A source of heat

You may recall the above photo. This was taken in the hotel room we stayed at briefly when we first moved to Oregon (we were waiting on our furniture). For some unknown reason, Kitty felt inclined to share a crate/bed with Chalie - all of his own accord.

Fast-forward 3 years (almost exactly!) and our new cat, Cooper decides that Kitty must have been onto something. I look up from my Kindle and see that Cooper has made himself comfortable on Charlie's dog bed - while Charlie is on it! Charlie awoke when I grabbed my camera, but they were both sleeping peacefully when I first looked up.

Neither Kitty or Cooper ever joined Maggie on her dog bed. Personally, I think it's a heat thing. Charlie radiates heat. He's often cold and shivering in the winter and can function quite well in the high summer temps. And his head is always hot to the touch. I think the cats like this feature!

Maggie is usually cool to the touch. She is naturally well insultated and is always energized and happy on a cold brisk morning. She will almost melt before our eyes in the summer heat.

Funny, but Maggie is just like me. Charlie is just like my husband. Both Kitty and Cooper will chose to cuddle up to my H long before they'll do the same with me. Apparently, it's not that they don't like me, it's that he is a better heat source in the winter! Phew, I feel like less of a pariah now. ;-)

Every animal has a purpose

Maggie - 'The Mouser"

Charlie and Kitty - "The Voice" and "The Hunter"

Our little homestead is coming together. Our original goal was to only acquire animals that were a benefit to us in more ways than just as companionship. We've tried to stick to it for the livestock (Sasafras provides milk, Buddy provides fiber - or he will eventually, chickens provide eggs and possibly meat, roosters provide more chickens - someday), but we didn't expect it to be a requirement for the pets (Maggie, Charlie and Kitty). So far, even the pets are pulling their own weight! Besides being really good at making sure that we have no leftover goats milk or nothing spilled on the kitchen floor, they are turning out to each have additional job responsibilities.

Kitty is helping rid us of pests. Not only is he a bug hunter in the house, he's a small rodent hunter on the outside. So far, he's brought us both a dead bat (not good) and a dead mole (very good!). He's also pretty good at keeping the neighbor cats out of our yard which I think is good for the safety of our chickens.

We discovered a few nights ago that Charlie has an unexpected purpose. Charlie is part hound (bassett, according to our previous vet). We are sure of this because he howls. He can carry a note (out of tune) like an opera singer! Most of the time, it's a fairly quiet howl and often multi-faceted in that it sounds like he's talking. The other evening when the windows were open, we hear the coyotes again. Before we'd even gotten out of bed, Charlie started to howl. This was a huge, loud, building howl that feels like it would pretty much wake the dead. It not only silenced the coyotes (temporarily) but it scared them off. Same thing happened again last night - his mighty howl chases away coyotes! And, as loud as it is, I'd much rather listen to that than to the creepy coyote sounds outside.

Maggie's purpose revealed itself yesterday evening. She's actually better than the cat at hunting bugs as she'll often snag a fly or a moth out of mid-air. Well, last night, she was hunting bigger prey. Last week, while we were in the living room, I saw a mouse dart out from under the front closet, out into the hall, and then back under the same closet. We opened the closet, but pretyt much immediately lost track of it. Maggie definitely picked up it's scent and for days was highly distracted by that closet. Last night, while we were watching TV, I saw the mouse across the living room udner a chair. We both jumped up and while my H watched it, I searched for something to trap it with. The mouse darted under the couch, and we surrounded it (us and the dogs). When H said he wanted to see what Maggie would do, I was skeptical. He lifted the couch off the mouse while Maggie was right there. She pounced on it and caught it! She carried it to the other side of the room where we ordered that she drop it. She did, H grabbed it by the tail and threw it out the front door. Maggie is a mouser! We had no idea! What was really funny was that for the rest of the night, she was frantically searching for additional mice. Very amusing!

So see...on the farm, everyone has a purpose and a job to do! :-)

The other animals

H with Maggie when we adopted her at 4 months old.

So I've introduced all the farm animals, but I don't think I've formally introduced the animals that came with us to Oregon from North Carolina. Besides the two goats and the 12 chickens, we have two dogs and a cat. All of them were rescue animals from a shelter in NC. Kitty came to us first. He was adopted as H's pet when I had my former dog Tango. Tango was not friendly to other dogs, so when H wanted a pet of his own, we settled on a cat. They got along well once Kitty learned that Tango was in charge. Then Tango got sick and rapidly declined. Less than two months later, she left us for a 'better place'. I was heartbroken....still am. She was a wonderful dog and I still miss her often.

But, I grew up with dogs so it was weird to not have one. I lasted about 3 weeks before I had to hear the pitter-pat of doggie feet around the house again. We went to the same shelter where we got Kitty and met Maggie. Maggie was a 4 month old puppy that was born in the shelter. She knew no other life. We are guessing that she was the last of her litter as she was alone in her cage and all of the others had multiple dogs in them. She was so incredibly adorable and when we got to take her out of her cage, we both just fell in love. She was such a sweet puppy! Affectionate and playful... She sat in my lap while we filled out the paperwork and she got more "awww's" from the people passing through. She was 25 lbs at that point. We are pretty sure that she is part boxer, part chow and part shepard. We call her the 'super mutt'. Her boxer comes out in her playfulness and her slobber...the chow genes have given her the softest, fuzzy fur...and she is most shepard when she is around water. Loves to play it in, hates to swim. She's got tiny little feet like Tango did who also loved water but hated to swim (Tango was shepard/doberman).

Maggie was a little difficult to house train. She was afraid of a lot of things (having never been exposed to anything) and she was sneaky. She is a smart girl though, so once we caught her mid-mistake and showed her the right way of doing it (outside), she was good to go. She is definitely a pleaser and likes to do the 'right' thing. She and Kitty got along fairly well from the start. Maggie can often be too rough with him, but he knows that she's always good for a game of 'chase'!

Charlie and Kitty enjoying the NC winter sun together.

Two months later, we decided that Maggie needed a canine pal...so we went dog shopping again. We met Charlie. He was very, very quiet and when we took him out of the cage, he was very attentive of us, very sweet, and not timid at all. I was hesitant to get a male dog, but H was totally sold. We took him home and introduced the dogs right away. The first thing that struck us was that Maggie's energy was MUCH higher than Charlie's. We were afraid it was going to be an issue when the second day, he was even more subdued. I took him to the vet, and lo-and-behold, he was sick. Kennel cough. We got some medication and withn a couple of days, he was feeling like himself again. And that quiet, calm dog we thought we'd adopted? GONE. Yep, Charlie had plenty of energy to match Maggie. What a pair they make! Charlie isn't as fast as Maggie, but what he lacks in speed, he makes up for in enthusiasm. And he is 100% dedicated to H. By his side - faithfully at all times. The vet was immediately convinced that Charlie is part bassett hound and part golden retriever. He has a howl that is 100% hound (and a very deep, reverberating bark)...but he's a lover like a golden. He'll take attention over food any day (except when the food is raw goat's milk - he's crazy about it!). He's also a big fan of swimming - particularly if there's a stick to fetch.

Charlie and Maggie watching the goats through the fence.

Now, 2 years later, the dogs are like brother and sister. They have their disagreements, but they are dedicated to each other. Maggie dotes on her older brother (Charlie is about 9 months to a year older than her) and Charlie tolerates her annoying traits. Charlie also gets along well with Kitty. As Charlie is less 'rough' with him, Kitty tends to cuddle up to him when he's in a calm mood (whereas Maggie is for playing). When all three are in a playful mood, the house is NOT quiet. I wouldn't have it any other way!

They really all are characters, and we are happy to have them in our lives.