Laurie,
Thank you for sharing that. It is touching and you shared it well.
I have a small flock of guineas (it would be larger if I had the acreage). I got six keets two years ago. A friend asked me to raise him 30 to eat. I raised 6 (his *#&^ son came and killed an hen and they made soup with her), one died mysteriously, and the only other female raised 17 keets last year, 4 of which I kept. I won't be raising any more for his food, lol. I stumbled on to guineas accidentally but gratefully.
The guineas are easy on my lawn and garden. They stay on my property. They follow me around. They can hold there own with predators. They roost in a tree over the main chicken coop where they serve as "guard guineas" and make better noise and are more threatening than my "guard geese".
But this is the best part: they recognize people and they can distinguish creeps. They know who is to be here and who isn't and they will throw a fit at uninvited guests.
This is my favorite "fit" they threw: We had a "friend" drop by with his son. None of my family care for this man or his son, but they like us and like my property. He made himself at home in the yard, built a fire, kicked back. We really wanted him to leave. The guineas did, too. Every time I went in the house for something, the guineas would go up to him, surround him and yell at him. I would come out, scold them, tell them to go to their tree, which they did and they were quiet, but every time I turned my back they were on him again. (He didn't do anything to incite them, he just kicked back, but the guineas seem to be a good judge of character.) Anyway, when I was tired of all my polite hints and my friend made no effort to head home, I told him I was going in the house for the night as it was now cold and getting dark but he was "welcome" to sit there as long as he wanted. I "whispered" to the guineas to go get him as I went in the house for the last time. They did. They didn't wait for me to go in the house this time, they immediately got down.
They surrounded him and yelled and screamed at him until he couldn't take it and left. Good guineas. I will always have guineas now!
(BTW, they know when it's bed time, of course, and they've protested when anyone is out of place or not to bed on time, but they "mind" me, if I have company around the fire after dark, but this creep was the exception. If someone is on the drive and the dog doesn't hear, and eagle, . . . whatever, the guineas are on it first.)