Animals everywhere

In just one day, I had interactions with the following animals:

Twenty five chickens and one Easter chick.
Seven goats.
One mule.
One mini-horse.
Three cats.
One dog.
Three mice.
One psycho-squirrel.
One ringneck snake.
One common gray tree frog.

And this list just includes those animals I had some physical contact with (granted the physical contact with the mice was with the bottom of my boot, but still).  It doesn't include the dozens of wild birds, like the huge Pileated woodpecker that scared the beejezus out of me, the Phoebes that I watch building their nests while on the computer, or the rabbit that I know Moonshine has cornered under the shed.  Nor does it include the animals or animal products that we consumed in just this one day; milk (goats), eggs (chickens), hamburger (cattle) and lard (hog).

I'm really not sure where this post is supposed to be going (as if a blog had to go anywhere), but for some reason it just struck me this evening what a large role animals play in our daily lives.  

Oh, and I wanted to share this picture of my Easter Chick that I though bit the bullet, but actually made it!

I heard a chicken doing the mother-hen-clucking noise when I was outside in the garden.  So I went over to the shed where the broody hen was and she was off the nest, walking around, all fluffed up and scratching at the ground.  And right behind her was a little chick!  Not sure if it's a different chick, or the one that I though was missing.  We'll just say that it was the MIA chick so I feel better, ok?  Ok.  

I scooped up the chick before the hen could peck my eyes out and put it in a bucket so I could hastily clean out a small pen.  Put the still-peeping-like-crazy chick into the pen and went back to grab the still-very-pissed mother hen.  Returned her to her chick in the pen, provided food and water and all is well.