The other day while I was watering the lawn, I noticed two hummingbirds that kept flying over the spray from the sprinkler head.

It appeared that they even flew into the water at one point. In all the time I’ve lived at Pipi’s Pasture and watched hummingbirds, I’ve never noticed them behaving this way around water. I wondered, were they trying to get a drink or were they bathing themselves?

Animals—both domesticated and wild—have always been a part of my life, filling it with wonder, amusement, and, at times, even sadness. Sometimes I think I should have grown up to work in a zoo with all kinds of exotic animals, such as elephants, giraffes, and penguins—although I would have missed out on my cows.

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Over the years, I’ve experienced the following (and a lot more) that have made me laugh and at other times scratch my head, wondering “why”. 

For example, there was the time (or times) that:

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• A yearling heifer sucked a grease gun dry and didn’t even get sick.
• A calf swallowed a wad of baling twine and I had to reach down his throat and pull it out before he was able to drink milk from a bottle.
• Some animal walked away with a plastic flower pot that was partially filled with dirt during the night, and it was never found.
• A calf laid down beside a truck parker in the feedlot, scooted under the truck, and after his nap discovered that he couldn’t stand up to get back out; I had to drag him out.
• A dog chewed bubble gum.
• The dog Bernie got a little too close to a badger sunning itself next to its burrow, and Bernie and I had to run away—fast.
• A calf crawled into a cow chute that wasn’t being used and didn’t know how to back out.
• A magpie tried to lure Dini (the cat) across the highway.
• The mud dauber wasp made its home inside the hole in an opened padlock.
• A bull managed to get a running garden hose (that was filling a stock tank) into his mouth and got his drink that way.
• Bernie the dog raised a baby kitten.
• An elk came right up on the front steps; we named him “the elk who came to dinner.”
• A magpie flew into a window, knocked himself out, spent some time on the ground with his legs straight up in the air, came to, and staggered around for awhile before flying off.
• A cow stood sideway in front of a stock tank—purposely—so another cow couldn’t get a drink.
• The Siamese cat (from my childhood) crawled under the covers of our beds, went way down to the foot of the bed and sucked her tail –honestly.
• The rooster chased my siblings and me (during our growing up years) to the outhouse and back—he was mean.

If the point of view was switched around, I wonder what the animals would have to say about humans?