Friday, March 23, 2018

Spring surprise

We awoke to snow this morning! Not completely unheard of, but spring snow is uncommon here.


It was slushy stuff, and was eventually washed away with a cold rain. (In the last photo, I was trying to capture the plum blossoms through the rivulets of rain running down the window, but my camera didn't capture the neat effect my eyes were seeing.)

Red the chicken has a painful condition in both feet; I'm guessing it's bumblefoot even though it doesn't look like the photos I found online. She spends most of her time on the roost, I think because jumping down hurts and she's getting harassed some by other hens. So when I'm out and about, I go in and gently deposit her on the floor of the coop, where she eagerly eats and drinks while I stand watch. The others, not nearly as tame, watch from outside:

Instagram posts made me aware that today is National Puppy Day, so I snapped this shot of visiting pup Gatsby for his family:

Below is a brief video of him playing "soccer." His girl brought him a new ball last weekend. He really likes it, but also likes that pink nubbin of a toy in the photo above. So he'll carry one in his mouth while dribbling the other one all over the house with his front feet. It's pretty cute – and I'm also easily entertained by animal antics.  😁

That's it for now from cold, wet . . .

2 comments:

Mama Pea said...

It's easy to see Gatsby is so happy living with you.

Sorry to hear about Red the chicken. They are so hard to diagnose when a problem comes up. Hope she gets better soon. In the meantime, she's lucky to have you to care for her.

Susan said...

I have a girl with a mystery problem, too. I am thinking she hurt herself while maneuvering over all the ice we had earlier this winter. She seems to get around okay, but then flops down. It looks like she must have sprained her leg, or pulled a tendon, or something. One of the Buffs is her constant companion and seems to be putting herself between the injured hen and the rest of the group. It's interesting. Gatsby is quite adorable and I admit that I watch my two for hours. They are such loves. How beautiful your plum tree is in full flower - rivulets of rain or not!