The Tucker ranch, a rather rough 9 acres of mesquite, cactus, weeds, dirt, and a small tank full of water, continues to provide a plethora of questions and observations that require further rumination. We have 2 llamas, 2 donkeys, 3 geese, 1 duck (who thinks he is a goose), 1 goat, and well over 100 catfish, not to mention the myriad but hidden skunks, raccoons, turkeys, and probably the occasional fox! The last few days we have allowed friends to come fishing at our place to their great pleasure and my enjoyment at seeing their happiness. Our catfish are large and give a good fight to stay in the water, but there is no doubt that we need to get several out of the tank in case the lack of rain continues to result in less and less water.
Yet all is not well at the Tucker ranch for I have a personal problem with one of the geese and a deep suspicion of one of the donkeys. On the good side, I have a positive relationship with the goat, the 2 llamas, one of the donkeys, and the catfish all love me for my ability to feed them once a week with delicious floating catfish food. One day I decided to have a discussion with the geese and settle our differences. With bread in hand, I approached my friends and tossed them some fresh bread only to have the same mean goose spread her wings and run toward me, beak ready to attack my leg. I jumped back using my amazing reflexes developed on the basketball court and adopted a stunning karate stance, and using my best Chuck Norris form, I kicked the vicious creature on the tip of the beak. She shook her head and returned to the bread, appropriately humbled and hopefully wiser. During this episode the duck that thinks he is a goose seemed completely unaware of the disdain the goose and I have for each other.
I did have a curiosity about some small floating dark pellets that recently began to proliferate in the tank, but after careful study, I could not discern their source. They seemed too small to be donkey waste and too solid to be goose waste, so I narrowed it down to deer or perhaps the llamas. Sure enough, as I was watching the tank, the llamas approached the water, walked in, and relieved themselves in both ways. With unlimited land, dirt, low spots, high spots, trees, and bushes available to them, why do they choose to relieve themselves in the tank? I also noticed the catfish would occasionally come to the surface to partake in the free fare. The lack of culinary standards has confirmed my reluctance to eat catfish ever again. What they put in their bodies is disgusting, making them unworthy of human consumption. Sorry to be elitist on this.
I don't like the donkeys and they don't like me. One in particular runs away every time he sees me, and I suspect both of them are eating the goose eggs on a regular basis much to my irritation since the only purpose for the geese I can find is to eat their eggs. It may be time to rid our ranch of the donkeys and once again acquire more goats. We shall see. In the meantime, after spending some time out on the range (okay, more like an extended yard of weeds), I returned to my domicile to get away from the complexities of the animals.
Unfortunately, one of our (our is an overstatement since we don't exactly own these) cats had 5 baby kittens and had brought them to the back porch for our enjoyment, and no doubt about it, they are cute. But, really, we do not need any more cats around. They serve their functional purpose of keeping the rodents and snakes away. Perhaps they, like some of our other cats, will seek out greener pastures and more generous caretakers, for we are indeed a little bit stingy with our food. Furthermore, they lack in warmth and are not of the cuddly variety and instead hiss and scratch when we are near. Oh joy on that!
So goes life for the animals at the Tucker home.
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