There are people with pets and people with animals, and I’ve learned in recent years that the two often have very little understanding of one another. I am in the middle, I have animals that are both pets and farm animals, and I wrote about both and my readers and blog followers have both.

In America, most people used to live in and around farms and understood the lives of animals. In our day, 90 per cent of Americans live in the suburbs and cities along the coasts, and they have lost touch with animals. Many people actually believe that it is cruel for carriage horses to pull light carriages in Central Park, they do not know these are among the luckiest and best cared for animals on the earth.

When there is a natural challenge like the brutal cold we are having, many people do not understand why I can’t keep the animals snug and warm and completely comfortable and safe.

Animals like donkeys and sheep (and barn cats) are not pets, they live in the outdoors or in various shelters. It would unhealthy in the extreme to confine sheep or donkeys in a closed and heated barn. For one thing, heat is a great fire hazard in a barn filled with straw and hay, for another, the respiratory systems of these animals would be seriously endangered by being in warm and enclosed air.

Gus and Fate and Red sleep near wood stoves in warm houses, they are happy to be inside right now. The donkeys and sheep have no wish to live in our house, and would hate it in there.

The best situation for them is to have access to shelter from the wind, rain, ice and snow, but constant access to the outdoors, where they almost always prefer to be. We have a Pole barn, a three-sided structure that opens into an indoor space with stalls.

No real farmer would ever heat a barn, it is expensive, dangerous and unnecessary.

In cold weather like this, we open up the doors to the stalls and they can come in whenever they want. They almost never want to go in there, we always find them either in the shelter of the pole barn – standing on dry dirt and gravel, and usually covered with an inch or snow of snow. They are almost always standing out in the snow if they can.

In frigid weather, they come into the pole barn shelter so their hooves can be dry and off of the icy ground. They have 24 hour access to heated water, which helps to keep them warm. They get high protein grain twice a day in frigid weather, for energy, and second cut hay for extra nutrition.

What else can we do for them? Nothing much.  Donkeys have thick hides and fur.

Hay and more hay helps keep the animals busy, grounded and with enough energy to get through -20 degree temperatures, which we are having tonight. We check on them frequently, put out more hay than they need. Hay is good for animal morale.

in the wild, they would, of course, be out in the elements, taking shelter under trees, like deer. So when I say the animals are cold, and it hurts me to see them uncomfortable, that is the truth. it does not mean they are being deprived of any possible comfort, shelter or nutrition.

Monday, Maria and I and all of our animals will be alive and well, soaking up the first above-freezing temperatures we have seen in a month. So far, our house, pumps and water line out to the barn have all been holding up well.

My wish for the animals is that they are soon standing out in the sun, sniffing under the snow for stubs of grass. That is when they are the most content. I don’t  have any other magic wand for them tonight.

And yes, it hurts to think of them out there in such cold. I doubt they are much worried about it, but they are blessed with not being human.