The New Kids on the....Ranch!

This blog was written especially for our grandchildren, but you are welcome to read it too.  :)

This is Joseph.

His previous owners stopped in twice to catch the wayward cat, but he eluded them both times. We didn't see him for about a month, I was sure the coyotes got him. One evening he showed up on the deck. He looked us up and down and then turned and left. He used the same routine every evening for about a week.

 

 One evening he came up on the deck, meowed a couple times and jumped up on the railing and lay down. I looked at Grandpa and said,  "I think we have been adopted!"

I had my camera so I snapped some pictures of him. He tried to act like he wasn't interested. There is a saying, "You haven't lived till you've been ignored by a cat!" I guess that's the evening I really started living, I was certainly being ignored!

Judge had been sleeping out in the yard, but I guess he smelt something funny so he got up to investigate, when the cat saw the dog he jumped down, and I thought "oh no!"

                                         

When I didn't hear any snarls or growls, I went to see what they were doing. They looked like best buds. Wherever the cat went, the dog was sure to follow. They both came back up on the deck and the cat went under the chair. Judge was not happy about that so he pulled him out by the ear.

                                               

Judge pulled, pawed, and drug the cat all over the deck, and then he laid on Joseph. 

Joseph tolerated it for a while, I think he had trouble breathing through Judge's thick hair.

       Joseph has special privileges now. He can eat out of Judge's dog dish as long as there is just dog food in it. If there are table scraps, Joseph gets chased halfway around the house.  Last but not least, Grandpa even tolerates Joseph. When we found a dead mouse laying in front of the garage door, I was grossed out, but Grandpa was impressed. I wanted to call his owners and tell them to come get him, but Grandpa wanted him to stay since he was such a "good mouser"!! Thankfully he hasn't brought us any more peace offerings!!



This is Grasshopper!!

The calf had such long spindly legs. When he walked, Grandpa thought he resembled a grasshopper. So the name stuck.
             

He was born Aug 1. His mother is a high spirited part Jersey cow. 

When Grasshopper was about 24 hours old, Grandpa noticed him laying at the barn. His mother seemed to have forgotten about him. Grandpa brought the cow into the corral and checked her out. She only had milk in one quarter. We came to the conclusion the calf hadn't had any milk since he was born. I went to the feed store and got replacer and a bottle. The cow decided she had enough of meddling humans so she jumped the fences and took off for the back forty. She stayed back there all by herself for several weeks. We put the calf in the barn and fed him morning and evening. He stayed in there for about 2 and 1/2 weeks. One day he decided he wanted to see the world so he ventured out and joined the rest of the herd in the lower pasture. Now we have to go out in the pasture and find him at feeding time. If he sees us coming he will trot toward the ATV. The older calves come up to us as he is drinking his bottles. They look like they are wondering how he can get milk out of an ATV. When he is full, he runs back to his playmares.

Sometimes he crawls into the dried up river bed and falls asleep, then it takes us awhile to find him . He drinks about a gallon of milk morning and evening. We will soon have to think up a new name for him, it isn't going to fit much longer.  We are trying to sell him. He is a lot younger than the rest of the calves, Grandpa doesn't want to keep him till spring, and I don't want to be out in the snow looking for a grasshopper.