Celebrating a New Publication and Our Furry Friends

Let’s get this party started!

Just yesterday, JoAnn Ryan launched her new publication, In Living Color, so I wanted to celebrate its arrival! Congratulations to you JoAnn! I know full well how daunting it can feel to start something like this, but I do believe that publications are so important and help us to create strong communities of support here on the platform.

So thank you for taking the leap!

I’ve been wanting to post some cute photos of some of the animals that we have been living with here in Uganda for the past 5 weeks, so this is a great place to do that!

We are currently living on a huge property that is at least 5 acres in size. It used to be an old cow pasture, and when the owner bought it 8 years ago, she vowed to restore nature and planted lots of trees and flowers. She also left the massive eucalyptus trees to continue growing, which is a rarity here in Uganda since eucalyptus is one of the favorite woods for building.

In short, she has created a real nature oasis and we just love it.

She is also an animal lover and has numerous different pets on the property.

She has 6 chickens that live in a pretty swank wooden house. We caught these two hanging out on their stoop just shooting the shit the other day. The restaurant on-site uses their eggs in the cooking, and they also have their own organic garden growing which supplies many of the meals.

We are so grateful for the healthy food that we have been eating while we have been here.

There are numerous rabbits and a few small bunnies that we enjoy watching. However, our glimpses are rare as they are quite timid and run into their home when we approach. But we love to see them when we can and they are so darn cute! We aren’t exactly sure of the plan for the rabbits as they are usually raised as food here in Uganda. We are too scared to ask!

Skye is our shadow. The owner thinks that he was abused because when he arrived here a few months ago since he had two deep cuts across his nose which they think were caused by a machete. He is a pudgy dog that is always bugging us for food at meal time. Of course, we can’t help but oblige. We give him lots of pets and cuddles and he just loves us. In the morning he is always waiting for us to emerge from our cabin, then he follows us around all day.

Spear has arrived here since we have been here. He ran away from home and came to live here. We found out from the previous owners that he was picked on by many other dogs where he used to live. Here he gets along with Skye and the other dog Rabo, really well. They tried to get him to go back home, but he refuses. He really is a sweetheart. (Click the link at the bottom to learn more about Spear.)

Here he is lying in front of a large mural project that we are working on. He is usually there, lying in front of it, and we have to tip toe and step around him while we are painting above. It’s quite adorable actually.

Mandela is the kitten. She is super cuddly and loves hanging out with us. We think she mostly is just using us for our body heat. This part of Uganda is actually cooler than other parts of the country as we are high up in elevation at 1500m.

Some evenings she will meow outside our cabin door and we let her in to cuddle with us until we go to sleep. In the beginning, we let her stay inside with us overnight but then found her excrement under the bed! So now we kick her out. Many mornings we will find her near our cabin in the morning, and she will come in for a cuddle while we do some writing before we go to paint our murals.

Below is one of those moments.

On this day, she was sleeping like she was then she got up to climb onto my stomach. The black thing in the photo is my hair elastic but I thought that she had pooed there! I started freaking out until Chris told me what it was! It was pretty funny.

Rabo is the third dog that we hang out with. Though he is more of a lone wolf and doesn’t really pay us much attention, Spear really likes him and the two of them will wrestle and play for much of the day.

It’s not common to find a place like this that truly appreciates nature and the environment, plus is friendly to animals and actually treats them like pets. Many Ugandans look at animals as utilitarian. They get dogs just for security purposes, and the cats are meant to catch rats. Generally, they are left to fend for themselves or are given leftover food scraps. Many are also tied up through the day and are often abused. While the animals here are also for utilitarian purposes, they are well fed and treated nicely, which is so nice to witness.

As we travel we meet many different animals along the way. We fall in love with them and they fall in love with us. It’s always sad to say goodbye to them, and I’m sure they wonder where we disappear to when we leave, but it's a necessary reality with our traveling lifestyle.

We are just so grateful that while we can’t have our own pet that we take with us, we are able to temporarily adopt these ones along the way. We especially appreciate the cuddly kittens!

They are the best.

Thanks so much for reading and congratulations to JoAnn once again! I hope you will consider joining In Living Color as well!

xo Jill

I publish a weekly wrap-up in Weeds & Wildflowers that summarizes our traveling life. If you are interested, check out my latest edition below:

Hi there, we are 2 Canadians, Jill and Chris from Artistic Voyages. We have been nomadic since 2017 living in numerous different countries, and experiencing the life and diversity of our planet on the ground and firsthand. We paint FREE murals in exchange for accommodation. Check us out on Ko-fi!

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