The Menagerie

I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but I thought I would tell you a bit about the animal gang living at my house.

First there is Ruth. She is an absolutely wonderful guard dog. (Please don’t ask me what breed she is, I know absolutely nothing about dogs - I am a cat person.) I am told that Ruth was initially the guard dog at the office, but that she wasn’t getting fed and was too thin and almost died. Joel, brought her home and she is now thriving. Joel has been giving her a piece of bread every morning to fatten her up. I have continued the trend while Joel is away. She loves me!

Then there is the newest addition to the gang. His name is Buddy and he’s my favorite. Joel brought Buddy home from Rwanda. For the first week Buddy would spend the day outside with Ruth but slept in the house, in my bed with me. It was fun, but after a week of being woken up every few hours, it was decided that Buddy was ready to sleep outside with Ruth at night. He is the cutest puppy. But he bites and jumps a lot. If anyone has any dog training tips, I could certainly use them.

The third resident of our menagerie is Hommie. Hommie is Joel’s Africa grey parrot. He has a specially built cage on one of the side decks of the house. Actually the entire deck has been caged in to make a big parrot home. African grey’s are known for being talking parrots, and boy does he talk. (Funny thing…Joel’s not sure if Hommie is a boy or a girl – I hear it is hard to tell with birds) Hommie whistles, says his name, some other things I can’t distinguish. But best of all, he mimics the yelping cries of Buddy. The first time I heard it I thought it was Buddy and I raced outside to see if he was OK. And the second and the third. Then I clued in that it was Hommie. It is absolutely uncanny.

So that’s the gang. I wanted a cat, but I am pretty sure that the dogs would kill it. And if the dogs didn’t it, then Joel would if it ever got near the bird.