Current total of animals under my care:

1. 100 cows
2. 4 bulls
3. 2 horses (okay so these top three are Mr. Racncher’s responsibility but I’m counting them because they totally impact the rest of my life as well–wanna go on a date? Cows are out. Wanna have an early night? Cows are out. Wanna leave town? Cows are out. You catch my drift?)
4. 1 cow dog
5. 3 farm cats
6. 1 wild bunny
7. 10 or 11 ducklings
8. 2 wild turkey chicks
9. 8 more duck eggs to hatch
10. 5 more turkey eggs to hatch

Current total of animals not under my care but living at my house:

1. 4 cow dogs
2. Innumerable farm cats
3. 6-8 horses
4. 20+ chickens

Wanna know why life is crazy with this many animals? Oh let me count the ways.

1. Bunny’s first day at home, Henley let him out from his cage (temporary until our fencing material arrives) and he was lost in the house for several hours. Once I found him, it took several tries and moving most of the furniture to catch him. Then lots of cleaning to restore the house to order.

2. Every day since, Bo the cow dog sits at the cage and licks his lips while watching the bunny. Woke up yesterday at 6 to the sound of Bo lifting the cage with his nose and dropping it back to the floor repeatedly. Our outside door doesn’t always seal shut and he had pushed it open after Mr. Rancher left.

3. Ducklings are living in our shed until they are big enough to be released by the pond. Mr. Rancher inevitably swathes over bird nests while cutting hay and has taken to bringing home the eggs so we can hatch them and give back to nature. He built a nice cover for an old stock tank where the ducklings live. Yesterday, I lifted the cover to refill food and water dishes. I replaced the cover but didn’t latch it when I left to fill the water bucket. Soon I heard Becca screaming “duck duck duck!” and saw our landlord’s son chasing our cat Onyx. Somehow she was able to lift the unlatched cover, slither in, snatch a duckling, and wriggle back out again. We were able to catch the cat and retrieve the duckling. He seems no worse for the wear, thank goodness. Always latch the gate and the cover to the bird enclosure.

4. Came home from swimming lessons to see a drowned gopher floating in our renovated stock tank pool. Thanks, cats. Lucky for me, I’m not quite strong enough to clean that tank out alone, so Mr. Rancher had to deal with that one.

5. I sent the girls out to play yesterday and was rushed outside to their screams as the dogs that live at my house but aren’t mine were out and attacking the girls with too much energy and too many licks.

6. My entire big rock flowerbed was full of blooming wildflowers for one day, then the chickens that live at my house but aren’t mine dug and walked over them so much so that I don’t have flowers in half the bed anymore.

To make myself feel better, I posted this message to my felt board. Notice the lack of punctuation? Well, the other two “animals” living under my care, namely Henley and Becca have hidden the bag of numbers and punctuation marks for the felt board.

Ahhhh, my crazy life.