animal based musings

At a time when some people are concerned about swine flu, Kayla and I seem to have come down with chicken fever.

Having managed to sustain our little flock of chickens for a few months we've decided that it is high time to add a few more into the mix. Five more to be exact.

Of course, this means that we will, again, have chickens as our house quests. It also means that we will, again, have to deal with the late night cheeping, scratching, squawking, etc that comes with having such creatures as guests.

Truth be told, I really don't mind.

As this adventure continues we're learning that it's really nice to have lots of living things around. When the cats first came to live with us we were wary - neither of us are what you would call cat people, but pretty soon we were glad to have the extra bit of companionship. When the first batch of chickens arrived we both asked ourselves what we'd gotten into, but we quickly learned how much fun having little feathered monsters around can be.

I've always been an animal lover. When I lived in Edmonton I found the hardest part of it all was the lack of contact with dogs or cats. Now that I'm working in a school I find one of the frustrating aspects of the job is that I can't bring the dog with me (when I'm farming he usually rides with me in the tractor or truck). Animals really do make life easier to bear.

Of course, that means that I have to work pretty hard to restrain myself from bringing home every dog-to-a-good-home or elderly-horse-looking-for-retirement-pasture that I see or hear about - I could easily turn into that guy who drives around in a pickup with fifteen dogs riding in the back.

Maybe I need a change of work. They say that most people switch careers a good seven or eight times in their life; perhaps I should find one that allows dogs.

If you happen to come across a job listing advertising $50 000 a year and dogs permitted, let me know.

Who knows, maybe it would be fun to say I let my job go to the dogs.