Our animals are highly adaptable, except for one. They aren’t aware that it’s cold, but they react to it in different ways. We do worry about them in this kind of cold, we are always trying to figure out what they need and get it to them.

The donkeys and sheep are desert and mountain animals; they can withstand extreme temperatures as long as they have access to shelter and freshwater. Sheep and donkeys both have tough hides and thick coats, they can handle the sometimes harsh weather of our environment, and for most of their history, they lived outside or in the wild.

When it’s this cold, they show signs of impatience and irritability with one another, and they are hungrier in extreme cold – they need energy. When the temperature is this low, we give them grain twice a day, before or after their hay meal. This gives them an energy boost.

We also have heated water tanks that warms them from the inside and we set aside nutritious second cut hay to feed them in very cold weather.

And finally, we make sure they have shelter from the wind and rain. After storms, they rarely have any snow on their coats or hides; they stay inside and gather close to each other to catch their warmth. When I go out to check on them in a storm, the donkeys are standing in the center of a circle, surrounded by sheep huddle together. This is also a way of staying warm.

No matter how cold it is, they stand sideways outside of their pole barn, soaking up the warmth if the sun comes up. If it’s 10 degrees out and sunny, and I touch the donkeys, their coat is warm if they are out in the sun; it absorbed whatever sunlight there is—the same for the sheep. Their bodies absorb warmth and seem to store it.

Our dogs are hardy and adaptable.

Fate’s paws are sensitive to freezing ice, and she will sometimes hop around to keep from stinging. But she is a border collie, and they are used to being outside in all weather. The breed can be sensitive to heat and needs water somewhere close by.

But extreme cold generally does not bother her. If she’s not standing in freezing ice, she doesn’t seem to notice it.

Zinnia, a yellow Lab,  is like a polar bear. Her thick and heavy structure and coat layers keep her warm in any weather. When the temperature drops below zero, she’ll jump right into a pond and swim around. She would happily sit outside in a snowstorm if I let her.

She doesn’t notice cold, it doesn’t affect her in any way. She loves dolling in the snow in a storm.

The chickens stay in the roost whenever they lookout and don’t see bare ground. We have a heat bulb in the roost (Maria’s idea), and they stay in day and night until the ground clears. Chickens have a remarkable body chemistry, they can vegetate for days in hibernation without complaint.

There is heated water in the roost, and we feed them chicken mash twice a day. Maria also supplies leftover human delicacies – noodles, bread, etc.

They seem pretty content and peaceful in their nest, which is dry and closed off from the wind.

Bud, a Boston Terrier, can’t handle the extreme cold. Sometimes, he has to eliminate in the house, and we have a spot in the bathroom. But that’s rare.

Today, he went out and did his business and ran back to the door. But his breed isn’t built for extreme weather – hot or cold- and we have to be careful to keep an eye on him and make sure he has warmth or shade, depending on the season. In the winter, he almost hibernates, dozing most of the day in front of the woodstove. If somebody sits in the living room, he ends up in their lap.

He is the only animal we have that needs to stay out of extreme weather; I can’t imagine how he survived living in that unsheltered pen in Arkansas for two years.

As to the barn cats, they go in the basement from early January to March or April. There are three dog beds down there, and the temperature never drops below 50 or rises above it.

There are tunnels and holes from previous wells and kitchen drain, and there are also mice for them to go after and eat. They work all winter, keeping the mice under control and down in the basement, where they belong.

We do feed Minnie and Flo twice a day and make sure there is freshwater. Maria has sealed off any foundation cracks that might bring a draft. The cats show up at the door in early January, and if there is a warm and sunny day (there are more of those lately), we let them out for the day.

When it snows, or the temperature plunges,  they are both at the door, or sometimes Flo will go up to her secret spot in the top rafters of the woodshed. They never ask to come inside before deep winter, even if it’s cold. They have soft and warm nests in the haystack and the woodshed.

Flo lived secretly in the woodshed for two years before we ever saw her. She still goes up there sometimes.

We brought a box up there and put blankets in it for her, way up and out of sight. But when it gets cold, she shows up at the back door and wants to come inside. Most of the time, when we go down there, she and Minnie are curled up in a tight ball on their blankets, keeping each other warm.

We see animals as a serious responsibility, and bitterly cold weather heightens that.  I feel bad for them even though I know they don’t feel bad for themselves. They can handle the cold.

I think we’ve done as well as we can and as much as they need. We’ve never lost an animal to the cold or seen any signs of suffering or frostbite. Animals are primarily adaptable creatures.