Disappearing Act

It seems each day when I go to feed the grain or refill the dog dishes, the buckets, tubs and dishes have magically disappeared. Each day I go on a hunt, searching through snow banks, and often finding them in the strangest places. I have never had so much trouble with this in my life. The problem appears to have two roots.

With the horses both Buddy and Roxy enjoy carrying stuff around. Buddy will unhook, untie anything he can wrap his little lips around. One day my dad went out to discover Buddy carrying a stick (yes a stick!!) in his mouth, and was chasing the other horse with it. Am I the only person who thinks this horsey behaviour is slightly weird? Roxy will paw, flip, lip and carry her rubber grain tub. It went missing for two days before finally being unearthed in the snow.

With the dogs, while both puppies will play with the dishes once they are empty, Bella will abscond with them. I'm seriously considering drilling a hole and tethering them to something solid. Today, while Reba had run of the yard, Bella went into Reba's dog run and took off with her full dish. After much searching it remains vanished, not a kibble in sight- probably buried somewhere. I had to dump Reba's food on the snow.

This habit of my young animals at first was kind of cute. With each passing day it becomes less cute and more aggravating.