Nature Abhors a Vacuum

In my last post I said my goodbyes to Windy Hills Farm. It was certainly the end on era for me, my mom and my sister. However, nature does abhor a vacuum and today, a mere three days after the sale of Windy Hills, a very sad stray dog showed up at Paradigm Farms. 

We already have our stray cat Oscar, he's been around for almost three years. As you all know, Oscar is not just a stray, he is completely feral. However he comes and looks in our kitchen door when he is hungry and we oblige him by springing into action and serving him either canned cat food (pates only please), fresh salmon, or tuna fish. Oscar may be a feral stray, but he doesn't do dry cat food. 

However we've held steady with Oscar as our only stray. We've had a couple of other visiting dogs that clearly belonged to someone and we found their owners. Apparently word has been put out via the barking chain that Windy Hills Farm is no longer open for stray and wayward animals, and an alternate address, that for Paradigm Farms, has been broadcast amongst the stray animal network.

Our visitor appeared this morning on the driveway. He is very skinny, you can feel every single rib when you run your hand down his side. He has been treated to some dog food, which he scarfed down, and plenty of fresh water.  If our visitor does belong to someone, he desperately needs to be owned by a new someone, or he has been lost for quite awhile. Of course he has no collar and I highly doubt he is microchipped, but if he sticks around and gets friendly enough we'll have him checked for one by our vet.

He was very skittish this morning and kept his distance from us for a few hours, but we've moved past that and are now on petting terms. He followed me around in one of the pastures for awhile as I groomed several horses, and is currently making himself at home on our back porch. He has also pulled all of our dirty farm boots off the porch and proceeded to start chewing on them. 

Jason has bemoaned his presence several times today, declaring to no one in particular multiple times that we don't need a dog. However he has plans to go to town tomorrow to purchase a dog house, collar, leash and chew toys for this dog he doesn't want. We have both agreed that until he has been thoroughly examined by a vet and we've had plenty of time to assess his temperament he will not be coming in our house or be near Carter. Jason has also named our stray dog Ewen. I'm not fond of the name but apparently I don't have a vote either. 

If Ewen stays around and gets friendly enough for us to reliably handle him and get him in a vehicle we'll take him to the vet and get him checked out, vaccinated and neutered. Then we will try to find him a home or make the decision to keep him. When our beloved dog Bear passed, we made the conscious choice not to get another dog as Carter was too small and it was't going to be a fair arrangement for the dog. Preferably we would still wait another year, so we shall try to find Ewen a great home should he decide to hang around.

As I type Jason is outside collecting all of our boots that Ewen had spread around the back yard. Normally our farm boots are so dirty and muddy that we leave them on the back porch, but tonight they will all be residing in our mudroom to save them from Ewen's teeth.

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our visitor

George and Asterik

Apollo and Thomas

Sam and Alex

Mick and Johnny

Sebastian

Rip and Elfin

Lofty, Donneur, Silver and Faune

Merlin and Bruno

Leo and Chance

Baby