Ay Ay Ay

I don't know how she does it.  Admittedly, I had to keep checking the cheat sheet to be sure I was doing everything in the right order, but it took nearly forty-five minutes to get all of my charges fed, watered, and let out those who were permitted to go out.  Finished with the house pets (two cats, three dogs), I headed to the barn but had to go back up to the house because I'd forgotten the eight (8) baby carrots for the donkeys.  That's okay, the dogs were delighted to have a visitor a second time.  We did have a discussion regarding barking all night, and I reassured them that they'd not been orphaned.

Eight little carrots in hand, I got the donkeys fed.  Shadow, the mini, and Cricket, the standard, took their job as supervisors seriously, consequently getting in my way at every turn.  The flock of chickens that had been locked in the barn were loudly yelling to be freed, and came tumbling out when I opened up their stall.

Running over the list in my mind:  everybody fed and watered, check; gates and doors opened or shut as directed, check.  One can hope.

I was really glad I'd started the day early and had taken care of my girls first.  I conferred with my nighttime counterpoint.  She lives directly across the road from Cam and had also been aware of all the barking.  I mentioned the neighbor who might be complaining.  She suggested an explanatory phone call might be a preemptive strike and I agreed.  I tried, but found the number was no longer in service, so she may have moved and it could be a nonissue.  Incidentally, the dogs seemed to have resigned themselves to their fate and were quiet all night, or maybe they were just exhausted from the night before.

I hope the rest of this day goes better than it started.  My computer server is having problems of its own, and I was unable to retrieve any emails.  The rest of the system seemed to function, so I started writing this piece.  Then the power blipped and threw me into darkness.  Ay ay ay!