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Dianne: 

It's summer, it's hot and so we look for ways to make life more interesting and comfortable for the animals. Today that means moving everyone around, giving them a pond full of cool water, and making sure everyone has proper shade.

We bought an isolation pen this winter but never had time to put the roof on it, so this morning I tackled it, it took about an hour, but now I can move Ginger (our new chicken) out there without the fears of a predator swooping down from the sky or of her escaping like happened this winter with a goat.

With the chickens below, I just fill the creek into the pond in their enclosure. They have big shade trees and a little creek with a little pond. The chickens area is roughly 6,000 square feet.

I move the burros into Festus' pen. We built his pen around the largest juniper in our yard; he also has an indoor sleeping area along with an outdoor shaded area. There is always a shady area to lay in, and the burros seem to enjoy the change in scenery.

I leave Festus in his regular pen — he has a big shaded area plus I am intimidated by the ornery guy. If Mark were home, we would probably move him into the burro pen.

We also have 5 foster kittens whom I moved from my art room, which only has a window, to our bedroom, which has a door onto the deck that gets propped open with a locked screen. They romp and play and usually fall asleep in my closet or on our bed.

This does seem like a lot of extra work but the moving around makes them happy and there is no better feeling then the patter of hooves around a new pen or the purring of contented kittens.