Hay! For me?!

Hay intended for feed provides soft bedding for Molly.

Our Livestock Guardians are anything but pampered pets. They have no pillowed beds, insulated dog houses, or squeaky toys, but they make do. Around the farm, they hardly want for shelter; they can duck into or underneath numerous shelters, most of which provide good vantage points for watching their flocks.

Of late, Molly has been favoring pillows of hay for bedding. Although she has the good sense to avoid bedding down upon those piles at which animals are actively feeding, seemingly-abandoned piles offer opportunity. These days the big dairy goats have run of the woods where there's browse aplenty, but should they appear when I'm doling out hay to others I may leave a flake out for them. Enter Molly.

Once the goats lose interest in the proffered hay, as they are wont to do, Molly may happen by to claim the pile. Her presence promptly turns fresh hay from fodder into bedding, for the goats rarely return to eat hay that's been utilized as a sleep surface. Picky goats = happy dog.