My baby's back!

After a very long four days, the vet brought Shy back to the farm this morning. Although he was scared and skittish when he was climbing out of the trailer, as soon as he realized where he was I could see him visibly relax. All the other critters recognized him right away, and as Shy was exploring the backyard I opened the pasture gate and the stampede began. It was actually a pretty impressive sight - six goats of varying size, plus one woolly sheep all competing to get Shy's attention first. The turkeys, on the other hand, immediately recognized a stranger in their midst, and started trying to out puff each other in an effort to convince Dr. Bo that he was, indeed, gazing upon the prettiest turkey. I stood back and tried to look at all the chaos in the same way as someone seeing it for the first time - the flock of sixteen ducks moving as one across the yard, quacking angrily that I didn't have the pink grain scoop in my hand. The sixty-plus chickens that had come to the same conclusion seconds earlier, and were cackling and screeching their annoyance at the lack of delicious kibbles being scattered in their general direction. And perhaps loudest of all, the two guinea howls that were so beside themselves with the lack of treats that they were spinning in tight little circles, screeching their trademark "buck wheat" call loudly enough for anyone within a two-mile radius to agree that I probably should have dispensed delicious morsels the minute I stepped in the backyard. Although he undoubtedly agreed when I told him that we lived in a zoo (at the top of my lungs, due to all the noise), he smiled and added that everyone looked incredibly happy. For his part, Shy seemed to welcome being back amidst all the chaos. He has to wear the bandage for another week or so, then the eye surgeon will return to remove the sutures. He'll wear a light bandage for another week, then he'll be considered fully healed. He has a spot on his neck that was shaved to accommodate the injections, so I'm thinking that when the colder, rainy weather comes he'll definitely need some type of scarf. I figure I'll buy him a tasteful yet trendy scarf knit from alpaca fiber to keep his neck warm until his own wool grows back.