The Honest Courtesan

Since a number of readers have asked me how Louie is doing, I figured a picture is worth a thousand words.  As you can see, he’s largely adjusted to life at Sunset; he knows where and when I put food out, comes when I call, and is less shy of the other animals than he was at first.  Since he’s gelded and was at first a stranger in a strange land, the other animals push him around a bit, but except for Shiloh trying to steal his dinner that has mostly eased off.  In order to stop that, I need to feed all the big animals at once in different places; Cicero gets his dinner near the stock tank, Louie gets his in the barn, and Shiloh and Jonathan get theirs in the stable.  So by the time any of them finishes, the others are also done and there’s nothing left to steal.  Incidentally, Louie is even more vocal than Cicero, perhaps because he lived alone for so long; every time he sees me he starts oinking, grunting, and squealing enough to constitute an entire conversation.  But his little tail starts wagging when he’s fed or petted, so I think he’s happy here already and is only getting happier.  Oh, one more thing: I chose this picture from a series I took just before Christmas because there are so many animals in the frame at once; how many can you spot?