Thank you to everyone who shared their Family Day plans for a chance to win a Rocky stuffed animal.   There were some great stories and it’s so nice to see all the pets being part of loving homes.

And the winner is….. Natalie Rowe.

Congratulations and thank you for sharing your Family Day festivities with our readers!

Our pets ARE our family! 

For family day, we’ll take our two rescue dogs for a nice snowshoe trek around our 86-acre farm. They love to run through the woodlot and follow animal tracks: snowshoe hare, wild turkeys, deer, coyotes, foxes, pine martens and more. If the dogs get lucky, they might see a resident muskrat splashing around in the creek that bisects our land. And nothing beats a good post-walk roll in the snow… except maybe a post-walk roll in some stinking dead thing! 

On the way back to the house, we’ll have a little visit with the ducks and chickens free-ranging in our barn; they are pets too, and the dogs are very good with them. I might even let the dogs each steal a chicken or duck egg. Normally that’s verboten but the dogs love the eggs.

All 34 of our birds have names; none ever end up in a stew pot (but their eggs do end up in the frying pan.) Some of the chickens are a little geriatric now! For a winter treat, I’ll make the chickens a bowl of oatmeal with cranberries and peas, and for the ducks, an out-of-season (but very appreciated!) watermelon. Muscovy ducks love watermelon. Kale and pumpkins are fabulous treats too.

Naturally I’ll let my favourite chicken Charlotte sit on my shoulder while I give her a cuddle. She likes to fly up there to avoid the attentions of amorous roosters and get some special attention. She turns four this year.

Of course, we can’t forget our four rescue cats! We are already their slaves, but on family day, I’ll make sure I fill the bird-feeder outside my office window so they can watch a few hours of quality “bird TV” from the comfort of my desk. They are indoor cats, so we’ll have a little game of “chase the fake mouse attached to the wand by a string”, and to finish, liberal sprinklings of the organic catnip my friend grows in her garden each year.

We love our furry, feathered family. It’s great to celebrate Family Day with them.

You can also read more about Natalie and her family adventures by visiting her blog!