Saturday, September 19, 2009

On a Dark and Windy Night...

Once upon a time, in a land as dry as the Sahara Desert, lived a girl.  This girl loved animals and spent a tremendous amount of time living, breathing and thinking about them.  She took her responsibilities very seriously.  All this work and no play made the girl very tired until one night she forgot to do her chores. 

A cold wind from the north began to blow and darkness rushed in surrounding her little farm.  Sitting in her cozy chair in her well lit house the girl gave a jolt of surprise, suddenly realizing she had not brought in the horses from the field!  Leaping up, she rushed out into the creepy dark so panicked she left the dying flashlight behind.  

Hurrying, she called for her darling four legged friends.  With the floodlights doing a meagre battle with the enveloping blackness, she began her routine of mixing up grain and supplements.  Realizing she had once again forgot to buy more oats she left the friendly well lit shed to tentatively feel her way to the cold isolated granary.  She knew she would be able to find an oat barley mix for the cows in this shed.  She would use a very small amount of this mix to put the supplements in for her pampered horses.

The granary door opened with a protesting screech.  Relentless, the girl forged on.  Taking a deep breathe she took a tentative step into the black hole.  Using the grain scoop as a sword she felt her way past stacked hay bales until she came to the grain bags.  Carefully, she reached into the bag only to discover it was the wrong type of feed.  Completely surrounded by black, she edged further into the building, with a sigh of relief she saw a faint white glow of a grain bag.  

Taking her grain scoop, she reached into the bag.  Down deep into the bag, wiggling the scoop in the search for grain.  At the very end of her reach she touched something solid.  When all of sudden the bag gave a rustle and the girl felt cold little feet run up her hand.  Giving a whole body shudder the girl grunted out "ungh, ungh" sounds while shaking her arm, all the while backing rapidly through the dark to the safety of the door.  

Shaking, she stood and looked into the building from the murky light outside.  Torn between her feelings of responsibility in feeding the supplements with her fear on little critters with cold feet she stood.  With a final shudder and shake of the hand the girl shoved the door shut and walked away.  Surely it wouldn't hurt the horses to miss getting their supplements one night?  

Feeling obligated to treat her loyal steads for coming in to their names she instead shook out some hay for them to munch on.

The moral of the story?  Do your chores during daylight!