Friday afternoon, I left for what was supposed to be a quiet, relaxing holiday weekend at my brother's camper parked on a large pond... It was anything but!
Friday night was fairly uneventful. The kids caught frogs and turtles in the pond, drove around the ATV, and we went to bed early to hit up the Hillsdale Auction on Saturday morning. Once in a while a good deal can be found on canning and food processing implements, as well as farm animals and garden plants.
Saturday on our way to the auction, we were following my brother's father-in-law, when he quickly jerked and swerved to the side of the road, and my sis-in-law slammed on the breaks. In the middle of the road was a small beagle knawing on roadkill, traffic had come to a stand still on 34/99.
So I asked her to pull over and jumped out and called for the dog. She came right to me, although she crawled the entire way, as though she expected me to beat her when she got there. Picked her up, and put her in the truck. She was wearing an ill-fitting, too tight collar with a single tag dated 2011 with a random serial number and looked as though she'd not had her nails trimmed in months. No owner name, no phone number. She was not able to jump up into the truck on her own, and seemed to be favoring her hip or leg a little.
The business owner we'd pulled into came out and told us the neighbor down the street had 2 beagles, but no one was home. Two dogs ran up to the fence, so we knew she didn't live there. For the next 20 minutes or so, my sister-in-law combed the neighborhood, knocking on doors. Not a single person recognized the dog or knew of anyone other than the first house with 2 dogs that had a beagle...
My mom called her local vet, who told her that most times vaccination tags will also include a vet name and number along with the serial number. Without the vet name and number, it's apparently virtually impossible to track down. Everyone knows that hounds have a tendency to wander off, seems like a beloved pet would have a proper ID, doesn't it?
By this time, we'd been delayed almost an hour, so we decided to take her to the auction with us and do more searching afterward. I also have a high school classmate that has many connections and is involved in rescues, I figured if we couldn't find the owner, we could get her into a rescue...
She was very well behaved in the truck, and really seemed to enjoy the attention from my young neice. On closer inspection, and by observing behavior, she seems to be older middle aged or a senior dog. Very gentle with kids, and has no problem with other dogs. She is potty trained, comes when called, and can sit.
Well, by time we left the camper, I'd been convinced to keep the dog myself... Here she is, DIXIE:
So I got myself a third dog. Everyone really liked her, and she loved all the attention she was getting. Not sure why, but she is actually afraid of sudden movements and unexpected loud noises. She has a tendency to gobble down food as quickly as possible, then move on to the other dog's food, but is not aggressive when I put my hand down there or take the bowl.
An hour or so after we got back and had eaten dinner, I got a call from Brian, who stayed home to mow and till. Giblets, our slightly kinder turkey, had fallen ill and had symptoms of heart failure. Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys are basically bred to fatten up as soon as possible for slaughter, and heart problems are extremely common. Their chests are so big that they waddle side to side trying to walk, and they pant and huff and puff when the weather gets hot. Last summer, they were only a few months old and had no issues.
Brian gave him food and water where he was laying in the barn, but he made no attempts to get up, eat or drink for 24 hours. At that point, he was clearly suffering, and he had to be put down. Rather than attempt bury him and have him dug up by coyotes, Brian cleaned him and our freezer is full. I always said I would never eat a pet bird, but I feel he had a good life here free-ranging, while most turkeys are stuffed in tiny pens and fed bottom of the barrell feed. Besides that, the turkeys honestly had nothing to do with us once they matured, other than to puff up and strut like they owned the joint when we went out to feed everyone.
So we lost a turkey and gained a dog, right? But, that's not all!!!
Sunday evening, we were getting ready to eat dinner when we get a frantic call from Brian, "THE GOAT JUST HAD A BABY!!!!!!!!!". "Wait, WHAT???", I thought I heard wrong. "THE GOAT JUST HAD A BABY!!! I GOTTA GO!!!", and he hung up. I would expect the same tone of voice from him if the house had been burning down! I get a second phone call a few minutes later. "Now there's another one! There's two babies!". Oy vey!!!
We were told when we bought Daisy that she'd been in with a billy ONCE, and that she didn't think anything had happened. Well...........................
It's kind of funny, looking back now I should have realized it. For the past two or three weeks, she had been yelling to be fed before the sun was even really up, and seemed to be constantly hungry. I made the comment in passing that I didn't understand why she was always complaining for food considering how fat she was getting.
Anyhow, there is a male and a female. We are calling them Samson and Delilah. Samson looks just like his mom in the face, we have no idea about the father. There is a lady at church that has dairy goats, we are hoping she can help us with their shots, and banding the boy in a few months. I never had any intention of getting more goats or breeding Daisy, but here they are!
Sadly, Daisy was not letting them eat properly, the female was already looking sickly and scrawny, so we are having to bottle feed them. Not ideal, but nothing we can do when she keeps hopping over them and running away from them. Final straw was her laying in the barn while her babies were trying to hide behind a log out in their yard during a period of fairly strong wind yesterday evening. They seem to not have a problem with playing with the dogs and sleeping in our large dog crate. They are laying on the floor sleeping next to the couch as I type.
So there is my eventful weekend in a (very long winded) nutshell. Lost a turkey, gained a dog and 2 goats! I was happy to see, too, that my irises had bloomed in my absence. Hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. Thank you again to all our servicemen willing to sacrifice their lives in defense of others.
