farm dogs

In keeping with the outdoor theme let me share with you the tale of Farmer Tom and Farmer Rebecca. They decided to get a dog to guard the crops from raccoons, now these two farmers really aren't dog people per se, but what the heck every farm needs a good dog right? Well they were led down the puppy path to acquire a great pyrennese/anatolian shepherd , also known as a minature horse to be their farm/guardian of the corn dog, no 40 pound heinz 57 for these farmers. This is a magnificant dog weighing in now at about 120 pounds. Now said dog, who was named Rocky, partly as a tribute to Tom's father who I guess had the nickname Rocky and partly for the cartoon Rocky Raccoon, has taken to roaming. I guess his breed is known for this trait and has something like a 15 square mile radius that they can consider their territory. Now the farm, about 300 acres is of course too big to fence, at least the kind of fence to keep a dog in, so the farmers decided to get a couple of sheep to keep Rocky on the farm, although you know that saying "how you gonna keep them on the farm once they've seen Paris?" or in Rocky's case all surrounding roads. But when said sheep farmer came out to offer advice on where to put the sheep, he told them they would need an emergency area to corral them if need be, so now the farmers have to get cattle panels. So you see where I am going with this? You decide to become farmers, you plant some crops, then you get a dog to protect the crops, then you need sheep to keep the dog at home and fencing and cattle panels to keep the sheep in. This has become a pretty expensive dog, not to mention dog food. Rebecca and Tom had never read The Dogs of Bedlam Farm. The author got a border collie, then decided he needed a farm so the dog could be a country dog, then decided the dogs needed some sheep and with the sheep came a donkey, again see a pattern? Well I just thought I would share this little story of whimsy with you all.