Mayhem Menagerie

No, I don't really hold wild animals captive.  But if I thought I could, I probably would.  No, really, I might.  It's a long standing joke in our house that I'll bring home every animal I can get my hands on, and I seem to have passed that trait on to Caroline.  We're both constantly asking hubby, 'please can we bring him/her home', at least once a week.

We just can't help ourselves.

We've had tons of fur babies over the years {or scaly babies} and we always want more, it doesn't help that we have some land either, that just means we have more room for all of them.  Right now, we only have 5 fur balls.

Last year we had 3 Guineas, which if your not familiar, their like chickens.  We loved them, they were so much fun to watch!

Sadly, I should have chosen different names for them.  BBQ, Ranch & Honey Mustard were a cute thought, but turns out Heidi really likes BBQ and Ranch.  She eventually decided that Honey Mustard was pretty good too. 

So now, we're trying to convince the hubby that we need a goat, chickens, a pig and a mini cow.  Yes, it sounds crazy, but look how cute they all are!

I'm not holding my breath on getting any new pets anytime soon, but it never hurts to beg! 

Living in the country presents some difficulties with having animals sometimes.  Yes, I know, it's the country it should be so easy to have animals, its not like living in the city.  What I never thought about when I first moved to the country was all the obstacles there are out here.  Like snakes.  It's bad enough if you have them, but if they bite a small dog or a cat, it doesn't always turn out so well.  Other Dogs.  Yep.  Most homes in the country don't have a huge chain link fence around there 40 acres.  We have pipe fences, split rail fences, barb wire fences, but I can't tell you a single person who has a chain link fence.  When a neighbor dog comes onto your land, you have very little control.  And believe me when I say that plenty of country folk shoot animals when they come onto their land.  Luckily for us, its not often that we have visitors, so we've never had to talk to a neighbor about their intruding animals.  But we have had several of our dogs shot.  It's heartbreaking.  Coyotes.  For Real.  They don't come over for a friendly "hi" either, they come to search out food.  If it's been a dry year, they come closer to homes looking for food. 

And then you have big livestock, cows, horses, donkeys.  They kick.  Heidi, our Australian Shepherd is a herding dog, and herd she does!  She loves to herd our neighbors cattle, she's been known to put a few donkeys in place too.  She's sulked back to the house many times a little sore.

As much as we love animals, there's a lot to consider first.  The vet bills can get outrageous and its irresponsible to have too many pets if you can't financially handle them.  I still have tons of research to do about the new breeds we want, so that we can make sure that we'll be able to take care of them financially as well as loving them.  I don't want to be THAT family that turns them over to a rescue because I was unprepared.  It's one thing to have an animal with issues that needs to be re-homed than to do it because you didn't know what you were getting into.

What animals do you have?  Or if you could have any pet you wanted, what would it be?  I love seeing/hearing about everyone's fur babies {but not snakes, I can't handle the snakes}!