Bonnie

Bonnie

rabbit

rabbit

Lisa

Lisa
colour 8x10

Mrs Blore

Mrs Blore
graphite 8x10

Oakley

Oakley

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artbykarieann
I am a part-time pet portrait and wildlife artist living in the deep dark forest between the Royal Forest of Dean, Herefordshire and the Welsh border. A beautiful and inspiring place to live and create pet portraits and wildlife art.
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Tuesday 23 June 2009

Pets in the garden

Just a few pics from the garden today, as usual Willow will not be apart from her beloved football, she has punctured the new one and abandoned it already, this one is obviously her favourite, she now tries to take it for a walk in the woods as well as to bed with her at night time. She's a bit obsessed now! She's soon to take her bronze training assessment in a few weeks, I'm not sure if she will pass though as although she is quite good at doing all the exercises, she will need to do them without treats on the night, and she does like her cheese, fingers crossed she'll be as good without it, we are currently phasing her treats out which is good as she's developed quite a fancy for expensive Cathedral City Cheese!!!
And this has absolutely amazed me, we found these little chicks this evening after just hatching out today. Their Mummy is known as Thumbelina due to her minute size, she herself was hatched a couple of years ago and she stopped growing at a young age and I just cannot believe she managed to sit on 10 eggs! These must all be hers as no other hen is brave enough to sit where she was plus they are all so very very tiny themselves, much smaller than the normal size.

And the muscovy ducklings are happy as can be with their own mini swimming pool and mum to look after them, she spends 99% of her time just rounding them up!
And so to the furry little bunch, this is BB, one of my adopted brood, he's a little overweight, but at 7 going on 8, I think it's a bit late to put him on a diet, he's a grumpy old so and so and growls at me every morning, yet he loves a cuddle and is quite happy to be picked up and fussed and has had many many baths which he doesn't seem to mind at all!
Treacle loves Bob, she cuddles up to him all of the time, Bob just completely ignores her until they have a pointless tug of war over dandelions. She's so sweet, she squeaks all of the time and is a typical woman when it comes to getting her opinions across....very loud!

As for Pickle, he is running about the garden but he is still indoors at night time so I can keep an eye on him, last night he watched a film whilst sat on the sofa, he sat motionless for about half an hour and then went racing off somewhere down the other end of the sofa, so things are looking up, he's also started squeaking much more which is always a good sign!


And just a quick video of the guinea fowl, these are hilarious, they beat each other up relentlessly, sometimes in a rush to get away or chase one another they do crash into things which I've yet to catch on camera but even so they just have me in stiches as they really are quite mad!
Anyway, here in sunny old England it's fast approaching 9pm, I'm still sat out in a very sunny garden in my t-shirt. I love the English summer, it's just such a shame it's only for a quarter of the year (on a good year) but already we have passed the longest day so I have got to make the most of it, hence no pet portrait update! Oh dear.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.
If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Thanks for visiting!


8 comments:

Kathleen Coy said...

I LOVE those wee little chicks! They are so very cute, as are the ducklings. :-)

Sarah Sullivan said...

Ohhhhhh how wonderful all your critters!!! LOL the Guinea hens - I had a few years ago!! I love the guinea pig with the rabbit..how sweet is that!! Wonderful pictures - thank you!!
Hugs, Sarah

artbykarieann said...

Hi Kat, the chicks were so small I could hold them all in cupped hands with room to spare, it was a bit difficult finding somewhere safe to put them as they are so small they can walk straight through some of the wired pens! And I love the guinea fowl too Sarah, they are just mad, they have a habit of sitting on the back of the bench on the patio and trilling at me through the window non stop!

Debra Keirce said...

What a great post! You have a beautiful pet family!!

artbykarieann said...

As you can probably guess Deb, I'm a bit animal mad, I find they are more forgiving and faithful than people sometimes!

Unknown said...

It always makes me smile when I get to virtually visit your land ark of animals. Thanks for the awesome photos and the hilarious guinea fowl video!

artbykarieann said...

thanks Sheila, it's like visiting a zoo!!!!

Gary Keimig said...

what a great piece. Good work

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