Adams Family Zoo

I�m going to give you an inside look at the pets in our lives. Stories of the things they do and who they are. Our home is full of them. First you must understand we do not live in the country, we are in a small neighborhood, yet lucky enough to have our home right next to a cow pasture. Our back yard is longer then most here. Our home is around 8000 square feet.

Now our pets total at 24 and their humans 5. We are out numbered. Now break them down to 3 dogs, 3 cats, 3 chickens, 2 rats, 2 hamsters, 1 mouse and 11 fish. Every single one has a name. There is the dogs, Babie, Raven, and Sugar. The cats, Tiggy, Odin, and Honey. The chickens, Bell, Nell, and Jell. The rats are Mr. Tiny and Mr. Bloo. The hamsters are Cottenball and Cream. The mouse is Circles. As for the fish, one is called Squeegy, it�s an algee eater. Now the rest are gold fish, which are Al, Bi, Bubbles, Hog, Littlebit, Spot, Twotone, Manny, Troubles, and Tip. An like us they carry the Adams name.

Now which one should I start with for you to get to know? The fish? They have an simple life, yet they share cute and funny stories, but not many. The rodents have little stories of their own, yet I see little of them for they live in my daughters room. They are mainly her pets, and she is the one that cares for them. The chickens have only a few tales but boy are they big ones. The cats and dogs have many stories of their own and shared with the others.

So whom shall I start with? I will have to give this some though.

To be continued �����

I have chosen to start with our 3 chickens, Bell, Nell and Jell. Bell and Nell look alike with light redish brown and black feathers and their legs are a dark yellowish color. They stay together pretty much at all times, and they are abit more laid back. Now Jell shares Bell and Nell feather colors but is more darker, and with lighter yellowish legs. She is top chicken in the coop. The other two show the signs of her bossiness. She feeds first, takes the best food and is first to drink the fresh water. Goddess help any poor ol� bug that wanders into the cage. I talk to them and make the same noises they do an their little heads turn side to side listening. These 3 birds were headed to a dinner table, but luckily they ended up here instead. My long time neighbor and friend called me one day and ask me if I wanted some chickens. I�m thinking of the kind that go into your freezer, wrong!! So I get there an she tells me they�re in her shed. I�m thinking Ok that�s odd but whatever. We go out and low and behold they are alive an well thank you very much. I had promised I would take them so after catching them, I brought them home, built a coop and there they stay. Now one of our dogs Raven is a nut case, you can not allow her to run loose with out being watch every second. She goes bonkers when she sees them. Will the other day she got out of her kennel and just chased them poor birds all over, we had no idea this was happening, until she scratched at the front door. So I bring her back into the backyard and find my birds gone!! I�m thinking any minutes I�m going to find them dead. We looked all over, no dead birds, so were are they!?! One found itself a hiding place on top of some junk hubby has piled up by the house, another hides un a dark place under hubby barbeque pit. The other gets itself stuck good between two concrete blocks and other junk around them. I thought I had repaired their coop that now had a big hole in it. I put my birds back in there after giving them a good look over. The next morning, they are gone again!! I find that in the back corner of the coop I missed a hugh hole, how I missed it I don�t know. Any how it�s hunt down the chickens again, they aren�t in any of the place they had hidden before, and I couldn�t find them any where in the back yard. Where the hell did they go now!? So I�m standing by the coop and I here them, but just don�t see them. Then it hits me, they are loose in the pasture!! So we look, and still don�t see them, but we sure do hear them. Then I look up because I here the tree shake and what do you know, there they are, setting in the trees. That�s when I think well Duh! They like to get up high when resting. There is no point in trying to catch them again until I fix their coop. I have to go buy new chicken wire, I should have never even tried to use that plastic crap to begin with. I get their coop rewired with new wire all the way around and pull off the old stuff. Now it�s a waiting game for them to come down. That night they stayed in the tree, next day they are still in the tree. Hubby tells me no to worry they�ll come down when they are hungry or thirsty. I�m worried because there is a hugh owl that live near by and is more then happy to have chicken for a meal. So another day passes and at lunch time hubby comes and tells me they are down and one is in the coop, so we carefully coxs them back in and close the door. Oh thank the Goddess my babies are safe. Damn birds!! Before this had happened they were laying eggs very couple days, now nothing. I don�t blame them none, I didn�t set them up with a safe home, and they had been scared out of their little minds. Today I spent a good hour just talking to them and making the noises, they weren�t having none of it for a while but then they started making noises in return. I�ve also added an extra layer of fencing, just in case raven gets out on her own again. I also added a couple more places for them to get up on, and made their nesting box openings smaller, they can get in but Raven�s head can�t. I also gave them some extra feed with rice and crackers which they just loved, as a way to show them it�s still ok. The one good thing that has come from this is that they don�t totally freak out when I get next to their coop. They stop and watch what I�m doing.

So that is the latest and must adventurous story of our chickens Bell, Nell and Jell.


To be continued with the next choice of our pets. Which one now? Hummmm�

I am loving this!!!!!

It is awesome Indieshadows!! Thank you for brightening my morning!!! I intend to follow the Adams Family thread for a long time!! Thank you fir sharing your life with us....

Blessings Bright and Dark,

Lets have a look at our fish. Squeegy has this thing of trying to suck on the gold fish, why beats me. Guess it thinks they are dirty and need a cleaning. LOL It also has a thing for the filter, it like to get next to the tube that sucks up the water and lets itself get sucked up next to it an just stays up for an hour each day. I think it�s taking a nap. There�s no effort to stay at the bottom to rest, why do that when you can have an easy way of napping by being held in place by suction . It also likes to play with the small rocks at the bottom of the tank, I know it has to be playing, for it will latch on to a rock bring it to the top an let it go, then it chases it down to the bottom an does it all over again. Of course the gold fish just have to join in by getting in the way.

Now them gold fish are smart, they know when it�s time to eat. I feed them at the same time every day, and if I�m a little late they will start racing back and forth from one side of the tank to the other. An they will do this until I feed them. The longer it takes for me to do it, the faster they go. I swear one day they will crash in a pile into the side of the tank. Now when I do feed them I have to be so careful, for a couple of them will jump out of the water and I have had to rescue them off the floor. I�ve had Bubbles jump out an land right in front of one of our cats before an thought it�s a dead fish before I can get it. But no the cat just looked at it for a second tan then run like someone set it�s tail on fire. What!? A cat scare of a tiny little gold fish, OMG! LoL. Now them fish also like to jump out of the water to knock up agenst the lid of the tank. Why, again I don�t know. They just do. An when they start this all of the cats come running to set in front of the tank a watch. Sometimes when the fish are playing chase, the cats watch, and before long everything in the house is running around, chasing each other . An the fish stop to watch. I�ve even made a couple of small floaty toys for the fish and they will poke, shove, and try so hard to bring it to the bottom just to have it shot back to the top. So days they are better then the TV. I do think they even watch the TV sometimes, for they all will be lined up an be pointed at the TV and not move!! An why not the cats and dogs watch TV sometimes. Now Troubles is a bit more special, it has no fins on the left side of it body, it�s missing it�s left eye, and is always slightly side ways when swimming around, an it tends to bump into everything. I don�t know what happened to it for it was like that when I brought them all home. They really didn�t have much of a life for they were in what�s called a feeder fish tank. They would have been lunch some bigger fish. But they are now safe and growing, an seem to be happy. Except for when this big white stork shows up!! That bird comes every other day and trys so hard to get them, you�d think it would figure out that it can�t after coming in contacted with the window!! But Nooo, silly bird just keeps at it, while the fish swimming for their lives. I had thought that maybe they would figure out they�re safe, but for some reason that bird puts some real fear in them.

Also like the cats and dogs they like to harm themselves in the sun, I have their tank right next to our living room window, it�s a pretty site a night to pass by the house and see their tank lite up with their colorful selves swimming around. I have seen many cars slow down just to look. But they will go to the sunny side of the tank every morning as soon as the sun warms the window. After about an half hour they move to one side an set up to a nap. Such a hard life being a fish. LoL

Tonight let me introduce to our kitty Honey. Ok She�s not really a kitten but, just like our kids they are always our babies. Honey is an odd little thing. She will chase her tail around and around until she catches it, and always lets a painful cry when she does. But even thought she causes herself pain she keeps at it. I know she�s just playing, but a cat chaseing it�s tail, I thought only dogs did that. LoL When she�s in the mood for affection she will come right up in your face and lick your forhead. Sandpaper kisses!!

Might help if I describe her a bit, she�s long bodied and a long tail to match, tiny little head and feet, petit is best when thinking of her, she�s gray tiger striped but with orange mixed in, truth is when my daughter first brought her home I thought her an ugly color. But I got past that quick when I found out she was only 3 weeks old!! I wasn�t help to think that the people who where giving away these kittens were doing it to soon. But it was to late, she was here and there wasn�t anything I could do except take over as Mom, which meant bottle feeding, and helping her to pee, yes she was still to young to go on her own. Yet because we had to become Mom for her, she has so bonded to us. She never goes outside, and when people come by she goes hide.

She loves to set on top of the TV and try to catch things on the screen, it�s so silly when she�s trying to catch a car going across the screen, oh an how craze she gets if there are bugs, birds and any small fast moving critters, she�s fallen off the TV so many times I quit counting. An for whatever reason she doesn�t get the fact that candles are not fun to set on!! She always go to inspect them, then set or stand with her butt right next to them, we have smell brunt fur so many times, an once my daughter said to me � Mom, look Honey�s butt smoken!� an sure enough she has done senged her butt. An to top off her oddballness, she doea not like catnip!!! An that�s alittle about Honey.

You�ve met Honey, now let�s get to know Tiggy,

Tiger when he�s bad, Tiggy when he�s being sweet. We got him when he was just a kitten. I can�t remember for the life of me how or where. As a kitten he was like any other, eat, sleep, play, use the litter box. But as he got older, he found that having your tail, pulled on, and closed in the door to many times, makes a cat grumpy. My boys gave him hell. An they spent a lot of time getting in trouble for harassing him. Now noone can touch his tail or back without getting bitten or scratched. He�s not a nice kitty inside, but boy let him out for a while an he�s so sweet, an wants to rub on your legs, love all over 1 of our dogs Sugar, though Sugar thinks it�s time to play an runs around, with Tiggy right behind her trying to just love on her. It�s a funny sight to see this big fat orange cat running after a small dog. Ok they are both about the same size but Tiggy out weighs her by 4 or 5 pounds.

Now Tiggy is a hunter, birds, bugs, snakes, it�s doesn�t matter if he can catch them he�s going to. We have found long feathers of many birds in the front yard, these I pick up, I know I�ll find a use for them. We will search the yard for the birds and only have ever found 3 dead. Some we have gotten free from him and some have been lucky to get away on their own. I�ve gone out once to see what it was he was playing with and found a poor little baby snake, a king snake, under his paws, I thought oh no not another one, so I picked it up and it was still alive, I brought it in so the kids could see it up close then took it back outside, had one of the kids get Tiggy an bring him in, an released the little snake in the flower bed, it stay still for about an hour, then moved off.

Of course Tiggy also hunts in the house, sometimes field mice find their way into the house, but do not find a welcome sign, they find Tiggy, plus 2 other cats. Though Honey really doesn�t know what to make of it, an will set on the side lines watching Tiggy and Odin, go nuts, trying to get them. Trust me when I say, Gross, Eeww, yuck, when I find them half eaten on the floor.

Now Tiggy has this thing, where he�ll go into our bedroom, get up on the bed, find a stop he likes, start to nead the sheets, then find something to suckle on. We�ll end up with half a dozen wet stops before he�s done. Hubby doesn�t let him to often for this reason. It�s not fun to get into bed an find cold wet stops. But it�s still funny to here hubby fussing over it. Yea I let Tiggy in sometimes just to be a tiny bit mean. J

Now Tiggy has alittle horror story. Parly my own fault for not getting him fixed sooner, yet Lesson learned on my part. See when Tiggy became old enough, like all male cats, he wanted to rowm, yet wasn�t quit old enough to be a top cat so to speak, and he found one Tom cat who did not want him near by, so they got into an mean fight. I heard this from inside the house, ran out was ale to get Tiggy, he had had enough. A came to me quickly, with that ol tom on his butt until he saw me, the Tom ran off, Tiggy came in. I gave Tiggy a look over but didn�t see anything to worry about. The next couple days Tiggy didn�t want out, but I started to see that he wasn�t acting his normal self, so I gave him another good look over, but this time to look all over him every inch, and found�OMG, his poor little nuts had been cut open. I knew he needed a vet. So I hall him in, the vet took one look and grabbed his own privates, an says Oh God. The he looks at me an says , the only thing we can do is nueter him. Ok so do it, is all I can say. I was told that with him being fixed he wouldn�t want to go out either. Wrong!! It took a couples month but sure enough he wanted out. But he only wanted out to look for things to hunt. An doesn�t leave the yard. So it all turned out for the good.

Tonight, just a quick tale of these morning. I brought in each of the chickens to give them their monthly look over. To do this I only bring 1 bird in at a time, all was fine until it was Jell�s turn, shes� the one with a mean streak. Well I brought her in, the phone rings so I let her check out the house while I deal with the phone.

A pushy telemarketer. After telling her no for the 5th time and just hanging up on her.

I walk into the living room to find Jell. An she has cornered a cat!!! I mean the cat and her are same in size and weight, but who�s the chicken here? The cat!! Odin!! Odin can be said to be my familiar, but maybe not. Though he is my stalker. Flowings me all over inside the house, I can�t bath without him being next to the tube, he even watches me pee!!
Odiny is male and female, on the outside all boy, on the inside ovaries and a part of a uterus. He�ll hunt mice like the others but is more likes to catch a mouse an then love it to death.

A chicken is a hol nuther ball game, he was cornered, in the smallest ball he can get, (he�s a big cat people!!) and completely owned by that bird!! So I scoop up Jell, check her over and all an put her back in the coop. An come inside to find Odiny has done pushed my altar box onto the floor got it open an crawled inside. Never has he done this. He�s sat near or on my altar, during casting and rites, he�s right there, but he�s never so much as has bumped one thing over or off. An here he is in the box. All that�s hanging out is his tail. He refused to come out, even after I picked him up, put the box back in place, he done it again, so this time I just left him there. Catnip wouldn�t get him out, nor treats. My poor kitty has only come out of hiding an hour ago, and he�s right here now, all up in my lap.

Aww poor kitty *hugs Odin* I'd have to take a picture if Simba did the same thing. Being in the box. That's just priceless. ^_^ Still *hugs*

Odin. Where to start with Odin. Well the little tale was a start, so Let me go back to when we got him. My neighbor, the one who gave me the chickens, called me upset, she said one of her sons had found this little kitten, she said he was beautiful, but she couldn�t keep him. Their dog Lilly would have none of it. She asked me if I�d be willing to keep him until she could find a home for him. Of course I say yes. It�s no big deal, we had Babi, Raven, my old, old cat Pearlie Girl, and Tiggy who was about the same age as the kitten that was found. I take one look at him and couldn�t believe how beautiful he was. But I had set it in my mind that I would not keep another pet. No more, I had my hands full. Almost a month had past an when my neighbor called an told me she thought she found a home for him, I just blurted out, �No, he�s got a home!� She�s like �really, you sure?�, and I reply, �Oh yes, he can�t leave.� I was hooked!! His kitty ways and his love of my �witchy things� had won my heart.

He had even showed me his name. He would pull out my rune stones bag, and drag it around until the stone fell out, then he�d some how get them piled up, and sleep on them. I try serveal names of the runes but he didn�t react, no until I sat down an gave some thought, and told kitty the story of the runes. When I said Odin, he can straight up to me an butted my head. I was taken a back. Never had this happen, and it�s never happened again, with any other critter. Odin has grown into one of the biggest cats, I�ve ever known, he�s a good 16 pounds, and the vet said he�s not over weight. His front feet are almost the size of half dollars. He�s mostly black with white markings on his tummy feet, under chin, his face is black with these long white whiskers and big greenish gold eyes, that makes you wonder just what is going on in his mind. He loves to sleep on my altar and will carefully mold his body around my things, as so not to knock them down, he hanging around when I�m working on my herbs, or making candles, or any �witchy project�. He loves to be in the middle of rituals, rites and castings. An if he comes around and sees I�m working without him near, he�ll nip me. Oh and when Lady E. pacage came, he was all over it!!! I still can�t move the box out of the living room for Odiny has claimed it for his own. I have had other things come, gifts for the kids, or things ordered, but I think it was because of the items in that box, he knew what they where for, and the kind of whom sent it. He also loves to try to get to the cook books, but I had to put them inside my cubbert, for safe keeping. I don�t think having cat drool on them is so nice when trying to put together supper ideas!! LoL

So yea I guess you can say he is my familiar. I�ve never told many people, but have had a couple ask me if he was or they would say �Oh and Odin�s your familiar then?� I have 2 other cats but he is always the one picked out. Odd don�t ya think.

Oh an, yea, he�s finaily over the chicken encounter

This morning I get up, get coffee, start towards my bedroom to get dressed and what do I see on the floor? A big ass spider!! I not joking when I say big. Not something I fear, but not something I want to have to deal with while still in sleepy head mode!!My 11 yr. old son saw this thing an freaked at the size of it. He wanted to kill it, and thought I really don't want to touch it, I sure couldn't kill it either. I placed a glass bowl over it so the cats wouldn't play with it, went an got dressed, yea I was stalling here! lol Then grabbed the koolaid jug with a lid, very carely, lifted the bowl and hoped this thing would go in the jug and not up my arm. Luckly Odin was kind enough to paw it softly and it shot into the jug. I slapped the lid on so fast, you'd think I was in a 1000 dollar race. Now I don't mind spiders, but a Wolf spider that big does not need to be in my house. So out it went into the flower bed. It's welcome there, but not inside thank you very much!!

OK this wasn't about any of our pets, but it does fall in the Adams Family Zoo of unexcepted guestes.

An yea first thing to see in the morning, I'm creeped for the rest of the day. (faint) (ohmy)

Well, We now have a vistor, he's a smoke gray cat, With the most out standing green eyes I've ever seen. He's very friendly but does not like the inside. We have been looking in the paper for a lost cat, but nothing so far. I've called the animal shelter, but nothing there either, though they wanted to come get him, and I said no he's just fine for now. My hubby, has been feeding him, and has brought him in many times, though he wants right back out. An now hubby is talking of a vist to the vet!! Just what we need another critter!! LOL. The only critter that isn't happy about our grest is Odin, he goes off an pouts, until the guest goes back out. Then Odin comes out and gives us dirty looks!! Sugar just thinks it's a new play toy just for her. One thing I do find really funny is that this gray cat loves to get in our cars and go for a ride!

So yea I think the Adams Family just grew by 1 more. (cat)

A bit of sad news today. One of our chickens died. Poor thing, vet said an egg was stuck tight and she couldn't pass it. I was told that it happens now an then an that there was no way of knowing. I still feel like there should have been something more I could have done. So now there is only Bell and Jell. My hubby was kind enough to bury her next to my herb gardon. In spring I'll plant something on her grave. I just hope the other 2 don't have any troubles. I'll be bring them in next week to have them checked out, and make sure they are healthy.

Poor Nell.

Sugar


Babi


Raven


Odin


Honey


Tiggy


Bell and Jell

Your Sugar looks a lot like my Sammy! I love reading about someone elses family! It is nice to know that there are others out there who's smaller, furrier family members are just as unique as mine!

Keep up the great posts!

Well it's been awhile sense I've added anything, so I'll just show you our visitor. This gray cat, first came to us with a green collar, stayed a day or so then off it went. It's been a few months now, and it shows up for a couple days then off again, whom ever it belongs or belonged to must have taken it's collar off. I think they just don't care enough but that's Ok, it knows where to come for a free meal and a bit of love. It's such a sweet cat and yes I've tried to bring it inside but it wants nothing to do with that. It wants right back out.