{"id":126,"date":"2018-05-11T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T21:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/?page_id=126"},"modified":"2018-05-11T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T21:00:57","slug":"animals-of-stevens-homestead","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/?page_id=126","title":{"rendered":"Animals of Stevens Homestead"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Curry O’Hara Stevens is a 14-year-old Cocker Poodle mix. I got him as a tiny 8-week old puppy.\u00a0 Then he was this little dark brown bundle of fur.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Maybe that’s why he’s such a grumpy old man! \ud83d\ude42 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!\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0We 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.\u00a0 He loves to run to our neighbors’ house for a cookie and to visit with their labs.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

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Busta Kitty (aka Kitty, aka Kittrina) is about 12 years old.\u00a0 Carson had him when we met.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Busta would follow him around the store every time he went in and eventually won him over!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He’s a scaredy cat out here… no longer the king of the neighborhood.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 He is getting brave enough this spring to go water the garden with me in the evening.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

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Moose is a 5 year old chocolate lab and he\u00a0is one of the best dogs we’ve ever known.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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Cotter is a 2-year-old golden lab (golden retriever and lab mix), and is trying to be a great dog!\u00a0 He still has a lot of puppy and can be pesky if he’s not being entertained or contained.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A bit of a scare-dy dog.<\/p>\n

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We have six hens that we got in February 2017 as chicks.\u00a0 It was so fun to see them grow and see their personalities come out even as little chicks.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 They have a coop inside a bigger chicken run and that’s where they stay.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They love greens like weeds, grass cuttings, and herbs more than almost anything, oh, and yogurt!\u00a0 We give them their chicken treats like meal worm and cracked corn, but they still want the weeds!<\/p>\n

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Nolan the Rooster showed up in our yard not too long ago.\u00a0 We don’t know where he came from or if he escaped or was set free, but we love him.\u00a0 We didn’t plan to get a rooster and are not quite ready for baby chicks again, but we couldn’t send him away.\u00a0 \u00a0He 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He’s pretty great!<\/p>\n

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More fun animal pictures and videos:<\/p>\n

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