TonTon was standing outside watching Tima the Bad be Bad and he was shivering. Poor old Ton very seldom shivers and in fact prefers to be outside but he was shaking all over in the cold.
So I called him in and put Boo’s coat on him. Immediately he hunched then sat with a thump straight down onto the floor. He refused to look at me and refused to move. It was as though he had been tied to a brick and been dragged to the ground.
I sat with the camera and said Look at me Ton. He ignored me, hunched on the floor, totally miserable. Look at me, I said and he quickly shot me a bale ful look – deliberately out of focus. To me, then back to the window. Fast. 
I hate this coat. he said. It smells. Made of lead. I cannot work under these conditions. Look at that! No-one is guarding Tima the Bad. No-one with a brain anyway. That pig will get away with everything with Boo in charge. He has no idea.
Alright, I said and opened the door. Ton raised his bottom from the floor as though it weighed a ton and stumbled across the sill to the veranda where he collapsed to the floor again and refused to move any further. For him the coat was a straight jacket – a punishment – an awful thing. So he sat in deepest gloom , refusing all commands, until I gave in and took the damn thing off.
Freed, he ran off like a shot. The coat still hovering in the air above him he darted from under it. Not even a thank you. I laughed and hung the coat back on it’s hook.
The four middle sized pigs are still on form – getting fat and happy.
The Littlies are also dealing with the cold very well now though they still have the heat lamp over their midnight snack bowl at the entrance to their hut.
Aunty Del waits to be milked. Her production is just above one and a half gallons now. It is due to warm up a bit this week so I will dry them up and reshuffle the other cows to absorb two dairy cows into a herd of pregnant ones. With another small herd of beef animals. Even though Aunty is not pregnant she has to be on the lean pregnant girl diet. We don’t want her getting fat.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
ps. Don’t forget to check out the two new pages in the drop down MENU above. The Library and The Cottage Industries. We are building onto our internet village.
The Kitchen's Garden 
65 responses to “Bale-ful Looks”
Poor TonTon – you had me ROFL 🙂
Sorry old dog he is!
Funny Ton, this smells like that other dog, said he! The piggies look wonderful. Have a good day C.
You too Kim – when you retire (soon) we will talk baby blankets! c
Poor TonTon — the looks you got! Made me smile — piggies looking well!
Yes, they are still unusually calm but growing nicely
Poor pup – very unhappy with the whole coat story.
Have a wonderful day C.
Seems I have missed loads whilst being AWOL.
🙂 Mandy xoxo
Oh NO! We are still a soap opera – everything moves very slowly – you are up to date now..Welcome back! c
That is one Very Unhappy Dog face. Tima and Boo looking at him through the window (and probably sniggering) can’t have helped. Love the mental image of Ton rocketing out from under the loathed jacket and disappearing over the horizon 🙂
He gave me a wide berth for the rest of the afternoon too! c
I think it was Boo and Tima giggling on the other side of the door that did it for him…
George acted the same as Ton the first time we put a coat on him. As he has aged (12 now) he loves the horse blanket style coat. Begs for it when the temps get down in the 40’s. Ton does looks so miserable however! Is Boo better?
No, BooBoo will be a limpy dog forever. He will use his foot most of the time when walking with me outside – but always carries it up when limping about inside. His life is totally changed now.. c
Poor baby Boo…..
Poor Ton Ton really does look rather peed off with the coat…and certainly knew how to tell you of his dis-satisfaction. Lots of love to all
Thank you Patrecia – love to you to. c
Poor Ton Ton what a face. Not a happy dog. 😀
He practices that look! c
A baleful look on a farm is very baleful indeed as it is full of actual bales. We who do not live on farms cannot whip up such baleful looks as we have no bales to fill them with.
Ha ha ha ha – file it – an aside in a childrens book maybe? c
We are not so different from the animals you know… 😀
Yes, no-one likes to look silly.. c
Your piggies always look so clean, everyone on the farmy seems so happy. We are expecting some serious winter weather tonight, hope it passes you by.
I hope it passes us by too Eva – we are just coming up above freezing!.. c
I’m laughing out loud here. i know the look and just what you mean. Maybe he just needs his own lightweight jacket. I used to put a raincoat on my dog during monsoon season. She hated it and gave me those looks. I appreciate the Monday morning giggle. Thank you.
Poor dogs – they hate to be mollycooddled.. c
I just love how you described Ton and his reaction to the coat !! What characters you BOTH are!! The four little piggies look nice and plumb & I’m glad the other two are hanging in there as well. You’ve got a lot of animals to think about – that’s for sure.
My parakeet Sky Bird died. She had a tumor… the poor little thing. And her mate Anthony is desolate and calls for her continually. I’ve been thinking about buying another parakeet because my heart breaks for him…. and HE’S DRIVING ME CRAZY! ; O ) (Do they call them ‘budgie’s’ in New Zealand?)
Budgies are the little brightly coloured birds, but I think a parakeet is bigger? You know I am not sure. We used to have canaries. Sorry about Skybird. When you buy another one will he accept her easily or do you have to sit them in cages alongside each other for a while. c
From what I’ve read, budgies are actually bigger than parakeets. They’re both from the same parent stock… or something like that… but budgies became bigger. Maybe it was all that heavy British food, LOL I sure didn’t know there was a difference when I had budgies in Malta.
You asked a very good question about whether the male will accept a new female… or should I have them in separate cages for a bit. I do know that ‘Eric’ – and old codger of a parakeet I adopted – took the the one I called ‘Baby Bird’ (another male) immediately and began to feed it. Which was so sweet. BUT, in true old codger style, there were times Eric just wanted to be left alone. But did they ever bond.
Baby Bird didn’t live very long after Eric died, which I’ve heard can happen, even though when two birds have bonded… even though there was still another bird in the cage with Baby Bird.
Everything you ever (or ‘never’) wanted to know about budgies vs parakeets…(I’m sanding you this because I was wrong above.)
“Many people are more familiar with the term “parakeet” to describe a budgie. They are the species Melopsittacus undulatus and are a parrot native to Australia. … There are actually two types of budgies commonly seen in aviculture, Australian (often called American parakeets) and English budgies.”
Our little Jack Russell Luna is the Queen of that look…we call it the “malocchio”, Italian for “evil eye”!
Ah yes – that would be the look! c
; o )
That is hilarious! My sisters dog does that too. “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this”
You can almost hear their words, aye! c