You Have Got to be Kidding Me

Last night I was hanging out with the chickens, sitting on my stump in their chicken run, getting pecked at by Vivian/Bitchian and loved on by Esmé and Marcheline, and I looked up to see Astrid coming out of the coop. She normally stays in the coop so I don’t see her that often. At any rate, I noticed that she has these looooong iridescent green feathers cascading down her neck, and curly feathers at her tail. She also has a notably red comb. And she is a BIG chicken. This at only three and a half months old. And so I think to myself, “Expletive! More expletives!”

Astrid doing her Sam the Eagle pose

Astrid is a rooster. Thus, she has to go. I can’t imagine the bloodshed we would have if both Ruthie and Astrid were to remain. Since Ruthie was here first, Astrid is the one who will have to leave us. And I’m really bummed because I saved that pretty name for a while and now after only three and a half months I have to let it go. Dammit. Luckily, the lovely lady who runs Manifested Wings always told me that if any of my hens turned out to be roosters, she would take him back. I think I’ll have to do this on the condition that he/she doesn’t get eaten. That would break my heart. And Moses would not approve. He’d rather eat her himself. I’ve seen him eyeing her.

Cannibalism in the Home

Readers may or may not remember when I was talking about getting really weird keyword searches and that it was only a matter of time before someone inquired whether Great Danes Eat Great Danes? Alas. They do. Great Danes do eat Great Danes.


Remember those disgustingly large turkey legs at the Renaissance Fair? This is the canine equivalent of those. Except that quality control forgot to separate the leg from the rest of the body. Shoddy oversight there. (I don’t mean to offend anyone who likes those things. This is coming from a vegetarian, so I’m just being consistent). Milo just lets Ivy gnaw away at his poor little legs. He is a tolerant dog. It’s a little bit sad.

Things Mosey Eats and Doesn't Eat

Now that Mosey has been coming out of his morphine fog, we're seeing some very cute sides to his personality. We are guessing that before living with his wonderful foster parents, he never even knew what a toy was, so now everything is a toy. He is still growling at Milo and Ivy in a seriously snappified manner, but we are hoping he is just fractious from not feeling well and that will pass.

We have never had a dog that won't eat, which is what Moses is doing. I'm afraid he's going to waste away so I fed him almost a whole loaf of bread this morning. When I asked my friend Kim how a starving, neglected, garbage-eating dog could be so picky, she wisely pointed out that he has probably gotten in to quite a few things that made him sick in the past, and perhaps that would explain his finicky nature. Helpful suggestions on how to get a picky dog to eat will gladly be taken. If you can find something he will eat, I will send you a super duper prize. Maybe a Great Dane.

Moses taking after Ivy (either an aspiring knitter or trying to
take down the knitting community one skein at a time)

Moses and Milo not eating each other

Moses helping us prepare for the carpet installers

Moses' idea of being on the bed is being in the bed frame -
less effort than actually jumping up on a bed

By the way, thank you to everyone for your well wishes and comments. I wish Blogger would allow reply to comments, but evidently that little widget expansion is beyond their ken.

Moses!

Moses

As of today, I am hoping the hiatus from the blog is over. We have a new addition in our house! We adopted an adorable, male, Harlequin Great Dane over the weekend from Big Dogs Huge Paws. It’s been a while in coming. Since we lost Charley, the house has felt a little empty, even with 10 chickens, 2 Danes, and 2 humans. Maybe it would have felt different if Mike had allowed the chickens in the house. Totally unreasonable in my opinion. I mean, it isn’t as if I can’t figure out how to sew diapers for them. At any rate. Moving on.

Moses came from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and was first reported as a calf running loose. He was starving and grossly underweight, infested with heartworms and parasites, and has scars on just about every inch of his body. I am guessing that he was clearly on his own for a while, as well as being severely neglected and abused. I have a photo of him taken the day he was rescued, but it’s a bit graphic to post. Super sad.

After going to a lovely foster family in Fort Worth he has turned into a completely different dog. All he wants is to be loved. Unfortunately, we have had to treat him for heartworm, which entails a nasty long needle full of arsenic that deeply penetrates the back muscles on 3 separate occasions, so he is quite sore right now. But I am happy to report that we are done with the heartworm treatment as of Sunday! We have to keep him almost immobile for the next 3 months. Evidently, if the heart rate increases there is a possibility of him throwing an embolism. So he’ll pretty much be confined to the house and backyard until September. Then the neuter and gastropexy…. This poor dog – no doubt after this is all over he will never want to get in the car again.

Moses & Mike

The foster parents, Steve and Andrea, drove Moses up here all the way from Texas on Friday and stayed with us over the weekend. I can’t be entirely sure, but there is a strong possibility that I am speaking with a slight Texas accent since our guests left. They were both utterly charming, and Andrea’s lilt is evidently infectious.

Andrea, Moses & Steve

Mike and I are quite smitten with Moses, as is Ivy. Milo wants to eat him, thus possibly turning him into a potential keyword statistic on the Google: “do Great Danes eat Great Danes?”

In other news, here is a little video of Ivy at the dog park enjoying a ride on her friend Starbuck. Not unlike seeing those little kids at the grocery store on the fiberglass ponies. I suggest making sure the volume is turned up to get the full effect. The mount and dismount are particularly graceful. She is clearly a natural horsewoman.

Normally Starbuck is the one doing the, um, “harassing” shall we say? Seriously, he LURVES Ivy. He cannot get enough of her. So it’s nice to see the tables turned every once and a while.

The ladies are doing well. I finally got to take the baby girls out of the bathtub and put them into the coop last weekend. Did you know that chicken is a chicken’s favorite food? Mavis and Vivian are very intent on making dinner out of a couple of the little girls. Gross. Ruthie the Rooster is starting to go a little funny. My friend Tamara and her boyfriend Brian visited last week and while we were in the coop, Ruthie attacked us with great ferocity. I’ve never been so scared of something so small and fluffy in my entire life.

Other than the rooster attack, we are very happy and settling in as one big happy family.