On The Farm
Farm RP:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33183&p=911420#p911420Farm Dogs have owners who supply their basic needs -- food and shelter -- but they are far from being the pampered pets that the City Slickers are. Instead, they must work for their keep, primarily by guarding the farm from intruders and ensuring the safety of the livestock. Rather than live in the house, farm dogs live out in the barn, burrowing in the hay for warmth, and they have to make their own amusement, and generally are closer-knit with their follows at the farm than you could expect a standard pet to be.
Farm Dogs are usually warm-hearted and generous, good folk, although they can be a little set in their ways and wary of newcomers. Most of the time, they are accepted working or herding breeds like shepherds and related mixed breeds, but other breeds sometimes come in; no matter what their lineage, farm dogs are above all earthy, athletic, and hardy.
While most Farm Dogs have excellent work ethic, some just aren't cut out for the lifestyle and want nothing more than the comforts of a city life, or the (perceived) carefree freedom of the wild. Also, while most have farmers who care about them, not all farmers are kind, and Farm Dogs are often silent sufferers of abuse or neglect.
Naturally, Farm Dogs maintain close relationships with the herds -- usually horses, cattle, or sheep -- that they guard; many also make good friends of the barn cats, and have been known to make the acquaintance of wayward birds, spiders, and rabbits.
Rosewine Farms
Fidget (m), Hank (m), Melissa (f), Meeko (m)
Fidget and Hank are completely inseparable. No one knows if they're littermates or just best friends since birth; indeed, nobody knows much of anything about these two's past, since they just sort of showed up at the farm one day, a pair of rowdy, uninvited guests. Their antics served to grant them a little amnesty from the farmer, who paired them with his most reliable female, Melissa, who has her work cut out for her keeping an eye on them. The boys are hyperactive practical jokers who believe that life is a giant play ground.
Melissa -- Mel, to all her friends -- is the commander-in-chief of operations here at the farm. Put in charge of training the youngsters and keeping an eye on everything in her master's absence, Mel is cool-headed, patient, and knowledgeable. She is the obvious favorite on the farm, and even gets to sleep in the Master's house at the foot of his bed on cold nights, much to the envy of everyone else.
Meeko is the eager young apprentice at the farm, being raised expressly to replace his elders once he's learned all the ropes -- a big responsibility for a young dog prone to disabling insecurity. He spends his time following Mel around like a small, quivering shadow, and he's more than little accident prone...but, perhaps, one day he'll become more comfortable with his assignment.
Serenity Stables
Madeline (f), Fletcher (m), Justin (m)
Serenity Stables is an equestrian center with no other livestock, so it has need of fewer dogs than other farms might -- after all, the horses do not need herding or tending to like flocks. Still, a well-trained dog is one of the most useful commodities a smart farmer can keep.
Madeline is still quite young and was acquired from a neighboring farm when it was discovered that she had absolutely no talent for herding stock. Despite her strong herding background (she's a pure-blooded collie, from a long line of champion collies), Madeline is clumsy and skittish and seems to give off an uneasy vibe to the flock, which would scatter before her. The farmer who kept her would have put her down, if the master of Serenity hadn't brought her home and found a job for her. Though she's terrible with sheep and cattle, she gets along all right with the horses (as long as they don't get too close and frighten her) and, come to find out, she is a natural at pest-control; mice, rats, rabbits, voles, foxes, bobcats -- you name it, any pest or predator she's come across has met a swift, clean end.
Following in the footsteps of many a dalmatian before him, Fletcher is the main stable horse and won't let anybody forget it in a hurry. Prim, proper, and a little stuck-up, he is nevertheless the most knowledgeable dog in the stable and knows every horse backwards and forwards. He sleeps in the barn and usually accompanies riding students on their trail rides, sprinting ahead to scout out the path and maintaining a calming influence on the horses.
Justin is the stable's guard dog. After all, some of the horses here are quite expensive -- show quality, even -- and Justin would rather die than see his masters robbed or the horses harmed. He's been known to take his job a bit TOO seriously, as some would tell him, but he doesn't see it that way; sure, he doesn't have much sense of humor, but not everything in life is a laughing matter!
StonyBrook Meadows
Naomi (f), Watson (m), Sparkle (f)
A brand new farm, StonyBrook Meadows was developed by a cityslicker-turned-green who decided farm living was the way to go and struck out to buy a few acres and scrape a subsistence living. The next-door neighbor to Rosewine (a far classier establishment), StonyBrook is small, second-hand, shabby, and, some would argue, doomed to failure -- but only time will tell.
Naomi was purchased at a flea market for a reduced price; the runt of her litter, nobody expected her to be worth much, so she was practically given to her new owner as a sort of joke. She's not nearly as inept as her breeder believed, however, and while she's certainly not a professional-grade herder, she manages all right with the small handful of livestock at StonyBrook.
Watson was a gift from the owner of Rosewine. The brother of Rosewine's best dog -- Melissa -- Watson comes from a long, dignified line of excellent herders, and he is no exception. He is, however, deaf, a fact which none of the humans he's met seemed aware of. Certainly Rosewine would not have given him away if they'd known about his disability, and his new owner at StonyBrook isn't experienced enough to recognize the signs. Despite his deafness, however, Watson is an intelligent and committed dog who makes up for his weakness with hard work.
Sparkle hardly counts as a farm dog, but she does live there. She doesn't do any work for the farmer; rather, she came with him as a beloved pet from her city apartment, and she's quite terrified of the dirty, smelly, hot, uncomfortable farm. Refusing to sleep out in the barn with the other dogs, Sparkle lives a pampered, first-class lifestyle, much to the distaste of her fellows -- both here, AND at the neighboring farms. Even Rosewine's Melissa, who sometimes sleeps in the house, is disgraced by Sparkle's haughty attitude; Farm Dogs are workers, first and foremost, and Sparkle most certainly does NOT qualify.
Even better, if it looks like a world that YOU would be interested in joining, PM me - I'd love to start up a roleplaying community if there was the appropriate amount of interest to keep it active. 
