The Prisoner Of Chick-Pen-Da

Here's a well-kept secret: we have a new pet here at the Mansion.

We didn't plan on getting a new pet. We have my Sweet, Sweet Juno and (formerly known as Puppy) Jack.

We even have Copper Jack always hanging around, as if he lives here. He does not.

So you can see, we don't actually NEED another pet. Even though I peruse the pound pups every Sunday in the local online newspaper.

Let the record show that Mrs. HM is much more attuned to helping people than The Pony. So when HOS (Farmer H's Oldest Son) started packing up to move from our upper 10 acres over to Hick House in town... I grew concerned for his pets. Not so much that behemoth of a short-haired brown dog that makes Marmaduke look small. But his other dog. The little yippy fluffy one.

That's Marley. Over in our former chick pen. Not a permanent home. Only a holding cell until Marley realizes that he belongs here now. HOS took the BIG DOG to town, and is keeping it in Hick House. I wouldn't. But that's just me. That dog sleeps upstairs in the bedroom of HOS's 10-year-old son. Marley is an outside dog. Mostly, he ran free, until he started following HOS's car when he left. Had his own pen and dog house up at HOS's other place, for when they were going somewhere. He'll get a house on the end of the porch here, once he learns where he belongs now.

I'm not sure what kind of dog Marley is. I AM sure that I'm kind of mad at both Farmer H and HOS. Farmer H had already told HOS that we would take Marley. That's not the part I'm mad about. It was actually my idea, because I know that Marley can't run loose in town, and isn't a house dog. I don't think it's fair to a dog to keep it in a pen or on a chain for life. Anyhoo... we'll start with my madness at HOS.

Last weekend, Farmer H started over to the BARn, and FOUND Marley in the chick pen. That's the little pen inside a pen where Farmer H put the hens who had just hatched their brood. Nobody had bothered to tell us of Marley's arrival! That's dirty pool right there! Poor Marley! The best Farmer H could figure, after talking to HOSS (Farmer H's Oldest Son's Son), Marley had been there anywhere from a day to two days.

Farmer H got Marley a big pan of food (seen in the picture). He was pretty ravenous. Although I'm not sure he could be slightly ravenous. Good thing there was a bucket that had been catching the rainwater. I can't believe the other dogs didn't plant themselves outside the fence and bark their fool heads off! Then Marley might have been fed sooner.

This is getting a little long, so I will finish the Farmer H madness tomorrow!