{18} I am Thankful for...

... our animals.

Now, I always knew I wanted to live in the country, but I did NOT know that I would ever own animals.  I did not grow up with animals.  Savannah is a lover of all things with fur and feathers... me, not so much!  So I remember thinking when we moved out here how thankful I was that our neighbors had animals because I hoped this would fill Savannah's need to 'mother' every animal in a 10 mile radius.  But in the end, we started collecting animals... not so wisely in the beginning (lessons learned), and then finding out exactly what we needed and wanted and we have a great little useful mix now.

The real shocker is how much I love the chickens.  After all, they have nasty feathers and beaks, eek!  But they are down right comical to watch.  The funniest dynamic is the one between our overzealous border collie, Cooper, and our chickens.

 I've mentioned before that this coop fence is by no means high enough to keep the chickens confined to their yard.  Its point is to first and foremost be cutey, and secondly to keep Cooper out!  The idea here was to have our obnoxious dog provide the needed incentive for the chickens to stay PUT!

But recently we have noticed a whole lot of this bravery stupidity going on.  Several of the hens and the rooster will perch themselves on the top of the fence posts.  I mean sometimes there are as many as 10 of them all lined up there sitting fancy as can be.  They make a lot of ruckus, so I assume their antics are NOT meant to go unnoticed.  Key point... this is only done when Cooper is off elsewhere.  But it is inevitable... Cooper is always making the rounds and sees the outward display of deviance and puts an immediate end to all the merry making.  The second the chickens see Cooper they ABORT their public display of post posing and return inside the fence as far away from the crazy circling dog as they can get.  Cooper has literally worn a path around the fence keeping surveillance on them.  

In the end, this whole scenario provides a very deep and powerful purpose... it makes the time I stand at the sink (with a window facing the coop) doing dishes so much more enjoyable!