Returning with animals

My son has an ability of finding things which can become a chore, when it is yet another stick, which apparently makes a fantastic gun. It is such a pity that he has not found a big bag of money, but he continues to search. The other problem is that he chooses completely the wrong moments to find things, typically when I am trying to leave the house.

Getting my son to school is one of those frantic times of the day, when nothing ever goes right, and there are at least five occasions when I have to stop and move away from the car. Yesterday was no different, with one eye on the clock, and car keys in hand I was attempting to leave, as the drive has to be timed to perfection or we will be late.

Not only do I have to beat the other Mum's who drive far slower than me, the school bus, cyclists, dead animals on the road, and quite often tourists who are blatantly lost in the wilderness, once I reach the local town the traffic is a nightmare. All of these reasons mean I have to leave on time or my mood rapidly goes down hill.

I managed to be in the car, engine on, moving towards the gates, when I heard "Mummmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeee" which my son has perfected. I attempted to ignore him and wave, but this did not work very well, as he then proceeded to jump up and down in the drive, arms waving, very much in a panic pose. I drove towards the gates to see him leap over the wall, shouting "the cat has got a baby bunny" at that point I stopped the car and jumped out.

OMG, I thought the cat had one of our bunnies, now I love my cats but that is a step too far, but then he shouted "its running away", which meant that it couldn't be our rabbits as they are wriggling, defiantly not running, so what the hell was he chasing. As I stood there, looking at my watch thinking of shit I'm now very late, he returned with a rabbit.

Looking extremely pleased with himself he asked to keep the rabbit, which of course was a no as it was a wild rabbit, however, I knew I needed to leave, so I told him to put it in the rabbit hutch, and I would deal with it later. 10 minutes late, in the car we then had the typical debate, "why can't we keep it" what should we name it" I was adamant all the way there that this rabbit was not staying, needless to say it is still here, enjoying the straw, water, and food that it has now been given!

Headbutting

Jack is now rather large, and several of his body parts are also large including his horns! which means that if you come into contact with them, you will regret it very quickly. Being in the goat pen has never been an issue before, however, lately Jack has taken play time to the next level, and fails to realise that the rest of us do not own bloody great horns.

Once again I Googled, and it seems that Jack is attempting to show his assertiveness, by head butting people to see who will fight back and defeat him. The problem is without horns and a thick skull like his, this can be difficult. Jack had not been a problem, only to my daughter, and we told her that was because he didn't like her very much!

However, I was in there the other day, and Jack decided to perform his death move, which is when he hooks his horn behind your leg and pulls. This was not amusing, and caused me to want to kick him in the head, don't worry I didn't (only because I couldn't lift my leg that high!) So off to Goggle I went to find a solution that wouldnt cause jack to be booted.

Google suggested that water was the answer, as goats don't like being sprayed in the face, this sounded like a plan, and I needed a water pistol. However, before I could get to the shop to purchase one I had to go back into the goat pen, Jack approached head down ready to strike, unfortunately for him I was stood next to the water bucket. Jack received the full contents over his head, which might have been excessive but he retreated, round one to Mummy.

They are still alive!

I have probably jinxed it now, but the bunnies are still alive! I would like to think this had something to do with me, however, Miss Thunderpussy is an excellent mum. I do check on the bunnies every day just to ensure that they are still there, and at the moment we have them all, alive and kicking.

Rabbits are strange creatures, as they spend no time with their babies at all, and miss Thunderpussy is often seen sunbathing. However, this it seems is normal, and nothing to be concerned about, I bet there are several mothers that wish they could do the same.

Baby bunnies are ugly, there is no other word to describe them, as they have no fur, and look strange! We appear to have one bright pink one, and several black ones, which ponders the question what colour the pink one will be, but time will tell.

The debate about whether to keep them has begun, and it is a definite NO, the babies were always destined for a Spanish guy, and they need to make us money! So, for the moment I am keeping a close eye on our investment, and ensuring that they stay alive and healthy.

Billy is a girl!

I know my duck knowledge is not good, however, neither was the duck "expert" that we bought the ducks from, as we can now confirm that Billy is defiantly a girl. Billy had begun to spend less time with the other ducks, and kept wandering off, which led me to believe that he/she had eggs. The problem was where, as there is a lot of land for a duck to explore.

We spent one evening searching but no luck, and I knew that Billy couldn't be far, but just couldn't find him. Billy had been missing the whole day, and when he/she appeared for food, operation stalk duck had to commence. We all loitered around the pond, pretending to tidy, faff and generally loiter as Billy seemed to know what we were up to.

After what seemed like an eternity, Billy made his move, and slowly begun to wander off, towards the compost heap. From there he went round the back, down the slope, and into a nicely made Billy sized hole in a pile of sticks and bushes. The hole was completely full of white feathers, a she had made a perfect nest for his eggs. Oh yes we had eggs!

As I sat on the bank, staring in disbelief Billy happily chirped as ducks do when they are pleased to see you, and thought how did we miss this nest! Billy knows that he needs to stay on his/her eggs, and is happily there all the time now. The problems will begin if both him and Lucy hatch their eggs, as that is a lot of ducklings, crispy duck anyone?

We have babies!

Expecting the baby bunnies in a few days I thought nothing of it when I wandered past the rabbits yesterday to see Miss Thunderpussy laid in the sun without a care in the world. However, as I got closer she got up and ran to her nesting box, and excitedly jumped in and out, as if wanting to show me something. I crouched down and could see nothing, however, in all honestly I had no idea what I was in fact looking for.

As I went to move away the straw/fur pile that she had created begun to move, and there was definatly something in there. Now either something had moved in to her box and was quite happily living in her fur, or she had given birth. I sat and watched the straw breathing for a few moments, before rushing off to Google.

Now, everyone had said DO NOT TOUCH so, I had left them alone, but as I Googled more and more, it seems that you need to touch to check they are all alive! So, decisions do I touch, or do I leave well alone. Armed with lettuce I decided to see how the new mum felt about me being in their with her, and to be honest like everything else in Casa Chaos, she was far more interested in the lettuce than me.

So, I gently removed the front of the box, and moved the fur back to reveal the strangest little creatures. I had never seen baby bunnies, so had no idea what to expect, but they were odd, all naked, and wriggling, but cute in a strange sort of way. I had a quick poke around, and think there is 6 or 7, but with just lots of legs everywhere who knows.

Placing the nesting box front back on, I left mum and babies, and have decided that I will check everyday as my fear now is keeping them alive, and out of the jaws of rats! I am hoping that Miss Thunderpussy will defend her babies, and that she is  a good mum. So far so good though!

We are pregnant

Well either Miss Thunderpussy is pregnant, or she has eaten far too much rabbit food, and needs to shed some pounds. This event has been a long time coming, as we have had her since July, and nothing has happened. The statement of rabbits breed constantly is untrue here, as she took six months to get going, but it looks like she is finally ready to pop.

Like any expectant mother she spends many hours laid in the sunshine, doing nothing, and it has become an effort to hop around. As I watch her carrying her huge belly to her food and water, she has the look of any expectant mother, of "get these out of me, I have had enough"

At present she is still allowing people to stroke her, but I keep telling the kids do not touch, as I have read so many horror stories of bunnies eating their young if people get involved. Rabbit cannibalism is a step too far in my mind, so we are trying to leave her to it, and wait. Up until yesterday I was still pondering if she was just fat, but then we saw in her nesting box.

In one corner was a huge amount of fur, again, another strange thing that rabbits do is to pull out their own fur to make a nest! Animals are the strangest things, but hey who am I to question rabbit logic, so, we have the fur nest, the overweight bunny, and the male rabbit pacing up and down on the other side. Everything is set, so now we wait for babies, I Googled (yes, I know that is a shock) and it says from nest making to labour is two days eeeekkkkk not long now then!

Things that go bump in the night!

When it gets dark here in casa chaos there is often a sense of calm as everything goes to sleep, and you can hear nothing. This means that when something does happen, you can hear it for miles, and the whole neighbourhood learns that something is going on in the crazy finca. When there is a commotion, I am often woken, and lay there for a few minutes thinking, "God do I have to move"

This happened the other night, it was peaceful, I was asleep and all of a sudden the chickens started making a huge noise. One chicken had obviously been scared by something, and alerted the other 65 to the impending danger. The problem is with chickens this danger can be anything, which is why I am often reluctant to move, and go and investigate.

So, as I laid there listening to the chickens making a huge noise, which didn't appear to be getting any quieter, I considered what could have upset them this time. Other people are concerned with predators, however, the rats are the largest thing we have, and I wasn't going to get up and go down there for a rat!

Times like these I wish hubby didn't work nights, as a quick dig in the ribs and a grumble, would have sent him on his way to go and look. However, I had to make the decision, do I get out of my nice warm bed, struggle to find clothes, a torch and some boots, venture into the dark, which as you know I am REALLY not good with. To trudge around an orchard searching for the scary thing that the chickens have decided they do not like....errr hell no, I stayed in my nice warm bed.

There was logic to my decision, if it was a rat there was nothing I could do, if it was a chicken simply having a diva fit, there was nothing I could do, and if the scary object was larger than a rat, why on earth would I want to be in the orchard, in the dark with this object that could potentially kill me! Therefore, I rolled over, pulled the duvet higher, and went back to sleep...I know bad farmer I am!