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Menagerie suits this family

3 min read

I don’t know if we pick strange animals or if they come to us normal and we somehow change them. But we have an assortment of animals living on our farm that have the most bizarre personality traits.

You previously heard about Todd, the neurotic Border Collie who showed up at our house about eight years ago. In that span, he allowed us to pet him only a dozen or so times. He will not come when you say his name, but yell, “Kitty, kitty, kitty,” and he’s on his way.

We have a couple barn cats that do the opposite. Not only do they love to be petted, but they won’t come to the “kitty” call.

Instead, they come running only when you yell their names. One cat, Fuzzy, is a stray my son – wielding only a butterfly net – caught underneath the chicken coop. Did he even have a chance at normalcy?

Then there is Molly. Our nearly 2-year-old Labrador mix loves attention, but will tinkle on the shoes of anyone who offers it to her. One evening, she tinkled on the Schwan’s man.

He was quite kind about it, saying he was just glad we were his final stop of the night. Once, a different customer’s animal went on him early in his route, and for the rest of the day, all dogs thought he was a pee post.

About a year ago, we brought home a cat named Simon from the store where I was working.

One day, I saw him walking on his hind legs. Holding on to the couch with a front paw, he took several steps. Another day, he climbed the window – not jumped into the sill – using the grid like a ladder.

A few months ago, he started begging at the dinner table. Not content to lie in wait for some tidbit to fall, he circled around the chairs and every so often, he reached a paw (or two) several inches above the table top.

Then, he curled it over as if trying to hook something tasty to drag onto the floor. It’s a daily occurrence now, and pretty amusing.

Finally, there is Brick. Brick was my mom’s dog we brought home after she passed away.

This dog became my husband’s right-hand man. He rides in the skid loader, the truck and on any other equipment where he thinks he can fit.

He sits on my husband’s feet every time he stops moving. But he spends his free time pushing large chunks of asphalt, rocks or bricks (hence his name) around the yard with his nose. He even stole hubcaps off our farm truck to play with.

This morning, Brick and Simon were sitting behind each other beside the table while my husband ate breakfast. Simon would reach up to try to pull something down, and Brick would crane his neck trying to see what he caught. Unfortunately, Simon can’t quite reach anything, so they did without.

Strange behavior notwithstanding, we love them all. And since we are far from normal ourselves, that makes us a perfect fit.

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