All the Creatures

You get to finish that sentence. Spring time usually means to me, opening up all the windows and letting that nasty winter, cooped up smell out of the house. It also means time that all the horses start to shed. Our old grey horse sheds so much when I brush him it looks like a snow storm just hit the inside of the barn. After I sweep up the hair into a pile, that is when one of the dogs takes a mouthful of it and runs off.

Yep, spring when you find baby chicks on sale at the local feed store. For those of you who think that they are for sale just for Easter, then think again. They are raised for meat and eggs, not as pets. I think that too many city people thought they were on sale for pets and then they tried to protest the sale of the chicks rather than educate those that the baby chicks are not raised as pets. If more people would learn about chickens, springtime and the rural lifestyle then those city slickers would not be buying baby chicks as Easter pets only to abandon them when only a month old. Keep in mind that the chicks that are on sale are only a few days old and have special needs like a heat lamp and chick starter food.

Bunnies are also for sale, right along side the baby chicks. Unless you are planning on keeping a pet rabbit for the next 12 or so years or want to raise a rabbit for meat, then don’t buy one of them either.

Yes, the joys of spring……I can almost hear the shouts of “SPRING BREAK” now.

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Always give your pet a hug, kind word or praise. After all they are around because you wanted them to be there.

- Jan S. at All the Creatures

The one thing that almost all life needs to survive is water. Drought can pose a problem in many areas of the world and so can ice. If you have an outside pond full of koi or goldfish, you probably know that those fish can survive quite well under a layer of ice, providing the water has an air hole in it somewhere for air to water exchange. There are pond de-icers that can do the job of leaving an area open for the fish.

If you raise horses, llamas, cattle, sheep or other livestock then you know that they need a constant access to water in the winter. Snow and ice will not provide the many gallons of water they need each day. Since flowing water does not freeze very easily then having the livestock in a pasture where there is a creek, stream or river flowing through it would solve most of your watering problems. If you don’t have access to a creek you need to provide an ice free water trough for the animals to drink out of. You can find electric tank de-icers on sale at most feed stores.

Of course just having a de-icer does not solve the problem of having frozen hoses to fill those tanks and water buckets. To keep the hoses from freezing, turn on the water and let it trickle through the hose fast enough to keep the water from freezing. You will have to experiment with the amount of the flow to see how far you will have to turn the water on to keep it flowing.

Your animals will thank you for the liquid water you will have ready for them during those bitter cold winter days and nights.

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Always give your pet a hug, kind word or praise. After all they are around because you wanted them to be there.

- Jan S. at All the Creatures

I learned to never give a pet as a gift. About 15 years ago it had a tragic end. It was just before Christmas and my nephew had been bugging his mother for a pet. I knew of his requests and talked to my mother about the possibilities. My mother was living with my sister and nephew at the time and she was the person whom most of the responsibilities of a new pet would fall on. With both of my sister and my mother’s consent I presented a gift of a 3 gallon tank set up with 2 fantail goldfish. I only lived a few miles away and told all of them should they need any help at all just give me a call and I will be right over.

For the first few weeks I monitored that they were not feeding the fish too much or not at all. It seemed that I was teaching my nephew more than the adults in the house. After all I grew up with my sister and mother and we kept fish as pets when we were young. I thought that they both knew about fish culture from past experience, I was wrong.

That went on for about 3 weeks, after that I thought the fish are doing fine. We talked on the phone every few days and I always made sure that I asked how the fish were doing. The answer was always the same, “they are fine.” It was 3 weeks before I dropped in on them for a visit, we were all going to meet up for a local sale then it was back to their house for lunch. It was before I got back to their house that I talked to my nephew and asked him how he liked the fish. He then told me that they were having trouble eating because they were swimming funny. When I got to their house I found out that the fish had lost all of their fins to fin rot, a common fish ailment. Those poor fish could not get to their food and they struggled to just get water over their gills. I was highly upset at both my mother and my sister for not telling me. I told them that I could have treated them for fin rot if only they had told me about the problem. I found out that they had not even bothered with the fish, because to both of them the goldfish were not a real pet but a throwaway item.

I came unglued and took the fish back that day. I would like to report that I successfully treated the fish and they lived but they did not. To me any life, even a goldfish deserves compassion and care on the part of its owner. Those 2 small goldfish got neither from their new owners. I learned a brutal lesson that year of never giving a pet as a gift even if you have permission.

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Always give your pet a hug, kind word or praise. After all they are around because you wanted them to be there.

- Jan S. at All the Creatures