new four-legged friends

We're still really enjoying this farmhouse so far, and we've learned that we have a few fuzzy friends in the neighborhood. First, John went into the kitchen to make coffee one morning, and surprised a little mouse on the counter. He says the mouse looked up at him like, "wait, what are YOU doing here?" before turning and scurrying away. We haven't seen any signs of recent visits from him, but our food is now safely ensconced in pots with lids.

Then, while sitting in the yard reading a few days ago, a large yellow dog came up to me and demanded some attention. She's very sweet and I guess she belongs to a local shepherd (according to the owners of the house), and if you sit in the yard, she will find you and want a pet. Yesterday as we set out to walk to town there was a large rustle in the bushes and the yellow dog emerged. She was thrilled that we wanted to walk to town and joined us, leaving to run her own errands once we got there.

Last night while John was out in the yard reading, a beautiful striped cat with yellow eyes joined him. She then came up to the door and was very upset that I didn't want to let her into the house. All the animals seem a bit surprised when we don't let them in and we can't decide if this is just their ruse to guilt us into opening the door, or if the owners have an open-door policy when they're here. Either way, we're enjoying their company when we're outside. Now if the horse that we sometimes see running on the hill came down to visit....