We live on a farm in a zoo.
Exhibit 1: This Year's Christmas Card
The only way I could convince the kids to dress and pose for the picture was to let them hold an animal. Poor Henry... his flew away. It would have been nice to have all animals represented, but Zeb said Sharpay the Goose would bite everyone in the face if he held her (she's a bit naughty); and, unfortunately, hogs eat goat, and we can't have that, now, can we?
Anywho... on to the new additions...
Meet Juanita and Elma, our new Peahens:
Those of us who have zoos know that Peacocks are the male version of Peafowl and Peahens are the female version. Personally, I feel the Peahens should be happy about their labeling.
We also welcomed The Sisters into the flock:
The Sisters came with the Peahens. They're a sweet group- except for the one that poo-ed on my pool deck. That one is NOT sweet.
Moving on to the exotics, say Hola to Emily:
Emily is a Red Footed Tortoise from South America. These land tortoises are great pets, for sure. You can play with her feet and pet her right on the head and neck.
Emily's cutesy home was crafted by yours truly. (Thank you very much!) The recommended habitat would have set me back over $200. Uhmmm... no thank you.
I advertised on FB that I was looking for a old TV and the next day a lady delivered one to my house. I'm thinking she was more than eager to get rid of it because I offered to come pick it up- twice!
Anyway, this is what it looked like before:
I totally love this early 80s pose Henry busted out with... all by himself! He was sooo excited about this TV. Poor guy.
Then, on Christmas morning- after all the presents were opened and we were drowning in paper- we found our beloved Daisy dead. On the doorstep. Merry Christmas to us. :( Actually, it was a really good time as the kids were very distracted by all the "good" of the day.
Losing Daisy meant we needed another outside dog. And need is not an overstatement. We NEED an outside dog. We have bear. Big bear. I told you we live in a zoo, but unlike most zoos, our bears free-range. As any good blogger would do, I'll include a picture. This is Harry. For cute we call him Hair-Bear, but he sooo hates that. Killjoy.
I've thought about trying to lock him up, but I do believe that could land me in jail. And it would take one heckuva fence. We do not feed Hair Bear and do not want to start. This is why we NEED a dog.
Sooooo.... Stella Rose to the rescue!!!!
She's a cute-as-pie little Shephard Mix who will shoo those pesky bears back into the forest where they belong. In time, people, in time.
She's my dog but I'm having a bit of a hard time convincing Liliana of that.
Stella was in our family for less than 24 hours when my crazy charming husband opened the back door and this little guy trotted in. Arghhhhhh.
Meet Boss the Magnificent. Boss is a rambunctious bull-lab who whined and barked his way right into my husband's heart. He's one of those designer pedigree mixes, albeit accidental. Someone's Black Lab snuck around with someone else's English Bulldog and uh-oh-oopsie! we all know what came next.
Both Stella and Boss came from our local animal shelter. We bought them. We filled out a few forms, threw some cash on the table, and BOUGHT them. We did not adopt them. I know first hand what adoption is, and, frankly, this aint it. Rule number 4 in Karolyn's Guide to Etiquette clearly states that "one adopts children and buys animals. The action verbs in these cases are not interchangeable. EVER." Words and language are important, my friends, just ask the Peahen.
Happy New Year!!
