Brats # 3 and 4 each have a dog. They’ve both bought pet beds so they can have their dogs in their rooms from time to time. I don’t take too kindly to dogs in bedrooms, but they’re allowed it occasionally. (Our dogs are yard dogs – they each have a pen and a little house to go into, they’re at work with the sheep, and they also get to be indoors with us during the day.)
# 4 Brat is especially keen on having her dog indoors during the night, and I suspect that she lets it sleep in her bed… One thing is the danger of developing allergies, which would be sad, since these two brats really love animals, another thing is the broken sleep. The dogs BREATHE, they move around, they wake up and wonder if it’s time for a walk or a treat yet – or they have to GO. In the summer, it gets light very early, and “morning” to a dog could well occur at around 5am, which means getting up and out on the landing with an overjoyed mutt – which in turn will wake up the younger brats. And me…
Our horses also spend most of their time outdoors. They have the choice to go inside, but they rarely do, even in winter. Mind you, they’re allowed to keep their fur the natural way – the winter fur is shed and replaced by a summer coat – we don’t interfere by shaving them or anything like that. The same goes for the sheep. They’re indoors now, since they’re all lambing for the first time this year, so we want to keep an eye on them, but they’re “wild” sheep that should be able to deal with that too on their own. We shall see.
This means that even though we have quite a few beasts, they more or less manage on their own. They have to be fed and watered, of course, but we are able to leave the premises for a few days without having to hire a full time farm hand. A friend who comes by a couple of times a day, checks on them and waters and feeds them is all it takes.
Hubby, though, wants a cow. Actually, he wants at least two. Four, he says, is a good number. I’ve vetoed that, so far… He says there’d be no milking, because we’d have them for the calves, and they’d drink the milk. Yeah, right, and when something goes wrong with a calf, we’re stuck with a depressed cow that has to be milked twice a day at set times… Knowing him, he’d object to artificial insemination after a while, and we’d have to get a bull as well.
No cow. No way.
Stumble it!
