Parsons' Prairie Farm

By:  Shadow

My name is Shadow and I love to play fetch!  The further a person can throw the ball for me to chase, the better friends we will be.  For the first couple of years of my life I got to play ball in my yard.  Then one day a man in a white city van (with the words Animal Control on the side) pulled in our driveway and told us that I was not allowed to play ball in my yard anymore.  I had to either play ball in my fenced back yard or on a leash.  It is a city rule he said.  I didn’t understand this at first and this guy actually looked like he had a pretty good arm. So I ran up to him and tried to put my ball in his hand.  He sighed, patted my head and said he was sorry but someone had complained.  So the only place I could play fetch was in our backyard and it just wasn’t near big enough.

 So my people said they would buy me a farm.  They told me it would be a place with endless grassy areas that I could run and play to my heart’s content.  The only obstacle that would be in my way was to convince someone else to play with me as much as I wanted. 

And a farm is exactly what I got.  A whopping 47 acre place to play.  And it was perfect for a few weeks.  Then my people started to ruin it.  Here is how, in my eyes anyway, you ruin a perfectly good farm.

Bale Hay – why they felt the need to put all the grass in these huge balls is beyond me.  It is impossible to find my ball if it drops behind one and it is like an obstacle course trying to run through the pasture.

New Fencing – what is the deal with putting up all this fencing?  How am I supposed to run through the pastures if there are huge fences in the way?

Big Animals – I should have known that the fencing was not a good sign.  One day these trucks pull up and out comes alpaca after alpaca after alpaca.  It looked like the clowns in a Volkswagen thing, I’m not kidding.  They just kept coming.  All sizes, all colors.  It was a nightmare!

My nemesis McKenzie.  Sure she has a sweet name, is almost the same color as me and everybody ooohs and ahhhs over her fiber.  But she actually stomped me in the belly AFTER I had cried uncle.  I will not soon be forgetting that, I tell you!

Then, if I try to play fetch in one of my favorite spots, some of the alpacas like to run along the inside of the fence too.  It is unnerving, I tell you.

And as if things couldn’t get any worse…..Cats!!!!  They brought home cats!!!  I don’t like it that they can jump and go places that I can’t go.  And they hiss at me!  Unacceptable!

So tell me……if a farm is a place for dogs to run and play, why have they ruined it?