Angus turned 15 today. I bought him at a pet store on Friday, April 4, 1997. He was so small he had to put his front feet in his dish to reach the food. I looked for kittens at a pet store in Hartville that day and found only adults, and, although my heart went out to those bored cats, I wanted a kitten. I found Angus at the store up the street, in a cage with his brother, who had more gray in his coat. I put my hand in the cage and decided on Angus because he approached me. Angus looks and acts like a Maine Coon, and we have long wondered if he is a purebred and was sold because he has a discoloration in one eye. Like the Maine Coon, Angus likes water, and water pistol discipline has no effect on Angus’s behavior. Angus’s hobbies include lying in instrument cases, meowing at birds outside the front window, and lying on wool blankets atop outstretched legs. He loves tuning forks and runs from another room when I strike a fork, purring and arching his back as if it’s catnip. He even rubs his teeth against a vibrating fork. Read the rest of this entry »

Cold paws love a warm car hood: Chesapeake awaits my return from work each day and jumps on the hood in cold weather both to say hello and to get warm.  Read the rest of this entry »

I need a cure for SAD — seasonal affective disorder. I’d like to attend the Buccoo goat races. Buccoo is a small village on Tobago, a small Caribbean island that marks the Easter holiday not with blooming tulips and blossoming cherry trees but with racing ruminants. The goat races, along with crab races, are held on Easter Tuesday and were introduced to the island in 1925 by a native of Barbados. A Tobago goat racer said the sport developed as people raced their goats home from grazing areas.
The jockeys run barefoot and hold their goats by leashes, because goats, being goats, don’t necessarily run in the direction the jockeys wish to go. Considering that my knee-high dwarf goat can outrun a person, I don’t know how the jockeys keep up. Read the rest of this entry »

We had a surprise snowfall over the weekend. I photographed these birds on a feeder using zoom looking through a window. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are photos of Angus and Chesapeake taken with my new camera.

Coming soon: I bought new hay today, and Eutzly the goat gave it his Butt of Approval ™.

Clouds of hair and moths

I can tell that warm weather has arrived when I walk in a store. I’ve suddenly been seeing those long swimming tubes — how long until the reports of deaths and injuries appear and the tubes are outlawed? — and outdoor chairs, barbecue equipment, etc. The ads before Memorial Day were stuffed with such items and with foods of the season — all those healthy things like hot dogs and white buns, condiments stuffed with sodium, and ingredients for s’mores.
But signs of the warm season of another type abound at the top of the hill in my backyard. Of course the more obvious signs of late spring/summer abound, such as raspberry bushes lush with greenery growing by the pasture fence and the new neighbors cleaning their pool. But I have come to recognize two indicators of hot weather: goat hair and moths. Read the rest of this entry »

This goat was rescued from a flooded farm in Cuyahoga Valley National Park this winter.

Lost goat wanders into Idaho music store
AMMON, Idaho (AP) — Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A goat walks into a music store.
It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that’s exactly what happened at the Piano Gallery in the southeastern Idaho town of Ammon.
KIFI-TV reports the goat followed a woman and her child into the store on Monday. Maybe it was looking for some sheeeet music.
Clerk Lorri Bridges said the goat was just adorable. The staff corralled it in a bathroom until animal control arrived.
The goat, dubbed Beethoven for its apparent love of music, is being held at the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter.
If it isn’t claimed, someone is ready to adopt it.
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Information from: KIFI-TV, http://www.localnews8.com/