Animals

Today I visited the animals on Cousin Emily’s farm for the first time.

As I write in this diary, I’ll likely switch between speaking in the present tense and the past tense often. Why? Well, I’ll tell you the answer. When I’m old and I want to look back over my life I will have the chance of reading this, and if it’s in the past tense I can read it and enjoy the interesting story it will hopefully be.

But if it is in the present tense, it will be as if it is happening right at the time I read it, and I will again be immersed in the beautiful memories.

So, today. As I said, today I visited the animals that live on my cousin’s farm. She has chickens, cows, sheep, dogs for the sheep, geese, pigs, and even a couple of horses.

The horses were adorable. I do so love horses; when I was younger I started taking riding lessons. I no longer ride, but the memory of those times and those horses shall stay with me forever. Oh! To see them toss their manes, and whinny and neigh, it did me good.

The sheep and cows were rather interesting. It is so much fun to see them grazing and, my, how some of those sheep leap! They can jump over very high bars that have been put in expressly for the purpose of exercising them. It’s summer here, so they are going to have their wool shorn soon to keep them cool in the warm days ahead. The cows milled about in their fields, mooing to each other. There’s a saying, isn’t there, about cows lying down in a field? Whatever it is, I do hope that this means there will be good weather in the time I stay here!

The chickens are absolute nutcases, I must say, but they’re hilarious, and the antics they get up to are quite amusing. Their squawking and running and leaping about, while they flap their little wings, had tears of laughter running down my face more than once.

The geese honked companionably at me as I knelt down by their pen. It is a large thing, spread out over a huge space, not cramped and crowded like these horrible battery farms I hear about in the news. Eurgh! The very thought makes me shudder, and almost feel claustrophobic. Let’s not think such depressing thoughts. I’ll carry on about the animals.

The dogs, mainly sheepdogs, lay panting in the long green grass outside the fences for the cows and the sheep. Mainly the two grazing animals keep themselves to themselves, calmly respecting each other from a distance, but occasionally they’ll mix. The dogs themselves are the ultimate authority when it comes to the sheep. Their word, or bark, is law to our fluffy friends. The cows usually take notice as well, Emily tells me. From her description of the dogs before I first saw them, I had been expecting a group of huge, terrifying tyrants, foaming at the mouth with big, sharp teeth. They were nothing like that. They had sleek fur, and they were not even that big. As I’ve heard somewhere, it isn’t size that matters, it’s spirit, something these dogs certainly have. They will happily race each other, and calmly guide any wandering sheep back into their proper places without a second thought. It is second nature to them. They can fit underneath the gap in the fence, at the bottom, where sheep and cows cannot fit. Rarely, Emily tells me, a young adventurous calf or lamb will squeeze their way out, which means the dogs have to gently guide it back to its mother. They are very intelligent animals, dogs. There’s a reason they are called man’s best friend! They have an easy life, and they enjoy it fully.

The pigs were in their pigpen. Contrary to what most people say, they are really rather clean animals. They do not roll in their own dung. They do sometimes roll in the mud to prevent sunburn – I know from experience how painful a bad sunburn can be – as they do not wear clothes like us civilised humans. They’re quite dignified, and friendly too. They came right up to me and took the oats I gave them happily. I do declare the grunting they gave was a reply! What could they have been saying? “Hello, new person, welcome to the farm!”

I think I shall like it here.