Oscar

Oscar is our 6 month old “baby” cat. I mean that term in every sense of the word. He loves to be loved! You can’t hold or rub him enough. He even tries to express his love to inanimate objects like the desk, couch, or wall. It’s so funny to watch him purr and rub his whole body against these things.

Oscar was the only cat out of a litter of 6 that we kept because of his gentleness. He was hand picked by our 11 year old son. In the above picture, he is in his favorite place to be….the ottoman! He will sit there and meow. It’s his hang out and sleep spot….although he has been known to try to sleep with Coffee on occasion. This doesn’t always work out in his favor, but it did this time.

Oscar loves to eat! He hears the food hit the bowl and comes running. It doesn’t matter what bowl or what food…. he will eat it. He has had a couple of close ones with Coffee over her food because she is simply not about to share. He has had to learn how to defend himself against her and has recently perfected the art of the sneak attack.

The funniest thing about Oscar is that he doesn’t like to stay home for long and will let you know it! He literally goes to the door and meows to be let out. Once the door is opened…out he goes. When he is ready to come back in or gets hungry, he comes in, until the next time. Overall we love Oscar and he is a wonderful addition to our Homestead.

Teddy

Teddy is a Great Pyrenees Lab mix who belongs to our oldest daughter. He was rescued as a puppy from a shelter in 2016. He is almost 2 years old now as shown above. His favorite pastime is trying to figure out ways to escape the fence. Being part Pyrenees, he loves to roam so he has dug holes to get under and even knocked it down (when we were doing maintenance).

Teddy loves to eat! See him above as a puppy munching on fresh broccoli. If you have food, Teddy is your new best friend. He has begging down to a perfect science! One funny and sometimes annoying thing about Teddy is that he has never really mastered the command, COME. Well at least that’s the excuse I’m giving him. It’s like a game because he will literally sit there while you’re prodding him to come, turn his head sideways like “are you talking to me?” and then IGNORE you. You know that he hears you and he may even stop, but then decide he has better things to do and walk the other way.

Outside with the chickens, Teddy is constantly learning that they are just as important as he is. He has taken out a few when his instincts and curiosity took over, but that is to be expected when training.

With the addition of our other animals, Teddy has been very kind. He loves Coffee and even shares his bed with Oscar. Overall he is a fun dog and we love him. Now, if only we could stop him from shedding so much!

Coffee

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Meet Coffee! She is a lab mix and the newest addition to our Homestead. Isn’t she adorable? (I know you’re thinking YES right?)

Please allow me to give you her back story. A few weeks ago we received a call….not just a regular call, but a FaceTime call from our daughter telling us that they have puppies at Walmart. I was like “uh Walmart sells puppies?” “No mom.” Then she turns the camera around and my heart melted! There were puppies caged in the back of a truck. Their owner wasn’t able to keep them after his dog ran off and came back pregnant. They were all so cute, but what really did it for me was the one word I needed to hear, FREE!

So I began to pick one out over the video call. Meanwhile my husband was in the background, saying “no…no….NO!” At first I was discouraged thinking well maybe I won’t be getting a puppy after all. Then I had the thought of how we needed to replace our dog, Dusty. Dusty was a stray we rescued. We loved him, but he loved to eat chickens so we gave him to a family without any.

Needless to say I had to ask my husband a little more than once while pleading my case. There were some trade offs and we had to make a phone call to our youngest son for approval, but he finally said YES! That yes was conditional though….we couldn’t pick out a puppy over FaceTime, so off we went.

Now originally my Dusty replacement was supposed to be a MANS dog. You know like a German Shepard or a Rottweiler. I mean I had the name picked out and everything! So this whole “free puppy” thing was messing me up! I couldn’t name a lab, Roscoe. It just didn’t seem to fit.

Since we gave Dusty to a new family, I was sure that my replacement would be a male dog. The problem was when I arrived I saw this girl above. You can’t tell it from the picture, but she has these eyes and…..well she lives here now so you get it.

The moral of the story is if your daughter or someone else you know calls you and says FREE puppies and you have a place in your heart and home where that animal can be cared for and loved, then just do it. You won’t regret it!