Little Horse Tale
One day as I was going to the local grocery store there was a little horse loose on Pig Branch Road. I carefully passed the little horse and thought someone’s horse simply got out of its pasture like the cows do from time to time. For 2 months we kept seeing this same little horse out on Pig Branch Road. This was in 2007 when there was a shortage of hay because of the lack of rain. A friend of ours, Aaron, (trains horses) said he had been to a horse sale recently and very few horses were being sold. He had a friend that bought one horse and when he got home 2 horses were in his trailer. They couldn’t give the horses away!
Then one day some children visiting our neighbor came to our door and asked if that little house was ours? No, he’s not ours. They said you better check on him anyway because the other horses are upset. Sure enough all the horses were upset, raring up and bending the corral panels. So Tony put all of our horses in another field and put the little horse in the corral in the middle of a vacant field. We called several neighbors on both ends of Pig Branch Road who have always lived here. They had seen the little horse but did not know who owned it. We called Aaron and asked if he would like the little horse since he had a son and daughter ages 5 and 7. Oh yea, he’d love to have the little horse. The next day Aaron came and took the little horse home. Since Aaron knows a lot about horses, he explained to us that the little horse was a special breed miniature horse. Aaron’s son loved the little horse and rode him every day.
Two weeks passed and then a man rode up on a 4-wheeler and asked Tony, “Have you seen my little horse?” Well, Tony pointed to the bent corral panels and told him we tried to find the owner but no one knew who he belongs to and we could not keep him so we gave him away. Here’s the number if you want to make arrangements to get your horse back. So that’s what he did and the little horse was finally back home.
Big Bird Tale
Every fall I decorate our trails and we have friends and family over for fall outings. One evening Tony and I were working in the work shop. We could hear the dogs barking at something like they usually do. This time the barking kept on and on! Tony decided to go check out the reason the dogs won’t quit barking. Usually the problem runs off like a deer, rabbit or skunk and the dogs get quiet but not this time. After about 10 minutes Tony comes back in and says you’ll never guess what it is?! I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s taller than me and it’s a real “Big Bird.” Come out here and see! So I did and by the light of the moon I just could see “Big Bird”!
The next day our neighbor, Mr. Hula, said his emus got out. He got them put back up except for 3. They were still missing. Mr. Hula said notto approach them. They can be dangerous. Ignore them and they will leave you alone. That day Tony had been working on the tractor to get it ready for the hayride the next day. By the time he finished it was dark. He still needed to give it a test drive. He just turned onthe head lights and off to the back of the hill he goes for the test drive. About the time he got to the top of the hill – pitch dark now – Big Bird jumps out in front of him! Gave him a scare!! The next day we were having a fall outing. We had about 50 guests. We had to warn everyone about the big birds and not to approach them. Everyone would loved to have seen the big birds but by this time they learned to stay hidden and no one else got to see them.
Pig Tale
It was in the fall of 2008 and I was headed out to Lebanon to have my hair cut. There on the side of Pig Branch Road was a boar (male pig), a piglet, and a Pomeranian dog. You could tell they were all pals sticking together. Right then a man in a white pick-up truck pulled up by them, stopped, and was pulling out his cell phone which I assumed to inform the rest of the family that he found their pets.
Later when I returned, there was the same trio but a little farther down the road. Thinking back to the man with his cell phone I then realized he was using it to take a picture of the unlikely trio of pet pals. That was one of those moments when you look around to see where the Disney camera crew was. Surely this cannot be for real.
About a week later our back door neighbor Nancy came over for a visit. Her farm backs up to our farm. I told her about the boar, the piglet, and Pomeranian dog and she told me the rest of the story. Apparently the little dog was trying to tell the boar and the piglet to follow it home but they didn’t get the message or did not want to. So they parted company and the little dog went home. The boar and the piglet continued on their journey. They cut through the fields and ended up on the property behind us. Nancy happened to be looking out her window and she saw the boar and the piglet come into the pasture with their cows. The cows were scattered all over the pasture. They saw the boar and piglet cutting across their pasture but they were fearful because they did not know what kind of animals they were. So all the cows gathered together and decided together they could get rid of their problem. All the cows ran toward the boar and piglet at which time they realized they had to run or be trampled! They ran just to the other side of the fence.
Nancy knew some of our neighbors that had pigs and she called them. It was not theirs but it was their next door neighbors! Well, the boar and piglet were quite upset after being chased. A whole lot of squealing was going on. They had to wait until the next day for them to calm down but they did get back home.
Tweety Tale
Tweety is our gray cat and she was our first cat. The first year we were here, Tony made a gravel walkway to the front porch. Then I planted lirope on both sides of the walkway and iris on the other side of the lirope. The dogs thought what great fun this is and just pulled up all the iris I had just planted! So Tony took some box wire fence and bent it to make a protective shield for my iris to keep the dogs out.
It did not take long for the iris to set root and start growing. Then we removed the box wire protective shield. At this time we had a large dog that looked like Ole Yellar but he was a real goofus! His name was Pedro and he loved to lie on my iris. He was so big he would break and crush several plants at a time. Whenever I caught him I would take my broom and with a swift swat remove him from my flowers! Tweety usually stays on the front porch and she had witnessed this occurrence several times. One day I was busy working in another flower bed and Pedro snuck up and plopped his big self down on my iris. Since I was busy Tweety decided to help me. She ran off the porch right up to Pedro without him suspecting a thing. She lifted a paw with claws fully extended and gave him a swat across his rear end! I mean he moved quickly! This happened several times and I told Tony about it. His response was, “No Way”!! One day he was out front and he got to see it for himself.
Tweety really enjoyed swatting Pedro and helping me. She decided to sit next to the iris and just wait for Pedro to come sit down. Pedro finally got enough Tweety swats and quit sitting on my iris.
Deer Tale
One spring morning as Tony and I were enjoying breakfast, we saw a deer go bounding across our front field and the dogs were chasing it. After about 5 minutes the dogs came running back across the field with the deer chasing them! A few more minutes pass and here comes the deer again with the dogs chasing it and again the deer chasing the dogs. The dogs finally gave up but it really was a sight to see!
After breakfast we saw the deer again. It was a doe and she had a fawn. We realized that earlier the doe was protecting her baby keeping the dogs away from it. The dogs could smell the fawn and would go towards it so then the doe would lead them away or chase them again.