dog Days of Summer
It's much quieter around here! We had to pick up a couple of small dog dishes because it really didn't make sense to feed them with Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-34850941894348227152016-06-24T12:30:00.001-06:002016-06-24T12:30:18.995-06:00Getting ready for Forever HomesIt's what passes for a normal morning right now...
Chris is outside, watering the garden. I'm sleepily fixing my tea and getting breakfast ready for the pups. The four chihuahua puppies are running around the living room intent on eviscerating a small stuffed Winnie the Pooh.
They've come a long way since I brought home those tiny creatures that looked more like baby chipmunks than anything Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-14461626212363352692016-05-14T22:35:00.000-06:002016-05-14T22:46:40.842-06:00Growing ChihuahuasIt's almost unbelievable how quickly puppies grow and change. Just three short weeks ago, we were still bottle feeding the pups and holding our breath, hoping they would all stay healthy. We made it through tummy troubles, constipation, breathing trouble, and getting the right temperature.
I'm no longer thrilled to see puppy poop.
I'm also no longer worried about whether they'll survive and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-43015681101730551492016-04-30T16:48:00.002-06:002016-04-30T16:48:40.490-06:00Yo, Chihuahua Mama!If we'd had any idea of what we were getting into, would we have been so enthusiastic about being foster surrogate chihuahua mamas?
There were 4 puppies abandoned and then rescued by Life is Better Animal Rescue. They were newborns without a mama. Everyone who hears this says, "How could anyone abandon newborn puppies?" Giving whoever it was the benefit of the doubt, I wonder if the mama Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-34264352882371218382015-12-09T23:42:00.000-07:002015-12-09T23:42:09.325-07:00Confessions of an Agnostic Catholic FeministThere's an old joke about an elderly Italian woman who was praying in church when a workman saw her and decided to play a trick on her. He hid behind the statue of Jesus and called out in a deep voice, "I am Jesus and I hear your prayers." Nothing. The woman didn't react at all. He said it again, a little louder, "I am Jesus and I hear your prayers!" Nothing. The old woman shifted a little on theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2701699845802781135.post-9270602811770701122015-11-29T23:06:00.000-07:002015-12-01T15:31:49.470-07:00For Every Action
Stubborn:
1. having or showing dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good reasons to do so.
2. difficult to move, remove, or cure
~from the Oxford English dictionary
Is it something about the American pioneering spirit, pullmeupbymyownbootstraps, rugged individualist that makes us so blasted stubborn? All these Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1