Catherine im so sorry for your loss :-( I love chickens as pets and we had ducks too. I love that special little soft cluck they make just when they're with you. They are so soft to cuddle too. Silky feathers. She couldn't have had a better friend than you and im so sorry for your loss of such a dear friend. At least her suffering is over and you always did the best you could for her. Sweet little Nobie has found peace. Her soul will always be with you. Bonnie

Dorothy, we're also on a well and I'm not even sure how far it is to the nearest hydrant. At least 3 miles, I do know that much. I've given up on trying to keep any of the grass in the yards or pasture alive. I'm only concerned with the perennials now. The fire scare yesterday was bad, since there's no way we could get out enough water to stop anything that wanted to cross the dry pasture, and our buffer zone around the house is now mostly brown and dry. Our only source of back-up water is the above-ground pool. We've kept water in it because we can hook up a hose and use it in an emergency, like a cistern. It's too hot to swim in it, that's for sure. I've also pulled up a bunch of tomatoes, all the beans, and several squash plants. The peppers are producing, so I water those and the few cherry tomatoes that are in production, along with the melons and the strawberry bed. I don't want to have to replace all the berries next year if it can be avoided. I've just gotten the bed nearly full. My free range chickens seem to be coping with it. I haven't done an actual head count, but we haven't seen any dead birds so I have my fingers crossed. Our sheep are unhappy, but so far don't look too bad. They shed their wool every spring, so we only have one that is still carrying a blanket around. It's a natural insulation, so I don't worry a lot about her. They have plenty of shady places and a full water trough and that's about all I can do for them. If we put out hay and they don't want it, I know they are still getting enough from the pasture. What I learned in the west is that many mature trees can suck down 50 gallons of water in an hour on a hot day. A live creek can be drained dry by noon, and water won't return until it cools down late in the evening, when the trees stop drinking it up.. The hotter the weather, the more they will drink. The oaks are one exception, in that they can usually survive much harsher conditions and over-watering is hard on them. It's scary to see some of the big oaks around here in trouble, because it shows how bad it really is. So far it looks like I'm only losing one azalea, and it was a new one. A gopher got in under it and left a huge run that was siphoning off all the water at a time that the plants had not set out a good root structure in the surrounding soil. I dug it up, loosened the root ball a bit where it was compacted, dealt with the gopher and filled the hole with good soil, so now I'll see if it can come back or not. The malva fastigata go limp when they're thirsty, as do the lantana and hydrangeas, but they all perk back up after a drink. One of the hydrangeas lost nearly all its leaves, but I see that it's putting out all new ones. The hibiscus moscheutos are looking stressed but are still alive. I'm pretty sure the little buddleia is gone, but the one that is of the most concern is a 5-year-old rose of sharon in the front yard. It looks really bad, half defoliated and the remaining leaves are small and limp. It's having a terrible struggle to survive. My pot of zonal geraniums is just fried. So far all the young maples are alive and only one is showing a lot of stress. It still has green leaves on the ends of the branches, although it's defoliating in the center, so I think it will make it. The young pecan tree is gone, and I'm not sure how many other things. I see that even one of the native sumac in the pasture is not very happy. It's beginning to brown in places. Pat

you all are so sweet! i know you all know how i feel because you feel the same way about your pets whether they are furry, feathered, hooved, scaly, whatever. lilly did live "high on the hog" (love that!) during her time with me. i had a guy in the office on thursday who asked me why i paid a vet instead of just having somebody shoot her. i told him just the fact that he had the balls to even ask the question told me what kind of person he is. seriously??? You just have one pig left? How is s/he doing? socks, i actually have 2 left, both boys. arnold and harley, and they seem to be bonding now that they are alone together. i found them sleeping together under the heat lamps the last couple of mornings. :)

My sincere condolences for your loss. Harry seemed like such a sweet dog. Somehow, even knowing "it's time", doesn't make the heartache any less. I'm glad that Harry always liked visiting the vet, so that his last moments were not made unnecessarily unpleasant. With Spot a couple of years ago, he hated going to the vet. He had been there twice in the preceding few days as we tried to see whether anything could be done for his back injury and he shook in fear the whole time we were there. Fortunately my wife got a recommendation for a local vet who would make house calls when "it's time".