Photo by Audrey Pavia Jeremy used to be Rio’s biggest advocate. Rio is renowned among all my horse friends as a pain in the butt. He wants to play 24/7, and that means he’s always trying to put anything he can in his mouth: his lead rope, the halter, you hand, your hat, your clothes, […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia Betty Jo is one of the hens sitting on a clutch of eggs in my coop. Baby Jo and Betty Jo are sitting on a clutch they laid in the coop. They take turns, so I’m assuming the clutch has eggs laid by both hens. When the eggs hatch, it will […]
Photo by Michelle Griffen Sneaky Bandit has been spending a lot of time next door. For the past few months, Bandit, the Corgi who belongs to my roommate, Michelle, has been disappearing from the backyard. We finally figured out that he was sneaking through a gap between the fence and the brick wall high up […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia This Miniature foal is so cute, she doesn’t look real. When my roommate, Lisa, asked me if I wanted to go with her to watch her boyfriend Matt take a riding lesson on Friday evening, I hesitated. I had work to do, and I knew if I ventured into a training […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia My three “missing” chickens are safe and sound. There’s a line in an old Joni Mitchell song: “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” This morning, I came to truly understand the meaning of those words. As per my usual routine, I stumbled out of bed and staggered outside […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia Mr. Molly, crowing his brains out. When I first got my chickens, a friend on a chicken message board warned me that the crowing of bantam cocks could be quite annoying. Unlike standard-size roosters, their crows are higher-pitched and irritating. I was so in love with my two little roos that […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia Cheddar enjoyed his camping trip this weekend. One of the perks of being a professional writer is that you get to research the stuff you are writing about. When the editors of Cat Fancy magazine agreed to have me write an article on traveling with cats for their August 2012 issue, […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia Mr. Mabel tempts face as he loiters dangerously close to Milagro’s hooves. I’m not one of these people who assume chickens are stupid. I know they have that reputation, but I think they are actually pretty smart. They learn quickly, have a surprising capacity to think things out and are very […]
Photo by Audrey Pavia This is one of the yards filled with critters I saw on my ride the other day. When I ride Milagro around my town of Norco, Calif., I almost always take the same route. We climb from the flatter, older part of town, where we live, to the higher elevations. It’s […]
