Who’s the dumb beast?

March 17, 2008 – Cold, windy.  So I got home this afternoon around 3:30 and there is no hay in any of the feeders
and every animal on the farm is making noise. The goats are baahing, as are the sheep, the cows are bellowing the donkeys are braying and Minnie and Mother the Barn cats are racing around as if they are starving to death. Even the chickens are following me around. I couldn’t see Annie, or find any trace of her and assumed she got hung up somewhere, so I fed all of the animals – two big bales for the sheep and donkeys, a couple of leaves of hay for the goats, and I got out the tractor and dumped a huge round bale (above) for Elvis, Luna and Harold, who shut up and ate hungrily.
 I even brought the cats food in the barn. I called Annie, worried that something had happened to her – she is never late – and she cracked up. “You’ve been had again,” she said. “You’ve been snookered. I fed all of the animals just before you got there, and they must have eaten everything. They’ve hosed you.” Again.
  The cats do this to me all the time, racing around frantically as if hungry and tricking me into feeding them. But I’ve never been snookered before by an entire farm. Always good to be reminded who the dumb beast is.

Minnie peering out of her secret hatch