The Green Horseman

Last year we said goodbye to our cat, Kain.
He was once in a lifetime, truly my heart and soul. I could do anything with and to him and he never minded. When he was young he high-fived, shook hands, and even played fetch on occasion.

We have also begun losing our hens. We have treated them for parasites, illness, and yet they are slowly going. We are down to 2 adult hens as of June (of 5). They had previously stopped laying eggs.

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Indoors Bardi is twelve, and Miss is somewhere in her teens.

With our home becoming geriatric we decided it was time to bring in some young blood.

In April we welcomed seven young hens, 4 lavender Orpingtons and 3 blue Australorps. We raised them inside for a couple months and in early June (maybe end of May?) we officially evicted them. They are separate from our two remaining adults for now while they grow and finish up their medicated chick feed. Soon they will be all together. At 3 months old they are now beginning to look and sound like true adult hens. We suspect it will be another 2-3 months before we start seeing eggs.

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In the beginning of June we also welcomed two 8 week old kittens. Meet Mango and Mingus!

We found them from a wonderful lady with mutual friends on Facebook, she had two barn cats who had litters a week apart. I really wanted two boys, and one of them had to be orange. My thought behind TWO babies was allowing them to have a brother to grow up with and conquer new experiences together. Two babies would mean they had someone to play with and allow Miss the peace that she prefers. As a senior cat she has no desire to associate with the shenanigans the babies will inevitably get up to.

We set a date for pickup and scheduled the vet for right after, so we took them directly to the vet for their first shots and tests to ensure they weren’t at risk of bringing any serious illness home to our girl.

Clean bill of health and some vaccines later we brought them home. They spent a couple of days in a large dog crate with bed sheets draped over it, this allowed them to chill out while they adjusted but also gave Miss some time to get used to a new smell.

We visited with them and gave them some supervised playtime outside…until day 5 when I came downstairs and they were not in the crate at all. They found a tiny holy (TINY!) and squeezed through it. I was in disbelief until I saw them do it again.

Over the past month, they’ve grown so much. Miss still hates the idea of them so she lives upstairs primarily. We lock them in the front room overnight so she has time to go downstairs in solitude.

This week they returned to the vet and have already gained another pound. They are completely wild but also very friendly and well-adjusted. They enjoy coming to both of us for cuddles and will occasionally cuddle with Bardi.

It was been wonderful to welcome the new lives to our home. Mango and Mingus are lively…and there’s something new to laugh about every single day. Our animals have great lives, and we make sure not to get too caught up with the new. We always make time for our older kids Bardi and Miss. We go the extra mile to make sure they know they are special and loved and can never be replaced.