Rooster Cogburn

Enjoys a tomato

His right eye is blinded

but manages with one eye just fine.

Rooster Cogburn sings his epitaph

I can endure much but not that

Since a quarter to three

He's crowed constantly

Water boils in the chicken vat!

Seriously RC is still improving.  The dogs take turns protecting him. My sister brings him treats and I keep him well fed.  He is only brave enough to crow after dark when the ruffians can't find him.

Today I heard Lizzy's sharp bark.  

This is what I found.

Lizzy was politely telling RC that was her food.

I got the "Gee, Mom, this is my bowl!"

 Lizzy finally gave up.

I wonder if she will protect him tonight?

Also for Tale Weaver #37 Pet Story

He Reminds Me Of Uncle Bill

“Somewhere in Between” by Anne Worner CC BY-SA 2.0.

For Mindlovemisery's Photo Challenge #84

Uncle Bill faced life head on and if that meant running over some people along the way, so be it.  He ran over his wife and his children and never looked back. He had a mean streak in him a mile long but a streak of kindness just as big.

He was a Union man with an extraordinary work ethic and a drinking problem which he later traded for a gambling boat addiction.  

Uncle Bill trained all his dogs to take off his socks at the end of the day.  We thought it was a neat trick but Uncle Bill covered his physical ailments as well as his mental ones.

His final years were shared with a good woman that accented his playfulness and gave him the unconditional love he had always looked for in a bottle.  Family became important again.  He loved as fiercely as he had run from love in his youth.

Even lost in Alzheimer's he knew the love of his life and when she passed Uncle Bill died too. 

Animals Aren't Human...

sometimes they are far better.

You may remember in August a new nuisance, a small red mixed breed rooster who loved to crow, moved to our front porch.  We tried several things to get him to move on to a more distant place so crowing could be our back ground noise and not our trumpet to wake us EVERY hour of the night.

Nothing worked so we became more tolerant. Rooster stayed.  We soon found out why he was staying close to us.

There is a bad rooster gang (two roosters) here that likes to strut their stuff...like roosters do.  So as with many species of males there is always a contest, who can fight the best, who can crow the loudest and who can rule the roost.

The Gang has intimidated one rooster so badly, he has chosen a life inside the chicken house with the cats.  Our rooster, kindly named Rooster Cogburn by a friend, keeps surviving.

The Rowdy Roosters actively hunt this guy but unkindness is grouped under normal rooster behavior.

One day Hubby saved Rooster from an all out attack by the rogue pair.  Later I notice they were sneaking their way back toward Rooster and big bad Pit Bull Bonnie gently herded the bad guys toward their territory.  It was a site to behold.  Bonnie has never been trained to herd. Like a good farm dog, she recognized a need to protect and gently removed the problem.

Rooster Cogburn is now blind in one eye thanks to these marauders.  He survives.  One day I rescued him from the Randy Rowdies.  RC had tried to escape the inevitable flogging but because of his sight handicap he ran through the spokes of a work cart and could not untangle himself.  The Rat Bastard rooster was pecking him and trying to spur him. I ran the other rooster off and gently extracted RC from his entangled condition.  He immediately put his head under my arm but was shaking uncontrollably.  Despite days and weeks of sleep disturbances, I cuddled and soothed the rooster thinking this could be his final hour.

Once again he surprised me and once again the dogs have surprised me. RC is their pet rooster.  The first night of his last attack, the dogs took turns.  No one left him alone.  First Ki-Anne and Junior lay on the steps below tail to nose keeping a lookout in each direction.  As the night cooled, they left and Squiggie took the night shift.  He shivered and stayed not a foot away from the rooster who needed him.

When I feed the dogs, I leave a pile of food for RC.  You have to show him the pile because he can't see his food but once found he had not lost the ability to peck.

Tonight I checked on him.  This is what I found.

Lizzy on Rooster Protection Detail

While RC can no longer see to fly up to roost he has chosen our porch as his safe haven.  I try to be grateful for the handy supply of fertilizer.  I show him his food by tapping the porch and saying, Chick, chick.  RC is learning quickly.  Tonight he has watermelon as his dinner treat to celebrate his healing.

Ki-Anne shows for her shift

and Squiggie once again mans the night shift.  I do clean the porch every day.  Rooster Cogburn is quite the prolific pooper.

This morning he crowed!  It doesn't sound as intrusive as it once did. RC will not become dumplings as I had planned a month ago.  There is a surprising softness hidden deep with in me that I try not to show too often.

On the other hand I am wondering if I can fit two Rogue roosters in a stew pot.

The Great Turtle Adventue

Joining Eileen's Viewing Nature Saturday's Critters

Far, far from water we discovered this baby

Lil asked, What is this thing?

Hubby's size twelve gives you an idea how big it was.

Well, it's not a poison snake, Bonnie said.

Today instead of fried turtle 

(we're from the South and it ain't cooked unless it's fried)

we decided to help this big fellow out.

A Gator ride later he reaches fresh water and is set free.

Bonnie is still not sure what to think.

Ki-Anne sticks her head under the water trying to track the turtle

Bonnie tries too

The turtle swims away.

The Mighty Chestnut Tree

is a pain in my hands and my feet.  We had similar trees that grew wild years ago, the Chinkapin, Dad said they had a disease and died in our area.  He purchased an alternative, the Chestnut.

The tree almost appears prehistoric with the rough bark and saw toothed leaves.

This is a fully opened burr

and one containing the nuts.

I don't think anyone wants to go barefooted around these.

I picked up many burrs today.  I used tongs.  These stickers are scary and hurt like heck.  It was a sheer joy to start a fire with them.  I was more joyful burning the burrs than I was picking up the nuts.
Marcy is roasting them but not over an open fire.  She is using the dehydrator.

 I had trimmed some limbs earlier in the month and added them gleefully to the fire of chestnut burrs.

The fire burned low as Hubby bush hogged the valley 

The dogs patiently waited for me to play stick.

Lizzy

thinks she's a big dog.  Actually she is the announcer.  The other dogs sleep as Lizzy keeps watch. She announces if one strange thing enters the valley.  After rousing the pack she runs the sidelines coaching them.

Only one problem...I have a difficult time keeping her groomed.  Poor baby. She goes every where the big dogs go but that's okay.  We all are family.

Here is the tale of her beginning with us.  

Lizzy is a good dog.

Lizzy should be a lap dog.

She travels 

 with the pack.

and does her job.

Lizzy is happy here and is very brave if anyone looks at her bowl.

Now if I just had time to give her a hair cut...

Dog Tails and A Tale

Meet Ki-Anne, my hot pepper, with her son, Junior...the name that stuck.  Ki was a throw away dog that someone brought to me at work.  Someone had been dropped them off at her house. I could not say no. Ki-Anne has a natural bob tail.  

When I messed up and did not get her spayed in a timely matter, puppies were born.  Some with tails and some with none and a few varying lengths in between. All were given wonderful homes.  One is a therapy dog and two went with their owners to college.  I get updates now and then.  Junior was the one the guys chose to keep.  They are both valuable members to the farm team.

Ki still babies JR.  "Oh, you poor boy, you want a stick?"

"I will pick it up for you

and put it in your mouth.

 Wait, I will get it closer."

JR says, "I don't need a stick, Mom, but you can scratch my itch.

Oh, yes, that's the spot.  Thanks, Mom!"

For Wednesday's Wit and Wisdom

Stick Wars

and the winner is...Bonnie.

If I could train them to STACK those sticks...

A Conversation Among Dogs

Whatcha got?

Snake!

Let me see!

I don't see it!

You callin' me a liar, old dog?

Who you callin' old, you one-eyed jack?

I'm the snake killer.

I think all were on the job.

The only piece of snake I could find.

When Asked How Their Day Went

"Swimmingly!" the dogs replied.