for the love of coyotes

In my transition to wannabe farmer, one big thing I learned this past year is that there are enemies all around you. Those cute woodland creatures that hang out with Disney characters are not actually your friends.

This is a hard lesson for a girl that has been an animal lover her entire life. No, I am not on the PETA extreme side of animal love but I can admit that I am not too far off.

But as a farmer of chickens (and one day goats), it is my responsibility to keep my animals safe. No matter the other animals involved.

Chickens have free roam of the yard.

Deer, snakes, rats, mice, squirrels, chipmunks - cute, cute chipmunks! – opossums, other dogs and cats, these are all nuisances that I have learned are not good for gardens and chicken coops.

So when Hank decides to take down a chipmunk, I just have to turn my back and sing to myself “The Circle of Life.”

And when a stray cat wanders through the yard, I can’t try to coax the cat towards me for some friendly petting. Instead I have to scare that cat into never wanting to come close to our property again.

And when you find an opossum snuggled up in one of your chicken boxes in the coop, well that opossum gets to have a shovel bashed into its skull.

“The Circle of Life.”

And as bad as all of those things are, there is an even more deadly enemy out there…

The coyote.

We suspect that a coyote - more likely coyotes - took the lives of four of our chickens recently. They were left out of the chicken coop one night and decided to get an early start the next morning before the sun even rose. Mistake. All that was left of them were a pile of feathers.

And I guess I am starting to toughen up because I wasn’t devastated by their deaths like I was about the other chicken deaths (see don't be stupid post). Sure it’s sad but it didn’t faze me. Next thing you know, I’ll be getting some death cones and chopping chicken heads off...

...well…

...no.

Another important lesson learned. Sure, the chickens seem fine when they decide to fly into trees or on top of the coop roof for the night, but they really should be inside the coop at night. Especially those extra smart chickens that decide not to follow their companions into the trees or higher ground and instead decide to just lay on the ground in front of their door. It's like they are not even trying to hide from danger.

You cannot be one minute behind in getting our chickens in for the night.
If you are, they'll decide to roost in the tree for the night.

Now we make sure that we get those chickens in on time because once the day is done for them, they find their own place to sleep for the night. Coop be damned.

It also helps to have a dog that barks at everything that moves and any little noise she hears (it is amazing what she can hear even when she is inside). So, when Althea sounds the alarm, we – Sean – go to investigate. It usually turns out to be nothing but you never know when we might stop our nemesis from foul play

And you do have to think about your other pets when it comes to coyotes. Fortunately, Althea is really an inside dog and is just too big and a bit on the crazy side. No coyote in their right mind would want to bother with her. And Hank is too smart for a coyote. You don’t survive on the streets of Atlanta without learning a thing or two about escaping danger.

So what about goats?

When the time comes, we will make sure our goats are also protected from coyotes. They will be fenced in, will have shelter and will be kept in the company of a miniature donkey (or two). Yes, we will also have miniature donkeys on the farm, and they will be miniature because who wants to mess with a full sized donkey.


This is not our donkey.
 

He was at the fair.

There was also a giraffe.
 

And here are some fun facts we have learned about donkeys:

They hate canines, so they are perfect for protecting livestock from coyotes. We’ll just have to make sure Althea stays away.

They go ballistic when they sense danger and make all kinds of noise to sound the alarm and scare off predators.

They are smart. How smart? Well, unlike horses, who will break its own leg struggling to get out of a fence if it gets caught, a donkey will calmly wait for you to come get its leg free or will figure out how to get out of the fence without breaking its leg.

They are not stubborn. They get this reputation because they are thinkers and will reason, then make a decision based on their safety. So, if a donkey won't budge, it's because they are deciding if it's worth it.

And the best fact of all - they have best friends. It is said to get two donkeys because they will form an attachment and don’t like to be on their own.

I have officially fallen in love with the donkey, y'all…

trial and (lots of) error

I once had a dream of having chickens and a beautiful flower garden.

At this point, as I write this post, I see the dream of having both slowly fade away. 

Fading away a little more each day.

Every day I find my flowers have been eaten, leaves have been shredded, roots have been dug up, dirt has been scattered and dreams have been shattered.

I should have known, though. This is what chickens do. They scratch and dig and want a little taste of everything in their sight.

But still.

Now, I have to get creative. And well, I don't want to be creative. I mean, I already have to plan out what and where things need to go. Why do I have to also think about how it is planted?

We've already come up with one solution: a container garden.

Instead of planting in the ground, plant in a container. Those darn hens won't be able to scratch up the roots or to take a dust bath. I now despise dust baths, by the way.

So, that solves the digging up of flowers, but what about the eating of flowers? Most people would probably research which plants chickens do not like.

Well, I am not one of those people.

It's trial and error for me.

Plus, I just don't spend a lot of money on plants that I buy.


Chewed up black eyed susan
 

And you know, in theory, it's nice to say it doesn't bother me because I didn't spend a lot of it, but, in reality, it does still suck to see my blacked eyed susan all chewed up. After all, I did spend time planting that thing and most importantly, I had a vision of a beautiful vine spreading across the chicken coop.

See there chickens, you are ruining your own home.

So I am going to get tough. I am going to keep you out one way or another.


Ha!

No leaves for you!
 

And just when you think you have the one up with container gardens and hardware cloth, you come to see that those containers do not actually save your plants from becoming a meal for the chickens.

My poor decimated flowers...

I will not accept defeat! I will put this thing on a chair!


Ha!

And it's not weird having a chair in the middle of the garden, right? 

There are other tricks that I have seen and tried:

You can place rocks around your plants.

And so far a success!

I've also placed chicken wire under mulch, which keeps the chickens from scratching my mulch onto the pavement, which is one thing I CANNOT STAND! I've had the thought of slaughtering a chicken or two after seeing the destruction they do spreading all kinds of mulch around where mulch does not belong.

Spread all over the damn driveway.

To help with this problem, I just placed chicken wire along the edges of the garden so they don't scratch close to the pavement and spread it everywhere. Just turn the edges of the chicken wire into the dirt, stake it down, cover it up and and watch your chickens scratch everywhere but here.

Chickens now dig everywhere else...I'll take it!

And through all this, I have discovered one plant that chickens don't seem to be interested in at all...

Mums.


Thank goodness the mums are safe!
 

I have lots of mums out there for fall and not one has been touched.

Trial and error.

And you would think that the chickens would love it out in the vegetable garden.

There is an abundance of fresh dirt. There is an abundance of things to nibble. There is an abundance of BUGS.

It would be a feast for the chickens, and we actually want those chickens in the garden to take care of all the pests.

Look at those stink bugs everywhere!
 

Unfortunately, our chickens have absolutely no interest in the vegetable garden.

There is an invisible line in the yard that the chickens refuse to cross. I don’t know how they define this line but it is there, and they will not cross it. Not without pure force. And it is absolute hell getting a chicken to do what they do not want to do.

We tried walking with them (since they like to follow us) and luring them with bread, but these were all failed attempts. We had to physically take them to the garden.

After eventually catching three (because that was all we could stand to do) and probably causing those three some PTSD, we thought they would surely love it out here since they have all kinds of bugs to feast on, and then surely the other chickens would follow them over to this new paradise.

Wrong.

Thechickens hated it. It was like we put them in some type of torture chamber.
 

See the chickens. See the stink bug. See no chickens going after the stink bug.

After hiding in the overgrown bean bushes and not eating a damn thing, the chickens eventually ran out of the garden as soon as our backs were turned.

They found their way back to their coop, and I guess never, ever thought about the garden again, except maybe to warn the others to never, ever go to that hell. Not one has ever attempted to get to this wonderful bug paradise since then. And yet they wander about scratching and searching for bugs in parts they are not wanted, in complete oblivion to this garden of (bug) Eden.

One day. One day we will figure it all out…

hank's time to shine

If you ever thought it possible for a dog to be born inside a cat’s body, Hank may just be your proof.

Out of all the “kids,” Hank would be considered the quiet one, the sweet tempered one, the outdoorsy one and well, kind of the needy one.

Hank
 

No doubt born on the streets, Hank is still a gentle soul. We adopted Hank the same day we adopted Dennis – Humane Society’s 2 purr 1 deal – and he immediately jumped into Sean’s lap when we walked into the cat room. From that moment, there was no doubt he was coming home with us that day. And try as we might, there was no keeping this cat indoors.

Already a couple of years older than Dennis when we got him, Hank had absolutely no interest in his livelier younger brother. No, all Hank wanted was someone to give him a lot of love and a lot of food. He is much more interested in taking a nap than being bothered with playing (and who can blame him?).

Throw a jingling ball at him and he will just watch it roll away. Point the laser pointer at him and he may swat at it a couple times out of curiosity (as long as he doesn’t have to move). And when Dennis and Althea are playing chase, Hank is usually as far away from all that as possible.

The quiet, contemplative type.
 

He definitely does have his favorite sibling though, and it is not the other feline.

These two are snugglers!

Hank and Althea snuggle together, play together – which really involves Althea running around Hank with Hank meowing every now and then as she does so – and just get along. And none of this stuff happens between Hank and Dennis.  Not once. Never has happened.

Hank is an indoor/outdoor cat, unlike Dennis.  And we do believe that he was definitely a street cat before being picked up by the Humane Society. Apparently, one way to tell is that a street cat learns to actually eat the things that he catches instead of just playing with it like indoor cats. Well, one fine afternoon, Sean witnessed Hank biting right into a mouse’s head and chewing down on the thing.

When you meet Hank, you'd probably think of him as one of your typical lazy cats because he will most likely be laying around somewhere. However, I have to say that he is actually one fine hunter. When we first moved down to the farm, all you saw were squirrels and chipmunks running around. Almost a year later, I barely see any. I see their body parts. I’ve seen one’s liver sitting in front of my door.

But what about those chickens who run around outside?

It’s weird but Hank seems to know to leave the chickens alone, which is exactly what he does. He has absolutely no interest in the chickens and the chickens have absolutely no fear of Hank. The chickens have even come right up to Hank while he is lying outside and all he does is give them one little “go away” swat. Maybe they are too big to bother with or maybe he just has too many other more tempting things to actually go after.

Hank prefers a life of chillaxing.

So, Hank may be the perfect pet.

He’s definitely the perfect farm cat. Ridding the house and farm of rodents and never bothering the chickens.

He may also be the best cat with children. You know how kids want to grab and pick up and squeeze cats, well, most cats (Dennis) can’t deal with that and just run and hide. Instead, Hank just really, really wants you to pet him. And if that means having to deal with hands that also have to poke and grab, well he’ll deal with all that and with all the patience in the world.  He actually can’t get enough.

He just wants some love...and some food.
 

He doesn’t really do anything funny or really that interesting for the camera except for the occasional sleeping upside down pic…

Hank needs a hug.
 

But that just makes him the perfect model for photos…

Hank and some hay.

Hank and some watermelons.

Hank in the fall.

Hank in some foliage.

Hank with a smushed up face.
 

The only thing to watch out for is his biscuits. He is definitely a cuddler but his cuddles hurt like hell…

dennis the menace

When I first spotted Dennis in his little cage at the Humane Society, I knew that I had to have him. No other kitten was so desperate to escape its cage. This one was literally banging his tiny head against the door trying to get to me. And when Sean and I asked to hold him, the very first thing he did was scratch Sean in the face.

Perfect.

Most people would take that as a warning sign but not this girl. I like my cats to have a little spunk.

And I would definitely get a cat with plenty of spunk.




There is no doubt who rules the kingdom.

I love him to death but even I can admit he is a little bastard.

Sure he likes to be petted but only – and I mean ONLY – when he allows it. So, absolutely no surprise pettings and if he is ready for you to stop, you'd better stop. And this change in mood will happen in less than a split second. One second he is purring contentedly and leaning into your hand but then, in a flash, he is ready to scratch your eyes out for having the audacity to touch him.




Don't be fooled by this sweet face...

And I know all cats hate baths but this guy gave me nightmares about cat baths. One night we had to give a bath to all of our pets when there was an outbreak of fleas (thanks Humane Society), and let me just say that giving Dennis a bath was one of the scariest moments of my life. I truly feared for my safety.

He is the very definition of a loner. Unlike Althea and Hank, he rarely shows any desire to sit on your lap, cuddle with you or even be in the same room as you. However, every once in a while, he does seem to crave companionship even while showing his distaste for it. When we are all gathered in the living room, with Hank sitting on Sean’s lap and Althea sitting on mine, Dennis will stroll in and sit off to the side and just stare at us. Like he wants to join in but just cannot bring himself to do it. And when I try to bring him over to us, he just runs off.

He does love to play though. Dangle anything in his face and he’s on it. And he is excellent at playing fetch. His two favorite things in the world are pony tail holders and a laser pointer. Whenever he sees these two things, he gets so excited and will just start meowing uncontrollably.

Althea and Dennis also love to chase each other, which can get a little too crazy inside the house. Unfortunately, it's usually Althea taking the blame when things get too hectic because she is bigger and therefore louder, but we all know Dennis is always the instigator in getting her all riled up.

He is also fast. He has an extra flap of skin on his hind legs, which gives him the ability to stretch his legs out further than most cats. He will show off his ability by running back and forth through the house...many times with no one actually chasing him.



He loves stretching those legs out.

Now every once in a while, he will show signs that he actually does like us. It makes me the happiest person on the planet when Dennis does decide to cuddle. It is so rare that I get to cuddle with him. And he has a thing for rubbing his head on your head. Just put your head next to him and he will start rubbing on it.  So, when I do need some Dennis time, I will put my head next to him. It gets him every time.
 

This is a very, very rare snuggle moment.

If there is a little open space somewhere in the house, Dennis will find it and proceed to nap there. It can take a good part of a day trying to find him when he has found a new spot. He never responds when you call him.

"Do not disturb, bitch!"

He loves sitting in a box.

 

 

And if no box is around, he'll just sit in the sink.

He'll make any bed his own.

This is supposed to be Althea's bed.

This is supposed to be our bed.

And I have discovered that he is really into watching dog shows.

He sat there just like this watching the TV for at least 10 minutes and
would not have moved if I hadn't made a noise. I also have video.

He can be pretty weird. Sometimes he will just stare into a corner and freak everyone the hell out.

Blair Witch anyone???

And this is him giving me the finger...

 

 

and her name is althea

I've mentioned our dog Althea (Thea as we call her) quite frequently on this blog. So, I thought it might be fun to introduce all of our animals...instead of just always talking about the chickens.



Althea

Like most dog owners, I love my dog, I spoil my dog and I believe that she may be the greatest dog that God has ever put on this planet.

And just like most dogs, Thea has plenty of escapades and misadventures to talk about.

Like the time she got a fish hook caught in her lower lip...

As soon as I saw the little fish hook package sitting on a chair, I thought to myself,  "I should put this up" but for whatever reason I just didn't. So of course, that came back to bite me in the butt. At the time, I didn't think it was that urgent because 1) it was in a chair that Thea never bothers with and 2) it looked like something that would never catch her interest. Big mistake. Everything catches a dog's interest. 

Sean and I were out and guess where that damn fish hook ended up when we returned. Thea's lip. She did see it, did find it too tempting to pass up, tore into it and now it was dangling from her mouth. I was absolutely horrified. She, on the other hand, didn't seem to be bothered by it. She did what she always did when we got home: run to the door with her tail wagging and jumped up to say hello. It was Sean who discovered the thing hanging from her lip.

We did our best to get the thing out, but of course, it was imbedded too deep in that lip. I was freaking out. It was late and no vets were open, so we (I) had to calm down and assess the situation (I was ready to give 911 a call). She didn't seem to be in too much pain so we decided to take her to the vet in the morning. Sean made the suggestion that we capture this moment with a picture of her with a fish hook dangling from her mouth but I was way too panicked to even think that sounded anything close to a good idea. My dog had a fish hook dangling from her mouth for crying out loud!

(I will admit now that I wish we had a picture of her with a fish hook dangling from her mouth. And yes, I do know it could have been much worse, like her swallowing the hook. And yes, I have learned my lesson on keeping things out of her reach).

The next day we made an early trip to the vet's office. Thea just super excited to be going on a car ride (she LOVES riding in the car) even with a fish hook stuck in her lip. The vet confirmed that the hook was in too deep for anyone to pull out on their own and they would have to put her under in order to take it out. So, they knocked her out, took the hook out and woke her right back up. Whole thing took like ten minutes. She came out looking like she had one too many shots of tequila and we were off (after spending a hundred or so dollars).

I did capture a picture of her on the ride home. Poor girl was pretty drowsy for a good part of the  day.



Try as she might, she could not keep her head up.

More recently, we had another injury occur. This time a more common injury for dogs but that didn’t stop me from thinking that we should again just call for an ambulance.

She tore her dewclaw. Her dewclaw?

I had no idea what that was until after this incident and doing a little research to find out what we could do (besides calling 911). Turns out, the dewclaw is that upper claw on the paw that I refer to as her thumb and apparently dogs snag that thing all the time. It is such a common injury that most people just get the whole thing removed. I had no idea.

Well, Thea snagged that thing on god knows what outside and I noticed her licking quite incessantly at her paw. This is always a sign that something is wrong. And sure enough her paw was bleeding. Bleeding a lot. Just drips and drips and drips. So once again, I become a frantic mess and have to rely on Sean to be the voice of reason.

Luckily, she didn’t tear out her thumb (thank god!) but instead just cut the nail pretty deep, which is still a pretty painful injury for a dog. And after doing a little internet research, we discovered that this did not need to be another hundred or so dollar trip to the vet. We cut off the ripped part of her nail, put a little peroxide and cornstarch on it (apparently cornstarch helps to stop the bleeding) and wrapped her paw up.




Injury up close

Good as new but she still hated having her foot bandaged up.

Like a champ! 

And did you know that dogs can have epilepsy?

Well, let me tell you they can and our dog does.

I don’t let Thea outside when we are at work. So, when she is finally let outside after being cooped up, sometimes she just wants to run. And sometimes, no matter how hot it is outside, she just runs and runs at full speed like she'll never be able to run again. After these runs, well, she needs a moment. On this particular day, things were a little different. I just got home, let her outside while I changed, looked out the window and saw her lying on the grass, and I didn’t think anything of it until I saw our Uncle Wesley pull up the driveway and Thea just continued to lie in the grass. Usually, she is on top of any car that pulls into the driveway. She didn’t even come up to say hi like she ALWAYS does whenever someone comes over. Nothing. Not even when we called her. Now I knew something was wrong.

She was panting pretty heavily. But that could be because it was hot and she was running. She wasn’t responding to anything we did. It was like we weren’t even there. I shook her, I ran to get water, I repeated her name over and over. Nothing. And then I noticed something that scared me to death – her tongue was white. I mean white. No color.

That was it.

Surely my dog was dying and I didn’t know how to help her. Sean wasn't home from work yet and it didn’t help to have Wesley say to me, “I don’t think there is much life left in her.” It was probably the absolute worst thing to say but I know that Wesley loved Thea too and was just as worried as I was.

Wesley and I carried Thea to the car and drove to the vet. I was so frantic, but a funny thing happened along the way...Thea picked her head up and looked like nothing at all was out of the ordinary. By the time we got to the vet, which is only about ten minutes away, her tongue was back to its normal color, she jumped out of the car herself and she was the same old Thea. We contemplated even taking her in but I decided that it was best to go in just in case.

And after talking to the vet, I relized that this incident actually happened a year before during one of her stays at my parent's house. Same type of thing, Thea came inside (it was another hot day) and just dropped to the floor, panting heavily and not responding to any of us. We searched for the closest emergency vet - it was the weekend and no vets open - while my mom cooled her off with a damp cloth. And before you know it, Thea was right back up, wagging her tail and ready to get going. Like nothing ever happened. We blamed the heat that day, but no one got a look at her tongue though.

Epilepsy was the diagnosis. And epilepsy in dogs occurs more often than you (at least I) think. In both cases, Thea most likely got overstimulated by running like a maniac, had a seizure (which no one saw) and what we witnessed was her recovering from the seizure. And as scary and serious as all that sounds, it really could be worse. Some dogs have seizures quite frequently and some require medication. In Thea’s case, her seizures happened almost a year apart and seem to be pretty minor. She didn’t need a brain scan and she doesn’t need medication. She just gets way too excited and pushes herself a little too far.

Of course she does. Crazy dog.




Thea being all bashful

And aside from her health scares, here are some more facts this girl:

Thea is pretty spoiled (my fault)...

She is so used to me buying her things that every time one of us comes home with a bag, she immediately tries to get into the bag because she is so used to me having something for her. And when I don’t have anything, I feel so bad that more often than not, I will make sure to buy her a little something when I am out.




New Toy!

Thea is just a little high maintenance...

She also suffers from allergies, which causes her to itch and her skin to turn black. It gets pretty bad during spring and fall when the pollen count is at its highest. So it seems that our dog may actually be allergic to the outside.

She also had a recent bout of really bad diahrrea and let me tell you just how much fun that was not. Rice and canned pumpkin. RICE AND CANNED PUMPKIN, PEOPLE!!!

And Thea is just a little more work (and expensive) than our two cats combined...

Why do you decide to role around the wettest and muddiest spot every time you go out? Why did you decide to chew the coffee table leg? How much is the vet bill?

But I have to say that I couldn’t imagine my life without her. I was always a cat person growing up (still am) but I think that life is really not complete without a dog in it. I mean what is better than having your dog lay on you while you're watching TV or having her so excited to see you when you get home from work.

Now keep in mind, I will probably say the same about a cat or really any animal, so I may not be the best person to give that opinion…goats anyone?

And just the way you talk about your kid, I am going to talk about my dog. I find her stories just as funny (if not more) as any you can tell me about little so and so. I am also just as proud of her as you are of little so and so. And the fact that she is epileptic is just as interesting and frightening as if you said little so and so was epileptic.

And who else can you do this to and it be so adorable???

I moustache you a question

How do you do, sir?