All things farm life...

Living on a farm and being an animal and nature lover, my computer is full of short stories for children that I've written over the years about some of the funny, not so funny and awe-inspiring relationships we've had w/ the animals out here. The latest that I've been scribbling is about our last remaining hen, Emma, and her faithful companion...that stray kitten that I posted about back in October, remember, Little "Ginger". The amazing thing is that Ginger, the kitty, is the same color that our old Hen, Hannah, was and ironically, Ginger-kitty showed up shortly after Hannah passed away. Anyway, Ginger-kitty follows Emma everywhere, all day long. ....So, one of my favorite morning "programs" has become The Emma and Ginger Show. It comes on about 6:30 a.m., on my front porch, as Emma awakes, stretches (which is funny if you never seen a chicken stretch) and hops off her nightly perch, our porch swing. At that moment, Ginger-kitty, walks the top of the porch rail and hops down to join Emma. Emma stops to drink from the cats' water bowl. Ginger waits her turn. Emma nibbles on some catfood, yes our hen eats cat food. Ginger waits her turn. Emma wobbles over to the top step and stretches again. At this spot, Ginger-kitty starts purring and rubbing up aginst Emma, along her backside, rubs up beside her, curls under her neck, around to the other side. Emma hops down the front steps to see what crumbs she can find under the birdfeeders in the front yard and Ginger springs to action. Frisky kitty, starts zooming around the front yard, crouching behind trees and jumping out at Emma. This goes on for about 10 minutes. All the while, Emma just nibbles at the birdseed in the grass, unphased. Finally, Emma begins her morning walk along the fenceline...Ginger right beside her and the morning program ends. All the while, I stand there in amazement, smiling. I'm sorry I can't video tape this because it's not bright enough outside at that hour. It's something to witness though. Here's some photos of the two of them and other farm shots taken recently.