Not Again! Farm

My name is Kory and I live on Not Again Farm. Mom says I am a Farm Cavalier. I’m not sure what she means by that except that we live on a farm and get to do cool farm things like chase frogs in the creek and run in the pastures. I know that many of my Cavalier relatives live a life of ease and plenty, reclining on the sofa and being pushed around in carriages and such.

My day starts out about 5:30 am when my first job of the day is to wake Mom up. I sleep on the bed so this isn’t a hard job. I wake up the other dogs and they all come and stare at her while I find an available spot on her face to lick. Sometimes it’s an ear but usually I try for an eye or her nose.

Once she is awake, she lets us all outside for a romp and to check out the farm to make sure it’s all ok. We like to get up before the goats and chickens because we can make a visit by the chicken house and get those roosters going. They aren’t much afraid of us during the day but if we can sneak in before the sun comes up, we can really cause a ruckus.

Once we have made sure that the rest of the farm is awake, we do our business and come back inside for breakfast. Mom complains that if we get the chickens too stirred up, the hens don’t lay their eggs and then we don’t get scrambled eggs for breakfast. We usually get them on top of our regular dog food.

After breakfast, Mom has to go to work. I watch her carefully and as soon as I see her finish her second cup of coffee, I know it’s time to go. I follow her around while she does her final chores and bark encouragingly. “Come on, Mom, we don’t want to be late.” As soon as she starts the van, I jump up in the passenger seat. I know we are going.

Mom takes turns with the other dogs and lets them go too but I almost always get to go. I think it’s because Mom needs me to make it through the day but she says it’s because I am the best behaved around our guests. I get to greet the grooming dogs that come to the shop and make them feel at home. I suppose this makes me kind of an ambassador. It’s a very important job.

I have my own cage at the grooming shop where I can sleep on my bed and chew on my hoof while I wait for Mom to finish. When we go out for a walk, I get to check out the gardens. This is a very important job. Sometimes there are things growing there and I get to dig them up. Better yet, there are sometimes moles that live under the garden and I get to dig and dig.

Mom gets really mad at me when I dig in the garden. She says I dig up the wrong things and get muddy and dirty. I don’t understand it at all. Isn’t this a dog’s job? To protect the house and garden and keep the crawly things out?

When we leave work, we go to the bank. This is my favorite part of the day. I can recognize the bank as soon as we pull into the parking lot and start to wiggle and bark. We pull up to this big window and the girl behind it talks to me every day. I sit in Mom’s lap at the bank and try my best to figure out how to fit myself into the little drawer that comes out with dog cookies in it. The girl in the bank tells me that I am the most beautiful dog in the world.

After the bank, we go home to take care of the other dogs and animals. This is fun and Elle and Ginger really love it. Mom feeds the animals and we usually take a walk around the farm. Elle and Ginger and I used to run off to the creek when it was warm. Chasing frogs and making them jump is great fun. We never catch them but they make a great plop when they jump in the water.

We also like to find the birds that hide in the tall grass and bushes. We stalk them and sneak up on them and then bark and they fly away. Sometimes we chase them off when they get in the yard. Silly Ginger chases butterflys in the summer. She looks pretty silly running and jumping as they flit along just out of reach.
Mom gets mad because we get muddy and dirty. She tells us that we are supposed to be Royal Spaniels and act like little princesses. How very boring. She gets mad when we get burrs in our ears too. We don’t like that much because then we have to get our ears combed out. It pulls the hair and Mom gets upset. She says we will never have ears like a proper Cavalier.

We don’t mind. Our job is not to have ears, it’s to take care of Mom and curl up with her on the sofa in the evening. We are here to lick her face and make her laugh. When it’s cold, we snuggle up under the throw with her until it’s bed time.

As you can see, the life of a Farm Cavalier is filled with chores and fun. We have much to do to keep Mom in line and all of the other animals in their places.