Should we get an ark?

We have had some new additions the past couple months and are feeling like Noah! We have too many twos – two bulls, two dogs, two female goats, two male goats, one female goat with child, two cats and two hundred rabbits! And then there is Ted the Turtle. (Had to give him two T’s to go along with our two theme we have going on!) Next on our list is ONE camel but I’m not holding my breath. We do see them around though.

The goats started because Raelee and I think baby goats are so cute but then they grow up so we came up with a plan. One female and one male to have babies and we will give the babies to widows when they are weaned from their mamas. That way we can enjoy watching the little babies and help someone! So we prayed about the money to purchase one and God sent a man wanting to trade grass for a goat. We got a little male, Papaya. Then someone needed help with their kids school fees and asked if we would buy her goat for $40. We did and got a female. The school across the street was so appreciative of the extra room and some desks that Mandate built for them that they gave us a female goat. Then a lady who needed money to help her sick mother with treatments came and asked if we would buy a baby goat for about $15. So, now we have two females and two males and we are thinking that is more than enough goats. The little goat house is now full with the extra goat and baby that have been boarding here. And Papaya has been bullied by all the females so we now have him and the new male who is about the same age together in the bull barn!

The cats came along because of the rat population around here. They are Macy and Leopold. They are great rat catchers so we rotate keeping them in the house and in the barn. They are slowly getting used to the dogs.

Ted the turtle has been here about a month. He is a Leopard Tortoise indigenous to Africa. He is tiny, but we have seen at least one other on our property and it is pretty big. They can grow to weigh about eighty pounds so Ted has a ways to go! I went to check on him one night about 2 am and noticed he was not in his basket. The cats were in the house that night so I started searching all over for Ted. We don’t have a lot of things to look under but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Frantic (I know, it’s just a turtle), I woke Christian up…”Ted is missing”. He got up – he has been married to me enough years to know he would have to help or not go back to sleep! We finally found Ted under a chair, he was up against the leg of the chair and is so tiny I missed him the first time I looked. We now make sure his basket is locked up at night!

I think we are up to thirty-six baby rabbits with many on the way, praying that eight or nine will be having babies this weekend! Lala is hopefully going to be a mama this weekend also so that is exciting! I already have my eye on a cute bunny that looks kinda like a bulldog to bring inside. One mama had her first litter and we’ve read that inexperience can cause them to clean their newborns too aggressively. Apparently she was a little too aggressive, she has one baby with no ears and one baby that has two legs missing. They both are healthy otherwise and get around fine!