Our posts have gotten increasingly photo intensive lately so I wanted to draw attention to the fact that we’ve started using expandable summaries on our blog. Hiding most the photos behind a cut makes it much easier to load the home page.

Expandable summaries are pretty common on blogs, but not everyone is familiar with them. All it means is that if you’re on our home page, the first portion of a post will be instantly available, but to see the rest of it you have to click on the “Continue reading…” link.

To test it out, we’ve decided to tempt you with cute animal photos. There are more adorable animals photos behind the cut!

For those of you getting here from the home page, this is where the post is cut. To see more adorable animal photos you’ll have to click on the link below this paragraph. However, if you already see more photos instead of a “Continue reading” link, you don’t have to worry about it.

Bingo! Southern flying squirrel time!

This highly informative “how-to” post (how to look at animals on the internet?) should definitely include some baby chicks (which we raised in our kitchen… yikes!)

Back to Ceres, who is half Australian cattle dog (blue heeler) and half German shepherd. As she’s aged, we’ve found she just looks like a slightly taller and more lithe cattle dog. She had her first birthday on May 11th, 2013. We chose a herding breed because we thought she’d be easier to train around chickens than a bird dog like a retriever.

As my first dog (ever) I am constantly surprised by her. However, Nathaniel tells me that most dogs don’t dig up fire ants nests and excitedly bark at them for stinging.

I also find it bizarre that she wrestles with her feet and bites her own tail.

Our three indoor cats were completely bemused that we wanted a dog. Two of them (Akimbo and Julian) would be happy if she left forever. Possum has learned to like Ceres most of the time and plays with her… until she sits on him.

Why did we call our black and white cat “Possum?” Here’s why:

Now he is our most annoying and beloved cat with a purr loud enough to rattle books off the shelves. Currently he and Ceres are asleep next to me — Possum is snoring and Ceres is barking in her sleep.

Ceres definitely has “sibling rivalry” when it comes to Possum and always alerts us when he is being bad. Ceres is particularly offended when Possum tries to steal food off our plates (she whines desperately to let us know he is getting close). Since Possum seems to have zero ability to learn anything, this is a frequently repeated process.

Minutes later they will sleep in a huddle or give each other baths.

Also, no one explained to Ceres that herding cats is impossible. She gives it a hearty try on a regular basis. I think we’ll teach her to keep the cats off the counters.

I should ask around if people have any permaculture reasons for owning pets. Anyone have suggestions? I know I could probably learn to weave fibers from the copious amounts of hair they shed this past spring…

Be sure to click on the “Continue reading” links in our future posts so you don’t miss anything!