The Bunch Have Some Unexpected Visitors

 

It has been a long time since I ordered something that had a box big enough for T to get into.

It always seems like something crazy and out of the normal is going on at our house. This week was no different. T went outside to play basketball and noticed "a weird  duck" was by the gate and that it wanted in. I am still trying to comprehend why he let some weird animal into the backyard since he knew it wasn't ours. However, he let the "weird duck" in and then noticed the weird duck had 3 weird duck friends already in our backyard! T ran to the house to tell us about the weird ducks in the yard. Imagine my surprise when we went out and discovered not weird ducks, but 4 Guinea fowl chicks. I knew right away they had to be someone's pets. The local farm store had a bunch of them for sale a few weeks prior so I assumed someone had bought a few.  These would have been about the right age. They were too young to fly and too big to fit through the fence. I have absolutely no clue how they came to be in my backyard! One of the chicks only had one eye and still managed to stay with the group. We decided to keep them in the yard to keep them safe and then when they went to roost when it got dark we would catch them (birds are so much easier to catch after they go to roost for the night) and put them in a cage. We successfully caught all 4 and gave them food and water. The poor things were so hungry that they gobbled up 2 bowls of food! The next day we made up a flyer to let all our neighbors know we had Guinea fowl chicks if they were missing any and put one in everyone's mailbox during our dog walk. Low and behold that evening a lady called us crying because she was so happy we found her chicks! Apparently, they had wandered about a quarter of a mile FOUR days ago! No wonder they ate so much food. We packed them up and drove them over to her house. She was so happy to have them back. She kept thanking us profusely.  I cannot believe they were able to survive for four days without being eaten or ran over. Every single one that she lost managed to survive. I would have kept them in our backyard as "wild" birds if no one claimed them, but I am so glad someone did. Guinea fowl are notoriously aggressive and hard to train. I didn't want to try to have an egg hunt everyday on over acre trying to find where some stupid bird decided to lay ( Guinea fowl don't like nesting boxes like chickens do). Hopefully, they don't wander back over here.

The "weird ducks" aka Guinea fowl babies 

I will say they did look a little weird wandering the yard.

He is such a a big kid!

He was so excited his hard case came so he could transport his guitar easier back and forth to church.

He went to try it out as it arrived.

It fit perfectly. He's happy.

Our friends just had their first baby (they're way younger than us). She was so cute! Lilliana Isabel 
She has some serious hair!