Friends Forever

 

Before Nightingale's horse friends died and before she bonded with Annie... and after Annie's buddy Mister McCoy died... Annie  had been a friendly companion to the humans in her universe. She loved to take walks in the woods with her favorite people. Here she is with her friend Mary.

It is a little sad that Annie has now become a strict guardian dog. No longer does she take walks with her favorite people. To walk with Annie means walking with Nightingale, which is not too much fun as Nightingale wants only to be close to her dog and will run over people to get to her. And Annie barks at most everyone who comes around. She seems to think she has a serious job to do now: protect her horse from all comers, be they cats, birds, or people. 

Annie is especially worried about a Great Blue Heron that hunts small creatures in our pastures. It is not allowed in Nightingale's field or the adjacent one. And cats, of course, are deemed particularly dangerous. If one appears in her field, she takes out after it at a dead run with Nightingale close behind.

But worse is when she manages to escape the field... like the time she slipped her collar while being led to the South field for the day, with Nightingale following, of course. For an unknown reason, although we later figured it out, Annie took off at a dead run up the driveway and across the road with her deserted horse hot on her tail. I was chasing in my EZ Go but not catching up. Annie came back to our side of the road but not down our driveway. Instead she raced into our neighbor's small acreage and into the woods behind their house with Nightingale galloping after her. I called Johnny to come help and he drove up on his EZ Go, but Annie was determined to get whatever it was she must have smelled on their property as she had her nose down tearing this way and that. I finally cornered her against a fence and got the leash back on her. The neighbor's elderly father said he heard a bear earliert so I suspect that's what Annie smelled.

A few weeks later we did find plenty of bear sign in our woods. Annie and Nightingale were safely in the South field, away from the bear leavings. Mary was with us along with her sister Cathy, visiting from Minnesota. Here are Johnny, Mary, and Cathy, in the Qi Gong grove, admiring the tiny Rattlesnake Orchid that Mary had spotted some months earlier...

Here is that little orchid (not in bloom) that they're looking at.

After leaving the Qi Gong grove, we drove slowly around the flower meadow to the south field, where Annie and Nightingale were waiting...

Annie was glad to see Mary, although the visit was through the fence to keep from being trampled by Nightingale.

True friendship knows no boundaries...
 

Friends forever

Annie and Nightingale

 Annie is all grown up now. Mr. McCoy passed on. Annie never did stop chasing goats... or cats. The goat chasing was for fun (for her, not the goats.) But the cat chasing was deadly serious. She hates cats... domestic or otherwise. We have not had to worry about predators with Annie on duty. 

But her job changed dramatically when our old horses passed on one by one, leaving only a very forlorn Nightingale. For two weeks after her last horse buddy died, Nightingale was in a deep depression. 

Then she discovered Annie and, near as we can figure, decided Annie was her foal. She screams when Annie gets out of her sight. And Annie seems happy to have someone to play with who will run and run with her. It was wonderful to have Nightingale enjoying life again.

 

Annie was and is happy to have a companion who will follow her everywhere...
 

BUT... there in lies a problem: the  two of them manage to get into all sorts of trouble together...

 

Mister McCoy: Annie's Playmate, Teacher, Disciplinarian

 Annie did not learn from my NOs  to stop chasing goats when they come running for apples and tree branches that  I throw over their fence. If I'm inside the fence instead of outside when she begins chasing, I can squirt her with the hose and that stops her. But I can't stand there all day with hose in hand. I noticed that Mister McCoy, when he was out in the evening and morning, would stand outside the closed goat gate (closed overnight and opened when I finish morning milking) and bark at Annie when she started to chase the goats. So I decided to open the gate and see what happened.

What happened was a surprise. McCoy walked in among the goats and they paid him no attention. But when Annie started to chase, McCoy growled and ran and stopped her. It only took a few times for Annie to realize chasing was dangerous. I left McCoy out the rest of the day... and every day since. He is ten years old and a little stiff and puts up with no nonsense from the pup. Time will tell what he does when the goats come in heat and jump on each other. He used to aggresively not allow that or any other sort of roughness and scared the goats. I'm hopeful he can now be out 24/7 to keep Annie under control without terrorizing the goats like he did when he was younger.

But McCoy has no magic for keeping Annie from getting too close in front of my EZ Go. She had a very scary encounter with it yesterday. She and McCoy had accompanied me with my load of sticks that the goats had stripped leaves from down to the burn pile (in-the-future-after-the-winter-rains-return burn pile). On the way back, Annie kept stopping to sniff things right in front of the EZ Go. I would stop as quickly as I could but one time I did not stop fast enough. She was squished under the front of the EZ Go as it ran over her. She screamed like she had been killed and ran off holding her right rear leg up. I thought it must be broken. But I soon realized she was running from the horses who had come up to see what all the racket was about. After I shooed them off, Annie let me examine her. There were no abrasions and nothing seemed broken, just bruised. She walked with a limp the rest of the day, but soon was bouncing with a limp.

Today she mostly doesn't limp at all but she keeps a great distance away from my EZ Go. I'm hopeful she will be cautious of cars now as well as EZ Gos.

Today I threw lots of branches and apples over the fence to the goats. Annie bounced over to chase. McCoy growled and lunged at her. Goats kept eating. Annie backed off. McCoy lay down in the corner and watched. When she attempted to "play" with the goats, he charged at her growling. She quit. Goats kept eating. Hooray for McCoy!!

The brown kid behind Annie is her best friend, other than Mister McCoy. April Starlight is not at all afraid of the pup and never runs from her. I wish the other goats were that smart.

Although Annie did not chase the goats while McCoy was watching her, she could not resist trying to get something going with him. He growled and lunged at her as though to say, "No rough-housing around the goats!" She rolled over in submission.

 

 But then sat up and looked at him. "You sure you don't want to play?"

He was sure.

And I am sure glad Mister McCoy has taken over the training of this energetic pup!

There Was a Little Girl Who Had a Little Curl...

 There was a little girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid. That's Annie. (Although she doesn't really have a curl in the middle of her forehead. Neither did I as a child, I had curls all over my head, but my mom used to say that about me.)

Annie loves to chase things... chickens, especially, when she can sneak into the chicken yard. And goats when she's excited, which is much of the time. Most of the goats have learned to face her down. But one, in particular, is terrified of her. If I'm close when the action begins, I can squirt her with the hose while saying NO!! very loud. She stops. But I'm not always close. The goats are going to have to learn not to run from her. She doesn't want to catch them, after all. She just wants to race after them.

She also likes to escape the confines of the goat territory and come play with us, or chase chickens or cats. Johnny tore a hole in the fence with the tractor and she found it before he did. She was very interested while he repaired it and kept him company the whole time. She is a sweet pup... when she's not being a holy terror.

After fixing that hole, Johnny moved on to another place where Annie goes under the fence. She watched him fix that one, too. I wonder how long before she finds another escape route.

She found her way out to hike through the woods to the creek with Johnny and me on our first smokeless day. I didn't take any photos that day, but I did today, when she hiked with friend Mary and me. She was  attentive to Mary who was walking a safe social distance behind me and kept going back to check that she was still coming.

 

Down at the creek, Annie waded right into the water for a drink. then she spotted a leaf floating. It moved as Annie waded toward it...

So she had to catch it! And pull it proudly back to shore.

She led us onward toward the big maple, where the horses can go, too, so there are lots of interesting smells....

In the Qi Gong grove on the south side of our property, piles of bear poop and bear throw-up, all rather old, were in our path. Annie was not interested. But later, walking through the dry ash swamp, she found a place where some animal had scratched and urinated, keeping her attention for a long time... I would guess it was a coyote. Coyotes must be more interesting than bears.

 

As we went back to the barn, Annie scared up a covey of quail and took chase as they flew low and long to get away.  She doesn't seem to be interested in catching the things she chases. She just likes to chase them. Like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead, sometimes Annie is very good and sometimes she is, well, not so good.

Persistence Pays

Annie finally convinced McCoy to play with her.

  https://youtu.be/07hnNbml1w8

I had taken McCoy's food dish out after he ate this morning as he did not want Annie anywhere near his dish, empty or not. I thought that was why he was willing to play with her this morning.

However, this evening when he was done eating and I had taken his bowl out, I went to open the gate to let him out for the night where Annie was bouncing around, waiting for her playmate. McCoy growled and snapped at her.

He was definitely *not* playful. He tried to keep her away from me. I managed to open the gate so long as Annie stayed on the opposite side from McCoy, but when she came around to our side, he attacked. Apparently, he was protecting me from her.

Or else trying to keep me from giving her attention?  I really don't have this interaction figured out yet.

After I left, they played together again. But when I went to the goat gate that Annie goes under to join McCoy, she came back inside and went with me to her pen and ate food. Before I left for the night, she had gone back out to play with Mr. McCoy.

I don't know how much guarding the property Mr. McCoy is doing now that he has a puppy to worry about. Time will tell...

Hard Lessons

In late June, we brought home a Great Pyrenees/Maremma puppy to replace beloved Shirley Puppy who died at age 15. Annie Puppy was born in April and came from the same farm Shirley had come from. Annie is supposed to grow up to help Mister McCoy, who is ten. Mister McCoy, however, is not pleased. Here is the video I made of Annie's attempts to play with McCoy. https://youtu.be/LqV3TB1JwxY

Annie spent her first several weeks in the baby goat pen with the baby goats. They tolerate her okay and she them. But the big goats want nothing to do with her. She is learning. But she really wants to play with McCoy when he is turned out at night and he really doesn't want to. Things seemed to be going okay after the evening romp in the video... until the next night,  when I heard a horrendous screaming from the pup that did not stop. I had just started back to the house with the milk so I set it down and dashed through the barn to find Annie racing toward the goat gate (she goes under to get out) with McCoy racing after her in fury. Even after I got her through the gate he stood growling outside the gate. I don't know what she did but he was furious.

Yesterday was a hard day. McCoy is locked up during the day but Annie had other problems. She met the horses. It was not a happy meeting. Annie followed me and a neighbor out to the horses. As soon as Mr. Smith and Nightingale saw this tiny puppy running toward them, they took out after her with ears back and heads down and chased her out of the field. She fled to the barn. Poor Annie.

Today started out better. She must have had fun last night because she was wet with dew and muddy this morning.

After a night of playing in dew and dirt

The big goats are still leery of this bouncing dervish but she is learning how to keep from getting herself bashed. Just lie down and act nonchalant as they walk warily past.

Waiting for the goats to come in.

Staying down while the goats come in warily

Good puppy.... temporarily.

I thought that was very good of her but later this morning I saw all the goats running hysterically into the barn with Annie bouncing alongside them. Sigh. She is just a puppy. She did lie down when they all streaked past her to the barn, so maybe she is learning what they will tolerate and what they won't. Here's hoping.