Old McHusband Had a Farm

Just to give you an idea of what we have on this little spread of ours, I've decided to share all our "names" with you. The animals anyway.

First of all we have a Quarter horse- she looks all white but is actually a paint and has glass eyes (meaning they're blue... Clear blue... A little freaky at first, but they grow on you). Her name is Lightning. Husband named her after his horse from childhood. I wanted to name her Pittypat after Scarlett's aunt in Gone With the Wind. Lightning's mother was named Tara and I wanted to continue the theme however unintentional.

Next we have the cattle. Tinkerbell is our cow. Husband and Baby Girl named her in the middle of a full blown Peter Pan obsession. I wanted to name her Drew after a kids song about a big brown cow. Her steer calf (that means he's been banded... Neutered... Castrated... No longer has his stuff) is named Magnus. That one I named. Husband wanted to have another son and name him Magnus so I intervened on behalf of my unborn children!

We have 3 pygmy goats named after The Fairly Odd Parents. Timmy, Wanda, and Cosmo. I wanted to name them Lucy, Desi, and Ricky. Once again I was over ruled (do you see a pattern here?).

We have 67 chickens. White Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds. Only 2 of the roosters have names- Papa Doc and Napoleon. I have a theme going here, I just haven't followed it through. By the way, may I suggest checking out mcmurrayhatchery.com? Even if you don't raise chickens, it's cool to check out.

Ten ducks, only 2 names ever stuck- Constantine (because he's crested) and Ferdinand (who turned out to be female, but we never changed it). Wait, no, I think we're down to 9 ducks.

Four pigs - Little Babe, Bacon, Porkchop, and Two Socks. I use the names to keep from getting attached. We used to have 2 steers named T-Bone and Porter.

5 Dogs- Dagmar (which means "Glory of the Danes") is our Great Dane, Miss Molly Brown is our English Springer Spaniel, Stripes is a beagle, Vader is our black Lab, and Andrew (courtesy of the dog on Marry Poppins) is my miniature dachshund.

And we have 3 poor nameless goldfish who will never die. We've had them longer than B.B. In the past our goldfish never made it past week 3. These little boogers are immortal!

We've tried to keep cats, but they never seem to stick around. Princess (my favorite) is now residing in Husband's Grandmother's barn just down the road. I just rack it up to wanderlust... And a nice big barn!

Yesterday Husband told Baby Girl he was getting her a Guinea Pig! Now, before those of you who know us in the real world start in, I had no part in this. You see we are bad about animals (as you can see by our tally). We have too many and we keep getting more.

I have a theory. Husband grew up on a farm and will not be happy until we are a veritable Noah's Ark out here. I, on the other hand, didn't have a pet until I was 13 years old. Mamma, you can't count the puppy I had for an afternoon when I was 4! Actually, you can blame it!

This is where I dump all my adult problems at the feet of my parents. I always wanted a dog, cat, gerbil, goldfish, anything. I once had the afore mentioned puppy for an entire afternoon. Given to us by friends of our neighbors, but returned because we couldn't afford to keep the puppy and the baby Mamma was carrying at the time. I preferred the puppy, especially after Bubba turned out not to be the sister I asked for (sorry, Bubba, I was 4).

We got D.D. after we moved south. She was a Mini-dachshund too. She was my best friend. It was harder leaving her when I left for college than it was leaving my siblings (sorry, Bubba and Princess). I know they felt the same way about her. We had to have her put down last year after her kidneys shut down (she also had arthritis, pancreatitis, athsma, epilepsy, allergies, cataracts, and had a bout with canine encephalitis a few years ago). She was 16 years old.

At any rate, I think my inability to say no to new pets stems from never having a pet as a small child. That's my excuse anyway. And we all know how valuable they are!

By the way, congratulations to my sister Princess and her husband Axl! They just moved into their first house this weekend! I can't wait to visit. Now I need ideas for a house warming gift. If you have any, feel free to chime in.