My Boston Terrier was happy to go on a walk after a few weeks of introducing a newborn to the house and freezing weather… but I don’t think it was enough, still!

I had missed the post until someone elsewhere reminded me and asked for a chicken update, so I’m copy/pasting that in here.

Oh lordy!

The drama!

We have had three days of absurdity.

Friday, we had a bantam rooster pay us a visit from a neighbor’s yard. Luckily, this was while our rooster was inside getting scritches with me, so it didn’t get hammered.

But this little bugger was hot for our volunteer hen, who we suspect came from the same place; they’re both bantam sized.

This little guy was flying just above ground level, trying to corner her for some hot lovin. She was not having any of it. So she’s up where our rooster usually is, in an old window planter outside my dad’s window, scratching and raising cain because her thwarted lover was determined.

It took some doing, since any time we’d get close to where she was, she’d run off, and the chase was on, but we finally got the bantam rooster caught and chilled out inside the house. My kid had him tucked under an arm while we got the other birds settled in for the night.

So, we put the bantam in a pet carrier while I called around, and he’s in there singing the song of his people. Which was adorable. Bantam crows are just ridiculously cute. As he settled down, and we gave him some bugs and biscuits, it turned into happy chicken tuk-tuks, only cuter.

My wife and dad head around to the house we know damn good and well the bantam was from, but they denied having any ability to speak english (despite me and them having had conversations in english which included how bad my Spanish is), and just kept saying no.

So, she brings him back, and he is our guest for the night. He’s next to our marans, who is roughly twice his mass, and several inches taller, and he’s making love noises at her until we put a light sheet over the carrier.

Next morning, he has decided that his love will not be denied and is serenading her with cock-a-doodle-graaawks, because he can’t crow right. It’s adorable, but loud. Which has the hen scolding him at the top of her voice.

None of us were ready for action, so out on the back porch he goes, where our rooster is in his crate because temps and weather were brutal that night. They proceeded to spend the next hour filling the house and general vicinity with their dueling bawks and crows.

So, I get myself ready, make sure the little guy has a nice meal on top of whatever he ate in the night, and take a little drive.

He’s not happy with car rides. Can’t say I blame him, not with it all being a new thing to him, after all the craziness.

I take him home, knock on the door, and I nobody is home. I know damn good and well that’s where he’s from because their other bantams are right there at the fence in the front, and little man is telling them what a mighty rooster he is.

So, I get him out, tuck him under my arm and help him over the fence, where he immediately sets about humping the daylights out of anything slower than him.

Since then, he and our rooster are frenemies. They’ll stand on opposite sides of the fence and act like fools for a few hours until food or sex calls one of them away.

The bantam hen now refuses to go to that corner of the yard, and leaps into the nearest tree any time she hears him rustling the brush on his side.

Our marans scolds everyone involved, of course, because a proper french lady like her is too good for those sorts.

But big boy? He’s happy as a pig in slops because the bantam usually gives up first, so he’s now the cock of the walk in his head.

He’ll come ruuuuuuning up to me, wings out like Naruto, and jump into my arms, just gobbling and burbling. Then he jumps down and humps my shoes. He’s a crocusexual. It’s like a toddler home from a play date, having to tell dad all about it. Well, except the humping.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a big chicken running full out, but if you haven’t, you gotta hit YouTube and see it. I’d try and film it, but the jumping part makes it difficult, and I’m kinda paranoid about showing my house and yard anyway.

So, I would say they’re in fine fettle.

Oh! The marans, my little baby girl, was in a super sweet mood tonight. I was distracted talking to my wife, and started petting her. The hen, not my wife. Not only did I not draw back a nub, she purred for me. She’s nicely normally very firmly in the look, no touch camp. She loves snuggles and cuddles, but not being petted usually. But she was all into it this time. Eyes closed, neck stretched out, wings loose and droopy, just doing that sweet little purr. She hasn’t been that into a petting since she was still an itty bitty long chick that went around pew-pewing.

Trying to get my dog back to eating on a regular schedule. I think the prescribed antibiotics after her scuffle with a raccoon is/was messing with her digestion and she has been avoiding eating altogether. Was a little worried for a minute last week, because she skipped three meals in a row. We stopped giving her dog treats and let her get plenty of rest and she seems to have more of an appetite now.

It’s so funny owning a dog that is self-disciplined enough to resist scarfing food down. My last dog would eat anything you put in front of him. I never had to worry about administering medicine to him, because he wouldn’t even check the bowl to see what we gave him. Now I have a dog that’s a picky eater that can separate the yucky pills out of her food. It’s a learning process.

Mismatch is trying to kill her brothers, who are tolerating it much like any brother anywhere tolerates their little sister being a pain.

Scout (orange cat) is getting larger again. Can’t decide if we should diet him or just let him be large.

She tried to eat a thumbtack. She failed to eat that thumbtack but now I’m worried.

Ahsoka is not doing great on the Prozac, and I’m going to taper her off

The cat has cabin fever due to the snow. I took her for her first walk in a while yesterday and she somehow slipped under the neighbor’s fence and refused to budge. I wasn’t going to let her run away with the leash trailing behind her because that sounds like a good way to let her get tangled somewhere, so we just sat at a stalemate on opposite sides of the fence for god knows how long.

We eventually finished the walk, and in spite of that, she still had the zoomies until 4:30am.

I guess she’s doing well? She keeps life interesting, at least.