Weekend in Vermont: First there were the animals

No picture of the mini-donkey, unfortunately - there was just no easy way to stop on the highway and get a picture of the thing.

We did have a fairly odd animal adventure - it was a sticky Saturday afternoon in Central Vermont, so we made like the locals and headed to the Mad River to cool off. We found a local swimming spot that was unusually quiet for such a hot day - only one family floated by us on inner tubes. Since it was so quiet, we plunked ourselves down on a grassy knoll under a nice shady tree and fell asleep.

I don't know what woke me up initially - it was probably a flapping noise, but in any case I groggily opened my eyes and found myself staring up at a bloodhound standing over me.

My first reaction was to scream and to sit straight up, even though I realized it was a dog and it wasn't doing anything other than sniffing at us. That scared the crap out of the husband who was fast asleep ("What? What's going on?") and also scared off the dog, who scampered off to a nearby tree to pee. Within a split second I'd switched from shrieking to laughing hysterically, since the dog probably wasn't used to finding people passed out in the grass. The owner was quite a bit away and probably couldn't see us either. We tried calling the dog over but it was wary (rightfully so, after my yelling) - besides, it smelled like skunk and we were happy that it decided to keep its distance. It was a beautiful bloodhound, and despite their penchance for following their nose, this one was very well trained and ran off as soon as the owner gave the signal.

And now, for the less scary animals - here's the small menagerie they had on display at Shelburne Farms where the VT Cheesemaker's Festival was held:

Baby goats!

They were aggressive little buggers

A cute lamb

The cutest of them all: Judy the cow

This photo doesn't do justice to how cute Judy really was - she has the longest lashes that gives her the sweetest look. I never expected to gush over a cow but Judy made me gush - what a sweet little cow. I'm glad we were at a dairy farm since I'm not ready to associate a cute calf with dinner quite yet. More on what we ate tomorrow...