The morning routine

I thought I'd write an article about our morning routine as far as the animals are concerned. It's quite a lovely ritual each morning, especially on a gorgeous sunny spring morning. The promise of summer is in the air, the sweet scent of spring blossoms gets up your nose and happiness is floating in the breeze, ready to inhale.
As I make my way to the door to go outside, I am followed by the cat. She is the superior of all the animals as she is the only one allowed inside at night time. At the door, we collect the two dogs as we make our way to gather the food from the shed. Picking up the chook food and pig food, the three animals and I walk down towards the calf stable. There, waiting for us, are four big brown eyes, batting their lashes, mooing softly at our approach. They are grateful to be let out and come immediately to me to nuzzle and push in the hope that I will give them their milk. They have to be content with grass in the mornings now as we're weaning them off their milk and only give it to them in the evenings. 
Next stop is the chook pen. With a cat, two dogs, and two cows in tow, I head into the chook pen to let the chooks, ducks and geese out for the day. The other animals wait patiently outside the pen while I feed and water our feathered friends. Once they are sorted, it's time to go down to the pig pen to feed and let the three scoundrels out. 
I must look like the pied piper as I meander along with a cat, two dogs, two cows and a mob of egg laying folk... It's a happy gathering. All the animals are curious and content in each others' company. Well, most of them...our Kelpie has a nasty habit of wanting to eat the chooks so I make sure she is close by me so there are no disasters!
The pigs are waiting for us. It's hard not to hear us all approaching! Now that they are bigger and stronger, I stand at the side of the pen and open the gate to let them out, otherwise I get splattered with mud. They become extremely excited when they know they are going to be fed and tend to jump up and down, which can be messy for the person letting them out! 
Once the pigs are done, the other animals and I head back up towards the house. The cows, chooks, ducks and geese all disperse at this point. They tend to spread out on the grass while the three domestic characters follow me all the way to the house. Upon reaching the verandah, the three of them plop themselves down in the sun to rest after their morning jobs. 
This routine is very similar each morning and it is both comforting and pleasurable. It is a wonderful start to my day!