My Animal Kids

Adoring Husband is taking one of our Lovely Layers to the Vet this afternoon.  She is being attacked by one of the others and her butt has been almost plucked raw!  So we separated her yesterday afternoon and called the Vet, who advised that we should take her in to see her.

We acquired our Lovely Layers in July last year after Adoring Husband built the Taj Mahal of hen houses and aptly named it 'Chook Paradise'.  They began laying about 10 days after they arrived and we get 3 eggs every day.  Of course we can't eat that many eggs so we give them out to my local boys at the boat ramp every two or three weeks.

I decided to name our Lovely Layers after my three favourite Mothers-in-Law.  Helen, who was my first mother-in-law, and who I know reads my posts here  regularly, ***waves happily*** Hi Helen!  The next one is Dorothy.  I wasn't married to her son but lived with him for 12 yrs and she is just lovely.  The third one is named Nellie and she is my current mother-in-law.  Lovely Layer named Nellie is funny because she chases Adoring Husband and tries to peck at his toes.

If you are interested, I will keep you posted on the Vet's diagnosis tomorrow.

We also have three dogs.  Jack, Ruby and Colli.  Jack is a white Chihuahua/Maltese cross and we bought him from a pet shop in Sydney.  Vegan Chickie and I saw him in the window and fell in love straight away because he looked broken.  He was there for over a week and all the puppies around him were being sold.  He had crooked teeth, a pink spot on his nose,  scruffy, messy fur and he kind of sat in the background looking all sad and forlorn.

We named him before we even knew we would buy him - JUST Jack!  Like Jack from the TV series, Will and Grace.  It took me a while to convince Adoring Husband to even look at him in the window and then when he did,  he pointed to all the other cute puppies and said 'Are you sure you don't want that one, or what about that one?'.  I pleaded Jack's case and finally talked Adoring Husband around.

Even though Adoring Husband's strict instructions were that Jack must be an outside dog and was not allowed on the furniture or in the bed, Jack slept in our bed on the first night (and every night after), only ever went outside to do his doggy business and had a permanent spot on the couch from day one.  Adoring Husband is such a softie.

Jack, who is now 5 yrs old, has grown into a loud, cranky, moody, cantankerous old man.  He is a law unto himself and super protective of his territory.  Most people consider him a challenge and try extra hard to make friends with him.

Six months after Jack, at the same pet shop, I found Ruby.  She was broken too and looked like a female version of Jack, but a little smaller.  She is also Chihuahua/Maltese cross. No convincing required this time.  I bought her immediately and she fit beautifully into our little family.

She is too friendly and adores anybody who steps foot on her property.  She raises her top lip and gives us a big smile when we come home and has this excited little high pitched squeal of excitement.  She wags her tail so hard that her little body bends and almost snaps in half from the pressure!  She is my favourite.

Another six months later and Adoring Husband and I were on a weekend outing around Mittagong way, south of Sydney, when we happened to walk past a pet shop.  There in the window was a litter of black and white Maltese/Shitzu cross puppies.  We went inside and asked to see them.  As the girl opened the glass sliding door, all of them came running except one in the far right corner.  Straight away I said "That's the one" as I pointed to the quiet, shy one.

We left the pet shop without puppy and were driving along the freeway, heading home and I looked at Adoring Husband and said "We can turn around.  We can go back and get her you know."  That's all he needed to hear.  He found the first place to turn around and we drove back to get Colli.

Adoring Husband always wanted a Border Collie, but he admitted to being too lazy to walk one daily.  He is also an avid Collingwood (AFL football) supporter and their colours are black and white.  It just seemed fitting to name our new little black and white puppy, Colli.

So that is your introduction to our family of animal kids.  They are all spoilt rotten and we love them a lot - I guess we use them to try to make up for all the mistakes we made with our human kids.  Needless to say, our animal kids are just as mixed up as our human kids LOL but there is plenty of love for everyone!

We love yas awl!