I am an animal lover. "Nuff said" according to my next door neighbor. We live in a very rural suburb of Salt Lake. There is farm property around us, and a small peacock family across the street. I admit I own 5 cats, probably soon to be 6, and I am fostering 2 kittens we found someone in the act of dumping in the street in front of our house last week. (They got away before we could get license plate numbers) I think it's posted somewhere on my face. The other day while buying local cherries, a guy walked up to me and asked if I would be interested in a kitten because he is allergic. I ran screaming in the other direction throwing the cherries I just purchased, as he checked to see if he had B.O., or maybe spinach between his teeth!
My cats are like the children I never got to have. Today they were acting like just that, children. Piper is the 3 month old that we have been fostering that will likely become a permanent part of our family. I have had her since she was 3 weeks old and required bottle feeding. She is very active and loves to play with the 2 kitten twins that are probably 5 weeks old, especially since the youngest of my other cats is about 7 years, and they don't play like kittens play anymore. Piper discovered she could slide on the floor mat by running and jumping onto it in front of the shower, and riding it to the end of the wall. She did this at least 3 times. After that, they played 'climb onto the furniture and jump off '...onto each other, the bed, the window,...me. Then there is the books and magazines sitting in a small pile at the side of my bed. I know I stacked them too many times to count, only to have them immediately explode all over the floor as one of the three took turns running out from under the bed right onto the pile! On purpose! Not to mention the 'cat fights' resulting in someone squealing one minute, only to be the bully the next.
Something set off Hunter, our lab/husky, because he just would not shut up today. He started whining, so I let him go out. Then he was barking, so I let him come back in. After the whining again he went out for the rest of the day. I am very self conscious about the dog barking too much, so in between stacking books I would go yell at the dog to shut up. It's wasn't like there were other cats in the yard, the neighbor wasn't moving his camp trailer too close , and the peacocks were not eating his food either! (they love dog food). He had plenty of food, and water (if not, he will tell us) The yard isn't scheduled to be sprayed for weeds until tomorrow. After being sprayed every month, it takes him about a week to go back onto the grass, let alone into the backyard. I have never before seen a dog lift his leg on his own leash, or stand on one of the big rocks to do his business!
Tonight, I was trying to do some computer work. Smokie it the only male cat in the house. He is my bodyguard. He will go after, and swat Hunter, (100lb's) who then cowers. Smokie decided he needed cuddle time, right on my laptop, right now. When that didn't work, he decided he needed my shoulder. This cat will ride around on your shoulder, but only the left one. If he gets on the right, he will move one paw at a time to the left. We call that a Smokie hug. But when your sitting down with a computer in your lap, all you get is a mouth full of fur! So I moved outside to my favorite double chaise lounge that Dennis built for me, (take that Pottery Barn!), nestled under the trees. I was engrossed in a quilting book, listening to music off the laptop, when all of a sudden I got blasted by a blaring honk, about the speed of a semi-truck directly in front of me! I don't climb trees, but I needed a ladder to get out of this one!
You see, Dennis not only nick-names them (Pierre, Pedro), he encourages the peacocks to eat Hunter's dog food. They actually stick their tiny pea-brained head with the 80's style "ponytail on top ", into the dog house and eat out of his dish. You may not know, but peacocks are noisy, especially during mating season, (going on for the last 3 months). They honk, yell like cats, scream like two year old's, worse than teenage girls ...noisy. If you drop something, like a board, they scream. When our car alarm got set off earlier tonight, they yelled the whole time it honked, and stopped almost the instant the alarm did. Unfortunately, now that mating season is winding down, they are starting to molt. So the beautiful long feathers they 'show' are thinning and falling out.
So while I was relaxing in the cool evening, apparently I was in his way. He got less than six feet in front of me without my noticing, and let loose! They are semi tame, and will approach, especially if food is at stake. I climbed out of the tree, and went inside to change my pants. How in the world did they know I startle easily and strongly! Someone had to tip them off! I went in ranting to Dennis about his friend Pierre or Pedro or whoever it was this week, and sent him out to put away the lounge cushions for the night. He came back inside with a hand full of the long tail feathers in his hand and said he got revenge! Now the animal lover in me was worried. Did he pull them out of the peacock by force, did he chase him down and give him a noogie? No, Dennis just went out the door and called "hey Pierre, where are you?", knowing he was likely in the doghouse (literally). The peacock startled so bad, he flustered, and did something we rarely see peacocks do...fly. They only get about 6 feet off the ground, only as high as it takes, but in his fluster to move, fly, and get away to go home and change his pants, he left behind a dozen or so feathers!
I haven't stopped laughing since.
So is it animal house, funny farm, animal farm (no that's about communism).... I'm not sure but it is wild, wacky, and a bunch of laughs.
And I love to laugh.
Nuff said.
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