Pet Projects

Growing up I always had pets. I had cats, dogs, calves, birds, hamsters, even a pot bellied pig! Kent & I both felt very strongly from the beginning that we wanted to give Jaxon pets so that he could have friends to grow with as well as lessons to learn from the responsibility of owning animals. Before we got married I talked Kent into taking a farm cat and cityfying him. My apartment complex did not allow pets, but his did! Misfit will be 6 this year... we think,
of course we also thought Misfit was a girl for the first few months of his existence!

After moving from my downtown digs to southern Lincoln-living I would finally have the chance to get a dog since I chose a place that welcomed pets w/ open arms. Kent new I wanted a pug but after looking asked if I'd settle for a Lab since that was the breed he had been wanting. Our friend Kate had a brown Lab named Maggie, Kent & I both loved that dog. She was the sweetest animal and Kate had told us that she was wonderful with kids. Since we new that there was a chance that kids would be in our future we settled on a black Lab we called LeRoy.

Since moving to our country home we have added a stray named Lola and a puppy from Monroe (Traci & Tony's dog who passed a few months ago), we call her CoCo. But we didn't stop there! In July we brought home two French Lop bunnies, we named Daisy & Lilly, they were being given away at the Washington Co. fair. Jaxon loves to get them out and hold them... they don't enjoy this quite as much!

One of our favorite "pet projects" so far has been raising calves. The first batch was brought over earlier this summer and were sold the first part of July. This second batch came straight from the bucket which meant smaller babies (this is the batch Jaxon reads to). There are currently 22 out in our little pin right now after adding four more to our herd last night.

These four are "special needs" calves which means more attention and time but both Jaxon & I are more than willing to give them some extra love! We woke up early this morning and went right out to do our chores like any other day. Of course nothing in our lives can be too easy, we had a calf out and after running around the pin 4 times and lots of cursing & swearing we got him back in. After Kent left for work it was up to Jaxon & I to finish up w/ the feedings.

Two of our new babies are significantly smaller so we are keeping them separated from the rest. I asked Jaxon if he'd like to name them so he came up w/ Furbee (who is missing some of his fur) and Dinkee! (There was no prompting from Kent or I on these names!!!)

There was a time in my life when I hated going out to help milk or feed calves. Looking back, I now see that those chores helped to mold me into the person, wife and mother that I am today. Watching my little one take such pride in his work makes me so happy and grateful to my own parents. I hope that one day Jaxon will feel the same!