Most of the critters that we have were never really planned.

Our chickens are another example of this.

Friends of ours had 7 chickens. They had sold their house and boarded their chickens temporarily with her father who kept pigeons.

By the time they found another place to live the father had just about had it with the chickens.
They were eating the pigeons very expensive food and disturbing them from nesting.
He said they had to go.

Our friends were not able to take them to their new address and asked if we would have them.
We had to say no as we had no housing for them.

About a week later they asked again.
The father had given them until the end of the day to move them or see them in his freezer!

Knowing the only reason we were not taking them was because we had no place to keep them, our friends offered to build a chicken coop for us if we would take the chickens.

All of those original hens are gone now but we have continued to buy or hatch more each year.

I have 24 eggs in the incubator right now that are due to hatch in about 2 weeks.

Getting ready for Christmas is a busy and hectic time for most people.

There is no exception to that rule around here, bathing Bridgett the dog before Christmas was all part of craziness.

when her original owner needed to be put in a nursing home the care giver who was left with her decided the only option for this dog was to have her 'put to sleep'
My friend was the dog walker and she told me the story of this little dog that know one wanted.

Bridgett had a bad ass attitude and would snap and bite at you if you even looked at her the wrong way.
She had endured years of abuse and assumed all humans were the same.

When her situation was getting desperate, I heard myself saying "I will FOSTER her until a permanent home can be found".

She was only with me about a week and I think even she knew she had found her forever home.
She snapped, growled and bit her way into my heart and I love her.

That was 6 years ago.

She has mellowed considerably but is still a grumpy dog with a bad attitude

While I was in England earlier this year, My cousin-in-law introduced me to the spinning wheel.

I was hooked immediately and now spend most evenings sat at my own wheel.
Most of the time I find it immensely satisfying,

There are of course times that are so frustating when I am unable to control the consistency of the yarn that I wonder if I will ever get that hang of it.

I enjoy the whole process of spinning. From sorting and cleaning the raw fleece, to carding and spinning it.

I was fortunate enought to be given some raw alpaca fiber as well as sheeps wool to work on.

So far I have made a couple of bags that I felted and also a needle felted doll.

I had decided not to continue with my blog. I don't have the gift of the written gab for one thing, (No comments are needed on any other kind of gab thank you very much) plus, who reads these thing anyway, right?

Well I have been pleasantly surprised to get emails from friends telling me to catch up on my blog.
The latest one came from my friend Roy. He said to let my niece know he was having 'Bugs Bunny' for Christmas dinner...

You will have to read previous postings to understand that.!

Talking about bunnies, Remember Winston, I mean Winnie, The MALE rabbit my niece gave me?
(Why didn't I check for my self you ask? Because she was a breeder of rabbits as a teenager so why would I doubt her?)

Winnie is a momma again. Not sure to how many yet.

She has them under the old chicken house. I have seen one little black baby come out to explore the world from out side its nest and at lest three cute as a button blond ones the following day.

I think they are about 3 weeks old right now. They need to stay with their mum for a few weeks yet.

I hope I can find homes for at least some of these adorable little critters. If not, unfortunately they are destined to become eagle bait.

An update on Faith the cat.

She is still in our laundry room. She will come out once in a while from her hiding place behind the washing machine.
I have been leaving the door open for her but so far I don't think she has ventured out of the room.
Even Though she will now come to me when I call her, I haven't bothered to return her to our sons place. (remember, I 'borrowed' her)
He (son) is away again and just her presance down stairs seems to have put a run on the uninvited critter that we had down there. I just have to hope it hasen't moved over to our sons home....!

Greyhounds are a most wonderful breed of dog.
Thank goodness there are rescue organizations
like the North West Canadian Greyhound Association.
With out these people the Greys would be put
down once they stopped doing well on the
track.
Foster homes are always need for these dog
before they find their "Forever Home"
A lot of them can't go up a flight of stairs.
Some will run into a glass door, others don't
like to walk on lino or hardwood floors.
Their life has been lived in a kennel. They
go out to race and to void. They have no
experiance with stairs. glass doors or slippery
floors.
We were fortunate with our two. Ben was with
Anette for a couple of weeks. She has Greys of
her own and usually has a foster or two in tow.
She is amazing.
Ben was tested for cat, small dog, large dog and kid
safe. He had no issues with any of the above
mentioned problems and as you can see from
the picture he is okay with cheeky chickens
as well!

Here is a picture of some of out rabbits














Ben, One of our Greyhounds with
Winnie and Simon. Winnie is the black one,
She is momma to all but two of the others rabbits.
We have two greyhounds. They can both be
trusted not to eat the or chase the rabbits..!
















Ducks in the fish pond .

I hope to add some pictures to my blog soon.
My computer 'Died' a week or so ago and as I am sure most of you know, being with out a computer for a few days sucks big time.
My Man bless him, hates computers. I was so sure that he would be secretly pleased the day mine went to the computer grave yard out in cyber space some where, So I was shocked and sooo pleased when he offered to pay for a new hard drive for me. (All my other stuff is still okay so all I needed was the hard drive)
A bonus for me was that the computer store was able to retrieve most of the info from the old one. Unfortunately, I lost all my pictures again, as well as the HP program that I need to download the pic's out of my camera.
Thanks to my wonderful friend Sharon, who sent me the link that I needed, I was able to download the program from the internet and can now use my camera again.
Hope my critter are feeling photogenic today..

A friend called me last week to say she had lost one of her two cows...It got spooked by something and ran up the bluff that is at the back of their property, she broke though a barbed wire fence and took off down the road. They were able to track the cow until dark.
A group of us returned the next morning to the last know location that the cow had been seen but there was no sign of her.
We searched for a few hours. Crawling through bush, wading through mud and not even a cow paddy did we see.
Posters were put up, radio stations called, SPCA and police were notified and my friend was out daily looking for her pregnant cow, A week went by and no one reported seeing her.
Yesterday was a week and a day since the cow had been seen.
My friend was on her way out and an inner voice told her to check an out of the way turning at the end of her road.
At the end of the road is a 40 acre farm that has just been sold but no one has moved in yet. As she looked out at the pasture, she saw April the cow.
My friend is so happy to have found her safe. April the cow is now safe at home in the barn with her stall mate Maggie.
It is so nice to have a happy ending when you lose an animal. Sadly it is not always that way.

Faith the cat finally came out of hidding last night. Not for long but it is a start. No sign of the rodent so maybe just the presance of a cat is a good thing.

Back to the story of Winston and Simon..my two male rabbits.
Hubby had an backhoe in to level an area for a new workshop. We were suprised that Winston was staying close to where the machine was working and we were a bit concerned that he would get hurt. Kesha, one of our 4 dogs was also being a bit pesty and getting in the way of the hoe. When the machine moved from the area it was working, Kesha started digging like a crazy dog and we thought she had a bone buried close by. Well she didn't bring a bone out of the hole she had dug. She brought out a baby rabbit. Between her and hubby 5 more were brought out of the hole.
Winston is now Winnie. SHE has had more babies since then. I have found homes for some of them but I still have 11 rabbit that I can't even give away!
Our niece, the once teenage rabbit breeder, that told us she checked the baby bunny and it was a male will not be allowed to live this down for a very, very long time...
Good thing we love her...

Among other critters I have rabbits.
Our niece and her daughter went on an outing together. They were traveling the county roads where they spotted a rabbit. They stopped. It was a baby rabbit and came right over to them. Not wanting to leave it on the road they took it home.
Knowing me to be a soft touch they phoned me to ask if I could take in a baby rabbit.
Our niece use to breed dwarf rabbit when she was younger and knew lots about bunnies. She told me it was a male and probably a couple of months old.
I agreed to take him and we built a cage for him and put him on the sun deck. I named him Winston.
I would prefer if possible not to cage animals so after a short time we let Winston out of his cage to run free on the deck.
I thought he might like the company of another bunny so I got another male rabbit whom I called Simon
Winston is black and Simon is blond. They are both very handsome. They have graduated down from the deck and run free on our 2 acres.
More about them another time.

Instead of telling you about some of my critter as I had intended, I must tell you about our son's cat.
Our son has a 'Park Model' trailer that he keep on our property. He travels a lot so I take care of his cat Faith, when he is not around.

An uninvited critter has moved into our basement, of the rodent variety. YUK.

My hubby does not like cats but seeing he is out of town for a couple of days I thought it would be great to bring Faith over to try and get rid of the rodent and get the cat home before son or hubby return.

I didn't bargain on the cat freaking out at being in new surroundings and dashing into the laundry room, which is also storage for what ever has no permanent place anywhere else.

I joke with people about my laundry room, telling them that they enter at their own risk. It is so full of "Stuff" that once in there it may be impossible to find your way out.!

The room is a nightmare for me but a heaven for a freaked out cat! She has found her way to the back and bottom of stacks of boxes.
She has not come out to eat, pee or poop let alone catch a rodent!

Not much hope now of retrieving her and returning her home with out anyone knowing about it.
Hubby is due home tonight and the rodent is probably laughing.

My first posting on my blog.
The only reason I have a blog is because my niece has one that I read every few days. I wanted to leave a comment on hers and it looked like the simplest way to do that was to sign on myself. (Maybe geting my own blog is the only way to leave a comment?)

My first choice for a blog name was not available. Critterkeeper was an easy second choice because I do have a few critter around here that I do take care of.
More about them all next time.