What was once a sad story, that I couldn’t bring myself to publish on the blog, has become a good story.  A little over a year ago we gave our original LGD, Abby, away.  She picked up the very bad habit of chasing cars along the very busy road that guts our property.  She was right out there, next to the car and it was really getting scary.  I found her a new home, and she moved about an hour away to a new home.  I had thought we’d replace Abby some day but wasn’t sure when, or how, or with what.  This past August a friend of mine emailed me a craigslist ad about Akbash puppies that was fairly local.  I decided to contact the woman and told her about our place, and that I was interested.  As it turned out, she had one pup left, a male and he was free.

The lady was thrilled that he’d be going to a home that involved actually working.  Both of Ufie’s parents were working Akbash’s, guarding cattle.  His dad was very stand-offish (and around 120lbs), we wouldn’t be able to actually see him unless he came in from the pasture, which he did for a moment to sniff the wind, see if we were trouble, mark his territory and then go back out on duty.  Ufie’s mama was pretty close to the house because she knew her last pup was still there, hiding under the front porch.  The owner had to literally crawl under the porch to pull him out, and he whimpered and whined and didn’t want much to do with us.  I was actually open to this sort of behavior, having an LGD that was not cautious at all of people (Abby) made me think that this sort of attitude was possibly good for a dog to take his job seriously.  So we brought Ufie home, and he’s been in the Dude’s Pen since.

Ufie warmed up to me quickly, after I brought him home.  He has then accepted many people in to his circle, and loves the sheep as his family, but he has stuck to the rule of NO DOGS ALLOWED.  I am beyond pleased with this as I know a coyote or random dog showing up in his pasture would be quickly and quite aggressively escorted out.

Ufie is growing very quickly and loves his job.  Some day we hope to get him an Akbash girlfriend and name her Tigris — between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers lies Eden; and so goes the word picture.  Hopefully our sheep will live in Eden while being watched by a team of LGD’s.

Ufie, January 2012

Moving right along, I did my normal morning chores threw some hay at the “dudes” (rams) and was going to pull my truck forward to park the horse trailer that was still attached.  I then thought to myself that I’d better weed-whack the spot where the horse trailer was normally parked before putting it there so decided to leave the truck and trailer where it was.  Annie was playing around as I was thinking this all through until I announced that we should get in to Mommy’s Rover and go borrow Papa’s weed-whacker.  We jumped in the Rover and set out for Hubby’s shop which is just across our main town’s road on an adjoining piece of property.  I poked my nose in to tell Hubby where we were off to and noticed that our Pastor and his wife were visiting.  We hung out there instead of going to Papa’s and then after the tour of the shop our Pastor expressed that he’d like to see our barn.  We set out for home in my Rover, kind of like we were on safari, but didn’t know it.

My little Rover has a set of four jump seats in the back and three seats in the front.  Annie had the passenger, I had the middle, Simon was driving and our Pastor and his wife Barbara were in the back.  We cruised home, parked in front of the house and were talking right there in our drive.  Our dogs, who were still on high alert, came over to greet us quickly and as soon as they came by our sides something very large jumped out of the big pine between us and the ram’s pen.

My truck and trailer, being parked in front of this tree blocked our view of what was really going on.  We ran around the back side of the trailer only to see a Mountain Lion running as fast as she could but ran in to the fence.  She then followed the fence around which brought her right back toward the house.  She then leapt up in to a smaller pine where our dogs stood at the base barking. 

She peered out at me from the second set of branches up, growling and glaring.  The dogs stood at the base of the tree and weren’t letting her down.  I kept telling them what good dogs they were and was hoping and praying that their presence along with mine (and my yelling) would hold her there.  She stayed and growled.  Hubby ran for a gun and came back.  She was shot quickly and accurately but the blast knocked her out of the tree.  She fell quickly and with adrenaline pushing her she ran past me toward the house where Barbara and Annie were staying “out of the way.”  As it turns out the Mountain Lion was running right toward them!  Barbara scooped Annie up in to her arms as she ran around the other side of Hubby’s Rover and held Annie close between it and herself.  The cat went speeding by on the opposite side headed for our wood shed.  Hank, our collie, was right on it’s tail barking the whole time and Abby, bless her little pea pickin’ heart, headed for the culvert to hide in because she hates gun shots.

Here’s how close things really were.  The large pine to the right of my trailer (truck is still hooked up and right there next to that tree) is where she jumped out of while we stood on the left side in the shade talking.  She ran straight to the right once she jumped out and ran in to the opposite fence of the ram pen then curved around back to the left. 

The corner of the house is literally right out of the picture.  The little house there with the moon on the door is our pump house and there’s the truck right next to the trailer.  This is about where we were standing when she jumped out of the tree and also about where I was standing bare footed in the middle of the night shining a flash light around.  Barbara and Annie were standing just a little further down the hill when the cat was shot and when she came tearing at them.

And here’s the little Rover that Barb and Annie hid behind as she zoomed past.  There’s the wood shed she actually fell at with Hank on her the whole time.  All right here, out my front door.  As a friend on Facebook mentioned, it’s like the Wild West! 

And here’s this year’s Christmas Card.  This is about where she fell, just behind the woodshed.  Hank didn’t like her dead or alive and was pretty serious about it too.  We’re so proud of our dogs and were very protected as far as that cat dropping and running.  The Game Warden made it here this afternoon and said that it’s about a two year old female, excellent condition and around 80 lbs.  She was large.  He also said that normally when they shoot they aim for the head so that it’s a sure quick drop but Simon was thinking to shoot like you would a deer in the heart/lung/liver because it’s a larger area to hit and more of a sure shot.  He certainly didn’t want to make her mad.  The Game Warden said that we were lucky that when she fell she just ran away and didn’t attack our dog or anything else near by (me!) because normally they land fighting.  I am thankful that we were being protected and thank God for that. 

And just so I don’t sound so cold hearted, I do think it’s sad that she had to be shot but in my mind there was no other way.  She was very much in our territory and very much hunting our sheep and posing a huge threat to us.  This was a very serious situation that I’m glad ended happily for us humans involved.  A big cat is nothing to take lightly and the Game Warden confirmed my comment that if we’ve seen this many in six months time, how many are we not seeing?  He said yes, they’re much like mice… If you see a few, there’s probably a lot that you’re not seeing.  Amazing.

My hand and hers for comparison.

And the “safari photo” with my Rover – note our grateful sheep in the background.

A special Thanks to Curtis for the photos.

Anywhere he wants to.

Note:  No, we did not get another dog.  Yes this is our place and that is my daughter with Abby wondering what the heck this moose is doing in our stock tank.  My parents adopted him from the local shelter, a 10 month old Pyrenees, but unfortunately he was not raised with livestock (quite obviously) and loved chasing sheep far too much.  He went back to the shelter BUT is assured of a good home.  There is a lot of interest in him just from my parents having him and everyone who met him fell in love.  He is super sweet, just not to livestock.

I recently went on a mini-vacation down to central California with Hubby as he was installing one of his machines in a factory down there.  As it turns out, the factory was very close to my Uncle Jim (Hi Unkie Jim!) so Annie and I stayed with him for a couple of days, catching up on life.  We really enjoyed it.  But just before I left, I caught Abby out doing her duty…

She had been lying down just watching the flock/herd move around her and was enjoying the sunlight finally breaking through some clouds.  One of my little yearling ewes approached and was smelling her all over.  Abby decided to get up and meet her face to face.

It cracked me up because she was just acting like she was one of the “Homies.”  They stood next to eachother as life happened, just enjoying eachother’s company.

“Wether” came by and checked out the local scene too.

Then Abby found something to chew on… My little ewe was very curious about what could be so fun to mull around in your mouth. 

Such is life in the country… Slow, easy, and nothing to do but chew on things that are lying around in the pasture.  Well, on second thought, maybe that’s not such a good idea after-all.

I’m very happy to report, that she’s doing an even better job than I had imagined.  I actually was thinking I had messed up somewhere along the way while raising her and was concerned about her not being a ‘true’ LGD.  A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Goat Education Day at our community college with a friend of mine.  She was going for the goats (she has two home milkers) and I thought maybe I could apply some of the topics to my sheep.  One of the topics was LGD’s so I went to that specific class while my friend went to a nutrition class.

I was concerned about Abby not being a true LGD because, well, she’s friendly to most any person who comes over and she doesn’t live with the sheep 24/7.  She will nap in our front yard, splayed out in the sun without a care in the world during the middle of the day.  She also will nap on our door step during the evening.  I had thought that according the strict standards that you find so prevalent on the internet regarding LGD’s that Abby was not, afterall, a real one.  Granted, we hadn’t lost any sheep since she’s been here and does seem real vigilant… I was just second guessing myself and her.

I received a new education at the Goat Day… Abby is a Family Farm Dog.  And that also means she is an LGD, because she certainly does protect all who are in her flock: Sheep, Cats, Horses, Annie and Hubby and I.  We’re all in her family and she counts us all as important.  Abby, though sunning herself in the day time, is very vigilant at night and early morning — when the predators are out and roaming.  She will bark and chase all night long (thus the naps during the day.)  She’s doing such a fabulous job taking care of our 40 acre place that I’ve taken to keeping the sheep out at night.  I know they’re in good hands.  I’ll most likely put them back in the barn when lambing starts again in February but until then, they’re just fine.

And though she is friendly to family and friends, I have found many packages delivered by UPS and FedEx haphazardly tossed out on to anything near by that is off the ground i.e. our quad, a vehicle… so I’m thinking she doesn’t exactly let strangers out of their cars.

The only trouble with Abby is… She needs back-up.  And I’m thinking a male pup is in order.