Just some Chicken pix

Pepper leaving the warmth of her coop to grab a bite to eat.... I shovel them a path to the trampoline where the snow is always less and they can still scratch at the grass to give them the feeling of "spring" (hahaha I wish). After I shovel their path I lay hay down so they dont have to step on the snow.

Here Maddy is slightly confused about where the path went. Don't worry I picked her up and put her on the hay to keep her little feet from getting too cold in the deep snow.

Max at Home

So we have had Max for a couple months now and I thought it would be fun to share his progress as a house rabbit. Firstly, its unfortunate that he has reached sexual peak already. EW! So
today Max, Mason, Garrick and I made our way
out into the snow to get Max to his very first vet
appointment on time ~ so I could schedule him for his bunny neuter.
The doctor was excited about our choice of a rabbit as a pet and stated that rabbits made wonderful pets. I was slightly surprised to hear this and by the way, the doctor was a really nice guy.
As you can see from the pictures Max is most at home when he's playing with the other animals. I do not think you could've convinced me that a rabbit would be most happy when allowed to spend time with such an assortment of cats and dogs.
The first photo is Bella and Max sharing a moment.
Here in this photo you can see Max sitting on the dog bed with Remy and Bella. What I wont tell you is that shortly after the photo was taken I realized that Max wasn't so much "hanging out" with them as he was peeing on them! BAD MAX!
What can I say, he wanted them to move and guess what... they did.







Here you have Max sharing the chair with Stanley. Stanley absolutely loves playing with Max, but he prefers playing on his own terms. Max will jump up to be with Stanley and then Stanley usually runs off as a result.... until Max is back on the floor where he's fair game. They play tag alot! And if I can ever get a video of it I will, its adorable.







Max is sitting with Millie here. I have to tell you he is particularly fond of Millie and I think Millie would like to do nothing more than eat his head off--yet Max does not let them deter him. The more time Max spends sitting with her, the more fond of him I think she is becoming. Its one big happy family here! :oD LOL

Say Hello to Dinah

Winter has finally settled in here in Connecticut. Its been blustery cold ~ but the snow has been falling without apology all week. On and off of course, mixed with rain ~ and flooding. It's really kind of ridiculous.
Your never really sure what the roads are going to bring...will it be ice, slush, snow, or that wet mixture of salt and whatever else the city trucks spray down. Regardless, its winter in New England at its finest.
On Saturday as I showered to get ready to go out to a friends house later that evening the kids come in the bathroom and announce "there's a cat outside".
If your like me your initial response is Big Whoop. There are lots of cats outside what's so exciting about this one? I think it was Abi who came in first to let me know of the mystery
kitty. She told the story about how there was a cat out there and it has a "demented" ear and its eating the food they put out. Well, i finished up in the shower and threw on my clothes. After getting to the side door I look out and see this tiny little gray cat with concave sides and a wad hanging off her ear.
OH THAT'S A KITTEN! Bring her inside i exclaim. Lucky for this cat I did indeed believe it was a kitten or I may not have been so quick to bring her in. We sat her on the table with her bowl of food and she commences to eating as if she hasn't seen food in years. And from the looks of her... its certainly been a while.

I call Kate and ask her what to do, because of her unknown whereabouts she advises me to
isolate her from the other cats and don't let the kids touch her! She might have rabies. Kate will stop in tomorrow after leaving Rhode Island and take a look.
Upon closer examination I see that her ear has more than a wad hanging off of it, its filled with a red mass. It looks almost as if someone has filled her ear canal with a cherry tomato. Because of the mass poor kitty's head is tilted, she's walking crooked, and keeps falling over. :o( Poor thing. She's as sweet as can be though... even John can't help but comment on her mild nature and his only question is "how much is this going to cost us"? He never once made any mention of getting rid of her and I think the deal was sealed.
Kate came by on Sunday where she confirmed my suspicions, the mass in her ear was going to need surgery (and we both assume she will need to be spayed) oh and by the way this cute tiny kitten with a half of a tail... is not so much a kitten as a full grown adult cat. :-O Now I've had some small cats but never anything so small that it would convince me at a glance it was indeed a kitten.
Anywho--Kitty spent the remainder of the weekend living in a crate in the spare room where she would eat, drink, poop and sleep. I would visit her daily and allow her time out of the crate to walk around, sit on my lap and be loved like she deserved. It is my theory that after her ear reached new levels of grossness her previous owners discarded her like dirty underwear. I brought her into the vet on Wednesday morning. Bright and early me and Kitty made the trek to the vets office in hops of hearing the good news that it was operable and most likely not a big deal. Dr. Chace was able to deliver this news with very little examination ~ which for me was promising because I knew he wasn't too concerned with what was growing in her ear. Boy was I relieved. I left her there and new that when I picked her up the next day I'd be $700 poorer and she would be ours forever.

I wouldn't let anyone name her until I found out what was going on with her ear. We are serious animal lovers and while she had spent minimal time with us, it would be just long enough to break a few hearts in my house. Not allowing them to name her would allow me to keep them somewhat disconnected if the outcome was bad.
After receiving the news that the mass was removed and she was successfully spayed I let my mind work and settled on Dinah. Anyone who knows me well knows that Alice in Wonderland has always been one of my all time favorite movies, and not for the Disney aspect of it. With the previews of the new Alice in Wonderland bombarding the television constantly the movie is fresh in my mind. So I thought Dinah was cute and fitting (and I probably should mention that Dinah is the name of Alice's cat in the movie, just in case you didn't already know that).
She's a dainty bit of a cat, barely 5 pounds. And from head to tail she looks more like a 5 month old then a one year old kitty. She has beautiful green eyes and pink pads on her feet, but a black triangle nose. Her tail is shorter than normal although there is some discrepancy as to if she might've been born like that or had trauma along the way. I tend to believe owners who wouldn't pay for an ear surgery or spay would most likely not bother to fix a tail had it been broken at some point, but who knows. Maybe they spent all their money on that and after injury two happened they decided to get rid of her rather than put another dime into her.

Anyway, this bit of a cat has a spirit as big as can be, and while she does not like the dog she is certainly not afraid of them. She hisses at them but holds her ground, not even bothering to puff up. Remy puts his tail between his legs and runs for the hills when hissed at. I'm glad to have her and as soon as she settles in I think that Stanley and the dogs will also be glad she has arrived.
I'll keep you posted on how she manages to get along here in Farm Webster.

Fairy Dreams

Listen to the whispers of your heart.

Cherish your most precious dream.

Feel the magic in the air.

Dance on a bright moonbeam.

Snow Day

It is another snow swept day here in New England. You can tell everyone is coming down with a case of spring fever and its only January. Today we were to be (unexpectedly) blessed with a couple of inches, which is turning into slightly more than that. I'm not a fan of snow, it gives me this pit in my gut.

My chickens seem to be fairing the weather quite well however, spending time under the trampoline which allows them some snow-free grass to pick at. The dogs aren't the slightest bit interested in the snow today...spending their day lazing around the house moving from one dog bed to another. Snuggling in close by the fire to stay warm. Stanley watches intently at the windows as birds jump around in the tree tops looking for any morsel of food available.

Me and Mason, we took a snow day. Mason woke up with a hacking cough and I originally had an appointment this morning ~ which was canceled as the snow began to pile up in the streets. As a result I decided to call it a day and not bother with work. Have I mentioned how much I love my boss and the fact that I can just make spur of the moment decisions such as that??? Abi and Garrick will be home soon also a direct effect of the weather.

To sweeten the smell in the house me and Mason whipped up a loaf of cinnamon streusel (from a box of course). This will be nice when Abi and Garrick hop off their buses and come running up the snow covered driveway. I'll top the warm streusel with vanilla ice cream and everyone will smile.

Ah life is good...even when its snowing!

Have you Met MAX???

So approximately a month ago Abi was able to break me down and convince me that she had to have a bunny. This is Max a 5 month old (what i presume to be) Jersey Wooley. Rescued from a little lady in Meriden who had upwards of 45 bunnies in need of homes. She had stated that little Max here was a Lionhead, but I'm pretty sure he is not.
He is a quiet little bunny... as most bunnies are but he was sweet enough to allow Abi to carry him around from cage to cage while she made her choice of bunnies that day.
He was so "tame" that she couldn't possibly say NO to him and I do not think she has regretted her choice once.

He looks absolutely huge in this photo but he's really not a big bunny although he has HUGE FEET! I'll have to take a picture so you can see.

He's already litter box trained and while she does let him have free run of her bedroom for a while every night he seems content to lay low in his cage....EXCEPT when Stanley is about.

Chasing Stanley is his most favorite hobby and I think Stanley particularly enjoys it also. They seem to have fun playing this game for a few minutes every night before he leaps back into his cage.


His one downfall...he's incredibly thirsty during the night. I swear he drinks non-stop from midnight till about 4am. Its a little frustrating because its not like he's just drinking its like him and his water bottle are having a game of tug-a-war and the bottles winning.

But aside from that he's cute and I have to admit I go and see him almost everyday. I like him a lot better than the bunny I had when I was about 18. (bad timing on my part!). In the summer we plan on giving him some time outside, but not making him an Outside bunny. He's too cute to do that to.




Here they are sharing a little moment. <3>

Favorite Blog Ever

http://www.hencam.com/henblog/ Here is the link to the HenCam Blog, what I love about this blog is that she has a camera in her hen house, outside in the run and on her goats also. Every now and then when I feel like seeing what someone else's chickens might be up to (or how they may be acting on a particularly cold day) I click on this sight and see what is going on at Little Pond Farm!

The first snow...

do you see how Big and Beautiful Maddy is in this picture compared to when I brought her home!

And Look how fat and "Henny Penny"esque Pepper is looking after moulting.

Snowy Days and chickens

When the weather gets cold and the bugs are not plenty the chickens come knock knock knocking on the back door.

Its not uncommon to find Pepper peeking in the back door window in an attempt to get someone's attention and hopefully a treat.

she knows the key to my heart and it works everytime!!!

Here she is meer inches from entering the house! She's such a house chicken its not even funny.

A Series of Unfortunate Events ....

So in my last blog I think I was going to explain a series of unfortunate events but I feel with every line i typed I doomed another innocent animal to the slaughter house, eventually causing me to give up on blogging altogether. But I am confident that enough time has passed that my animals lives are safe and I've paid down whatever price I had to pay to karma.

We have made a few additions to the "farm". I will introduce them here and give you a brief interlude to how they came about. First, meet Maddy and Daphne two New Hampshire Reds from a farm in Litchfield. They look pretty bad here, and these pictures were taken a mere week after their rescue. They were without much of their feathers and it was not a pattern that meant they were moulting...these hens were unhealthy, stressed out, and ridden by a rooster one too many times. Kept in a barn with approximately 50 other chickens...and no I'm pretty sure they were not well KEPT.

You can see by the photographs Pepper is in full moult as well! While she looks pretty raggedy herself I know that she was being take care of and fed well to help her grow her feathers back in a timely manner....which they did and I have never seen Pepper look better.

Maddy is the lighter colored one and much more hand friendly. Daphne is slightly more red and I dread the day that she gets sick and needs my attention. She's mad as a hornet with a big chip on her shoulder about something... and is not afraid to give you hand a peck if she feels you are out of line with her. Just the other day I reached in to touch her neck feathers which looked slightly skewed and maybe bloody. She pecked my hand to let me know to back off and I didn't look back. (her neck was fine by the way).

I let Daphne have her space. Maddy recently spent the better part of a month living in the house recuperating from a nasty pecked wound on her back...courtesy of my pecky hen Pepper. She had a hole approximately 2 inches around pecked into her back. I happened to catch site of it one day while sneaking a peek in the hen house. I thought she was going to bleed to death by the size of the wound.
I immediately moved her into the house and just about 1 week ago was able to move her back out. Which of course left her wide open for a couple days of torment from my flock leader Pepper. But all is calm again and everyone is getting along just fine.
With a couple days of near 40 degree weather forecasted they will be able to spend a few days outside and breath some fresh air, peck some slightly frozen ground...and get back to being chickens. Even if just for a little while.