Giant Pink Turd....

Wow!  Winston is on the naughty rampage today.  Not listening, breaking into the garden, just in general being a giant pink turd.  Given that he decided to go under the deer fencing and eat the freshly planted blueberry plant I think that he will no longer be allowed to go to play while I work in the garden.  He can still go on our afternoon walks - they are in the other direction.

Pigs are actually quite sensitive and get their feelings hurt fairly easily.  He got yelled at and he knew I was pissed.  I went to check on him a bit ago and he was pouting in his bed.  We made up and I was able to do some maintenance on his ears, eyes and teeth - he loves getting pampered.  The pollen is making his eyes itch so he let me do some eyedrops (colloidal silver) as well.  He had some cookies and some cuddles and all is right in the world again....  He is napping happily under his blanket - likely dreaming up some new and exciting turdy plans...

We Have Another Teenager In the House

Happy Birthday Miss Emma - my sweet pup turns thirteen today!  I can't believe it - time goes so fast.  We are quite fortunate that the Divine Miss Em is in exceptional health - we just had a great baseline of tests done when she had her dental work so all of her numbers look good.  She is full of energy and quite active throughout the day.

Today was quite a busy day for the humans.  To top it off, even though it was warm out it was quite windy and it felt like a pollen blizzard outside with yellow clouds blowing through the air.  We decided that we would hold off on doing something special til the weekend.  Both Em and Winston will get a special treat that they can eat out on the patio.

In the meantime - last year's birthday shot encapsulates her personality perfectly:

And - you can't have a birthday come and go without a puppy pic:

I love that crazy, neurotic dog with all my heart - happy birthday sweet girl!!

PS - her birthday didn't go without treats - she had some fries, a chip or two and a bit of ice cream....

Gardening with a Dog and a Pig

Here are the things I have learned about gardening with the dog and the pig....

1. Deer fencing + dog + pig = no bueno....Neither the dog nor the pig can see the fence.  Winston is at least smart enough to lift it up and go under the bottom.  Emma runs into it and proceed to hop around like the Easter Bunny.  Now - when I say that Winston is smart - its actually not a good thing - if he can get under the fence that means he can get to the plants for a snack.  Might need to do a perimeter reinforcement somehow.
   
2. If only I could harness the rooting power of the pig I would never need to weed or shovel - ever.  He is a machine.
   
3. Emma loves the great outdoors - so long as there is a human out there with her.
   
4. Gardening is hard work - even harder when you are babysitting the dog and pig.
   
5. Both Winston and Emma are afraid of the wind - that seems like that's a funky thing to be afraid of.

A Change in Scenery

The baby ferrets love a change in scenery in critter land.  They love it when I rearrange the furniture or bring in a new box or blanket.  They particularly love bath towels.  Once I have used my towel and its ready to go into the laundry I take it down to their area and let them play with it for a couple of days.

Yesterday I took them a towel and tonight when I went to put them to bed I found that they had dragged it into the hall closet and all seven ferrets were piled up underneath happily sleeping away.  I pile up their toys when I vacuum - it takes a couple of hours for those to be spread all over everywhere as well.

I love that they are engaged and playing with their toys and each other.  I was watering the front flowerbed and enjoyed watching them wrestle and chase each other this morning.  I do love that bunch of weasels with all my heart!

Playtime for the Little Critters

My mom is here visiting for the weekend and she wanted to see the little critters so we decided to let them out of critter land and into the rest of the house to play.  It's a treat they don't get very often and they LOVE it!

The kitties came out to investigate - even Aggie who is very cautious and shy.  Oliver of course wanted to be the center of attention and Phoebe paid a visit to all of the humans she could find.  The ferrets explored in, on and under whatever they could find.  Tabby and Violet both snuck into the fireplace so they have new black, sooty markings.... little white turds!  :)

All in all they had a great time and wore themselves out.  I just went to check on them and all of them are sacked out - no one even stirred when I went into critter land to make sure everyone was good to go.

Winston is napping after playing outside all morning and Emma is with my mom's dog Quincy get their spring haircuts done - I will post pictures later....

Outdoor Crawlies

Warning - if you get the heebie jeebies from spiders you might want to skip this post.  Me - I think spiders are cool and they don't freak me out at all.  I am most definitely not a spider squisher - if they are inside I scoop them on to a piece of paper or into a paper cup and put them out.

Today I was on my walk with Winston and Emma and I found these guys on the fence post by our back gate.  Not sure what the deal with them - LOTS of them for sure!!  Not sure what kind they are but based on Google I think maybe red house spiders -  they were fascinated by me though and they tried to check me out by flying on their webs over to see me.  Glad I am not afraid of spiders.  If they are red house spiders they are totally harmless - fangs not strong enough to break through human skin.

I think they are pretty cool - maybe a bit brazen hanging out just 30 feet or so away from an incredibly active bird feeder..... the pictures don't really do them justice.  The part hanging off the rock - the kind of droopy part hanging down from the top of the second photo - that's what I think is the nest that all of these babies came from.  There are literally hundreds of babies piled there.

Picture Project #1

I finally finished my first picture project!  I bought plain wooden frames for $1 each on sale and painted them to match a piece of artwork in our dining room and filled them with some favorite shots of my fur kids:

I had a couple of extra frames so I put these in Emma and Winston's hallway: