Reader Stephen Barnard sends us not only a gadwall (Anas streptera), but two domestic animals as well. First, the bird in flight:
And meet one of four cats owned by Stephen’s daughter. His caption was:
Also, my daughter’s adorable, hand-raised rescue cat, Peck, begging to be petted.
I asked what was with the cage, and noted that Peck had an awesome beard (I didn’t look very closely!) His response:
That cat is pure sweetness. My daughter doesn’t let them out. They have the run of the house and an outdoor enclosure. I’m not comfortable with cats roaming wild on my ranch because they’re bad for birds and other wildlife. When we moved here two years ago there were over a dozen feral cats, most of them diseased. my daughter nursed them to health as best as she could and had them neutered and placed. Some had to be put down. Peck was a very young kitten in good health.
It’s not a beard. That’s his paw. He’s reaching out for attention, and probably resentful that the d*gs have the run of the place.
Finally, another artificially selected beast:
Also a new goat, a male, who is destined for a wonderful life as a stud.
Stephen, thank you for the goat picture.
Questions: What breed is he? He looks like a dairy buckling, but his coloring doesn’t comport with any of the Swiss breeds.
Is he polled? He looks old enough to have been disbudded if he has horns, but I don’t see any burn rings.
Is he staying with you or being placed?
Thx. L
I think goats may be the unofficial Website Ungulate _TM……
Okay, I’ll go with that.
Sub!
I’m afraid I don’t know the breed. The goats are my daughter’s thing. She has French Alpines, but this is a different breed. I’ll ask her.
Possibly Golden Guernsey?
That breed is not yet recognized by ADGA, but I know that there are members working on opening a herdbook.
How about some pix of the Alpines, too? L
Correct.
The goat buckling appears to me to be a Nigerian Dwarf goat. Their milk is very sweet and while the adults are quite a bit smaller than the usual dairy breed, some Nigerian Dwarf Goats can produce over a gallon each day if they’re from the strong dairy lines.
Oooooh Kitteh has perfected the Schlafzimmerblick!
His fur looks georgeously fluffy, I wish I could reach into to photo and pet him.
Aw I love goats! The kitty is cute too. Yesterday, I met a gorgeous black kitty at my vets who is waiting adoption. I asked about her and the staff said that because of her colour, they are having a hard time adopting her. It is so ridiculous because the cat was friendly (giving nibbles and head butts) & funny (bending to look at us upside down). If I weren’t allergic, I’d have taken her!
Black cats are my favorites. I’ve had 6 pretty much sequentially since college. I had one grey and camel tortoiseshell along the way. How can people be so stooopid/ superstitious???!!!
Oh yes, black cats are lovely although my current masters are an apple-head Siamese and a tortie, only because the Siamese was at the shelter when I went and was and still is beautiful and the tortie who I also got from the shelter was very affectionate and a head butter which I love.
I am currently staying in the West Australian town of Newman and in the camp are a couple of strays, one of which is a lovely little black thing but is very timid and I can’t get near it. I don’t know why the camp doesn’t catch them. All they do is put signs up not to feed them, hoping they’ll starve to death.
Black cats are great. I have two right now. We only wanted one cat, but after we met them and the shelter told us how hard it is to place black ones, we took two.
Aah…I remember the days when I was destined for a wonderful life as a stud…. My wife put a stop to that! 🙂
ROFL!
Lovely shots as always, Stephen! Love the water droplets in the gadwall pic.