Jenny stared at her father. “I have to what?” she asked, even though she had heard perfectly.
“Jen, you need to visit Auntie Ynop for a while. Come now, it’ll just be for a few months – you can handle that, can’t you? Besides, you’ll have the dogs, and the sheep, and the chickens, and the horses to keep you company on the walk there. Everything will run smooth as ice,” he reassured her. She groaned.
“It’s so far!” she exclaimed, thinking of the long route, and mentally tracing the best path. She remembered visiting Auntie Ynop only twice before, because the distance between them was a large drawback. She had a nice, clean farm with a lot more land then they had. There was also a forest that rested a mile’s walk from her house, but she was never allowed in. Too many cliffs, her aunt had said. She could fall. Jenny still wondered how there could be cliffs in a forest that was on fairly flat land. She sighed, gave up, and went outside.
They lived on a small farm in Wisconsin, with terribly cold winters and burning summers. Animals were always mooing or baaing there, because their family raised them to sell. Why she had to take thirty sheep and four chickens up there, Jenny had no clue. Thirty sheep was a LOT of sheep. Their herd was one hundred fifty head of sheep, separated into two pens on the farm. Four chickens wasn’t that much though. They had at least thirty or so running crazy in the coop. Jenny was thankful that her sister was the one who collected the eggs, because it was a complete mad house in there all the time. They had a few cows, three to be exact. Their names were May, June, and February, in order of age. May had been at the farm ever since Jenny could remember, and June they got six years ago. February was only bought three years ago when Jenny was ten. She smiled at the memory, then jumped when her dad called her name.
“Okay. You’re leaving tomorrow Jen, are ya all packed up?” her mother asked in a parenting kind of voice.
“Of course I’m packed. I’ve been biting my nails raw waiting for my death to begin,” she replied gloomily. Her mom smile-frowned, and her dad put a hand on her shoulder.
“We have everything packed for you Jen. One wagon full of stuff, two horses, four chickens, thirty sheep, and five dogs,” he said earnestly. She stopped walking.
“I’m only taking four dogs, dad,” she corrected.
“Not anymore,” he said, holding out his cupped hand with his other hand over it. He lifted his arm, and sitting in his palm was –
“A PUPPY!” Jen shouted. She grabbed the tiny ball of fur from his hands and brought it up to her face. It yawned quietly and licked her face. She squealed in happiness. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she shouted again while petting the puppy. “I’ll name it… wait, a him or a her?” she asked quizzically.
“A her.”
“YAY! Moon. That’s your name now. Moon,” she rolled it around on her tongue.
“Moon.”