"12 Days" 8th winner + 9th day contest

Yeah Tony! Congrats!

I always remember to decorate a tree around the holidays with pinecones rolled in peanut butter and birdseed, hung by some yarn for the birds that live in the woods behind our house here in the Phila suburbs. Before I moved here to the burbs, I had a little farm. Chickens, lots of cats, two dogs, two goats and two horses. This was a life long goal and dream for me and my family to be amongst the trees with my animals, surrounded by the beautiful Chester County, PA countryside.

I volunteered at a local retirement home for horses (stall mucking), and every Sunday after Thanksgiving, we decorated the barn complete with bowls of assorted treats for "The Blessing of the Animals", where anyone could bring their beloved pets in to be blessed by a local minister.

Every Christmas season, I decorated the barn more than the house, inside and out and played Christmas music on a little radio 24/7. My sons and I were active in 4H and every year, we all met up, decorated ourselves and our horses and carriages and paraded to the local residents carolling on horseback, and then met at the local church for a wonderful meal and a skit preformed by the kids!

From Christmas Eve to Christmas night, I would put special treats in my animals' meals. There were carrots, apples and candycanes for the horses and goats, bones and gourmet treats for the dogs, turkey and fresh tuna for the cats, and fruit for the chickens.

When anyone ever asks me about my favorite Christmas memory, it was one Christmas Day, after we opened our presents and had our breakfast, one of my sons and I tacked up the horses and tied the bells on our saddles. We put Santa Hats over our helmets and set out for a Christmas ride with one of our dogs. I can still remember my heart feeling warm and light as the snow began to fall and we trotted up the street, and neighbors would come out of their houses and wave to us and smile, hearing the sound of our sleighbells and clacking hooves.

The more love I give my animals, the more they return to me, multiplied. Whenever I recall these memories, I always think that if I never live another day, I was fortunate enough to have experienced a wonderful life with my animals! Jo

Your point is valid, Paul. Where we live, the overpopulation of deer has proportionately increased the rate of Lyme Disease cases in people and animals. Organized deer hunting and deer birth control have been implemented in local parks and public open space in an effort to preserve the vegetation, improve the health of the heard, and cut down Lyme Disease (as well as other tick-born diseases). Even though I am an animal lover, I see the need. Jo

Awesome pendant Vance.

I have always had an interest in animals. My poodle thinks that he is one of my kids. I feed birds, raccoons, deer, and anything else that happens to wander by. But I have a special affection for squirrels. They are cute, funny and there is no way to feed birds without a squirrel figuring out how to get to the bird feeder. I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again in hopes of winning this pendant.

I have several squirrels that come up and take food from my hand. One in particular is very tame and friendly. I named him Willy. I found Willy in the squirrel feeder one day when he was just out of the nest. I slowly approached the feeder with a pecan in my had. Willy didn't pay much attention to me as I stood there watching him eat grain. So I took the top off the feeder and dropped in a shelled pecan. It hit him right on the nose and he didn't ever stop eating. Willy was the runt of the bunch and he was probably starving. He just kept eating the grain until finally he got to the pecan and started eating it. Suddenly he stopped and just stared. Then he finished off the pecan. I could just hear him say "Wow! That is good stuff!" I coaxed him out of the box with another one and as time went on I got him to crawl up my arm and eat pecans while sitting on my shoulder. After that he became almost a pet. He actually follows me around in the yard like a puppy. Willy is always starving and can't wait for me to get the next pecan opened for him. One day he jumped out off a tree and landed on my head before I could get any pecans shelled. He was frantic and crawled all over my head and onto my face as I was desperately trying to get a pecan opened. While he was on my face I opened my eyes and all I could see was squirrel balls.


Curt

Oops, Cul-Ann is right! Good thing someone is keeping me honest! I am going to modify the post right now so it will read "8th winner, 9th day contest". Thanks for setting me straight!

I really have no chance on this one, we do for all the animals all year long, our place is wild life certified (no not me certified the place) I have 3 bluebird trials, housing for other kinds of birds,ponds for water and lots of plants/flowers. I carry doggy tweets in the car for any dogs living at friends homes, and the 3 dogs living here gets goodies all the time;-)) my brother does bat rescue and in the spring we report in on the frogs I'm a member of 6 sites that has to do with wild life. We did have a squirrel that ate from our hands tell it landed on a home care Rn's shoulder looking for food and she freaked out.
My mother had some trouble with a squirrel at her place==she has 7 feeders out and a squirrel would take one of those feeders (not just the food the complete feeder) mother is 92 today and just before we got all this snow ran out the door across the yard across the road and though the bank parking lot to get the feeder away from the squirrel.
About all this snow Jim has been keeping the feeders full and when he goes out in this weather to fill the birds fly all around him trying to get some before he is done.