The strange things we do.

Why do we, and our some of our visitors, have this strange fascination with livestock? I’m guessing because like us, most of our visitors have not grown up on a farm, and when we see cows, goats, and chickens wondering around, we think it’s pretty exciting. I too find them fun, and always have this strange urge to pull over and pet any baby animals I see.  And thus is the case for when we have visitors. I have also noticed that Haitians find this activity very, very strange. Don’t worry, that doesn’t stop me. If I stopped doing all activities that Haitians thought was strange, I wouldn’t be able to move. Seriously. They think we are so odd-not just due to fact that we freak out and take photos of everyday animals that they have grown up with their whole lives, but other such things like: we take photos of everything, and we go for walks for fun (I mean really, how strange to see people voluntary walking when so many have to walk all day long to perform various chores) we have a dog that we pet and play with and lives in our house (not to mention we just had a dog bed made for her, that made Manette laugh for five straight minutes!!) we eat peculiar foods like basil -which people only eat here for medicinal use- and we try and plant flowers everywhere, and we go to the beach -and actually swim in the ocean…just to name a few.

But back to my point. We took mom and dad for a walk around the neighborhood, and they loved it. Not just because it was pretty quiet  and nice to see our hood, but also because there were animals everywhere! And mom, just like me and so many others, loved seeing all the animals. I even helped her catch a baby goat! I can only get the really little ones, that haven’t yet learned about stranger danger. She wanted to pet a baby cow, but my experience has been it’s just not a good idea. Mom wasn’t convinced, and as she stepped closer to the baby cows, I stepped farther away. I had a few mama cows start at me for simply lingering by their baby cows for too long, and thus I don’t hardly make eye contact anymore. I’m terrified of these gigantic cows, that are loosely tied to a small branch. I mean really, the tying up is more of a deterrent, seeing as how if they tugged at all, they would come loose. I’ve seen it. I have been rushed by a pissed off mama cow, so no more baby cow petting for me! So, mom just opted for a photo with it in the background!

Oh, and something else interesting to note: mom and dad observed on our walk, that most cows have a white bird sitting next to them. Well, turns out, they were on to something! These birds are called cattle egrets, and they hang out with livestock! Good ol’ Wikipedia says, “it feeds in relatively dry grassy habitats, often accompanying cattle or other large mammals, since it catches insect and small vertebrae prey disturbed by these animals.” Huh. And wouldn’t you know, now that I have started paying attention, there almost always does seem to be one bird per cow! I mean, I’ve seen them everywhere, and usually kind of hanging out with cows, but it’s almost like a true buddy system they have doing on. Cracks me up!