Hector's World: Adventures and Mayhem at Mountain View Poultry (or Sequel to The Evolution of Atlas

[1muttsfan]

Some are just special. I still miss my little cat Rusty that disappeared on the 4th of July - I just went head over heels for him. He was a shooting star.

 

[speckledhen]

I was hoping he'd come back to you, Mary. Such a bummer. My husband is dreading the day when Finn goes out the door and doesn't return, though we try to keep him inside most days or at least when it's dusky. He is so attached to that cat and vice versa.
Some definitely are special. Though I adore Bash and he's a true angel of a rooster, he will never be my Isaac or my beloved crippled Zane who remains the for-all-time rooster love of my life. Hector was just such a huge personality, so smart and so opinionated and so much my guy. He added color to our lives and taught me some things.

 

[1muttsfan]

My big cat, Thomas O'Malley aka TomTom, still goes outside, he is huge and determined - but he was an outdoor cat when I got him and that is a hard habit to break. As you say, I try to keep him in until full light, and get him back in before dusk. It is getting colder up here now so that is not as hard to do - he does NOT like cold or wet.

Sully, Rusty's brother or half-brother (from a later litter) is sweet but he is a little dope. No way he is getting out, at least not this year, although when my BF gets back in the spring it may not be possible to keep him in. He will be older, bigger and hopefully wiser by then.

 

[h2oratt]

I miss my Hector. I know his girls do, too.

I am sorry. It is never easy to lose a good friend

 

[1muttsfan]

Sully

 

[speckledhen]

Aw, another pretty orange kitty. They're the best.

 

[speckledhen]

Something is wrong with Maddie. She's lethargic, doesn't struggle when I pick her up, not like herself at all. She's been off for a couple of days. She's 5 years old now and she and her mother, Jill, are the only ones of Hector's entire line, including Maddie's sister, Jane, who are still alive. Jill is too mean and persnickety to die, LOL. I always said it would be just my luck that Jill the Pill would be the last one standing, but I hope Maddie isn't going out like this, not now. Not bloated, no crop issue.

 

[1muttsfan]

So sad to hear.

I am not breeding my Arkansas Blues any more. They have been lovely, but have become inbred now that there is no other stock to cross in. I have heard that it takes 3 generations for a flock to become overly inbred and suffer for it, and I would agree with that now.

I am enamored of my little bantam Speckled Sussex, but again do not have good genetic diversity. When crossed with the ABs they produce what look like tidy little ABs that lay small to medium green eggs, very pretty.

 

[speckledhen]

Remembering Hector today. I was remembering how once I had grown out four of his gorgeous sons, was selling them on a FB group. A breeder came out to see them and liked them. He asked if I still had their sire. I told him that I did so he asked if he could see Hector. I said sure! I went and let Hector out. When he watched him a minute, he said that was the best BR rooster he'd seen in ages and he would take all four males. Hector was so handsome! In cleaning up the property weeds in summer, I always pause at his grave, look at the beautiful marker that Cheryl sent me as a surprise that says "The Little Tyrant" and I tell him how much he's missed around here. He taught me quite a bit, had very strong opinions about his hens and loved walking in a pan of water every summer, taught the girls to do it. All my heroes are buried in a formation on that same slope and Bash will join them not long from now (dreading that). i can't tell people how much I have loved my big, gorgeous roosters; most would never understand. Soon, I am going to be choosing a name for my next BR Rock rooster(s) from the new hatch. He has huge spurs to fill!
Our man Hector:
(Mary, you gave me such an amazing, unforgettable character in Hector! Maddie and Jill are doing well. Maddie has been laying, too)

 

[1muttsfan]

Oh he was a gorgeous boy. And a huge personality

Funny how much things change. I went back a page or two and read through the posts. My Sweet little dog Max is gone, and wonderful Tom Cat disappeared almost exactly a year after Rusty. I got another kitten to keep Sully company, as he was very lonely, but neither of them are really lap cats. And I no longer let the cats out. Still have my bantams, but they have proved a challenge, as I hatched out seven roosters and zero hens last summer .

And of course we no longer have Bash or Cheryl

But you are starting a new chapter, and it will be great entertainment to see how that goes