The Adams Family Pets
 
June 2006 -  Matt and Lucia had a Father-Daughter bonding trip, along with our neighour Julian. They made a nest of hay bales in the back of our trailer, and came back with...four pigs! Here are some photos of the trip.

I've taken some photos of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for posting, so the photo will hopefully be up soon.

 
   
 
April 2006 - Here is the new little of pigs born to a neighbour's sister. Matt struck a deal with the neighbours that they could have a lamb of ours in exchange for raising a piglet for us. I imagine that we would get too attached to it to eat it if it were on our section.

I've taken some photos of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for posting, so the photo will hopefully be up soon.

 
  January 2006 The farm saw an increase again in January - two cows, Rosenkranz and Guildenstern. The names come from Hamlet, where two messengers named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die, with some inevitability.   And the parallel here is that they are destined for the freezer so we're not allowed to get too attached. It's just as well that they aren't particularly friendly!

At the present moment, our other pets include Daisy Dog the indefatiguable terrier, Tom Kitten the Transexual Manx** and our black-faced Suffolk sheep and the lambs and pet ram called LegoLamb.  That's all. For now. Tomorrow, Allegria The Borrowed Cat arrives for 5 months while her real Mummy and Daddy go to Honduras.

**When we brought Tommy to be neutered, he came back with a hysterectomy scar and some gender confusion. ("And then he was a she, and he said "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side..." Apologies to Lou Reed. Don't know what came over me...) It's very hard to start calling it "she", but I don't suppose it matters greatly. 

 

  
 

July '05 - We went into a pet shop for some worming tablets...Look what we came out with - Tom Kitten! He is a Manx, so he has almost no tail.  He's tiny, so tiny we lost him in a drawer and took ages to find where the meowing was coming from!

 

Here he is, dwarfed by his food bowl and the Tom Kitten toy. In keeping with our cat tradition, he seems to be the runt of the litter, too.

 

 

 

 

Here he is on his favourite perch - he loves to be up high!

 

And here he is framed beautifully...

 
  May 2005 -  We sadly buried Vanilla Kitty. She ran out onto the main road in Greytown - perhaps going back to our old house? - and was run over.  She was the coolest cat - very loud and demanding of cuddles, had a huge appetite and was incredibly tolerant with the children even when being tugged at at.  We planted a paper birch over her grave and recited "The Owl and the Pussycat" for her..'O Pussy my love, pussy my love, pussy my love, O what a beautiful pussy  you are, you are, what a beautiful pussy you are."

  
  February 2005 - Matt acquired LegoLamb from a boy who had bottle-raised the little ram-lamb in his backyard. His mother had promised him that the lamb would not be slaughtered, so via a chance conversation at the pub, he made his way to us.  He's not going to be made into sausages or lamb leg, but he's going to be our stud ram for a while.  This is a photo of Daisy trying to get to know him.

He's very sweet and loves eating out of your hand. He runs over the fence whenever he sees us, and thinks that dandelions fed by hand is better than anything inside his paddock.  But when we pull out the good stuff (sheep nuts - they must be like candy to them!) four sheep come running.

 
July 2004 -  our first lamb was born.  Unbeknownst to us, Suffolk lambs are dark grey and black when they are born.  Here we thought that the ewe had had a one-night stand with a black sheep before she came to us! The resulting offspring was named "Sooty". The other ewes (which were mated with 2 Suffolk Ewes in May and June) are due in September and October.

  April 2004 - We acquired 10 South Suffolk ewes. I wanted them because they're so cute with their black faces and feet.  Matt wanted them because they are good for meat. I don't know that Lucia and I are quite au fait with the idea of them disappearing into the freezer, so stay tuned...we may end up being vegetarians when it comes time to eat "Fluffy", or we may end up with an awful lot of sheep.

 
 

February 2004 - We made the mistake of going into the pet shop to check out the new litter of siamese kittens. Lucia and I immediately fell in love with Vanilla, the scrawniest little runt with the loudest and most insistent purr.  She came home with us soon thereafter, where is the regularly attacked by the dog, throttled by Lucia, and generally loved to bits. She has a fantastic temperament, and (go figure) loves vegetables.

   
Daisy isn't going to miss out on being taken for a walk!
 

  
 

 

We think that Daisy Pup had best get used to be being dressed up in doll's clothes. Just so that it doesn't come as a rude shock, we're doing our bit to help her prepare.
 

Daisy was one of 9 pups born on 17 April 2002. This is her at one week old.
We brought her home in mid-June, when she was about 9 weeks old. 

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