{"id":6114,"date":"2023-03-27T11:12:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/?p=6114"},"modified":"2023-03-27T11:12:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:12:37","slug":"feeling-like-dr-dolittle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/?p=6114","title":{"rendered":"Feeling like Dr. Dolittle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After saying our goodbyes to our Smithers folks, we made our way down to Cochrane, AB. But first we had to make a quick Calgary stop to see little Olivia! … and also those other not-as-cute <\/em>family folks like Donna, Sam, Monique & Phil (Jr.) \ud83d\ude03. After that, it was off to the next farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Cochrane friends have a small farm that houses a rather large collection of different critters. Inside are three cats, one dog (two, but one travels with the owners) and two parrots. Outside there are two miniature donkeys, a large Tennessee Walker<\/em> horse, and a new miniature horse. It’s quite the collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oscar, Muckaluck, Ayla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Merlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tucker, Snoop, Mercedes, Angel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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ROCKY!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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This is our third time sitting for Carol and Pete, and it felt a bit like coming home. Sadly, they’ve lost two cats, and now one horse, since we first began sitting for them. But on the fun side, they now have a very cute, and rather mischievous, little miniature horse. His name, Snoop<\/em>, suites him well, because he’s often getting into trouble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tucker<\/em> and Snoop<\/em> make a real odd-couple pair.<\/p>\n\n\n

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With so many different animals, the demands on our time are pretty constant. There’s constant cuddling \"\"<\/a>, and holding \"\"<\/a>, and carrying \"\"<\/a>, and sleeping with \"\"<\/a>. Oh, and of course there is poop management… that was mostly my job: <\/p>\n\n\n

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During our stay the weather went from warmish and dry, to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Very Cold!<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Then icy<\/h2>\n<\/div>
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Then snowy.<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The snowblower was also a new addition to this farm life, and a darn good one. The weather turned pretty snowy for Alberta, with dump after dump after dump… Normally we’d get a chinook in between the snow falls which would blow and melt it all away, but not this time. The snows just kept coming, so I made good use of the blower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least the cold, crisp skies, and snowy fields delivered some stunning morning images:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the joys of being at this place, is it puts us close to the family in Calgary. Sisters, brothers, nephews, nieces, and now a grandniece! It also allows us to give a little back by hosting, instead of always being hosted. And so we did… First playing host to Donna & Sam, then Peggy and Phil paid a visit. And then the big event: nearly the whole motley crew showed up for dinner and zoo time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although we were at the mini-zoo for over a month, the time went fast. Ann kept busy cleaning, and swimming, and video exercising \"\"<\/a>, and cuddling (with the critters, not me, of course) \"\"<\/a>. I passed the time ukeing and drying food \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>, and of course, pooper-scooping \"\"<\/a>. In general, we just enjoyed the comfortable space, and spending time with the critters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Allie & Sasha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After saying our goodbyes to our Smithers folks, we made our way down to Cochrane, AB. But first we had to make a quick Calgary stop to see little Olivia! … and also those other not-as-cute family folks like Donna, Sam, Monique & Phil (Jr.) \ud83d\ude03. After that, it was off to the next farm. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6114"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6198,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions\/6198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}