Ann's Corner

On this page you will find pictures of the variety of animals we raise at our house.  

Drop me a line if you have questions about any of them!

This is "Big Duck".  No, that's not a typo, that's his name.  He is a Muscovey Duck.  This has to be the animal we get the most questions asked about.  I've had total strangers stop in the road and yell at me in the yard, "Hey!  What is that, some kind of goose??".  The fact is, Muscovey are their own species.  They aren't ducks and they aren't geese.  They don't quack, but do make a hissing noise.  They aren't mean like they look, quite the opposite in fact. They're more like dogs than fowl.  They're very smart, fly as good as any other bird in the sky and are very personable.  By that I mean, each has it's own unique personality and they LOVE people. For anyone who is interested in owning or raising ducks, these are the kind to get.  

In the background, you see two of his offspring.  The white one is a male and the mottled one is a female.  Here's a more recent picture of them.

This is a picture of our 'mamma muscovey'.

This is our resident pony, Shaq.  He used to be my daughters horse, but she outgrew him LONG ago.  He's become so much a part of the family, everyone forms a lynch mob if I even mention getting rid of him.  He's about 24 years old and is a clever ole sport.  He is able to open AND close the pasture and corral gates at will, electric fence being the only thing that will deter him.  But we have to make sure he can't reach the cord for the electric fence box.  If he can, he will unplug it and let himself and Brandi out.  They don't go anywhere, preferring to stay in the yard, but it's still a pain having to go outside at 3 am to put horses back in!!

A degu.  My son Steven's latest pet.  This little guy has ancestry roots in Chili, where they are known as 'Chilean Squirrels'.  They are a lot of fun to watch!!

This is Nikki's guinea pig.  She's a sweatheart!

This is 'Gary da Rat', Tommy's pet.  Gary is an interesting creature because a week after we brought 'him' home, he had 11 babies.  Just my luck, I'd buy a pregnant female.  Anyway, we now have 11 baby rats.  They are actually quite cute!  See how Gary's (yes, we're still calling her Gary) head and shoulders are black?  She also has a black stripe down her back.  Rats with this specific color are apparently 'show quality' rats and are called "Hooded-Rats".  What I thought was neat is that the babies have black skin where they will eventually have black fur.  Rats have a bad reputation.  They're (domestic rats)  really quite clean and very, very smart.  We have a lot of fun watching Gary!