Rachel reported that she taught Puppy to sit and beg and maybe also “down”, as she has taught our dogs in the past. Puppy learned very quickly, but only when she uses Malagasy commands. He evidently doesn’t speak English!

Right after she came back from her holidays, a neighbor brought over a hen in a basket as a Bonne Annee present [New Year’s gift, the equivalent of a Christmas gift in the US]. Normally such a present is meant to be served up on a plate, but Rachel is, as we know from her Peace Corp training experience, not into killing chickens. So what to do with this chicken? Today Rachel reported that the chicken has learned to eat out of her hand. We’re not sure how it spends its days [presumably pecking outside like other chickens], but it appears quite content to spend its nights in the woven cage, hanging from Rachel’s rafters–lest it be seriously bothered by the ROUSE!

Her neighbors had said that she should make a cut in its foot so that it could be identified as hers. That was of course not an option, so she settled for banding its leg with a stetchy hair elastic. At first the chicken tried to get the elastic off, but now it appears to have gotten used to it. Rachel is very glad to be home alone no more–in the daytime she is always in the company of neighbors and neighbors’ children, but nights tended to be lonely. Now Puppy and Chicken are sleeping in her kitchen, providing company if not rousting the ROUSE.

Her ducks [obtained with a view to having their eggs to eat; they are the European kind, not the strange Madagascar variety with a horn on their heads] are doing well but not providing eggs best she can tell. She hopes to get a Madagascar male in M at some point.

She plans to be in M on the evening of Sunday 28th and Monday 29th and can be reached by phone, with luck on Monday evening her time. The number is in the Contact section of this blog.
Don’t forget photo link [no new ones for the moment] under October posts.