Getting older. The cat sleeps even more, and the dog is arthritic and losing eyesight. Both are in good health otherwise, and happy to have more people around in the summer.

Sassy. Which is essentially the norm for a spoiled rotten chicken.

Like, this little hen will scold you for not giving her treats fast enough. And that’s when you’re literally pulling them from a bag and handing them directly to her with no delay

It’s kinda weird. I always liked birds, but never felt I could care for one properly. I would never have thought of having a chicken as anything but dinner. But now? I’m not sure what in the hell I’ll do without her.

I didn’t want more animals after my dog died. I was done with losing companions.

But there was a chicken down the road that needed a home, and we were that only ones available. So we got the first bird. Thought it was a hen (it wasn’t), but keeping one chicken isn’t good for them, they kinda need company. So, we got another one.

The rooster is pretty big, and very much a punk lol. He beat the crap out of a dog twice his size a few weeks back. But he ain’t really a pet. He’s a chicken that shares space with us, he wasn’t socialized well before we got him.

But this hen? She was hand raised before us, and was a cuddly little thing for the first few months. Now, she’s all grown up and thinks she’s the boss. She isn’t cuddly, but she insists on being right beside me when she’s inside. Yeah, an inside chicken part time. Only in the evening for a few hours, but still. And she’s gotta be on or beside one of us, usually me.

She used to lay on my chest and nest in my beard when she was still tiny. She would trill and purr until she’d go to sleep.

Like, how the hell did this happen?

And, we now have another hen. Damn thing just showed up in the yard one day with some chicks and started eating. The dog our rooster beat the crap out of killed the chicks before I could get out there.

But the hen stayed around. She’s tiny. Our first hen is a marans, which aren’t big birds. The volunteer hen is maybe half her size. The volunteer is a feral chicken, one of the few dozen that roam the area. But she’s chill. She’ll hang out with us as long as we don’t try and touch her, just clucking and doing that sweet little trill/purr thing they do.

So now we’ve got three, and I’m fairly confident that the whole “chicken math” meme isn’t actually a joke, it’s an inevitability.

I should have gotten up to put dinner together 15 minutes ago, but our big orange cat is snugged up against me…

Today there were two cats fighting on my neighbour’s roof. My own two cats looked at the fight with dilated pupils, duster-looking tails, from behind a glass door. With Siegfrieda staring alternately the two cats and me, then timidly meowing, as if saying “can’t you fix this?” (Sorry Zizi, I can’t.) And Kika eventually getting bored and going back to her cardboard box.

I know one of the roof fighters, by the way. Same owner as that roof. Extra cute; fluffy, all black coat, friendly towards humans… and extra hostile towards other cats. She used to play with Zizi as a kitten, until she fell sick and spent two days in the hospital. When she was back, her behaviour towards other cats went from wine to water.

A second neighbour - a crazy cat lady - is considering to steal that roof fighter. If she does it… well, I know nothing, I saw nothing, the roof fighter’s current owner clearly doesn’t care, the cat is often fighting but still outdoors 90% of the time. The crazy cat lady has a thousand flaws, but at least she loves her critters.

Speaking on Kika and her cardboard box: she’s still behaving like a spoiled 16yo kitten. Including night zoomies and her loud 3 AM “I hunts! I hunts! Come, see it!” meows. Pawing us for attention, as if saying “excuses? I is here!”, just to run back to her cardboard box. (She’s slowly destroying it, and spreading bits of that box everywhere.) It’s weird how needy she gets in the winter without caring about the cold itself.

Fast asleep in the sun on the floor near my bed. I’m finishing my coffee and then I’ll get up and get him breakfast but he’s in no hurry so neither am I.

I’ve got to head out to lunch in an hour so he’ll be a bit sad but will likely sleep through the ordeal in the sun in the loungeroom.

good