Well, yesterday was farm day and when talking about the farm, why not talk about Luci? I mean she had to come with me since she was STILL on holiday. (Thank goodness her first day back was today.)
Backtrack. Last week at the farm we were again a bit beseiged by male pigs on the loose. With my education and fear in hand, I threw feed on the ground away from me which would distract the pigs and keep them off my tail as well as Luci who in her fear, wanted to be beside me instead of where I wanted her which was away from me the foodkeeper and therefore, highly desired by roaming male pigs. However, even though she had that bit of fear that drove her to my side, she was amazing holding her own and moving swiftly along between me and the pigs as we led them with food to their pen. She was even barking assertive commands at them which, of course, were no less futile than Peanut trying to get a mouthful of curly tail. I wasn't so thankful for Peanut's intervention this time because in her confused agitation she was actually getting between the pigs and their food in the pen by standing where I had the gate wide open for them to pass through.
Last week, I decide to just open the gate wide open to get into the goats' pen and I thought "Who cares, they leap fences anyways." But then I noticed a huge (standing beautifully up to my shoulders) goat that I had never seen before and realized that I would need to escort her back in because she wasn't going to be able to fit back in through the fence after I close the gate. She was very polite with the other goats, which made me sad (I mean it's survival of the fittest!) when I pointed her to the food everyone was gobbling greedily up. She was so sweet and tame, she became my new favorite and so I sought her out this week, looking around for her in all the little goat shelters but she was nowhere to be found. When I asked Francesco about her, he said that she had passed on and that she had lived for 15 years. I didn't know her very well but I have to say I had been thinking about her all week--she's the kind of goat who you could give a gigantic hug to because she's so large and gentle and meaty. I am sorry to have missed out. I have to say that I am coming to really admire Francesco. I can't believe that with all the animals and farms he's worked on over the years, he can still, with the loss of a small rabbit, slump his shoulders and tenderly sigh. I don't know what his story is but he is there every day caring for those animals.
About the time I was done with the goats last week, Luci wasn't. I lost her for a moment but she was discreetly tucked into a trailer of hay, cornering a baby goat, talking to it and petting it. The goat was frozen, understandably, so I had to get Lu out of the way because, honestly, I thought it was dead. Thankfully, it wasn't. After that, Luci was off to tucking hay under her arms and feeding sheep through the fence, talking to them, and loving it.
After much assessment, I have truly deduced that we do not have enough animals in our house. If Luci could just have some more companions, in animal form, I think things would be much more sane around here. She is so EASY at the farm except when it comes to her rabbit visitation. She gets in the cage and stomps around after them until she catches them all the while using that drunken sailor voice of hers saying "Come over here", so it's just around and around for a while until I have mercy enough to extract myself from whatever I'm doing and lift the baby bunny into her arms where she cradles it and sings to it with a smile on her face. Then it's a fight to get her out of there but I'd like to see the bunny survive to adulthood without a heart attack.
At the farm, most of the animals have their place. If you're a sheep, you go with the sheep, etc. Now the goats, they tend to go lots of places when the food is being served. When the little pet-type pigs are being fed, they jump in and wield their horns and I feel it is so injust. (But I have to admit, I've been lookin' forward to little rumble between the pigs and goats.) Anyways, there is this one goose whose place is with the goats--she never has a need for her own kind or the water she just walks around with them and seems to herd them sometimes. In fact she really seems like the cafeteria supervisor holding a whistle because she opens her wings and her beak and flutters around behind them. I am intimidated by this assertive personality and I definitely need to do a background check on her before I extend the hand of friendship. I wonder-- is she tolerated, or esteemed by these goats? Is she crazy?
Luci's prayer last Monday as we had lunch after our farmwork was "Deah God, thank you for the goats, and the sheep, and the hee-haws."
1 comment:
I love the hee-haws!
Post a Comment