Animal House

One of the highlights of my Thanksgiving holiday was visiting Millstone Farm, a working organic farm neighboring my grandparent's house in Wilton, Connecticut. While I was growing up, the property wasn't used but it had historically been farmland: my mom tells me stories about my grandmother chasing cows who had jumped the stone wall out of the backyard with a rake. It's so great to see the farm up and running again and especially as an organic farm.

I was quite taken with the chickens (I think I could have looked at them all day) but Mr. Loveforever fell in love with this sheep. By the way this guy was gazing back at him, the feeling may have been mutual.

The sheep photo actually reminded me a lot of the book Animal House by Catherine Ledner. Ledner photographed animals in front of extravagantly patterned wallpaper and the result is really funny and beautiful. According to Ledner, this vulture was timid but responded well to treats and the goat clowned around and head-butted the wallpaper set several times.
If you want even more animal inspiration, listen to This American Life's semi-annual Poultry Slam show, with stories about chickens, ducks and other assorted fowl.