Jesse's birthday

Earlier this week Erin organised a birthday party at our local dog park for Jesse.  He turned two on 30 June, so the party was a bit delayed, but Erin was determined.  His two "best friends" were invited - Ghandi (the Irish wolfhound) and Stanley (the Chinese hairless crested darling) - talk about polar opposites!  Erin made a meatloaf birthday cake, yoghurt and cream cheese treats, and party bags!

Photo opportunities were a bit chaotic, to say the least; but here are a few.

Erin was very excited to find the "birthday boy" badge!

Trying to line them all up to enjoy their birthday treats!

Stanley and Natalie

Ghandi and Temina

Leave a Comment animals, Erin, holidays

Fairy eggs

Little-Old-Lady

Yesterday Erin found a teeny tiny egg in the backyard.  We were puzzled about where this came from, wondering which sort of bird would lay something so small.   But this morning Natalie found two more, this time in a nesting box which led us to realise it HAS to be a chicken!

After a bit of googling we discovered that apparently this is possible with hens when they are beginning their laying cycle, sometimes their hormones are a bit out of whack and the egg and the yolk aren't released at the same time.

I think it is Little-Old-Lady who is laying these eggs.  She is quite old (I'm thinking 9 or 10) and she has just lost her "babies" - we gave her some fertile eggs a while ago, four of which hatched but have slowly been taken by what we think are neighbourhood cats.  By the way, she is a very petite bird bantam so her eggs are always small, even at the best of times.

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Animals

These are just random photos of animals that pass through our lives, some are pets and some are not.

Leave a Comment animals, Erin, Natalie

RIP Buff

A few months before Christmas a friend gave us their last guinea pig (her mate had died).  As they are herd animals, my friend was looking for a home for her guinea pig where she could live with friends.  So, of course, Erin put up her hand and Buff (originally Sally) came into our lives.

She was the best lawnmower, always eating, and quickly became the matriarch of our little group (at that time there was four of them).

Then about three weeks ago we came home and found she had died.  She looked peaceful, but it was very sad and I don't really know why she died.  But after a short funeral, we remembered her with art.

Natalie's

Erin's

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Puppies

A friend of Callum's has a girlfriend whose family breeds miniature sausage dogs.  We went around to visit the puppies - oh my goodness, I have never seen anything so funny and adorable.  And I had never seen the marbly type of colouring either - apparently that is rarer and costs more!

Leave a Comment animals, Erin, Natalie

Three Little Surprises

Erin has guinea pigs - three of them, all girls - Guinea, Pig and Snowflake.

On Good Friday, while we were in Sydney and Robin was at home (caring for the menagerie) a text comes in, accompanied by a photo - "no one mentioned babies".

There were three little gorgeous baby guinea pigs.  Oh my goodness, the squeals from Erin!

We are home now and baby love is on rations (for fear of the little ones being over loved!).  They are the cutest things, and make the best sounds.  They have all their fur, their eyes are open and they are even now starting to nibble on other food.  Most importantly, they have been christened:  Waffles, Fluffy and Bruno Mars.

The three guinea pigs have been closely inspected and poor Pig has now been isolated (95% sure he is the daddy).  Interestingly, their mother is a long haired all white guinea pig.

Leave a Comment animals, family