While the goats are the predominant livestock here at Glenhardin Farm, we also have a couple donkeys named Jake and Prissy. Jake is a grey-dun with the classic cross on his back, and Prissy is dark brown. We estimate Jake's age at 38-40 years. Prissy is a much younger gal at 16. After we built the new barn, Jake made it a point to reclaim what he has always believed to be his "old" barn. Afterall, he was here first!!!

We currently have five dogs and five cats. Our first dog, a shepherd and golden retriever cross named Chico, is now gone but he will always be remembered as a most devoted friend. We also lost Rags, Chico's devoted companion, in early summer 2000. She was a "Heinz 57" mix-breed and was nearing 17 years of age at death. We adopted her at 6 months of age from the Dallas SPCA. Our current dogs include two Great Pyrennes: Worf, age 10, and Kira, age 8 months (both named after "Star Trek" characters). We bought Worf from Emilie Radich, a wonderful woman who raises gorgeous LaManchas, up in north Texas. Kira came to us by way of Beverly Choate in Oklahoma, who is well known for her Great Pyrennes working livestock guardians and her rescue efforts with the breed. Gemma, a lab-shepherd cross, follows at age 8. Then comes Zambo, age 4, who is a mix of pit bull, cowdog, and dalmation. We also adopted Zambo from the Dallas SPCA when he was 6 weeks of age. His name is a bit of a personal joke of ours. When Linda was down in Bolivia for a year-and-a-half, nearly every other pet dog she she came across there had the name of "Rambo," popularized from the importation of Sylvester Stallone movies. But with the Quechua-influenced Spanish of central Bolivia, "Rambo" sounds a lot like "Shzambo." We americanized it a bit further into "Zambo." At the end of our wagging-tail of dogs, there is Willy. He was bred by our wonderful neighbor, Karin Gililland, and is an australian shepherd and still a pup at almost 5 months of age. We are hoping to eventually train him in herding trials.

Our cats include Lena, age 3, and Sasha and Smoke, both 2-years old and rescued from being dumped in the rain along our road. Sasha got pregnant before we could spay her and had two kittens, Tabitha and Piggles, which we kept. Each and everyone is an excellent mouser. Only Piggles prefers the comfort of the indoors for now. All our dogs and cats are neutered. We do not believe in the indiscriminate breedings of dogs or cats as too many are euthanized annually nationwide.

Our feathered flock features two chocolate & white muscovies (the ducklings are excellent at eating flies!), 8 pearl guineas which have solved our original tick problem, and a housed collection of laying hens: Production Reds, New Hampshires, Brown Leghorns, Anconas, Barred Rocks, Speckled Sussex, and Lakenvelders. When the hens are all out in their enclosed yard, they become a living patchwork quilt of activity. A couple of petite Golden Penciled Hamburg hens with their beloved rooster "Alex," reside alongside the bucks in the buck pen. We have two additional colored roosters: "Dash," a Brown Leghorn, and "Gorgeous George," which we believe might be an Americuna. He was a "freebie" chick with our last order from Murray McMurray Hatchery and we still are not sure what breed he is. But he is really beautiful with his green legs, and blue, gold, green, red, and cream plumage. He is also a very gentle bird. We alternate the two roosters with the hens. The hens like having a rooster in their coop and the rooster acts as first line of defense should any unwelcome wild critter try to get inside and attack the eggs or the hens.

Some of our Favorite Critter Links:

  The SPCA of Texas
 

  FeatherSite
 

  Ideal Hatchery
 

  American Donkey and Mule Society