Hi Gari!

 What’s your favorite food? I saw you pushing that button but I’m more interested in what you were eating!

My favorite food is bamboo, but I don’t really like it when I do tricks. For tricks, it has to be corn on the cob! And it has to be fresh, with the green husk still on. I eat the husk, silk, cob and even the stem end. I won’t eat frozen corn or even that plastic-wrapped pint-sized grocery store corn that’s naked. Sometimes in the summer I’ll get a big box of just the husks! I usually check to see if there is any actual corn, but then I’ll stand there and eat all the husks until they’re gone!

I also like cracked corn which is like candy for the chickens. They like it a lot in the winter. I have tried corn bread, popcorn, and corn Kix cereal (which means I let Stacy rub it on my morrillo and stuff it into my mouth) but after I try to eat it, those exact same trial pieces can be found near me, where they accidentally fell out of my mouth. I used to eat a lot of different foods when I was young, and I still try new things to make Stacy happy, but to tell you the truth, I’m pretty fussy about what I eat.

Dobby

Hi Dobbers!

Food is my favorite subject, next to swimming.

I don’t mind the buzzer. When I push it, Melly feeds me pretty quickly. I’ll push the buzzer or do tricks for a variety of foods, depending on my mood. When I am out in public, I never do tricks and I don’t eat much either but that’s another story. I do love corn and the husk part is definitely the best, but since I’ve starting having tooth problems, I have trouble eating it with the husk on. Melly and my Rick usually give me a little frozen corn, defrosted, when I get out of the pool as a little warm-up food.

My chickens are a big problem corn-wise. If anything, they like it more than I do. Do you chase your chickens off when they steal your food? I should try that because mine really take advantage of me. They don’t just eat my corn, they eat my lettuce, my endive, my guinea pig food. My food is their food, or at least that’s what they think.

Like you, I’m pretty fussy about what I eat. Melly cuts me grass every evening and I usually have that for dinner, at least lately. For trick treats I like apple slices or green grapes. Sometimes I’ll eat yogurt drops for a trick but only something simple like shake. You don’t get a circle for a yogurt drop, I’ll tell you that! Raisins are good sometimes too. And peanuts. They’re not really nuts you know, they are peas. Not that it matters to me.

Do you like melons? I go through phases where I think they are the best, cantaloupe and honey dew mostly. Then I go through other phases where I refuse to look a melon in the eye.

Garibaldi Rous

Hi, Gari!

I was really hungry today, so I went to the front yard twice today to eat grass. The big grass is starting to grow, the stuff that gets really tall, but right now it is tiny little delicious blades! It’s a wetland grass, so I don’t think it would grow where you live. I might try the buzzer tomorrow to see if I can get more apples that way. I went on a pear binge about a month ago but now I won’t touch them so I’m back to apples. It’s important to keep these old gals on their toes! I don’t ever eat melon, though, not any of those kinds, not watermelon either.

If melons sit in my potato bowl long enough, they end up going out to the chickens. There is always some oddball junk in my potato bowl, as if I might go crazy and eat something new. I have seen all kinds of squashes in there, carrots, parsnips, tomato, grapes, cucumber, celery, cauliflower, peppers, all of it just so much pre-chicken-food. There’s some broccoli to ignore in there, now. If it is still in the bowl tomorrow, I’ll give it a little toss.

My food is in the kitchen, specifically so the chickens don’t eat it! Sometimes those pesky hens hang around the door trying to get in. The only food outside is my timothy hay, orchard grass, and alfalfa. Well, that’s not quite true, because my GRASS is outside, too! We even had to put a fence around my little backyard pasture because the ducks dig holes in there and then the chickens pull up every blade of grass, including the root, and eat it all up! So now we make a big deal about a snack of cracked corn, which I pretend to share with them. I actually only eat a little bit, it is more of a social event. I used to eat apples in the back yard, but the tree is empty right now. If an apple makes it outside now, the chickens take a bite, the crows get about 2 bites, and then a squirrel will run up a tree with the rest of it! They’re such cheaters. But I never chase any of them away from any of my food, even the corn on the cob. There’s enough food here for everyone, so I don’t care.

Gotta go, it’s Milk Time!

Dobbers

Well, Dobby, it is not polite of you to mention the terrible drought we are having here. Luckily for me, Melly has created two grassy areas that she waters for me to graze, one in the back pasture and one in front of the house. Unlike at your place, my fence goes all the way around the house so I don’t need to have someone let me into the front yard. Unluckily for Melly, I don’t understand what she means by grazing.

Sure, I’ll nibble a little grass if I’m out there chillaxing, enjoying the sun (even though it’s winter, because of the drought we still have a lot of sun), but it’s just a bite here or there. I expect her to cut the grass for me and put it in my bowl. The Peets did this for Capyboppy so I don’t see why Melly can’t do it for me. It’s not like she has anything better to do. 

 Speaking of hay, I have a box of nice blue grass hay that Melly just opened up for me and already Blue Light Special, one of my chickens, has sneaked into the box and was sleeping in there! There are too many pushy co-pets around here and I don’t have nearly as many as you do. The other day though, Melly took me to my back pasture grass and she let my horse co-pet Buzz in there with me. He grazed while I wandered around. I don’t mind that because I can’t eat that grass fast enough to keep it down. Anyway, I walked behind him, all innocent and king-of-the-property (which I am) but then Buzz came after me! I had to duck under one of the trees! Melly said he wouldn’t hurt me but you never know, do you?

Pears were one of Caplin’s favorite foods so each spring Melly tries to push those pears off on me once they start falling off our pear tree. I won’t eat them though. She has promised to plant me a couple of apple trees and maybe some other weird fruits but says she is too busy destroying my pond to do it right now.

 Garibara

Gari, you should learn to graze. It’s kind of a Zen thing. Once I settle in with my grazing, Stacy will pick up a book and then I can sneak up on her! It’s great fun to keep these gals guessing! Plus, the wild grasses change throughout the year. It’s slim pickings right now, but later there will be dandelions! There is nothing better than dandelions! Does Oakley graze out there? I’ll bet she eats all the dandelions before you even see them!

I’m not sure I could handle having horses around. I am truly the king here, and even Norman the Goose gets out of the way. The only one I worry about is Bonnie Bunny. She still hops around on my bed. Does she think I don’t know about that???

I wish I could go to the front yard any time I want to. Sometimes I have to beg, but mostly Stacy begs me to go out there. She’s pretty insistent about my grazing. I think she’s too cheap to buy lettuce. She’ll re-seed the back pretty soon, though, and then I’ll have more grazing in back. She just got some willow to plant, so that will be a nice summer supplement to the bamboo. The rabbits love to eat willow branches and foliage!

Later,

Prince Dobalob

Dobby,

I will consider more serious grazing when the weather is warming and I can sphinx down in the grass and eat without having to stand up.

Maybe Melly will plant some water grasses in my refurbished pond, if she ever finishes it. Oakley Bunny, like all my co-pets, prefers to eat my food rather than finding her own. I do see her grazing from time to time. Then I try to sneak up on her and give her a little chase. If only she would run!

Garibaldi Caplin Rous

[Originally published March 6, 2013]