Strange or Unusual farmyard "pets" and their actions....

[copperkid3]

Who on here, now has or has had, a "strange" farmyard pet that you'd like to share concerning their unusual behavior?
We started the "homesteading" life about 12+ yrs ago and before building our country dream home, we began keeping
rabbits in our backyard. We had a young California buck rabbit named "Prince" that was kind of a runt; not quite as large
as his brothers/sisters, but he grew up in ways that quickly set him apart from all others in the rabbitry. We also had a
couple dogs; Trudie, a Catahoula mix & fixed female and a Hildy, a Rottweiler fixed female. Sometimes we would let Prince out of his cage
to go romp around the backyard and kick up his heels at which time he would interact with the dogs. The Rott would usually
lie down and that wascally wabbit would attempt to make woopie with her hind leg or her head or whatever was genuinely
available; eventually he would tire of this behavior and would then curl up alongside the dog; who, for whatever reason,
allowed both behaviors. That rabbit really "loved" that Rott.

The other dog however would have none of it and would try to do what dogs do best with rabbits;
by playing with and trying to get him to run so she could chase him. Prince however, would stand
his ground in a most uncharacteristic manner for a rabbit and finally one day it appeared that he'd had
enough of her taunting and barking and he suddenly, without warning, leapt up and grabbed that dogs'
lower lip and hung on. The dog began howling and started whirling around and around in an attempt
to get this demon to let go and we counted at least 6 fully complete revolutions BEFORE
he finally let go and sailed off and away. Meanwhile the wife and I both had a difficult time getting up
off the ground from the hysterical laughter that overtook us.......
the neighbors are probably still talking about it.
Yeah, it was rather exciting watching that rabbit rodeo with a full 5 second ride on that doggie!!

Wish we could have sold tickets.......<grin>
Trudie, NEVER again, wanted to chase or play with any rabbit that had ANY white whatsoever on them.

We next acquired 3 Saanan bucklings that were less than three days old and managed to get 2 thru, to adulthood .
One we made a wether, while the other became our herd sire. "Doc" is affectionately known as our gentle giant;
being big enough and usually gentle enough, that at times I've "climbed" aboard and ridden him..... but the real
"unusual" behavior that I want to comment on, is that there are times when I go out to his corral and call him
over to the fence and after allowing me to rub his face and stoke his beard or scratch him between the horns,
he'll suddenly get this strange look in his eyes (which I have now come to recognize) and he will then stand
up on his rear legs; towering over me and then place his front legs on top of the 4ft fence panel and take one
hoof and attempt to "reach out" and pull me over towards him in a series of "pawings"......the first few times
I allowed it, but soon stopped participating because he'd usually get goat manure all over my sweatshirt or
Carhart workcoat. He gets visibly annoyed if I don't allow him to "love" me like this, and I'm wondering if
anyone else has had a grown "bottle baby" shower them with this type of affectionate "hugging"??
One of his daughters has also shown this type of behavior, though not as often and not as persistently.
Also a bottle baby.

The last barnyard "pet" that has displayed unusual behavior is a 3 yr old, fully white Muscovy hen that
follows whoever is delivering the feed scoop and wiggles her 'butt' and makes squeaky duck noises.
"Mamma duck" then allows whoever has the food to handle her and stroke her and will even let
you pick her up; none of the other ducks exhibit this behavior; including her own offspring....
Several of the other ducks however, will come out and eat from the scoop with her, but as soon as a
human hand comes down to touch them.....they will leave the immediate area. But she appears to
have no fear whatsoever and actually appears to look forward to our arrival each morning/afternoon.

Or as long as we have our hand in the feed barrel.....as there might be some for her!

[Alice In TX/MO]

At our place in the Ozarks of southern Missouri, we have two wild box turtles who come to the back door for food. We give them diced fruit, goat cheese, and sandwich meat. I have been known to dig earthworms for them, too.

One of the turtles and our Basset Hound:

[foxtrapper]

I once had a guard honey bee that couldn't stand the sound of my voice, or my sons voice. If we were anywhere within about 100 yard of the hive and spoke, she'd come charging down to dive bomb us until we went away. My wife, no problem, But me or my boy, no way.

[Old Vet]

My father had a horse that if we were out and had sandwiches for dinner had to have one also he also like to chew tobacco with my father he would chew it for hours.

[arcticow]

1 old witch of a moose who raises twins in my pens every year, whether invited or not... and a great gray owl who is an EXCELLENT mouser but never has bothered ANY poultry.

[EDDIE BUCK]

We had a little dog that would run every cat up a tree and dare them to come down and get ripped apart .That is, when we were around.One day bopeep started outside and she called me to come look out the front storm door.

There was that "Cat Hatin Dog"laying in the warm sunshine in the front yard,with our black and white cat being used for a pillow.I started to open the door and the dog heard it and jumped up and proceded to make the cat find the nearest tree.We never laughed so much in our lives.

[Randy Rooster]

Before I built our house we had an apartment in the loft of the barn. We have cats so I had installed a cat door at the top of the stairs so the cats could come and go out of the apartment at will.

We also keep chickens and one we called Thelma learned how to climb the stairs to the apartment and come through the cat door and eat the cats and dogs food out of their bowls.

We tried to find someone to borrow a video camera- it was so funny seeing Thelma come through the cat door - had we gotten a video of it, I think we would have won a prize on Americas funniest videos.

[7thswan]

Had a Horse named Ralph, he loved people food,P&J sandwiches,hot dogs, Pepsi. One day someone left the doorwall a bit open, he pushed the door aside came in and ate the Butter off the table.(ya we let him roam the yard) Dh brought home some wild turky eggs found in the alfala field, our T. hen hatched them out,then tryed to kill them all, I saved 1 he had only 1 eye,so I brought him in. Everyday my rottie,Magic got that bird out of the box, and they hung out and greated me at the door, when I got home from work.Actually now thinking about it, I've had alot of special animals.

[Sandhills]

I have a small cochin rooster who lost his mate this past year. I started 4 broad breasted turkeys this spring that turned out to be all hens. He bossed them around all summer and fall. It was sure was funny to see him bossing those huge hens around.
I think he's really lonely again since we butchered them.

[xoxoGOATSxoxo]

I have a goat who does that "hugging" thing too. She gets that look in her eyes, and then if youre sitting down she'll try and hook a front leg over you or just rest it on your knee. If youre standing up, she doesnt rear but lifts up her front leg and bumps you with her knee.

[Hank]

I'll never forget when Grandma put some duck eggs under one of the hens.
When those eggs hatched that mother hen was so proud!! Her chicks were bigger and "purter" than any other chicks in the yard. You could hear her all over the farm. Then she took them to the big trough to get water. We never laughed so hard as we did when those little ducks just dove right into the water and went to splashing. That ol' momma hen had a "duck fit". She must have run 100 laps around that water and dang near beat all the feathers off her wings. GrandPa was a very large man and he was rolling on the ground in fits of laughter. Wow, that brings back lots of good memories.

Hank
http://www.doublemfarmandchuckwagon.webs.com

[DQ]

I left a bucket in the pasture last summer. I spied a boer doeling wandering around with it stuck on her head. after chuckling for a minute I started out to rescue her. before I got there she stopped. took her head out. scratched her ear with a back leg. then put the bucket back on and continued to walk around with it on her head. I was flabbergasted.

[arcticow]

NEVER overestimate the sense a goat has!!LOL

[Tbird79]

That is absolutely hysterical! Maybe she was trying to tell you she wanted a visor or sunglasses! Haha!

[Cascade Failure]

Somewhere I have a picture of our black lab "spooning" with one of our rabbits that got loose. Does that count?