Negatory, Good Buddy

We had a list of a few animals that we were going to get once we moved to the "farm". Now that we're here, we've been researching them one at a time. First, dogs. The owners of the house don't really want us to have a dog inside, so we thought we'd get an outdoor dog. Every book we've read says that dogs need to be with their "pack" family and should be indoors except when exercising/playing. So that is a no go for now. Next, Shonee took to bees, so we got a book from the library to teach us the basics of beekeeping. It was all good, until he read that the bees won't produce excess honey until their second year, and that they hate to be moved. Since we only plan to be in this rental house for about two years, it just doesn't make sense to invest in a hive right now, since we won't reap the benefits soon, and could very well lose the hive when we move out. Our next animal investigation is cats and chickens. We've learned that cats will kill chickens occasionally, so if we want the cat to catch the mice, and the chickens to eat the bugs, we'll have to come up with a movable pen for the chickens to keep them safe from the cat. Oy! Alena in particular wanted a dog, so she's pretty bummed out that we're postponing it yet again. I think a kitten will soothe her, though. I'm also contemplating a little goat to eat our blackberries that are growing where they shouldn't. Haven't researched that one yet. Part of our deal out here is that we want to try the typical "country" animals to see if we want them. We've learned in the last month that we definetely love the space and privacy of the country, so it's pretty much for sure that when we buy again it will be a good-size piece of land. But we want to test the animals too, as much as possible.