Animal Antics

Posted on March 3, 2020 by TJ

The weather continues to be rather weird. Today the temperature was in the 40s. It felt very warm outside. This afternoon it began to….I’m not sure if it’s rainy snow or snowy rain. The forecast calls for the possibility of rain/snow for the next few days. I think the rain is a sign that Spring is not too far away. There is a sort of excited hopefulness that occurs in February and March even though there could still be weeks of Winter left. February/March is when we begin to dream of planting gardens even if there are several feet of snow on the ground.

Our animals have been a bit goofy too.

When Hannah Joy sees me going through my before-bed routine, she goes into the bedroom and settles down in the bed. If EJ is home, Hannah first goes over to say good night to him, and then he says, “Go to bed, Hannah” and off she goes. It’s really quite sweet. Hannah and I always go to bed well before EJ because he tries to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to keep to his work-week routine. Sometimes Hannah goes to bed before I do, which is what I thought she was doing last night. But when I finally went into the bedroom, I saw a roll of toilet paper on the floor. I can’t remember exactly how much there had been, but it was considerably smaller so I suspect she ate about half a mega-roll of toilet paper. Today she frequently wanted me to take her outside so she could poop it out. Sigh. At least it all came out. Sometimes she has Kleenex sticking from her behind and I have to wait until it all comes out before I take her back into the house. She always looks so pathetically ashamed when that happens.

EJ told me today that while I was out doing business with my new egg customer yesterday, Hannah Joy was in the house trying to steal Kleenex out of my sweater pocket. We try to keep Kleenex, toilet paper, washcloths, and towels out of her reach, but she is a clever “pit-pocket.” Most people have to child-proof their homes, we have to Hannah-proof ours.

I am expecting one of my egg customers to stop by tonight to pick up seven dozen, some of which she said she is giving to her mother. I’m glad she is buying so many because my chickens are laying eggs like crazy. This afternoon when I went out to the coop, I found ten eggs. There was a hen in their favorite nesting box so I left her alone. I went out a couple of hours later to check the box and I saw eyes looking out at me. I thought, “Oops, another hen is in there laying an egg.” The hens don’t lay more than one a day, but they use the same nesting places. Anyway, something looked “off” so I looked closer and saw that there wasn’t a hen in there. There was a CAT! It was Millie. I got her out of the box and discovered that she had been sitting on five eggs. LOL.

I try to keep my camera in my pocket for moments like these, but I had forgotten so I had no photos. However, when I went out in the evening to shut everyone up in the coop, I found Millie in the nesting box again. This time I had my camera with me so I took a picture. The nesting box is actually a litter box, which the cats do NOT use as a litter box.

Our chickens and barn cats co-exist peacefully. Every now and then a cat will swat a chicken or a chicken will peck a cat in order to set a boundary but, otherwise, they get along. I’ve even seen a cat and chicken sleeping next to each other. Animals seem to figure out who “belongs” in their family.

My animals make me laugh and bring me joy. I don’t know what I’d do without them. 🙂