I’ve been feeling as though I should get another dog, since Trip prefers to be outside most of the time. So Jae’s been watching the Humane Society website, and we decided to bring this fella home on Saturday. His name is Axel; he’s nine years old and has been with them for two years, so he’s pretty neurotic. He shook a lot for the first 48 hours, and is so nervous they sent him home with tranquilizers that I’m supposed to wean him off of as he improves. I think he will be a lot better within the next few months; his main triggers seem to be noise and rapid movement, which is why he’s had several failed adoptions (little kids in the home). But Sunset is quiet, and there are not too many fast-moving things here; he likes Trip and doesn’t seem to care about Speck, and he was already calmer and quieter by the day after we brought him home. By yesterday he was behaving mostly normally when I’m the only one around, though he’s still very excitable if anything out of the ordinary happens. So I think that once he realizes he’s not going to have to go back to doggy prison, he’ll adjust to life here just as Louie and Hercules did, and will make a fine addition to the Sunset family.
Posts Tagged ‘Sunset’
Meet Axel
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, psychology, Sunset on December 5, 2025| 1 Comment »
Diary #805
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on December 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »
As you can see, Hercules has adapted to life at Sunset; he has calmed down dramatically and learned the routine. When I go out to feed the chickens and collect the eggs a little after noon, he lines up at the fence with Cicero and Louie to get his treat, then joins them in eating a scoop of corn I throw over the fence. I still need to keep him apart from Jonathan for dinner, but the rest of the time they’re best buddies and when I look out first thing in the morning they’re usually grazing or browsing together in the paddock. That’s all the Sunset animal news for today, but be sure to visit this coming Friday to meet our newest resident!
Another Throwback Wednesday
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Words, tagged animals, artificial stupidity, blogging, internet, language, left-right myth, Mad Libs, psychology, Sunset, Twitter on November 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
What Americans have done to the venerable word “liberal” is a crime in and of itself.
– “Meet the Tweets”
Why is it so many pictures on the internet are taken by people who apparently don’t comprehend why a photo framed as a vertical rectangle is called “portrait” style? – “Tweets for Long Nights”
I don’t actually mean to collect stray animals, but it does seem to happen more frequently than random chance would account for.
– “Diary #699”
People who interact with [chatbots] think they’re interacting with an ancestor of Commander Data or C3PO, when in actuality they’re merely accessing a program that’s roughly as aware of their existence as the software that runs modern slot machines is, often with similar psychological results. – “Mad Libs“
Diary #803
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on November 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »
It didn’t take long for Jonathan to get used to having Hercules around, but as of last week they seem to have become friends. At the end of each day, I give them each a scoop of oats & feed, but because Jonathan takes his time eating while goats bolt their food, Hercules is always done first and will immediately try to push Jonathan out of the way to get the rest of his. So what I’ve been doing is to feed Hercules inside the chicken coop and Jonathan in the stable, so that Hercules can’t bother Jonathan while he’s eating. It only takes about 10 minutes, so I just go about my business and return to let Hercules out once Jonathan emerges from the stable. And for the past week, I’ve found him waiting patiently outside the gate every single day for his rude friend. From Hercules’ direction, he seems to prefer grazing or browsing within sight of Jonathan for most of the day. So though I can’t yet tell if Hercules’ presence will control the ground cover, at least Jonathan has another creature whose habits are more like his than the pigs’ are.
Diary #801
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, disease, Sunset on November 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »
A week ago today, when I went out to feed the animals, I found Jonathan lying on his side in the stable. That’s unusual for llamas; typically they rest sitting upright, with their legs folded under their bodies (the “kush” position). When I went to investigate he tried to spit at me, so I figured he might just be not feeling well and decided to leave him alone to see what he’d do. The next morning he was still in the same position, just chewing his cud and refusing to get up. So I consulted a large animal vet who told me that older llamas (Jonathan is 19 and the vet said the oldest llama she ever heard of lived to 22) sometimes develop neurological issues, and the important thing is to keep him upright because lying on their sides too long is actually harmful to camelids. So I went back out to the stable and tried rocking him and otherwise bothering him, to no avail; I then hit upon the idea of grabbing his right legs (he was lying on his right side) and flipping him over. He struggled a bit, but it was surprisingly easy to flip him, given that he weighs in the neighborhood of 200 kilograms. Once on his left side, he started kicking and twisting and within a minute was in kush position. So I watched him for a little while, and within another minute or two he started to list to the right; I grabbed a hay bale and put it on that side to prop him up. But he didn’t like that either, and much to my surprise was soon standing again. He was extremely wobbly, so I leaned against him to prop him up, and he took a few steps forward and leaned against the stable wall. He then started slowly moving forward, leaning against the wall but remaining upright, and after a while I decided to go about my business and regularly check up on him. About an hour later I returned to find he had left the stable and was browsing along the north fence; he stayed there until after dark, and would not come to the stable for a scoop of oats as he usually does when I call him. Thursday morning I looked out about 90 minutes after sunrise and he was still in the same place, though in kush position; he later started moving around the paddock normally all day and came for his oats when called a little before sunset, and since then has behaved normally. But apparently, I now need to expect occasional repeats of the incident or similar geriatric camelid behaviors, which I guess is only appropriate considering I’m starting to display geriatric problems and behaviors myself.
Diary #799
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Grace, psychology, Sunset on October 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’ve written before about how Grace’s cat Speck was much more closely bonded with her than is typical for cats, and after Grace died in January, Speck’s behavior slowly became more erratic. She’s always been one to stake out specific places to sleep in when she wasn’t with her humans, but when the weather started to get cooler in September she started choosing dirtier places, like the area around her litterbox, and as a result she started smelling to the point I was about to give her a bath. But first, I decided to try picking her up and holding her whenever I found her in such places, to get her out of the habit. It worked, and she soon started sleeping in nicer places again, like on the back of the sofa or in front of the French window. But she also realized that if she came up to me while I was on the computer and demanded my attention, I would let her sit in my lap and I could simply type around her. You can see her favorite posture below: sitting upright with her head in my cleavage and her little paws hugging me under my robe; if I let her, she will stay there for hours, and because she doesn’t actually impede my work or comfort I’m content to let her stay until I need to get up for some reason. Even then, she will usually go get herself a bite or a drink and then come right back as soon as I’m back at the keyboard. I don’t think I’ll ever really replace Grace in her affections, but I’m glad we both have someone to cuddle who reminds us of the friend we’ve lost.
Diary #798
Posted in Diary, tagged psychology, Sunset on October 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Every October, before the rains start mid-month, I put the atrium shutters back in place. But since I don’t have the energy I had even a few years ago, nowadays I tend to do that sort of chore on days when I feel I have the energy. That’s how I mucked out the henhouse a couple of weeks ago, and the system seems to be working. So when I had the urge to install the shutters a week ago today, I went ahead and did it. In the past, I’ve always installed the north-side shutters by myself, but waited until I had help for the much-larger south-side shutter. Well, this time I moved the ladder and all the shutters from the garage into place and installed the north-side ones as usual. But though I was winded from that, I decided for some unfathomable reason to attempt the south side alone. I leaned the ladder against the wall, put one end of the shutter on the ramp railing, lifted the other side to the top of the ladder, then climbed up a few steps and lifted the shutter onto the studs. To my surprise and pleasure, it went right into place on my very first try, and all I had to do was tighten down the wingnuts to secure it. Then I put the ladder away, et voilà; done until I take them down again somewhere between Easter and May Day. It may seem a small thing, but with Grace gone there are a lot of things she used to do for me or with me, that I now have to do for myself. So please allow me to celebrate these little victories which represent my settling into the way things must be now.
Diary #797
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on October 7, 2025| 1 Comment »
The biggest problem with keeping goats is that they view fences as challenges rather than barriers. It doesn’t matter if there’s plenty of brush and grass within the paddock; the presence of a fence makes whatever grows on the opposite side more attractive in a goat’s mind. I was hoping that since Hercules was the only goat, and the other animals were happy inside, he would mostly stay inside, but NOPE; he apparently wants me visible at all times, and if I’m not he will immediately get out and find me. And when I’m inside, that means he comes up on the porch and looks in the French door. On Saturday, he kept doing it so much I decided to wait until after dark before putting him in, but that didn’t work either; within an hour he was back on the front porch. Then I left him there all night, hoping it would dissuade him; he was still there Sunday morning. I would assume this is due to his training as a pack goat, to keep the leader in sight; if that’s the case perhaps the behavior will slowly attenuate as he becomes used to Sunset. If not…well, I’ll just have to cross that fence when I get to it.
Diary #796
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on September 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Meet Hercules, the newest resident of Sunset. Ever since Jae gave Shiloh to a petting zoo over a year ago, the grass in the paddock has been getting out of hand; Jonathan just doesn’t eat enough by himself to keep it all clear. So I asked Jae to find someone giving away a goat, and she succeeded just over a week ago. Hercules was trained to be a pack goat, but just over a year ago he escaped his pen and ate most of a sack of feed; somehow, he managed to survive the resulting colic, but never really recovered enough to be a pack animal again, so his owners just wanted to give him to someone who needed a brush eater. Last Wednesday we took Jae’s van up to Port Angeles to get him, and for the past week I’ve kept him tied to a post with a long enough rope for him to graze and browse; on Sunday I tried letting him off the rope for a while, but as soon as we went inside he found the stile and within minutes was standing on the front porch. So he’s tied up again; yesterday I got a tag for his collar and today I’m going to put a temporary block on the stile, and we’ll try it again. The other animals seem okay with him; Jonathan lived with goats for the first few years of his life, and the pigs are mostly just ignoring him. So here’s hoping he settles in and is able to adequately perform the function I got him for.
Diary #795
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on September 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Because if I don’t say it, most of y’all probably will by the end of this column: Louie is really making a pig out of himself. Every year, once the apples start dropping from the trees, both pigs visit the trees at least once a day to, well, pig out. But this year, Louie has practically camped out there; by the time I show my face roughly two hours after dawn, he’s already gobbling, and even when he takes a break he mostly just naps in place or very nearby. He eats so much I don’t even bother to make him dinner right now because he isn’t interested; by the time the sun is approaching the horizon he’s already snoozing in the stable. I’ve even seen him fall asleep while on his way somewhere; he just suddenly stops waddling and sinks to the ground, and within a few minutes he’s snoring. Loudly. Twice he’s managed to constipate himself, and let me tell you he does not like the taste of mineral oil (not that I blame him). Right now I start getting the giggles every time I need to interact with him; pigs are always comical creatures to me, but there’s something extra funny about a constipated, narcoleptic pig, as long as both are temporary conditions (as I assume they will be).
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