The Name Game

Love this name game - so many good ideas, it's going to be hard for all of you to make a decision on Olive's baby's name. Olive is taking motherhood very seriously.  All of our animals and chickens intermingle with one another.  It's like one happy little neighborhood until today.  Earlier today, I was trying to show a neighbor the baby chick and Cello the cat was just doing what cats do - being curious about the little peeping noise coming out from under Olive.  Normally Olive would do nothing if Cello got too close, but today he got a little too close for comfort and man, he was in for a surprise.  Too bad I never have that flip video when I need it.  She jumped straight up about 2 feet, made her feathers look like an eagles wingspan and flew into flogging him with feet and beak.  Cello narrowly escaped with his tail intact.  He dashed under the car and stayed there until he thought it was safe to come out.  Poor Cello - he must of thought he had a run-in with Sarah Palin a Mama Grizzly.

I remember so well being the target of a mother hen once when I was a child.  It only takes once and you've learned your lesson well.  We lived on a farm and our fenced pasture had a gate between the barn and the granary (a storehouse for grain).  To keep from having to open the gate and risk letting the cows out, my dad had built a narrow open gate off to one side - sort of like a maze that's small enough for a person to wind through, but too narrow for the cows, horses and mules to get out.   I was winding myself through the maze when I had a run-in with Henny Penny who thought the sky was falling on top of her baby chicks.  I was stuck - she wouldn't let me in or out.  Everywhere I tried to go there were wings flapping, beaks biting and chicken feet flipping.  My meek and mild nephew who was a year younger than I, exhibited a rare moment of boldness and ran her away with a stick.  He'll always be my hero.   Later, as Daddy cleaned my bloody little legs up, I told him there were chickens everywhere fighting me.  It sure seemed that way - so I can feel Cello's pain.  He's been keeping his distance for the rest of the day.

So far the name nominations are as follows:
Cinco (born on the 5th of May)
Rube for now - if a boy Ruben / a girl Ruby
Billie / Billy
Duke / Duchess
Lucky
May / May Day
Cinco de Mayo
Jack / Jackie
Will / Willow

I'll leave the "contest" (tongue in cheek) open through tonight for nominations and tomorrow, I'll post all the names for a vote.  For those of my friends who don't like to sign up and comment on the blog (which I haven't yet decided why), you can leave your suggestions and votes on Facebook.  Here's another sneak peak at Olive as she's covering the little chick - still preferring the bushes and ivy versus the fenced in chicken run.  I think she feels safer close to the house.

Nighty, night Olive.  Sweet dreams.