Ch-ch-ch-changes

Yesterday, FarmWife spent an hour moving fences, tidying up, raking hay, scrubbing troughs, rearranging buckets, and so forth. At the end of it, she had an entirely new system: Arrietty on one side of the fence, in what shall henceforth be known as "Fatland," and Missy and me on the other, in what shall henceforth be known as "Foodville." Missy, who has been having trouble keeping her appetite up, is now living on my side of the fence in a 4 foot slice of shed, separated by a creep-bar. She and I will both have access to delectable orchard grass hay and the back pasture, along with spring's impending grass. Arrietty, meanwhile, is on a new diet of 1) air, 2) water, 3) salt, and 4) itty bitty portions of dry brown hay delivered three times a day in a slow-feed haynet. This business of Arrietty getting fatter and fatter was not sustainable, FarmWife explained, especially as her hoof growth has increased dramatically as of late. "It's a potentially life-saving intervention," FarmWife told her. "You would not enjoy foundering."

FarmWife is also forcing Arrietty to join a dorky club (of F.W.'s own invention), called "H.E.L.P": Hiking Expeditions for the Loveably Plump. Clover is the other founding H.E.L.P. member, and FarmWife is the self-appointed trip leader. She is going to make them start hiking every day, rain or shine, except today. Today, Clover is at the hospital suffering the removal of her biggest tooth, which had broken down the middle.

As for me, I'm not in such bad shape. We still don't know why this night and day transformation from easy keeper to hard keeper took place, but I'm no longer declining. FarmWife is feeding me oodles of delicious stuff, and my vet is content to put off my next exam until the checking account bounces back from this dog business.

All is well in Wickersham.

Ears,
FB

P.S. If you've noticed that all the photos I post are old ones, I apologize. I can explain: the human's camera is broken and FarmWife's smartphone camera works only sporadically. Luckily, plans are afoot to save for a new Canon.