PLEEEASE, MOM!!!

Our barn cat, Taffy, caught something. That's what our cat thinks she is for - catching little things that run around on the ground. And usually, we agree. But this time..... Taffy came running up to the barn with something in her mouth - a pretty big something. Mika, the ever-curious puppy, ran to have a look. She quickly snatched the something from Taffy and ran out into the pasture, where she proceeded to dig a hole faster than we have ever seen, stuffed the something into it and buried it.

Jorin and Jantzen, who are also ever-curious, ran to dig up whatever it was and maybe return it to the cat, its rightful owner. I called to them to make sure and use a stick, not their hands, because you just never know what kind of germs are on dead animals, after all. After a few minutes of searching and digging, they unearthed a little rabbit. And it was still alive. And that's when it began........."Please, mom, pleeease! Can we keep it? Pleease!"

While I appreciated that they were asking in such a polite way, I was pretty sure we didn't want to try and raise a wild rabbit. Thankfully, we determined, after calls to the local vet and the Missouri Conservation center, that the rabbit's best chance of survival was back in the woods. After quite a few more "pleases" and "are you sure"'s, the kids took the little critter behind our house into the woods - and deposited it in a sunny spot, where I am sure it joined its rabbit family and is living happily ever after.

IT'S A BOY....and TWENTY GIRLS!!!!

Jantzen is a mama...of twenty chickens! We drove to Lebanon and visited the Cackle Hatchery. She picked out 6 Barred Rock, 5 Black Australorps, 5 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Crested Polish (the bad hair day chickens) and 2 Araucanas (which lay colored eggs!). She is so excited about these babies. They are growing like crazy and she is counting the days to when they will be laying eggs (a.k.a. money).



Jorin finally has his bucket calf! It is the cutest little black purebred angus. Bottle feeding is a riot! This little calf follows Jorin around - looking for milk. Jorin has named him Old Spice - because..."he's a man, man". (Well, kind of - we banded him last night).

Mika is getting used to the new additions to the family - she watches the chicks closely - and isn't sure about the calf yet (the only animal bigger than her!) - but we are hoping they will soon all be friends! In three months, Mika has gone from being a 15 pound bundle of puppy - to about a 45 pound bigger bundle of puppy.