The last two mornings as I directed the puppies out the back door for breakfast I have encountered gentle early morning (pre-dawn really) rain.  When you have six dogs, which no one should ever have, feeding them is a little challenging.  We learned the hard way that each dog should have its own dish and spot to eat.

Jon Katz, blog writer, author of many dog books suggests having each dog sit at their designated bowl then feeding them in the same order each day.

This method has been pretty successful.  But it requires that all the dogs eat outside.  It is difficult to implement on a rainy morning.  With gentle rain, when it is warm, the dogs just get a little wet (and muddy). Not ideal but far better then moving all the dishes and dogs inside.

Next in the feeding rotation are the horses.  The rain caught me unexpectedly Wednesday morning.  I had put Mickey, Feather and Mimi out the night before.  Mickey was totally dry and secure, alone, in the run-in shed.  What a surprise! The girls were soaked and standing woe begotten in the dim fog.  Getting them into their stalls resulted in some pretty muddy pj’s for me. Of course, I go out and feed in my pjs.  Why would I waste time getting dressed only to shower and redress for work?

We make the feed for the horse’s dinner and next morning’s breakfast the day before.  Each horse has their own color feed bowl and gets a unique meal.  Feather is pink and Bru is black. Surprising choices, I know.  Lauren will be out by 7:00 or so to water and hay.

The final “Cindy” chore is feeding the cats.  One can of canned food is split amongst whatever cats show up for breakfast. Then I head in to get ready for my day.  It is about 4:30 am by this point.

When the fog and rain surround the farm, I feel protected and safe.  It is like we are in our own safe little world. Yesterday morning Gordan Lightfoot’s (I realize probably 85 percent of you have no idea who I am talking about) old song, ‘Early Morning Rain’ popped into my head.

So I best be on my way

in the early morning rain

It was a good memory of my younger days.