The Emus are turning out to be wonderful pets. I continue to be surprised by how friendly, curious, and fearless they seem to be. They have now graduated from living in the house (Thankfully!) to sleeping in the rabbit barn and playing outside during the day, to finally living 100% of the time with the goats and chickens in the goat pasture/and shed. Logan brings them out every day to play in the yard and munch on clover in the lawn. They follow the kids around wherever they are playing and generally enjoy having human company. They are getting quite tall now, about the same as Emmett at the moment, but I expect they will pass him pretty soon.
In the first couple of pictures Logan was trying to build a little play-stand perch for his cockatiel and the emus being ever curious had to be right there in the middle of the action. They kept picking up the tools he was using and standing in the middle of his project and in general being rather pesky! But they adore him, and he them, so while his project took considerably longer than it might have otherwise, I think he was fine with the interruptions. They love for Logan to scratch them under the chin, and tend to fall asleep standing up when he starts. It looks hilarious!
About a week ago we got a little kiddie pool for Claire and Emmett (in shocking pink, thanks to Claire helping pick it out!) One thing we did not know about emus when we got them is how much they love water! I don't think they can actually swim, but we don't have any water around here deep enough to let them find out. But when they saw the kids playing in the kiddie pool they came running. at first they stood outside and watched the babies splashing, and in a few minutes they where drinking water over the side. When Emmett got out and then climbed back in it was like a light-bulb moment for them, "Oh!! So that's how you get in there!!" And that was it, Emmett and Claire had very wet, peeping, playmates for nearly an hour after that. The emus would lay down, roll over, and splash themselves and the kids with water. Every few minutes they would get out, run a few laps at top speed across the yard, then come and climb back over the side of the pool to play some more.
