I love dogs. They are
one of my favorite all time animals to have around. As a child I had a really sweet dog and almost
all my adult life I have had one or more dogs all the time. I have had some good dogs over the years and we
have had a few that were great!, just special, truly exceptional. Almost all the dogs I have had as an adult
have been indoor dogs. They only went
outside for a little exercise and fun.
If I had my dogs outside for any length of time they were either on a
leash or in a secure pen.
I have often talked to my dad about wanting a farm dog. You know how on farms there are these great
dogs that know to stay on their property, protect their family and are just,
well you know, great. You know like
Lassie or Old Yeller. I pictured myself
working in the vegetable gardens, standing up to wipe my brow and looking over at a nice farm dog laying in the
shade just happy to watch over me working.
Or a big farm dog laying on the playground watching over my kids as they
play. Or a calm and confident dog
sitting on the rise of the field looking out over the farm just guarding the
goats. Ahhhh….
Other people I visited seemed to have them but I never pursued
getting one. We sure didn’t need any
more animals on the farm and between dog food, treats and flea treatments, we
spend so much on all our dogs already.
We just couldn’t afford another one.
Also to go to the animal shelter and just pick one, you never know what
you are getting when going to pick out a dog. If I had a farm dog, I wanted
that special 1 in a million. After all it
takes a special dog to be a good farm dog.
If I picked wrong I didn’t want
the responsibility of a dog that would leave our farm and get into others trash
or chase their livestock. I didn’t want
to be” that kind” of dog owner. So I
always pushed the dream farm dog out of my mind and was very happy with the
dogs we had.
Last year about this time of year I got a call from my
dad. We live on the same piece of
property and he had just gotten back from walking his dog down to the pond. He said there was a stray yellow puppy down
there and it had followed him up to his house.
My dad’s house is on the end of the property that is close to the
road. So he wanted me to walk up and get
the pup and take it back down to our end.
He didn’t want to see it get hit in the road. So I did.
Yellow a few days after he showed up here.
The pup was a big boned, sad
faced, loose skinned, huge yellow puppy with a brown collar, with no tags. Cute as can be. But not ours.
He had a worn brown collar on him so I thought; this will be easy to
find his home. Someone cared enough to
put a collar on him. He must be some ones
puppy, Right? I took him and drove to all the houses and
farms around us asking if it was anyone’s.
They all said no. The next day
for home schooling the kids and I made up a large amount of big signs. “Yellow Puppy found” and our phone
number. We drove all over putting up the
signs and we waited. We never got even
one call. I also at that time put up notices,
with a photo of him, at all the vet’s offices, the pet shop, at the pound and
on Craigs list. After four weeks we had
not one single call. He was growing fast
and eating A LOT so we decided to try to find him a home. We asked everyone we knew if they wanted a
big yellow puppy. Again we posted all
over trying to find him a home. We
called him Yellow as we didn’t want to get to attached as he was NOT
staying. We tried for months to find him
a home. All the time we were feeding him
and training him as he did wrong and the kids loving on him as he was such a
happy boy.
Yellow after a few months of showing up here.
As time went on he grew and
grew and grew quick. As I searched for a
home for him I realized that the market was flooded with people’s pets and
dogs. People trying to find a home for
their animals because they either lost their jobs or had to move in with relatives
or apartments that would not allow pets.
Sadly so many people, because of the economy, had been losing their
homes. I knew if I took him to the pound
he would be put down. So after many
months, and at the time he was getting to that gangly teen stage, we took all
the signs and posts about him down. I took
him in to have him fixed, went and bought a collar for him, had a tag made with
his name on it. (by then he would only answer to Yellow) And called him ours.
He is a huge big lug of a dog. An enormous puppy not realizing his strength and
size. He has made more messes, chewed up
more things, gotten into more trouble. Everything
he does he does big. Last spring when I was
working in the gardens he kept running off with my work gloves if I set them
down. It was a huge game to him and took
me forever to get them back each time. Another
day while working in the raised beds, I didn’t
have a pocket that day so had put my cell phone way up in the nook of a
tree. He saw me do it and when I had my
back turned he got it down and chewed it up!
One day when I went outside to go to the barn Yellow had, sometime in
the night, pulled up a whole landscaping timber and shredded it in our
yard! He chewed up whole logs off the
wood pile, put holes in the kids jackets while playing, dug out flower pots,
dug holes in the raised beds. I could go on and on. He is
a large dog and for liabilities sake I got a “beware of dog” sign and he shredded
that as well. He doesn’t mean to but knocks
me over all the time. He started to think it great fun to panic the ponies when my kids were walking them back and forth to the fields every day. So I had to get a shock collar to let him know that, that was just not safe or exceptable. He loves to brings me sticks to
throw for him and eats like a horse. I
have to buy fifty pounds more dog food every month!
But…. he also can be
calm and sweet. Playing nicely with the
kids and following them everywhere they go.
When they muck their pony stalls every day they have to push the cart
down to the muck pile. He actually grabs
it with his mouth and tries to help them pull the cart down there. He has a great recall when I call for
him. Tries so hard to be still and
please me when I ask something of him.
Lays and watches me when I garden and watches over the kids while they
play. He also spends most of his days lying
around guarding the farm animals. He has
killed possums, rats and squirrels and has run off many stray dogs. He even had a huge deer cornered in the ponies
“run in shed” out in the pony pen one day!
Because he didn’t think it should be on the property!
It has been a year now since that stray, yellow puppy showed
up. As time goes on he is learning and
maturing. As time goes on he is calming
down and he has fewer goofy puppy moments and more good farm dog moments. When I
am out with him I see him think things thru and then look at me for guidance
now. I know he has had a bumpy start in
some areas but I can see he is going to be one of those dogs that someday I will
look back on…and say he was exceptional.
I can see in him the dream farm dog I always secretly wanted.
My dad said, every since the big yellow puppy showed up, “that
you never know, maybe God sent Yellow to us because we needed him.” And now that a year has went by. I tend to smile and agree.
God be with you,
susan
Matthew 6:8
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth
what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
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