Category Archives: Animal Husbandry

Posts related to animal caretaking

November 16, 2017 · 1:00 pm

Cat Walk

With my new and improved schedule (See Transition Year), I am able to take a morning walk and sometimes an afternoon and evening walk. Puppy absolutely adores our walks. He’s able to sniff every corner, expand his marked territory and run off bigger and badder dogs emboldened by my presence.

Sometimes my husband or son go with me. After all, it’s just not fitting that women walk alone in Mexico. I shrug. I’m only going around the block and there isn’t any real danger that Puppy can’t handle. But if they want to come, that’s ok too.

I take my camera just in case there’s something worthy of posting on Instagram later. Sometimes I find some pretties. Sometimes I don’t. One day I found 7 tomatoes that fell off the produce truck. Salsa! Another day I found a bag of grouting the exact color we are using to finish the second floor. Score!

We recently brought Kitty from the little house in Sunflower Valley to La Yacata. She’d gotten too big to be content in the enclosed space. She SO wanted to go outside and lay in the grass. When we didn’t allow that, she would literally throw a fit on the floor, meowing and rolling about. So, we moved her to the backyard in La Yacata and she was happy for awhile.

She noticed that while Puppy is inside at night, at first light, he got to go outside. Inch by inch she gathered her courage and moved toward the door. After a few days of watching Puppy and I go for our walk, she ventured beyond the gate. She decided she’d come with us.

She complained the entire time! Having been an inside cat since kittenhood, this was a LONG walk for her. She was a bit out of shape. But she stuck with us and made it around the block.

Puppy didn’t much like the new walk companion. I mean really, she carried on so. Then she’d get lost in the tall grass and get hysterical so he’d have to go and find her. So he tried to discourage her from going on the walk with us.

Eventually, she stopped accompanying us. Instead, she comes out when we head off and waits by the door. She knows that eventually we’ll come back and feed her. Puppy’s satisfied with this arrangement as well. Glad we could work that out.

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Filed under Animal Husbandry

Tagged as cat, dog, Pets, pets in Mexico, walking a cat

November 13, 2017 · 1:00 pm

Baby the Sheep

So my husband got it in his head that borregos (sheep) are more profitable than goats. It is true that borregos sold by the kilo are more expensive BUT they are a smaller animal, so overall there are fewer kilos to be had. Disregarding my logic, he went ahead and traded our macho goat for a young borrega and her borregita.

I continued my naysaying despite the now physical presence of more borregos. Borregos carry on something awful whether or not they are hungry. (See Separating the Sheep from the Goats They are more delicate healthwise. (See Birth and Death) They need more care than goats. They don’t eat as varied a diet as goats so food during the dry season will be harder to find. All to no avail.

The young borrega managed to come down with a BAD case of chorro (diarrhea) probably from the change of diet from her previous home to ours. This affected little borregita because the mama’s milk all but dried up during her illness. So three days after purchase, it was looking like borregita wasn’t going to make it. She was listless. She became weaker and weaker until she could no longer stand. It was pitiful. My husband debated whether it would be kinder to just kill her.

I objected. Surely there was another option. We’ve had orphaned babies before on our mini-rancho. I convinced him to try and nurse her back to health. We bought a bottle and some milk, mixed with suero (electrolytes) to feed her.

The difference was marked almost immediately. The second day of bottle feeding she could lift her head and bleated to let my husband (now named Papa Chivo–yes she’s a borrego but Papa Borrego doesn’t roll off the tongue as well) she was ready for more milk.

My husband and son alternated bottle feedings and the borreguita was christened Baby so that when she hollered in the middle of the night I could shake my husband awake and say “Go feed Baby.” After about a week of milk, she started to show an interest in the paca (alfalfa bales). So feedings were supplemented with a bit of alfalfa and some ground maiz sorgo mixed with milk like a cereal.

It took about a week for her to try and stand but as soon as she could wobble about she demanded to be taken out with the rest of the herd. She couldn’t keep up, so my husband had to carry her. She was content as could be munching on the grass she could reach while resting and watching the gang graze. Mama borrega was happy as well. She was a nervous Nelly when she had to leave Baby behind. Maybe that’s what we’ll call her–Nelly.

We had every hope that Baby would make a full recovery. However, one morning she was again laying on the ground bleating piteously. She didn’t suffer long. She died just a few hours later.

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Filed under Animal Husbandry

Tagged as Animal Husbandry, borregos, homesteading, homesteading in Mexico, raising sheep in Mexico, sheep

September 4, 2017 · 7:00 am

Horse Trader

One evening I got home and was going about my business when I heard a whiny from the animal area. Now we haven’t had a horse since my husband sold them (See A dismantling of sorts) and the whiny perplexed me. So I headed out to find that in place of our 6 goats, there was a tallish red young stallion with a black mane.

He was friendly, but a bit on the thin side. Probably not well cared for by his previous owner. Of course, that doesn’t explain how he got into our animal area and the location of the goats. I waited around for my husband to get home and demand an explanation. He was a bit worse for wear, so the explanation had to wait until morning.

It seems that in addition to his poor choice of activities the night before, he had made a deal for a horse that he didn’t have any intention of buying. However, as soon as the neighbor down the road expressed some interest in this horse, my husband had to have him. He traded our 6 goats and $1000 pesos for Alto (Tall boy).

Along with the subsequent hangover, he had a huge case of buyer’s remorse. We had already determined that a horse is not profitable. If my husband isn’t sharecropping, the horse has no way to earn its keep. A horse provides no milk or eggs. This particular horse couldn’t even be ridden as it was in such a malnourished state. Plus, we no longer had any horse gear (saddles, bridles, reins, etc). Well, if he wanted a horse so bad, he’d have to figure out how to maintain it.

My husband went hither and yon looking for a new owner for Alto. Alto didn’t mind. There was plenty of grass and over the month he spent with us, he plumped out considerably. Finally, a new deal was struck. In exchange for Alto, my husband would receive 2 boy chivitos (young goats) which were part of a triplet birth, always a good thing (See Goat Genetics) and a young yeguita (mare) plus $3500 pesos. Immediately upon the transfer, my husband took one of the chivitos (because you only ever need one macho per herd) and traded it for one of Jirafa’s twins. (See Assassin Goat )

With some of the money from this deal, my husband bought La Flaca (Skinny) and La Chica (Small one), both white goats. There was some talk about selling the new mare for $5000 pesos, but that deal fell through. Meanwhile, the rest of the $3500 went to buy Jirafa and her other twin back.

Another deal that didn’t happen was the sale of La Flaca. Jirafa had been trained to return to the corral once full. La Flaca was not. My husband was not happy with her as she liked to travel hither and yon instead of staying put. She also divided the herd. Half would follow Jirafa, half La Flaca. As the potential buyer didn’t have the cash, my husband wasn’t about to just let her go for free and fiado (with a promise to pay later). So La Flaca became part of the herd with the provision of being tied should her nomadic nature caused her to roam.

The herd was back up to 6 again and we still had a horse. She was a pleasant horse and there really was no reason not to embrace her into the family. However, our hearts had been broken with the sale of Shadow and it took some time for my son and me to accept Buttercup. She was fattening up nicely now that she had proper care. My husband thought she was a bit older than the previous owner stated because of the length of her tail, but malnourishment kept her from growing properly. She will probably be smallish, but that’s ok. Our rancho is smallish. She isn’t large enough to be ridden or bred. We’ll have to see how things go during the dry season when food is not as plentiful. I would say she is on provisional permanence.

My husband still had it in mind to add to the animal holdings. Suddenly there were two borregas (sheep). I have been opposed to sheep because they bleat all the time, but these two have been bearable. The previous owner assured my husband that they both were pregnant, but that remains to be seen. They know they are sheep and not goats and have nothing to do with the goats. They refuse to share their corral and only just barely tolerate their presence while grazing. I think Puppy thinks they are largish dogs. (See Separating the Sheep and the Goats)

Oh yes, we have a new puppy. Again, we were reluctant to open our hearts to another dog after Chokis was poisoned, but Puppy appeared and we are smitten. He is friendly, obedient and so wants to be a house dog. Of course, my husband is opposed to that, so he’s only a house dog when he isn’t around. Puppy and I take a walk every morning and most afternoons now that my schedule has freed up (See Transition year). He and Devil, our macho cat, are buddies. The only problem is he refuses to be inside during the day and chases motorcycles, so we are concerned someone will either run him over or poison him. (See 101 Perritos) People here have an irrational fear of dogs. He does like to jump on people to have his head rubbed so we’ve been working on retraining him not to do that or chase motorcycles. As for his name, well it was supposed to be Rascal, but he responds to Puppy, so Puppy it is. My husband keeps threatening to give him away, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Puppy goes with him and the goats and the moment my husband sits down, there’s Puppy ready for a head scratch practically climbing in his lap.

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