Mom & Babies

You might recall a post from a couple of weeks ago where I mentioned my dad had been feeding a wild turkey and her flock of chicks. Apparently she was nesting in the woods by their house as my parents saw her with her brood several times. My dad had been putting out both feed and water for them. Like I said, I come from a long line of softies when it comes to animals.

My parents left the first of June and are away until almost the end of the month doing some globe trotting. I have been getting regular e-mails from my dad. They all read something along the lines of "We spent the last few days in blank (insert some foreign, exotic location here), it was great. How are blank (insert the names of all the cats, dogs, pet cows, goats, horses, The Don, etc. here)? Have you seen the turkey and her chicks? Are you feeding them?"

Unfortunately I kept having to say that I hadn't seen mommy turkey and her babies, and actually I had never seen them even before my parents left on their travels. We have been putting food out for them and something has been eating it. Then yesterday morning while Jason was enjoying his morning cup of coffee and I was checking my e-mail Jason starts gesturing out the window and saying "come look, come look!" It was mommy and babies wandering around the barn. I grabbed my camera and snuck outside in my pj's to take a few pictures of them.

Although I never managed to capture all of the chicks in one picture she has twelve total.

I can't really say that they're cute as far as baby animals go . . .

. . . but they are kind of cute in a "they're so ugly they're cute" kind of way

_____________________________________________

In other animal softie news the dogs have been really missing their daily rides in the Gator with my dad. Since our Kubota has a gate between the seat and the bed they can't jump on the seat and then jump into the back for rides. Bush had taken to sleeping in the Gator waiting for someone to come along and drive it. One afternoon I noticed Jason whizzing by in the Gator instead of our Kubota. He seemed to be pointlessly driving around, going all the way up and down our (very long) driveway, driving around the barn, around the pastures etc. When I saw him later I asked him why he was driving the Gator and if something was wrong. He said he had all the dogs in the Gator and was just driving them around for their mental health as they were all hanging around and in the Gator. He's been taking them for a daily ride pretty much every day since then.

Some of the big boys running around the pond. Baby, Trigger, Thomas, Homer, Ivan, Apollo, Levendi and Elfin. At the end Elfin and Leo have a play session.

Ivan looking at something on the other side of the pond; Apollo, Baby and Tony are in the background

Baby and Trigger
Elfin

Sky enjoying a roll while Norman grazes nearby

Cinnamon grazing

Bush walking through one of the pastures
Harmony, Missy and MyLight

Clay
Lightening and Teddy; Lucky in the background (and O'Reilly's head on the left!)
Thomas, Apollo and Leo