Something wonderful happened today. As you all know I have 9 pot belly pigs. All of them are at least a year old. Most of them I got really young and didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. To be honest, some days I still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing. I go out to do my last check of the night on all of the animals. I get to the big pig pen and they won’t even get out of their shelter. They are comfortable and not messing with me. There are 3 in that pen. I got over to the other one with 6 pigs in it and they all come to the fence and demanded to get petted. It was so bad, 4 of the 6 roll over for belly rubs and I’m no where near them. Of course I went in and gave them belly rubs. They are so spoiled. It’s an adventure every day.

I am guessing Persia is feeling threatened by a new cat being here. They still have not become friends. Bubba is trying with Oreo, but not Persia. I knew that would be the case but decided to try it anyway. She is so clingy now. In the morning especially. She gets on my bathroom counter and literally crawls up me to get my attention. She doesn’t care that I don’t do mornings and she doesn’t care that I am usually running behind these days. She wants attention right then. I normally give it to her. She actually demands it as most cats do. They only want attention when they want it. That’s a cat.

I went to check on the pigs a few minutes ago. I saw the sweetest thing. Darla was in the doghouse. Russ was sleeping outside the doghouse beside her. They are really starting to love each other. Of course, I walked in to check on them and all of that was ruined. I hope they go back to where they were. One day I will leave them alone as they sleep. All of the other pigs were in the house that was built for Russ and Darla. At the moment, none of them are using the big shelter which makes no sense to me. In reality, it really doesn’t matter much to me. I just want them to be comfortable.

Tonight is a full moon. I had wondered why all of the animals were acting silly. Once I saw the moon I figured it out. It was a hot day today and all of the pigs were either laying around or in a pool. The goats and donkey stayed in the shade and near the water. It’s not even the hot months yet. One thing I did notice is that once they had all eaten their food, they went to lay down. Cracker Jack was standing in front of Carlos. Of course, the closer I walked toward the fence, Carlos got up. If you don’t know the story of Carlos, he came here after being attacked by a bobcat and was injured. Cracker Jack and the other goats have always been protective of Carlos. They all guard him at night. It really warms my heart they still do this.

As you all have seen possibly, I have a 17 year old girl living with me for the time being. I asked her this morning about the farm animals and if she thought they were helping her in any way. She replied to me with a story of her very own. She said that she remembered one day she was feeling really sad and she really didn’t know why or what to do. Apparently I was locked in my room doing homework because she didn’t want to bother me. She said it could have been the weather because it was gray and cloudy. Then she said she decided to go outside with the animals. Gus, the biggest pig on the farm let her pet him and was even happy about it because his Mohawk came up while she was petting him. She said that made things better for her and she wasn’t as sad. Then she said she went to see the goats and Cracker Jack. She said she went in and gathered a bunch of leaves and started feeding them and that made her happy. She also adopted her very own cat and that is teaching her responsibility and Oreo makes her very happy because she has something to love. After she said all of that I told her about the books I had been reading and it shocked her. I think things are falling into place. It won’t be easy but if this is what God wants me to do, that is what I am going to do.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I forgot how much I enjoyed reading. It’s an escape from reality for a few minutes for me, but I think we all need that at some points in our life. We all have challenges we face daily and sometimes we need to find a quite spot and just relax. In my case, try to. I never can seem to sit still for long. My brain is always firing something at me. It’s exhausting, so if I’m reading then I am focused on something enough to quite my brain. Now to the point. I have so many ideas of what I want to do in life. I know I have talked about it before. My sister sent me a book for Christmas that really was an eye opener for me. It’s called the Gentle Barn. Or it was so good. It shows how rescues animals truly can help troubled kids. I just sat back and was astounded by the words on the page. This was 2 weeks ago. This week I had finished a book and was planning on starting another one. I had picked up a book that I was going to read but something kept pushing me to read different one. One that has been on my dresser for over a year. Right when I decided to change my whole life. What I didn’t realize at the time was that book is along the same lines as the book I read 2 weeks ago. 2 different places doing things that are similar but not the same and in the same lines that I feel I’m being called to do. Animals and children. I need to go visit these 2 different places to see it all in action. Kids need to have animals to teach responsibility and to have something to love them unconditionally. Some of these children don’t have that in their life and they need it. We all need love. God put that in us when he designed us. After reading this book called Joey, I think this is what I need to be doing. It excites me!!

My sweet Darla has finally started to fight back. As much as I hate it, I’m glad she is. That means hopefully everyone will settle down soon. I’m ready. I don’t want Ronnie to have to build Darla her own pen. I think she would get lonely. I am tired of Bacon Bit and Brutus getting mean with her. I watched her get them back yesterday. After that, Brutus was trying to be loving with her. It’s not fun to watch. It’s been going on for awhile. I’m hoping this will be the end of it.