44 Friends - Publishing books by author, J. R. Fellman.  With a focus primarily on children's books, she weaves into her stories the virtues of kindness, empathy, teamwork and perseverance.  

Soon to be published: Freckles' Whispered Wish, the 1st book in 

the Mr. Giddy Farm Cat Adventure Series

1&2. Mr. Giddy is featured in all three of the Mr. Giddy's Farm Cat Adventure series books. Here he is keeping company with his sister, Miss Mittens - both rescued from the side of the road along with their Mom and several other kittens.

10. And this is Eeyore, our miniature donkey who captured our hearts the day after his birth.  Though we had to wait until he was weaned to bring him home,  he soon learned to pull a cart, play with the horses and irritate the sheep, particularly on windy days.

15& 16.  And another of our "couldn't resist" purchases - a mammoth donkey that we named "Moose." He loved to rest his heavy - very heavy - head on our shoulders. And "Mary" a standard donkey that absolutely hated dogs, which Mac learned quickly!.

22. This is China, a purr-fectly sweet, little cat who loved to sit at the back of a chair, resting against our necks.

34. Meet Blackberry, a very loving and friendly black cat with only a few stray white hairs on her face.  She craves attention but finds it difficult to keep her claws from extending out into your leg when sitting on your lap.

42. Grayson was born here on the farm, one of 4 kittens born to a stray that happened to set up home amongst a pile of rocks.  Unlike his sister, Blackberry, he's very cautious and reserves judgment on any newcomers.  He's a hefty fellow.

3.This is Radar, named for his very long tail that he carried around like an antennae when he was a kitten.  We acquired him from the center of a busy road on a dark night - sitting on the center line as if he was just waiting to be rescued.  He soon grew into his tail.

11. And this is our Emma, our first English Shepherd.  She loved to work corralling the sheep and had a remarkably sensitive spirit. She skillfully moved lambs by gently tugging at their ears or pushing them with her nose, yet she could also assertively handle an obstinate ram.  Emma was the smartest  dog we ever had; without any formal training, she instinctively knew how to open doors by clamping the doorknob in her teeth and turning the knob - although she never quite learned to close the door behind herself.  

17& 18.Two horses. Being new to horse ownership, we later learned that we had acquired a diamond! Her name was Ginger and she was a 12 year old quarter horse who had been a barrel racer in her earlier years.  Her only flaw was that she refused to be tied anywhere - that created a few mishaps until we learned work-a-rounds. After helping to corral a loose cow one fine day, we determined that she had experience as a cutting horse as well.  And Snickers, our 2nd quarter horse was a stocky horse that loved to be ridden and learned tricks quickly.  

23-26. And of course, there are the Katahdin sheep (a hair sheep breed).  We started our herd with 6 very pregnant ewes: "Green Granny," was the mother of the other five. Sadly, her udders quit working after the first year we had her, but we kept her anyway and had fun bottle feeding her babies every year. And then there was #56 , Green Granny's daughter, who always had the most beautiful triplets but refused to accept  any more than two, so we always had to bottle feed her rejected lamb.  No matter what trick we tried, she always refused to accept the third lamb. Her first rejected lamb, a beautiful white one was "Angel" - our first bottle lamb experience and we took her everywhere.  She walked on a leash and came running when called. And "Blackie" was a favorite too, particularly because when her lambs died at birth, she quickly accepted an orphan lamb as her own.  She wasn't a quality ewe to look at, but her personality was A+.

4.Meet Mac, an English Shepherd who loved to herd sheep.  As a rescue dog, he was a devoted companion and working dog. 5.Then, there is also Asta, the wire Fox Terrior, such a happy dog! Both are featured in Freckles Whispered Wish, the first book in the Mr. Giddy's Farm Cat Adventure series.

12 & 13. The two white Indian Runner ducks are Dilly and Dally.  Male ducks have a slight curl in their tail and the Indian Runner ducks walk more upright than most ducks.  They are often used in training young herding dogs before they begin to herd sheep.  

14. And then there's "Petey," the hatchling that didn't know he was a duck!  He had been a discarded, unhatched egg that emerged from his shell in our living room (we retrieved the egg after his siblings had all hatched and Dally abandoned her nest). 

As soon as he pecked his way out of his shell I returned him to his duck family but he refused to listen to his Mom's insistent calls! Since the first thing he had seen was a human, he had no clue he was part of the duck family. In order to keep him from being pecked to death by a frustrated mother duck, we let him live inside until he was big enough to survive on his own.  The little guy took naps on my feet while I did dishes and squawked loudly when left alone.

 27-32.We didn't name our small flock of guinea hens - as we couldn't tell them apart. We had both dark ones and light ones.  They are the funniest creatures; they loved to tease the peacock and they have a distinctive call when one of them detects an unusual noise or visitor.

35-41. One of #56's lambs was a golden lamb we called "Freaky" because her personality was such that she was afraid of everything and would jump at the slightest noise.  One of her daughters was just like her and we named her "Freaky-Freaky"- we couldn't think up another name that fit.  But when she had another similar lamb with the same personality, we named her "Postal".

Our best rams were Dude and Dodge.  One winter we made Dude a coat because his hair was so short but he made such a fuss we had to remove it before he killed himself running in circles. 

Our prettiest ram was Traveler, a spotted ram we had shipped from Texas, but our favorite "pet" ram was Brownie who kept the rams company when they weren't pastured with the ewes.

6.Meet "Red"- the hen that always seemed to find trouble - she once rode on the axel of a vehicle for several miles - until the van came to a stop! and 7.Dablo, the black rooster that used every opportunity to attack me - he once greeted me when I was unloading groceries and proceeded to put 5 holes in the milk carton before I could retreat into the house! 8&9 and the other 2 favorite little hens - affectionately called our walking flowers!

19&20. Meet Pete - the peacock, and his brother, Repeat,  - gorgeous creatures who LOVED shiny things, especially the big metal bumper of our pick-up truck! To them, the reflection in the bumper was another peacock and they would attack it with their feet unmercifully until finally giving up and limping away. 

21..Little "Freckles," the fawn, came to visit us when her mother placed her in the sheep's pasture. She was soon a friend of all the other animals.

  33. This is "Itty Bitty" and as you can see, she did not consider herself an average sheep. She was a bottle baby at a time when she was the only sheep on the farm.  She slept on the porch, played ball with the kids and went everywhere my husband went outside.  It was a shock to her system when we brought another lamb home for a companion and moved her to the pasture. 

44..And last, but not least, there is Zeke, the little, black dachshund I received one year for Christmas!  He was my favorite childhood friend with which I had so much fun. Zeke is the character in several of my books - all stories of my experiences with this wonderful, but crazy dog!