HA has been working with the livestock lately.
First, she wanted Luna the Big Dog™ to be able to roam the pasture more. We’ve kept her on a leash whenever she was in the pasture with the sheep. If you’d seen her go after the pigs back in the day, you’d understand why. She’s a Good Dog almost all the time, but when she gets focused on game she loses her hearing and goes for the throat. We didn’t want that happening to the sheep. But it’s been a few months where she’s been able to mingle with the sheep, so HA has started letting her off the leash and she has mingled with the sheep without her prey drive getting triggered. So far, so good. It saves us from having to lock the sheep in their barn while Luna plays, then getting Luna back up to the house and going back down to the barn to release the sheep. Much more convenient for us, and I think Luna enjoys being able to frolic around the sheep. The sheep seem (warily) okay with Luna as well.
HA has also been letting the chickens out of the henhouse so that they can peck around in the pasture, cleaning up bugs and doing a bit of fertilizing. They seem to enjoy it.
Naturally, once the door to the henhouse is open the sheep just have to check it out. That must be where all the good food is, after all! But after a bit of sniffing around, they seemed satisfied that life in the pasture wasn’t so bad after all, and now they’re back at their mowing duties.
—2p