This is Happy. She is a mix breed dog (Labrador/Beauceron), born in 2014. She came to me in June of 2018. The family I bought her from very proudly explained to me that the dog never had contact with other dogs. Well, she doesn’t to this day because she has no idea how to communicate with other dogs and is so scared the she will try to bite. I tried a few times but Happy is always so stressed out after a meeting that at some point I decided to leave her be. She is a generally very scared dog, doesn’t move through the apartment on her own, doesn’t like to be left alone even though she doesn’t destroy anything if I leave her alone from time to time. She only cries, which is bad enough. The nights of my work week she spends at my Mom’s and is very content with that. We go for long walks and she loves to play with balls and do intelligence games. Of course she loves to cuddle. She’s not content with being touched from anyone else but me. In hinsight another dog might would have been a better fit for my first one but well, now she is here and as long as she is happy and playing and being herself I’m content too. We slowly train to have her wear a muzzle so we can introduce her savely to the dog of my brother but other than that I don’t think she’ll ever be a very social dog. Which is absolutely fine for me. She’s got some health issues as well which make rough playing not an option at all. Last time I left her in the garden alone she walked on three legs for a week because she wore herself out so much. So we are not doing that. She’s eight and half now. For me she is perfect. I can play with her, I can go for walks and hikes and stuff and she is not likely to walk away. I love her to pieces.

A few years (rather more decades, haha!) there was one cat at the homestead. She had been a stray until my Dad decided to feed her. From there our cat gang grew into nine cats at the strongest. We got them spayed at some point to prevent them from reproducing without boundaries. A few moved on to other homesteads in the area, one unfortunatly got hit by a car, one fell victim to a dog from the neighbores and one died of old age. These three are the one left. From left to right their names are: Red, Castiel and Luci. Red must have been born around 2010 or something like that. I have not written down the year unfortunatly. As soon as I am outside the pack is around me, walking between my feet, sitting near me and watching every move I make. They are not afraid of dogs. One of the tenants has dogs too and they move within that pack just as if they’d belong there. Sadly my own dog Happy does not like cats at all. I love those three kittys very much and I hope that, when they are gone, new ones move in.

And finally, this is Lucy. She is an Irish Tinker that came to me through a friend. Before my Dad got sick we had a stable to take in horses for rent. We gave up on that once he couldn’t work anymore. I got Lucy I think 2018, a year before my first ever horse Baronesse passed away. Lucy is very chill, very calm, incredibly curious and still untrained. I work with her sometimes but not as much as I’d like to and I want to change that in 2023. I want to ride again and I think Lucy is a good fit for me. Isn’t she beautiful?

As an honourable mention. This is Baronesse, short Nessie. She was my first horse. My Dad bought her at my 15. birthday and we brought her home two months later. The donkeys in the background are „the boys“, my Dad loved donkies. We gave the boys away when my Dad got sick and didn’t want them to just „stand around“. I still miss all three of them. Nessie, you will always be my first love. Always be my first horse, my first challenge. I love you, still and I always will.