All About Puppies, and a Chicken

The puppies are three weeks old and eating solid food! And also, we trained our pet chicken Clover to pick fleas off of the puppies as she is doing in this picture to Oreo. Clover is a story in herself we have 20 chickens but she is our only pet chicken. I rescued her from a cats mouth but by the time she had recovered (she had a severe injury to her upper wing and is unlikely to ever fly) momma hen was sitting on a new clutch of eggs and had forgotten her chick. So now the chick follows us everywhere and sleeps in a box near my daughter's bed. The other chickens peck at her and she's terrified of cats, but the puppies don't scare her. It's win win the pups are too young for flea treatments.

We take the chicken to the beach with us. She really likes giving herself sand baths and seems to like not having to run away from other chickens pecking at her. My daughter has taken the dogs and a few of the cats to the beach. They all hated it, but the chicken cheeps contentedly and settles right in. One day a Dutch tourist started taking pictures of Clover, thinking perhaps it was a rare bird on some type of nature safari. No, I explained, it's just a chicken with blue marker streak put on its head by my daughter.

Really though Clover is a rare bird. How many chickens like to go to the beach? And peck fleas off dogs?

I’m still looking for homes for the pups. One friend said he will take two for his son. I’m hoping to get on the hiking trail with the folks at Phuket Hash House Harriers. We’ll see.

As adorable as it might sound to have seven puppies under your bed, that was a total mess to clean up. They've been moved outside and like the dirt, which is much better in terms of paper training them. You really don't want puppies to get the idea that under the bed is the place to go.

Anybody want a puppy? They grow so fast…