Employee of the Day

Turns out *someone* in the family left the manure area gate open last night. I won't name names (Jonathan), but gate etiquette is very important on a farm. If you use a closed gate, close it behind you. If you go through an open gate, leave it open. Pretty easy to follow. Our manure area gates are supposed to be left closed to keep our animals out. It's not necessarily a 'Dangerous' or 'Destructive' reason. It's closer to a 'Disgusting' factor. Keep the animals away from the poop, plus it's somewhat overgrown and pretty much a huge snake nest and poison ivy field (although I am now terrified that every single 3 leaved plant is poison ivy, but that's a story for another day.) Anyway, I'm mucking the stalls in the barn and Jessie's barking away. Not unusual for Jessie, but she was barking enough for me to go figure out what's bothering her. And there it was. Cooper was in the manure area feasting on horse poop. Horses were in there, too, munching on weeds. However, my rule follower, my Jessie Girl, earns the 'Employee of the Day' today because she was yelling at them all from outside the forbidden area. Gold star for Jessie. And, Jessie, don't let Aisling, Meghan and Cooper call you a teacher's pet (!) or a brown-noser. You did the right thing. And even though your nose technically is a pinkish shade of brown, you can say to Cooper, "well, you're a brown-noser, too, only the brown on your nose is real poop!" And for today, Jessie, as your reward, it can be our little secret that I caught you trying to snack on horse poop in the stalls an hour earlier.

Just as a side note: Really, horse manure is basically just chewed up grass, so as gross as it is, it's not quite as bad as if they were eating dog poop. Carnivore poop falls into a different category. In my exhaustive online research (everything is true on the internet) it says all dogs will eat horse poop if given the opportunity. Oh, and try not to think about this post the next time my dogs try to kiss you. :)