Images from:
1 janitor (Lulu) Lulu (may she rest in peace) is pictured here on my son’s finger. She was the world’s cutest and smartest, and very much loved. She came to an accidental untimely end when a houseguest let loose with chemical warfare on some ants, not realizing that Lulu was, at that moment, right above on the sideboard having breakfast. She is greatly missed.
2 Supernightshade (Henny Penny)
3 Supernightshade (Ms Prissy too) Henny Penny’s sister. They came as a set, and I’ll stop there.
4 Callmelennie (Rustin) Rustin putting his best paw forward. Rust is an amputee who was adopted by my daughter.
5 Erik (Hairy and puppy) Hairy Calahan and his puppy Jelly Bean. No, they are not related.
6 Ghost (Gray and Albino Squirrel)
7 Principal Poop (Beatrix)
8 MMinAR (Miss Crockett) Here’s the best dog ev-vah with some glowing eyes.
9 Corky (Fox) My good friend, K, shared this picture. K went to Arlington to visit her Dad on 9/11. Her Dad didn’t die on 9/11, he was in the Pentagon when it was hit and a steel beam fell on the arms of his office chair and trapped him. He was saved by several strangers (one actually laid on his back on the floor and used his legs to help lift the beam). Her Dad was meant to live that day but died last year from Parkinson’s. Anyway, she saw this fox hanging out and he/she is adorable.
To submit your critter pictures for a future Sunday Critters, please email them to:
INCLUDE:
- A picture you (or family/friend) took and agree to publish here. NO images found on the internet.
- ‘Critters’ in the subject line.
- Your screen name.
- Your critter’s name (or species, if not your pet).
- Comments about the critter you want to share.
NEEDED: If you send me pictures for any of the following themes, please tell me the name of the theme they are for.
- Thanksgiving – Please have your pictures in to me by Friday Noon.
- Bewildered Critters – Confused looks
- Let’s Do Christmas!
- Happy NOT 2020! Eve
Thanks!
Are you sure Henny Penny didn’t get Lulu?
🙂
President-Elect Claudia, your best selections yet. These will make a fine Critter Cabinet for when you assume your self-proclaimed position of president of….this blog?
stirrin, if I’m president of this blog, then Fur is Emperor and MJA is Queen! Dr. Tar can be my VP if he wants the job! 😉
P-E Claudia – noting the power structure you describe, President is a ceremonial title, much like the President of Russia or China. Oh oh, I’m seeing a pattern here. 🙂
Thanks for putting up my pullets, Claudia, this is what two teenagers look like when they’re on the hunt for crackers and ain’t NOTHIN’ gonna STOP em!
The wife SAID she wanted eggs, but I think she REALLY wanted pets, so these two, along with two other pairs of two different breeds, came to live with us in the Spring, and they’ve failed to be cuddly ever since.
Don’t let the feathers fool you. Chickens are proof that dinosaurs exist, because they’ve got the feet AND the attitude we would image a T-Rex would have, but in a MUCH faster package with a pointier beak. They also have some smarts because they’ve started opening the inside coop sliding door on their own, and they’ve demostrated a Borg like ability to communicate without seeming to in that you pick ONE up, and the REST just kind of colasce around you like they’re gonna DO something about it…but then just plop a big turd out and start pecking maniacally at a pebble instead.
So, I’ve got fowls with attitude, fowls that foul and make me clean up after them, bringing stink, squawk, and primitive meanness to my backyard, eating a ton and not (so far) giving me as much as an egg back in return. I’d call them Democrats but they’re STILL much cleaner than nicer than any of THOSE, and also speak better, but I do not recommend them as a replacement for the family dog any time soon.
They are fun to watch run around and mess with each other and the dog, one of them (not one of these two) actually follows him around like it wants to be friends (HE doesn’t), and Mrs. SNS has become too fond of them for me to have any hope of having one on the table with taters and carrots any time soon, so they’re like feathery family at this point but with less schedule conflicts at Christmastime.
…but honestly, no farmer am I, and I could no more pith one of these young hens than I could shoot my dog, and it IS calming to just have them scratching around the yard in their chickeny way, having little minor squabbles that are forgotten as quickly as they blow up, and seeing them squak in terror from me raising my arm to drink, then come back mooching hopefully for crackers and acting all friendly-like. If they’ve taught me anything ELSE, they DO show that females of ANY species will be your best friend as long as the goodies hold out. Other than that, well, they crap at you, squak, and leave, ALSO like females of another species that had best remain nameless, but let’s just say I understand the phrase “Hen Party” better now and leave it at that…;)
…thank you for putting my gals out there, Claudia. I’ll try to get you better pics of the other ones for later use if you like later. I have an Americana that is pretty well named that Claudia knows about because it looks like a…well, I’ll leave that for some other time, when hopefully events will give Ms. C a reason to reveal..
Thank you again Claudia and bless you always,
SNS
Vietvet NOVEMBER 15, 2020 AT 8:08 AM
“Are you sure Henny Penny didn’t get Lulu?”
..I didn’t get your reference so I looked it up, and I’d say my farming abilities are about on a level with Lulu as is my general appearance when out chickening, so maybe you’re more right than you know, VV…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UggTJo-owIo
Good morning all!
@Beclowned By Poultry Supernightshade: Um, actually the Lulu I was referring to is the praying mantis above your Henny Penny in the IOTWR picture.
Sorry for the confusion.
Good job President-Elect Claudia! 😉 There is a vote for all the candidates of Sunday’s Critters today, what a great set of pics. Have a wonderful Sunday everyone.
There’s my good dog!!
I’ll have to tell my daughter her three legged, bat-eared shepherd has finally made it to the front page
“What is this THING in my bed?”
-Hairy Calahan
Goos stuffs P E Claudia
#5 – Erik (Hairy and puppy)
Do all orange tabbies look exactly the same?! I read somewhere that all orange tabbies are male. Is that so?
My Jax looks just like Hairy; same calm, sweet face. One of the sweetest kitties we’ve ever had.
Great pics, Claudia. Always nice to see these on Sunday morning and a great way to start the week. With everything else on fire, it’s also wonderful to have something that you can count on.
Vietvet NOVEMBER 15, 2020 AT 9:20 AM
“@Beclowned By Poultry Supernightshade: Um, actually the Lulu I was referring to is the praying mantis above your Henny Penny in the IOTWR picture.
Sorry for the confusion.”
…oh my, the yolk’s on me, do I ever have egg on my face!
…I’m just so used to everything being a reference here that I don’t always follow Occam’s Razor and end up moulting brain cells instead…
…but if you’ve ever seen a praying mantis eat a hummingbird, you’d maybe want to give them a little more credit for their survivalist instincts, although a full sized chicken might be a bit much for even the doughiest mantis…
For SNS…
Just past toddler stage I spent time at my grandmother’s place that included mink farm, chickens, huge garden, vineyard (small), etc., etc.
My aunt relates the story that I came in one day from playing in the “back yard” and announced I had named one of the chickens. Noticing a red mark on my cheek and tears there also she asked what I had named her. I announced “Dirty Bastard.” Keeping a straight face was difficult, but upon questioning she learned I had bent over to look closely at one of them and apparently seeing the reflection of herself in my eye caused her to try pecking the other chicken she saw there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinders_(poultry)
Squeee!
Aw, lil Lulu. *Sigh*
All wonderful photos!
@SNS, I miss having chickens! They really are very amusing creatures. Along with large breed hens I had some silkies; two were roosters. Father and son. The father was a bit mentally disturbed and was alternately cuddly and homicidal. He would try and sneak up behind me and attack me with his “bedroom slipper” feet. 🙄😁 When his son, Chuckie, became of age he would keep an eye on Pops(Snowball) and run interference and prevent Snowball from attacking me! My little knight i furry/feathery armor!
Aw, Lulu…
I forgot that I sent in her pic. My heart skipped… Thanks for posting, Claudia!
Conservative Cowgirl NOVEMBER 15, 2020 AT 11:43 AM
“All wonderful photos!
@SNS, I miss having chickens! They really are very amusing creatures. Along with large breed hens I had some silkies; two were roosters.”
…you evoke images of chicken jousting, but I would LOVE to see the scarf you gave to Chuckie as a favor for fighting in your honor against Uther pen Snowball. This sounds absoluetely amazing to me because my only frame of reference for male chicken interaction is from Hispanic-style cockfights, and THOSE usually end pretty badly for ONE of the contestants, so one where a young male runs off an old one and no one dies is probably a pretty good story in itself, but its a little late for you to get video…
…I do, however, have SOME knoweldge of the way of the Cock of the Walk. None of my current brood are roosters because the city I live in doesn’t permit them on bedspread-sized patches of ground like I have, but in my youth (like, 12) I DID get a primer in roosterism.
…see, someone gave me one of those plastic incubators with a oldschool Christmas tree light in it so “you can hatch your own quail eggs”, an enterprise I’m sorry to say did not go well. They did ship eggs, but the first batch were all broken and the second sat in the incubator until they turned mushy and started to leak and smell, so I got the 12 year old idea that maybe I needed some eggs from closer to home.
Somehow or another I had happened to notice a hatchery not TOO far from the house during some intermintable car ride to Church where I was taking a rare break from trying to crush my sisters in the backseat to actually look out the window, and so I boarded my bicycle with a box tied to the wobbly, jagged package mount (they didn’t USED to Nerf bicycles), and took off to get me some eggs. Happily I had brought WAY too big a box, though, becuase the folks at the hatchery told me it wasn’t the right TIME for eggs (it was late summer as I recall), but if I wanted an actual BIRD instead of just HATCHING one, they had just the chicken for ME…
…I knew nothing about zoning laws or agricultural regulations so I’m not sure if they were breaking them at the time, but they sold me a SINGLE rooster with brown plumage and a red comb and wattle, which looked like a classic chicken to ME. I have no idea what the species was, it had a beak and claws so it was all good to me.
I bounced this unfortunate creature home on my fender and it somehow survived, and turned out to be a tough old bird indeed. His first winter im my folks’ garage (Chicken coop? What’s THAT?) he lost a toe to frostbite, but he lived a long life and it never seemed to bother or hamper him, so I guess God was taking care of what I did not.
We had a big, black tomcat at the time, an absolute flowing of feline muscle who was an outdoor cat and a veteran on the winning side of many a fight against neihborood dogs and cats, and he wasn’t afraid of nothing because he could kill ANYTHING, he was like a pit bull in a cat disguise, but the rooster puzzled him. He went over and walked around Bird for a bit (yep, really imaginitive name right there, remember I was 12 and NOT a farmer’s kid) circling slowly and maybe flexing a bit, sniffing and trying to decide if this thing was worthy of his notice.
Bird just watched him intently, twisting his head to follow, but otherwise not moving.
Demon (the cat, again, I was 12) stopped in front of him, just kind of posing and looking all superior, facing Bird but clearly not worried about him.
That’s when Bird went in blindingly quickly and gave him a beak shot between the eyes so hard it practically echoed.
Demon flipped over backwards and streaked mightily away. For all his muscle and arrogance, he clearly could not fathom what this was, or how to deal with it, so he was done FOREVER with ever messing with him again. They both lived together for a few years after that, and while Demon would still destroy anything ELSE that happened by (he ran off a skunk once, as nasty of fighters as THOSE are, but you can guess at what price), he would actually walk a wide semicircle around Bird for the rest of his life.
Demon died from a snake bite where one fang went right in his eye a few years later. He finally found something ELSE he couldn’t deal with.
Bird lived with us awhile longer with me getting older and the expected decreasing interest, until Dad said one day that maybe Bird would be happier on a farm with some hens at his disposal, and so bundled him off to a life of ease somewhere. Don’t remember the name of the farm, but it was in Kentucky and belonged to someone who went by “The Colonel” as I recall…:0
…There’s a lot of other good Bird stories including what the neighbors in our planned community thought about his crowing (actually OK with it, surprisingly) and the time one of my sisters more despicable boyfriends got him drunk, but this is already WAY too long and off topic, so probably not even another day…
…but I’d sure like to see some pics of yours if you have ’em. Don’t know if you took any back in the day, but I’m sure our dear Claudia would love to have them to post if you DID…;)
@Claudia
When I didn’t see Rusty’s pic a few weeks ago …. just for an infintesimally small fraction of a nano-second, I entertained the possibility of harboring an unkind thought about you
Thankfully, my ultra-micro dark night of the soul passed even before it happened
Anymouse
NOVEMBER 15, 2020 AT 10:16 AM
“Dirty Bastard”
…an absolutely accurate name for almost ANY bird, they tend to go off without warning…
Evenin’ everyone.
@janitor – did you tell Lulu to say…cheese? What an interesting critter / pet…
@Erik – not sure IF I’ve seen a doggie and a kitty in the SAME reversed position, in the same photo!
@Corky – wow…
@Callmelennie – Rustin IS a Noble one…
@SNS – “and I’ll stop there”. Yeah, me too…
Miss Crockett and Beatrix – Cuuuu-tees…
Thanks C!
Have a GREAT SAFE week to all and be STRONG.
AbigailAdams, we do have a female orange tabby, but they are rare.
She is also tiny — very easy to tell apart from the toms.