Welcome back to another episode of Animal of the Month! This month we focus on animals with antlers, horns and hooves.
Autumn in the northern hemisphere finds our wild antlered and hooved animal friends looking for mates and making their presence known throughout the neighborhood in rural Northeastern Washington.
“If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich.” – Seneca
Between the moose, deer, and even the random farm animals that live close by, we see hooves, antlers and horns on a daily basis. We enjoy living in harmony with our animal “friends.”
Where the Hooves and Wild Antlers Are
Although we rarely see elk in our area, I’ve heard them in the autumn, calling for a mate with their distinct, eerie bugle. The sound is kind of spine-tingling in the middle of the night.
I saw this bull elk walking nonchalantly by my Dad’s old home in Payson, Arizona!
A good-sized herd of mule deer walk right by our property almost every evening in the winter, spring and fall. They can gracefully hop over a 6 foot perimeter fence, but they can’t get into our garden or destroy our young trees with those antlers.
Domestic Hooves and Horns
I never expected domestic and farm animals to live so close. Just four properties down our street, my neighbor has three horses. Grier, the Norwegian Fjord horse is all but grown up now.
Here she was in April, 2025 with Mama.
My other neighbor to our west had three adorable, friendly goats on their 5-acre property. Both male and female goats have horns.
We finally attended the Spokane Interstate (County) Fair for the first time since we moved here. Like most county fairs, this one had a sizable series of animal barn areas where exhibits and competitions are held.
One cute cow showed me her fancy hoof!
“The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth.”
– Chief Seattle
To read more about animals and their types of hooves, please check out this article from International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
Sharing this week for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday, Pepper’s One Step at a Time, and Lens-Artists: Harmony
Book Wrangling
Speaking of wrangling, lately I’ve been wrangling something besides horses and backyard critters—books!
My good friend and fellow blogger Marsha Ingrao has a new book making its way into the world: The Quiet Power of Blogging: Why Blogging Still Matters in a TikTok World. I’m delighted to be a contributor, and Marsha will be sharing much more about the book during her formal launch soon.
The Quiet Power of Blogging is available now here: This is the link for the Kindle version. https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Blogging-Matters-TikTok-ebook/dp/B0HFW3WX9N/
All this on the heels of three bloggers—Miriam, Diana, and Marsha—encouraging me to write an illustrated children’s book about our Backyard Say’s Phoebes. Last August 2025, Marsha and I were in Portland and met up with Miriam and Diana for lunch. I was a bit intimidated being in the company of published authors as we chatted about book writing and publishing.
After reading one of my Phoebe posts, I recall one of them saying, “If you don’t write it, I will!”
OK! Gauntlet thrown!
While Marsha and I put our heads together on a strategy, I headed to the library to browse young children’s picture books for ideas. Because I already had thousands of bird photos, I was able to explore various AI tools to help illustrate my own images. Here I show Mama and Papa Phoebe talking about how fast their babies grew. This is my image with a reimagined watercolor-style background.
Who would-a thunk it? That a series of blog posts about watching these adorable birds build a nest under our patio cover three years in a row—and watching their family grow—could inspire a children’s book.
Now that is an example of the quiet power of blogging.
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is simple to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives. Your original images reimagined with AI tools in post-editing are also welcome.
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently from mine.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
- I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
If you are participating in the photo challenge, I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.
Next week, we’ll explore the theme of your Home Town and mine.
Reminder: I’ll be on a two week break from the blog while we visit Europe October 2 – 14. During this time, Hugh Roberts has graciously agreed to host Sunday Stills on Oct 4 and Oct 11. Please stop by his blog and subscribe to get his posts.
“Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius.” — Anonymous
Have a wonderful week and Happy Autumn or Spring Equinox!
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