Owl on the bicycle. Goat on the sofa. Duck in the sheep water. Chicken in the dog kennel. Goat in the duck house. Cat in the washing machine. Dog in the tree. Goat in the bath. Bird at the laptop ..... welcome to Homesteading Reality!! As you can see my beloved Goats are the main instigators of animal antics! But they are not the only four legged - or feathered - source of amusement here. Marti, our Cape Eagle Owl, would often get himself into unusual situations. Having an irreparably broken wing Marti was an integral and very dependent Buckaroo resident.
Kenna, my five-litre-a-day stud milk goat provided endless joy as well as endless laughter. She did not like anyone who was not her human mother - me! And I have seen more than one or two people beating a retreat with Kenna hot on their heels. My mother included. My mother was actually not fast enough and ended up going for a goat ride. Backwards! During a strange semi-paralysis, while I was nursing Kenna back to health, she evicted the ducks from their nest and squeezed herself in there for her daily midday siesta. The ducks in turn hijacked the dogs water bowl.
Of course, only ever knowing homesteading life, and the blissful co-existence of various species of animal, my dogs always found alternate drinking water. Usually down in the fields. Our loveable Great Dane always loved the animals. She would frolic with the lambs and goats. But among the cows she had a few favourites. Ferguson and Katie always stopped to cuddle her. Often fighting over who would groom Dana while she patiently stood enjoying the attention.
As a child I loved reading about Gerald Durrell's wonderful childhood adventures with animals. Not only was it funny but seemed so exotic . Then we moved to the country and our homestead was soon populated with all sorts of almost exotic animals of our own. They, of course, have extremely outrageous ideas. At least to most people.
Sometimes visitors will have to wait patiently while we remove an orphaned goat or lamb from the sofa where they are playing while awaiting their bottle of goats milk. On more than one occasion a solitary chicken have decided to make themselves an honourary sheep and move out of the chicken coop. It is not unusual seeing a hen asleep on one of the flock of sheep.
Not all animals live so harmoniously together. My goats have very distinct ideas of hierachy. Believing themselves to be superior to all others it is interesting to watch them trying to establish respectful submission among the other animals. They climb on anything and everything. Which is cute - when they are tiny and want to climb on your back or the table. It is not so cute when they are full grown especially if you find them on top of the visitors car.
Because of the extreme heat in the Karoo the coolest place in the house is often the bath. Minus the water. Our dogs and cats will vie for their spot in the tub. On occasion they'll be joined by that not-a-chicken chicken.
For those that aren't fast enough to the bathroom, there is always the shady spots on the moist soil in the vegetable gardens. It is as common for our household pets to dig up veggies in their quest for cool, as it is a chicken!
There is very little that an animal has not come up with here on the homestead. When you add BuckarooBabies in the computation the ideas are endless. We have laughed a lot. We have cried a lot. Sometimes their ideas become rather expensive when it means the building site for the new dairy became their amusement park. Ceiling boards were punched full of hoof marks. Bags of cement were pecked open. Newly established fruit trees have been ring barked. Not to mention the numerous time we have found any and all animals savouring a buffet in the veggie gardens!!
Ultimately it is all part of the journey. Our animals are as essential to our homestead as the borehole and the veggie gardens. We simply take a deep breath and learn to deal with any potential disaster. It would be easier if it were all inexpensive but amusing animal antics. But life is often not perfectly mapped out. So I hitch up my skirt, move the owl onto a suitable perch or the goat back to her flock and enjoy the ride....