Animals of Stevens Homestead – Stevens Homestead

Curry O’Hara Stevens is a 14-year-old Cocker Poodle mix. I got him as a tiny 8-week old puppy. Then he was this little dark brown bundle of fur. He was my little buddy – lots of changes in my life in the past 14 years, and he’s been with me through it all. Maybe that’s why he’s such a grumpy old man! 🙂 He is the boss of the dogs, and the cats, and he thinks he’s the boss of everything else… and he would be, if we let him! He’s lost almost all of his hearing and he forgets to go potty outside sometimes, which is difficult for the grownups, but we love him anyway. We keep him on a leash when he’s outside here on the farm because he’s a bit of wanderer and being so small, he’s a tempting snack for coyotes, hawks, eagles, and cougars. He loves to run to our neighbors’ house for a cookie and to visit with their labs. Last summer, if he had it his way, he spent most of his days there because things were just too crazy for his old man moods here. He’d just hang out in the sun with Gus and Grizz… they are more his speed than our other dogs and kids and craziness!

Busta Kitty (aka Kitty, aka Kittrina) is about 12 years old. Carson had him when we met. He was a wild cat that someone rescued and he was living at a pet store in Seattle where Carson would go to get his dog food. Busta would follow him around the store every time he went in and eventually won him over! Busta was the king of the neighborhood in Seattle… he had all the rats he could eat, we could hear him fighting with the other cats in the neighborhood, and he always won. He would be gone most of the day and night in the summertime, but he’d come home reliably at 3:30 to eat, then he wanted right back outside. When we moved to the country, I think it took Busta about six months to leave the deck. He’s a scaredy cat out here… no longer the king of the neighborhood. He has caught a few mice and moles and birds in the past year or so, but nowhere near the hunter he was in the city! He is getting brave enough this spring to go water the garden with me in the evening. He’s pretty sweet trying out his hunting stances, but keeping an eye on me the whole time so that when I go back to the house, he comes with me!

Moose is a 5 year old chocolate lab and he is one of the best dogs we’ve ever known. We’ve only had him for two years and I’m pretty sure he thought he’d gone to heaven when he realized he could run and run for hours in the yard after living in an apartment with a woman and her five kids! He thinks it’s his responsibility to protect us from all of the bunnies and birds in the yard, but we know that his bark probably scares away other things, too. He’s the most patient dog in the world with kids, and he will jump in if we’re wrestling with or tickling the kids – he gets between us playfully, but I’m confident that if the kids needed to be protected, he’d get more aggressive.

Cotter is a 2-year-old golden lab (golden retriever and lab mix), and is trying to be a great dog! He still has a lot of puppy and can be pesky if he’s not being entertained or contained. We got him just before he turned one from a family with a couple of kids, whose schedule was changing and they didn’t think they’d have the time he would need and deserve. He loves to run and play ball with his brother Moose, but if Moose starts barking at something in the woods, especially at night, Cotter is right by our side and won’t leave the patio. A bit of a scare-dy dog.

We have six hens that we got in February 2017 as chicks. It was so fun to see them grow and see their personalities come out even as little chicks. We have two Buff Orpingtons (Buffalo and Buffarina), two gray cochins (Twisty – because she has a twisted beak, and Chunky), a Wyandotte (Wyndy) and an Americuana (Owlette because she looks like an owl). They have a coop inside a bigger chicken run and that’s where they stay. We have eagles, hawks, vultures and coyotes and cougars and we just worry that if they’re free, or even less protected, we’ll lose them. They love greens like weeds, grass cuttings, and herbs more than almost anything, oh, and yogurt! We give them their chicken treats like meal worm and cracked corn, but they still want the weeds!

Nolan the Rooster showed up in our yard not too long ago. We don’t know where he came from or if he escaped or was set free, but we love him. We didn’t plan to get a rooster and are not quite ready for baby chicks again, but we couldn’t send him away. He has a separate run from the hens for now, but he spends most of his time along the fence between the two runs, keeping track of his girls. He was scared of us at first but now he greets us at the gate and he comes over to the fence to watch the dogs run or the kids play soccer. He’s pretty great!